This chapter was honestly fast and easy to write simply because I really do not want to do anything related to school. Also thanks to everyone who flowed/favorited, and Hackslash24x7 for reviewing.
Chapter 4:
October 21, 2010
"Are you sure that's all you know?"
Officer Jackson wasn't a real police officer. He was an agent from Hydra and they're evil. I haven't seen Grant yet. I don't even know where I am. The metal cuffs encircling my arms and binding me to the table were itchy. I wanted water.
"Ashlee, answer the question." The lady asked. She's evil too.
"Yes!" I screamed, frustrated. They'd been asking me the same questions for what felt like three days. It was hard to tell because I hadn't seen the sun or been given food since I'd woken up here. "That's all I know! My mom is a doctor and my brother is in college and no, I don't know who my father is. Let me go." Was. Past tense. She had been a doctor.
"Ashlee, I'm going to need you to calm down."
"Calm down?" I shouted, voice cracking at the interrogator, pulling against the cuffs even after I felt them cut deep into my wrists, warmness dripping down to my hands. "You killed my mom!"
"Please, sit back down," she said, annoyingly calm.
"Go screw yourself," I screamed again, my voice rough.
The door opened suddenly. And just the person I wanted to see slips in.
"You!" I screamed louder at 'Officer' Jackson. His left shoulder was bandaged, lower arm held in place by a sling.
"Agent Rumlow, you're not supposed to be-," the lady said.
"The director has made the decision. Project Amaranthine has been approved." Jackson replied as he walked closer to me. The lady shrugged and left the room, stepping aside as two blank faced men in white lab coats entered.
"What are you doing?" I shouted at him.
"We're way too deep underground for anyone else to hear." He said as he unlocked the cuffs from the table before relocking them again together behind my back. He dragged me up from the metal chair by my upper left arm, fingers digging in deep enough to leave bruises. I screamed as loud as I could. Someone had to come, right? He ignored me, instead passing me off to the two men, who each grabbed one of my arms, causing my arms to twist backwards so far I thought they would break.
"Lab one C," Jackson- Rumlow- told the men.
"Isn't that the one the boy is-," one of the lab coats questioned.
"Orders from the director." Rumlow answered, not bothering to elaborate further. They turned me around toward the door.
"Let me go, asshole," I shouted in one of their creepy, emotionless, faces, kicking at them with my bare feet. The man responded with an elbow to my face. My vision dimed for a second, comical stars spinning across the room. I blinked back tears, not wanting to give them the satisfaction. My cheekbone throbbed with each heartbeat as they began to drag me, dazed, down a long white hallway.
A minute or two later they tossed me on a cot, covered in a ridiculously thin mattress. I was exhausted, laying passively as they take off the cuffs. I rolled over on my back, cupping my swollen, cut wrists as they leave the room, a loud click echoing after the door was shut.
I must've laid there for another minute before I realized the room wasn't empty.
"Ashlee?" A weak voice whispers across the room from another, similar bed. I almost don't recognize the skinny boy on the cot as my brother. He's on his side, face pale, eyes vacant and listless as he opens his mouth again. "Is that you?"
I slip off the bed, stumbling on shaky legs to his side.
"Grant," I said. "Oh, my god. What did they do to you?" He shifts his opposite arm into view and I see the giant needle taped to his inner elbow, and follow the line up to a bag of blue liquid. It's glowing, pulsing almost in its clear plastic bag, swirling otherworldly.
I give him a gentle hug. He had started to cry, not bothering to try to wipe the tears. I moved to rip whatever poison they are putting in my baby brother out of him.
"No," He mumbled, stopping me. He pointed to the corner of the room, at a black buble with a glowing red eye. "They'll know. They'll get angry." Then he asked the question I'd been dreading. "Where were you? They took me and you weren't there and I was all alone."
I sat back on my heels, at a loss for what to say.
"I was all alone and these doctors are so mean. I hate them. Ashlee, I want to go home."
"I'm so sorry." I breathed, trying not to cry, trying to be wrong for him. I accidentally brushed my eye, the one that had been hit, and flinched as a new wave of pain rolled over me. "I-I tried to find Michael, to help us. To help me find you."
"Where's mom?" He said. I don't breath for a second. Was is possible he hadn't seen what had happened?
"She's safe. With Michael. They're coming to get us." I lied, gut clenching. He'd find out eventually. It wasn't a facade I could keep up forever. Grant would know the truth and I was so afraid he'd hate me for it. But right now, I couldn't bare to break it to him. He simply didn't need to know. I just wished I could believe it too right now.
Then I leaned over him, pulling him in hug, as tight as I dared, cradling his small body. "I'll never let you go again. Never again. I Promise"
"Pinky swear?" His chapped lips crack as he smiled and reached his hand up as far as he could, little finger raised. I linked my pinky around his and grinned, trying not to cry. At least I wasn't lying about this.
"I swear."
I stayed there, legs going numb, as I awkwardly cradled him, not wanting to risk losing him again.
:)
