Okay, right now I'm working on four stories (one's a OneShot) so please don't get too mad about my updating. It may be... once a week? I'm not sure. I'll put as much effort into this as I can without ditching the other three stories. Enjoy :D
Disclaimer: If I were as super as Ally Carter, you wouldn't be reading this on this site.
There was a time I believed that my friends would come for me, find me and save me from this hellhole of a Circle of Cavan base. But that hope was crushed by my sixty-eighth day here, when Mrs. Goode showed me a video of them all being murdered.
"They tried to enter the base, you know." She started the day out awfully nice, which mostly meant that she hadn't hurt me within the first minute. "Probably to try to help you escape." She turned her attention away from me and towards the TV in the corner that I hadn't noticed. For a spy, that was bad. Especially when you're in enemy territory.
"What… What's that?" I asked, frightened but with a mask. I hadn't been given anything to drink since two days ago, and that was only enough to keep me alive. So yeah, I guess my voice cracked a little as I said this. They had tried every torture form they could think of in the past
"Why, my love, it's a TV of course. I hope we didn't drive you so insane as to not remember a simple television!" With the glint in her eyes, I'm sure that she hoped for just that- to rid me of my sanity so fully that I couldn't remember the simple things that once made up my life. "Tsk tsk, we must treat you better, shall we? I'll be right on that dear, don't worry about a thing." Mrs. Goode rolled her eyes at me and turned on the TV.
The blue screen instantly popped up, but it disappeared within seconds and was replaced by the forms of four guards standing outside. The first thought in my head was this is the first ray of sunlight I've seen since… since I'd left my friends. I just couldn't bring myself to say "captured". To be captured means to be controlled, no longer fighting back. I was simply apprehended. Before I could drift off into the nightmare of my apprehension, I turned my attention to the TV.
One of the guards glanced around for a second, and I just barely saw his eyes snap wide. Before he could call out, a certain tall, beautiful, and tan British teen shot onto the screen and punched him right in the face. Down he went.
The other guards didn't have a chance. Macey, Grant and Zach- my heart sped up at the sight of him- shot onto the screen not five seconds after Bex and each of them got a guard. Just to be safe, they all slapped a Napotine patch onto the guards' arms and dragged them into the bushes. Bex pressed a hand to her ear and said, "Duchess to Bookworm, we took care of the guards. Where are you guys?" I could almost hear Liz's voice. It had been so long since I saw them last. "We're just heading into the base, this should be a quick in-and-out mission to get her. Zach, are you sure you're ready to-" Bex's question was cut off by ten guards coming out of the base. Two of them had guns to Jonas and Liz's heads.
"Try to resist and you'll have two less friends to cry with, but these two won't be breathing." My eyes widened as he finished, "Now, come with us inside and you may just live for the next week." I gulped as all six of my best friends left through the tunnel.
At that point, Mrs. Goode turned the TV off. I stared at her in disbelief and asked, "What the hell did you do to my friends? I swear to God, if you hurt any of them-"
Mrs. Goode cut me off. "I do not believe, Cameron," she spat my name like she would spit a newly discovered poison. "That you are in the position to make threats to me. I have been gracious enough to let you stay in the base, to let you watch your friends just hours before their deaths, and have even gone easy on you these past two months. It seems as if my generosity is highly unappreciated and, quite frankly, it hasn't gotten me anywhere with you. As of now, I will treat you worse than any other captive has ever imagined. Your father would be begging for mercy- if he were still alive." All I could think about that whole week was that Zach's mother had just told me two important things that changed my perspective of how much it was worth living. First off, she told me that all my friends had been murdered- trying to save me, no less. Then she told me my father was dead. I didn't know for how long or how painful it was, but he was dead. Never coming back. Gone from my life.
That day still played over and over in my head, causing tears to splash down my face and onto my immobilized arm. And by immobilized I mean beaten-so-badly-over-the-past-161-days-that-the-nerves-were-completely-shot and the fact that I was tied up tighter than a psycho in a straight jacket didn't help with the pain. Honestly, the more I thought about it, the more I decided that living was really starting to feel pointless to me. And that was before Cassandra came in with her daily torture.
As I sat there I decided on something I had been sitting on for ninety-three days; if Cassandra was going to make my life hell, the least I could do is annoy her to the best of my abilities. I put on a cocky grin that would've made Zach proud and said, "So, you just couldn't get enough of me, could you? I knew you'd be crawling back to me. Was it my charming good looks? Or how about my devilish personality? Oooh! I know- it's the extra thick layer of charm I put on for you every-" wham! Apparently, I got the annoying part downpact. I could feel the blood dripping down my already-blood-encrusted face, but didn't show emotion. Mr. Solomon would've been proud.
"I don't know why you're so… obnoxious all of a sudden, Cam, but I'm sure it has something to do with simply drooling over me like everyone else, but too afraid to admit it. As far as I know, you're the one that wanted me, isn't that right?" The way she said my nickname nearly made me black out. She was enjoying this too much; there had to be some terrible torture in store for me. "After all, you practically threw yourself at me that one-day, how long ago was it? Ah yes. I believe it was 161 days ago that your friends slowly began worrying. It was that one fateful mission that you didn't come back to your dorm. The teachers were quite worried, too; it only took twenty minutes for them to send out a search party for you. As I've always said- the sooner they start searching, the better the information you contain. And you, my dear, had the fourth fastest search party in my thirty-seven years in this buisness. Very impressive, if I do say so myself."
I just stared blankly at her, trying to block the rush of images being thrown at me. "So Cassandra- or can I call you Cassy? I have a feeling that, in these past five months, we've connected. We've created a relationship, you know? You're the abusive husband with alcoholism and I'm the wife you locked up in the house, forcing to cook and clean all day. It's actually quite sweet." I finished with a pleasant smile.
"Fine. You seem awfully talkative today; let's see if I can't use this to my advantage, shall we?" (The old routine of 'Where is the alumni disk?' 'I don't know!' smack. 'I said, where. Is. The alumni disk?' silence. 'Tell me, you imbecilic fool!' 'If I'm so imbecilic then why do you need my help? What does that make you?' then she shocks me. painfully.) Yes, that is pretty much how my days went by, but with questions other than this. I honestly wanted to postpone the inevitable, so I back-talked her more.
"Well… to save you the trouble of finding things out, no. My chatty-ness is strictly for annoyance purposes only, which seems to be working quite well. So what's next on your list of ways to get me to give up information? The electric chair? 'Cause I have to admit, that was pretty fun the last fifty times. Ooh, I got one! How about that one where you spin me really fast until I get a really bad headache and throw up the little hydration I have?" Okay, so the last one isn't one they've tried on me. That was more of something Bex did every time I got upset, but I put it to the extreme so that she would at least consider it. No matter how upset I was, Bex could always make me at least smile. I would miss that…
Mrs. Goode smiled deviously at me and shook her head condesendingly. "Why my dearie, I know I told you I would be worse than the devil himself after that, ah, incident last month, but that was really nothing." The incident she was referring to? I tried to fight back like I had done for the first month of my apprehension. Just a warning to any and all being tortured by the Circle of Cavan, don't openly fight back. You may hurt them or take them by surprise, but they always get the last hit in. Mrs. Goode continued in a voice that sounded as if she was telling a preschooler not to eat glue- slightly stern with hidden humor. "Today, you really will be playing with fate. It'll be a miracle that you survive." I'm not sure if she realized, but this was the fifth time she told me that life couldn't get worse, and that it would be a miracle if I survived. Within the past five months Zach's mother had turned me into skin and bone, broken every part of my body at least twice, and emotionally abused me enough to not even care about life. Honestly, all it took was to show me the video of my friends' final moments; but I couldn't show that. Instead, for the past three months, I kept a mask of complete emotionlessness, even when I was being interrogated.
Suddenly, the door flew open. The first person to walk in was- Zach. I shook my head, confused and unbelieving. When I looked at him again I realized that the person had cold blue eyes, not the warm green that mesmerized me every time I looked into Zach's eyes. This man also had cropped black hair and was all beef. Then came a slight woman. She held a knife in her hands and was grinning deviously, her brown eyes glittering with malice.
"As you can see, Ms. Morgan, I've brought some friends to help me persuading you." all I could do was roll my eyes at the thought.
"Are you kidding me? You've had five months to plan your last resort, and you chose reinforcements? This is sad, Cassy. I thought you had more style than this" I shook my head in mock dissapointment and continued. "Cassy, I'm sorry but… if this is the best you've got, I think we're over. I'm sorry. I should go." I told her all this in a soft voice, and as I said this it took all my spy training to keep a compassionate face.
"If this is so style-less, then let the games begin. Where is your mother's journal from when she was twenty-two?" she asked with anger hidden not-so-well in her voice. I see I touched a nerve when I insulted her techniques…
I shrugged in response and answered, "I'm her daughter, not lifelong stalker. Seriously, you need to get your facts straight. Most CIA agents burn their journals or hide them far too well for anyone, even their children, from finding them. I wasn't even thought of way back then, so I wasn't able to be my chameleon self and follow her when she hid it. I'm so sorry for the inconvenience." I told her with heavy sarcasm in the last sentence. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Ms. Blondie (the slight woman with brown eyes) slip over to me with the knife in her left hand. A lefty, huh? I thought, keeping Mr. Solomon's first lesson ("notice things") in my mind as she pounced at me and stabbed my side with the knife. It hurt worse than I thought it would, but I kept my mask on.
This is how my first day of Cassandra's new torture continued, and about nine hours into it, I pretended to black out. I could feel "Cassy" just staring at me as she said, "Absolutely useless. Remind me again why I don't just kill her?"
I'm guessing it was the woman's voice that answered. "Because every second of her life is being recorded and livestreamed to Zach. Soon her torture will be too much for him to bear and your son will be lured back to you."
A gruffer voiced added in, "and because she might just give in. We've taken her whole world from her. What's there to lose if she gives up everyone elses'?" with that, the trio walked out, leaving me with my mind in overdrive with the information they had just given me.
Love it? Hate it? Rate it! And by the way, I'm most likely not going to put a disclaimer on every chapter. I'm forgetful. I'll try my best, though. *Peace*