Oblivion

S E V E N T E E N

Thursday, 24 October, 2019

Zyre

When I finally came to, I had found myself in one of the nicest prison cells I'd ever seen.

Well, apart from what seemed to be glass walls.

Whoever locked me in here obviously didn't care much about privacy.

"Zyre!" I heard Jexa shout at me, "Thank god you're finally awake -- help me bust out of here?"

I sat up in the bed I was in, pursing my lips and staring blankly at her, "And how do you suppose we do that when I'm in here and you're in there -- and god knows where the damn keys are."

"Yeah...good point," she murmured, "Arelle didn't know how to get out of here either. Oh, and apparently, she isn't dead...but everyone else is."

"Isn't that--"

"Ace's wife...yeah."

I heard someone clear their throat and looked over to see a woman with very pale skin, -- possibly paler than mine -- powder blue hair that was done up in a messy bun, and bright, ice blue eyes.

"Hi there, you must be Arelle," I said with a smile, "You're prettier than I thought you'd be."

"Thanks?"

"He's the new guy," Jexa told her, "The new guy who's also in love with Nyco."

I scoffed, "I'm not in love with him...besides, we're just friends. That's what he was probably going to tell me before I got drugged and kidnapped."

"You two would be cute together," Arelle commented.

"They would," Jexa agreed, "But apparently Nyco's being an ass."

"Typical."

"If you're done gossiping," I muttered sarcastically, "Could you please tell me how you're still alive?"

"Actually," another, very deep voice interjected, "Maybe you'd like to hear this story from him."

A man with long, shoulder-lengthed hair walked into the room with Ace -- whose hands were bound by rope behind him -- in tow. The man pushed Ace forward forcefully, causing the red-haired man to fall forward and into the concrete floor before he pulled him up so he was sitting on his knees on the floor.

"Ace...what the hell did you do?" I asked, raising my eyebrows at him.

"Look, look...I did it for Arelle," he started, "If I didn't they would've killed her. You can understand that, can't you? I love her, I couldn't just let her die."

"You're a spy?" I accused him.

"More or less," he mumbled, avoiding eye contact with me.

"How do you know they won't just kill her anyway?" I asked him.

"Zyre!" Jexa shouted at me.

"We had a deal," he answered, "They won't kill her if I helped them. I'm so, so sorry...but I had to do this. I love her too much to just let her die."

"Marcus?" the strange man called just as another man walked through the door with something in his hand that looked a lot like a knife.

The man named Marcus just continued to walk silently walk towards Arelle's cell before unlocking it with a key that was in his other hand, "C'mon girly."

He dropped the key to the floor before grabbing the blue-haired woman's arm and pulling her out of the cell, wrapping one of his arms securely around her midsection before pressing the knife against her throat.

"No!" Ace shouted, "Please don't."

The other man smiled wickedly crossing his arms menacingly, "Did you really think we'd keep our 'promise'? That's not how we work, Ace baby. We just needed your help to find some new pawns to play with."

I took in a deep breath before screwing my eyes shut.

"Now," I heard Marcus say, "you have to watch this pretty little thing die."

***

"Zyre," Jexa said, "Are you okay?"

"I haven't turned around to see what's behind me for a few hours now," I murmured, "The body may not be there anymore, but the blood is."

"You've never had to watch anyone die before, huh?" she asked me in a saddened voice.

"I've seen people die, my dad was a doctor," I responded, "I've never seen anyone murdered before...that one's new...well, not really."

"What?"

"Nothing," I mumbled, "I just don't wanna talk right now."

"You know," she started, "I bet Nyco's doing his damn best to try and find us right now."

"Yeah, or he's dead."

"Don't be so pessimistic," she scolded me, "I know him...and he cares way too much about everyone. I can promise you that he'll be here in just a few days time. He won't let us die -- he won't let you die. As much as he is loathed to admit it, he cares about you."

"Can we just...not talk about anything right now?" I asked her, "It's been a long and traumatic day and I'd like a bit of rest."

"Fine," she said, "You're not a very fun person to have been taken hostage with."

"Yeah, well...there's always the fact that we might die here."

And that was true...that man had called us pawns, so he obviously isn't planning on letting us leave anytime soon.

What an absolutely horrid place.