by Kaitlyn Hoyt
“You know what you are?” I ask him. He smirks at me. “You’re a pain in the a—”
“Ah, ah, ah. I wouldn’t finish that sentence. See right now, I’m enjoying this little banter between us. You don’t want to make me mad.”
“I don’t? Well then I hope this doesn’t offend you.” I spit in his face and then smile sweetly at him. I know that he will probably retaliate and hit me, but I don’t really care at the moment. He is annoying me with this ‘friendly’ chat. Like I predicted, he swings his large hand out and slaps me across the face. It’s sad, but it doesn’t hurt as bad as they usually do. My head swings to the side, but my eyes don’t start watering. I guess I’m getting used to getting hit.
“I like you, Ryanne. You have guts for such a small thing. It’s a shame I’m going to have to kill you,” he says before turning around and leaving the room.
Colton
“What the heck is she trying to do?” I turn around and ask Liam. Looking through the window in our cell, I can see Ryanne pacing again. Dravin had just left after he slapped her across the face. She barely flinched. From where I’m standing, I can see the giant red welt on her face.
“She’s trying to show him that she’s not afraid of him anymore. It seems to be working. Dravin doesn’t know what to do when someone doesn’t cower at his presence.”
“Does she have to provoke him like that though?”
“Would you rather she sit in the corner trembling in fear?”
“Well no…” I glance back at the window. She is still pacing around her cell. Based on the fact that she hasn’t looked our way, I’m assuming that this window is actually a two-way mirror. I turn around and look at Liam again, “Why did they put us together but put her by herself?”
“I don’t know, but I do know that something changed. In the vision she had you were by yourself. I wasn’t with you.” I forgot about her vision. The vision of my death. I look back at Ryanne and see her mumbling something to herself. I don’t think she knows that she does this. She talks to herself. A lot. I lean closer to the window to see if I can hear what she is saying.
“Why Ryanne? Why couldn’t you just draw a picture of a bunny? Hmm, no you have to draw the freaking forest! Stupid. Stupid.” She hits herself on the head and kicks the wall. Then jumping up and down, she mumbles, “Another stupid decision. Ouch.” She stops pacing and leans against the wall to the left of the window.
It is obvious that she can’t hear us, but we can hear her. Dravin has a plan, but what is it? Ryanne slides down the wall and sits on the ground. She leans her head back and looks up at the ceiling.
“Do you think Larkin got back to everyone?”
“I sure hope so,” Liam says. He looks toward the window at Ryanne. “He’s our only hope right now.”
A couple hours later, Ryanne’s cell door opens again. She looks toward it as three people walk in. Adam quickly walks toward her. “Adam, don’t touch her,” Dravin demands. He stops right in front of her. Ryanne stands up slowly and smiles sweetly at him.
“Hey, Adam. How are you on this lovely afternoon?” she leans around Adam and asks Dravin, “Is it afternoon? It’s hard to tell in here.”
Adam growls at her. He reaches out and slaps her across the face. The same spot that Dravin hit earlier. Her head swings to the side. I hit the window though I know it won’t do anything. They can’t hear us. I am so tired of Adam. Liam jumps up when she gets hit. Ryanne takes a deep breath and slowly turns back toward Adam, a red handprint appearing on her face. With a small smile, she takes a step toward him, “Didn’t your mother ever tell you not to hit a girl?” Dravin laughs and grabs the back of Adam’s shirt and pulls him away from her.
Dravin pushes Adam to the back of the room. Adam leans against the opposite wall and glares at Ryanne. Dravin walks to the center of the room and sits down. “Have a seat. Make yourself comfortable,” Ryanne says to him.
I look toward Liam and shake my head. She’s going to get herself in more trouble talking to him like that. The corner of Dravin’s mouth turns up, but he doesn’t smile.
“Now, Ryanne, I’m sure you know why we are here.”
“To keep me company? How sweet of you. However, I prefer the solitude. So, you can go. I’ll be fine.” She walks backwards and leans against the wall again.
“As much as I would enjoy keeping you company, I’m here for other reasons.”
“To clean this cell? I’ve noticed that it is a little dirty.” She looks around the cell and grimaces before turning her attention back to Dravin.
“What is she doing?” I whisper to Liam. I don’t know why, but I feel like someone is listening in on our conversation.
“Stalling.”
“Ryanne, dear,” Dravin starts.
“Don’t call me that, I’m not your dear. In fact, I’m no one’s dear.”
“Oh, I don’t believe that.” He leans back putting his arms behind him and crosses his legs. “I think you’re falling for that boy. You’ll be happy to know we haven’t tortured him yet.” I see a momentary flash of panic cross her face before she recovers. I briefly glance toward Liam. I know they are talking about me.
With an unreadable expression she says, “I don’t know who you’re referring to.”
“Colton,” Adam hisses.
She starts laughing. Liam and I can tell that it is forced since we’ve heard her real laugh numerous times. “You think I’m falling for Colton? That’s funny, Adam.” With a smile, she returns her attention to Dravin, “You should look for a new side kick. Yours is a little messed up in the head.” She taps her temple.
Dravin throws his head back and lets out a laugh. Adam growls again. Ryanne keeps glancing between the two. I can tell that she is scared, but she’s doing a pretty good job hiding it.
Dravin stops laughing and looks back at Ryanne. “Just a shame. You sure you don’t want to join me?”
“Positive. I’d rather eat a bag of hair,” she replies. A bag of hair? Where does she come up with this stuff? Dravin stands up and brushes off his clothes.
Turning his attention to Ryanne, he says, “Alrighty then. Time to get down to business. Now Ryanne, we’ve been in this situation before. I’ll ask you a question. You’ll refuse to give any information. I’ll try to beat it out of you. You’ll still refuse to give any information. I understand that. You’re stubborn; I get it.” He walks over to her.
“I remember it a little differently. But I don’t disagree with you on the stubbornness. I think it’s one of my better personality traits.”
“However, since torture is one of my favorite past-times, I’m not going to skip that part.”
“Hit me with your best shot,” she sings. Dravin smiles at her. Then, getting serious, he moves back again. His face furrows in concentration. I watch as Ryanne clenches her jaw. Suddenly, she falls to the ground, landing on her knees. Grabbing her head, she leans forward and lets out a small cry of pain. When she rests her forehead against the cement ground, Dravin crouches down beside her. She screams in agony. I hit the window. I don’t want to watch this. I don’t want to hear her cry out like that. I don’t want her to go through that again, but there’s absolutely nothing I can do.
Liam grimaces and collapses to the ground. Dravin stands up and steps back a little as Ryanne continues writhing on the ground. She stops screaming but doesn’t get up. I know when Dravin stops his assault on her mind because Liam is able to stand back up.
“Now that I have your attention, I want to inform you that we found a way to extract magic from someone. So, once we find out the extent of your magic, we can take it from you. We’ll even let your little friends live. What’ll it be?”
She looks up at him. I can tell that she’s still in pain, but she tries to act otherwise. “You’re deranged if you think that I’ll give you any information after that.”
“I thought you’d say something like that,” he says while standing back. He nods to the man standing near the door. At his signal, he
takes a step forward and moves toward Ryanne. She backs up slightly as he walks toward her. This man is huge. His size makes her look like a child. He picks her up by the arms and throws her down on the ground, hard. Her body falls like a rag doll. Liam hisses. I slam into the window again.
“Stop watching, Colton,” Liam whispers. Ryanne pushes herself up onto her knees and starts giggling. Lifting her head, she runs her right hand through her disarrayed curls and smiles at Dravin again.
“Just like old times, huh?” She takes a deep breath and continues, “That’s the way to a girl’s heart. My mom always told me that some guy would come along and sweep me off my feet.” She sits up and looks at Dravin. “I guess she was right.” She dusts of her arms. “Though, I always thought someone would try to catch me. I guess chivalry really is dead.” She smiles over at him, though it looks more like a grimace.
I can’t watch this anymore. I need to do something. I need…I push away from the window and walk over to the wall and punch it. I hear a pop and pain shoots through my arm.
“That wasn’t smart, man. You probably just broke your hand.” I flex my fingers and wince at the pain.
“It’s nothing compared to what they’re doing to her in there.” I don’t think it’s broken. I’m just going to have a nice bruise. Taking a few laps around the circumference of the room, I try to ignore the sounds coming from the next room. I walk back to the window.
Ryanne’s alone again. She slowly stands up, grimacing with the movement. Though in pain, it doesn’t look like anything is broken. She has some nasty bruises forming on her arms and legs though. Her face is slightly swollen from getting hit. She leans back against the wall—a single tear sliding down her cheek. She shakes her head and wipes it off. Standing tall, she crosses her arms and glares at the door.
Waiting.
Chapter Thirty-Five
I can’t show any weakness. I have to show them that they can’t break me as easily this time. I haven’t even defended myself yet, and they see that I’m not going to take everything as easily as I did last time. There is more at stake now.
Dravin mentioned earlier that they haven’t tortured someone yet. Was he referring to Colton? Is Colton here? If he is that means that the vision can still happen. All I know is that I can’t let that play out. I look over to the mirror. I wonder if it’s actually a two-way mirror. In the crime TV shows, the mirrors are actually windows. Is someone watching me? If so, who is it?
Dravin has perfected the extraction process…or could he be lying? I’m not sure that I want to find out either way. I know that he’ll keep coming back if I don’t talk soon. I wonder what Liam, David, Larkin, Emma, Bragden and…Colton…are doing right now? What’s Tom doing? I need to get out of this cell, but how?
I slowly start to pace the room again. I need to push through the pain. Next time, Dravin or Adam come into the room, I’ll do more than just fight with my words. I walk to the side of the room with the window and turn my back to it. My eyes are drawn up to the cement ceiling above me. It looks high enough. I take a couple steps forward and do an aerial cartwheel. I feel a little better when I land it. Keep pushing through the pain, Ryanne. I repeat to myself when I feel the aches in my arms and legs from the sudden movements. I can’t just stand around anymore. I need to move.
If I am able to get them to knock me out, will I be able to contact Liam? Will he come to me in my sleep? I am afraid to fall asleep here. I don’t even know if it will work. What if he was captured as well…would he still be able to go into dreams? So many questions.
Absolutely no answers.
I jump in place a couple of times and pace the room again. Slowly, I start singing “Rescue Me” by Daughtry. When I get to the chorus, I sing louder. I don’t care who hears me. I even dance a little.
“Having fun?” I stop and turn toward the door. Adam is leaning against it. Alone.
“Tons. Thanks for asking.” I continue singing. He shakes his head and closes the door, locking the two of us in.
“Ryanne, this could all go by so much easier if you just told us what your powers are.”
“I have powers? Since when?”
“Do you have a death wish?” Adam walks closer to me.
“Surprisingly, you’re not the first person to ask me that. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a death wish. I don’t really fear death. It’s living that scares me.”
“That makes no sense.” I lean against the wall again and cross my arms. I don’t know why I feel the need to explain myself to him. I know that Adam doesn’t care, but I feel like saying it out loud makes more sense.
“In life, everything you do affects someone else. Every action has a consequence. It takes a lot to actually live. To feel like you’re doing something worth-while. You can choose to make a difference or stand in the background and let life happen around you. I used to be the girl in the background. I was comfortable with that. I didn’t like attention. I just wanted to blend in and go on with life unseen. Now, I have a chance to be important—to do something important, and if I die doing that, at least someone can say I tried. At least I can say that I actually lived a little.”
I can tell that he is thinking about what I just said. He looks over at me again with an unusual look in his eyes before turning around and abruptly leaving the room.
“What the heck was that about?”
Colton
“Why is she talking to him?” I ask Liam.
“What I’m more shocked about is the fact that he hasn’t attacked her yet. I mean I don’t want him to, but it’s shocking that he’s just talking to her.”
I watch as Ryanne tells Adam why she isn’t afraid of death. I never thought about it before, but it makes sense. I’m afraid of dying without doing something worth-while. I don’t want my life to be pointless. I watch Adam as she speaks. He is looking at her like he is actually listening. He doesn’t have that arrogant expression on his face. He’s always been arrogant and didn’t care who knew it. In high school, he’d walk around like he was better than everyone else and acted like he owned the place.
Ryanne’s not looking at him as she speaks. She’s looking in my direction, but I know she can’t see me. When she stops speaking, she turns back toward Adam. He is still staring at her. He blinks a couple of times and then just turns and leaves the room. What? That is so out of character for him—even for this newly Team Dravin Adam.
Ryanne is just as surprised. “What the heck was that about?” She shakes her head and paces the room again. When she nears a corner, she turns around and does an aerial cartwheel to the other side of the room.
“Why does she keep doing that?”
“I think she’s trying to keep herself busy. I don’t think she wants to think about what’s going on. She’s distracting herself. Also, I think she’s trying to prove that she’s not going to just let them hurt her. She’s showing that she’s not weak.”
She stops pacing and slides down the wall, leaning her head back, she starts singing “Stronger” by Kelly Clarkson. Fitting. I love her singing voice. I wish I was on the other side of this wall, comforting her. She probably thinks that she is alone in this compound.
“Why do you think no one’s come in here? Why are they leaving us alone?”
“I honestly don’t know.”
I glance back at the window. She is still singing, but her eyes are closed.
“Liam, do you think you’d be able to contact her if she fell asleep?”
“I could try, but I really doubt it. Something in these cells blocks magic.”
A small yellow piece of paper flies under the door to Ryanne’s cell. She lifts her head and looks at the paper. Moving onto her hands and knees, she crawls over to the small piece of paper. Sitting in the middle of the cell, she reads it. Without reacting to it, she folds the paper up and puts it in her back pocket. What did that piece of paper say? It must be something good. A few seconds later, with a small smile, she crawls back to where she was seated before and sing
s another song.
It is about wanting somebody to love her. It is much slower than the previous ones. I can imagine her sitting at a piano and singing it. I hope she gets the chance to do that again. She sounds so sad while singing. If only she knew how much I actually do love her. It hurts to think that this could be one of the last times I see her. I still haven’t told her everything. I haven’t told her how I feel about her yet. I don’t know how we’ll get out of this situation if we can even get out of this situation.
“She has a beautiful singing voice, doesn’t she?” Both Liam and I spin around and face Adam, who is standing in the doorway. I run for him and bounce off an invisible barrier. “Do you really think I’d come in here without protection? Granted, it took a pretty powerful mage to create this little shield, but I’m not stupid, Colton.” I pick myself off the floor and back up next to Liam.
“What do you want?”
“Just thought I’d give you two a chance to tell us what her powers are. Dravin’s going to go back into her cell and torture the information out of her in a few moments if he doesn’t get anything useful here.” Neither Liam nor I say anything. We don’t want Ryanne to get hurt any more, but we know that she will die if they find out what her powers are. I’d rather see her hurt and alive than dead. It got pretty quiet on the other side of the window; Ryanne stopped singing.
“Fine.” Adam leans out of the door, “They’re not speaking.” He leans back in, “Have fun watching.” With one last smile, he slams the door shut and relocks it. With a groan, I turn and watch as Dravin enters Ryanne’s cell again.
“Back so soon?” she asks.
“Not soon enough. I’m running out of patience, Ryanne. Do I need to bring your friends in here to persuade you to give me some information?”
“What friends?” She stands up when he mentions us.
“Pretty boy and goth guy over there,” Dravin says and motions to the window separating our cells. Ryanne looks over at it. A scared look crosses her face. She bites her lip and turns back to Dravin.
