Better Eight Than Never

Chapter 17: Almost blue it

Jill sat in a corner in the dingy back room of some abandoned hardware store. It was dusty and old, a place so out of the way nobody cared about it anymore. Her hopes of someone finding her were so low that she jumped when she heard a clattering sound from the front of the store. She screamed in pain as she moved her arm, this wound was unbearable!

"Shut up squid!" Her captor said harshly, brandishing his pistol at her. "If you even think about pulling a stunt, it will be your end."

She swallowed, slouching a little and wiping some tears from her face before nodding.

The octoling nodded back at her, then set down her smartphone and headed toward the front of the store, calling out for whoever was out there to surrender.

Jill sat there a moment longer, then took a shaky breath and began to stand up. What had this jerk been saying on her phone? It seemed like he'd sent a picture of her to someone... she hoped it wasn't to her parents. She grabbed her phone and unlocked it, looking back through the messages. It had been texts in her squad's chat. They were probably so worried about her... She began to message them back the best she could using only one hand.

J: Bat o
J: Simon
J: Imalive
B: What's going on?
B: Are you okay? Did you get away?
J: no andno
S: WAITN WATS GOMING ONJ
S: WHT DID I MISS
J: Smion!
S: JILL.
S: JILL I'M GOING TO FIND YOU HOLD ON
S: JILL I LOVE YOU.

Jill couldn't stop tears from falling down her cheeks as she saw her sibling reply to her message.

J: I <3 u 2

"Now girl, I know you're still here. My conditions have changed."

The voice of her captor shook her from her thoughts and she paled, looking up to see him there with a tank in his hand. Inside rested a teal squid looking out at her. Was that... Toda! "... What are these changes?" She asked.

"I need you to take this to its rightful owner." He said, pulling a octoling mask out of a pouch on his belt.

"... Its rightful owner? Who– Oh." Jill's eyes widened. How had he gotten Hachi's mask? "Please let my friend go, don't hurt him!"

He huffed. "All of you squids are the same. You care about another before you'll even care for your own safety. Have you forgotten that you're leaking ink?"

Jill cringed. "No, and I haven't forgotten who gave it to me either! Keep me here, and don't hurt him!"

His expression hardened, and one of his tentacles hovered over a button on the tank. "I would be careful if I were you... I can kill him right now." A moment of silence, then he continued. "Now that I have your attention... Return this mask to my apprentice, let her send an official confirmation that she is alive. Meet me at the abandoned processing plant in... 24 hours. I get my soldier, and you get your... scrawny servant."

"FRIEND." Jill corrected.

"I wouldn't take that tone, I could still detonate that bullet, if you remember correctly." He raised the pistol again. "Now what do you say, squidling?"

Jill swallowed, then looked back down at Toda. He looked so small in that tank, and so frightened. As she stared, his eyes softened into an apologetic look, and he began to look more resigned. It hurt to see him like that, there was no guarantee that he'd live to see tomorrow... Her eyes welled with tears and she tore her gaze away. "I... I'll do it. I'll take the mask to her..."

"Good. Smart squid." The Octoling said, setting the mask down on a shelf. "Factory. 24 hours. Don't double-cross me." He threw down a smoke bomb, flooding the area with stinging smoke.