Home: CS Fanfic//Book One

Chapter 39- Reliving VILE

Four days and three painful nights later, Carmen found herself laying on a rug next to the couches, Zack and Ivy on either side of her with Shadowsan perched on the armrest. The red laptop, which rested on the coffee table, showed Player's tired face. In her fever induced haze, the thief had started to talk about random things to the siblings, and once Shadowsan and the young hacker had joined them, the conversation quickly turned to the one thing Carmen wouldn't open up about.

Her recent miserable stay with VILE.

Even in her sick and weakened state, the Latina's mind had cleared almost instantly when Ivy hesitantly asked for a full account of what happened.

"Of... wh-what happened, huh?" she choked out, attempting to force a smile.

Ivy must've seen the fear behind it, because she rubbed her shoulder reassuringly. "I know you don't want to talk about it, Carm, but you need to rip the bandaid off. We're..." She trailed off, then cleared her throat and whispered, "We're always here for you."

Carmen gave a shuddering sigh and closed her eyes. The medicine she had taken earlier was just now setting in, and a part of her relaxed as the heat rolling over her was dulled. "No, you're right, Ivy. It's not like I've healed at all yet, you know, mentally. Reliving it won't reverse any progress, because there is none. There's no point in not talking," she muttered bitterly.

"If you're not ready, no one here is forcing you. It's just... not gonna get easier any time soon."

"No, it's fine." And besides, I do have to talk. "What do you wanna know?"

Shadowsan spoke up, his voice sad. "Start at the beginning. That night in France."

Carmen sucked in a deep breath, blowing it out as slowly as she could if only to stall for a bit longer. "You all saw what happened. I'm fighting, VILE shows up, they threaten Zack, Ivy, and the entire Louvre Museum-"

"And you, Red," Player says, interrupting the rising anger in her words. "They held your life at gunpoint. Remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," she mumbled somewhat darkly. "Doesn't mean I care."

Silence.

The thief closed her eyes again, refusing to make eye contact. "They knocked me out once I agreed to their terms, and the last thing I remember from that is-" She paused to swallow. "The look of pure rage on Ivy's face."

The Bostonian squeezed her hand from where she sat on her right.

"When I woke up -oh, I dunno, hours, maybe days later- I was shackled to a table. Coach... Brunt  Dr. Bellum came in, talking about an 'operation'." She shivered just thinking about it. "At one point Bellum tried to straight up cut open my arm, and when I freaked the scissors cut my hair instead. So, yes, this was an accident." Carmen attempted at a half-hearted laugh, the sound lifeless and empty. "Anyway, I kept being a stubborn pain-"

"Like always," Zack said lightly.

"Yes, like always," the thief agreed. "They got tired of that real quick, and Bellum got out a paralyzing injection, and, uh..." She paused, gulping in deep breaths of air, voice lowering. "I couldn't move. They put a microchip in my arm. They never bothered to keep it clean or to numb it or anything. Honestly, I wouldn't have expected anything different from VILE."

Ivy tensed, cheeks slightly flushed with anger. "That's why you can't even move it anymore?"

"Yeah."

"I'm gonna kill them," she seethed.

Carmen winced, the images and scene of her last stand off against Brunt circling and burning her closed eyes. "Don't worry, I took care of that for you."