by Frankie Rose
******
I wasn’t in the maze. I was in a large circular room, kneeling on the smooth, cold marble floor. There were no windows. Seven or eight large torches lit the room, each bearing a different animal’s head carved in stone at its base. A lion, eagle, elephant, fox, snake, were all in my line of sight. The others at my back remained a mystery. I was too scared to tear my eyes off the three heavy wrought-iron chairs aligned on the dais in front of me to turn and look at them.
The first person I recognized was the cold, hard figure of my immaculately dressed father seated on the chair to the far left. He wore yet another black suit, coupled with black shirt and tie. His hair was swept back away from his face, which was grave and etched in shadows. His eyes wandered around the room, agitated and uncomfortable.
On the far right-hand side sat another, younger looking man, who bore a striking resemblance to Elliot. His face was longer and more effeminate, but he was still incredibly handsome. He studied me with cool eyes. They were sky blue and piercing, and held a curious, calculating intelligence. He cleared his throat and moved on to look around the room, apparently bored, observing nothing in me to capture his interest.
It was the man in the middle who was most intriguing, though. This man was much older than the other two. He gave off an air of authority that commanded respect. His dark hair was shot with a steel grey at his temples and his face was lined and worn. His expression was fixed in a permanent sneer that pulled his mouth down at the corners, giving him a sharp, angular look. Narrowed eyes scrutinized me. Not blue this time, but brown—so dark they were almost black.
The silence in the room echoed from the high ceiling, and I swallowed hard, trying to calm my heartbeat. They must have heard it hammering in my chest. The man in the center finally spoke.
“This is the girl who took your son?” He obviously wasn’t speaking to me.
Elliot shifted awkwardly, fixing me with a hateful stare. “Not this pathetic creature. Her friends. The ones that have troubled all of us for years.”
The man remained silent for some time. Elliot eventually lowered his eyes from mine to give him a swift sidelong glance. If the man noticed, then he didn’t register the fact. He watched me intently. The pressure of his eyes on my skin felt as though he were stripping me bare before all three of them. He addressed me with a look of mild distaste, like he were talking with someone sullied or dirty, and certainly not worthy of his direct attention.
“Do you know who I am, child?”
I couldn’t have responded even if I wanted to.
“I am Tobin. This is Jacob. He was the one before me.” He gestured to the bored man on his right, who tossed me a cursory glance and then continued to gaze into space. “And this is Elliot. He came after me. I assume you know who he is?”
So this was Elliot’s father. That kind of made him my grandfather. I was still immobile, pinned to the floor and unable to make a sound. Inside, however, I twisted with anger. I wanted to use the blade that Cliff had given me, to sink it into his belly. I wanted to twist it savagely; I wanted it to hurt.
“You might be wondering why we’re talking here tonight,” Tobin said, smirking as if he knew from the look in my eye that I was wishing him a thousand times dead. “We’re here because you have something of ours. Oliver is very precious to us. All our family members are precious to us, Farley. You might have learned that if you had given us a chance. Things could have been so very different.”
Yeah, right, I thought. You mean I could have delivered myself to you on a platter. You wouldn’t have broken a sweat in killing me.
Another caustic smirk. “At any rate, that opportunity is long gone. Now, we just want Oliver back.”
Ha! Good luck with that. He’s not going anywhere with you, I snarled inside my head.
“We’re having this conversation because I want to make you an offer. It’s a very simple offer, and you may feel like you’re not getting much out of it, but I want you to hear me out. Can you do that?”
My eyes twitched imperceptibly, but they were screaming: Go Directly To Hell.
Tobin grinned and turned to Elliot. “Are you sure this one is yours? Her fortitude would have me believe otherwise.” Elliot gave him a withering look and clenched his jaw.
So, he thought I was brave for trying to stare him down? Let me go and you’ll see how brave I am. His smug smile would slip right off his face if only I could get free long enough to drive my knife into him. It suddenly occurred to me that I probably didn’t have my knife in this dream. That didn’t matter, though. I’d wrap my hands around his neck and throttle the life out of him if I got half a chance.
“Sorry, where was I? Oh, that’s right. Give us back Elliot’s son. In return, we will do you a kindness and kill you quickly.”
What was it he’d said? I wouldn’t think I was getting much out of the deal? He was definitely right there.
“Otherwise, we will come and take Oliver, and you and your friends will all die a very different death. We have some very… interesting friends, friends who take pleasure in toying with their prey. They can make the process of dying last days instead of the seconds I’m promising you.”
I’m not afraid of you, I thought, doing my best to convince myself it was true.
Tobin paused and looked me in the eye. “Well, you should be.” His words were as cold as ice. A tidal wave of adrenaline crashed through me, and Tobin threw back his head and laughed. “What? You thought you were all alone in there, girl? It’s been very interesting snooping around while we’ve been having this conversation.”
Whatever, I shot at him. It doesn’t matter. You can do whatever you like to me. They’re never going to hand Oliver over. You don’t even know where we are.
As soon as I formed that last thought, my stomach dropped through the floor. Tobin studied my face as realization washed through me. I suddenly felt sick. His eyes shone with pleasure.
“Yes… yes, that’s right. We do know where you are. We know, because you just told us. All you had to do was think it. Well done, Farley. Thank you. See you in half an hour.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
Big Bang
