The shadows on the icy window seem to be looking in on her. She's haunted by that night. Maybe she deserved it. It's unhealthy to think that. What person deserves to wake up in a nightmare and have to fight for their survival. She's never 'wasted' her life. On the contrary she's taken opportunity wherever she could.
When she studied abroad at Amun in Liverpool she was always getting into things she had no business being in. She unraveled mysteries, broke down societal norms, and broke a thousand school rules just to discover the truth. She never dreamed she'd wake up in the hands of something so evil.
Fabian loves her, this she's sure of. The woman inspecting her leg for the prosthetic is nice enough; Dr. Torres is her name. It's casual conversation from a woman with big bones and an even bigger smile. Calliope Torres is known for her warmth.
"According to my wife; Dr. Robins, that baby is perfectly healthy. I have a little girl. Is this your first?" She asks as she covers the thigh back up with the sheet.
Nina tries to find the words but all she can do is weep. She apologizes as the tears come streaming down her face but Dr. Torres brushes that off and sits down beside her on the bed.
"Nina, you've been through something awful. You don't need to apologize." She wasn't apologizing for crying but Callie doesn't know this.
She's apologizing because of what had to happen for her to live.
Flashback!
Thunder rolls, lightning cracks, the sleet and hail pelt down through a grate in the ceiling. Walks through the evergreen grove, cups of hot cocoa, candy cane lanes, these are what nights like this should consist of. Instead it's chains, concrete walls, and tubes of orange and red liquid swirling on either side of the two people who occupy this room.
Nina is asleep, absent from the terror for now. Her counterpart, however, is wide awake, and thinking about how this could truly be his end. Freddie Benson is a sound a tech guy for a bunch of major motion picture studios in hollywood. His last memory before waking up here was an absolutely wonderful evening on the town with a girl who is now nowhere to be seen. He went from eating slightly over-salted broccoli overlooking the ocean in a restaurant on the pier to digging at the metal bracket around his hips that has him chained to the rusty rung in the wall.
He knew better than to trust a daughter of the Elites and yet he did it anyway. He even started to have feelings for her. She seemed so real. Now it's a hostel situation and he's looking at the blades on the contraption before them with a pulsation in his chest he can't control and he's trying so hard not to scream.
Slowly the rhythm starts. It's eerie, much like the situation, and when her ritardando voice comes through the overhead speakers Freddie shivers. She's meant to give irony to nightmare.
Take a trip down candy cane lane with me
It's the cutest thing, I swear, you'll ever see
It's the best, so get dressed, I'll impress
you with the colors of the rainbow
The door to the room swings open and three grungy, dirty people walk in. Freddie pulls in a sharp breath and fear solidifies in his chest. They're here to kill him, he thinks. He very well may be right.
The music is cut out and the prerecorded voice comes through. Nina awoke with a start.
"Hello detective. You're moving along quite well, much better than I had originally expected. If you had any intelligence at all you'd have some help by now. I hope that last one didn't drown you." Garcia listens to the killer with an intensity. He's examining the scene. There seems to be no way to get to the other side. Whatever this is it's not going to involve much interaction on his part.
It continues, "You spend your life getting involved and rarely ever are you behind the scenes. Before you are two individuals; one who's always getting in the way and one who hides behind the camera. Today you will play the part of the latter. I call this trap; The John Wilkes. If you recall he was the man who assassinated president Lincoln. Afterwards he proceeded to jump onto the stage and break his own leg giving birth to the tradition of saying 'Break a leg' before any performance. This time you must only watch as two individuals who have assassinated many careers in their field compete for their lives."
"Nina!" Shouts Fabian from behind the barred platform, "Nina I'm here!"
She rises to stand clutching her stomach, "Fabian!"
"Hello Nina. Hello Freddie. I'd like to play a game. You both make a living by exposing people. You capture moments and you tell your side of the story ultimately ruining the lives of other people that you may succeed but you never take accountability. Today that will be tested. The contraption before you is one of sacrifice. Can you 'break a leg' to save yourself or will the toxins melt away your flesh. You both have a minute and a half; once the timer starts those vats above you will drain until they are empty. Only one has to die tonight. Do you have what it takes to make the cut or will you or will this be your showstopper? Simply press yourself into the waist high chamber and allow the compressor to take that which has stomped on other people. The first person to do this will seal their own vats ultimately killing the other. Good luck." The creepy doll laughter echoes through the room and then the voice goes away all together leaving behind the eerie Sia Christmas song.
Take a trip down candy cane lane with me
It's so magical, let's go there in your dreams
it's the best, so get dressed, I'll impress
you with the lights in all their windows.
In the barred platform, for Carlos, appears an illumination. A button reveals it's self in the color red. Brightly written across it in bold letters, "START"
"So we're not just watching from the side lines." Says Cat Valentine as she leers behind them with uncertainty.
Fabian interjects, "We can't! She's pregnant. We can wait. We don't have to do anything."
"If we wait they'll kill everyone Fabian." Says Carlos.
The two of them debate. Going back and forth with 'what if's and 'maybe's. Around and around in circles they bicker the heat rising as the clock continues ticking down with less than forty minutes remaining and Cat brushes past them to slam her hand down on the button starting the timer.
"We don't have time for this!" She cries.
There's a loud horn that goes off and our latest victims scream. The acids burn through the clothing and find the skin rather quickly.
Red and yellow and pink and green
Orange and purple and blue
Christmas is waiting for you
Christmas is waiting for you
Freddie Benson sort of just accepts his fate. He lies down on his back and just allows the acids to rain down on him. He knows that a quick death is better than trying to steal life from a pregnant woman and her unborn child. He convulses as the gollops of red and orange pelt into his chest and abdomen. He screams as it leaks into his face and soon his very lips are melting off his mouth.
Nina takes only a moment to look upon the boy who's suffering before she climbs up the mechanism. The moment the machine registers her weight the vats of acid stop oozing and slow to a steady drip. Freddie is trembling and his hands shake at his sides as he thinks about his friends, his family, and the life he's giving up. It's awful. Truly awful. There is nothing he can do.
She's buckling into herself as the hinges lock in on her. There's a sharp sting followed by an overwhelming dislocation and it just ripples from there. The seal does what it's designed to do and Freddie Benson is killed almost instantly.
End Flashback...
She's alone in her hospital room now. She's thinking about the Benson boy and how neither one of them deserved that kind of punishment. Her burns are being treated. Her ghost pains are numbed by the morphine in her IV. She's alive and so is her baby. They're alive and someone had to die so this could be true. Why do bad things happen to good people?
She whispers in song, "Oh, Candy cane lane. Bring a friend this holiday... Bring a friend who loves to play, we'll eat all the candy canes. Candy caAAanes. We'll eat... candy canes..."