“My name is Zoe,” I correct him from moments ago. No one has ever called me by my last name before, and I don’t want it to start up now.
“Well, in that case my name is Mac.” He smiles at me, obviously noticing that I keep calling him Ethan. I hadn’t meant to do that.
“What does Mac stand for? Or are you Ethan Mac?”
“My name is Ethan John McMiller.”
I nod, feeling an awkwardness settle over me when I’m not sure what else to talk about.
“So how often do you have these future dreams? Are they likely to help us on Saturday?” Ethan blurts out, shocking me.
“How do you know about my dreams?”
“I don’t know, doesn’t everybody?”
“No!” I almost shout, feeling angry that my secret is apparently no longer that.
Ethan holds his hands up in surrender. “Okay, sorry.”
“How do you know? Does everyone here know? Was there some freaking meeting about it?” I exclaim.
“I don’t know if everyone knows, but I assume so. We need to know for when we go on missions. That’s another thing about these mock missions; it helps us see what we’re like under pressure. Find out who works well together and who doesn’t. It’s something that would have come out anyway.”
I take in his words, trying to calm myself down. “I don’t dream very often so I highly doubt I’ll be seeing anything for this coming Saturday.”
“Okay.” Ethan stands up and stretches out his legs.
“Can I change my clothes?” I point at the mud all over me.
“You’ll have to change at lunch if you really want.”
“Well, I don’t really want to stay in this to be honest. Plus, I look ridiculous.”
“You don’t, you look kinda cute.” Ethan laughs at me and I go on high alert at his words. Is he hitting on me? “Don’t worry about it; once I was standing next to a guy who vomited all over my legs and I had to train in it for six more hours before I could shower. It was disgusting.”
“Ew.” I take a step back from him, picturing that disturbing image in my head.
“I do have a gift of knowing how to turn a girl on.” Ethan laughs at himself, shaking his head at my retreat.
“I’m with Charlie, and nothing is changing that, especially not you,” I speak forcefully, suddenly nervous that he is actually trying to flirt with me.
“Calm down; I wasn’t making a play. I like to joke around, ask Nico. Now, let’s start training for real.” He leads me into a weight room where no one pays us any special attention, even given our muddy state. I see Will with a woman doing weights and I wave to him as we pass. His eyebrow rises as he takes in my appearance, but he thankfully doesn’t laugh at me.
Ethan then passes me two weights that are far too heavy for me, and tells me to start lifting.
***
After lunch and a change of clothes, but unfortunately not a shower, we move into a room a floor above the meals area that has a huge mirror along one side of the wall and a firm mat underneath our feet. The fight room. While I’m not keen on getting my ass kicked, Ethan needs to see how bad I am. Besides, he had wanted to go to the shed, which is where they do weapons training, before I convinced him to try something else, so I consider this an improvement.
Shane is in here, the trainer from earlier who paired me with Ethan. He gives me some one-on-one time after Ethan easily knocks me to the ground several times. He shows me how to properly kick, punch and move. Something Stan has never done and Charlie and Dean have tried to do. It’s a long process, one that I’m sure Ethan grows bored with, but he stands still and watches anyway.
With no windows in this room, I have no idea what the time is, but my stomach seems intent to believe it is dinner time. I’m mesmerized as Ethan and Shane take their turn fighting. It looks more like a complicated dance that I have no hope of getting close to. Even though Ethan is obviously very skilled and fit, he ends up on the mat as many times as I did. When Shane does call it a night, the ground is covered with our mud left over from our skin and hair. By this stage, everyone else has left, so Shane orders us to clean it up before we leave, and I collapse on the ground while I wait for Ethan to bring back a mop and bucket. A lot of the mess is just the crumbling dirt falling off us, but as our bodies stayed hot and sweaty, the dirt turned back to mud and there are wipe marks everywhere now.
I close my eyes, feeling like I could easily fall asleep when the door opens. I assume Ethan is back, however I open my eyes just in time to see a large boot coming straight for me. I only barely roll over in time before the boot would have made contact with my head. I quickly sit up to a giant man standing over me; his face red with rage, veins popping out in his forehead, his neck and arms looking ready to burst they’re so tense.
“What—”
“Shut up! I don’t want to hear your tricks.” The giant grabs me by my shirt and pulls me up too quickly for me to even get my feet under me and throws me against the mirror, causing it to crack behind me.
“Please—” I gasp, unable to get anything more out as I try to move away from him. He blocks me off with his arm, and I only stop just in time before I crash into it. His arm then moves back quickly and I step back in time, avoiding his punch. His hand smashes into the mirror and shards fly out, blood splatters the rest of the mirror from his giant hands, now cut up. I look at him in horror as I see his arms grow bigger as they approach me, which is impossible, right?
“Reader was my friend and you turned him into a traitor. It was you that he was chasing and you that ruined everything,” he growls at me, his uninjured hand wrapping around my throat, squeezing me tightly, and blocking off my airway. He lifts me up off the ground as if I weigh nothing. As much as I struggle to get free, I can’t manage to cause him to move even an inch. I attempt to call out for help, but I can’t breathe, let alone make a sound.
I claw at his hands and kick out, yet nothing I do makes a difference. Black spots form in front of my eyes; soon, I won’t have any fight left in me at all. I’m in trouble and there is no one to help me.
Chapter 8 – The Giant
I stop kicking, stop clawing and even stop struggling. I listen to the buzzing in my ears as it grows and watch the spots form over my eyes, growing bigger and trying to blind me. I vaguely notice Ethan next to me; I think he might be yelling. His mouth moves urgently, appearing as though he’s screaming out, but his words are quiet to me. It sounds like he should have been a mile away calling out to me, not next to me. A few blinks later and Shane is on my other side, together they’re pulling at the giant’s arm, trying to pry him away from me. A small amount of pressure comes off my throat, but his fingers still dig into my skin. The small gasp of air I inhale won’t last me long. I only understand one word Shane is calling out over and over; it’s “Parker”. They’re calling for Will.
More sets of hands pull at the giant’s arm, but he’s impossibly strong. I look into his black eyes, only seeing rage and hatred in them. Blood starts dripping from his nose and his face is so red now that I’m sure his skin is burning. In fact, I think I feel heat radiating off him, although I’ve been without oxygen for a while so I’m probably hallucinating at this point.
Finally Will barges in. It takes him long seconds to be able to pull the giant off me, longer than I imagined possible given his super strength.
Ethan is there to catch me as I fall down, coughing madly and trying to gasp for air. I feel dizzier having the sudden ability to breathe as much air as I want. My body starts shaking so wildly Ethan holds me down.
“Just breathe, Holloway, short breaths. Just get it in and out,” Ethan soothes.
I close my eyes to stop seeing three of him, doing as he says, taking sharp breaths until I feel myself calming down. Slowly, I’m able to take deeper breaths.
When I open my eyes again Shane is peering over me.
“You okay, Holloway?”
I nod, although it hurts to move my neck.
“Take her down to medical,” he barks at Ethan.
I try to protest, but I don’t appear to have a voice. I cough some more and let Ethan take most of my weight when he gets up, moving me towards the door. Charlie meets us there, and I gratefully fall into his arms. He picks me up when Ethan states where he’s taking me and then they both walk me back down to medical. Will, along with two other men, stay back to hold down the giant who is still struggling to get out of their hold.
When Doctor Pratt greets us at the door, I’m relieved I get to see her and not Harold. She sits me down before taking a look at my neck. She examines my throat and then, after some sips of water, makes me talk. I sound hoarse, but I manage well enough to get the words out to say I don’t want to stay here. She gives me two bottles of water and tells me to take the rest of the night off.
As we leave medical, Ethan follows behind us while I let Charlie carry me back to our room because I don’t think my legs are strong enough to walk after all the exercise today. They also feel like jelly after that attack
I sit down on our bed, which is still a mess from this morning. Thankfully, Ethan doesn’t say a word about the state of it. I try not to think about what happened in here last night because I don’t want to bring that memory down to the fear I’m feeling right now.
“What the hell happened?” Charlie finally speaks after remaining mostly silent since he carried me from the fight room. I feel anger radiating from him. Since taking hold of me, he hasn’t let me go; not even while I was looked over by Doctor Pratt. He’s feeling protective, and right now I’m happy to have him protect me.
Ethan is keeping his distance from us, leaning against the open doorway. I can tell he’s worried. He answers Charlie before I can attempt to try.“Man, I left her for a second and when I came back—”
“You’re supposed to be looking out for her, protecting her, not leaving her alone!” Charlie shouts angrily.
“I’m sorry, it won’t happen again,” Ethan speaks dutifully. He sounds like the perfect, obedient soldier.
“It better not. Who did this to her?”
“Corby, the psychotic bastard. When I got back he was strangling her. It took all of us, plus Parker, to get him off.”
“I will kill that son of a bit—”
“Trust me, many have tried and failed. The guy is like a pest that can’t be squashed. You should know that after what you saw at The Jail, it’s better to just ignore him. Besides, when we left they were talking about taking him to medical, too. He had a fit like that once before and was out for weeks. He might not be a problem for a while. Did he say anything to you?” Ethan directs the last part to me.
I try to talk, but my throat has gone dry again, so I take a few sips of water before I attempt again. “He blames me for Blake.”
Ethan nods, acting as if that makes perfect sense. “Reader was the only friend he had here. He was focused as all hell and they were paired up. He’s the only guy who lasted over a month with him. Corby goes through partners like he does clothes. He’s insane. The only reason he isn’t kicked out is because he’s Agent Martha Gooding’s nephew.”
The giant is related to Martha. That is no surprise.
“Right, well, I think she needs to rest now.” Charlie is clearly dismissing Ethan.
“Of course.” Ethan pushes off the doorframe. “Look, I’m sorry. If you want me to stop being Holloway’s partner, then I’ll ask to be swapped,” he offers.
When Charlie looks at me, I realize this is my chance to get a new partner, to hopefully never have that dream happen, but who am I kidding? I’ve never been able to stop a dream from happening before.
“Who would I get then?” I cough, wincing when it hurts my throat more.
“I don’t know. I’m not even sure they’ll allow us to swap. If you really don’t trust me, I can tell them I’m not well, spend a couple days in medical. They’ll have to get you a new partner then.”
I think over his words. I’m not sure if I want a new partner, either. As uncomfortable as Ethan made me today, I can admit he went easy on me. Watching the other pairs train was proof of that. What if I get someone that is serious about these mock missions? What if I get tortured by someone else and in the end my dream still comes true? My best bet on making sure my dream doesn’t come true is keeping things good between Charlie and me. I need to focus on that.
“It’s fine. Ethan is fine,” I say to Charlie, leaning my head on his shoulder. I feel exhausted after today. All I want is to sleep.
“One more screw-up and I swear…” I open my eyes to see Charlie glaring at Ethan who is nodding his head in response, wishing us both good-night on his way out.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” He wraps his arm around my shoulder, bringing me closer.
“I’m just tired.” I lean into him, letting myself start to relax now that we’re alone.
“I am going to kill that fucking Corby—”
“No, please don’t. He was scary. I’m not sure what he was on, but even Will struggled with him. Just leave it, please?”
“And let him try and hurt you again? He needs to know he can’t ever touch you again.”
My blood drains thinking I might have to face him again, but it’s nothing compared to the fear I have of losing Charlie.
“No, I only just got you back. Please don’t; promise me.”
“Zoe…” he sighs.
“Please, I can’t lose you again.” My vision blurs as tears fill my eyes.
He wraps me up in a hug. “Fine, I promise I’ll try to leave it alone.”
It isn’t exactly what I want to hear, but it’s enough for now.
“I think you might need to take a shower.” Charlie chuckles as he pulls out a clump of mud from my hair. “Let’s go find Rose and she can go with you.”
“I can shower by myself.” I try to sound confident, however a shiver of fear shoots through my body. Maybe I can’t.
“Come on, let’s find Rose anyway.”
He holds my hand as we head down to Rose’s room. She gasps when she sees the state I’m in. While at first I think it’s probably because of the mud over me, I notice her eyes are on my throat. Great, I have another bruise to add to my long list.
“What the hell happened to you?”
“She was attacked by that asshole called Corby. You need to watch out for him.” Charlie squeezes my hand tighter.
“Why did he attack you?” She narrows her eyes at me. Her grief that no doubt has been there since I gave her the news this morning about Dean is replaced with determination and outrage.
“Because of Blake, so we need to step up our plan to get out of here,” he sounds demanding.
We let silence descend over us as we take in his words. He’s right. We can’t stay here too long. Not just because of Corby, but because we need to do this quickly before it gets harder to leave; before we’re forced to do something horrible.
“Can you come with me to the showers?”
“Of course.” Rose walks out of her room, eyes roaming over the empty hallway.
“Will you also walk her back to our room afterward?” Charlie asks her, leaning over and kissing me softly on my forehead.
“Yes, I’ll take care of her,” she assures him, taking my free hand in hers and pulling me away from Charlie after taking my fresh clothing from him with her free hand.
I feel his eyes on us until the corner curves and he loses sight of us. As we enter the bathroom, there isn’t anyone in the showers. Rose informs me that mostly everyone is in the meals area having dinner.
We stand in silence and, as I glance over at Rose, I can see her determination is slowly giving way to grief again. I don’t know if I should tell her a lie and say Dean is okay. I’m not sure if I should tell her about her wearing a wedding dress. I’m not even sure if that’s from a future dream, but my instincts tell me it’s not a fake. My whole body is screaming at me that the vision I’m seeing is true. Drew told me to trust my instincts, and I’m wil
ling to do that if it’ll mean easing some of Rose’s pain.
“I’m sorry about Dean, but you should know I think he’s okay.”
“Thanks.” Rose’s voice is barely louder than a whisper. I don’t think she takes in what I’m saying to her.
I take a deep breath, making sure I’m interpreting my instincts correctly. I think about Rose, I recall the beautiful wedding dress she is wearing, the bright smile on her face and the older man on her arm. I look passed her as she stands at the end of an aisle and, while everything is slightly blurry, I see Dean clearly. He is there, he is alive.
“I’m serious, I’ve seen something about you guys in the future. I’m not sure it’s a dream. I—I just know it’s real.”
“What did you see?” Her hand squeezes mine painfully at the same time her hopeful eyes bore holes into me.
I hesitate for only a second. I need to tell her. “I saw you in a wedding dress and Dean waiting for you down the aisle. I can’t tell how old you guys are, but you look similar to how you are now. I know that seems impossible, but it feels so real. When I close my eyes and see it, it’s real. I just know it.”
She takes deep breaths, her eyes flooding with tears. It shocks me. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Rose cry, especially not like this. I quickly wrap her in a hug, fearful I’ve done the wrong thing.
“He proposed to me at The Core. I said, yes,” Rose wails between sobs.
I hug her harder. “I’m so sorry you’re apart, but we’ll do everything we can to get you both back together,” I promise her, knowing that, no matter what, I will help Rose find Dean again.
She nods into my shoulder, her body shaking from her tears that are still coming.
***
It takes a long time to get all the mud off me. My hair is the worst; I wash it twice to make sure it’s all gone. By the time I’m dried and dressed, I’m ready to collapse into a ball and sleep for a month. Instead, I let Rose lead me back to my room where Charlie is waiting out front for us. He watches in relief and I smile when I see him. His hair is damp and he’s changed into his pajamas. I see him notice Rose’s red eyes and, even though it’s obvious she’s been crying, he doesn’t comment on it.
Taken By Choice (Taken Trilogy Book 3) Page 7
