F.E.A.R. :||: Black Veil Brides

Chapter 4: Stay Close

Serenity's POV

My eyes start to open, and my surroundings begin to come back. I pick myself off the ground slowly, and I'm met with Andy and Jinxx looking at me with concerned looks on their faces.

"Do you remember anything?" Andy asks. I shake my head in response. A few seconds go by before a stinging sensation starts to creep up my face. "Don't touch your face. You're pretty cut up." Andy warns as I begin to bring my hand up. I nod and put my hand back down.

"What's the last thing you remember?" Jinxx asks.

"I remember getting grabbed and taken out of here. Everything else after that is just a blur." I admit.

"It looks like they took that punishment to a different level," Jinxx tells me, "that's the worst I've seen them beat someone up."

"I needed to do that to protect Andy. This would be him, not me."

"They would've just taken me into F.E.A.R. and sedated me. You didn't have to do any of what you did. I can handle what they do to me."

"You aren't sleeping. I highly doubt you're handling this well."

"You aren't sleeping?" Jinxx asks Andy. Andy looks at him and then back at me.

"I get some sleep, but this isn't about me. This is about The Rebel and how reckless she's being with her life."

"I was trying to protect you. I'm doing exactly what F.E.A.R. wants."

"No, you aren't. You're gonna get yourself killed if you do this again. They only beat you because they didn't want to kill you right away. You got off easy this time, but next time, it won't be that way." He storms off to lay down in his bed, leaving Jinxx and me alone to talk.

"Why is he being this way with me?" I ask him in a whisper in case Andy hears us.

"He doesn't want to get attached to you, so he thinks that being the way he's being will stop that from happening."

"And what does getting attached to me have anything to do with why I'm here?"

"Sometimes F.E.A.R. only takes people so we get attached to them. It happened to the last girl that was here, and it messed with The Profit. He hasn't been the same since." Jinxx tells me.

"I had no idea. What did they do to her?" I ask.

"Well, as soon as they saw him getting attached to her, they took her one day and never brought her back. You being here cements her death." I look over at Andy laying down on his bed and then back at Jinxx. "He's starting to get attached to you, but he doesn't want you to die because of him."

"I'm going to fight to stay alive. They won't take me easily."

"This situation isn't black and white. There's a lot of a grey area here, and none of us knows what they'll do tomorrow. We don't even know if we'll ever get out of here. We could all just die or rot here, and that's something we're all terrified of."

"Do you think he'll ever warm up to me?" I ask Jinxx as I look over at Andy again. "I know I just got here, but something in me feels like I know him already."

"You do." I look back at Jinxx with a confused look.

"Wait, what? Tell me more." I say.

"I can't. I've already said too much, and I already know F.E.A.R. is gonna use this against me. We can talk about this later." Jinxx stands up and walks over to the guys. I carefully get up and make it over to my bed, where I lay down and stare up at the ceiling. I can't believe I know him and he knows me. I wish I could remember any of this. Without warning, a loud voice comes over the speaker again.

"We expect the battle for humanity is about to begin. Within each uprising, a fake sense of safety will ignite in you, and an unseen shadow will slip from doubt towards those who protect and defend you, but let the thoughts slip away and remain calm. Stay close to F.E.A.R. Only we can protect." I sit up, looking at the guys. They stare back in confusion, but even more strange, the doors to our rooms begin to open, but no one is standing there to take any of us.

I stand up first and take short steps to the door. Carefully, I pull it open the rest of the way and look down the halls to ensure no one is there. I step out of the room, and nothing happens. I quickly go to the guy's door and push it open to see Andy standing on the other side along with Jinxx, Lonny, Jake, and CC.

"Are they letting us be free from our rooms?" Jinxx asks in confusion.

"Go back to your room, Rebel. We don't know what this is or what it means." Andy sternly says. He goes to walk away, but I grab his arm.

"It seems like they want us to come out. Nothing is happening right now, and that message seemed to be the reason we can now leave."

"She's right. Right after we got that message, the doors opened. This has never happened before." Lonny says.

"But it could still be a trap."

"Do you trust me?" I ask him. He looks down at the guys and then down at me before nodding his head. I hold out my hand, and he takes hold of it. "We're in this together now."

"Okay."