Tethered Twins

Chapter Fifty Three

Grace Wilkerson

When Grace awoke she found herself in a padded room. She was tied to the wall in chains with Gabe next to her. She nudged him to wake him up.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“Hell if I know. You just woke me up!” replied Gabe.

“At least I don’t have to hear you snoring anymore.”

The room was small. It had a broken bed on one side and the rest of the room was just white padded walls.

“Are we in a mental institution?” asked Grace. “I’m not crazy am I? Was this all just some messed up dream?” she joked.

“You are crazy but that’s not why we are here. We were knocked out by a two large men. My legs are sore underneath so they must have dragged us here.”

The door opened and in walked Vlad, his belt of knives dangling from his hip. “Hello pets,” he said.

“Where is Emmie!?” shouted Grace.

“She’s safe. I’ve been removing all the lies you put in her head,” said Vlad. “Like how you told her I killed a billion people.”

“Tobias?”

“That’s right,” he replied. “This body is just a vessel but I’m the one controlling him. He hates it when I take control but he is the best person I know for inflicting pain and a man like that can come in handy.”

“You’re sick! You killed all those people and you are causing more pain now. Why can’t you accept what you did?”

“What I did?!” shouted Tobias through Vlad. He grabbed the broken bed and threw it out of the room in rage. “They did this to me! I wanted none of this.”

“It was your team! Your team was the one who stopped the Siege. That’s what you told everyone.”

“Lies,” he replied. “Yes my body stopped the Siege but it wasn’t something I asked for. When it was all over they made me into a hero, knowing if I told the world the truth it would destroy me as well.”

“Who?” said Grace.

Vlad leant in closer and opened his mouth ready to speak. “Oh you know them very well. It was…”

Seeing an opportunity Gabe reached forward and grabbed a large knife from Vlad’s belt. He swiped upwards, cutting through the belt of knives, sending them clattering to the floor. He finished his motion by jamming the knife into Vlad’s neck who tumbled backwards in shock.

“This is our chance!” Gabe grabbed the sharpest knife he could see and cut through his chains at the most rusted part. He tossed the knife to Grace and shouted “Quickly.”

Vlad found his footing and looked ahead to see Gabe running at him with a large curled knife. He had just enough time to say “My scythe,” before the knife was hooked around his neck and Gabe pulled him to the floor.

Vlad didn’t move. A deep cut ran along his neck and the injuries he had caused to himself earlier had now been ripped open.

Gabe looked at Vlad’s body waiting for it to move. “Is he dead?” he wondered out loud. Before he got an answer Gabe was kicked backwards by the man’s twin.

Grace, now free of her chains, ran over to the taller twin with a cleaver. She swiped at his head but he darted backwards. She aimed for his arm but he pulled it away. He was fast, ridiculously fast.

“It won’t work,” said the twin. “This body understands time better than you ever will.”

Grace continued to swing the knife towards him and he dodged every shot. It was as if he knew exactly what Grace was going to do. She swiped towards his head and he ducked and dove towards her. Grace hit the ground on her back, bringing back the pain she had felt at TethTech.