Chapter 6: Rise, Rebel, Resist

Fang found a sliver of metal. Claire never saw where she got it, but every night for months she heard the scraping, and the older girl whispering to herself. One night, Claire was just about to ask about it when the scraping suddenly stopped. Fang turned to the younger girl and held out the blade, through the bars of her cage, she had been sharpening. Claire took it.

"The next time they let us out, I'm going to need you to stab those fucking bastards. Go for the throat, and don't let up until they're dead. I'll distract them, you'll know it when I do it." The tanned girl said with a glint in her eyes.

"Are you sure about this?" Claire asked, testing the blade on her thumb. It was plenty sharp.

"I am. One of them has a gun, I've seen it. We're going to take it and kill every single person in this godforsaken place. Then… We'll leave. Together. Now get some sleep, and don't get caught with that until you've had a chance to use it."

"What if we get caught? Or fail somehow?"

"Then, we'll probably die. If that happens, know that you're my best and only friend. Do you remember what you told me all those years ago?"

"Yes…" Of course she did. She had regretted it this whole time.

"Tomorrow… Tomorrow it'll get better."

Claire didn't sleep a wink. She spent long hours imagining the blade sinking home into a man's throat. She imagined the sunlight, as she remembered it. She imagined freedom. She tried not to think of failure, or what would happen to if they failed. Finally, the hour came, and the two men entered the room.

They each opened a cage and pulled the girls out by their arms. Claire had the makeshift blade held between her thigh and right palm, and terror gripped her. Suddenly, Fang wrenched herself around and slammed a knee into her captor's groin. Claire felt the grip on her arm loosen and she pulled free and took the blade in her hand, then spun out of the man's grip and plunged the blade into his neck. A spurt of blood covered everyone in the room, and Claire plunged the blade in again, on the other side of his Adam's apple. She pulled out the blade and looked over to Fang.

Fang headbutted the man that she had attacked. Claire started to move toward him and everything felt like it was in slow motion. The man pulled a black pistol from his waistband, and Fang grabbed and pushed it above her head. Claire saw in this moment that there was no clear shot at the man's throat, and instead jumped and slammed the makeshift blade into the man's temple. She felt the breaking of thin bone, and then the soft matter of the man's brain spreading as the blade sank in.

The man looked around as he staggered back, then hacked up a great deal of blood and fell to the ground. He never got back up. Fang took the gun by the barrel and held it out to her friend. Claire took it, shaking with the adrenaline in her veins. Fang then plucked the blade from the man's skull and wiped it on his shirt.

"Good job, love. I'll go kill the men in the rooms they always take us to… You head the other way and kill anyone you see."

"No! Come with me. Let's not split up." Claire pleaded, visibly sagging.

"It'll be ok. Besides, I want to go to the basement and fuck with anything that will explode. You need to go before that happens."

"Fang no! Don't leave me…" Claire said, tears flooding into her eyes. The tanned girl drew the pale girl close and kissed her cheek.

"It'll be ok. It'll get better, remember? That starts now. Now get the fuck out of here. I'll see you again… I promise." Fang said, before running off down the hall. Claire took a deep breath to steady herself, and set out going the opposite way.

Claire came to a corner and peeked out around it. A bored man in black sat in a folding chair, with a gun on his hip. She pulled up the gun and sighted in on the man, then held her breath and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened. Pulling back around the corner she let out her breath and then checked the gun. She found a circular button near the trigger, and pressed it. She then looked on the other side to see a similar button now sticking out of that side, with a red circle on it. 'Red for fire. Got it.' She turned the corner and sighted in the man again, then pulled the trigger. The gun was incredibly loud, especially in the enclosed hallway, and when the bullet took him in the neck it splattered a bunch of gore on the wall behind him.

She continued to move down the hall, stopping only long enough to take the man's gun. Hearing a man scream from deeper in the building, Claire began to run. Two more men died by her hand before she found the exit, and she stepped out into blinding morning sunlight. There was a parking lot, with four cars in it. She checked them all. Locked. She sighed, and went and stood by the door, waiting for Fang. However, Fang never came. Even when the explosion ripped through the center of the mansion, Fang never came out the door. Claire, knowing that explosions start fires and fires bring firefighters, decided it was time to leave. She began the long trek through the nearby forest, where she dropped the guns. She didn't need them anymore.