"Kida." A soft voice broke the silence and woke me up.
"Muhumm...." I mumbled, tossing my head a bit.
"Kida, wake up." It was the same voice, deep-ish, rough, somewhat exotic. At least I was able to put a name to the voice - Liam. His voice... I dunno, it was easy for me to recognize. Stoic, yet somewhat gentle and resonating. I felt a smile creep onto my lips - I was too drowsy to hide it.
"Five more minutes," I hummed, shifting uncomfortably. I was sitting up - my foot still hurt like a motherfucker, and the gauze over the wound was soaked in new blood. The pain made me frown, and I opened my eyes. The moment I saw Liam across from me, hands tied up around a table leg, my mind instantly snapped into action and I looked around. A makeshift cage consisting of tied up chairs and tables surrounded a helpless looking Ama. His ears were pressed flat to his head and he whined quietly when he saw me.
"Ama!" My eyes widened, and I tried to pull my wrists from where they were similarly bound to reach towards him. "Let my wolf-pup go, you sadistic bastards!" I screamed to the no one in the room. "Let him maul you, tear you to pie--"
"Ah, shut up." Not for the first time, Liam sounded slightly annoyed. "I've tried."
"...oh." I did my best to breathe deep and quiet down. "Right."
"How's your foot?" he asked, gesturing to the worn down bandage. I looked it over and shrugged, indicating it wasn't bad, but not too good either. Then I looked him over. The fight hadn't been as successful as I'd initially thought. Blood dripped down his cheek, and I followed the sticky crimson trail up the side of his dirt-coated complexion to a deep gash in his forehead from where he'd been hit. Aside from the places he'd ripped his shirt for my bandages, there were a few more slices in his shirt - obviously they'd hit him a few times after they'd tied him up.
And then guilt flooded me, and I couldn't look at him - couldn't see the harm that I'd caused. This was my fault. He'd been right - we'd trapped ourselves in that small room because of me, and we didn't stand a chance. If I hadn't been so stubborn, we could be long gone by now. I bit my bottom lip from shaking. It had been a long time since I'd been held captive. I'd been alone then, but it was bad enough. I didn't want Liam or Ama to be abused in that way. I was stupid, for keeping us in that room. And stupid now, for feeling guilty. What happened happened. I just needed to find a way to get us out of this.
"Your forehead," I took a shaky breath and faced him again, braving my best smirk. "Is it okay?"
He winced but nodded. "Yea, yea." He wasn't trying to hard to lie to me; it was easy to see past. However there wasn't much I could do now. "So what are you thinking?" he asked quietly. "Our weapons are over--" he jerked his head towards a corner where a heavy duffel bag lay. "--there. And, I've got to say, I don't remember these tables being quite so impossible to move."
Neither did I, in fact. I squirmed a bit, but his comment stood strong - the tables were maybe 200+ pounds, almost impossible to move at this angle and in this state. I groaned and looked over at Ama, who had stood and was now pacing anxiously. He kept sniffing, like there was something he wanted us to smell.
So, curiousy, I did. I raised my head, closed my eyes, and inhaled deeply. "What," Liam chuckled. "Are you doing?" Even his small chuckle made me smile - good to know I could still bring humour into the darkest of situations.
"Wait, wait, wait." I said, looking up a bit and then down to him. "He's right - fucking..." I looked around, over my shoulder towards the duffel bag and wrinkled my nose. "Oh, Liam. Ha, that's not our weapons."
"How do you know?" Liam asked. "Because of your nose? I gotta say - you've got a way with your nose. Did your wolf teach you tha--" My lazy grin cut him off and he looked to the duffel bag. "Okay, so what's in there?"
"Drugs," I reported, as if it was obvious. "An assortment of them. Heroine, weed, the works. And that's only a small amount. They might have perscription drugs, too."
"Pretty illegal shit," he noted.
"Would be illegal," I corrected. "I mean, who cares about the law in a world like this?" At his concerned look, I gave an innocent, wide-eyed one in return. "Not that I'd do drugs," I said quickly. "All I'm saying is these so called 'illegal transactions' are all-too-easy to do when there's no one upholding the law." He opened his mouth, and I cut him off. "And if you're about to give me a rant about the American way or some hillbilly shit like that, you can save your breath. I'm Canadian."
"That explains the size," he said sarcastically, and I kicked his ankle with my good foot playfully. He grinned and leaned back. "So what now?"
"Well, I'm firmly convinced we can't actually do anything until one of them comes in," I said reluctantly. "Though I admit I'm a bit nervous of what will happen when they do."
Liam watched my reaction carefully, looking for any signs of the fear I admitted. Seemingly finding none, he leaned back, unsatisfied. "Why?"
"Oh, c'mon," I rolled my eyes. "Don't tell me you expect them to be nice."
"No, but if they wanted us dead, we'd be dead," Liam said flatly. "So here's the question - what do a bunch of drug smugglers want with you and me?" He looked suspiciously to Ama and then back to me.
"My guess is we'll find out soon," I said quietly, and closed my eyes. "Until then...? Rest, I guess. I don't know your big escape plan, but whatever it is, we'll need rest for it."
"...you seem too calm," he noted quietly, but his voice was fading away.
"Yea well, it's not really a new consmem mu hmm..." I mumbled off into a darkness, sleeping once again. Liam's chuckling added to that peacefulness. Maybe I was too calm - most captives wouldn't be able to sleep, let alone smile or cause others to smile.
But I was damn glad that I could.
