Ghosts

Locked

Ghost's pov
Song inspo One More Day by We Came As Romans

"You want to let us in on what you know?" I asked Price.

Laswell had set us up in a safehouse in the middle of the desert. It wasn't ideal but the mission was still to capture Graves, maybe even more so now if we ended up being the only way to fix Senna. We needed him alive, and we weren't leaving until we had him.

We'd tied Senna to a chair in one of the bedrooms, she was still out but she'd come to soon enough and I was terrified of seeing what she'd be like when she did. If Price was right and Graves had somehow brainwashed her to put her under his control we couldn't doubt that she'd still try to kill us. I wouldn't let her, not because I cared much for my life but because if something happened to her team at her own hands, she'd never forgive herself. I couldn't live with that guilt, not when we both already had something that resembled it in our pasts.

"I can't tell you much." Price admitted, all of us in the small kitchen.

"No, fuck that. If you know something that can change her back you need to tell us." Johnny said, his fist coming down on the counter. I wasn't sure I'd ever seen him so angry, but my own anger reflected his, I was just better at hiding it. I'd never had a reason to not trust Price, and even now I still did but he was teetering on the dangerous line of losing it. We all cared for her, too much.

"Listen. I can't. I promised her I would never tell a soul, that I'd never bring it up." Price argued and he looked like there was a war going on inside him. Whatever secret he was keeping for Senna, it was big.

"You have to give us something." I said flatly, crossing my arms over my chest. "Even if we get Graves. Who knows how long it'll take to break him. We can't just keep her tied up forever." I added, pushing him to include us in this secret.

"She won't forgive me." Price said quietly, as if he was debating on telling us. Like he felt the need to but was terrified of what she'd think of him once she found out.

"She won't even get the chance if we can't wake her up. This isn't like before, she wants our heads." Soap this time.

Price pulled out a cigar then, lighting it as he brought it to his lips before taking off his hat and setting it on the counter.

"I can tell you this," He started. "This isn't the first time the Lieutenant has been under some kind of hypnosis like this." He didn't like saying it, I could see it on his face.

"What do you mean?" I pushed.

"There's a reason why her mission with me in Urzikstan isn't in her file. She only remembers some of it, the way she wants to remember it." He explained but it didn't answer any of my questions. I opened my mouth to say more but a crash came from the room she was in and we all moved in an instant.

When we entered she was awake, but surprisingly calm, despite having knocked over the chair she was sitting in so that she was sideways on the floor.

Johnny moved to sit her back up straight and she watched him carefully, not saying a word. There was no emotion in her eyes. Johnny lingered too long too close so I reached out to pull him back by his shoulder, we couldn't trust her, not like this.

"Don't let her trick you." I warned him as her eyes met mine. I wondered if she remembered my face behind the mask, or if Graves had destroyed those memories once again.

"Captain." She finally spoke, moving her wrist against the rope that kept it there to point to her leg. "Left pocket. For you." She added then before going silent and still.

Price hesitated a moment before moving forward, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a folded slip of paper. His eyes went wide as he opened it, quickly folding it back up as soon as he read whatever was on it.

He pulled his lighter out then, setting the piece of paper on fire and dropping it to the floor when the flame got too close to his fingers.

"How did he find out?" He asked her as he bent down to look at her more closely.

"Say it." She said back but Price only shook his head and stepped back. "If you want me back, it's the only way. Say. It."

"Not happening. We'll find another way. You just sit tight." He told her as he motioned for us to leave.

We followed him back to the kitchen and he stubbed out his cigar on the counter top.

"What was it?" Soap pushed this time, though I wanted to know just as much.

"Something-" He struggled, it seemed it was something he had pushed into the back of his mind and it was hurting to bring it up. "Something happened to Senna when we were Urzikstan. I can't tell you what. I can't- fuck!" Price faltered, I could see the guilt eating at him.

"Senna had went under hypnosis to forget it, it was her choice. I didn't even think it would work but it did, so I did my part to erase it everywhere else. Her file, the people responsible, and I swore I'd never bring it up. There's a key, a phrase. I'm supposed to be the only one that knows it. But Graves somehow found out. He altered what it was meant to do, so if I say it it will bring her out of this. But it will also make her remember what happened." He explained and I could feel the weight he was bearing. She asked him to do this for her, he felt responsible for whatever happened to her..

And now Graves was using it against him.

"We'll find another way." I said. We had to. I didn't know what happened but for Price to react like this I knew it was something we couldn't let her remember. Everything she'd been through already, it frightened me to think there was something worse, something she couldn't handle.

We couldn't do that to her, no matter how long it took to figure out another way. She'd want it that way.

But I wasn't sure how long I could deal with her killer gaze on me, I couldn't stand that she hated me right now.