17th November 2013
Typically, a person could survive only about 3 to 5 days without water, and eight weeks without food if they have water. Oliver usually showed some kindness and gave the person in the confinement room a little bit of water every few days, unless he was so angry that he didn't care if they died or not.
It'd been about 3 and a half days or so that Ireland had been in the room. She was weak, her entire body numb with pain, and her mouth was dry. All she could hear was the sound of her rapid heart beating in her chest and as far as she was aware, nobody had come into the room with her.
She hadn't been given even a drop of water and that worried her an extreme amount, to the point where it was all she could think about. It was like her father was rejecting her, letting her know that he wouldn't care if she died, and the thought terrified her. What would she do if he had finally grown tired of her and pushed her out of their organization? Without her father needing and wanting her, she would be nothing. She didn't think she'd be able to handle that.
Left alone with her thoughts made her realize just how stupid she had been, meeting up with Xavier Benedict and actually thinking about any kind of possible future they may have together. First of all, he was a Benedict, a member of the family that ruined her own. He had played his part in helping his family and she could never forgive him for what their actions resulted in. She wanted revenge on the family, she wanted all of them dead – including Xavier. She wasn't going to let anything stop her from achieving her goal and avenging her mother's and sister's deaths.
So he was her soulfinder. So what? That didn't mean that he was always going to be there for her, that he'd always love and accept her. Hell, he'd already pretty much admitted that he hated her and wanted nothing to do with her. Why would he ever change his opinion on that? Like Oliver had told her numerous times over and over, her father was the only person she could rely on – everyone else would always leave her, always let her down. Nobody understood her like he did and that was that. She would not allow Xavier Benedict to change who she was and she certainly wasn't going to let herself become vulnerable to his so-called charm and wit.
She never wanted to see him again, even if the thought did make her heart ache because of the stupid soulfinder bond, a bond she detested and wished she could break.
She wanted the Benedict family dead.
With her steel resolve and determination, she felt herself becoming at least a little bit stronger and she started to regret ever being disloyal to her father, even if it had been accidental when that Reynolds bloke was left alive. She made a silent vow to always be honest with Oliver from now on, to always follow his orders. And to start with, she had a secret that she felt she needed to tell him...
"Dad," she whispered, her voice coming out as a dry croak at first but getting better after she cleared it a little. "Dad!" She shouted. "Dad, I need to tell you something!" She had no idea if he was stood outside the confinement room – it was very unlikely that he was – but there was a guarantee that somebody would be stood guard out there and would pass the message onto Oliver. "Whoever is out there, I need you to tell my dad something! Tell him that I know a secret about the Benedict family, a secret he's going to love! Tell him that it will help us take them down once and for all."
Time passed slowly after that. Would the person out there even pass the message along for her? They could easily have been out there laughing at her, choosing not to tell Oliver because they thought Ireland was talking a load of rubbish.
She felt all her fears wash out of her, replaced with anger at the world – especially the Benedict family. She had let herself forget what she wanted and she wasn't going to let that happen again.
She was so focused on her steely anger that she didn't notice somebody had come into the room until she felt her restraints being undone. Her blindfold followed shortly after and she saw the familiar face of her father.
"Dad," she whispered. His hand slid under her back and he helped her into a sitting position, seriousness written all over his face.
"Your time's up," he said gruffly. "I hope you learnt your lesson."
"I did," she nodded. "I'm sorry, dad. I won't fail you again – ever."
"Good," he smiled and brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. "You're just like your mother, you know. She was stubborn too, and God knows she made mistakes, but she always remained loyal to me. Just like I know you will. Now. Rodney said that you were shouting something about the Benedict family? That you know a secret about them?"
She slowly nodded, gathering her thoughts. She was just going to say it outright, she thought to herself. She wasn't going to give herself time to change her mind. "Well really, it's only a secret about one of them. And me."
"What do you mean?" He frowned in suspicion. "You haven't been up to anything with one of them, have you?"
"No! Absolutely not. Nothing like that," she was quick to reassure him. "Dad, first of all I want to apologize for not telling you before now. It just all happened so quick and I didn't know what to do and to be honest, I just wanted to forget about it and act like it wasn't real. You remember Xavier Benedict, one of the ones we tortured? Well before we let him go I found out that..." She took a deep breath and decided to just say it. "He's my soulfinder, daddy."
"Excuse me?" Oliver's eyebrows raised so far up that if Ireland hadn't been so exhausted, she probably would have started laughing. "Wow. Well that certainly is a development. I can't say that I'm not disappointed you're only just telling me now."
"I know and I'm sorry. But listen, I was thinking," she replied to him, desperate not to anger him again. "If I leave here, go to Xavier and tell him that I don't want to work for you anymore and I need a safe place to say, I know it won't take much to convince him to take me in. I'll pretend to be on their side, find out all their secrets and what they plan to do about you. With me closer to them, it'll be so much easier to take them down."
Oliver was silent for a moment before a slow smile spread across his face. "Keep your enemies close," he recited. "It's a good plan, Ireland. I like it. You can take this as your way of proving to me that you're not going to let me down again."
"Of course," she nodded her head yes.
"Go to him, then. I already have your first mission in my mind, the perfect first step at starting to take the family down. Gain their trust first though, make it so they won't suspect you."
"Okay. What's my first mission?"
"I want you to kill Saul Benedict."
Xav was asleep when the house alarm started blaring. He'd had enough practice to be able to jump up out of bed straight away and rush downstairs to join the others in the living room. His mum and dad were there, as well as Zed and Yves, and Will who had recently moved back home so Vick and Hazel could have their apartment to themselves. The rest of the family all had their own places now but would each receive an automatic text message alerting them the alarm had been activated in case it was something serious.
"What's going on?" Xav asked as Yves started tapping away at his laptop, looking at the security tapes. Xav was only wearing grey sweatpants so he grabbed someone's plain black t-shirt from the back of the sofa and slipped it on. "Is it a serious security breach?"
"Huh. Yeah, I'd definitely say that," Yves sat back in his seat and clicked a button to put the recording at full screen. "Is it just me or is that Ireland Hawk?"
"Wait, what?" Xav was the first to speak, immediately moving to peer over Yves' shoulder.
He couldn't believe what he was seeing on the screen! Sure enough, there was Ireland, stood at the perimeter of the mental guard surrounding the house and a large area around it, as well as the Williamson house next door. The barrier worked to prevent anyone unauthorized from crossing onto the family's land- it would make the person forget why they were there so they'd turn around and leave. Ireland was stood just a little bit away from the barrier as if she knew it was there and what it did – which, knowing her, she probably did.
Yves zoomed in so they could get a better look at her to identify her. "Yeah that's her," Xav said quietly, a little shocked at the sight of her. Ireland was a mess. Her clothes were wrinkled and practically stuck to her, her hair stringy and greasy. She looked thin, very pale, shivering in the cold and looking unwell.
"She must have tried a few times to get past the barrier," Yves explained to them. "If it was just once or twice, the system wouldn't have detected her as a serious threat and the alarm wouldn't have gone off. She must have a strong mind to not have turned around yet." He zoomed back out again and they saw a blonde girl appear in the picture, walking towards Ireland. "That's Blue. What is she doing?!"
"She doesn't know who Ireland is," Zed said tensely. "She doesn't know she might kill her, probably thinks it's just a girl who needs help." Without saying another word, he was running out of the house.
Saul let out a tired breath. "Come on, we better get out there."
They all followed after Zed, all of them probably wondering why Ireland was here and preparing themselves to fight her in an attack. When they reached the bottom of the hill, Zed had managed to stop Blue and they were stood a short distance away from Ireland, regarding her in a stony silence. As Xav and the others stopped next to them, Xav looked at Ireland and was able to fully examine her. His savant gift told him that she was seriously dehydrated and malnourished, probably not having had much for at least a couple of days, and her body was exhausted.
Her eyes met his and a relieved smile appeared on her face. Her eyes, dull from how ill she was, lit up a little as she appraised him. "Xav," she said. "I was scared you wouldn't be here."
He took a few steps forward, body stiff. He didn't want his family to get the wrong idea about him and her but the magnetic soulfinder bond just wouldn't let him ignore her and leave her there when she was in such a state. "Ireland, what are you doing here?"
"I know you don't want me," she said, her tone sad and mournful. "But I had nowhere else to go. I can't stay with my dad anymore, I'm sick of him manipulating me and forcing me to do things I don't want to do. He took it too far this time, Xav. He... He hit me. He locked me in a room where I was alone for days, restrained and forced to starve. I know that you think I'm evil, but everything that I've done, he's forced me to do. He would have killed me if I said no. I ran away, Xav. I'm pretty sure he's already looking for me and I'm so scared. Please, I'm begging you to help me. I'm your soulfinder and I'm asking you to help me be safe just this once. He's going to kill me when he finds me, Xav."
"She's your what, Xavier Kane Benedict?" He heard Karla ask angrily behind him.
"Ireland, I just think-" What did he think? He had no idea. He didn't know what to do, what to say to her, whether or not he could trust her. Of course he wished that it was true, that she really had changed sides, but... She was a Hawk, and she was true to that family name if their previous encounters were anything to go by.
"Right now, I don't think any of this matters," Blue said. "Who she is, what she's doing here... It doesn't matter. She needs your help Xav, look at the state of her. She needs your power, she looks like she's going to-"
Ireland took a shaky step forward before gasping loudly in pain and dropping to the ground, eyes closed.
"-pass out," Blue finished her sentence.
A hint about the next chapter: The family aren't exactly welcoming of the idea of Xav and Ireland being soulfinders.