Chapter 7: Interrogation

Alex was ushered out into the hallway and the door was slammed behind him, effectively cutting him off from the girls. Then, he was roughly shoved down the hall and into another room. Looking around, Alex saw a lone chair and dried blood stains covering the floor and the walls. Alex whistled lowly.

"Wow, looks like you guys need to get a new cleaning lady," he commented, smirking. For all his troubles he got no reaction other than to be shoved into the chair. "I didn't really want to sit down but thanks anyways guys," he mentioned cheerily, standing up. One of the guards just shoved him down again and held him there while the other tied him too it. They then secured him with heavy chains. Alex sighed, knowing it was no use fighting back.

The room was quiet for a moment before he spoke up again, breaking the silence. "So, I'm a little offended that I only warrant two guards. You still underestimate me that much huh?" He goaded. "I mean come on. I even brought backup to help this time. Did you know that those girls in there are trained? I actually did you a favor by holding them back!" The guard punched him in the face to shut him up and Alex grunted as his head snapped sideways. "Hey now. Don't you think that was a little uncalled for? We use our words here, not our fists," Alex mocked, imitating a kindergarten teacher. He received another hard punch for his troubles. Alex slowly exhaled, trying to control his breathing. He could taste the blood from a split lip. Great, He thought. I'm already bleeding.

"Okay Alex. This is going to be fun," Klokov said. He walked behind the boy but Alex stubbornly faced forward, resisting the urge to try to see over his shoulder at what the older man was doing. There was the clatter of metal against metal and Klokov once again entered his view. In his hand, the Russian held a long, elegant looking knife. Alex swallowed nervously, knowing full well what the man intended to use it for.

As the man started to make the first incision, Alex bit his lip, determined not to make a sound. His eyes teared up against his will and he blinked them rapidly. Klokov finished the cut. It had started a little above the teen's wrist and ended at the crook in his elbow. He did the same on the other side, all the while not taking his eyes off of Alex, who didn't make a sound. Klokov smiled.

"Very good Alex," the man said, "but I wonder how much longer you can keep that up." Alex didn't bother answering with a witty comment. His arms stung and he could feel the rivers of blood, flowing down them, dripping onto the floor. He did send a glare towards Klokov though. The man's smile grew.

Klokov tossed the knife into the air, flipping it. Gripping the handle with the blade now pointing down, he plunged it into Alex's thigh. The first scream was torn out of Alex. He cut if off as soon as he could, knowing that the girls likely heard it anyway. Klokov rotated the knife slightly though it was still in the meaty part of Alex's thigh. Alex whimpered but managed not to scream.

"What do you want from me?" Alex asked softly, gritting his teeth against the pain and trying to control his breathing.

"Simple," his captor answered. "Your slow and painful death at my hands."

AR_GA_AR_GA_AR_GA

Back in the cell, a scream pierced the silence and all four girls sat up from their slumped positions against the walls. They glanced at each other fearfully as it was choked off. Nobody spoke, waiting to hear what was going to happen next. There was another scream a few minutes later. This one wasn't choked off quite as soon.

"Is that..." Macy trailed off.

"Oh god! Alex!" Cammie whispered, looking sick.

"When they come back in here I'll kill 'em!" Bex raged.

"Bex they'll just do the same to you. We're not much good to Alex if we're all beat up too. We gotta get him outta here," Liz reasoned. The conversation stopped as another loud scream was heard.

AR_GA_AR_GA_AR_GA

Alex was still tied to the chair three hours later. His head hung low and his mess of dirty blond hair was streaked with blood. There were now not only cuts on his arms but all over his face too. There was a particularly nasty new gash that ran across his chest, parallel to his collarbone, which was now broken. Not only was there the deep stab wound in his thigh, but there was also one through his hand and two more on his torso. Alex felt weak from loss of blood but Klokov didn't seem to be stopping.

"Come now Alex!" He jeered, putting a finger under Alex's chin and raising it so he could look into the boy's eyes. "Where's that famous wit?" Alex wrenched his chin away from the man and bit as hard as he could down on the finger. The older man yelled, tearing his hand away from the malicious teen. Alex's eyes glinted dangerously.

"You little..." Klokov finished his sentence by slamming his fist into Alex's face. Alex felt the bones in his nose shatter and splay. He cried out, his head whipping to the side. He saw blackness at the edge of his vision and almost breathed a sigh of relief. If he passed out he wouldn't have to endure this any longer. Klokov, seeing that the boy was on the brink of unconsciousness, snapped his fingers and, as had been happening for the past hour and a half or so, a bucket of cold water was dumped on Alex's head, startling him back into full wakefulness. Klokov grabbed his favorite knife again and approached Alex.

Alex refused to give Klokov the satisfaction of hearing him beg. He couldn't help but start whimpering though, as Klokov pressed the knife slowly into his side. The cut was still too shallow to make him scream but Klokov soon fixed that. Alex screamed as the knife entered his body. A rose colored stain blossomed on his already blood-soaked shirt. Blackness entered Alex's vision and he welcomed it. Cold water was dumped over his head but it was too late. He was too far gone.

Alex was vaguely aware of the two guards untying him. As the ropes released his body, he slumped forward in the chair. The two guards roughly grabbed him and dragged him between them but Alex no longer cared.

Footsteps were heard walking down the hall slowly. The screaming had finally stopped though what that could mean, Cammie couldn't guess. The door to the cell was flung open and the guards yelled for them to move to the back wall. Worried about Alex, they obliged. The teen was roughly thrown into the room, weakly catching himself against the nearest wall, breathing hard, as the door was slammed shut behind him. His eyes were glazed over and he leaned heavily against the wall, blinking rapidly as if he was trying to clear his vision.

"Alex?" Cammie asked softly. His head snapped up in alarm like he forgot he wasn't alone but he quickly relaxed when he realized it was just Cammie. "Are you okay?" She asked. He nodded slowly.

"Yeah," he whispered numbly, his voice hoarse from screaming. "Yeah I'm fine." He managed two shaky steps towards the girls before his eyes rolled back in his head and he passed out.

"Oh my god!" Liz cried, alarmed. Cammie had already rushed forward to catch him and she carefully lowered him to the ground, placing his head in her lap so it wasn't on the hard concrete.

"Bex," Cammie called. Though they all knew first aid, Bex was the best at it since she got into many more fights due to her temper. She didn't need to say anything. The moment Alex had passed out Bex had begun visually assessing him. Once Cammie had lowered him to the floor, she had jumped in to take a closer look. She ripped his now tattered, blood-soaked shirt down the middle, carefully pulling it off to get a better idea of what was wrong. What they saw inspired a collective gasp. Along with his enormous amount of old scars, which nobody but Cammie had seen, he now had a multitude of new wounds everywhere. The most obvious one was the stab wound on his thigh as it was the deepest and still weeping.

"I think he passed out from loss of blood," Bex said. She began gently feeling for unseen injuries. "Other than his obviously broken nose, he has a broken rib," she informed the others. "It must've happened when that guard kicked him." She kept feeling for broken bones. When she ran her hands over his collar bone, applying slight pressure, his eyes started to flutter and he whimpered, trying to push her hand away. She obliged and his expression cleared as he sunk deeper into unconsciousness. Cammie gave Bex a confused look.

"I didn't get a great read because he pushed my hand away but I think his collarbone is broken," she explained. Liz looked white and Macey looked sick.

"What are we supposed to do?" Macey asked. "Just sit around and hope it heals?" Cammie and Bex both shrugged.

"I don't think there's anything we can do," Cammie said, absently playing with Alex's hair. He looked more peaceful and less guarded than she had ever seen him before.

A/N: Hey guys. I know I've been a little unreliable as of late and I'm sorry. I had a lot going on between work and getting stuff for my freshman year of college. I hope you'll forgive me. To make it up to you I'm going to try to post the next chapter of this story tomorrow sometime. Yes, for those of you that are wondering, I am still writing Never Play Dead. I am still working on the next chapter. Again, I haven't had a lot of time as of late but hopefully that'll change soon.

Guest Reviews: SkaterGirl- I'm sorry I'm not updating very consistently anymore. I'm trying to change that particular bad habit. I'm glad you like it though. Please keep reviewing. I love hearing your opinions.

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-Wolf out!