DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN VICTORIOUS. This chapter is from Robbie's POV.
Chapter 25
Return
I am in New York City of all fucken places. I am living with my shitty family in their home near Central Park. They were not pleased in the slightest to see me on their doorstep after I ran away from L.A. They saw the news and heard that I was involved in Ryder Daniel's murder. The only reason they took me in was so that they could find a way to smuggle me out to a non-extradition country safely until this shit blows over.
I am in their house with my annoying twelve year old sister, Lisa, watching one of her favorite shows, Zoey 101. I am bored shitless with this show.
"Why do you watch this immature crap, Lisa?" I ask her out of curiosity. She stares at me with her electric blue eyes and gapes.
"'Immature crap'? I love this show! It's so funny and cute!" she rants in her high-pitched voice. Gah, she gets under my skin a lot.
"Whatever floats your boat, sis" I muttered. I try to ignore the stupid tv show but find it hard, since there's nothing to distract me.
My mom, Carol and my dad, John, work for a big conglomerate corporation and are the C.O.O. and C.I.O respectively. I don't really know what their jobs entail since they don't talk about work too much. All I know is that their part of the C-Suite and are very important for their company.
My parents don't really like me too much, since I became obsessed with Rex and was attached to him 24/7 and couldn't stand to be without him for too long. They prefer Lisa over me any given day, as they see her as a success and me as a failure. When I was much younger, they constantly fought at night until all hours of the morning. And most, if not all the time, their arguments centered on me and my bizarreness. It seems to have started again since I came here. Like I said, they were not pleased in the slightest to see me again. I don't even know why they bothered to take me in if they don't like me, but I try not to voice this question out loud to them as it may change their mind about all this.
Lisa on the other hand, is the polar opposite of me. She doesn't have a puppet and is not obsessed with her dolls. She is a cheerleader for her school. She is kind, compassionate, funny, and loveable. Unlike me. Her hobbies include collecting rare butterflies and tv and video games. She is very athletic. She likes to play soccer and volleyball and is excellent at ping pong. She's practically everything I'm not. This is the reason why my parents prefer her over me. I envy her. I think she pities me and looks up to me a lot. But, I can't really do much for her. She's already grown so much and she's done a lot without my help.
I really hope that I can leave here soon. I hate listening to my parents argue about me at night and talking about me behind my back and for being affectionate with Lisa in my presence.
That night, 10:03 p.m.
I am cautiously surfing the net for updates on my search and am glad to see that there has been no luck in finding me. I decide to check my email. It's been three months, I doubt the NSA is monitoring my email. Still, I just want to see if I got anything from LA. I open my email and see at least a few hundred unread emails. The first one catches my eyes almost immediately. It's from Andre. I open the email and start reading it.
Cat and I are in town and we need to meet somewhere. I reread the email several times and type back my reply.
Okay, let's meet in Central Park tonight at midnight; it'll be abandoned. Be careful. I type and hit Send when I am satisfied with my response. I log out after it's sent.
I leave around midnight to go to Central Park to meet Cat and Andre. I am lying if I say that I'm not nervous about what to expect. Why are they here?
The streets are quiet and it is breezy outside and quite chilly. Good thing I decided to bring my jacket with me so that I don't catch pneumonia. I start my short trek to Central Park.
The park is fairly close to where my family lives so it doesn't take me very long to get there. I start to look around and catch something in the corner of my eye. Turning, I see Cat and Andre standing under a lamppost, and waving to get my attention. I start towards them and meet them under the orange glow of the light. I notice that Cat is standing next to a large bag.
"Not that I'm not glad to see you both, but why are you here? It's too dangerous." I chastise them. They both look at me like they weren't expecting that as a greeting.
"Cat and I need to take you back to LA; Tori needs you for the next stage of the plan." Andre explains.
"It took me two weeks to get here without getting detected by ever fucking cop and fed in the country, how are we gonna get me home?" I ask, putting emphasis on the facts. I barely got her by the hair of my chinny-chin-chin.
"Cat and I are gonna give you a new look and a new ID to travel." Andre explained patiently. Cat nodded and pointed to the baggage she had with her. I recognized it as her travelling SPFX makeup kit.
Cat and Andre start to work on my makeup. Cat having taken a special effects makeup class back at school makes her a pro at this. That is if she doesn't make me into a freakish zombie and uses fucking Grizzly Glue on my face like she did to Tori a couple years ago.
A few hours later and I am staring at my new look. I have a little mustache on my upper lip and the start of a neck beard and beard on my chin. It looks awesome.
"You did well, Cat." I commemorate her on her makeup skills. She looks proud of herself and squeals in delight and embraces Andre. Now all we need was the ID.
The next morning at the DMV.
"Hi, how can I help you today?" the woman behind the desk asks Andre.
"My friend here needs an ID so we can travel outta state." Andre explains with his trademark smile. I wave at the lady to show her that it's me.
"Certainly." The lady replies back. "I just need to get some information from him."
A few minutes later, I am getting my picture taken for my NY ID so that I can travel via the airport. The address we gave the lady was from Andre's grandfather's childhood home. My name is Roger Steinbeck. My birthday is August 22nd, 1995.
After another few minutes of waiting, I collect my ID and look at the photo of my new look. We then leave the DMV and head for JFK International airport.
Three hours later on the flight back to LA.
"What does Tori want with me?" I ask Andre. He shrugs and shifts uncomfortably in his seat. I turn to Cat and she simply tightens her grip on her purple giraffe and avoids my gaze. I am not liking this one bit.
The next day, somewhere in LA.
I don't know where I am exactly, but the room is lit by a single, old light in the center. Underneath it is a chair with handcuffs.
Andre and Cat drag me towards the chair and sit me down on it and do the handcuffs. I am practically helpless.
"Start." Comes a familiar voice in the shadows. I recognize it as Tori's and wonder what she wants from me.
Before I can say anything, Cat balls her tiny hand into a fist and smashes it on the side of my face, knocking my glasses askew. She is small and doesn't have much punch, but it still hurts. I look at her and see her massaging her hand. Andre sighs and hands her a pair of fingerless fighting gloves. She and Andre put them on and circle around me. I catch their expressions as they pass. They both look like they don't want to do it, but they look like their terrified of what will happen to them if they resist.
"Sorry, Rob." Andre whispers to me. I nod my head understandingly and tears begin to come, burning my eyes. Andre then starts pounding on my face with all his might. His face, from what I could tell before he started was contorted with sadness. Blow after blow rained on my face as he continued for a good half minute before stopping. I am bleeding from my nose and mouth. I spit out some blood before Cat comes forward and punches me in the solar plexus, knocking the wind out of me.
Cat now starts to torture me with her little fists. She has a surprisingly strong punch, but it seems stronger since Andre softened me up a minute ago. Cat then stops and takes a few steps back and then starts forward running at me. She then jumps and throws out a leg, which connects with my chest and knocks me over backwards in the chair. I hit the ground hard and bang my head, causing it to throb.
"Keep going." Tori commanded in a bored voice from the shadows. Andre and Cat pull me back into position and start pounding me again. Cat starts to sob and Andre looks like he's about to. But, I can't really tell since my glasses were knocked off from Cat's kick.
I am bleeding and swollen and I am in a fuckton of pain from the blows. I can't feel my face and my chest is throbbing. My heart is beating a mile a minute in my throat and it is getting hard to breath from the nose and my jaw hurts too much to keep it open. Besides, if I do, one of them might hit me really hard and dislocate it. Something is telling me that I won't see the next day.
Andre punches me in the face and starts sobbing. He and Cat are breaking down from beating me.
"Keep going!" Tori warned.
"Please don't make us do this!" Cat choked out.
"Why are you making us do this to him?" Andre asked between sobs.
"I said keep going!" Tori ordered. Cat and Andre stared at my broken form with reluctance. Cat moved forward slowly and slapped me in the cheeks repeatedly which made my head turn in the direction of the slaps.
Andre then grabbed Cat and pulled her back and he grabbed my afro and reared his fist back. Letting out one more sob, he throws a powerful punch to my face, knocking the lights out of me and causing me to tumble over the chair again and hit the concrete floor.
"Enough." Tori commanded softly. Cat and Andre seemed relieved to hear this. They ran to each other and hugged while sobbing into each other's shoulders before slumping to the ground.
I am struggling to maintain my consciousness. My left eye is swollen and closed so I can only see out of my right. I'm lying on my right side on the ground, so I can't see too much.
I feel someone grab my face and gently put my glasses back on. I stare in confusion at the face of Beck Oliver. What's he doing here?
"Sorry, Rob." Beck whispered mournfully before he procures a key from Andre and unlocks the handcuffs. My wrists and ankles are red and sore from the tightness and chaffing from the cuffs. Beck gives me an apologetic look, standing straight up and backing away from me slowly. He reveals Tori behind him.
"Hello, Robbie; time to pay." She says eerily. She approaches me with a large knife in her hand and I try to move, but my body is in searing pain from multiple broken bones. She bends down so that I can only see her face. Her face is blank but her eyes, those eyes, are murderous and bloodthirsty.
"Tor-"I start before she slashes my throat with the knife, killing any words in there. I gasp and reach up with my hands to cover the large wound that is oozing with crimson blood. I gurgle as it becomes hard to breathe, the blood choking me. I keep staring at her shocked as I grow limp and I am taken by the darkness.
Chapter 25. Part two of the original double update. I just got hit with this idea for this chapter and started typing like a mad man. If I'm lucky, I might update chapter 26 soon. I have ideas for the remaining chapters, I just need to write them. Like I said, if I'm lucky I'll update 26. Possibly the remaining chapters early next month. Don't count on it though.