The Starling Vigilante [Watty's 2015 Award Winner]

Chapter 53

'Stop!' I screamed as one of Ivo's men dug his blade into my skin, the rest of my body stained with blood.

'Not until you tell me where Peter Radcliffe put his journal!' Ivo shouted madly.

I wasn't letting him get hold of it if he was going to use the Mirakuru for his crazy work. I knew the journal was in our cavern, but I couldn't let him have it. I had to resist my desperation for no more torture and endure the pain, if it meant saving the world from Ivo's plans.

'Never,' I smiled darkly, but was met with another stab wound.

'Maybe this will change your mind,' Ivo said, opening the door to a girl.

And that girl was Sara.

'Sara?' I tried to shout, confused.

She was dead. I must have been seeing things. But no, she was real, and right in front of me.

'Sara!' I said again, my throat strained and dry, and my head pounding with a migrane. 'Help me!'

'If you don't tell Anthony what he needs to know,' Sara said with tears in her eyes. 'I'm going to have to torture you. And I really don't want to, Aria.'

'How, how are you, a-alive?' I asked, astounded. It was like I was looking at a ghost. 'I saw you... drown from that boat.'

'He saved me,' Sara smiled through her tears, gesturing to Ivo. 'And he can help you too. If you just listen to him.'

'I can't, Sara,' I said with great sadness.

Sara was clearly upset that I was being hurt, and she was trying her best to help me. But now she was going to have to torture me, probably because of some sick idea Ivo had put in her head.

'I'm so sorry, Aria,' Sara cried.

Taking a knife, she walked up to me, her cheeks streaking with tears. About to cut me with her knife, she stopped and turned away.

'I can't do this!' She cried at Ivo. 'She's my friend!'

'Sara, she wants to ruin my plans,' Ivo protested. 'Our plans. You understand, don't you?'

'Yes,' Sara nodded, weighing up factors in her head. What Ivo had told her must have been pretty important if she listened to him, and was prepared to hurt me even though it was against her morals.

Seeing the emotional pain in her eyes, Sara started to stab me, the weapon bringing less pain than my previous torturer had. She was trying to do as little damage as possible to me whilst doing Ivo' s bidding.

I couldn't put her through it any longer.

'I'll, I'll tell you where the journal is,' I shouted quickly.

Sara took her knife away from me at once, and I sighed in relief. At least I wouldn't be going through as much pain this way.

But now I needed to think of a plan. And a good one, too.

'Where is it?' Ivo asked at once.

'I'll have to show you,' I said, trying to think of something.

'We'll set off in the morning,' Ivo nodded to a member of his crew, who ran off in the direction of what probably was the engine room.

---

'Let me help you,' Sara offered as I tried to cleaned myself up. Instead of making it better, my skin just looked redder as I spread the blood around my body. Taking a fresh cloth, Sara dipped in the bowl of water beside us and put it over my deepest gash.

'Why do you listen to him?' I asked her, looking up to give her full eye contact.

She carried on looking down, avoiding my gaze with shaking hands. Holding her wrist still, I steadied her as a way of telling her that everything was alright and that she could tell me her problems.

'He does all this work,' Sara started. 'For his wife, Jessica. She's sick. And he needs to find a cure for her. That's why he wants the Mirakuru. That's why he locks all those people down there.'

'But, why do you stay here, Sara?' I asked her. 'Clearly, you hate it here!'

'I promised I would help Ivo when he saved me,' Sara confessed sadly. 'I didn't really have a choice. And now I have to torture people, for Ivo.'

'Then we'll escape!' I whispered enthusiastically. 'When we go looking for the journal. I can lead them to the wrong place, I can-'

'No, Aria,' Sara interrupted, shaking her head. 'Its too dangerous! Ivo has cameras all over the island. That's how he found you.'

'Please,' I pleaded. 'I can't stay here!'

'There's no other way,' Sara said definitely. 'If you want to survive.'

But there was no was I could live on this retched boat forever.

---

As the sun rose, its warm rays shining through the small window of our chambers, Sara and I woke for another day in purgatory.

'Sara, please, just listen to my plan!' I said desperately, trying to get her to resist Ivo's control. 'We gave a chance of getting out of here!'

'Okay,' Sara nodded weakly. 'But what you want to do isn't going to work.'

'Well, you don't have to escape this life,' I stated. 'But I do. And all I want is your help. Nothing more, nothing less.'

'Aria, I do want to get away from here!' Sara exclaimed sadly. 'To be with you again, like old times. But, you know I can't. I made a promise to Ivo I have to keep.'

'Well then, listen closely,' I smiled softly.

She clearly wanted freedom herself, she just didn't know how to go by doing it.

'First, I'll need to lead the crew somewhere,' I started, laying out the plans for Sara. 'It could be anywhere, just not where the journal actually is. Ivo didn't see where that went, did he?'

'No,' Sara said. 'That's why he needs you to find it for him. His cameras didn't reach where you all went every night.'

'But he knew everything else?' I asked, worried. 'Like where we hunted, were we trekked...'

As Sara nodded, I shuddered in response. All this time, I thought I had been free, but I reality I hadn't. I had just been observed for one of Ivo's experiments.

At least I wasn't living in one of the cells at the bottom of the boat anymore.

'So, anyway, back to the plan,' I carried on, trying not to get sidetracked again in case we had to go at that moment. 'When we lead them to the fake journal place, we need to stage some sort of scene. As a distraction. And then, we run, well, I run.'

'But, what distraction?' Sara asked.

'That's the bit I'm working on,' I said. 'But, you could make the distraction happen!'

'I'm sorry, I, I can't do this,' Sara turned away from me, trying to hide her face as she cried.

'I know you're scared,' I said, trying to comfort her as she shook in fear. 'I understand that. In, in Starling, I was in the same position as you.' I trembled, realising that I had never told anyone about Malcolm's plans, before now. 'I couldn't say no to someone I had to obey, and so, I was stuck in a loophole. If I tried to escape, I was just stopped and I had to return back to my life in Starling. I could never seem to get out of it, until when the boat crashed. And although life seemed pretty hard on the island just to survive, I felt free for once. And I want you to feel free too.'

'I, I didn't know you were in Starling because of that,' Sara said quietly. 'Who, who was it? It wasn't Tommy, was it?'

'No,' I laughed. 'But close. It was Malcolm Merlyn.'

Now I had really gotten myself into trouble. That was, if I was ever going to return to Starling City.