Chapter 3 - Emotionless

Travis spun around and found himself face to face with a beautiful woman. He held his sword out, keeping her at arm's length. The woman held her hands up in surrender. "Let her go," he said, enunciating each word clearly.

"I will let her go, if you'll stay in her place, Travis Stoll," she smiled, batting her eyelashes for effect.

Travis found himself thinking that might not be such a bad idea. He could stay with her and he would be taken care of.

"Travis, don't listen to her! Think of Connor." Katie's voice pierced through the haze in his brain.

"Yeah, Connor. I don't think I can stay, lady," he said.

"Nonsense. Katherine can go get him and you can stay here with me. I'm much more beautiful than those gods you'd be helping anyway." She spoke so convincingly that Travis started nodding.

"Yeah, don't worry about me, Katie. You go get Connor. I'll be fine!"

He heard wires snapping, but he wasn't aware of where they were coming from. The woman sat him down in a chair and started massaging his shoulders. "I can fix you right up, Travis. Just stay with me."

"Yeah, that does sound nice," he said, dreamily.

Suddenly Katie was right in the woman's face, her dagger at her throat. "I know who you are! You're Cassiopeia, Andromeda's mother. You had your own daughter tied to a rock as a sacrifice! I'll tell you what you're going to do. You are going to let us both go. Forget we ever were here and I'll let you live."

The woman shrank back and started nodding. The moment Katie moved her dagger an inch the woman lunged. She grabbed Katie around the throat. "Foolish girl!"

"Travis!" Katie pleaded with him. Her dagger clattered to the floor as Cassiopeia started choking her. Katie clawed at the other woman's hands, but she had an iron grip.

"Oh, don't worry about Katherine, Travis. I'm going to take good care of her as well. I'll make sure she's more beautiful than Aphrodite herself," Cassiopeia said, putting force behind her words. "You would be the envy of every man, having Katherine on your arm."

"It'll be fine, Katie. She'll take good care of you." He seemed to think about it. "You could be more beautiful than Aphrodite! All the guys will be jealous of me!"

"Travis, she's got you charmed," Katie choked out. If she got out of this alive, she was going to have bruises around her neck and that wouldn't make her very beautiful at all. She wondered how she would explain that one to her dad.

"As if you would have ever made it to Texas anyway," Cassiopeia went on. "She's put many roadblocks in your way. It's much better for you both to stay here with me, where I can take care of you."

"Okay, we'll stay with you," Katie rasped. "Just please, I can't breathe."

Cassiopeia gave Katie a once over. "You need more time under the drier, young lady." She picked Katie up by her neck, showing them both how strong she could be, and threw her back into the chair. Katie gasped for air, and for one terrifying moment she thought she would die. Then the wires were back on her wrists and the drier brought down on her head, this time turned on.

Katie watched in frustration as Travis seemed oblivious to their plight. Okay, Gardner, think. There had to be a way to get both of them out of this.

The drier's heat was becoming unbearable, and still she hadn't figured out a way to get herself free, and Travis was no help. He was staring at Cassiopeia, besotted. She had tried talking to him, but everything she said was countered by their captor. Katie was becoming increasingly sure that both of them would die here, in some hair salon in Gods-knows-where, North Carolina. She should have just stayed by the car while Travis did his thieving.

Katie's mouth was dry and her head was so hot. She was beginning to feel light headed. She needed to get out from under the heat and she needed about a gallon of water. Black started to cloud the edges of her vision. "Travis." Her voice sounded weak. "Please."

Travis was intently listening to Cassiopeia's plans for how she would make Katie more beautiful than the love goddess herself. He couldn't wait to see the transformation. He couldn't wait for the guys to see the most beautiful girl in the world on his arm. He was so absorbed in Cassiopeia's ramblings that he didn't even notice the surge of power over by the dryers.

Just before Katie's vision went completely black and she succumbed to the heat, there was a surge of power around her. She had no idea what happened, but suddenly she felt herself getting stronger. She still felt the heat of the dryer but it was a mere annoyance instead of debilitating. She could think more clearly.

She checked to make sure that Cassiopeia was still occupied. A small sapling tree appeared at the base of her chair and Katie willed it to grow up, with a branch slipping between her wrists and the wire. This was either going to break the wire or slice her hand off. The branch grew in size and put pressure on both her wrist and the wire holding it down. She could see a thin line of blood dripping down her hand and prayed that she could make this work.

As the blood flowed more freely, Katie was beginning to think that this was a bad idea. The wire wasn't snapping and she was injuring her fighting hand. Just as she was about to call off the tree, the wire snapped.

She sagged with relief and slid as far down in her seat as she could. The heat was beginning to get to her again. She reached out with the toe of her shoe and could just barely touch her dagger where it had been left on the floor. She managed to drag it slowly across the floor, close enough she could reach down and grab it. Finally she cut herself free of the wires and pushed the dryer back. She glanced around. It surprised her that she had been able to do all that without drawing the attention of the evil woman intent on "taking care" of them. What she found was an empty room.

Katie quickly wrapped her bleeding wrist with a small towel she found near one of the salon stations. She held her dagger in front of her and headed toward the door that led to the room that Cassiopeia had come out of earlier. She reached the door, and listened. She could hear the woman, still talking. She nudged the door open with her toe and peaked in. She found Travis sitting in a chair, his arms and legs secured, but he looked like he was completely fine with the situation. This woman's magic must have been strong to charm a man to his death.

Katie prayed she'd be able to stay silent long enough to rescue them both. She snuck into the room and was almost within range of Cassiopeia when the woman whirled around. "Katherine! How did you manage to get out from under the dryer before I came to get you?"

Katie didn't waste words on the woman; she lunged and managed to land her dagger in the woman's belly. Cassiopeia staggered back, looking at the dagger protruding from her navel. She staggered a few more steps before she exploded in a cloud of dust, leaving Katie's dagger to clatter once more to the floor. "The necklace of protection my mother gave me. Bitch," she answered the empty air.

Katie grabbed it and cut the wires holding Travis. His gaze was clearing as the charm wore off, and he actually grinned. "I guess we're even now. Do I get a kiss now?"

Katie glared at him. "You would have let me die." She turned from him and stalked away, leaving him in stunned silence.

They retrieved their stuff and got into the car. Katie slid behind the wheel this time. "We need to find a place to stay for the night," she said as they continued on. Travis just stared ahead out the windshield.

They drove in strained silence. Katie found a motel off the freeway once they had put a few hours between the beauty shop and themselves. She pulled up to the door. "Please tell me you have a way for us to get a room. Otherwise we're camping in the woods tonight," she said to him, the first words either had spoken in miles.

He looked at her, and she winced when she saw the look in his eyes. "Please, Gardner, give me some credit." He held out his hand for some money.

She reached behind her and dug out her backpack and then some money from it. She handed it to him, careful not to touch him. She watched as he got out and went inside to negotiate for a room. The look he'd given her had been pain, fear, hate and yet something else she couldn't quite place.

Travis returned a few minutes later with a key. Katie parked the car in an inconspicuous spot. The last thing they needed was the cops to find it while they slept. Travis unlocked the door and they stepped inside. It wasn't much, but it had two beds and a bathroom with a shower. At this point, that was all they could ask for.

Katie tossed her bag on a bed and flopped down next to it. Travis didn't say anything as he took his bag and disappeared into the bathroom, leaving Katie to think about what in Hades that look he'd given her meant.

When she heard the shower start, Katie sighed and walked to the window. Outside, it was just like any other run down motel on any other freeway in the United States. A parking lot with a few cars in it, the cars rolling by all night on the other side of the parking lot, a soda machine over by the office. She walked over and dug in her backpack, coming up with some change. Grabbing the key, she slipped out the door and went to the soda machine to get a couple Cokes.

Unfortunately her excursion to the soda machine had only taken a couple minutes, leaving her alone with a can of Coke, the sound of the shower running and her thoughts. She reached into her bag and dug out a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt along with clean underthings. She ate a small bit of ambrosia and removed the bloody towel around her wrist. The wound was healing, though she would probably have a scar. When Travis stepped out of the bathroom, she brushed past him and shut the door firmly behind her.

Travis was lying on the other bed, staring at the ceiling when she emerged from the bathroom. Katie dug in her bag and found some camp rations and pulled them out. "Best I can do for dinner," she said, tossing one at him. It hit him on the chest, but still he didn't move.

Katie frowned as she opened hers and started picking at the tasteless food. "What's your deal?" she asked, snottily.

Travis turned his head. His gaze was blank. He didn't reply as he sat up and tore open his camp food. He cracked open the Coke Katie had bought for him earlier and stared at the curtained window.

Katie didn't know what to do. A prankster Travis she could handle. An angry Travis she could handle. She could even handle a sad Travis. But this Travis… who looked at her with no feeling what so ever, who wouldn't talk to her, she couldn't handle this Travis.

"Are you PMS-ing? Are you wishing you'd stayed with Cassiopeia?" Katie was picking at him now, trying to provoke a response. Anything was better than this emotionless Travis.

That last line got his attention. He swung his eyes around and pierced her with his gaze. "You said something to me back in New York. You told me that I had no idea and to just forget it. Take your own advice Kitty-Kat. You have no idea. Forget it," he spat. He turned away from her again.

He had closed her off again, but if he thought she'd let this go, he had another thing coming.

Chapter title song credit: – Emotionless (Good Charlotte; The Young and the Hopeless album released 2002)