Zoey rummaged through the cupboards in the dark, frantically feeling around.
A loud crash echoed from the hallway on the second floor causing Zoey to stifle a gasp. In her panic she quickly moved her hand through the cupboard and it collided with a solid object, knocking it over. This time she didn't bother stifling her gasp as she searched even faster and with less caution.
She felt the surface of her desired object and sighed in relief as her hand closed around it. A knife. Her joy was short-lived though as she was abruptly kicked in the ribs and fell on her side.
"Found you." the voice sent chills down her spine. She always wondered how the same voice can make her feel so loved and so special and also make her feel like death's around the corner.
"Let him out Mal." she panted, clutching her ribs. She didn't even know where he was. He could've went to the other side of the house by now and all she could rely on was her hearing sense. Why did there have to be a malfunction in the power source!?-She knew it was Mal, but there was still a small chance that it was just the horrible weather outside. "Let him out? But he just got in!-I wouldn't want to cut short his reunions with the others!"
No, he was close, Zoey could hear the faint sound of his feet moving forward. Using the opportunity during his response, Zoey slowly slid back on the floor, trying to cause as little noise as possible but she failed. One of the chairs was behind her and she backed into it.
"Where do you think you're going?" he asked calmly. Zoey couldn't believe how calm he sounded, it made goosebumps appear over her body. His foot suddenly came down on her chest, hard, squeezing the air out of her lungs as he applied more pressure by the second "Don't you wanna stay here for when Mike returns?"
She couldn't breathe. The air was almost unattainable and she found herself gasping for it. Panic clouded her thoughts and every ounce of her body screamed at her to attack him somehow and get his leg off her chest. The knife she just recently found in the cupboard was under her hand and it taunted her to use it, to put an end to the agony but she couldn't hurt him, it's be like she's hurting Mike.
"Mike..." she wheezed out, grasping onto his leg in a desperate attempt to push it away. Her voice wasn't strong enough and she doubted Mike or even Mal could hear it.
She knew she was running out of time and although she didn't want to hurt Mike, she had no choice but to use her weapon. Besides, if she didn't survive then who would be there to save him? For all she knew Mal would pretend to be Mike and fool eveyone or just disappear without a trace-wouldn't be the first time for either of those things.
Tightening her grip on the knife handle as much as she could she slowly raised it. Her thoughts urged her to do it faster but doing so would draw his attention. She swiftly plunged the knife into Mal's leg without thinking, if she thought some more about what she was doing, she'd probably stop herself. He shouted in pain and momentarily removed his leg from her chest, giving her the opportunity to roll away and lean up against the table.
She was aware that in the state she was in she'd need some time to recover and to regulate her breathing, but time was precious in that situation and she couldn't afford wasting it. Leaning on the table she got up on her feet and staggered the opposite direction from Mal and to where she was pretty sure the exit from the kitchen was.
She could hear him groan behind her and move in her direction. In her current state she was easily traceable even in the dark-her sharp and loud breathing gave her away. Her lungs were still on fire as she gasped - rather loudly, clutching the knife close to her.
Zoey hoped the reason Mal didn't immediately charge after her was Mike or one of the other putting up a fight and she was grateful for the head start. She made it across the small part of the hallway and to the living room, limping along the way. Her grip on the knife lessened as she moved it in her right hand and cautiously waved her arms around the space surrounding her looking for something to lean on.
Her hands settled on the soft fabric of the couch and she almost chuckled in relief-last she saw her phone it was on the coffee table in front of the couch.
Quickly feeling around she made her way around the couch and to the coffee table. She slowly crouched, small pain still present in her lungs and the side of her ribs from Mal's attack. She slowly felt around the table. Her eyebrows furrowed since she couldn't come across what she was looking for. Realization sank in and a sob formed in her throat as desperation washed over her. Mal cut off all connections to the outside.
Of course, she could always just leave, walk out through the front door. But he knew she wouldn't do that. He knew that she wouldn't leave with him in control and Mike trapped in his own mind. He had predicted all of her moves so far, but to what end? Did he want to cause her an agonizing death? - Any kind of death? Although she never really figured out how Mal's mind worked, she knew about his insatiable appetite for pain. Whether it was him causing or receiving it.
It might've seemed, to a stranger, that Mal only wandered around causing chaos but he always had a plan, some kind of goal that he wants to accomplish.
Zoey believed that this time the plan involved her death and the only thing she couldn't understand was what was taking him so long? Granted she has never seen him kill anyone and was grateful for that but she knew he was ruthless and that scared her.
Not only would her death end her, it would end Mike as well.
She heard Mal arriving in the living room and without thinking, quickly got up from her crouch.
"Mike is a little feistier this time. You got some secret I'm not supposed to know? Are you pregnant?" he walked in the room nonchalantly, heading to the couch-Zoey assumed from his nearing voice while she slowly backed away from it.
"Because if so, I would love to help you raise it!" he said in an eerily cheerful voice that made Zoey shudder.
She heard Mal casually sat down on the couch, leaning his feet on the coffee table.
"I mean I haven't seen kids before let alone raise them! - Oh wait, I have seen kids, yeah, in that cute family I…well I just didn't like them.-You understand what's it like to want to remove someone you hate. You've been wanting to remove me all along!"
"But in the name of family, I'm not angry and I'm sure I can come up with some parenting tricks!" Zoey was slowly nearing the cupboard next to the fireplace across the coffee table, quietly feeling around and hoping she doesn't trip. She slowly started opening a cupboard cabinet that held her and Mike's possible salvation as Mal kept talking "You know, my biological parents did a great job of raising me and as you can see, I turned out great! - Sure, there were times when Mike and I were scared or people didn't believe us that me and the others existed... and I mean sure, we got beaten up a lot, and I mean A LOT. Our parents couldn't give us a rest!"
Zoey couldn't stand hearing all of that, Mike has talked about his past before though not always to detail. She knew all there was to know, but some memories were better left buried and she respected that. But Mal broke all of Mike's boundaries, doing and saying things Mike would never say or do. That's how Zoey learned about the grittiest moments of Mike's childhood, moments she wanted to forget hearing about.
It always came down to this though. She has never had a conversation with Mal, always him talking and her begging for Mike to come back. Every time Mal would take control, which they were very happy that it happened rarely, all Zoey did was work on how to bring Mike back and prevent Mal from doing something horrible in the meantime. But somehow it always came down to her and Mal in the same room, him ranting about his disturbing childhood as if discussing the weather and her cringing and gasping in shock while trying not to show weakness and break down crying.
"What I did to you a while back was exactly what I got when I was about... six? Yeah, six. Our dad found our presence unsettling and decided he should beat us up, so as you would expect, Mike made me take beating. He was always a coward. But I guess I should thank him, his coward-ness is what made me this way in the first place."
In her surprise, Zoey managed to get behind the couch during his monologue and prepared herself to attack. She wasn't going to hurt Mike, but she had to stop Mal somehow and this was her only way.
She positioned the syringe in her hand in close proximity to him and was ready to hold him down with her other hand and plunge it in, hopefully, his neck.
"Do it Red." she flinched. Zoey wasn't expecting a response and she certainly wasn't expecting him to notice her presence or ask her to do it.
She hesitantly neared his neck with the syringe. Her instincts kept telling her it's a trap but she couldn't pass up an opportunity when he was cooperating.
Gathering the courage, she shakily neared the syringe so that it was touching his neck. She checked just in case if it really was his neck before sticking the syringe in and inserting the sleeping drug in his body. They only had it for cases like these or if one of the half-formed alters ever came out.
She was surprised Mal didn't fight back, he didn't even flinch. Once she was sure the drug had taken it's effect, she went to the front of the couch and got ready to remove him from the couch. This whole thing felt suspicious, Mal didn't even chase her enough or cause anything serious and Mal never left without a bang. It just all felt too easy and Zoey felt dread rise in her. What if she had made the wrong choice by doing what he wanted her to? What if she just enabled him to proceed with whatever his plan was?
Zoey was really scared.