Every Two Years (Completed)

5

"We've known each other for a year now, and yet you continue to surprise me," the man smiles at her. He has one hand holding his side as blood drips onto the floor, and the other holds the joystick as his fingers come off the button. Valentine, the last of them, laid on his face, his breaths rocking her whole body. "You must work out between my brief visits. You gave me a run for my money."

Nat's head pounds, and she can feel her blood pumping slowly, rocking her as she lay on the floor looking towards Valentine. The man's chuckle rattles around her.

"Oh, don't look like that. You keep upping the stakes, so of course I have to keep upping the punishment." He sits the joystick down on the machine and walks towards Valentine, kneeling down behind him. He pets his messy brown hair as he looks at Nat.

"What confuses me, though, is that only a few of you seem angry at her. For an entire year she's been trying to escape by herself, and I've taken away everyone's food, or water, or both, and yet... I would expect you to be more upset, more violent with her. Not most of you to be... so complacent. That doesn't fit everyone's personality."

He continues to pet Valentine as his sobs become louder and louder. His whole body shaking as if he gave him another electrical shock.

"And yet, I'm exhilarated. Nana... you give me butterflies." He looks at her and smiles wider. "I think I'll leave it here today. No need to take away anything after this punishment. I'll come back tomorrow to see how you fared. Enjoy, Nat."

The man walks out the door, pulling the machine behind him. Nat says nothing, and no one moves until they hear his laborious breaths of carrying the machine up the stairs are gone.

"I found a door," she whispers. "A door to the outside. I could smell the air on the other side. That last door in the hall leads out to the front of the house. The living room and the kitchen."

She holds her arm close to her chest, and she tries to stop the tears from falling as she leans up off the floor into a sitting position. A broken arm hurts like hell, but it isn't the first time he beat her badly enough to break a bone. She'd heal.

"Nat—"

"No, Ty," she tries to stand up, but her legs give out on her. She lands on her butt and she yelps as it rattles her arm.

"We only have a year left. I found a door, but it has a bunch of deadbolt locks on it. I just need to find the keys."

Ty looks at her, and she can see the tears forming. Almost overnight he grew until he towered over her, but even if he had filled out more, he was still a kid to her, two years younger than her.

"I'll get us out of here," she whispers to him.

Nat looks at Whitney, which is a habit, waiting for her to object and yell at her, but this time Whitney is looking silently down at Valentine, who is still sobbing on the floor.

This was more dangerous now, though. He's chosen to give shocks to the rest of the teenagers. She used to believe that he'd stick to his timeline for his experiment, but the amount of shocks he gave Valentine was almost enough to kill him. And being the youngest and the smallest of them, they really believed that he was about to die.

Doubts swim around Nat's head as she looks around the mute room. There are ten of them, and they are running out of time. This morning, they thought death was a year away, but now it seems even closer.

Stacey silently gets up from their bed and walks to the bathroom. Nat listens to the water turning on, running and then stopping. She feels them walk up behind her and watches as they hand Ty a rag until they walk away with another one towards Valentine.