"AEIOU" by Wye Oak

I felt the sensation of being in a car as I struggled to regain consciousness. Everything was so jumbled. And my head was killing me. Everytime I started opening my eyes, a man would say something and I'd be given a shot of something to put me back under. Even if I had been able to keep count, I imagine that it would have happened many times until I was finally allowed to wake up.

When I came to, I was laying on a hard cot in a basement. Not a normal basement since this one had a cell, complete with bars on the windows. But it was a basement to someone's house nonetheless. I pushed myself up onto my feet and stumbled to the door, giving it a hard yank. Nothing.

A bright light overhead turned on, causing me to shield my eyes while also trying to make out who the figures were.

"We were afraid we drugged you too much," Caleb spoke softly. He came into focus, as did the man beside him. Adam.

"Where am I? What is this?"

"Nothing personal, Cecilia," Adam said, his expression betraying the sentiment. I said nothing, looking back and forth between the two brothers.

"You just happen to be a rare commodity that's attached to the McManus family," Caleb added.

"Bait," I said, frowning. "The Roman."

"Oh, he'll be flattered that you've heard of him," Adam smiled. I swallowed hard, my throat was awfully dry. "I can get you some water if you'd like."

"I'll pass, thanks." I didn't trust Adam's energy at all. Sometimes you meet people and you just feel like they're a void of negative space. That's what it felt like when I looked at him. What had happened to him?

Adam shrugged. "Suit yourself." And then they were gone.

I rubbed my throat a few times before trying to calm down and figure something out. The only source of light in the room was from the construction lights near the stairs. There were two ways out-the stairs and a set of cement stairs that had to lead to a cellar door. The lock on the cell door was old. I didn't have my lockpicking device. And a quick pat of my pockets told me that they took my wallet, keys, and cellphone.

Bobby pins? My hair was up when I went to the store. I began feeling around in my hair. I keep count of how many are usually in my hair otherwise I miss some-a ha! They missed some. I pulled them out of my hair, pulling off the protective rubber ends with my teeth.

Okay. Breath. Remember Klaus teaching you to open that door to the graveyard in Germany you wanted to visit that was off limits. I started working, trying to keep my mind occupied so that I didn't panic. There was no plan if I even managed to get this open. But I knew that being in a cage was not my safest option. The first pin released.

Now the second pin. I can do this.

After what felt like an eternity, I had it unlocked. Holding my breath, I pushed it open. No alarm. At least not unless there was a silent one. But it didn't look like there were any wires anywhere.

The cellar door was locked from the outside I discovered as soon as I tried to find a lock on it. That's no good. Up the stairs and into the snake pit I go, I guess.

"Why am I always the one being kidnapped? Why couldn't I rescue Murphy or Connor and then rub it in their faces for the rest of our lives?" I grumbled as I looked around for some kind of weapon. My knife! Nothing else seems to be down here of mine though.

I slowly began going up the stairs, trying to make as little noise as possible. The closer I got to the top, the more commotion I heard. Apparently the basement is soundproofed. And the door is locked. With a sigh, I dropped to my knees and began picking this lock as well. If I never have to pick another lock again, I'll be happy. And I was so excited about this being the skill I was bringing to the table. Not any more. Fuck locks and fuck Caleb and Adam for turning into pricks and taking my fucking lockpick. My bobby pin broke.

Alright, guess I'm kicking it down.

I steadied myself the best that I could and delivered several firm kicks beside the knob. The frame and door splintered enough for me to shoulder it open.

As soon as I was out of the basement, there was just general chaos.

I was almost immediately hit with several bullets. I dove behind the nearest piece of furniture, holding my combat knife at the ready.

"Prisoner's loose!" one of the men yelled before lunging at me. I managed to use his own weight against him, slicing the back of his ankle with my knife. Before he could recover, I wrestled his gun from his hands and shot him once in the head. He stopped moving. At least I'm properly armed. I sheathed my knife and began taking down any random thug that I could find. Eventually, I came across Romeo. He looked surprised to see me.

"Cecilia! Fuck it's good to see you," he grinned. I ditched the gun I had been holding for a new one with more ammo. I definitely didn't know enough about guns to know anything about reloading them or what kind of ammo was in each one-Murphy tried to teach me, okay? I just didn't pay attention.

"Where are Murphy and Connor?" I asked as we moved through the rooms, keeping watch for one another.

"They're making their way to the Roman."

"Which way?"

He jerked one of his pistols the opposite way that we were going.

"I'm going this way."

Romeo gave me a look, clearly asking if I would be okay.

"I'll actually be fine this time."

Before he could protest, I was weaving into another room, ducking behind furniture to avoid fighting unnecessarily. It wasn't long until I found Murphy and Connor, back to back, guns drawn and facing Adam and Caleb. The twins were sandwiched between the two brothers.

As quietly as I could, I circled around the standoff, knife drawn. I managed to get behind Caleb without being seen. Before I could chicken out, I lunged at him, using as much strength as I could to put him in a chokehold, knife to his throat. He was nothing short of surprised.

But he certainly wasn't as surprised as I was when Adam shot him in the chest. The bullet travelled through Caleb's now limp body and into my stomach. Murphy shot Adam faster than I could react to being shot myself.

Connor was immediately at my side, lifting up my shirt to see the damage. "It didn't pass through, ye'll be fine." He took the belt to his jacket and tied it around my waist as firmly as he could. "Keep pressure there, okay?"

"Where the fuck is Romeo?" Murphy growled.

As if on cue, more men began to file into the room while Romeo kicked his way through a window, guns blazing. Before the twins got a chance to shoot, he managed to kill them all. I was impressed.

"Romeo, carry Cecilia," Connor ordered. "Watch her side, she's shot."

Romeo's face fell as he looked at me as if to say I had said I'd be fine but I wasn't and he was so disappointed in me.

"Yeah, yeah, I told you so's later," I rolled my eyes.

"Just as long as you know," Romeo scoffed, picking me up.

"This way," Murphy said, nodding to where the thugs had come from.

"Waves are slowing down, they're almost out of pawns," Connor agreed. They ascended the stairs, Murphy in front of Romeo and I and Connor behind us. My side was throbbing and quickly covering Connor's belt in blood.

At the top, there was a man calmly listening to a vinyl record and smoking a cigar. The Roman. Without bothering with semantics, Murphy shot him in the face. My wallet and keys were on the table beside him.

"Grab those," I said, pointing to them. Murphy grabbed them, putting them in his pockets, and then took me from Romeo. The rug beneath the Roman was starting to catch fire.

"Let it burn," Murphy said, wasting no time in heading back downstairs so that we could leave. We got to the getaway car without problem: Connor in the driver's seat with Romeo in the passenger's, while Murphy and I were in the back seat.

"Those guys, who were they?" Connor asked, glancing in the rearview at us.

"Caleb and Adam," I said, wincing at the pressure Murphy was putting on my side.

"Really? What the fuck were they doing there?"

"Fuck if I know. They didn't keep in touch after Tyler left Boston. Guess Adam held on to his resentment that Tyler left to come to Germany with me. Caleb probably got dragged into the mess because of it."

I made a mental note to try and do some digging into the subject later. And that I'm also not going to be making any new friends any time soon.

At least this is over now.

We can fucking leave Boston finally.