Above

39

Estelle
The metal chair cold against my arms, and the ropes they tied around me were tight and scratchy. 
"Have you ever been electrocuted?" A muffled masculine voice asks. 
I look up at the masked man, shaking my head. 
"Would you like to be?" He asks, crouching in front of me. 
"Not particularly." I say, tightly smiling. 
He nods. "Good answer." He walks around me so he was behind me, out of my sight. 
I stare at a cockroach climbing up the wall, which makes me wonder if there's any in the cell, and if they crawled around in my mouth while I was sleeping. 
Two hands on my shoulders break me from my trance. 
"Every time you refuse to answer one of my questions, or lie, you'll be punished." He says.
I nod. "Deal." 
"This isn't a deal or no deal offer, love." He says. 
I nod again. 
"Alright." He says, pulling and sitting in front of me. "What's your worst fear?" 
"Drowning." I say.
"Can you swim?" 
"I can." I answer. 
"Why's your worst fear drowning?" He asks. 
"Past experiences." I answer. 
"What past experience?"
I stay silent, fearing that an answer would give up my identity. 
A door behind me opens and two people walk in. 
"Do you have an answer?" He asks. 
I shake my head. 
One of the people behind me uncaps something, which makes me think that their gonna feed me something gross as torture. 
"Meet Tracy." The guy says. "My friend's pet tarantula." 
I feel something crawling down my shoulder and onto my chest. 
"Open wide, sweetie, she loves going in mouths." 
I keep my mouth clamped shut, feeling the hair-covered spider crawl up my neck and under my chin. 
"C'mon love, don't wanna make her angry." He says. "She bites." 
I take a deep breath and open my mouth. 
The spider basically scurries to my mouth, climbing inside, just sitting there. 
"Are you afraid of her?" He asks. 
I nod, slowly so I don't aggravate the spider in my mouth, which makes itself known by crawling onto the roof of my mouth. 
"Take the spider." The man says, motioning to his friend. "Don't want her molting in this lovely lady's mouth." 
Someone covers my mouth with their hand, pushing my head forward. 
I feel the spider crawling out of my mouth, and onto their hand. 
The hand moves away, taking Tracy away. 
"Alright." The guy starts. "How important to you is Leeciy?" 
"He's a friend." I say. 
"How close?" He asks. 
I shrug. "We're close." 
"If he were to, say, die, what would you do to me?" He asks. 
"Eye for an eye, I'd kill you." I say. 
He pauses. "Who has more money?" 
"We're about the same." I say. "Not too much, we're both unemployed." 
"What about the tan one? Do you know him?" He asks. 
I shake my head. "I've never met him." 
He clicks his tongue. "I think you're lying." 
"Please don't bring back Tracy." 
"Oh, I would never." The guy says, walking behind me. 
I feel a cool rod on my shoulder, before it shocks me. 
I yelp in pain, trying to pull away.
He presses it into the chair, sending a shock through my body. 
I scream. 
He places the rod on the table beside me. 
He walks back into sight, sitting in front of me. 
"Do you have any family?" He asks. "What're your parents' names?"
"Arlo and Elian." I say. 
"Give me an address." He says. "I want to go home for your family's Sunday roast." He says, mocking my accent. 
"They're dead." I say. 
He rolls his eyes. "For how long." 
"Four years." I say. 
He hums. "How'd they die?" 
"My dad died of cancer, my mom committed suicide." I answer. 
He quirks a brow. "Not even a flinch, are you lying to me?" 
I shake my head. "I'm just used to it." 
"We're you close to them?" He asks. 
I shake my head. "We weren't close." 
He nods. "What's your name?" 
"Cosette." I lie. 
He nods. "Well, Cosette, I'll talk to you tomorrow." 
My ropes are loosened and I'm lifted, they walk me back to the cell, tying me up on the opposite side of the room from Leeciy. 
They walk over and take Stefan, injecting him and taking him out, leaving Leeciy and I alone. 
***
Leeciy pulls at the chains trying to get to me. 
"Try and pick the locks." I say, shaking, not used to the chill in the room again. 
His eyes light up and he picks the lock almost magically.  
A wound winds around his wrist, from the cuffs being so tight and his constant pulling. 
He kneels in front of me, untying the rope from my wrists and my legs before gently pulling me into his arms. 
I just sit there in his arms, my muscles loose from the shocking I'd endured. 
"We could get out of here right now." He says.
I nod. "We could, did you get in contact with Cirus?" 
"Yeah, they're still at camp, packing up." He says. "They thought we fell and got hurt." 
I nod. "I say we do it, how many to you think there are?" 
"Not too many, we could take them if you got your Oura konnes back." He says. 
I press my hand to the ground, feeling a surge of power. "It's back, I don't know how strong, but I can feel it." 
"That's good, we can use a small earthquake to distract them." He says, standing up, holding out a hand for me. 
I grab his hand and he pulls me up, holding to him when I almost fall on my own. "They shocked me pretty bad." 
"The feeling in your leg will come back, it's fine, I can help you." 
"I need to be touching the ground for my Oura konnes to work." I say. 
He wraps an arm around my torso, holding me up. 
I wind my arm around his neck. 
"Let's do this." He says, and with that, he runs out, dragging me along. 
The operation was obviously only the five people because they all seemed to be occupied with Stefan. 
We run down the hall, through the twisty corridors until we see a disconnected exit sign. 
He runs to the door and pushes it open, hoisting me over his shoulder and running quicker.
Then, we were free.