"It hurts but it'll be fine," Nora assured her, not wanting her to feel bad. "Let's just focus on getting out of here." Her leg would feel a lot better once she had a chance to take proper care of it. That wouldn't happen until they got free.
Rowan nodded. She heard a sound behind her and gasped as Nora crumpled to the ground next to her. "As entertaining as that was, I think that's enough," said the voice from a speaker above them. Rowan was about to turn around when she felt someone hit her on the head and everything went dark.
The room was pitch black. Rowan was strapped to a chair, still passed out. Nora was also still passed out and strapped to a chair. Expect her arms were held out in front of her on a table and strapped down with multiple straps that dug into her skin. Her hands were wrapped around and strapped to a gun that was bolted down to the table. A strap wrapped around her middle, digging into the chair and into her skin. Similar straps were wrapped around her legs.
Nora turned upon hearing the noise. Great. That annoying as hell voice was back. What she wouldn't give to beat him to death right about now……….Before she could say or do anything, something hit her upside her head. She folded like a deck of cards and hit the ground.
Straps had been wrapped around almost every part of her body, the leather was digging deep into her skin. They would surely leave a mark. She didn't stir at all. Being unconscious was the only rest her body got. She wasn't eager to wake and deal with the pain.
When Rowan awoke she wasn't entirely sure she was actually awake. Wherever she was, it was pitch black. After a moment she realized she was sitting on a chair and something bound her to the chair. The only things she could move were her neck, hands, and feet. Her head pounded, but the darkness was helping. Any moment now they would probably shine a bright light in her face or something. She waited for a few minutes. Nothing happened, Her mind wandered. She thought of lying in bed with Nora and staying up late with her. She thought of their first kiss, and their most recent kiss. She hoped it wouldn't be the last.
Nora slowly woke up. Her head pounded and her body ached. Well, at least she knew that she was still alive. She blinked a few times before she looked around. Nothing. It was too blank to see anything. She couldn't move very much of her body so that meant that she was probably tied down. Again. She sighed quietly. "Rowan?" She would be okay as long as she knew that Rowan was okay. That was all that mattered to her. She missed their days of sleeping in bed together and relaxing.
"Nora!" Nora's voice had come from right in front of Rowan.
"Oh good, you're awake." The voice came from the ceiling. "I will start by saying that this is all your fault, Ms. Wallace. You would not be in this situation if it was not for you and your actions. Now, let me tell you both how this is going to go. Ms. Wallace is holding a gun. It is bolted to the table and will not move. Ms. Wallace, you will shoot Ms. Corello and kill her. If you shoot the gun prematurely, we will perform surgery on her, save her, and do the whole thing over again. If you refuse to shoot the gun or make an attempt to escape, you will watch as Ms. Corello has her skin ripped off of her square inch by the square inch. Then every day we will tear off one limb until she has been taken apart. I think you'll find that the gun is a much better option." The lights turned on, revealing four guards on each side of the girls. "You have two minutes."
Rowan's eyes had been squeezed shut and now she opened them, locking eyes with Nora. She did not look at the gun.
Nora locked eyes with Rowan, her face was expressionless. This was a trick. The whole purpose of them being kidnapped was for them to get a mechanic. They wouldn't allow her to kill Rowan without knowing who the mechanic was. If they did kill one of them and the one they killed was the mechanic then this entire thing would have been a waste of time and resources. Therefore, logic leads her to conclude that the gun was empty. It felt too light to be loaded anyways. She wasn't going to fall for this bullshit and give them the satisfaction of letting them see her scared.
"Rowan, baby, I love you, okay?" She gave the slightest tilt of her head, it was a silent gesture for Rowan to move to the side a little. She wasn't going to risk the life of the woman she loved because she knew it was a trick. It wasn't worth the risk. She was going to take every precaution nessicary.
"I know. I love you too." Rowan's head reeled. That had been an intense speech. She watched Nora carefully. Was she. . . . Rowan looked down and tried to move to the side, then shook her head the tiniest bit. She couldn't move. She didn't know what this was if it was a trick or not, but she couldn't move. "It's okay Nora."
Nora just needed Rowan to tilt her head to the side a little. That was it. She did the motion with her head and silently begged her to follow suit. She couldn't bring herself to shoot without having just the smallest amount of assurance that Rowan could survive it. Loosing Rowan would kill her. It would actually kill her. She couldn't live in a world without Rowan.
"Tick-tock," the voice taunted.
Rowan was confused, then came to a realization. Nora was moving her head. She didn't want to hit Rowan's head. But from Rowan's point of view, that wasn't where the gun was pointed. "Nora. It's okay. I love you, and I'll always be here . . . even when I'm not." A tear rolled down her cheek, but her voice remained steady. "It's okay. Just do it. I would rather it be you anyways," she said smiling.
Nora bit down hard on her inner cheek as she studied every inch of the other girl's face and committed it to memory. "Rowan……I love you more than anything. You mean the world for me and I would do anything for you. We'll see each other again, I promise." Tears stung at her eyes as she tried not to choke on her words. This was going to kill her. "I love you, Rowan." She pulled the trigger.
As soon as the gun fired the lights went out. Rowan gasped as something hit her. She could feel a trickle of blood flow down her chest. Then she didn't feel anything, she was just gone. When the lights came back on, the only thing left in the chair was a smear of blood.
Nora stiffen the second she heard the bullet leave the chamber. She was wrong. No! "Rowan!" She shouted and jerked forward. The lights went out and then came back on. Rowan was gone. Fear and grief bubbled up inside of her. This was all her fault.
Someone hit Nora on the head until she was unconscious. They transferred her into a cell and chained her to the wall of the cell in the same pose that they had chained up Rowan in the hallway.
A recording started to play in the cell. Overlapping voices said, "Your fault, it's your fault, you did this to her". Some whispered and some yelled in a far off voice. They whispered it over and over, only slowly fading out when Nora woke up.
Nora passed out but she didn't care. The pain and the darkness meant nothing to her anyone. The one person in the entire universe that she cared about was gone and it was her fault. She deserved whatever happened to her.
Not once did she move or say or do anything. All she felt was guilt and numbness. As she kneeled there, chained to the wall, all she could think about was Rowan. The look on her face right before she shot her……….That would be engraved in her mind for eternity.
Hours and hours later a gas started to fill the cell. The gas was similar to the pink one that had knocked out Nora and Rowan but this gas was green and entered the cell in a smaller amount, so it would make Nora fall asleep far slower. At the same time, the recording started to play, surrounding Nora.
Nora screwed her eyes shut and focused solely on her own thoughts. I'm going to avenge you, Rowan, I promise. She could hear the dull sound of the recording playing but she refused to listen to it. All she needed to think about was killing everyone in this place. Slowly, she drifted off into unconsciousness again.
The gas was called mutabilis inconstans and did not give Nora an easy sleep. It caused the person it was used on to frequently wake up again and again in the night, for as long as it was in your system. The voices played on.
Rowan woke up in darkness, again. Her arms were crossed over her chest and held down by something. She also couldn't move her legs, and when she tried to move her head, she found that she couldn't, due to the gag that was attached to the piece of metal underneath her. This time there was no voice, no lights that came on when Nora awoke. Just lethargy and confusion and fog.
Nora kept her eyes squeezed shut and prayed for something or someone to come and end her suffering. Life wasn’t worth living now that Rowan was gone. She would end it all if given the chance. Instead, she was stuck. She couldn’t do anything other than listen to the recording drone on and on when she wasn’t unconscious.
After awhile she came to the conclusion that the voice was right. It was all her fault. She was the one who fought back and constantly mouthed off. The gun was only shoved into her hands because she couldn’t shut up. She deserved a life of pain and suffering for what she did to Rowan. A small whimper escaped her lips before she could stop it. That one noise caused the tears to well up in her eyes.
Rowan tried to breathe, tried to clear the fog from her mind, but she couldn't. It was a miracle she could remember her own name. There was something she needed to do or was it, someone, she needed to talk to? Whatever it was, it was important. The only problem was, she couldn't remember what it was.
A tall man in a hat walked along the row of cells. The green gas had subsided. "Everyone up!" he barked. Two soldiers followed behind him. One pushed a metal cart. The other rattled the bars, scaring the prisoners. "Everyone up and against the wall, facing out!"
Nora lifted her head slightly at the overly loud noise. The sound of something hitting the metal wasn’t very pleasant. She realized that it wasn’t important and let her head drop back down. Why should she get up? There were no consequences for her now. They could be her all they wanted but it wouldn’t do anything now.
She leaned up against the wall and closed her eyes. Trying to sleep would be futile but it was the only option she had. Staying awake was too painful. Her thoughts would just run wild. Sleep, however, refused to come. Instead, she was just stuck sitting there.
The door to Nora’s cell opened and slammed against the door with a crash. “I said UP!” The man came into her cell and crouched down in front of her. “I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Lieutenant Herrin,” he said in a soft voice. He grabbed the back of her shirt and hoisted her up, almost choking her. “NOW I SAID UP.”
Nora glared up at the man with murderous eyes. Couldn't he see that she was mourning and didn't have time for this bullshit? "And I don't care." Why the hell should she do anything they want? She drew back her good leg before kicking the Lieutenant as hard as possible in his man-parts. "Keep your hands off of me, you filthy mongrel." The words were calm yet very icy.
The man kept his head down and straightened up after a moment. "So we've got a spitfire on our heads, eh? Then I think we have our first volunteer! Bring it over, boys." The Lieutenant had malice in his eyes. The two guards rolled the metal cart into Nora's cell. Lieutenant Herrin turned Nora around and shoved her against the wall. He held her there by the back of her head. Behind her, the guard grabbed a white-hot metal brand. Someone pulled down the back of Nora's shirt. "Hold still," the Lieutenant said. At that moment the guard brought the brand in between Nora's shoulder blades and held it there for a moment before pulling away.
Nora thrashed around in protest, biting and punching and kicking and scratching whenever there was a chance. Pinned up against the wall, she didn't have many options. She lifted up her good leg and donkey kicked the man's private parts once more. Fear bubbled up in her stomach when she felt someone pull down the back of her shirt. "Let go of me!" She screamed and jerked her head back as hard as she could. The back of her head collided with the man's forehead. The protesting didn't work. She felt a shearing pain in her shoulders. Fire. It felt like fire. She gasped in pain and struggled to get away.