Stay or Go

Chapter 49

All five of us stand in silence as we stare at the sight in front of us before Steve and Dustin look at each other and say "the gate." Shit, this is bad. Very bad. El was supposed to have closed it last year in the Lab, and if she didn't, if she failed. Everything we did was for nothing. Shit. Quickly we race back down the stairs, eager to leave. I still need to find my targets.

"I don't understand." The older girl says "you've seen this before?" The three of us nod our heads swiftly, all in panic mode. However, Steve says "not exactly." She is confused "not exactly?" She asks. I sigh loudly "all you need to know is it's bad." I say before Steve adds "it's really bad." The fewer people who know about this the better, plus I don't feel like explaining all the gory details to catch her up. "Like, end-of-the-human-race-as-we-know-it kind of bad." Dustin dramatises it. The girl stops us short "and you know about this how?" She questions however before any of us can answer Erica says "um, Steve?" Where's your Russian friend?" We all whirl around and the guy Steve knocked unconscious has disappeared, great. Just great.

As if on cue, red flashing lights start and an alarm starts blaring loudly. I wince at the volume of it and wish I had normal hearing. Steve rushes to the door, muttering "shit" under his breath. He sees something and immediately slams the door shut repeating the same word from earlier. I lock eyes with him for a moment before shouting "go, go, go, go." And we all rush to the other end of the room hoping to find an escape there. We burst through another door and Steve shouts "move! Let's move!"

However, the room we end up in is full of men in white coats, I freeze at the sight of them. Memories forcing their way to the surface. Distantly I can hear Steve shouting something before he grabs my hand and pulls me along. We manage to run all the way to the edge of the room, where the gate to the Upside Down is situated. Dustin and Erica start shouting cusses in a panic and that's when I notice my hand is still in Steve's. I am about to let go when he clutches it tighter, I look up at him and he gives me a weak smile.

We turn back just as two officers come rushing at us with guns "this way!" I shout before holding up my hand two strands of electricity hit the two men and they crumble to the ground. "Holy shit!" Dustin says as we continue running and Steve asks from next to me "since when have you been able to do that?" I shrug, finally letting go of his hand "it's been an interesting year." Is all I reply. We finally make it to the hallway and Steve slams the door shut.

The men on the other side are trying to push through and it takes me, Steve and Robin (whose name I have literally just learnt because Steve shouted it out) to hold the door shut. Dustin and Erica move to escape when Dustin hesitates and calls back to us "come on!" The three of us share a look, understanding each other silently "go!" Steve shouts "Just get out of here!" Dustin hesitates again before finally disappearing.

I grit my teeth as I push back against the door "I can hold it while you guys escape." I say and both of them shake their heads. "If one of us goes down we all go down," Robin says giving me a gentle smile. I take a deep breath but that was enough for the men to fling open the door, knocking us all backwards. I am the first to recover and quickly get to my feet. As I raise my hands something quick and sharp shoots itself into my shoulder and I hiss in pain. I yank out the dart and look back at the army people. Shooting at me gave them enough time to sedate the other two as they are slowly being dragged off.

I step forward however my movements are slowed thanks to whatever was in that dart. Poison probably. My movements are slow enough that I have no time to react as one of the men comes over with a massive syringe as it plunges it into my neck. It's not long after that, that darkness claims me.

I wake up with a scream as a bolt of electricity shoots through my body. "Shit!" I screech, my head snapping up and my eyes widening in pain. A man bends down so that we are at eye level with one another, I recognise him as one of the people on my list. "Lorelei, Lorelei, Lorelei." He says sighing and shaking his head "I expected more from the girl who took down the whole Academy on her own." I grit my teeth, my body still aching from the electric shock. The man tilts his head slightly before continuing "I have a proposition for you Miss Henderson." My entire body tenses.

I have rope binding me so tightly it is cutting off my circulation, knowing this is the only way for them to contain me. "I offer you a chance to get out, kill whoever else is on that list of yours. Not me of course, because I am letting you go." I narrow my eyes and stare at him menacingly. "What's the price?" I ask, I am not seriously considering this deal as I know eventually I will be able to get out, I just need to bide my time. The man stands up and crosses his arms over his chest "you tell me what your buddies have heard, what they have seen and found. And then we will decide how long we torture them before we kill them." I pull against the restraints, the rope coming loose slightly.

This only makes the man smirk "ah, there it is. The protective, angry Lorelei I have heard so much about." He leans over again and pulls my hair so my head tilts up, I fight the urge to wince at the roughness of it. "So much anger on that pretty face of yours, " he says, gently stroking my face. I feel sick. "If you don't want to do it, it's fine. We have other ways of extracting that information, especially from people who were not trained as we were." My heart rate picks up when he says that and I grit my teeth, never breaking eye contact with him.

"You touch a hair on their heads and you are a dead man," I warn, the man chuckles and steps back looking at me with superiority. "ah yes, I am a dead man. But the thing you forget Lorelei is that you are the one tied up, which is a pretty sight I have to admit, and this room was made to hold you even if you did get out." A flash of confusion must run across my face as he explains "I got a phone call, just before you took down the Academy. From Margret. She warned me, you would be coming after me. That you were going after everyone from the Academy."

My heart freezes. He was expecting me to come here. It's my fault, Steve and Robin were caught. Fuck. The man chuckles and reaches for the door "have fun listening to their screams Miss Henderson. I'm sure you'll be able to hear them from here." He taunts before exiting the room and leaving me alone.