Lego House

xxvii. Rage

He is leading her through another dark corridor, one that Rose hadn't instructed anyone to enter. He is keeping his footsteps quiet, so she follows suit. Perhaps people are still in the control centre, as Jaylen calls it. "Just be careful, I don't know how many people might be guarding it." How many? So there definitely are people guarding the control centre. He clicks her torch off, handing it to her before fishing a set of keys from his pocket. They crash against each other, the noise echoing through the corridor.

She shushes him and he scowls at her. He unlocks the door and opens it. She steps in and the door is shut and locked behind her before she can even think to turn and run. Jaylen quickly and harshly pulls her arms behind her back, holding her wrists with one, firm hand. She grits her teeth, stopping herself from yelling profanities at him. "Ah, just the girl I was looking for." Maust.

"You recovered quickly," she hisses, struggling against Jaylen's hands.

"Let go of her, soldier," Maust instructs with a flick of his wrist. Jaylen complies after slight hesitation. Rose shakes her wrists out. "If she tries anything I'll just kill Jarrett." Rose doesn't dare flinch at this comment. She doesn't even glance at Jarrett, who is standing ramrod straight right beside Maust. "Or her. Whichever one hurts more." He's sitting down in a chair, the only piece of furniture in the entire room.

It's completely empty, she realises, cursing herself for trusting Jaylen. For believing him, again. Even after falling for it once. "Neither would hurt me overly much," she retorts, folding her arms over her chest.

"Oh, but they would. Both would. I'm just trying to work out which one would hurt more – did you not here what I just said?" He pauses before adding, "And they would hurt your precious friends, too. How are they, by the way? Have any of them died yet?"

"No," she spits, throwing her hands down to her sides and balling them into fists.

"I know Jarrett shot a few of them down – didn't you?" Rose glances at Jarrett, who nods his head stiffly. "And, oh – we should get back to Autumn." He glances at his wrist, as if checking the time, although a watch is not there. He glances briefly at Rose before he adds, "she's waiting for us to kill her, you see."

"You will not even touch a harmless hair on her head, Maust, you get that?" she screeches at him, barely stopping herself from throwing her body at him with punches and kicks flying. He doesn't reply, just glances at his wrist again. Then at Jarrett. "Where is she?" she asks, her voice softening.

"Jarrett, can you please find Autumn and shoot her in the head before Rose finds her?" Rose shakes her head desperately as Jarrett begins walking towards the door. Jaylen has moved out of the way of the still closed door, but Rose refuses, blocking it using outspread arms.

"Please, Jarrett, don't touch her," she whispers when he is close enough to her that she can feel his breath move her hair.

"Yeah, actually, scratch that, Jarrett, we have more pressing matters to attend to," Maust says, sounding delighted. Jarrett backs away, turning to face Maust for instruction. "How should we torture Rose here?" Rose walks away from the door, willing to face whatever necessary. All she knows is that the longer she can distract them from Autumn, the longer. Wherever she is, she's not safe.

Autumn wakes up, with every limb in her body aching. She groans and jumps back when she sees Angelo. She rubs the sleep from her eyes, while in the process twisting away from the sight of Angelo. She runs her fingers through her hair, untangling the knots. The alarms are still ringing around her and the lights still flash brightly outside of the room. She glances over at the chairs and the table in the middle of the room. The rest of the room is empty besides herself and Angelo.