The Queen Of Spades

Chapter 7, Continued, Again

Olivia screamed and started crying as Caleb traced the blade of his knife along her arm. He recounted every single thing I had done to him since the first time I met him in the cemetery. When he was done he left for exactly two minutes, coming back with bleach. "No. No, no, no, no, no! Stop it! Don't you even think about it! I swear Caleb if you do this I will kill you in the most painful way imaginable." I screamed at him, tears brimming my eyes.
"Oh Maddie, don't worry. This won't be a repeat of Jade. We know she doesn't have what we want. I'm just cleaning the knife so it doesn't trace back to me. You should really know that."
"Stop calling me Maddie." I seethed. Caleb disgraced the memory of my siblings every time he said it.
He stopped for a second, as if trying to think of what to say. "You know, I never have figured out why you hate that name so much. Or why you hate the name Mads. Since we have time now, why don't you tell us?" He asked.
"How about this, I'll tell you why I hate those names after you release Noah and Olivia." I kept switching tactics, but at this point I was willing to do anything to keep them safe.
"Tsk tsk, you know I can't do that. But I can promise that I won't hurt her anymore." He was looking at Olivia like an all you can eat buffet. I wanted to kill him for it.
"Not good enough Caleb."
"What? You don't trust me to honor my word?"
"Not even a little bit. I want them safe, and I'll tell you whatever you want to know about me. They have no part in this and you know it."
"Okay, deal. No one will so much as touch them as long as you do as you're told. Now, the nicknames?"
"Aiden was the only one allowed to call me Mads, no one else. Not even Nova. Luke and Jade called me Maddie before they could pronounce my full name and it just kind of stuck." A single tear fell at the mention of them, I took a breath and willed myself to turn my emotions off.
"What did Nova call you? What did your parents call you? Tell me about yourself."
"Nova called me her parabatai. Her “Other half.” Mom and dad called me their prodigy because I was the best at what I did. Why do you care?" Looking back, I hated that nickname. I never wanted to be the best at this.
"I'm very curious. When did you start drawing? What do you draw? Did you get it from your parents? What's your favorite color? How many boys have you dated? What do you want to do with your life? I want to know everything about you."
I rolled my eyes, "I started drawing a few years ago. I draw everything. I got it from my late grandmother.” That was a lie, but hey, I told so many in my life that another one couldn’t hurt. “My favorite color is green, you already knew that. I don't date. And I want to kill you, that's what I want to do with my life."
"But wouldn't you rather have a normal job in a normal life than spend your life trying to track me down and kill me? And why don't you date?"
"No. Normal is overrated, and after everything that you've done to my family, I would travel the entire galaxy to kill you. And I don't date because it's against the rules."
"Caleb!" A voice yelled.
"I'll be right back Maddie, don't go anywhere." Caleb winked at me and ran off. I took advantage of the time to climb back up the chains, though it was harder and very painful with a gun shot in my shoulder and useless prothstetic. At the top, I climbed to sit on the beam and used the leeway I had gotten from the chains to reclaspe the buckle on my prothstetic before putting it back in the socket. Gosh, I really missed my real arm. That would have made this whole ordeal so much easier. I took my lock pick kit out of a secret pocket in my boots and picked the padlocks. When they were unlocked, I carefully took the chains off my wrists without making any noise and stood on the beam to find a way down to Olivia and Noah.