Up to Me: Bandersnatch

12

My head is throbbing when I finally regain consciousness. I'm slouched against a wall, my hands behind my back. When I try to move my fingers, I can feel something like twine is tying my wrists together.
"Ugh." I groan from the the pain in the back of my head as I force my eyes open.
"Mili?"
When my eyes adjust to the dim lighting, I see Stefan is sitting across from me, also tied up.
"Stefan, what happened!" I mutter.
"We were right. They've been watching us. I think they knew we were coming here." Stefan whispers.
"How do you know?" I ask.
"'Cause my dad was the one who grabbed you and tied you up."

"What's the plan now?" I ask.
"I- I'm working on it."
He shuffles around for a few moments before I see his right hand break free from behind him, followed by his other hand.
"Shhh." I order him to be quiet after hearing movement outside of the little room.
Stefan goes still just as the door opens. I squint my eyes , sensitive to the light that comes streaming in. I can only see the silhouette of "Arwin" looking in.
"Shut up, will ya?" He says.
"What are you going to do with us?" I ask.
"We aren't going to do anything to you. At least for now. Craig is getting the Mirari Antigen. You'll forget that all of this happened by tomorrow morning." He smirks.
"Piss off." Stefan scoffs.
Anwir just laughs and closes the door. As soon as we hear his footsteps fade from earshot, Stefan crawls over to me and unties my hands.
I wrap my arms around him as soon as they're free. I can feel my eyes filling with water and my headache is pounding in my temples.
"It's okay, we'll get out of this." Stefan whispers in my ear as he runs his fingers comfortingly down my back.
"What is going on, Stefan. I don't understand any of this." I whisper.
He looks at me, "neither do I. But we have each other, and now we know we have to stop them. Anwir and my dad."
"But how?"
Stefan smiles and shows me is hand. Clasped in his fist is the screw driver.
My eyes grow wide as Stefan swings the small door open and crawls out.
I get out just in time to see him run into the hallway where Anwir is standing.
He jumps on the impostor and drives the tool into his neck. The sound is worse than anything. I hear the breaking of skin and crunching as it goes through the bone, but it doesn't stop. Stefan takes the screwdriver out and stabs it back in again. And again. And again...
"Stefan! Stefan! Stop!" I run to him and take the bloody weapon from his grip.
He peels his eyes away from the bloody corpse on the ground and looks at me.
His face is dotted with his victims blood, being smeared my the couple of tears that fall down his cheeks.
"Mili," He whispers, "I- I'm sorry."
I pull him into a hug.
"I couldn't stop, Mili. I wasn't in control." His body starts to rock as he starts to cry harder into my shoulder and we slowly drop to the floor.
"It's okay, you're okay." I reassure him.
"We have to get out of here." He rubs his hand over his face, wiping away the tears and blood.
"My dad will be here any moment."
Stefan stands up and takes my hand, carefully walking towards the door.
"Wait." I run back to Anwir, who's still on the floor. I grab the screwdriver that lies next to him and look at his face. His brown eyes are glassy and his blond hair his bloody. Looking at him now, it's a wonder that my mother never suspected anything. He looks nothing like my brother.

I join Stefan back at the door and we walk outside.
"Run." Stefan says suddenly.
I follow his gaze and see his father, Peter- or Craig, as Anwir called him- walking toward the house.
We both turn in the other direction and start to walk faster. I can hear the footsteps behind us speeding up, forcing us to break into a run.
We run for a long time. We're still running long after Peter stops chasing us.
Stefan stops for a second and we both catch our breath. I look around, but don't recognize any of the buildings.
We go into an alley between a cafe and a clothing store so we aren't seen in the open.
"So." Stefan says.
"Yeah?" I reply.
"What should we do? We could leave. We can run away together. Forget about all of this."
"Or?" I say, dreading the answer.
"Or we can stay. And fight."
.
.
.
To stay and fight- continue to chapter 13*
*To run away- go to chapter 19*