CAGED

Chapter 32: The Arrival

Marissa's P.O.V:

I lay on the cot silently as I try to figure out exactly what it is that I am wanting to do. I mean, I know that I want to escape from here, but I haven't been able to find a way out of this stupid cage. Ryan definitely doesn't trust me anymore, so there is no way he would ever let out of here voluntarily. Rachel is undoubtedly forbidden from coming up here, if she even knows that I'm here, so she's out as well. The driver is way too loyal to Ryan so there is no way he would help me escape, not after he intentionally hit me with the car to catch me and pretty much disable me.

Anger seeps into my veins with a fiery passion and I let loose the most animalistic scream I can muster up in my chest. I allow to scream to drag on for several seconds before I silence myself again. I am so frustrated that I can't even think properly, and that is making me even more frustrated! I am going to die up here in this cage in some musty attic of some old run down house and nobody will even know! I will probably be decaying bones before anyone finds me, unless Ryan tosses me out before then, but that isn't likely since I doubt he is planning on sticking around here for too long.

Suddenly I hear a door open downstairs, and voices murmuring below me, too muffled to understand. The voices do not sound pleasant though, and it is easy to figure out that someone is very upset. I pray to a god that I don't even believe in that Ryan is yelling at the police and giving them cause to inspect the house. Please god, if you exist, let that be the case! I find it difficult to focus on anything else with the loud, but still muffled, voices downstairs. I try very hard, straining as much as humanly possible, to make out any of the words. Unfortunately though there is an entire floor dividing us, and the words can not travel though that many layers of ancient housing.

I resign myself to listen to the hushed tones carrying themselves through the ceilings and the floors to me as I rest my head on my arms, using them as pillows since I still have the actual pillow wrapped tightly around my leg. Several minutes pass, maybe an hour, and the voices hush themselves. The arguing is over, and the tiny shred of hope that I held of it being the police vanishes. I groan silently and close my eyes, ready to fall asleep since I have nothing else to do.

Ryan's P.O.V: (Backtracking to when the door opens)

I hear a faint knock on the front door and a small grin slides into place on my face; I knew James would show up, such a coward! I look through the peep hole in the door to ensure that it is James, and when I see his aging mug through the small circle, I open the door. James rushes inside quickly and I shut the door behind him, hoping the idiot was smart enough to make sure he wasn't followed. I proceed to ask him as much.

"Of course I wasn't followed!" James snaps angrily, probably offended. Rightfully offended. "I'm not the incompetent idiot that you seem to think I am!" I snicker at his choice of words because, truthfully, that is exactly what I think of him.

"James," I use a particularly condescending tone as I speak. "Even you have to have noticed that you make more than the average number of mistakes when it comes to our particular line of business? I mean surely you aren't so naive as to think that your 'adequate' work is even in line with the work of those below you? Your subordinates do a better job than you, and yet for some reason we have kept you around despite your constant proof of idiocy and inconsideration for the organization."

James stares at me for a moment before turning red as a tomato as he allows his anger to boil over, steam nearly visibly emitting from his ears. "I am not some mediocre worker who you can push around Ryan! I work my ass off for you and everyone else, and all I get in return are insults and bullshit! I am tired of being your little lackey and being pushed around. No more, you hear?" James approached me one step at a time as he attempted to tell me off, but all I can do is laugh at him. He really is an imbecile! I watch as James pokes me in the chest as he spouts off his last words, and I can't even hide my amusement as his brash movements and words. "You think this is funny? Well it isn't! You're just a manipulative son of a b-"

Smile still in place on my face I cut off his words by grabbing him by his throat, my fingers winding tightly around his windpipe. "Now James," I say, my condescending voice now etched with venom, "you don't want to go insulting my mother, now do you? I assure you that you don't, so I would watch what you say, understand?" James make a feeble attempt to nod despite my hand constricting itself around his neck. "Now I have allowed you to rant, and even to disrespect me by physically touching me. However, it is time for you to listen to me and you will listen well."

"Do you wander how the police knew to come after you, James? Because I have sources that have informed me exactly how you came to get us all mixed up into this entire thing. I want you to think back really hard, okay James? Think back to the day you took Marissa from her backyard. Can you remember that day? Do you remember anything in particular about your encounter with her? Such as a cellphone? One that she used to take a picture of you before you took her? One that you left behind? Does that ring any bells for you James?"

"It certainly rang some alarming ones in Marissa's mothers head as she found her daughter missing and a mysterious picture of a strange man approaching her on her daughters phone. So I wonder, James, how the police knew to search for you? How you happened to lead them to my home? I wonder, James, don't you?" The longer I spoke, the tighter my grip on James throat became. By now he was struggling against my hold, his fingers clawing at my hand uselessly. With heavy sigh I let go of him and allow him to drop to the floor. "So James, do you still think that you are a good member of this team? Do you still think that you are more than some 'mediocre worker'? Because I don't, James, and neither does anyone else in this organization. Nobody finds you useful anymore, and we have all voted to have you dismissed from the group. Your next assignment will be your last, and it is non negotiable."

HEY GUYS! So this chapter was super fun to write. I have hated James since I first wrote him into the story (despite how vital he was to it) and I couldn't wait for this scene when I got to trash talk him! YAY! Haha

Anyways! Please vote and comment! Does anyone agree with what was said to James? Does anyone think that it was too harsh? Let me know what you think!!