Chapter Six
I watched out the window in hopes of thinking of nothing. I took in the dark scenery around us as we drove. Almost every house we went by had woods behind it. As we got closer to town the houses were closer together and the trees disappeared. The town was dead. There were only a few vehicles on the road and the lights were off in most businesses. Even the red lights in town were still flashing yellow in one direction red in the other.
I watched it all speed by and the closer we got the more my back tensed. It wasn’t that I was afraid of what happened. Yes, I had become extremely paranoid. That had nothing to do with it. I didn’t want them to learn what kind of monster I had become. I didn’t want them to fear me. I loved these guys. It was why I had kept my distance. Only now I didn’t know if I could anymore.
I was so lost in thought that I didn’t notice where we were until Dean drove under the last overpass. Appalachia, Virginia came in to view. I was less than two minutes away from the academy.
I was trying not to hyperventilate as the only two gas stations they had passed by. I was fighting the scream building in my throat as the row of buildings in Main Street disappeared. I closed my eyes and prayed this would all go away when he went over the bridge and past the church. I thought I was literally dying on the inside when the old high school building came into view and he turned to go up to what was now the academy.
The sun was just coming up as we pulled in and parked. I use to love to sit and watch day break. I used to climb to the roof and watch as the dark blue turned to purple then give way to the light blue sky as that bright orange ball showed its face. But with everything weighing on me and knowing that at any time I could be attacked again, I didn’t hesitate to grab things out of the vehicle and run inside.
We had managed to get everything in one trip and I was thankful. I went about putting up the groceries as everyone else decided who got what. I didn’t want to have to deal with that. It was bad enough to think about what I had to speak aloud without looking at the dreary room they were in.
Braydon put mine and his things away and came to the kitchen to help me but I had almost gotten everything finished and was laying things out for breakfast. He came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
“Please don’t ever sacrifice yourself for me again.”
I wanted to turn in his arms and hold him but I couldn’t. I was shaking so bad that keeping myself busy was the only thing that made me capable of even standing on my own. I didn’t want anyone knowing just how bad I dreaded this. Just how weak it made me at the thought of losing everyone I love.
I hated feeling weak. This wasn’t me but then I realized that since I was tortured this was what I had become. I understood now why Braydon did not want me. I could take care of myself most time, but not all time. Not anymore. I had become so dependent on him to get me through things that I didn’t know if I could handle it all otherwise. I had to find a way to get that part of myself back.
Breakfast was made and I carried a plate to everyone. I never complained about it because I loved taking care of them. I always have. But when I handed Zavier his plate he looked down at the ground instead. He wouldn’t forgive me and I didn’t blame him.
“We didn’t know where to put that,” Sage said pointing to the wooden box. “What’s in it anyway?”
I smiled and set my plate on the coffee table. I sit down in the floor and popped the latch on the box. I held up one of the round devices and showed it to everyone.
“Nova’s.”
“What’s a nova?” Sage asked.
“An exploding star,” I replied smiling.
“I know that. I mean, what is the nova you’re holding?”
“An exploding star. It has a button on the top that when you press it, blades come out like a throwing star. It allows you to throw it at your target and then explodes, taking your target out.”
Sage’s eyes went wide and I saw Dean, out of the corner of my eye, lean forward. Even this had Zavier’s attention.
“I have three types; a gas bomb, which is marked with a gray stripe around the center; a regular nova, which explodes taking out the immediate target and is marked with a yellow stripe and then the super nova. It has enough power to take out this entire room, walls and all. That’s why it’s marked with red. I have a prototype if anyone wants to see?”
“I would love to see it,” Dean replied.
“It’s just confetti so it won’t do any damage.”
I walked to the kitchen, getting napkins for everyone’s plates. I covered my own and walked back to the box taking out one of the grenades I had built.
“Wait, how do you know that’s the prototype?” Sage asked.
I laughed slightly and turned it around so he could see the words prototype written on it. His face flushed and I walked over and kissed his cheek.
I stood, pressed the button on the top, and grabbed onto the blades as they shot out. I tossed the nova across the room and it embedded itself into the wall. After six seconds a small explosion sounded and confetti filled the air. I stood there looking around at the little pieces of paper floating down. It was almost like snow.
I looked back at everyone.
“You built these?” Dean asked.
I nodded to him. “I wanted to show them to you last year but sort of got side tracked.”
No one spoke after that. They all just uncovered their plates and began eating. I knew they were all curious and wanted the information that only I could supply.
It didn’t matter how slow I ate, I could feel their eyes on me. They were waiting. I didn’t have a choice anymore.
My hands began to shake as I brought the last bite of food to my mouth but I didn’t look up to see if they noticed. I didn’t want looks of pity. I jumped up, gathered the plates, and then came back to the living room. I walked over to the entertainment center and sit down. Later I would see the irony of that, but for now I couldn’t do more than pull my legs up to my chest and wrap my arms around myself.
I cleared my throat and took a deep breath. Just get it over with, I thought to myself. You can do this.
“I had known someone was following me for a couple of weeks. I had even told Dad about it. We made an agreement that I wouldn’t go out alone unless I had my tracker on me and he was nearby. I didn’t think anything would happen that day. I mean I used a disguise like always and I wasn’t in the store for more than ten minutes.
I had no choice but to go out. Dad had left town because Uncle David needed him. He was supposed to be back later that day but I had run out of things that I needed. I had no choice, I couldn’t wait,” I don’t know if I was trying to convince them of it or myself.
I put my chin on my knees and stared at the tile floor in front of me. I was trying to control my breathing. I didn’t have to tell them everything, just the main things. That I could do.
“They came up behind me as I was putting the stuff in the trunk. I had a mirror attached to the back so I could always see what was behind me. I had just enough time to throw my purse and keys in the trunk and slam it down before they put a hood over my head blocking out everything.” I shuttered at the memory.
“They took me to some place here in Appalachia, up in the woods. I had hoped I would have time to figure out what they wanted but that wasn’t the case. From the moment they took me in the room, they beat me. They had tied me to a chair and left the dark hood over my head. They began asking me questions and when I wouldn’t answer, they would hit me.
“They would ask me constantly; what’s your name? Who’s your dad? I wouldn’t answer. The longer I didn’t answer, the worse it got. I was okay for a while. I dealt with the face punches, the broken ribs. Shoot, I didn’t even flinch when they broke my wrist. But when they used a metal pipe to break my jaw I passed out.”
The tremors were raking my body as I sat there. I couldn’t contain it any longer and I knew they could all see this. I lowered my legs and
wrapped my arms around my stomach to try to lessen it but nothing was working. When I glanced at Braydon, he opened his arms to welcome me to sit on his lap. I shook my head. I had to do this on my own.
“When I woke up they had me tied to a table.” The shaking became severe and I had to close my eyes so they wouldn’t see the fear.
“They had pulled my shirt up and my pants down but had tied me down so that I was on my stomach. They began asking the questions again but this time they never even gave me a chance to answer before they would run a blade over my back or the back of my legs. I lost count how many times they did this after about forty times.”
I stood up, grabbed a shirt and shorts from the drawer and went to the bathroom to change. Everyone was still sitting the exact same way, not making a sound.
I walked to the center of the room so that I wasn’t very close and turned my back to them. I raised the back of my shirt so they could see what had been done to me. I raised the leg of my shorts to show them. I didn’t know how bad they looked because even I hadn’t seen it.
I went back over and sat down where I was and finished my part.
“I pretended to pass out. After a few minutes they stopped and left the room. I laid there for just a few minutes when I heard the door open again. I was afraid to move. I really didn’t think my body could handle any more abuse. Whoever it was, just stood there. I thought I heard them whisper something that sounded like he was going to kill them so I turned my head. When I did they came running toward me.
“He told me his name was Braydon Thompson and he was from the FOA. He would get me out of there. I knew that name. I also knew that if he was telling me everything about him that uh, he was going to do a mercy kill. So I did the only thing I knew to. I raised my head up and said ‘don’t I at least get to see the face of the man that’s about to take my life?’ He never said anything.”
“What could I say? You freaked me out. I had never had anyone say that. Not that I had that much experience with it. Oh God, when I took the hood off her head, I knew who it was but only because they had hit her so hard they knocked her contacts out. It was her blue eyes. They were John’s eyes.
“Everyone knew John, you know. And here I was thinking I almost killed her. I almost took the life of John Stone’s daughter,” I could see the pain in his eyes as he said those words.
“What do you mean you knew who she was only because of her eyes?” Zavier asked.
“They had beaten Rissa pretty bad. Her face was nothing but bruises and it was so swollen I don’t know how she could even see. Her back and her legs.” He covered his face with his hands then slid them up through his hair making it go in every direction.
“I didn’t know how I was going to get her out of there. Truthfully, I thought we’d both die there. She asked me to untie her and I did. I helped her get her pants pulled up because I was afraid if she bent over it would make the bleeding worse. I don’t know how she dealt with that pain. But she grabbed a hold of me and was sliding her hands down my sides as she asked me if there were any more of us there.
“When I told her no, she took the daggers off my side and turned throwing them straight into the heart of two guys that had walked in the room. I hadn’t even heard the door open. When she went to retrieve the blades, she turns to see that I had been attacked by a third man. He had gotten me across the face. He was going for my throat but I had moved just in time.
“I don’t think I had ever seen anyone so mad in my life. She came across that room flying and got him away from me before she gutted him. Then she asked him whose scar he thought would look worse.”
He looked at me and smiled.
“I heard stories of Rissa’s fighting. I had even watched her train a few times but it was nothing like what I saw that day. She kept going. She would slide into a crowd of men and come out less than two minutes later covered in blood. Every one of them would be dead.”
I didn’t want to listen anymore. I knew what had happened that day and didn’t need the reminder of how many lives I took. Most assassins build up to that many. To take out so many at once messes with a person.
I got up and walked into the kitchen to get something to drink. Zavier followed.
“There was more to it than that, wasn’t there?”
I just nodded to him but didn’t elaborate. I couldn’t, not yet. He wrapped his arms around me and held me for a few minutes.
“I’m sorry Zavier. I didn’t want to lie but I couldn’t face it.”
“You think that’s why I was upset don’t you? It’s not Rissa. It’s because if you remember, I was supposed to meet you at the store but was running late. I always blamed myself for the wreck but knowing it wasn’t a wreck, well that made things even worse.”
“Don’t blame yourself for that. It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t tell them to take me. Plus I understood that your dad was making you help him.”
Zavier still looked pained. He had wrinkles in between his eyebrows and had closed his eyes tight. His jaw was tense and his lips were pressed together in a tight line. I reached up and smoothed his hair out of his face then run my fingers down his jaw. He opened his eyes and looked at me. I leaned in and kissed him.
I know I shouldn’t do that, especially after telling Braydon I loved him but at this moment I think we both needed some kind of comfort. He pulled back and looked at me. It was like a light had gone off above his head and his eyes went wide. He opened his mouth to say something then closed it.
“Maybe we should go back in there before they say something,” I told him as I reached up and run a finger across his bottom lip. He nodded and we both walked back to the living room.
“My jaw had started bleeding again by the time we got to the door. I knew we had no choice but to wait inside on John to get there. I wasn’t sure how long either of us could stay awake. I think it was the hardest thing I done but I wouldn’t leave her alone, and I know she was doing the same for me,” Braydon was saying. I nodded to him and sat down in the floor.
“I watched as she pulled some kind of bag off her shoulder and rummaged through it. She was telling me she had found medical supplies in one of the rooms. She took out some gauze and pressed it against my jaw and told me to hold it there. She asked me my blood type, and then I watched as she took an empty bag that had a needle attached and put it in her arm.
“At first I didn’t know what she was doing. I guess I was so disoriented it didn’t dawn on me that she was going to try to give me blood.” Braydon scratched his head. “Okay so try wasn’t the right word. She did give me blood. She had drawn out a pint of blood and then apologized for having to use the same needle when she stuck it in my arm.”
The guys turned around and looked at me. I shrugged a shoulder and looked at the floor. “He had lost so much blood, I couldn’t let him die.”
“She hung the unit up on the wall with my dagger,” he said laughing.
“Well it worked.”
“Then she sits down and put my head in her lap and started telling me things about herself. She would tell me stories of these five guys she constantly hung out with and the goofy ways she tortured them. Before the transfusion was even done she stopped talking, looked up, and I watched as a tear rolled down her face.
I turned around to see what she was looking at. John and Dean stood there with I don’t know how many men behind them. I heard Rissa clear her throat then heard her say ‘I love you Daddy, I love you D.’ that was all she got out. I saw John’s eyes widen and turned in time to see Rissa’s eyes roll back in her head as she started to fall back. Grabbing a hold of her shirt was the only thing that kept her from busting her skull. I was trying to get up as I held her but I was so weak I could barely move.
“John rushed to her and Dean pulled me off her lap. I was screaming but I don’t remember what I was saying. I just remember Dean telling me that uh, she just passed out. I couldn’t calm down though until I saw John pick her up to carry her out.”
I
looked up at Dean and could tell he was trying to hide the pain. “I was trying to tell you I love you but I couldn’t get it out.”
Dean nodded his head and his voice broke as he answered. “I know.”