ɢʜᴏꜱᴛꜱ | ᴅ. ɢʀᴀʏꜱᴏɴ

chapter 16

16. confined

•—✽—✽—✽—•

the next night

THEY HAD LEARNED FROM DR. ADAMSON that the reason the Organization was after Rachel was to reunite her with her father. They had also learned that Rachel's birth mother was still alive and being held captive. Obviously, Rachel wanted to go and find her but everyone else thought it would be a bad idea and could be a trap.

Well everyone except Gar, who was convinced when she and asked and had left in a Lyft with Rachel to go find her mother.

Now Paige, Dick, and Kory, were walking through tunnels to get into the building and find Rachel and Gar. From the looks of it, they had already probably been caught.

"Left when we get to the end of the tunnel," Dick instructed as they all walked side by side. Creaking was heard as they stopped in place to see a person roll out in a wheelchair.

"Is that..."

"Gar!" Dick called out, looking at the unconscious boy. Their focus was brought behind them to a doctor who had made her presence known.

"Don't worry," she began, "He's just taking a little nap." Paige and Kory noticed as a group of men soon surrounded Gar. "We've got the girl, too." Paige felt panic rise in her as one of them pointed a gun right at the boy's head. "I don't want to kill either of them, but if you make a move. I will give the order."

Kory went to use her powers but was instantly stopped as Dick noticed the pipelines around them. They were all flowing with gas. One small fuse and they would all be dead. The three of them had no choice but to surrender if they wanted to keep Gar and Rachel alive.

✄ ✄ ✄

Paige hated confined spaces. She had always been claustrophobic so being able to phase through things was always beneficial. But when you're too weak to phase, that's when things start to become a problem.

Due to her bodily injuries, Paige had been too weak to be able to phase recently. Obviously the scientists in the lab didn't know that, so they were a bit disappointed when she wasn't able to phase through things quickly.

The last thing she had been in was a steel box that was the size of a coffin. She had been screwed in shut so there was no way out but to phase. There were holes cut into the sides so that she could breathe but her panic attack was making it harder for her to get air.

She was barely able to phase through a regular wall in her current state. She was never going to get out of that box. "Let me out!" Paige screamed, fear present in her voice.

"The only way out is by doing it yourself," she heard the doctor's voice from earlier say over a loud speaker.

"I'll fucking kill you! Let me the fuck out!" Her breathing became too intense and uneven for the lack of air that there was in the box. Black spots impaired her vision as she felt her body become lighter as she lied in the steel coffin, unconscious.

The young twelve year old girl watched as the man who she called her father threw the glass bottle in his hand against the floor. The glass shattered as the beer inside splashed until it settled into a puddle on the wooden floor.

A look of anger, disgust, and resentment was present on his face as he looked down at her, ashamed to have to call himself her father. "You did what—?"

"It was an accident!" Paige cried out, looking up at him in fear. "She swam out too far and I couldn't get to her. It's not my fault!"

"You were always jealous of her. So this is what you do, huh? You drown your own sister in a lake?!" The man yelled, watching her cry as she relived the fresh moment over again in her mind.

"No, that's not—"

"You're gonna wish you were never born. You piece of shit." Paige's eyes widened in horror as she ran through the house trying to escape him. As she dodged and avoided him, the small girl found a crawl space that she could hide in for the time being.

She had crawled in and sat in there waiting, praying, for him to go away. After a moment it had become quiet. Paige thought he had given up until she heard the sound of a door creaking as it slowly opened. Her stomach dropped as tears brimmed in her eyes. She backed away from the small door that led to the crawl space until her back hit the opposite wall.

"Found you," he seethed as he looked at the fear in her eyes as she searched around for another exit in the small space. Paige had wished that she had never gone into it in the first place. She was cornered and frozen in place by the idea of him trying to reach her but she had no other option in the confined room.

Tears ran down her face. Her chest heaved up and down as she tried her hardest to get even the smallest amount of air into her lungs. The sound of his yelling began to muffle as the lightheaded feeling settled in and everything went black.

Paige didn't know how long she had been out for, but all she knew was that she was still trapped in a steel box that caused her to relive her worst memory, and the reason she hated small spaces, over and over again. "Please, just let me go..." she cried, "Let me go!"

Her screaming echoed throughout the room but no one had made any effort to try to help. They were all there to see her do one thing, and that was to phase her way out of that box.

"I've already told you, there's only one way out—"

"You think I haven't tried that already!" the woman screamed.

She gave up. There was nothing else she could possibly do. Paige laid down in the box, shaking and crying as her emotions became too overwhelming in the current state she was in. The box began to vibrate as the screws drilled out. The top was pushed off allowing the minimal light in the room to pour into the contraption.

"Paige," Dick said as his face came into focus. His eyes scanned her, taking in the fear that was set in her eyes as well as the tears that had run down her cheeks. She wrapped her arms around his neck, desperate for comfort as he helped her out of the box. "Are you okay?"

The question didn't process until he repeated it again. She shook her head as her eyes looked back down at the steel coffin she was held in as they all rushed out looking for a way out of the building.

"Come on. We can get out through there. Hurry," Angela, Rachel's mother who she had found earlier, said as she led them to an exit. At the end of the hall, two guards stood in front as they made their way towards the group.

"Alright. You kids just stay right where you are," one of the guards said before Dick stepped in front of the group. They all watched as he fought off all of the guards that kept coming over.

"Let's go," Paige said once they were all down. She led Gar, Rachel, and Angela until they had all made it outside. As they walked through the grass, the building suddenly exploded causing them all to jump as they turned to look at the flames that were seen in each window as Kory simply walked out through the front door like it was nothing.

The five of them stood there simply watching.