Becky stopped the car and got out. Tori fumbled for the handle on her side, found it and opened the car. She carefully stepped out since she wasn't sure what she would be stepping on. The blindfold didn't allow her to see anything.
Tori Millis wasn't new to this game. Her work as a journalist often took her into territory other people would never dare to go. She had to trust people that she didn't know. The ocean green-blue eyed, raven haired woman was used to this. She knew there was a chance she would disappear one day. A chance she had to take.
"Hi," a dark voice sounded.
She recognized the voice from the phone. Roman Reigns. He claimed that he and his two friends Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose were about to become whistleblowers. That they were already considered public enemies without the public having heard about them yet. That was about to change. She was about to make sure everyone knew who they were.
"Hi, Roman," she said.
"Let me help you," he said.
He gently grabbed her arm and escorted her forward. She had to trust he wouldn't let her fall. Technically he could be leading her straight to her death but she chose to trust him. She had used some of her contacts and looked into the three men. True enough, they were wanted. Terrorism, it said. That was all she could find.
"You can take it off now," he said.
He had stopped somewhere and let go of her arm. She removed the blindfold and blinked while taking in her surroundings. They were in a cave somewhere. Seth and Dean were there too. There were a few objects that the men had put in there in order to survive. Flashlights and candles among those to light up the cave. She knew better than to ask where the cave was located. She was there to tell their story, not to reveal to the world where they were. Who Becky was and how she was connected to those three men, Tori couldn't tell. Becky had been sent to pick up Tori so the men had to trust her somehow.
"Should we begin?" Roman asked.
"Can you give me a heads up? All I can find on you is that you're wanted for terrorism," Tori said.
"Terrorism," Dean sneered. "Of course. That's how they wanna play it."
"They're scared of us," Seth said.
"Why?" Tori asked.
"They're scared we'll reveal what they made us do. They're scared we'll find someone like you to share our story worldwide," Seth said.
Tori took another look around.
"Put the blankets up behind you," Tori said.
"Why?" Dean asked.
"To disguise you're in a cave. I'm not stupid. I know you didn't drive me out of state. If they learn you're in a cave, you can be damn sure they'll search every fucking cave they can think of, and they will find you. Best to keep the background neutral," Tori said.
"And if they come for you?" Seth asked.
"Oh, they will. They always do," Tori grinned. "And as always I have nothing to tell. I was blindfolded. I was taken to a house somewhere. I never saw the outside and there were no windows in the basement where the interview took place."
"See," Roman smirked. "I told you she's the best."
The men quickly put up a fake background with blankets before sitting side by side. Tori put up her camera and pressed record.
"I'm here with Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose. They have a story to tell," Tori said. "Gentlemen, where would you like to start? You've kept me in the dark so far."
"We're not terrorists!" Dean growled.
"Dean, easy," Roman said. "Tori, I don't even know where to start. We were recruited very young. Age 16. We felt pride when we were told our country needed us. We felt pride when they told us we were men."
"We weren't," Seth said lowly.
Roman stood up and walked out of camera frame. He came back a few seconds later and handed Tori a stack of papers.
"It's all in there. Where we were. Pictures of us through time in our uniforms. People we tortured," Roman said.
"Tortured?" Tori asked.
"They trained us to torture people in order to get confessions," Roman said.
"False confessions," Seth added.
"We didn't know back then. We thought we did the right thing. They taught us to be proud of what we did. For a long time we were but cracks slowly started to show as we grew older. Seth was the first to question it. He's the smart one of us. Once he threw the question out there to us, it was hard to go back. We started seeing the truth," Roman said.
"We started thinking on our own," Dean said.
"We saw through the lies," Seth said. "Everything we did. It hurts, Tori. It hurts to know they made us do that. Dean has nightmares. He wakes up screaming sometimes. We'll never escape what we did."
Tori looked from man to man. Clearly they didn't wanna talk much.
"Show that to the world," Roman pointed at the papers. "You got a way with words. We're about to break just thinking about it. Don't make us describe what we did. It hurts to think about how many lives we destroyed."
Tori looked at the first pictures taken of the three men. 16 year old boys smiling while wearing their first uniform. They didn't know what they were about to do.
"You were so young," Tori said.
"We were boys, we were brothers, we were men, we were leaders," Roman sighed. "We were brainwashed."
Tori waited a few more seconds to see if anyone else had anything to say. Dean got up and walked back to the spot he had been sitting when she first arrived. Clearly they were done. They were leaving the hard work to her by looking through all the papers and piecing together a story. She turned off the camera and smiled at them.
"I won't fail you," Tori said.
"We'll see," Dean said.
"You called me for a reason. Because I never fail anyone. I'm telling you, I won't fail you," Tori said.
"We know," Roman said. "Dean's just on edge. He doesn't sleep well."
"We were men," Seth said lowly. "Always that same bullshit line. We were men."
"You are men," Dean said in a mocking tone. "Men, my ass! Men don't do what we did. We were fucking cruel."
Seth stood up and tried giving Tori his best smile.
"I'm gonna go cook some chicken. Care to join us?" Seth asked.
"Cook? In here?" Tori asked.
"We got a small campfire outside," Seth said.
"Is that wise?" Tori asked.
"Considering how far away from civilization we are, yes," Roman smirked. "And we got traps set up to let us know if anyone is getting near the cave. We'll escape before anyone sets foot in here."
Tori nodded. She didn't doubt that. These men had been trained for many years. They probably knew a lot more other than torture. Seth walked out of the cave. Becky followed right after.
"Who is she?" Tori asked.
"Some childhood friend of Seth," Dean said. "He trusts her, so we trust her. We don't have any other option."
"She hasn't sold you out yet," Tori said. "It sounds like you made the right call with her."
"Let's go outside and join them," Roman said.
"That would defeat the purpose of having me blindfolded when I came here," Tori said.
"I choose to trust you. Besides, good luck explaining to anyone where a random cave entrance in the middle of fucking nowhere is. You'll be blindfolded driving back. You won't figure out where we are," Roman said.
"Alright then," Tori said.
All three of them walked outside to join Seth and Becky. They sat in silence around the campfire, just staring at the chicken being cooked.
"Gotta take a piss," Dean mumbled.
"Me too," Roman said.
The two men disappeared. Tori watched them walk in between some trees.
"Becky, did you bring water?" Seth asked.
"It's in my car," Becky said.
"Will you please go get it?" Seth asked.
Becky walked over to her car. Seth got up from his seat and went to sit next to Tori.
"He's got a crush on you," he said.
"Who?" She asked.
"Roman," he answered. "He would always watch you on tv and say that one day he was gonna find you and marry you."
"I believe that's called stalking and kidnapping," she joked.
He chuckled and shook his head. A sad look came across his face.
"It doesn't really matter now with how things turned out. Even if he wanted to, and even if you wanted to, it would never happen. It's not like he can ever be seen in puclic, but he can dream, you know. That's pretty much all we got left now. Our dreams," he said.
"And hope," she said.
"Everything feels hopeless these days," he said.
"You gotta have hope, Seth. You called me for a reason. You want the world to know the full story, and I fucking well will tell your story. I won't hold back. I'll show everything," she said.
"Good," he said. "Burn it all down. The world needs to know."
They both looked up as Becky came walking back. She looked nervously between Seth and Tori.
"What are you doing over there?" Becky asked.
"Just talking," Seth answered.
"About what?" Becky asked.
"Stuff," Seth shrugged.
"Are you gonna come sit over here again?" Becky asked.
"Go," Tori whispered.
Seth nodded, got up from the spot and went back to sit next to Becky. At the same time Roman and Dean came back. Roman sat down next to Tori and smiled at her. His eyes were so warm as they took her in.
"You're so much more beautiful in real life than on tv. You look more real," Roman said.
"I am real," Tori laughed. "On tv they throw a bunch of makeup on me. I don't like it but my boss demands it. This is how I look when I don't got a face full of warrior paint."
"I like it so much better," Roman said. "You're a natural beauty."
"Thank you," Tori said.
"Just kiss her already," Dean whispered.
"Dean!" Roman whispered back.
"What is she gonna do? Slap you? Then at least you will have that memory," Dean grinned.
Tori shook her head and smirked. There were three good men around this campfire. She could feel it. They had been brainwashed into doing the things they did, but they were finally seeing clearly. She was gonna tell their story. The whole story. They would still be wanted and hunted but at least the world would know the truth.
She stayed with them for a few more hours. Seth's cooking skills were on point despite only having a campfire to work with. It was finally time to say goodbye, and Tori went back to the car with Becky.
"Let me," Roman said.
Roman took the blindfold out of Tori's hand and put it on her. He stared at her lips while fighting the battle inside to kiss her. He wouldn't be that type of man.
"I wish I could tell you I'll see you soon," Roman said.
"Maybe one day when the dust has settled," Tori said.
"Becky's gonna record the show and come show it to us," Roman said.
"I'll try my best to make you proud," Tori said. "And Roman, one more thing. You are a man. You are all men. You're men for what you're doing now."
"Thank you," Roman said. "Alright, Becky, get her home safely."
"Will do," Becky said.
Roman closed the door and stepped away from the car. Becky turned on the engine and drove away. For a minute they drove in silence.
"You can take the blindfold off," Becky said.
"They asked me to keep it on," Tori said.
"It's my car, and I'm telling you that you can take if off," Becky said. "Come on, it's not like you're gonna tell on them, right? Aren't you a bit curious to know where you are?"
"I'm always curious but I'm also a professional," Tori said. "I don't break people's trust."
"I won't tell them," Becky said. "Whatever. It's totally your call. I'm just the driver."