My head is throbbing to a point where I can feel it in my left cheek. The back of my head feels heavier than the front. Before I open my eyes, I notice the cold kiss of metal against my arms and piercing through my jeans. My natural instinct is to pull away but I can't. My arms are restrained by tape halfway up my forearms, just out of reach. Panic floods my body. My fingers feel frozen, my bones like electrified steel rods. All of these observations happen within a second. There's no light behind my eyelids, so where ever I am it's dark. I force my eyes open.
I've always been very observant to detail, but nothing about this room sticks in my mind. My hands try to rip at the tape with no success. No part of me is talking to the other. I'm watching myself wither and panic in a metal chair in the middle of a dark room. I need to stop and assess where I am.
Find an exit. I look to the wall across me. It's definitely not drywall, it's cement. There is a window close to the ceiling, small with foggy glass. I'm in a basement. I crane my neck to see a set of steps to my back right. When I turn my head back, the barefoot woman's face is in front of mine. I jump involuntarily.
"She's awake." She smiles.
I break eye contact with her when I see the twins from school come and stand on either side of her. Wait, Ethan and Aiden? No. That can't be them.
"Is this a joke?" I hear myself say looking between them.
She clamps her hand over my thigh and squeezes hard enough I'm sure she'll break it.
"Kali!" Ethan pulls her grip off me.
I hear her growl at him. "You'll remember to never do that again." She slashes at his face and a line of blood cuts across his cheek. Only seconds later it disappears. I have to blink a few times to make sure I see right. Her nails are sharp and protruding from her hand where they weren't seconds before.
They drugged me. They had to have. Because when she snaps back to me her eyes are bright red. Maybe she's the one on drugs. What does a crazy drug addict want with me? And why are the twins here? I don't feel drugged. Not that I've ever been drugged and kidnapped before, but I don't feel like I've been drugged. It's the adrenaline. I'm seeing things.
She rakes her nails up my leg and places her palm over my throat. I lean away as far as I can. She takes her time, enjoying the movements, in wrapping her fingers around my neck. Her thumb is just under my chin directing where I look.
"Relax. I'm not going to kill you... Just maim a little bit." My heart is shaking in my chest. She can feel this and presses her claws into my skin. Not enough to break through, but enough to make me wince.
"That's enough, Kali." A calm voice says at the top of the steps. There's a staccato clicking as he descends. The twins step back and Kali removes her hand and stands up straight. She sighs and puts her tongue in the corner of her mouth.
He's an average looking man with black sunglasses and a white cane. He takes apart his walking stick piece by piece and let's it fall back into shape a few times before he crouches to me.
"What's your name?"
"Julia." I say a second too slow.
"Your real name." His voice sound pleasant but his face looks annoyed. "Don't lie to me."
"Y/N."
"There we go." He stands and pats the leg that isn't numb in pain. "Don't be afraid, Y/N, I won't hurt you."
"Too late." I say snidely.
"Sweetie, if I was-"
"Kali is working on her manners." He speaks over her threat.
My hands are gripping the armrests so hard my fingers are going to break. "I don't have anything you want." I try to level my voice.
"I just want to talk." He says so sweetly I'd almost believe him if I weren't strapped to a chair. "You are Scott McCall's sister, correct?"
My first thought is to lie. Why does he want to know about Scott? How does he even know Scott? Or me?
"Answer me, Y/N." The room's air seems to get thick at his tone. Ethan swallows and looks at the floor.
"Why does that matter?" I inquire. Kali grabs the back of my hair and pulls my head back. Somehow she pulled on the exact spot where it hurts the most.
"You don't matter enough to be difficult. Watch yourself."
The right side blind man's mouth twitches into a smirk. "Kali is a bit of a loose canon. I can't promise anything on her behalf."
"I'm adopted." I groan out.
"He hasn't come for you." He observes.
Who, Scott? Why would he? How would he know where to look?
He must see the confusion on my face because he asks, "You don't know, do you?"
"Know? No, I don't know anything! What is going on?" The tears are forming at the brim of my eyes. I will not cry. I'm afraid and alone and I will not cry. I make the angriest face I can muster and force the stinging in my nose to stop.
"Oh, so brave. Is it worth dying over?" Kali teases and pulls harder.
"She doesn't know anything." He says as he lets his cane fall into place. He turns to the stairs and begins to tap the end of each step.
"But we haven't-" Kali starts.
"You heard her. Let her go, Kali." I hear him disappear at the top of the steps.
She scuffs and throws my head back. There's a stinging below my right eye and I'm looking towards the left. Ethan takes a step towards us, but Aiden puts his arm out to stop him. She slapped me and now the vision in my right eye is blurry. "Give Scott my regards." She spits and ascends from the damp basement.
After a few seconds of my head swirling I feel the pressure on my right arm release. Ethan and Aiden are on either side of my ripping the tape with their claws. I recoil automatically.
"Don't touch me." I hiss.
"We're trying to help." Aiden says hushed.
"That was helping? What is wrong with you? You're crazy! I'm going to turn you in."
"No one will believe you." Ethan says despondent rather than threateningly.
They try to help me from the chair but I push off them. My left leg is relatively useless. I have to support all my weight on my right. I wouldn't be able to run even if I tried.
"Y/N..." one of them says behind me.
"Stop!" I turn to them with tears falling from my eyes. "I could never have expected...we go to the same..." I inhale and turn to the stairs. I hop onto the first step which creaks. It didn't when the blind man went up or down. The only sound in the basement is of me huffing and the creak of the stairs as I try to leave. When I get to the top, who will be there to greet me? Am I just walking into another death grip from Kali? How am I going to escape when I get up there? I have no plan and no strength to fight. Not that I could. These people...
I'm going to pass out I need to get out of here. When I reach the top I fly to the nearest door. I don't see anyone on this floor, but I force myself to use my left leg to move. I fumble with the door handle which is locked. My hands shake as I fiddle with the knob. When I open the door I see the sky in a beautiful purple of dawn; the grass is glittered with fresh dew. The sky looks like nothing terrible just happened. I run into the empty street with no direction in mind other than: away.
I realize I'm by the library after I flee down a few blocks. I didn't remember to look back at the building I was in to describe in the file I was never going to report. You can't say, "Yeah Sheriff Stilinski, I was kidnapped by people with red eyes and razor sharp claws. No, no I'm sure I wasn't drugged. No, Sheriff, please don't lock me up in an insane asylum." Ethan and Aiden were right. No one is going to believe me.
I'm maybe twelve minutes from my house, but I can't physically stand anymore. I keel over and throw up. There are too many emotions flooding my system right now.
I limp until I get home. I think last night was Friday, so there isn't school today. Hopefully I can slip in while Scott and Isaac are still asleep.
The sky is a warm orange by the time I get to our front steps. I check my face real fast in the silver knocker. It's red on my cheek but no bruises yet. I know my leg is patterned with purple and blue without even looking.
I open the door and walk in to Isaac and Scott pacing the living room.
"Where have you been?" Scott stomps toward me. Isaac rubs the back of his neck and lets out a huge breath he looks like he's been holding all night.
I didn't figure they'd be up so I have no lie planned.
"Don't worry about it." I flinch at his approach.
"What happened?" Isaac asks. He knows the subtle signs of fear. He knows what covering something up looks like.
"Nothing." I enunciate the syllables. He's staring at my cheeks. I try to turn my face away without being obvious.
"Well where were you all night? Because you never showed up to Lydia's." Isaac points out.
"Y/N," Scott says. "We've been worried all night. I just want to make sure you're okay."
"I was fine before you cared about me, I'll be fine now." I use all of my remaining strength to walk upstairs without limping.
"Scott, she was lying." I hear Isaac's muffled voice through my door.
"I know, but why?"
Isaac doesn't answer.
You were right though, I think at them. It's not safe here anymore.
I lay back on my bed without changing out of my sweat soaked clothes.
Why did the blind man want to talk to me? How is Scott involved? What does he know? What the hell is going on in this town.