13.Thirteen

22. Twenty Two

Thirteen watched Maximus sleep. He hated that his chest was moving up and down. Thirteen had painfully turned back into a human. He took some duct tape that was on the desk next to where Maximus was sleeping. Thirteen wrapped Maximus's two hands together and then his feet. He then put a strip of tape over his mouth. Alex saw what Thirteen was doing. "Thirteen, he whispered", "What are you doing?". "Saving us", Thirteen answered, dragging Maximus to a closet. Alex thought Thirteen had lost his mind. "You do know he was trying to save us", Alex said, Thirteen pulling away from him. "You bought his lies. He wasn't trying to save us, he was using us as lab rats on his sick experiments", Thirteen retorted. Twelve walked in on the two arguing. "Guys, keep it down, Maximus could wake up". Twelve said. She looked over to where Maximus was sleeping but was now gone. "Maximus isn't going to be up for a while", Thirteen said, smiling at the thought of what he'd done. "I'm going to see if Maximus has any other hostages and the other torture devices he has. Anyone coming", Thirteen asked. "Are you completely insane?!", Twelve shouted. "You just killed our ticket out of this world". Thirteen looked angry, he finally snapped. "Listen, you have only known this Maximus a few days, I've met all of his personalities, and he isn't what he seems. So, if you guys think you know everything about him, feel free to let him cut open your brains, but you don't have any!". Thirteen stormed off, he ran down the stairs and explored the mouth of hell.

Twelve and Alex thought Thirteen would come back crying, but after an hour, they weren't sure if he was coming back at all. "He's been gone a long time", Twelve said, picking up a remote on Maximus's desk. "Let Thirteen get himself killed", Alex said bitterly, kicking a chair. "He's so full of himself", Alex muttered. "Everyone has a boiling point", Twelve said. "Stop taking his side!", Alex said. "I'm not taking sides", Twelve said, "just trying to be fair". Twelve turned away from Alex and pressed one of the buttons on the remote. One of the walls turned over by itself and showed off weapons of torture, all covered in blood. Alex and Twelve walked over to them, terrified. One of the devices tore people's insides out, other ripped pieces of skin right off the bone. "Why would Maximus have these?", Alex wondered, touching one of the spikes. "To kill and experiment on", Twelve answered. Suddenly a wave of nausea went over them, their eyes rolled back and fell to their knees. "You fell out your brainwashing faze, great", a familiar voice said. It was Maximus, who had the same sick grin on his face. "How naive must you two be to believe I actually changed". Alex couldn't answer, neither could Twelve. "Because your stupid, Thirteen was wise, you should have listened to him", Maximus noted. He turned away from the convulsing kids, and said, "Soon, you will be free", to a painting of his lord.