Once Again

Chapter Eighteen - This Time

Picture: Game Over by Dreamin-8-bit

100 votes? Thank you guys! Keep reading, keep commenting, keep voting, and maybe recommend others who might like this story ...

This Time

For what felt like the millionth time, Echo fought back tears as he felt his hope shatter. I will not cry. I will not cry. I will not cry. Alyssa would want me to be strong.

He wasn't strong enough.

He found himself in a different room, still behind the leader's tent, with a tiny window near the roof. It looked like a storage room or something, but the bars Tristam had put on the window made him feel even more like a prisoner. The metal wire around his ankle didn't help, either.

The wire was hooked to Nitro's wrist, and the Raider was crumpled on the floor across from him, unconscious. Tristam had brought him in only a few minutes after Echo had been locked up, though he didn't really understand why. He supposed the secret he'd told WRLD was more important than it seemed.

Echo stood on his toes and reached for the window ledge, and he could just barely pull himself up enough to see out. The sun was rising over the city, turning the sky pink. He didn't understand why everyone loved the sunrise so much. It wasn't as cool as the sunset, in his opinion, but it didn't really matter, anyway.

He could only look for a moment before his arms hurt too much to keep him up. He dropped back down and slumped to the floor, burying his head in his hands.

"What do you want from me?" he wailed.

Instead of getting an answer, he felt a tug on his ankle. He looked up and noticed Nitro starting to wake up, shifting a little as he regained consciousness.

"¿Dónde estoy?" he mumbled.

"What?" Echo said.

Nitro cleared his throat and pulled himself up to a sitting position, groaning with the effort. "Where am I? Why are - what's going - I don't understand ... why would he do this to me?"

Echo shifted uncomfortably, unsure of what to say. "Tristam is crazy," he mumbled.

"Heard that," the leader said, stalking into the room like a cat. He reminded Echo of Her when he entered that way. Braken was right behind him, still eager and excited.

Echo tried to scoot backwards, but he'd already hit the wall and he only tugged the wire connecting to Nitro's wrist. The other Raider yelped softly as it must have cut into his skin.

"Listen, Echo," Tristam said, almost regretfully. "This isn't personal. It's not about you." He looked down at Nitro, his eyes burning almost as bright as his fist. "Nitro Fun, what else did you tell him? After I was gone?"

"Nothing," Nitro whispered, his face pale. He pushed himself back as well, running into Echo.

Tristam sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I don't want to do this, but if you keep being uncooperative, I'll have no choice. I'll ask one more time. What else did you tell WRLD?"

"Nothing, I swear!" The Raider's voice was high pitched in terror. He grabbed Echo's leg and squeezed tight.

"Braken, let's try something different this time," Tristam said. "Take out Nitro's jammer."

"No!" Nitro yelped, pushing harder against Echo.

Echo was almost as terrified as the Raider pressed against him. Why was he here, if Tristam was punishing and questioning Nitro?

"You'll see," Braken said, his cheerful expression faltering for a split second as he glanced over at him. Then Tristam gave him a light shove and he shook his head, returning to the obedient follower. He knelt next to Nitro and struggled to hold him still as the other boy thrashed around, and finally managed to hold Nitro's head against the wall as he tried to take out the jammer one-handed.