I'll Track You Down

Second chances

Regardless it's nice to have the feeling of dripping blood off my chin and neck. He drops the kerchief in my lap when he's finished. "What are the names?" I stay silent, Malgrave cracks a grin.

He enjoys this. The pain comes much quicker this time but just as unbearable, the knives turn to swords, which root into my body and spread like a wildfire throughout my flesh, the screams escape me again, Malgrave even changes his questions every so often, but I stay silent.

I don't know how many hours I stayed down there, but when they've come to terms with my silence Caspian asks for dinner.

"If she won't talk, it won't help to kill her right now," Caspian leans into Malgrave's ear and whispers whatever he has in store for me, Malgrave's face twists into a rotten grin. "Does that sound like a good plan?" Caspian asks.

"Excellent." Caspian turns to face me, my head hanging, hair disheveled, something flashes in his ocean eyes, worry, pity, disgust.

Whatever it may be, it was something and that's enough to get me through the night.

Both men leave me there, cuffed to the chair, in pain, alone. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought of revenge, if it does come. It will be a sweet victory.

When I finally feel my eyelids start to grow heavy, I don't even think to fight it.

Drifting off into an uncomfortable sleep, my dreams are haunted by Malgrave and Caspian, trying my best to hide from their menacing faces.

I fall into an abyss of Nye's dying body and Decker's disappointed face.

Waking up in a sweat I forget where I am momentarily, I whip my head around and orient myself to the space I was tortured in.

My head must still be in my dream because I see Caspian walk through the door, I rub my eyes with the back of my hands thinking it'll go away but when I remove my fingers from my eyes Caspian's figure is still standing at the doorway.

"What do you want?" I say hoping to make a dent in his facial expression, I fail miserably.

"I'm here to help." He says keeping his voice in a low whisper. "I can-"

I interrupt him. "You had your chance, just leave, you're only hurting yourself right now, Caspian." I say with as much frustration as I can muster.

"Kali, I can get you out of here, but not right now." He says taking long strides towards my chair.

"Sounds familiar." I say tucking my hair behind my ears, I find myself leaning backwards as he gets closer, tilting my face away from him, not wanting to look this man in the eyes. "How do I know I can trust you, Caspian? You've betrayed me twice." I pause, and turn to face his eyes full of desperation. "And when I finally come around to trusting you again, shit like this happens."

I gesture to my cuffs, he really looks guilty but he's acted that way before, I can't tell which version is actually real anymore.

"You don't know if you can trust me. All you need to do is believe in me, Kali. That's all I'm asking for." Caspian sinks down to his knees, pleading with his eyes and his body. "Please."

"Just answer me one question." Caspian nods so hard I'm sure his head will fall off his neck. "Why can't we leave right now, Caspian?" He looks at the floor intently.

"There are some complications with that." Caspian trips over his words as he tries to tell me what I don't want to hear. "If we leave right now, your friends are in danger, and we won't be able to get them back. I need to make sure I have a plan to get everyone out safely."

Caspian rises from his kneeling position and grabs my hands tightly, warming up my cold palms.

"Why are you helping me? This is the only life you've ever known, why would you give it all away?" I'm genuinely baffled as to why Caspian would help me, he has absolutely no reason to, the only thing I've done for him is be a gullible pawn in Malgrave's game.

So this must be another one of Malgrave's tricks.

"Because." He says, I know he was going to say something more, but whatever answer he had dies on his tongue.

'Because' is hardly a good answer but I need to keep my options open, even if Caspian isn't trying to help it's better to risk it than being locked in a torture room to be killed.

So I choose to do probably the stupidest thing of my career, and give Caspian Ford another chance.

"I'll be right behind you, Caspian." I say, putting on a brave face. Caspian smiles, not his usual oscar award, but a smile of relief, and exhaustion and even though he tries to conceal it, pain. Caspian has experienced it too, I'm taking a leap of faith and I'm hoping Caspian will catch me.

"I hoped you'd say that Kali." Caspian leans down in front of me and kisses me on the cheek. It catches me off guard.

"What was that?" I whisper as he pulls back.

"A display of my gratitude, Kalisa." Caspian says, I'm not quite sure what to do with that information, so I just nod at him.

"Right, shouldn't you be going?" I say rushing him, wanting to get rid of the awkwardness in the air, Caspian complies and reluctantly leaves me to my own devices. I stay in the quiet of the room for what seems like an eternity.