He was hovering over her, a grim smile on his face as blood-curling screams echoed through the room. 'No stop STOP HURTING HER!" A child screamed, pulling at her long blonde hair. 'STOP PLEASE, PLEASE STOP!"
"You have to learn discipline!" he growled, lashing down with his belt at the lifeless girl in front of him. "I told you two not to lift my wallet! I TOLD YOU NOT TO STEAL FROM ME!" he roared. A scared woman rushed into the room, grabbing at her husbands arm. 'Please stop Carl, leave them alone!" she pleaded, crying out when he threw her back against the wall. "SHUT UP!" The brown-haired girl could smell the alcohol on his breath, the scent sending her reeling. Fighting through the pain that threatened to overtake her, she struggled to focus on her twin that was huddled in the corner across the room. She wanted to yell, tell her to run, but she knew she wouldn't.
Eventually the man lost interest and wandered from the room in his drunken stupor, and the girl breathed a sigh of relief-
Only to be thrown into another nightmare. Another man advanced towards her, but this time her twin was beside her, the two linking arms and backing against the wall. They were older now, different foster parents, but these were just as bad. Blood dripped down her arm and she clutched her sister tightly. Glancing behind her, she saw they were being backed towards a window. Trying to ignore the fact that she was seeing double and her head was throbbing; she poked her sister lightly and tilted her head towards the window. Window. Jump. Run.
Breaking towards the escape route, both of them jumped, rolling as they hit the ground and springing up. Both reeling from blood-loss and stinging injuries on their arms and legs, they stumbled towards the dark woods, hoping to escape only to find herself running strait into a different nightmare-
"Kenzi. Kenzi!" Somebody was shaking her awake and she gasped, sitting strait up and crashing heads with the blonde girl in front of her. "Damnit! Ouch!" Rubbing her head, her twin sent her a reproachful look. "Why did you do that?" she whined. "Why did you wake me up?" Kenzi grumbled, shoving her sister off her bed. "Why are you waking me up at-7 o'clock in the morning?"
"You were having a nightmare." Parker stated matter-of-factly. Sending her a look, Kenzi slid out of the bed. "You were watching me sleep?" she questioned, not really surprised. This was Parker, her sister, who was a little bit off. She'd chosen to deal with their abuse as children differently, and as a result she was now considered insane. Kenzi didn't mind though.
"Well thanks for waking me I guess, even if it is at 7 in the morning. It was getting worse." Shooting her a crooked grin, she frowned when her sister didn't smile back. "What's wrong?"
"I'm scared the team wont accept you. What if they make you go away?" Gazing at her with her innocent blue eyes, Parker wrung her hands nervously. "Then I'll leave." Kenzi stated simply. "You've found a new family Parker, they're helping you. If I can stay, I would love it, but if I cant, I know you're safe with them." Nodding unsurely, Parker flopped down on the bed. "I guess I get what your saying." Smiling, I collapsed next to her. "So what do you think will happen today?"
"No it's perfectly safe." Leering at the young mother, he reached out for her daughter. 'We've told you numerous time Mrs. Candor, our gymnastics facility is completely safe." Shooting her mom a nervous look, the girl stepped forwards. "3 girls have been so badly injured that they cant even play sports anymore." She snapped. "And so many more have made it to the Olympics and become ranked in the world. There are always casualties in sports." He replied soothingly, taking her daughters arm and leading her away. "Trust me it's going to be fine Mrs. Candor." Biting her nails nervously, she watched her daughter start to stretch. Gazing around at all the other wealthy parents, the middle-class women straitened up and marched out, refusing to look weak. She would prove it to them that you didn't need money to play gymnastics. Her daughter would be fine.
"Please Mr. Ford this man took almost all of my money, saying it was to pay for the lessons and pay to buy new equipment. That equipment wasn't new, no way. I watched those bars collapse under my daughter weight; new bars would have never done that. She's never going to be able to walk again, let alone get back out in the gym. That's happened to at least 4 other parents, but they always just said that it was "part of the sport." She put her life into gymnastics. Now what's she going to do?" Studying the distraught lady, Nate nodded seriously. "We'll shut him down, I'll make sure of that. Don't work Mrs. Condor, we'll make sure he can't hurt anyone else." Wiping tears from her cheeks, she smiled slightly and stood to make her way out of the bar. "Thank you Mr. Ford. Thank you so much." Stumbling out, she wrapped her jacket around her as she stepped into the rain.
"Alright, Hardison, Run it." Slouching in-between Eliot and Parker, Kenzi fidgeted with the necklace, wrapping it around her slim fingers. "Ok so what happens now?" Kenzi whispered to Parker in a hushed tone. "He does his weird creepy thing where he analyzes the mark and thinks up whatever con we're going to run and he always makes it as sadistic as possible." She responded, not so quietly. Turning to look at her, Nate fixed her with a glare and she shrugged. "What? It's true!"
Eliot shied away from the girl sitting next to him, looking extremely awkward. Sophie noticed, as did Hardison who let a wide smile spread across his face. Oh he would catch hell for this. Hardison finally had something to call Eliot out on. He was awkward around the girl who stole his wallet, adorable.
"Ok so this man, Ivan Babanin, Russian gymnastics coach, moved around several gyms in the country. It looks like at all of his gyms a number of girls were fatally injured right before he moved. He charges an enormous amount of money, but because super famous gymnastics have been paid off to say that he has an amazing gym, everyone wants to go there. He says that the money he gets from parents helps upgrade the gym, but it actually goes to his quite large offshore account. Pretty much none of the money goes towards the gym, but he pays off the inspectors so they leave him alone. Man this guys awful." Hardison shook his head, looking sickened. "What's going to happen when one of those girls dies man? How can that guy do that?"
"Because he's a bastard Hardison." Eliot cut in. "He doesn't care if a couple of girls get hurt as long as several get world recognition and people think he's actually a good coach." He spat, crossing his arms and hunching over. Shooting him a look, Nate stood up. "So this is what we're going to do, we're going to ruin his reputation and take him for everything he's got. Guys-" a wide smile spread across his face,"-Lets go steal ourselves a gymnast."