The next few moments happened in a blur. A dark figure hovered over her, the person's mouth moving but it sounded muffled. The dark figure became two and soon, like a switch was turned on, everything came rushing back to her.
"Mellie? Mellie? It's Olivia. You're going to have to be very qui – Mellie – can you hear me?" Olivia whispered.
"Liv, he- he- he's dead. He's dead." Mellie cried, one hand gripping Olivia's arm, her eyes frantic, her body shaking. "I think he was t-trying to save me. I don't- I don't-"
"You're in shock, Mellie. B-but it's going to be okay. You just have to be very quiet because they're looking for y-you." Olivia whispered, trying to calm her down. Olivia's eyes were wide, scared. Her hands shook, trying to calm Mellie down. Abby crouched down next to Olivia watching the sudden change of events unfold, her trembling hand covering her mouth.
"It's going to be okay. Do you hear me? It will be okay." continued Olivia, taking a shaky breath. Mellie took several deep breaths and forced herself to calm down. Her hands had started trembling again.
"Fitz, Liv. Where's Fitz? W-we have to get him out of here." she pleaded, gripping Olivia's arm hard again, smearing blood on her skin.
"O-olivia." Abby said in an abrupt whisper. "Liv, he's coming this way."
Mellie sucked in her breath. Olivia scanned the room, looking for a way out. There were no other doors that lead out except for the large mahogany doors that were being guarded by two masked men, their guns ready.
"There." Olivia whispered. She pointed at a door that has a sign, 'storage room'. It wasn't far from where they were although, Olivia was concerned how Mellie was going to get there without being noticed, in her psychological state.
"We have to be quick. H-he's coming. If he looks in our direction, the First Lady is dead." Abby said frantically, nudging Olivia to move.
"Mellie? You have to move. There's no other way out of here but I found a storage room that we can temporarily hide you in." said Olivia, getting into a familiar coping mechanism of hers; pushing her feelings away in a closet during a crisis. "We're going to cover you but you have to walk yourself so they can't notice us."
Mellie hesitated and started protesting. She looked straight at both of their eyes and said in a serious tone, "I am not leaving both of you out here."
"Mellie, we'll follow you once you're inside. They're looking for you, do you hear me? You are not allowed to die. It's very important that you do not leave that room. Please." pleaded Olivia.
They were all crouched down, hiding behind a table, away from the men in masks. Mellie still hesitated. Abby and Olivia gave her frantic gestures to move and slowly, Mellie started crawling towards the door. Mellie was shaking as her knees protested to give in.
"Hey! What are you doing over there?" one of the masked men was looking at them and started approaching Olivia and Abby and as he moved, they saw flashes of his gun placed in the inside pocket of his jacket. "What were you two looking at, huh? Who were you talking to?" He glanced at the direction they were looking at. No one was there.
"Wait. I recognise both of you. Olivia Pope. Abby Whelan. High connections to the White House." He took out his gun and before any of them could react, he pointed it straight at them, wasting no time. "Where's the President and the First Lady?"
Olivia and Abby flinched, their faces suddenly meeting with the huge barrel of a gun.
"P-please." Olivia stammered. She held a hand up, which slightly shook, and tried to calm him down. "Why are you d-doing this? W-what do you want from them?"
The masked man and John exchanged looks and they snickered. "Oh, you're funny. You're a funny one." the man said. "That's certainly not for you to know, Miss Pope." He continued, playing with his gun.
He crouched down to them. "You see, I know everything about you." He revealed, looking at Abby. "And you." he said, looking at Olivia and chuckled. "I've read every single page of a very thick file of everyone in this room. Everything. Pages and pages of your dirty little secrets. Classified information. Phone calls. Surveillance videos. So I know, Miss Pope, you've recently talked to the President. So recently in fact, I have a video of you talking to each other a mere five minutes before we came here. Now where is he? Where's the First Lady?"
"I don't know where they are. The President and I saw each other. We talked. He left. That was it." Olivia hissed.
"So you have no idea where he or the First Lady went?" the man said in a serious tone.
"None. And if I did, I'm sure as hell I'd never tell any of you."
"None, huh? Did you hear that guys? She won't tell us even if she knew." He glanced at the men in masks who looked at each other. No one was smiling.
"You're sure, you never saw any of them again?" the man asked in a serious tone, with a hint of underlying venom as he looked at Olivia straight in the eye.
"I didn't even turn around to see where he'd gone." Olivia said, staring back at him. For a moment, Olivia and the masked man stared at each other. The tension grew. Abby felt as though the room had suddenly become very quiet. She thought it had become so quiet that she could hear Olivia's own heartbeats. The tension between Olivia and the masked man suddenly popped as the man flashed a wide smile.
"Well alright, Miss Pope. Perhaps, you really don't know where both of them had gone. Since, I'm clearly wasting my time here, there's no point asking you something you know nothing about. I'll leave you both to it."
He started rising up to stand when in an instant he yanked Olivia's hair and dragged her by her hair against the wall, roaring, "I don't have time for games, Miss Pope!"
He cocked the gun against her temple and pressed hard. Olivia screamed, her mouth trembling.
"Get your hands off of her!" Abby yelled, advancing towards him. Before she could reach him, John appeared and dragged her back roughly by her hair. Abby cried out in pain. She fought hard as he held her back, stomping his foot and trying to free her arms. He didn't budge.
"I d-d-don't know what else you want from m-me. Please, I don't know w-where they are." Olivia whimpered, the gun still pressed hard against her temple, raising her trembling hands above her head. Her eyes filled with tears while she looked at Abby, who's restless against John's grip. Olivia cried out again as he yanked harder against her hair.
"I don't have time for lies!" He hissed.
"No. Don't you touch her." Abby warned.
"Frank, hurry it along. I am getting extremely bored by this charade." John said, his effortless grip as tight as ever on a restless Abby.
"Where's the President, Miss Pope?" Frank said calmly.
"I-I don't know." whimpered Olivia. Frank swung his gun and slapped Olivia across the face. She screamed in pain and started falling to the ground, blood dripping from her face. He caught her by her hair and yanked her up again. Olivia screamed in agony, her eyes wide, her body shaking.
"WHERE IS THE PRESIDENT AND THE FIRST LADY?" Frank demanded.
"P-p-please. I don't know!" begged Olivia. She attempted to shield her face as he struck his gun across Olivia's face once again. She shrieked in pain, pleading, "Please! I don't-I don't know. P-please stop, I don't know w-where they are."
At the corner of her eye, she saw something move. She moved her eyes slightly to her left, trying not to get the attention of her captors. The door to the storage room had opened and Mellie's head was poking out. Mellie stared at her in shock. Olivia's face was covered in blood, dripping down her white dress. Abby was still fighting against John's grip, her flaming red hair everywhere, her feet moving angrily against her emerald dress. She was restless and hysterical. Frank was telling her to shut up while John looked quite pissed having to wrestle a middle-aged woman.
No, Olivia, this is enough! I'm handing myself in, Mellie mouthed. Olivia's eyes widened in alarm. She positioned one of her hands away from her captors' view and pointed her to go back into the room. No way, you stay right there, Olivia mouthed, angling her head away from John and Frank. She repeated her gesture to return to the room several times until Frank snapped," What the hell are you doing? What are you looking at?"
It happened so fast, Olivia barely had time to react. Frank raised his gun and pressed it against Olivia's temple. Abby gasped as she saw Mellie's head sticking out of the room and watching her. Frank was about to turn to where Olivia was looking at when Abby suddenly thrashed around – saw Mellie swiftly hide back inside – and yelled, "WAIT- I know where the President is. Look at me please- listen to me. I know where he is and I'll take you to him."
Frank pointed the gun at her, "Don't bullshit me."
"No! I'm not. I k-know where he is. Just let Olivia g-go and I'll take you to him." She pleaded.
"How about you tell me where he is, and we'll go find him ourselves?" Frank pointed out.
"Because you won't find him. Listen to me- listen. I work at the White House, I hear things. Secret Service agents will always be 5 feet from him, even though you think you've killed them all. I know where they hid him, I'll lead you to him." Abby said.
"Abby, no." Olivia thundered. Holding Olivia back with one hand, Frank's gun is still pointed at Abby using the other, not convinced.
"You know what? Frank, why don't you check it out? Let's pick up the pace here." John commanded. Frank looked at him in disbelief and started protesting.
"You're kidding me."
"No. Now get going." John instructed. Frank hesitantly placed his gun back to his pocket.
"Wait. I'm not taking you to him unless you promise to leave Olivia alone. Are you hearing me? Leave. Her. Alone. You don't touch her." Abby uttered, not a wavering tone in her voice.
"Whatever you say, princess. Just remember, you lie to us about this and I will make Olivia watch you bleed to death." John threatened, finally letting go of his pincer grip on Abby. It was quickly replaced by Frank's as he let go of Olivia's hair. She dropped straight to the floor.
Olivia helplessly tried scrambling back to her feet but failed, slumping back against the wall, wincing. "Abby! Wait- what the hell are you doing? Abby? Wha-what are you gonna do?" protested Olivia. She winced as she tried to get back on her feet once more when John held her back.
"You stay here." He instructed.
"ABBY, PLEASE. Don't do this." Olivia pleaded, tears finally rushing down her face. Her head felt like it was cracking open. She was fighting against unconsciousness.
Abby and Frank reached the front doors of the ballroom. Frank opened it. Abby glanced back at Olivia. She was screaming and thrashing against John who was holding her back. She gave her a last meaningful look. Over a cliff, Olivia, she thought. They stared at each other for a moment as though Olivia read her mind. Frank hastily pushed her through the door.
"ABBY, NO. COME B- ABBY! NO, PLEASE." Olivia cried, thrashing around helplessly. The doors to the room echoed to a close. A man in a mask locked it once more. Olivia slumped back down, her head propped up against her knees, silently crying.
"Pity. I really wish you guys said your goodbyes, because it looks like she won't be coming back." John taunted.
Olivia looked up, confused, and started frantically wiping away her tears. "Wha- what? What do you mean?"
"Please. I've been to many similar situations like this to know a desperate little martyr when I see one. There's always one or two in situations like these." He sneered.
"W-w-what? But you let her go! You let her lead the way to Fitz."
"Only because there's a very small chance she actually could be telling the truth." He said. Olivia looked at him with exasperation.
"We don't waste chances here, Miss Pope." He said smoothly. "If someone with a fight in them manages to get our attention, we follow through. Only I highly doubt Miss Whelan was actually telling the truth and breaking our record when the last 16 people we encountered that was just like her, was killed." He said in a matter-of-factly tone.
"I still don- you're saying that you're practically leading her to her death? Are you insane? Bring her back. Wha-"
"If you put it that way… yes. Since you obviously can't even stand up, you're no help to me anymore. Now, you'll faint at some point in the next five minutes judging from the amount of blood in your head. Try not to make any more mess. I suggest you get out of our way and not disturb us the second time." He taunted, walking away.
As soon as he mentioned Olivia's head, the throbbing in her head returned, even worse this time. It felt like someone's hands was on either side of her head and pushing into her skull. The bleeding had stopped, but her hair and dress was matted with it. She started crawling towards the storage room using the wall for support but abruptly stopped. She realised she was leaving bloody handprints if she was to go hide in the storage room. She started seeing double. Olivia tried to stand up but her knees buckled and she started swaying to the side. She blinked back tears or blood; she wasn't sure. She left a final bloody handprint on the wall and her knees gave in, her head hitting hard against the hardwood floors.
She woke up to a blinding pain in her head and she groaned. She winced as she slowly rolled to her side – her head too heavy to carry – to see what was happening. She blinked a few times to see where she was. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion as she saw she wasn't in the same place.
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