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Chapter 10- 34%

They questioned each other back and forth for quite some time. Casey's questions for Athena started to get more and more personal. Athena was still hopeful of getting more information from Casey, but all his answers we vague and cryptic.

"Last week at your homecoming dance, you left 2 hours early. What was the reason for that?" Casey asked in a snarky tone.

"I was feeling uncomfortable," Athena briefly responded.

He does know a lot, Athena thought. She did leave the homecoming dance early. She went Poppy and a group of Poppy's friends. When the peak of the night had arrived, the entire group had a date to dance with. Well, all except Athena. She stood on the side hoping that eventually the slow dancing would stop so she could go back with Poppy. A few minutes later, someone came up to her.

"Yo girl, come dance with me," said the boy. Athena recognized him as a guy from the football team. A real player, who dated a new girl every week. He only wanted one thing from every girl he dated, and Athena was not having it.

"No thanks." Athena replied with a small smile.

"That wasn't a request," the boy spoke, in a deep voice. He then grabbed Athena's wrist and aggressively pulled her toward him. But Athena was not going to play nice now. Once she was close enough to him, she kneed him in the stomach. He doubled over and she grabbed his hair and pulled his head up so he was looking at her.

"I said no. Now I suggest you return to your little team of dogs, or next time I won't be as nice," she said, staring him down.

The boy stumbled back and briskly returned to his teammates to tell them all about the psycho girl who 'hit on him' and then 'beat him up when he rejected her.' Athena didn't care about other's opinions of her, which was a strength. But she also became insensitive to other people's feelings. She became embarrassed, even though everyone else was too busy partying the night away to notice the incident. She ran out the front doors, and called for her parents to come pick her up.

"Would you care to elaborate?" Casey asked, bringing Athena out of her flashback.

"No. I'm good," she sassily responded.

"Watch it. Don't try and get smart with me. That is your one and only warning," he said, raising his voice.

Athena had to be careful. She started to push his limits.

"Fine. What-," Athena started to ask before she was cut off.

"You don't get to ask a question this round." Casey angrily said. He took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. "Okay. I know you are planning your escape as we speak. I'm not stupid. Let's just say that you happen to find a way to escape. You aren't the most considerate when it comes to other people. You actually rather selfish, especially when it comes to your safety. Zane would be an obstacle to your escape. And I've heard you haven't been getting along well. Were you considering leaving without him?"

Athena had thought about that. Zane wasn't the brightest or the strongest. She couldn't find a way he could help them escape. He would just end up being dead weight. But she couldn't possibly leave him behind. Yeah she was heartless, but he was in the same situation as her. But maybe if an opportunity had opened up, she would leave him behind. I can't tell him the truth, she thought. "No." she responded, trying to hide the fact she was being untruthful. She looked at Casey hard in the face, trying to detect if he had caught her. His eyes widened.

He turned around and softly spoke "Liar..."

"What?"

"I said, LIAR!" He grabbed the knife and started walking toward her. "SHE LEFT ME BEHIND AND YOU WILL LEAVE HIM BEHIND TOO!" he screamed at her. Athena was paralyzed with fear. She tried to untie her hands to defend herself, but the ropes were too tight. Casey was now right in front of her, knife raised. Athena cursed in pain when he plunged the blade into the area between her collarbone and shoulder. He pushed the blade deeper. Athena's eyes started to tear up and she could feel the burning sensation running through the shoulder blade and all down her arm. Casey then leaned forward. "Don't lie to me. Or next time I won't be as sparing," he whispered into her ear. He then slowly pulled the knife out of the front of her shoulder blade. She screamed in pain once again, not being able to keep it in. He grabbed the back of the chair and started to drag it out of the room, with Athena still on it. She could feel the blood rushing out of the gash on her front. She started to get light-headed when she noticed a calendar on the wall. She wasn't able to get a good look but she was able to see 'Taylor's b-day" written on the 17th of the month. She then felt a hard pull of the chair as she slid into a familiar doorway. Her held her breath when Casey lifted her on the chair and threw it inside the room. She landed with her head hitting first. She slid sideways on the chair till she hit a wall. Now her entire body was in agonizing pain. She heard the door slam, followed by Casey yelling, "HEY!". She lifted her head to see the door. She was in surprise when she saw Zane standing in front of door. He must have slammed it shut, Athena thought. Her thoughts were interrupted by another wave of pain going through her shoulder. When she heard the familiar Click of the lock, she was relieved that Casey wasn't going to try and come in. Zane ran over and kneed over her.

"Wait, I think I have an idea," Zane told her, running back over to the door.

Well, I'm not planning on going anywhere, she sarcastically thought to herself.

Zane started to pick at the door. He slowly started to peel off the metal plating. Once he pulled a decent size part off of door's base, he ripped it off with ease. He ran back over to her and pushed the chair around so the back of the chair was facing him. He quickly took the scrap piece of metal and started to cut the ropes. Once he had freed her hands, he went to her feet and cut them loose as well. Athena stayed on the floor, laying in the small pool of blood formed by the gash on her front. Zane noticed and carefully picked up Athena, bridal style, and took her to the nearest wall. He sat her up against the wall. "What happened back there?" he asked while he cut away her shirt material around the injury.

"I'll tell you later," she responded, trying to regulate her breathing. She felt her pulse starting to slow down. She helped him pull back the piece of her shirt so he could see her wound. The bleeding has started to slow, but she had already lost a lot of blood.

"This looks pretty deep. You're gonna lose a lot more blood if it doesn't close up. Can I um... stitch it for you? It's going to hurt a bit, but it's going to at least going to stop the bleeding." Zane firmly told her. She stared at him hard. He had a point. So she agreed.

"Ok. Go for it," Athena responded. "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" She sharply inhaled when she felt more pain return. Zane nodded. He took the piece of scrap metal that he used to cut the ties around her hands and feet. He carefully broke off an extremely thin piece, resembling a needle. He then proceeded to rip a strip off of the bottom of his t-shirt. He precisely pulled a single strand out and tied it to the end of the thin piece of metal. He kneed next to her once again.

"Are you ready? I'll try to work quickly." He assured her.

"Yeah. Just get it over with." Athena replied. She held her breath and shut her eyes when she felt the makeshift needle pierce her skin.