The Price of Desire

Disclaimer: I do not own Victorious

A/N:

Chapter 25 (Pushed to the Limit)

Trina started up the stairs, half expecting them to slide out from under her. She honestly couldn't even dream what was in store for her. With only one thing driving her, she just couldn't give up, no matter what popped out at her. Once she made it halfway up the steps, she heard a metallic slurping noise from behind. She turned her gaze over her shoulder and froze when she saw spikes shooting up from small holes in the steps. Each step had about three holes spaced five inches apart. They were coming at her rather swiftly. She thought Bethany was trying not to kill her!

With a quick foot, she started running up the stairs, the spikes quickly tailing her. "What kind of trap is this?" The stairs were numerous and rushing from the spikes felt almost as an eternity. Eventually she made it to the top step, hopped over the very final small holes and let out a shout as she heard a tear. One spike had just torn through her pant leg and scraped her flesh. Fortunately, she managed only to be nicked by the spike. She stared breathlessly and turned her head up, letting out a wild exclamation. "What the hell was that! Are you trying to kill me?"

"No dearie, I simply want you to give up. Your mother is dead, you need a new one." Hatred sparked from her heart and her eyes started to sting from tears, she let out an angry shout and slammed her fist into a light attached to the wall beside her.

"Do not talk about my mother…You have no right to talk about her!" This woman was nuts if she thought she was going to replace Holly. She closed her eyes and let her thoughts travel to her parents. Her body shook and she spoke softly, whispering only to them. "Mom, Dad, I know you're watching me right now…please, watch over Tori. Hold her, embrace her, love her until I can get to her. Watch over me too…God, give the will and the strength to do this…" She opened her eyes and closed her fists tight. "I'm not going to give up, Nurse. I'm going to tear you apart…maybe you can play some nice fight music while I kick whatever goons you have lying in wait for me."

"Oh dear, dear Trina, you are so naïve. The only one left is Tyson, I couldn't get Venus, she is still in the Prison hospital, and I did not care for any of the thugs."

"Go figure. I guess you didn't go after Mrs. Lee then?"

"I had no need for her dearie, she wanted to harm Tori. I couldn't have that." Trina shuddered and started to move forward, but stopped as she gazed down the hallway before her. At the end of the hall was a door that must lead into the bigger area of the second floor, perhaps a ballroom or something. It was on the wall to her right. She turned her gaze behind and frowned, the wall did span past her. Just behind her was a wall that connected to the side wall, its bottom hovered just eight feet above the stairs, and it rose up high to the ceiling, about ten feet above.

Now this whole map was not a problem for her, the problem was that the door on the end of the hall was the only door, and in front of her were three lines on the ground with buzz saws moving from side to side. The saws weren't going too fast, but either way she would have to be fast. "Not trying to kill us, huh…well look…I'm not turning back one way or another. Oh, and guess what, you're a coward!" She heard Bethany chuckling over the PA system, then heard a sudden shutter noise. Small square patches on either side of the walls opened just six feet above the ground. There were two on each wall just before and just after the saws of death. She raised an eyebrow and watched as strange nozzles began moving from the walls "Holy shit…what is this…"

Black smoke started spraying from the nozzles, polluting the hallway. Trina's eyes widened and she quickly cupped her shirt over her mouth. The smoke was starting to cloak the saws, making it hard to see them. This was not good. She knew better than to breathe in that smog, but the problem now was visibility. She did not need to lose any limbs here. "Not making this easy for me are you…psycho." This woman really didn't want to let Tori go! She crouched and smirked subtly, the smog wasn't going down towards the buzz saws, so she had a clear view.

The saws took about five seconds to move from one side to the next, so she did have five seconds to move. The first and third saw were always parallel, so when they were on the right, the middle saw was on the left. If she crouched low, she could still move swiftly and avoid the smog above her. At least this woman didn't have a damn guillotine, but she'd better not say that aloud, for fear that she may actually have one. Now, she needed to map this out, it was all about timing, one misstep could cost her a leg.

If she stepped on the first one while the saw was all the way at the other side, she could count to three, giving her just enough time for the middle saw to have passed her. When that middle saw reached the edge and started moving back towards her, at least six more seconds, she could step onto the third, then she'd be off!

Sweat dripped down her neck as she crouched low, practically sitting on air, and moved to the right wall. She reached her hand up and placed it firmly on the wall, watching as the saw touched the wall, then began moving away. Once clear, she stepped onto the first line. She started to step forward, but the middle buzz saw was too close. She pulled her leg back and watched as it touched the wall, so close to her foot. She swallowed hard as the saw began to move along the line. Once clear, she stepped onto the middle saw. The third saw was just a little larger than the first, but not so much that it would be problematic.

She stepped onto the third line after the saw passed her up, then stepped off, cheering on the inside. It only took a little over fifteen seconds, but it felt like an eternity. The metallic buzzing noise still rang in her ears, and it would probably stay that way for some time. Once on the other side, she saw four circles opening from the wall ahead. Her eyes widened as she saw several cone shaped points starting to move out.

"Oh holy f…" She leapt down as long metal spears fired out at her, passing overhead like rockets. She growled and lifted her eyes towards the ceiling. "If you think this is giving you any brownie points, you're dead wrong!" The floor began to rumble, stunning her for a split second. She quickly rose to her feet and twisted around, staring in suspicion at the ground. "Do I even want to know…" Two lines started to form, with her in between. The ground was crumbling beneath her! "Shit!" She started running, reaching her arm out as she started to fall. There was enough space between this floor and the ceiling of the first floor that she would be trapped in a pit. Her heart was racing and sweat was flying with her hair.

She let out a dangerous scream and found herself slamming into the wall of the pit. She was shaken, but she managed to grab the floor with her right arm. Hitting the wall knocked the wind from her. She shook her head and quickly lifted her left hand, clutching the floor with all her might. As she looked down, she saw the pit was just four feet below her own feet. If she fell, there was no way she could just jump four feet and grab the top.

She clicked the heels of her boot knives, then slammed the knives into the walls, steadying herself. She flung her hair from her face and breathed heavily. "Wow Sinjin, who knew you could have something that would help me." She strained her muscles and started pulling herself up. As she pulled, she removed her right shoe knife, lifted her leg, and slammed it back into the wall. The wall was fortunately hollow inside, though that also meant she had to be careful.

She continued her climb until she managed to pull herself from the pit. Had she fallen in, she probably could have used the shoes on her hands. She lay flat on the ground, panting as her muscles started to burn. She didn't need to be getting worn out, not yet. Not here. But she was so tired, so damn tired. She clenched her eyes shut, would it matter if she slept right now? Just five minutes, only five minutes to rest her eyes.

"It's so cold down here," Tori's voice echoed. "So cold, so dark…Trina? Mom? Dad? Anyone? Can anyone hear me? I'm trapped down here!"

Trina's eyes shot open, a new strength coursed through her veins. With a grunt, she put her hands to the ground and pushed herself up. She put her hand to the doorknob and pushed it open, entering into the first room. It was a large room with a huge rectangular meeting table. Several chairs framed it.

She heard the sound of metal cranking, then glanced up at the ceiling. She froze with fear as she eyed four metal machine guns in each corner of the room. "Oh no…You wouldn't…"

"I'm sorry dearie, but I have to use force."

"Shit!" Her curse was long and drawn out as she began running for the table. The four machine guns instantly started firing at her, following her. She dove for the space beneath the table and threw her hands over her head. The table was, thankfully, made of brown marble stone, so it would be a while before those bullets chipped through.

She looked out ahead of her and began crawling to the back end of the table. There was a door that led to another room, so if she made a break for it, she could likely get away from these guns. Speaking of which, the firing had ceased. She raised an eyebrow and hummed to herself, were the guns based off of movement? If so, she could truly luck out. Maybe.

She moved her fingers through the thick carpet and growled as the smell of gun smoke struck her nostrils. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Wish me luck, Tori." She pushed off with her strong foot and rose up, bolting for the door. Her eyes fell onto the doorknob, she stayed focused on the knob and reached out. The guns clicked towards her as she closed her hand onto the golden handle. As she opened the door and stepped through the window, shells from the guns bounced off the ground and splashed her lower left leg. She let out a scream as the shrapnel burned her flesh.

Once inside, she leaned against the wall and started panting. A warm liquid began running down her pants. She looked down and cringed, her leg was on fire! Maybe not literally, but it had been streaked by those bullet shells. She was lucky no bullets pierced her, but still her leg was in a great amount of pain and blood was running down to her shoes.

She didn't have any time to recover, as heavy footsteps came running towards her. She opened her eyes in time to see Tyson charging towards her like an ox. Her eyes widened and she quickly leapt to the side. When her left leg touched the ground, it felt like someone had just stabbed a million road spikes into it. She cringed and looked back over her shoulder as Tyson slammed his shoulder into the wall.

"What? I don't get any chance to recover? I think my leg just got shot up!"

"You'll live. For a few seconds." He ran forward and grabbed her neck. She let out a shout as he pushed her into a nearby window. She put her hands to his wrist and gasped as the windowsill jabbed her lower back and her body bent back. She turned her head and yelped when she took a look at the ground several feet below her. If she fell, she might not survive, and to top it off, a guy that was physically stronger than she was, was holding her halfway out.

His hand tightened around her neck and her face started to turn blue. She moved her eyes to the back of her head and started flailing her legs. Ugh, what was the problem here? She had those shoes of Sinjin's. She wasn't one for cheap tricks, but moments like these called for them. "T-This is…really going to hurt…you." She gagged her words out and lowered her eyes to his, her face becoming a deep shade of violet. His legs were spread over hers, a very bad position for him to be in.

She curled her right leg in, raising her knee, watching as he raised an eyebrow. She moved her hands out and flattened them against the walls beside the window, then kicked her leg up. She strained as her left leg started flaring with pain, being the one leg remaining on the ground. The blade in her shoe tore through Tyson directly between his legs. Tyson screamed as she ripped the blade forward out of his body. He fell backwards, releasing her. She pushed herself in and watched as he held onto his crotch, rolling from side to side while blood and feces began spilling on the floor. She groaned in disgust and slowly limped around him.

"You bitch! That fucking hurts!" She took a slow, deep breath and slowly leaned her right leg back. She hated this man with a passion that sparked from deep inside. She wasn't sure why, really, but if she had to guess, she would have to assume it was from what just happened to her. She rubbed her neck and took another deep breath, still struggling to return the air to her lungs.

"Yeah well, this is probably going to hurt more…" The man moved his hand to his waist, grabbing a concealed handgun from his jean pocket. He started to aim the gun up, but before he could do anything, Trina threw her foot forward, slamming the blade into his head. He gasped and let his arms fall out to the side. She watched his body convulse for a minute after she pulled her shoe back. She was seriously getting tired of this.

"I'm done playing nice…" She reached down and grabbed the gun from his hand. She had a feeling this would come in handy. As she turned away from him, she started limping through the remaining rooms, watching closely for any traps, but strangely enough, there were none. When she reached the steps leading up to the third floor, she started slowly climbing them. One hand holding onto her gun and the other, the stairwell.

As she was halfway up the steps, they started to click. Her eyes widened and she quickly swung her gun arm around to grab the railing. The steps sank into a diagonal slide and her body slammed down against the rail. She growled and looked up, there were about thirteen more rungs in the railing before she would reach the top. Her arms were already extremely sore and her left leg wasn't doing much better. She'd since rolled up her pant leg and had taken the shirt from Tyson, using it to tie around her leg. "And here I thought you didn't have anything else planned…"

Using all her might, she let out a loud grunt and began pulling herself up, sliding along the steps and suffering from major carpet burn. It felt like fire, licking her body, burning her, taunting her, but she fought against it. Eventually she reached the top and lay back, only her feet hung off of the steps.

"Poor baby, you look so exhausted." Bethany's voice stung her ears. She groaned and put her arm to her forehead. She seriously didn't need any more of this woman. She was already mentally and emotionally drained from realizing the nurse she'd grown up with headed the gang that took Tori, but now realizing just how psycho her goals were, it only made things worse. "Come right in here, Momma will make it all better."

"Shut…up…" She groaned frustratingly and started slamming her fist on the ground. "You are not my mother, you're my fucking nurse for god sake. I hate you!" She pushed herself up and started to limp through whatever room she was in. She was almost certain she was developing tunnel vision, but maybe only in her mind. Her rage was simply making her focus solely on what was in front of her.

She stopped in front of a large oak door, quite possibly the door leading into Bethany's office. She leaned against the wall, pressing her shoulder up against it and sighing softly. The things she did for her little sister. Once they got out of this house, she was not letting Tori out of her sight. She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes, she attempted to steady her heartbeat and settle her shot nerves. "Well. Here goes nothing then…" She opened her eyes halfway and swallowed hard. She wasn't afraid. No, not at all. She could do this. She would do this. "Nurse Bethany." She cracked her neck and narrowed her eyes while cocking the handgun, so much for martial arts. "Time to die."

Dun Dun Dun. Here we go, Trina's just gone through hell to reach her, it's all come down to this. Almost felt bad for Tyson. That house, a literal death trap, Trina's bloody, but determined. Here comes the final fight.

By the way, while we're at it, take some time to listen to this song and see how well it fits this: h t t p: / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=O0M5D5OA-d4