Unshackled

Unload

TW: torture, drowning, ghosts of the past, and mentions of abuse.

Ray felt slightly better after she had emptied her bladder. The vertigo had lifted, but the headache remained, and she felt more angry than scared at this point. She looked at the messages on her phone. The missed calls from Tommy and Mr K were almost evenly split, with only a couple from Yuno and April more recently.

She dialed Mr K and lifted the phone to her ear. Surprisingly, the call went through.

"Where the hell are you?" Mr K demanded quietly.

"I'm still on Sanguine Island," she replied. "I'm not sure what's going on, but I fell asleep a day and a half ago and literally just woke up."

"Are you being held hostage?"

Ray went over and tried the doorknob. It was unlocked. "I... don't know..." she admitted. "My room isn't locked, and I'm able to call you, but... Yuno is gone. He's back in Los Santos."

"Did Yeager threaten you at all?"

"No," she said honestly. "He told me he wants me to smuggle for him, and he wants me to run for mayor."

"Mayor?"

"Yeah, he thinks I could lower restrictions on imports from Sanguine Island." She peeked her head out the door, not seeing any of the island's guards nearby. Going back inside, she closed the door quietly and walked through the room over to the balcony. She was going to cover all of her exits, make sure what was and wasn't available to her. The balcony door were also unlocked, but as she looked over the railing, she could see that there was a sheer drop to the ocean below.  So that would only be a backup option. She looked to her left and right, but no other balconies were close enough to jump to. 

"He wants to bring in more weapons, you mean."

"Basically he wants nothing in his way to flood Los Santos with AK's, RPGs and grenade launchers. I'm sure you know the chaos that would bring to the city."

"As much as I like a good AK, you're right. So what's your plan?"

"Well," she said looking around her room to see what she could find to arm herself with. A broken wine bottle would have to do for now. "I have to see what Yeager wants, why he had me drugged and why Yuno left."

"Good," K said. "Hide your phone so he can't take it off you. And let me know what's going on."

"If I don't call back in like, four hours, assume to the worst."

"Trust me, we're already ready for an assault. When I didn't hear from you yesterday we started prepping. We're already at the harbor."

"Thanks, Mr K," Ray said, a sigh of relief escaping her.

"That's what family does, Ray," he replied. "Talk to you soon."

Ray hung up, looking at her phone. Two more immediate calls to make. She put the phone to her ear again. 

"Hey, Ray Mond, are you okay?" her twin's voice said as he picked up on the first ring.

"What do you MEAN, 'am I okay'? I literally just woke up from a 24 hour drug-induced coma, and where are you?" The panic she had been able to conceal on her call with Mr K broke through on her call to her brother.

"Yeager told me an urgent message came through from Mr Lang, telling me to come back to Los Santos. He said you guys still had a lot to go over and you'd be back a few hours after me. Then I couldn't reach you, and Mr Lang said he never called Yeager." 

"Why didn't you just call Mr Lang from the island?" Ray demanded.

"Ehhh... I honestly just trusted Yeager. He's never lied to me before."