Life's Essence

10- Hope...?

Sure enough, I found myself sitting in one of the visiting room by myself anxiously playing with the hem of my shirt while I waited for Chris to be brought in. When I heard the door open I refused to turn my head and look at Chris being brought in. Instead I kept my head low and listened as I heard him being cuffed to the chair across the table from me.

"You've got five minutes," I heard Austin say before he and Ronnie left the room, leaving behind a stifling silence. Chris was the one to break it.

"Brendon, isn't it?" he asked. I finally brought my eyes up to look at him for the first time since he entered the room.

His skin was paler than normal, his usual black eye makeup was faded and smudged making him look like a dying raccoon that was left in the rain. His hair was messed up and greasy looking, but other than that he looked relatively unharmed, I guess he had made this deal with Andy before going to the interrogation room.

"Yes." I answered, proud of the steadiness in my voice despite my nerves.

"Well Brendon, you have excellent aim with throwing knives, I will give you that."

"Thanks, but why am I here? Pretty sure you didn't request to meet with me to give me compliments for the next five minutes."

"Andy is rubbing off on you I see, straight to business." I stiffened up at his words. I never want to become like Andy, and the fact that he said that was a bit unnerving. But, apparently, that was his goal.

"Your reaction to my statement just then is the reason why I asked to speak with you. That and you're the reason I'm trapped here. Now, it's obvious you're one of the people he forced to work for him. I may be a bad person with hardly any fucking morals left, but even I think that him doing that is low. I don't do that to my workers, and as a result most none of them have a death wish against me. Same cannot be said for Andy."

The more he spoke the more intrigued I became. I think I have an idea where this is going. Chris continued.

"So this is my offer to you. I will be getting out of here soon, that is something you can count on. If you help me take down Andy's operation from the inside, be a rat as it were, I will see to it that you and your partner whoever they may be get out of here safely and can return to normal life."

I sat there for a moment processing his offer before asking a few questions.

"Can you guarantee that if I get caught, you'll get to me before Andy does? Because if I do get caught Andy will make sure I have a slow, painful death. Then Dallon and I will both be fucked."

"I can guarantee we will try. That's one where you're going to have to decide is the risk worth the chance of freedom."

"Ok, can we extend the offer to other people?"

"What exactly do you mean?"

"I mean all the couples in the same situation as me. I help you take down Andy, you let all of them go free. I couldn't live with the guilt of leaving them all behind to be miserable here while I go play suburbia with Dallon. I especially couldn't do that to Tyler and Josh."

Chris was quiet for a moment, obviously not expecting me to ask that. He must've forgotten not everyone is as selfish as he and Andy are. They are more similar than he'd like to admit. He nodded his head slightly as he answered.

"Yes...yes I can do that. We're running low on time so you need to tell me now, do we have a deal?" I mentally weighed out the risk verses reward.

Worst case scenario: Dallon and I get killed in a most likely painful way.

Best case scenario: the people who ruined our lives are either killed or imprisoned and everyone who is forced to be here against their wills are freed to go back home to friends and family.

"Yes, you have a deal."

A huge grin spread across Chris' face.

"Fantastic."

After my meeting with Chris was over, he was taken back to wherever captives were held, and with a fair amount of help from Ronnie I made it back to my room. By that time, Tyler had returned from his day out looking exhausted and covering in sweat and blood stains.

"Is that your blood or someone else's?" I asked.

"Someone else's. I'm going to go wash up, ok?" I nodded my head and laid down on my bed to read until he returned. I wanted so badly to tell him the deal I had just made, but I'm not sure if I should or not. I know Tyler can keep a secret, but at the same time I feel like it would be better if I just kept it to myself.

When Tyler came back in the room, I had decided what to do. I was going to tell him a tiny bit, but not enough that could get him in trouble if things go to shitfor me and he gets questioned because of it. He sat down on his bed and ran a towel through his damp messy hair.

"Hey Ty, there's something I need to tell you. Just so you're kinda aware. Um, I may be able to get us out of here in the-near future. Dallon and Josh too. I'm working on something and have no idea how long it's going to take. But it's something."

"Bren, do you know how manypeople have tried to get out of here and actually succeeded? None. So if you have something then great, but I'm definitely not going to get my hopes up over it."

"Ok, but I have something no one else has had before."

"Well keep it to yourself, if you fail I'm not letting you drag Josh's life down with you." He snapped. I was slightly taken aback. Tyler isn't normally like this.

"Did something out of the ordinary happen out there today Ty? You're on edge."

"I'll tell you tomorrow, I just want to go to bed. Goodnight." With that he turned off the lamp on his side of the room and curled up in his bed, his back facing me.

"Goodnight," I whispered back.