Your words to me just a whisper
Your faces so unclear
I try to pay attention
Your words just disappear
'Cause it's always raining in my head
Forget all the thing's I should have said
So I speak to you in riddles because
My words get in my way. I smoke the
Whole thing to my head and feel it
Wash away 'cause I can't take anymore
Of this, I want to come apart.
Or dig myself a little hole inside
Your precious heart
'Cause it's always raining in my head
Forget all the things I should have said
I am nothing more than a little boy inside
That cries out for attention
Yet I always try to hide
'Cause I talk to you like children,
Though I don't know how I feel
But I know I'll do the right thing
If the right thing is revealed
'Cause it's always raining in my head
Forget all the things I should have said.
Staind-"Epiphany"
Cammy could feel tears welling up in her eyes as Bison straightened his body and shook his hands, causing small droplets of blood to fly off. She had betrayed Julian, someone who had gone through just as much pain as her. But what else was she supposed to do? Bison gave her a wicked smile.
"That man has no earthly idea what he has to lose."
Cammy shifted her gaze from Bison's to Wagner's as he walked off. She spoke softly to him.
"Are you okay?"
He was breathing a little heavy, obviously in pain from the dagger that still protruded from his thigh.
"Ken and Ryu are still in here somewhere."
"I know."
Cammy looked away from him and to a crying Melissa. Vega wasn't paying much attention to Melissa, he was looking at her. She met his eyes, wishing more than anything that she had killed him, while giving him a look to say she now could without regret. In the midst of this she had forgotten all about her ransacked apartment. That seemed to be a personal thing for Vega, not something Bison had assigned him to do. The large man from earlier entered the room. He leaned down a little to whisper something into Bison's ear. Bison screamed at him.
"They've been here the whole time!"
The man spoke calmly.
"I don't know what to tell you…she's gone."
Cammy smiled. Ryu and Ken had found
Eliza. Bison ran at her, grabbing her by
the throat and lifting her into the air.
"You think this is funny?"
She struggled to speak through her almost all the way closed windpipe.
"It's…what you…deserve."
He slammed her body into the wall before letting her slide to the ground, gasping for breath.
"We'll see who gets what they deserve. Sagat, Vega, come with me. Leave one guard with the girl."
Vega passed Melissa on to a guard and followed Bison and Sagat out of the room. Cammy didn't move for a moment. If there was a time to attempt escape it was now. Cammy started trying to get up. The guard yelled at her.
"Don't even think about moving again."
Cammy looked over to him and he pulled the collar of Melissa's shirt tight, causing her to fall against him. She stopped and nodded her head. She whispered to Wagner.
"We have to do something."
"If Ryu and Ken got Eliza, I'm sure she told them about what happened to us."
"But are they okay?"
"I don't know Cammy. We're just going to have to hope right now."
Cammy looked back to Melissa. Her eyes were rimmed red from crying, and her long light brown hair fell in tangles about her face swollen face. Cammy mouthed the words 'We're getting out' to her and she nodded. Suddenly Cammy saw movement above the guard. She looked up with only her eyes as to not alert the guard, and saw Ryu, ready to pounce. With lightning speed he came down upon the guard and Cammy bolted as fast as she could to Wagner's side. She spoke frantically.
"Take a deep breath Wagner."
He had hardly enough time to take a normal breath before Cammy pulled the dagger from his leg. Blood started flowing from the wound again, but there was no time to pay attention to that. Using the bloody dagger, Cammy cut at her and Wagner's bindings. In the time it took to do this Ryu had already defeated the guard and was helping Melissa off of the floor. Wagner and Cammy limped towards them. Melissa ran at Wagner and hugged him. He made a small sound of discomfort due to his injury but it was overridden by his emotion at having Melissa back. Cammy hugged Melissa next, running her fingers up and down her back as she spoke softly.
"Did they hurt you?"
This was it, the moment of truth, had they come in time?
"No. I just want to go home."
Cammy sighed loudly in relief as she thanked God silently. Ryu spoke.
"Ken's waiting…we have to get out of here, and fast."
Wagner spoke.
"Sure thing, come this way."
They followed Wagner, moving as quickly and quietly as possible. They avoided the area around where they had found Eliza, figuring that's where Bison and the others would be. Cammy rounded a corner and spotted some guards. She tried to duck back around the corner but it was too late, they had spotted her. She yelled to Ryu.
"Get ready for a fight, we've been spotted."
Ryu answered.
"Wagner, you go on ahead, you're moving slower than us. We've got them under control."
He answered.
"And Melissa?"
Melissa answered Wagner, trying not to sound scared.
"I'll duck behind here until they're done with them."
"Sounds good. Be careful."
He kissed Melissa on the cheek and was headed out of the complex. Cammy concentrated on the guards who had just reached them. Slamming out with incredible force, she brought her fist down on the first one's head. He stumbled but flung his fist out in defense. He hit her shoulder but she was unscathed. She swept her legs under his and reveled in hearing his head thump against the floor. Ryu had already taken out two guards when she was finished with the first and was working on a third. The efficiency of his fighting was amazing. It was like in a movie where you knew that no matter what happened, the good guy would beat countless bad guys without a scratch.
Cammy looked around the corner for Melissa. She wasn't there. Before she could question this, she heard Vega's laugh rising throughout the air. It had been so long since she had heard it, but she would never forget the sound. It was one of those laughs that travel up and down your spine before it causes goose bumps to break out all over you. She turned and saw it in slow motion. Melissa was struggling against Vega's grip. She started to step forward, Ryu doing the same behind her, when Vega reached his hand over Melissa's shoulder and held his claw to her throat. He spoke slowly.
"Stop that nonsense now my love."
Cammy froze, suddenly feeling like a little girl again, when he had held her father's life in his hands.
"Let her go Vega."
"Don't be a coward."
He yelled past her to Ryu.
"This doesn't concern you."
Vega pulled a struggling Melissa closer to him. She screamed and he used his un-clawed hand to strike her in the back of the head. Her body slumped over, unconscious. Cammy pleaded.
"Please, let her go, she has nothing to do with you and me."
"Your father was in my way and I got rid of him. Now you have this so called 'family' and they are in my way too."
"The way of what?"
"Us staying together."
"We never were together."
"Yes we were."
"You raping me doesn't count! You're a coward."
"I'm an entrepreneur. I want what I want and get it whatever way I can."
Cammy sucked in her breath and tried to keep her body from trembling. Last time she was in a position like this she was naive, afraid, and helpless. She was still afraid, but she was neither naive nor helpless. She just needed to be brave and do what needed to be done. Cammy straightened from her fighting stance and smoothed her hair down before she spoke tightly.
"You're a businessman huh? Well here's a proposition for you."
"Yes?"
"Let her go, and ensure to me that everyone will escape safely here and…"
Cammy's breath caught, but she continued on.
"…and I'll stay here with you; an even trade."