Chapter Twelve

TWISTED EVERY WAY

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Katie moaned as she felt a warm, wet tounge lick her paw. She opened her eyes, still frazzled from the unusual dream she had just had, and smiled when she saw Hewie happily staring back at her. She sat up in what appeared to be a jail cell. "Oh, Hewie... Are you okay?"

Hewie barked three times, as though to aknowledge her.

"You saved me again... Thank you..." She looked around for Fiona, and her smile fell from her face. "Hewie, can you help me find Fiona?"

Hewie walked over to the little table that was on the other side of the hallway, and grabbed the keys that had been left there. He held them in his mouth, and Katie reached through the bars of the cage to get them from him. She messed with the lock for a few minutes before she was finally able to unlock the door, and slid the old, rusty gate open. She hugged Hewie, petting him at the same time, which he enjoyed. "Thank you, Hewie... Now, let's find Fiona."

Hewie barked, and when she stood up, he took off running down the hallway. Katie followed.

oOo

Hewie led Katie back to the doctor's office room, and sure enough, there was Fiona, lying on the patient's table in the middle of the room. She was wearing nothing but a white towel around herself.

"Fiona!" Katie whispered as she rushed into the room. She gently shook Fiona's shoulder. "Wake up!"

Fiona moaned as she opened her eyes, then smiled at Katie as she sat up, holding the towel around her. "Katie... are you all right?"

"I'm fine... What did Riccardo do to you?"

"Nothing much. He just... examined me."

"And you let him?!"

"I was out of it! I was half asleep because of the drugs he gave me!"

"... Did he do anything else?"

She shook her head. "No. I'm posatively sure of that!... But he did say that it would be another couple of days, at most."

Katie raised an eyebrow. "A couple of days for what, exactly?"

"I'm note sure... But Katie, he looks exactly like... He and my father were--"

"Clones, I know. He looks exactly like your dad..."

Hewie barked, startling Fiona, and she smiled when she saw him. "Hewie! You're okay!"

Hewie jumped up onto the table beside her, and she pet him. Finally, Fiona stood up from the table, and began to look around the room for her clothes. When she saw them lying on a pile of boxes, she rushed over to them, grabbed them, then hid behind the curtain in front of the door as she changed.

"Fiona," Katie said. "There's only one way out of here."

"What way?"

"I think... I think we have to kill him."

Fiona gasped. "I'm a lot of things Katie, but I'm no murderer."

"He was willing to kill us! He shot Hewie in the woods, and he wanted to shoot me! He had his gun aimed and me and--" She stopped, remembering that she could have been dead by now, had it not been for the old man's voice. But she brushed it aside for now.

Fiona emerged from behind the curtain, fully dressed, with frightened tears streaming down her face. Hewie walked over to comfort her, and she bent down to puet him. "Good boy," she said with a meek smile.

Katie bent down beside her to pet Hewie as well. "He's such a good dog."

"I know... He's coming with us when we get out of here..." Fiona sniffled, then looked at her.

[At this point, the song "Twisted Every Way" from "The Phantom Of The Opera begins.]

FIONA: Katie, just leave me--I will get through this. Katie, take Hewie--you must escape this horrible place. He wants me, just me, to be with him forever. He won't let me go. And if I do escape, I will dream... For in my mind, this will not ever end. Debilitas, Daniella, Riccardo--this place... It will always be there haunting me in my mind.

KATIE: You must believe... he's nothing but a man. Yet, while he lives, he will haunt us 'till we're dead...

FIONA: Twisted every way, what answer can I give? Why must we risk our lives to win the chance to live? Can I slay the man who bares my father's face?

KATIE: We have become his prey. We don't have any choice. He kills without a thought, he murders all that's good.

FIONA: I know I can't refuse, but it still frightens me. Oh God - If we fail, what horrors wait for us in this, Belli Castle?

KATIE: Fiona, Fiona, don't think that I don't care. But every hope and every prayer rests on us now!

Without thinking, Fiona threw her arms around Katie, hugging her.

Katie was surprised by this, but hugged her back.

"I'm so sorry," Fiona said.

"For what?" Katie asked as she pulled back.

"For everything I've ever done to make you hate me in the first place, and for not treating you right when we were in school. I'm so sorry for not being your friend."

Katie smiled. "It's not too late to be."

"Oh, yes it is. He wants me--ME! I'm the one with the Azoth. You have to go, and take Hewie with you!"

Katie shook her head. "No, we're gonna get through this together! And when we get out of here, you can come with me to Maryland. We'll get an apartment there, and start a new life--and we'll have Hewie, too!"

Fiona smiled. "And we... We can go for car rides in the country?" She laughed. "The last car ride I went on didn't turn out so great."

Katie laughed, too. "Okay... When we get to Maryland and get settled, we'll buy a used car, and go on a cross country road trip. We'll even take Hewie with us..." She swallowed hard. "But we won't ever come within a thousand miles of this place again!"

"You've got a deal!"

They hugged once more, and Hewie barked.

TWISTED EVERY WAY: from "The Phantom Of The Opera"