Chapter 8

I heard something, I swear I heard something. My light sleeper alarms were going off in my head and I knew something was happening.

My eyes flew open just as a folded piece of cloth was pressed over my mouth and nose. I tried to shout to alert Nikky before realising stupidly I didn’t have my ear piece in. Now don’t judge me so harshly… I know that thing wasn’t exactly uncomfortable but you can still feel it there…. and quite frankly I’m still not too crazy about having a mini super computer in my ear at all times. My dreams were my me time and I would like to keep it that way.

However, as I took in a breath to call out to Nikky I smelt the sweet smell of what could only be chloroform on the rag. Oh, no… this can’t be happening to me!

I tried to fight it, but as I started to struggle I felt the enticing tug of unconsciousness pulling at me. My arms started to feel weak and soon I couldn’t even pick them up anymore. Not that I was worrying about my arms by then. I was having a hard enough time keeping my drooping eyelids open.

I felt the pressure from the cloth leave my face but it was too late, I was already too far gone in the sea of darkness. It was like I was floating in nothingness for a moment before I totally blacked out.

***

I jerked awake, a pounding headache already setting in. My eyes were still groggy from the unwelcomed sleep I was forced into who knows how long ago.

My hands were tied behind my back with a piece of rough rope. It was digging into my wrists and I could already feel my skin going raw.

The room I was in wasn’t very large. It seemed to be entirely made of concrete, excluding the door of course. The door looked to have been made of some sort of reinforced metal.

The chair I was seated on was extremely sturdy. No matter how much stamping, pushing, wriggling and rocking I did, it didn’t budge.

A harsh light was directed straight towards me causing me to only be able to open my eyes to mere slits. No matter where I looked the light still glared at me and I couldn’t escape it.

To add to yet another level of discomfort, the room felt unpleasantly hot. It was as if I was in an oven and couldn’t escape.

As I was noticing all this the door screeched open and a shadowed figure took a step in. Without a word he walked straight up towards me and stopped one metre away.

He had wispy, dirty blond hair that had a golden shimmer when he stood in front of the bright light. That, however, was where the golden boy appearance both started and stopped. The rest of his body gave off the don’t-mess-with-me kind of vibe.

His brown eyes bore harshly into mine and I could feel him studying every small movement I made.

He just stared at me, never breaking eye contact.

So I stared back.

His cruel stare versus my blank one.

The minutes rolled by but we made no movement.

My sea blue eyes versus his light grey ones.

Another couple minutes.

I narrowed my eyes but he made no motion to do the same.

Hmmm…. Interesting.

I waited a full minute more.

Alright, time to get a reaction.

So I squinted my eyes and stuck my tongue.

Sigh, still no reaction.

Another minute passes before I broke the silence.

“Alright, well if that will be all then you can jus-”

“Shut up,” he said.

My eyebrows shot up.

“Wow, so it speaks.”

He ignored my comment and started walking slow circles around me.

“I’ll start off simple, what’s your name,” he questioned, walking slowly, hands behind his back.

“Ummm…. Katie,” I said.

“Wrong,” he snapped, a warning ringing clear in his voice.

“Then it’s got to be Katelyn,” I stated.

No response.

“Kaylee?” I asked.

Nothing.

“Ahhh, it must be Kayla.”

“Don’t test me,” he warned.

“No? Ok, then Kacey? Kirsten? Kristen? Maybe Krystle?”

His eyes narrowed.

“Ya, I’m not too fond of that name either,” I commented. “Oh! I got it! It’s Shelley!”

His eyes held a fierce, unspoken warning.

“Anna? Betsie?”

“Those aren’t your name,” he said rudely.

“Dammit… I could have sworn it was Shelley. Maybe you gave me too much chlorophyll and knocked out both me and my memories…” he didn’t reply. “Or maybe it’s Sharon?” I suggested.

“I know that’s not your real name.”

I looked at him as if he was stupid.

“Well if you know my name then why ask in the first place?”

He stopped walking and slowly turned until he was facing me straight on.

“Who do you work for?” he asked in a raised, and I must say, intimidating voice.

“Mac Dona-”

“Don’t you dare lie to me!” he shouted. He had such a dangerous expression on that I swallowed back my other sarcastic come backs… they weren’t helping. Every sarcastic response I’ve made so far seemed to only make him increasingly aggressive. Time to get serious.

“Now I’ll ask one more time, who do you work for?” he questioned again.

“I’ll never tell you,” I replied blandly, all humour I had before had vanished.

“Who trained you?” his voice rising slightly more.

I stared blankly.

“Who recruited you!? Who do you work for?!” he was getting increasingly frustrated.

I didn’t reply.

He lunged forwards, his hands grabbing the armrests on the chair, his face mere inches from mine.

“Who?” he asked in a low, threatening voice.

“Go eat dirt,” was all I said and with that he stormed out the room, the door screeching closed behind him.

I sighed, my shoulders relaxing slightly. To be absolutely honest, I didn’t even know who I worked for. All I know is that Carter and Jolene work for them too but that’s the extent of my knowledge.

For the next six hours he returned at odd times demanding the same questions and getting the same response from me.

On the seventh hour I was absolutely parched. Sweat was dripping down me and the heat seemed to only be getting worse. My eyes were aching from the harsh light and my hunger felt like it was clawing my stomach to shreds. Over and over all I could think about was that maybe I should just tell him that I actually didn’t know. Maybe I should give him Carter and Jolene’s names and I wouldn’t have to suffer so much.

My throat was scratchy, I felt sticky all over and I didn’t dare to move my wrist. They had rubbed so raw that I feared if I moved any more than I have already, they would start bleeding.

In all this uncomfortable pain I knew I wouldn’t last much longer. I couldn’t bare it… there was only so much I could handle. I had managed to keep an unfazed expression on my face whenever that guy came back but inside I was anything but calm.

He was in here again, asking the same questions, just sometimes phrasing it slightly differently.

My straight face gave nothing away and he was getting dangerously frustrated.

“Tell me!” he shouted. “Dammit, Melissa, tell me!”

I raised my eyebrow. “You shouldn’t have done that,” I warned.

He stopped and looked at me with both anger and confusion in his eyes.

“I’m going to have to kill you now,” I simply stated.

“What, why?” he asked.

“I have orders.”

He laughed bitterly, “You have had no communication with anyone beside me, you couldn’t have received orders.”

“You said my name,” I shrugged. “I’ll have to kill you now.”

“And just how will do that?”

“Untie me and I’ll show you.”

Anger flashed in his eye again.

“I’m not stupid,” he stated. “Now tell me what I need to know!” he shouted as he shook me roughly.

As he did that my wrists started to bleed and the delicate piece of will power left inside me snapped. I couldn’t keep up this unfazed appearance any longer, I can’t do this anymore, I felt the last bit of hope leave my heart and I knew that to have any hope of surviving past today I would have to tell him. I knew what I had to do so taking a deep breath, feeling broken inside, I tilted my head up to look in his eyes to tell him what he needed to know.

What shocked me was when I looked at him, he simply smiled at me. Yes, he had a right to smile, he could see I had given in and was about to tell him all he needed, but the smile he had on his face wasn’t one of victory… it looked more sincere, almost like he cared. I don’t know what he would care for, but his smile was warm. It soon disappeared.

I froze, shocked. He just smiled. Did he just smile? I swear I saw a smile.

“Well done,” he started. Ok, if his strategy was to confuse me, he’s doing pretty well. I’m totally confused right now, did he just complement me? I haven't even told him what he wanted to know yet. “I seriously thought you wouldn’t last so long, especially without any prior interrogation training. I’m impressed.”

What has just happened to the world? Am I hallucinating or something? Seriously, I’m mega confused right now, what is happening?

He then started to untie my hands and as soon as they were free I lunged at him, hands around his neck, ready to strangle him.

I was so focused on exacting my revenge that I didn’t even notice another person enter the room until he cleared his throat.

I turned to see that to my surprise it was Drew. He opened his mouth to say something but I beat him to it.

“You?” I shouted, questioningly. “You planned this?!”

“I-”

I released the guy whose throat I had my hands around and started punching Drew’s arm

“I can’t believe you planned this, you bastard! Why? Why would you do this to me!” I shouted.

He opened his mouth but I didn't give him time to speak.

“And don’t you dare say it was a test!” I shouted, angry that he knew I would go through all that pain and hardship. “I trusted you! Do you know what you put me through?! I’m gonna kill you! I’m gonna get you back for this! I’m gonna make you pay… I’m gonna…. I’m gonna…I’m….” my anger was starting to fade and after about a minute I ended up panting, annoyed with myself that I couldn’t think of any more threats at that moment. I was too tired and broken to fight further.

“Are you done?” Drew asked.

I dropped my arm and with a glare I nodded.

“Good,” he said before nodding his head in the other guy’s direction. “Well then, Zero, meet Alex-” he started.

I rolled my eyes and shot a deadly glare at Alex, the guy who had put me through all that torture for hours.

“-your partner.”



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