Disclaimer: All the Gallagher Girl characters belong to Ally Carter, although i wish i was the one who came up with this incredible idea!
"I'm telling you, I don't remember! I don't even remember seeing my Dad talking to anyone, I swear!" I screamed as the woman came closer to me, circling around the chair that I was tied to, much like I was her prey. Catherine smiled at me.
"Of course you remember Cammie. You of all girls should know that. I mean you had Joe Solomon as a teacher right? Memory is a spy's best weapon? Ring a bell?" Catherine's voice is taunting, daring me to contradict her, tell her that she's wrong. I hold my head up defiantly, and Zach's mom, my boyfriend's mom looks at me strangely, a light coming to her eyes that scares me to death. I cringe as she picks up a knife, trailing it along the table in front of me. She points in under my chin, pressing down, so that a trail of blood slowly makes it way down my throat.
"Now, Cammie, dear. I'll give you one last chance, but I'm telling you my patience is wearing thin. I already gave you an exception because you're my son's little pet, but a woman can't wait forever can she?"
As Catherine leans into my face more, I give her my answer, I spit into her face. I expect her to scream, to try to hurt me immediately, but Catherine just stands there with a smile on her face. A smile!
"Cammie, sweetheart, is that any way to treat your future mother-in-law?" She asks me, genuinely confused. Then she lifts the knife and brings it down.
I scream and scream and scream, the pain blinding, tears coming freely to my eyes, rushing down my face. I scream like I never had before.
Zach POV:
I sit up in my small cot, pushing the thin blanket off of me. My IPod is on the table next to me and the headphones are dangling off the edge still blaring the song that had made its way into my dreams. Wires by the Neighborhood. The song that completely described my life right now. I rub my hands over my eyes, trying to erase the memory of Cammie screaming, of Cammie in pain. I almost couldn't take it. My girlfriend, the love of my life was in pain, was getting tortured, because of me. I get up out of my cot, going over to the map stretched out across my room. There are tacks pinned on every building that I have checked, every building that may have held some importance to my mom or to the Circle. I take my dagger and throw it at the map, hitting a target, a building that I had lived in with my mother once, which I had yet to check. I had been searching for over three days never sleeping, never eating, and going on and on until I found Cammie. My Cammie. But I had to rest sometime and I now I had the strength to keep going, to find her, to find my girl, before it was too late.
Cammie POV
Straight to hell, Straight to hell
Straight to hell, Straight to hell
Catherine watches me as her hired lackeys beat upon me until I was crying, screaming in pain, telling them to stop, to please stop.
"Cammie!" Catherine yells at me. "Just tell me what names were on that stupid list! Then I might just let you go back to Zach."
At the sound of his name I stop screaming, I really wanted to see him, to feel his lips on mine, to have his hands hold me, to feel safe as he would murmur into my ear saying that it would be okay, that I was now safe. Catherine noticed the slight tremor that went through me, "You would like to see him wouldn't you? My son has your heart." I don't say anything as she comes over to me, squats down in front of my face. Her long slender fingers go to cup my chin and I use my old technique; I cough blood into her face.
Catherine gets mad this time, slapping me across the face.
"You think you can be defiant? You think you can make a point?" She screams at me, kicking me in the stomach, causing me to cough up more blood. "Well Cammie, you haven't seen the half of what I can do to you." She smiles and turns to a man that lives at Blackthorne, a man who came to the Gallagher Academy during the exchange program, a man I had slightly trusted; Dr. Steve.
"Ready the cars, we're moving again, but go ahead and make sure the electric chair is working."
I should've been horrified at the news but to be honest, I wished that they would over calculate the electricity flow and make my heart stop. I mean I had heard of that happening before, which was why an electricity chair wasn't exactly a big choice of a torture device. Catherine waves her hand at her lackeys as soon as Dr. Steve leaves and they continue to beat me until I can't scream anymore. I'm coughing up blood and I can't even speak as I make my way over to Catherine, in an army crawl. She looks down at me and smiles again, and I'm stricken at how much her eyes are like Zach's, the same dark green, like the foliage behind the Gallagher Academy. She sets down a picture, one of Zach and me where I don't even want to know where she got it. "So Zachy knows we were here." She just says simply.
Two lines of the song, Wires, repeat in my head over and over again.
Straight to hell, Straight to hell
Straight to hell, Straight to hell
Zach POV
I knock down the door, not even caring to be silent anymore. I feel deranged, like an animal without its mate as I look around the room taking in the blood splatters on the walls, the floors. Cammie's blood. I see something on what looks like the kitchen counter and make my way over to it, still keeping the gun in my hands trained on the door. If I so much as saw Catherine, she was going to wish that she had let her lackey kill me in the tombs. I see that the thing on the counter was a picture frame. In fact, one of Cammie and me.
I remember that day.
Cam's friends had let us have a day to ourselves, and we had spent it laughing and talking and kissing, walking through the forest holding hands, not thinking about the Circle of Cavan. That had been one of the best days of my life. I smile at the memory, but then I know that Catherine had put this photo here to let me know that Cammie was still alive and that I had just missed her.
I my rage I throw the picture frame against the wall and it shatters into a million pieces. I fall to the ground and shout "Where is she?"
Cammie POV
Straight to hell, Straight to hell
Straight to hell, Straight to hell
"I don't know." I say tiredly looking at Dr. Steve. "I really don't remember." He frowns and turns on the machine, and my body jerks back and forth, electricity coursing through it. I scream so loud that I swear Bex and Macey and Liz would hear it back at my school. I scream and scream until I feel the blood running out of my nose. That's when Dr. Steve finally stops the machine. My body falls back against the chair, and I realize that my jacket is no longer on. It's pushed up against the wall and I know that it's Zach's new symbol of some sorts to let him know that I was here.
"Now, Cameron. Do you remember now?" Dr. Steve asks me. I shake my head, silent tears now running down my face. He grimaces but still turns on the machine again until I faint. It ended in blackness.
Zach POV
I stumble through the house, Cammie's bloodstained jacket in my hand. I collapse against a wall, bringing my knees into my chest, rocking back and forth. I bring her jacket to my face and inhale the scent of it; blood, but still the scent of Cammie. Lavender soap, lotus flower perfume, and honey shampoo. And the undertones of cotton. I let the tears finally come and I cry and I cry and I cry. "I'm sorry Cam. I'm so sorry Gallagher Girl."
Cammie POV
Catherine pours water onto my face as Dr. Steve holds a rag over it. I couldn't breathe and I struggled against the chains constricting me to the chair. The rag comes off and the water flow stops and Catherine asks me the same question. "Cammie what was on that list?" I can tell that she is now impatient, and that any second now she will kill me out of spite. The water torture continues until I literally have no air left. I go in and out of consciousness, until I feel the rag come off my face again. Then Catherine's hand is around my nose, the palm of it clamping down on my mouth. I fail my arms around, kicking my legs, knowing that any second I will die.
Straight to hell, Straight to hell
Straight to hell, Straight to hell
Until the hand is no longer there. I hear voices and then a shout and I let my eyes lose focus for a second until a very familiar face is above me. His dark green eyes are fringed by dark lashes and I suddenly know who it is. "Zach?" I whisper, my voice hoarse and cracking. "Gallagher Girl," My boyfriend, my tough strong boyfriend who's been through everything, starts to cry. He unties me from the table, and cradles me in his arms, stroking my short hair away from my face. He slips his hand into his pocket and pulls out his phone. He dials a number and says, "I have her. I have Cammie. No, she's not fine. Venice. South. Willows Street. Yep, bye." Zach looks down at me, and his tears fall down onto my face. He leans down and kisses my forehead. "You're going to be okay Gallagher Girl, you're gonna be okay."
His voice fades away as my eyes once again lose focus.
I hear him shout, "Don't leave me Gallagher Girl! No Cammie, don't fall asleep." But despite his protests I slip away.
Cammie POV
I awake to a bright light. And as I take in my surroundings, everything is white. I'm in a hospital room, or the Gallagher Academy infirmary room. I'm home! I take in four sleeping forms on the floor, and see that they are my roommates and Zach. He seems to know that I awoke, because he gets up and comes to stand by my side. Or maybe he wasn't even sleeping.
Zach picks me up and gently moves me over so that he can snuggle under the covers with me. He puts his arms around my waist and kisses me softly. "I love you Gallagher Girl."
"What did you just say?" I ask, not believing my ears, thinking that I'm hallucinating.
Zach smirks at me and I smile, knowing that my beautiful boy still has those annoying charms of his. "I said that I love you, Gallagher Girl…Cammie."
I nuzzle my head into his chest. "I love you too Zach." I nod off to sleep then, hearing Zach mumble some last words to me. "I promise to keep you safe Cam, from now and on, forever. I promise to never let you get hurt, I promise to never let you get tortured. And I promise above all to love you with all my heart, until the end of my life and even beyond that."