Alright, tenth chapter! I've decided, after being requested, that I should write a chapter that mainly focuses on Margaret. This chapter starts with the prisoner and goes to Margaret. I hope ya'll like this.

Chapter 10

The guard that had stepped in was dressed in black clothing with and ammo belt around his waist. He was carrying an AK-47 that at the moment was slung over his shoulder. The Vietcong walked up to blond marine on the floor and gave him a small kick, saying,

"Hãy đứng dậy! (Get up!)"

The marine, not understanding, just stared at the guard in tired curiosity. The guard repeated himself, louder this time and still the marine stared.

"Bạn mảnh vô giá trị của shit! (Get up you worthless piece of shit!)," the Vietcong yelled angrily, kicking the marine hard enough this time to make him double over.

"Vận động (Move)," the guard at the entrance said as a gun barrel was jabbed against the marine's temple.

Finally understanding a little bit, the marine mustered enough strength to rise, shaking unsteadily. He almost bumped his head on the low dirt ceiling. The marine steadied himself and hesitantly took a step forward. Suddenly he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head as the guard next to him smacked him on the back of the head with the butt of the AK-47. As the prisoner fell hard the guards laughed.

The marine groaned at the numb pain. His eyes caught the blue jay's eyes and for a second the blue jay tried to get up, to help his fallen friend. But he could not. The wounded soldier did not have enough strength to help his friend. All he could do was watch as the marine that he had known since childhood was dragged out of the dirt prison.

The blond marine was dragged though dirt tunnels with semicircle ceilings. Through passage ways and tunnels, he was brought deeper into the Earth. Then, the guards and the prisoner entered a room. The walls had no windows, the only entrance was the one they had come through, and the only light came from a hanging lamp in the roof. The overhead light cast eerie shadows that seemed to jump out of the wall.

The prisoner was dragged over to the opposite wall where a wooden bar with cuffs on it was staked to the floor and rope was attached to the wall. The marine suddenly felt fear creeping into his barely pumping heart. He knew what this torture devise was. As the two guards aggressively hooked him up, he let out the slightest whimper. After cuffing his ankles to the wooden plank and tying the rope so tightly that it restricted blood flow, the two guards stood back to admire their handy work.

Upon hearing footsteps in the hallway, the two soldiers turned around and saluted another Vietnamese man. He was known to the marine as The Interpreter. The three men discussed for a minute in Vietnamese before one of the guards, the one that had knocked him down in the cell block, walked behind the prisoner and put his foot on the prisoner's back. The other guard stood back and watched. The Interpreter walked up and squatted so that he was a few inches from the marine's face.

"Welcome back," the Interpreter said. The marine said nothing.

"We have some questions for you," the Viet Cong said.

"What," the marine's growl was barely audible.

"Where are the marines preparing to strike?" the Cong asked.

"I don't know," The marine said.

The Viet Cong looked up to the guard behind the marine and nodded. Suddenly the prisoner's upper torso was slammed down, his face ramming right into the compact dirt floor. His arms were yanked back by the rope. When he came up he saw the Interpreter was enjoying this.

"Where are the marines going to attack next?" he repeated.

"I don't know," the marine said angrily.

Again he was slammed down and this time he felt his nose crunch a little. Upon coming up the marine felt blood trickling from his nose.

"Where?"

"I don't know," the marine voice rose.

Slam! Crunch! More blood was running down his face.

"Where?"

"I don't know!" the marine yelled.

Two slams this time in quick succession.

"Where?"

"For God's sakes, I don't know!" The marine yelled, spit and blood flying form his mouth.

Slam!

A month and three weeks earlier

The mug slammed onto the wooden table as Slasher spat out the coffee. He angrily looked around for the waitress that had just given him the cup of coffee. Upon spotting her, he said,

"Hey! Hey you! Waitress, come 'ere!"

Eileen looked over at the angry customer and sighed before walking over to Slasher's table.

"What can I do for you, sir?" Eileen said, forcing a fake politeness into her voice.

"This coffee tastes like shit! Plus its cold," Slasher said angrily.

"I'm so sorry sir," Eileen said, taking the mug. "Let me take that back and get you a better cup."

She did not wait for a response; she just turned and hurried away. Just as Eileen entered the kitchen Lou finished a soda. Lou was the coffee shop cook. He was just below average height with a goatee died red. Lou was about four years younger than Eileen. He had blond hair tied back into a pony tail that added a boyish aspect to his face. His hands were big, considering his size, while his legs were short and bulky. Lou looked up when Eileen entered.

"Customer's complainin' about the coffee," Eileen said, holding out the cup.

"Le' me see that," Lou said, taking the cup.

After studying it for a second he flicked on one of the grills and held the cup over it until it was warm. He was about to hand it back when he held up a finger. Lou gathered up some mucus spat directly into the coffee. He grabbed a spoon, stirred the coffee, and then handed it back to Eileen.

"I heard him yellin' and I don't like it when customers are mean to the waitresses. This is just a little revenge," Lou said grinning.

Eileen grinned too.

"Thanks," she said before going back out into the shop.

She handed Slasher his cup and watched from a distance as Slasher gulped down the coffee. Eileen had to hide her grin. Slasher proceeded to get up and walk out the door without paying. On his way out he bumped into Margaret, who was on her way in.

"Hey baby," Slasher said, grinning devilishly.

Margaret just hmphed and continued walking.

"Where's your shithead boyfriend?" Slasher asked.

"First of all," Margaret said angrily turning to her ex-boyfriend, "his name is Mordecai and he's not a shithead. Second of all, we're married and he's in Vietnam."

She turned without another word and walked down the steps to her friend. Slasher growled before leaving. Margaret smiled at her friend and they quickly started chatting.

"How are you, I haven't seen you for a while," Margaret said.

"I know. I'm doing good," Eileen said, "Business has been pretty slow and the boss is becoming more of a jerk than usual. Hold on, let me change and we can talk on the way to that club, Box."

Margaret nodded and sat in a nearby chair. As Eileen quickly changed Margaret watched the sun while it made its steady decent down, throwing bars of sunlight across the tile floor. Soon Eileen came out dressed in some casual cloths and the two friends headed out. As they walked down the sidewalk Eileen continued the conversation.

"So how are you? You still havin' those nightmares?" Eileen asked in a concerned tone.

"Yes," Margaret sighed, "But there not as bad as the first ones."

"Good," Eileen said. "How's your new job?"

"It's steady," Margaret said. "Though it could be better."

"Same here," Eileen said.

The friends continued to walk and talk. Meanwhile, Rigby was also walking to the club known as Box. After seeing his friend on T.V., seeing that he was okay, Rigby decided to go out and celebrate. Box was the only place he could think of as a good place to celebrate.

At the moment he was walking through the dark alleys of the city to get to the club. By the time he had found it the sun nearly gone. Upon entering Rigby was blinded by the light beams that were bouncing off the disco ball. Once his eyes adjusted to the light he walked in and took a seat at one of the booths. Two booths down a couple was smoking weed together. A fast dance song was playing which attracted lots of people to the dance floor.

Then he noticed Margaret and Eileen enter and take a seat on the other side of the room. Smiling, Rigby made his way to their booth.

"Hey girls," Rigby greeted his friends.

Margaret jumped, a little surprised, while Eileen smiled.

"Hey Rigby, what brings you here," Eileen asked.

"Celebrating," Rigby replied as he took a seat next to Eileen.

"Celebrating what?" Margaret asked.

"I saw Mordecai on T.V. today and I was just glad to see him alive. You remember, don't ya?" Rigby asked Margaret.

"Of course," Margaret said, "best part of my day."

Rigby nodded in agreement. A minute of silence followed. This was broken by a waitress who skated up to the table.

"Hello there," she said, "May I take your order."

"Uh, yeah," Rigby said, "A large chocolate cake with milk and then whatever these two want." He pointed to his two friends.

The waiter nodded and looked at Margaret and Eileen.

"Coca-Cola," Margaret said.

"Milk for me too," Eileen said.

"Alright, we'll have those right out for ya," the waitress said before skating backwards into the crowd.

The three friends started chatting again. Suddenly a slow song came on. At first Rigby did not even hear it. Soon, though, he noticed Eileen staring at him.

"What?" He asked.

"So, um, Rigby," Eileen said, pausing, "Would you like to dance?"

Then Rigby noticed the music. After thinking for a second he said,

"Well, I guess," he said hesitantly. He quickly added, "But just one song."

With that said, Eileen practically dragged Rigby out onto the floor. They started out with Rigby half holding Eileen at a distance, but as the song progressed the two moved closer together. Margaret could not help but smile at them.

'They do make a cute couple,' she thought.

The two did not seem to notice when the song changed, they kept stepping together. After a while Margaret stood and decided to look around the place.

Most of the people in the club were on the dance floor, but there were a few people who were not. There was the couple getting high in the booth, another couple was making out in one of the corners, and a couple of women about Margaret's age sitting in a booth near the dance floor. The women were wearing similar outfits; bell bottom jeans with loose t-shirts and long hair. One woman was wearing a white loose robe-like dress.

For some reason the group looked familiar to Margaret, but she could not place her finger on it. Then one of the four women looked up and made eye contact with her. As it happened, Margaret realized that they had been friends with her in high school. The girl looking at her seemed to realize this to because she said something to her friends. Quickly, they all looked over at Margaret. After a second of staring a girl with a hairband called out,

"Margaret? Is that you?"

She nodded and the girl said,

"Come on, come over here."

Margaret obeyed and when she reached the booth the girl motioned for her to sit down. Margaret did so and, after getting a good look, she was able to place names with faces. The woman with the hairband was Alice, the woman with the robe was Kat, the girl wearing a peace chain around her neck was Lacy, and the girl with pink sunglasses was Gloria. They all smiled at her and she smiled back.

"I can't believe it's you," Alice said. "I mean, once you left for college we thought we wouldn't ever see ya again."

"I had the same feeling," Margaret responded, grinning.

"So how are you?" Gloria asked. "Tell us everything that happened since you went to college."

"Well, okay," Margaret said, "So I went to a public college in this place for a while. During college I worked as a waitress in the coffee shop near the park, ya know, just on the outskirts of the city. So I was working there and balancing college when one day a blue-jay and his friend, a raccoon, walk into the shop and order some coffee. I get it for them and keep on going through my day. During that time I was also had a new boyfriend ever two weeks or so. Ya gotta understand that I was experimenting in those days."

Margaret stopped to take a breath and saw that the girls were listening intently. She continued.

"So anyway, one week when I didn't have a boyfriend I noticed that every time the blue-jay came in he'd start staring at me whenever he thought I wasn't looking. I eventually realized that he had a crush on me. But that was a while later on. Sometimes I would hear his friend joking about me and him getting together. Anyway, Eileen and I got to know them better and eventually all four of us became friends. Eileen had an obvious crush on his friend and one day we-,"

Margaret was suddenly cut off by Eileen calling her name. She looked back to see her friend waving for her to come over.

"Sorry girls, I gotta go," Margaret said.

"Hey, come hang out with us some time," Alice said, handing Margaret a piece of paper with an address scribbled on it. "We meet at my place to hang out on Saturdays," Alice explained.

Margaret nodded and said a quick goodbye before going over to Eileen.

"What," she asked her friend.

"Rigby wants to leave. Somethin' about Benson wanting him back at the park at a certain time," Eileen said.

"Well then let's get going," Margaret said.

Eileen nodded and they walked outside where Rigby was, forgetting to pay. When Rigby saw them he started walking with them. Margaret was walking a few steps behind Rigby and Eileen. After walking for a while Margaret witnessed Rigby's hand reach over and gently take hold Eileen's hand. Eileen did not let go and Margaret was again reminded of how cute a couple they made.

Eileen was a little surprised when it happened, but quickly filled with delight. She smiled as she held onto Rigby's hand and did not let go until they came to the coffee shop. Then, after saying their goodbyes, the three friends went their separate ways.

Thanks for readin'. Now, go enjoy the day or something. I'm hoping to get the next chapter up soon.