The lights flipped on. Mark waited for his eyes to adjust before looking around the room. The room had dull gray walls that met the ceiling four feet above his head. A metal table stood in the center of the room. People were chained around the perimeter of the walls. This is a pretty large prison cell, Mark thought. He counted twelve members of the Young Tribulation Force, one of which included Judd. Upon seeing Judd, Mark's eyes widened and he searched for Vicki before finding that she was not there.
A tall, lean, prominent young man sauntered to the middle of the room. His shoe heels clacked against the floor. His head was held high, his shoulders were squared, and he was carrying four knives in both hands.
"Who are y–" Shelly began to ask, but the man turned on one heel, threw a knife, and killed the young girl. Nicolae Carpathia was extremely dangerous.
Nicolae finished his walk to the center of the room where a table stood. He set down two of the blades and kept one in his hand to toy with. He drew a shape into the table and looked around at the kids.
Mark had never put intelligence past Nicolae Carpathia, but he seemed to know them all too well. Of the five girls, only one of them had shackles on, and only her legs were bound. Charlie was the only male of the seven to not be chained. Judd and Mark were the most restrained. Both men had shackles wrapped around their chest, a chain attached to their handcuffs hooked to the wall, and leg irons on both feet, as well as a gag tied tightly to their mouths. Nicolae looked at the two men and smiled slightly.
Nicolae blew on the tip of the blade and brushed his thumb across it. "I need you to understand something before I kill you," he said in his Romanian accent. He began walking around the perimeter of the room again, pausing briefly to smile greedily at Darrion before continuing on his way. "I am not going to give you all quick deaths. In fact, the only one who gets a quick death," he pointed his knife at Shelly, "is Shelly Brown."
Mark met Judd's eyes as both of them realized the situation they were in.
Nicolae's steps were agonizingly slow and deliberate. "I know who you all are. I know quite a bit about all of you." Nicolae stopped in front of Mark, looking him up and down. "Mark Eisman. You were a track star at your old high school, always ready to blow your temper. Originally, you were planning on attending Princeton University to study liberal arts and history, but then your life fell apart. You met – who is it? Victoria Byrne?" Nicolae grinned, mocking Mark, "– and fell in love with her."
Judd's eyes widened in shock and he gaped at Mark with a look of betrayal.
"But you knew that someone else was in love with her, and you felt that you didn't have a chance with this Vicki. She's very beautiful, I must admit."
Both Judd and Mark agreed with Nicolae Carpathia for the first time in their lives, much to their dismay.
Nicolae smiled and walked around the table to Judd. "The only thing I don't know," he stopped to touch Natalie's face. Mark breathed shallowly, praying to God to let the antichrist continue on his merry without touching another one of the girls. Nicolae let his hand fall and moved back towards the table and leaned against it. "The only thing I don't know is where the rest of you are hiding. One of those people is Vicki Elizabeth Byrne."
Judd tried to throw himself at Carpathia, struggling against the chains that held him back. Everyone in the room knew what Carpathia was after: the location of their friends and the woman Judd and Mark would protect at every cost.
Nicolae watched in amusement as Judd kept throwing himself at him. Judd nearly broke the restraints at one point, but before he could, he was yanked back to the wall. He didn't bother straining against the irons anymore and leaned his head against the partition to regain his breath.
"And what would you do with Vicki? Because all of us know God is going to kick your ass," Natalie said.
Nicolae turned with an insulted look on his face.
The antichrist reached out his arm, holding his hands as if he were to hold her head. He made the motion of breaking someone's neck, and Natalie was on the ground dead. "I'm sorry," he said, "what were you saying?"