Chapter seven, revealed identities.
Phoebe's point of view.
I could see the grin on his face the whole time we walked to his place. His hand clasped mine as we walked, a comfortable silence set between us. It was early evening, many of the stars from nearby constilations and systems. He started walking us faster when we got closer to the place, and I guessed it was because he was excited. When we got to a certain street, he stopped and turned to me with a smirk on his lips.
"This is a surprise, yes?" He said, making me nod my head. "Okay, so you can't see until we're there." I didn't understand what he meant at first, until he covered my eyes with his hand and moved so he was walking behind me, leading me in the right direction. I started laughing as we walked at how ridiculous we must've looked.
The temperature suddenly dropped so I guessed we were inside. His other hand went around my waist and he had to lift me up a couple of times, making me guess there were small steps in his home. Eventually we stopped, though he kept his hand over my eyes. He shifted so he stood in front of me then walked me backwards so my back hit something that was more than likely a wall.
"Close your eyes." He whispered as he removed his hand, making sure I still couldn't see. One of his hands went to my waist, and I didn't know what he was doing with the other one.
"You can look." He whispered, quite close to my face. I blinked my eyes open and it took me a couple of seconds for my eyes to adjust to the darkness of the room. Once I could see, I looked past Soren and around the place. It looked like an abandoned warehouse. The room was empty except for a couple of chairs and rubbish everywhere. There were brown stains on the floor that made me feel sick to look at, knowing what it was immediately. There was one small light in the middle of the room which made seeing almost impossible, and the room was freezing cold. I felt something sharp poke my stomach through my dress and looked down to see him holding a knife against my abdomen. I looked back up at him, my heart rate immediately rocketing.
"Soren...what're you doing?" I asked quietly, too scared to try and push him away from me. He smirked, leaning in closer so his body was pushed up against mine. I felt his breath tickle on my neck and shuddered, tears filling my fear-filled eyes.
"Oh Phoebe, you're so gullible." He muttered, his spare hand moving to gently grab my chin. I moved my hands to rip his away, but he grabbed my wrists in his spare hand, holding them in a painful grip. I gasped, the first of the tears falling.
"Soren what are you doing?" I whispered through the tears. "You're really scaring me."
He gave a light chuckle, nodding his head.
"That's the idea." He muttered. "You were so easy to get to, not like anybody else I've done this to." He started explaining, causing me to start shaking in fear, my breathing quickening. "I'm guessing you know I never worked for the Nova Corp now." He said with a chuckle. "I just said that so you'd stop asking about my scars." I looked at his arm again, seeing what looked like cuts that had healed, but marked him permanently. I gasped and looked up at him, my voice shaky when I spoke.
"You're a bounty hunter."
He gave another chuckle, nodding his head.
"Yes, yes I am. And you've got a pretty big amount of units on you, beautiful." I swallowed the bile rising in my throat as I looked at him, taking in a shaky breath afterwards.
I realised something that made me feel even worse. Peter and everybody back on the ship didn't even know where I was. I didn't even know since my eyes had been covered. There was no way for me to be saved from that.
"Oh don't look so scared, sweetheart, I'll make sure you stay here as long as possible." He said with an evil grin. That only made me feel worse. He would make it hurt more. He jabbed the knife forward enough to make it poke me harder, but not actually enter my skin. I flinched, gasping.
"Soren please don't." I whispered through the tears. He just grinned again, leaning in closer.
"I'm sorry." He whispered, before the knife entered my stomach. I gasped, flinching as tears fell from my eyes. He twisted the knife to the side and I screamed in pain, causing him to laugh as he watched me.
Peter's point of view.
I could feel my heart beating in my chest unevenly as I thought of everything that could've happened to her. It was all my fault she was taken. If I had just listened to my gut then she wouldn't have been taken.
"Why the fuck didn't you say anything?!" I yelled at Gamora as we left the ship, hurrying through the town. She turned to glare at me.
"I hadn't seen him until today! And even then I didn't realise until I was back in the ship! Peter do you think I don't care?!" She snapped. Rocket growled in frustration behind me, making me turn to look at him.
"If you two would stop fuckin' arguing maybe we'd be able to figure out where she is!" He shouted loudly, making me nod my head.
"What do you know about this guy?" I asked Gamora, looking over at her. She looked to me, and for the first time I've ever seen, she looked scared. Yes, she was worried when Ronan was going to destroy Xandar, but she looked properly scared now.
"He's a bounty hunter extremely wanted by the Nova Corp. He usually stays on Knowhere, but I guess he must've followed us here while he was tracking Phoebe." I swallowed as I listened to her, forcing myself to nod my head.
"That bastard is gonna die today." I spat, shaking my head.
We rounded another corner and there was a massive building that looked like nobody had been there in ages. Gamora started running towards there, so I guessed that's where she was.
We entered the building after going silent, me and Rocket with our guns out, and Gamora and Drax with their knives. We heard hushed whispering through the silence, before it went silent. After a second an ear-piercing scream ran through the building, making me feel extremely sick. Then there was a shuffling noise, then the sound of a door slamming. We ran through the building, guns loaded and knives raised. I turned to everybody else with a stern expression on my face.
"Me and Drax will go after the bastard, Gamora and Rocket, go find Phoebe." I whispered. Gamora looked like she was about to complain, but the look I gave her made her think twice about answering back. They nodded their heads and ran off down the corridor, leaving me and Drax to go the other direction.
Phoebe's point of view.
The worst part was the pain I felt everytime I woke up. Drifting in and out of consciousness wasn't too bad. Everytime I went out again I was hoping it would be the last time. The pain had spread out everywhere. At first it was my stomach from where he stabbed me, but after I passed out the first time I realised he must've done more to me while I was out. My head pounded horribly, my chest felt tight and hurt to breathe, and I had the same pain I did from when I first broke my rib after the attack from Ronan. My eyes were blurry and heavy, though I didn't need to see to be able to tell how much blood I had lost. Tears continued to fall from my eyes along with blood from my stomach, and other places. The drowsiness luckily blocked out most of the fear, though I was still extremely scared.
I heard shuffling through the halls and hushed whispering, before the noise of a door slamming. I flinched, gasping in pain when I made my stomach started to hurt worse. I closed my eyes again, my eyelids too heavy to stay open. I heard another door opening and a gasp, then the sound of something falling to the floor.
"Phoebe...oh god Phoebe." I heard somebody say. I blinked my eyes open again and tried to force them to stay that way as I looked up.
"R-Rocket?" I whispered weakly, taking in a small breath. He just stared at me, shaking his head as his paws went to his face, tugging at the fur.
"Rocket I'm so sorry..." I whispered, the tears falling faster as I started to gasp for breath. "I should've listened to you...I shouldn't have been horrible..." He started shaking his head as I spoke, his hands hovering over me but not coming in contact with my skin.
"Phoebe it's okay I forgive you...just calm down..." He looked worried, shaking his head. I took in another small gasp, more tears falling as it hurt more.
"It's all my fault, rocket I didn't mean to." I whispered, choking back a sob. He shook his head again, looking at me.
"Phoebe ya gotta calm down." He said. "Stop talking it doesn't matter." I shook my head again, my eyes slowly starting to drift shut.
"Rocket...so sorry..." I muttered, my eyes closing as I started to drift again. I felt prods and shakes of my arm, though I couldn't be bothered to complain.
The next time I opened my eyes was to hands on my face. I felt them shake against my skin as if the person itself was shaking. After a small struggle I managed to open my eyes, taking a second to focus.
"Phoebe holy shit, you've gotta keep your eyes open." Peter instructed from over me.
"Peter." I whispered, tears starting to fall again. I shook my head, my body shaking along with his. "I'm so sorry..."
He shook his head, moving me to gently face him.
"Hey, none of that shit, we're getting you outta here, okay?" I could barely focus on him anymore as my eyes started to close again.
"Phoebe, hey, open your eyes!" He almost yelled. I tried my hardest but quickly started drifting again, though it felt different. It felt like it would be the last time.
Duhn duhn duuuhhhhnnn! Okay, I'm really happy with how this turned out, and also that I managed to get it out when I wanted it to be. This chapter was mainly focused on Phoebe's side of the story, so the next chapter will be the others side. I think it ended up being more gruesome than I intended, but that's good, right? I don't really plan for this to be finished soon, so I will try to get more chapters up even after the whole Soren ordeal. Anyways, what did you think? Reviews and suggestions are much appreciated. Thank you for reading!
-Bambie.