Locked Up

A Story by Brinja Keelake

I took another turn through the maze-like passageways, hoping to find the right door. The backpack on my back felt heavy and seemed to weigh me down with the knowledge I now had.

"Why did you have to be taken?" I asked of the walls as though my friend could hear me. I glanced at another door, reading the description pasted beside it. The sign read: "Computer Room for Torture". I sped up, reaching the next door as quickly as I could. Reading the description on the door briefly, I quickly tried the door and found it unlocked. Opening it, I realized already that it was the wrong room. It was empty of people but the various torture devices seemed to threaten me and I left rapidly.

"Is there really more than one torture room?" I asked aloud again. I continued on my way once more, slowly, trying to find the room.

After another thirty minutes of searching, I found another torture room. Excitedly, I turned the handle, but this time it was locked. I took off my backpack and searched for the keychain I had been given. On it were thirty-six keys and one of them opened this door, I was sure of it. After finally finding the keys, I tried one after another, hoping one would fit. The twenty-seventh key unlocked the door and I hurriedly entered. There were no lights on, so I let my eyes adjust to the darkness while I closed the door quietly behind me.

"Go away!" I heard a voice say in an anguished tone.

"Lily?" I asked the voice, hoping that I had finally found what I was looking for.

"Who are you?" the voice demanded, fear coating her voice.

"Leroy. You know me, don't you? Lily?" I asked. My sight was adjusting and I could make out a table in the middle of the room with something on it. There was another table in front of me and I was close enough to see a few blankets, a pile of small objects on a piece of paper, and what looked like food and water.

"Leroy?!" the voice said with a shaky voice, "Look away from me, please!" I closed my eyes, not wanting to disobey with the fear in her voice.

"Did you close your eyes?" she asked in a small voice. I nodded but realize she probably couldn't see me

"Yes," I told her quietly. I heard her sigh in relief.

"Could you grab the blanket in front of you and bring it to the other table to cover me with it?" she asked after a few seconds. I thought it was an odd request, but I reached forward and felt for a blanket on the table in front of me. After getting it, I felt my way around the table and over to the table in the center of the room where the voice had been coming from. With my eyes still closed, I covered the table with the blanket and, to be certain, I walked around it making sure that the blanket covered the table.

"Thank you," said a voice near where I was standing, "You can open your eyes now. And could you uncover my face?" opening my eyes, I realized that I could see a lot better now as I uncovered her head. She was looking at me with watery eyes.

"It really is you," she said with a quivering voice, "Why did you come?"

"I had to come. I couldn't leave you here," I said softly. She smiled slightly but her face immediately reverted to worry. I then noticed that her hands were on the corners of the table and her arms, starting at the wrist to where they were covered by the blanket, were covered in metal. She noticed me looking at her arms and she closed her eyes.

"Could you get me out of here please?" she pleaded.

"How?" I asked her.

"How did you get in here? Don't you have keys or something?"

"Where is the lock?" She motioned with her head to the side of the table.

"On the edge if the table I think." I walked around, uncovering the table only enough to search for the key hole. After finding it, I again went through the keys on the ring, but this time none of them worked.

"Are there any more keys?" Lily asked when I slammed my foot on the ground in frustration.

"Not on this stupid key ring!" I said. Had I come all this way to not be able to help?

"There may be one in the other table, where you got the blanket." I walked over to the table and searched. On top of the paper where I had seen small objects was a key and a small pile of screws. I noticed the paper had writing on it, but ignored it while I hurried back with the key. This time the key fit and I twisted it in the lock.

I heard machinery moving and the blanket seemed to expand as the metal coverings opened to release Lily. She sharply inhaled but then sighed deeply. She started to move, and I noticed that she was having trouble getting up. When I tried to help, she quickly whipped her face away and tried to curl into a ball.

"Close your eyes again, please," she pleaded. I closed my eyes, knowing that she meant it if she was telling me to do something politely rather than asking for permission first. She always asked for permission from everyone and sorry seemed to be her favorite word.

I heard her betray a groan but she quickly silenced herself, as though thinking I wouldn't notice. I heard her sit up and move to the edge of the table.

"You can open your eyes now," she said cautiously. I opened my eyes and my attention was immediately grabbed by the large metal casing that had opened on the table. The metal must have covered her arms, legs, stomach and neck, but not her whole body. The casings were formed to look like a body and they looked very uncomfortable. Besides how much they seemed to have covered, they also seemed to have had Lily in a very uncomfortable position. One leg casing led to the bottom right corner of the table, the other to the bottom left corner and the same with the arm casings to the top of the table. I stared at this contraption before remembering that Lily needed my help. I went around to where she was sitting. She had wrapped herself in the blanket and now I thought I knew why.

"Would you like some help down?" I asked her. She shook her head and slowly slid off onto the floor. She stood for a few moments before her legs collapsed below her. I caught her just before she fell and helped to keep her upright.

"Could you help me get over to the other table?" she asked. I slowly helped her over and lifted her to sit on the table where the blanket had been. She picked up the food and hungrily ate a small portion of it, not even enough to fill a person.

"Could you put the rest of this in your bag for later just in case we cannot find food?" she asked me. I placed it and the water bottles into my backpack. Remembering the paper with words on it, I went to pick it up only to discover that it was gone.

Lily was sliding off the table and I caught her before she fell again. I helped her stagger over to the door and led us out into the bright, white hallway.

"Do you know how to get out of here?" she asked. I nodded and began to walk back the way I had come. Lily was slow and she kept falling to the ground with pained expressions on her face that she quickly hid when she noticed me, so I picked her up with the intent of carrying her.

"Whoa!" I exclaimed, "You are so light! Have they not fed you?" She shook her head solemnly. She could only weigh about 85 pounds and I knew that that could not be healthy. I carried her the rest of the way out of the building in silence.

***

I had found a place to spend the night in the forest outside the hidden building. The cave I had found was empty and well hidden so I made a small fire and tried to find something comfortable to lie on. Lily was curled on the floor with the blanket around her, her eyes closed, but I knew she wasn't sleeping. I walked gently over to her, afraid of startling her.

"Lily?" I asked tentatively. She opened her eyes and stared up at me. Her light green eyes were filled with unshed tears and a longing. "Longing for the days when she didn't have to worry about anything," I thought to myself, disgusted by the people who had taken her.

"Are you mad at me?" she asked me quietly.

"Of course not!" I insisted, "What on Earth is there to be mad at you about?" She looked at me with pleading eyes then turned her face away.

"Because I am disgusting and-" she faltered, "repulsive now. You won't want to even look at me anymore." When she turned back to face me, the tears had begun to spill from her eyes. I pulled her into a sitting position and wrapped my arm around her, holding her close and attempting to comfort her, but she meekly tried to pull away.

"I am disgusting!" she repeated, "You will regret touching me. I am repulsive."

"No you aren't," I reassured her, "You are still beautiful and sweet and nothing about you has changed. You are the same. The same girl I fell in love with." She was crying into my shirt now, not bothering to protest. She moved for a moment and produced the piece of paper I had seen on the table, but now I could see it was a packet.

"Read this if you think that," she mumbled into my shirt.

I took it from her hands and glanced at the first page, with my arm still around Lily. The first page had a list under the title "To Do to Get Sex Slave Ready." I read through the list containing things to do such as loosen, stretch, make flexible, and break her will. I did not want to continue reading, already scared to read about the tortures Lily had gone through, but I knew that Lily wanted me to read it, she wanted me to know. I turned the page, holding Lily tightly as she shook with tears. I had never known her as someone to cry and I had never seen her cry before. I read the next page, becoming worried by what it told me.

The header was "Stretch" and it was followed with a list of numbers under a sub-header of length.

"What does it mean by length?" I asked her.

"That isn't the worst of it. That is only them stretching my legs to make me more flexible," she said into my shirt.

"Ah."

"It was painful." I only nodded sympathetically. I flipped to the next page. This page was a list of objects under the header "Rape Objects" and almost every item, except the last, had a check mark next to it. The last object seemed to be a name.

"This second list... Was this..." but I could not finish my thought in words. I could feel her shaking harder and she nodded. "And the one with check marks are the ones that they... Carried through with?" I asked her. She nodded again and betrayed a gasp and a sob of pain and sorrow. I put the list beside me and held her in both of my arms, keeping her close to me and trying to comfort her. "It is okay. It is going to be okay. You are not disgusting or repulsive, Lily. I still love you. It's going to be okay," I told her.

She couldn't speak for a long time so I held her in silence, not wanting to disturb her. After a while she looked up at me with red eyes and tear-tracks on her cheeks. Noticing me looking at her, she buried her face in my shirt again.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled almost incoherently. I moved a hand to stroke her hair until she had calmed down more.

"You have no reason to be sorry. And if you are sorry for crying… I really don't mind, Lily, because you have every right to cry. And you never cry. You crying just shows how bad this truly was," I said, "I could never imagine..." I stopped speaking.

"A check mark," Lily said slowly, "meant that… they had used it for at least five days." I didn't know what to say. Nothing I could say could make that all go away, so I tried a new approach.

"I love you," I told her, trying to put all my emotions behind the three short words to show her how much I meant it. She looked up at me again.

"Really?" she asked. I only nodded, trying to show that I meant it.

I couldn't read anything else in the packet that night. I slid it away from me and looked at Lily’s' big, beautiful, green eyes. More to comfort me than her, I leaned forward and kissed her cheek softly. She looked at me again, then down at the floor.

"You won't want to kiss me either," she admitted softly.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"They all did. Or, they all tried. I tried to not let them, but I was strapped down and I have little power as it is," she whispered as softly as she could, as though hoping that I wouldn't hear.

"That doesn't matter to me," I told her gently, "And you tried to avoid it anyway." She looked up at me, her eyes filled with tears again. I noticed that she was still in the blanket and that she could not move her hands at all.

"Would you like my jacket and extra pair of shorts?" I asked her, trying not to make her cry. She nodded vigorously, and I used one hand to pull my backpack over. I pulled out the pull-over jacket and the shorts to hand to her, but I paused for a moment first.

I pulled her closer, clothes in one hand, and gently put my lips against hers, but in a way that she could pull away from if she felt attacked. When she didn't pull away I kissed her more passionately. I tried to convey all that I felt for her, but I felt that I was failing. The kiss was over far too rapidly, but I gave her the clothes and helped her stand.

"Thank you," she said quietly and continued even more softly, "For both the clothes and the kiss." She slowly made her way to one side of the cave.

"I'll turn around and close my eyes," I told her and moved to face the wall. A minute or so later I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around and looked up at her just in time to catch her again.

"Sorry," she said, "They didn't let me move much at all so my legs are kind of weak." I smiled at her. I helped her into a comfortable sitting position and moved out of her way. The clothes seemed to fit just fine (or at least weren’t falling down) and she was holding the blanket over her arm.

"Thank you," she said again.

"Of course," I responded. She shivered, and I realized that it was getting very dark and cold. "Would you like to get some sleep?" I asked her.

"I-" she started, "didn't get much sleep on that metal table…"

"Lily, it is fine to sleep. I want to sleep too." I picked the blanket out of her hands and helped her over to the soft pile I had made for her comfort. I helped her lay down and covered her with the blanket then searched in my backpack for something warm to wear, but I had given Lily my jacket.

"You can have the blanket and the soft pile. I can survive in the cold. I'd also return the jacket but then I'd need a shirt. I'm sorry I'm such a hassle!" Lily said from the floor. Her face was still red from crying, and I could tell that she was going to have a hard night.

"We could share it. Then we would share body heat as well," I suggested, "But if you are not okay with that, and I perfectly understand if you aren't, I'll stay guard." She moved a little as though to make room and looked up at me with tear-filled eyes.

"This would make you warmer," she said rationally, but I had a feeling that she didn't want to be alone. I placed another bunch of twigs on the small fire and then laid down next to Lily. She put the blanket on me and moved closer. I put my arm around her again, hoping to comfort her, but I could feel her poise and self-containment start to give out.

"You don't have to do this for me," she said near silently, her voice shaking almost imperceptibly. I turned her to face me and looked her in the eyes before my response.

"Of course I do," I told her softly and I leaned in to kiss her again, pulling her closer to me with my arm and running one of my hands through her hair. She didn't pull away and instead put one of her arms around me in turn. When we broke apart, I leaned my forehead and nose against hers with my eyes closed. I could feel her shaking as the hard night began.

***

When I woke up in the morning, Lily had left. I slowly got up and looked out at the bright sun streaming in from the entrance of the cave. Lily was sitting to the side of the entrance looking out.

"Lily?" I asked vaguely. She turned around with an unreadable expression on her face.

"I tried not to wake you," she said stoically. I reached forward and grabbed my backpack. I opened it, pulling out the excess bread we had taken from the room. Breaking off some, I brought it over to Lily and put the rest of it away.

"You should eat it," she insisted, "I'm not even hungry." I gave her a skeptical look.

"You are way too skinny, Lily," I told her, "Eat." She took part of the bread from me with hesitation and ate it slowly. I packed everything up and made certain that the fire was completely out while she finished and then sat down next to her. She leaned her head on my shoulder, still staring out at the forest in front of us. The sun was still shining through the trees but had moved a little farther up in the sky.

"Leroy?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"You really still love me?"

"Of course I do!" I insisted.

"How can you still love me? How could you love me in the first place? I deserve nothing and there are those that are far more deserving of your love. And none of them cause you to have to risk your life on their behalf."

"Lily, I chose to come save you. I have only to apologize that I came so late and so many horrible things happened to you before I could come. And I love you for who you are and your personality. And you are so smart and beautiful and amazing. I wish you could see that." She shook her head.

"I'm so sorry that I was kidnapped. And how did you get me out?"

"Someone sent me the keys, but I have no idea who. All they said was that you needed to get out soon," I explained. She nodded. I put my arm around her, holding her waist. We sat like that for a long time until she moved and went to pick up the packet from where I had left it on the floor. She shuddered before handing it to me again. I took it and flipped to the next page, a page titled "Torture", and under the header was a list of ways of torture with sub groups of ways to accomplish each form of torture. Again some of these had checkmarks next to them.

"They did these to you!?" I asked with concern. I looked at Lily who only nodded. "If reading it is this hard…" I mumbled, not intending to finish my statement. Lily shivered and sat down beside me. I kept reading the list as she absentmindedly played with a twig, drawing images in the dirt. I stopped reading to look over at her drawings and I saw that she had written the word "pain" with what I assumed was fire around it. I looked up to see her face set in a determination not to cry. She was using the twig to cross out her drawing and erase the evidence. She looked up at me as I stared at her face and quickly turned away as her determinedly-stoic face twitched under the pressure of keeping her face from showing her emotions. I put my arm around her, holding her close to me. She was silent for a long time.

"We should probably go," she said after a while. Her voice was steady and had no note of the sorrow and pain I knew she must have been feeling. "She is so strong," I thought to myself, "but she denies it."

"Okay," I said and picked up the backpack. I helped her to her feet and kept a steadying hand on her. As we trekked through the woods, Lily’s walking became easier and she tripped on fewer things in our path. Around noon her legs started to shake again.

"Let's stop, okay?" I asked her.

"I suppose if you want to," she said but I could see the relief in her eyes. I put the backpack on the ground and went to look for any of the edible plants that I knew of, but I didn't know very many. When I returned with a few of the wild berries I had found, Lily looked up from her lap to me. She saw the berries I was holding and looked at me skeptically.

"Those are safe?" she asked me. I nodded.

"I remember that these are safe, but I cannot remember the name of them," I told her, "Just eat, okay? You look so emaciated." she shook her head.

"No. I ate this morning and you didn't. You must be really hungry!" she insisted. I picked up a berry and tossed it in my mouth.

"There, I ate some," I said with a slight smirk, "Now you eat." I pulled them from my shirt and placed them on a slight bowl-shaped indent in the rock beside her. She picked one up, eyeing it suspiciously. She tasted it tentatively, looking at me as if to catch me in jest. I looked away, walking back to my backpack. When I faced her again, Lily was not eating.

"What?" I asked her.

"You have to eat too," she told me firmly. I picked up a few of the berries, but made sure to leave a majority for her.

After we finished, I helped her to her feet. We started walking again, slowly. By the end of the day I was carrying her and we were far enough away to stay for the night. There was nothing near us but trees, so I tried to find a softer area on the ground. Right below one of the larger trees was a small dip between two roots that was big enough for two people. The leaves that had fallen to the ground made a nice covering for the dirt and made the small dip seem more comfortable, but I knew it was only the least that I could do for her. She helped pile the leaves into the small dip and then sat with her back against the tree trunk. Her head was leaned on her knees and she used the jacket to help cover her legs and put her hands around her feet in an effort to warm them. The sun had gone down and the air was getting colder. I pulled the blanket out of the backpack and wrapped it around her shoulders, causing her to look up.

“Thanks,” she whispered. She looked back down at her knees before speaking again quietly in the silence, “Do you know anything about the person that gave you the keys? Did they give you anything else?”

“Well,” I said, “Just directions on how to get to that place and the time I should go, but other than that, no.” She nodded.

“You came during some sort of drill where everyone was outside for some reason. Though, of course, they left me there.” I looked down at her, puzzled by how the person who had sent the keys had known the time for me to get into the building. She was looking up at me, a confused expression reflected in her face as well.

“Come on,” I said after a minute or so of silence, “You need sleep and it is getting cold.” She smiled and got up slowly, handing the blanket to me.

“I’ll keep watch. You should sleep and keep warm,” Lily said, walking a little ways off as though finding the perfect point to watch from. I laughed slightly and followed her.

“No, you need sleep,” I told her as I picked her up easily and carried her back towards the tree, “If either one of us is going to be keeping watch it would be me.” The smile that was spread across her face made me almost forget about everything she had been through. I placed her on the leaves and threw the blanket over her quickly.

“You don’t have a jacket,” she said and the smile slid off her face.

“Well, do you mind if I join you?” I asked her, hoping for the smile to return, but I knew it would not. I could not expect that from her.

To my relief she gave a small, sad smile for an instant before it, too, faded to nothing.

“Sure,” she said. It was very cold, but with the blanket and her body heat next to me I almost managed to sleep through the night without too much discomfort. Every time I woke up and thought about how cold I was I mentally kicked myself, knowing that I had no right to be so selfish and that Lily was probably feeling the same, so I would hold her closer, trying to let her be the warmer of the two of us.

***

I opened my eyes slowly as sunlight on my face caused me to wake. Lily was still beside me, her face covered by the shade of the trees so the sun had not yet awakened her. I dared not move while my arm was around her, not wanting to disturb or wake her.

She cried out, sitting up rapidly. Her eyes darted around us, scanning the area. When her eyes fell on me, she seemed to relax. I sat up too, hugging her close. She was shaking, but whether from cold or fear I could not tell. I pulled the blanket from off of me and wrapped it around her in hope of warming her more. Though I was now cold, I did not mind. I was getting some heat from hugging Lily. She seemed to want to cry, but she was trying so hard to avoid it.

I heard a small sound behind me and turned to look. A man was standing there, his eyes wide in shock. He was wearing some sort of uniform but I couldn’t tell what his job could be. He waved his hand as though shooing us.

“What are you doing here?” he asked in a furious whisper. In my fear I hadn’t noticed Lily cling to me tighter and begin to shake even more. She made a small squeaking noise into my ear.

“That is one is them,” she breathed to me, “one of the men that tortured me.” I could feel my face set into an angry expression as the man continued talking in his furiously-whispered voice.

“Why are you here? You should have gone further by now! Why did you stop? You’ll get caught! Go!” I didn’t need this stranger’s advice and I quickly pulled Lily to her feet then up into my arms as she grabbed onto the blanket and my backpack that had been nearest her. I tried to run, but I was not strong enough to carry her and run simultaneously so I settled with walking as quickly as I could. Soon, there was a cliff face next to the trees, cutting off an escape option.

“Leroy,” Lily said, “Stop for a second.” I listened, stopping and putting her feet onto the ground. “That man didn’t follow us,” she continued, “and I think I can get us out of here quickly.” I took a few seconds to catch my breath before responding.

“Why wouldn’t he follow us? And how should we get out of here?”

“Can you climb?” was her simple reply. I raised an eyebrow but nodded. “Then let us climb a tree next to the cliff. Maybe we can get up to the top of the face and be on higher ground.” I looked over at the cliff face, and saw that her idea could work. The trees were growing very near to the cliff face and they seemed to be very tall, maybe tall enough to help us scale the cliff. I turned back to her and took the backpack from her, stuffing the blanket in as I did so. The smaller trees seemed to be the only way to get to the lowest branches of the taller trees that would be how to get up to the top of the cliff. I helped Lily into the smaller tree then climbed up myself. When we got high enough, Lily pointed to where the branches on the tree we were standing on nearly connected with a taller trees’. I walked carefully across the branch, testing it to see if it would hold my weight. When I got to the place where the branches almost met, I could see that it would be easy to get from one the other.

“Lily, can you make it this far?” I asked her. Instead of replying she made her way along the branch carefully and slowly. When she made it to me, she was scooting along with her legs straddling the branch. I helped her to her feet and across to the other branch, causing me to lose my balance. She turned to look back at me as I grabbed ahold of one of the thin branches above me. Pulling myself back up, I made my way to the other tree as well.

“Are you okay?” Lily asked. I let a grin play across my lips.

“Yes, don’t worry about me! Let’s get to the top of this,” I replied. I helped her up to the top branches so that we were looking slightly down at the edge of the cliff.

“Do you think we are close enough to jump?” Lily asked.

“If we get further out on these branches then I think so. I’ll go first. Can you propel your body by yourself, do you think?”

“I think so,” she said bravely. I edged my way over to the end of the branch and flung the backpack as far as I thought Lily could jump. It made it with quite a bit of room for error, so I jumped out and landed next to it. I hit the ground painfully, but I was safely on the rocks, so I turned quickly to wait for Lily. She inched her way to end of the branch, still unsteady on her feet. When she got to the end, she looked over to me. As she prepared to launch herself to the cliff ledge, I readied myself to catch her or try to break her fall. She began her jump just as a loud voice from below yelled out.

“HEY!” the voice bellowed, scaring both Lily and I. Lily, after being scared, did not manage to jump well and was on her way to barely making the top of the cliff. I hurried forward, not fast enough to help. Lily struck the ground, her stomach hitting the edge of the cliff face with her legs hanging below her. She gasped for air, the wind evidently knocked out of her. I grabbed her arm as she began sliding down, over the edge. Her eyes were wide, staring at me in a silent plea. I held her steady on the edge of the cliff before getting a better hold on her and trying to pull her up. She was still gasping for air when I heaved her over the side.

“Are you okay?” I asked her when she had caught her breath and I had moved us from the side. She looked at me with wide eyes and nodded.

“THEY WENT UP!” the voice again bellowed from below, startling both of us once more. Lily looked at me with a worried expression and started to get to her feet. She had done so much moving after not being allowed to move and the effort was beginning to take its toll. Her legs were shaking as I, too, stood up and retrieved the backpack from where I had thrown it. I looked around. The first fifty yards of the cliff was rock with nothing growing on it. The terrain changed after that point however, and there seemed to be a never-ending meadow. A few shrubby bushes seemed to have berries on them so I went to see if any were edible. Lily staggered beside me, sometimes using me as support.

“Sorry,” she said every time she held on to my shoulder for balance. I merely rolled my eyes in response, making sure that she did not fall. When we got closer I could see the berries on the small bushes. Some I didn’t recognize and others I knew as dangerous, but a few of the bushes were not deadly.

“These are safe,” I declared, picking one and eating it. I hadn’t eaten in so long, but I let Lily get as many as she wanted before daring to eat any more. I realized then that I needed water. The small bottles we had taken from the building were not enough to last us very much longer. I pulled one out of the backpack, noting the bread we still had left, and handed it to Lily.

“I’m okay,” she said, pushing the water back to me, “I can last for a long time more.” I tried to give it to her again but she refused to take it. Sighing and opening the lid, I took a small sip, trying to save as much as I could. After putting it away, we continued on our ever-slower journey. I offered to carry Lily but she declined, saying that she wanted to get her strength back. “How does she do it,” I thought to myself as we made our way through the endless meadow.

***

When we finally stopped again the sun was almost gone and the air had once again chilled. I looked around us for somewhere to stay for the night, but there was not enough cover to hide us. In the distance we could now see the outlines of a city that was directing our progress.

“How far away do you think that city is?” I asked Lily, trying to estimate the distance in my head as well.

“It appears to be about three days away,” she said and then paused before continuing, “Or at least it would be if I were able to walk.” Her words faded as she lost herself in thought. I dropped the backpack to the ground and stretched, my muscles sore from the numerous activities of those past few days. Lily shook her head as if trying to clear her thoughts and turned back to face me with a still-distant expression on her face. I looked at the city again, pondering how long it would take to get there with Lily in this condition.

I heard a small noise then a slight gasp as Lily fell down next to me. Before I could turn around, I felt something sharp and painful hit my neck and my vision blurred then faded to black.

***

The sound of the slap seemed to resonate as the pain began to register in my slowly-waking brain. I opened my eyes, glancing around as I tried to sit up, but that was impossible. The unfamiliar settings around me distracted me for a moment as I tried to figure out where I was. With a start I recognized the room from my rescue mission. This was the room that had been unlocked. The man standing over me was glaring down at me; in one of his hands he held the key ring I had been given.

“WHERE DID YOU GET THIS?!” the deep voice of the man yelled. My brain wasn’t working yet and the words seemed hard to process. The man yelled again, “I ASKED YOU A QUESTION! WHERE DID YOU GET THIS?!” All I could do was blink up at the man as my mind seemed to get its act together.

“I don’t know,” I responded, my voice weak and raspy, though I couldn’t figure out why. The pain from the man’s hand was fading and I could feel the place in my neck that had been stabbed with something sharp. I tried to move my hand to feel it, but my arms couldn’t move. I looked down to see the reason; taking in the device I was strapped to. I seemed to be on an angled table with strips of some sort of cloth keeping me tied to the table. My hands were by my sides, tied at the wrists. The man growled, obviously not buying my answer.

I heard a small squeak behind me but could not turn to look for the source of the noise. The man seemed to snicker at my inability to move. The small squeak turned into a high-pitched noise of pain that I recognized as Lily’s.

“Lily?” I asked the noise behind me.

“Leroy?” it returned. I was almost glad to hear her voice before I remembered where we were.

“You are not to speak,” the man snarled, looking past me at Lily, “Your consequences will come soon enough.” He looked back at me, an evil grin making his face uglier. “You did not save your little friend as you had hoped. You just made her life a living hell for what you did. And yours won’t be so fun either,” he said quietly in his deep, low voice. I thrashed against my bonds, trying to go help Lily again, but it was no use. This time the man didn’t bother to keep his laughter down as his loud, belly-laughter escaped his mouth. It was a horrible sound that made me cringe. I heard another laugh come from behind me that was slightly higher-pitched. Footsteps neared from behind me until soon a shorter man came into view.

“You shouldn’t have tried to help,” this new man said, snickering. He turned to the bigger man and nodded once before walking out of my sight again. I heard his footsteps stop close behind me and the sound of something moving quickly through the air then Lily gasp for breath as though the wind had been knocked out of her again. I tried to call out and escape the bonds again, but the bonds held tight and the bigger man had put something over my mouth that muffled my noise.

“We will get you to tell us,” the man said quietly to me, a wide, ugly grin on his face, “and you will regret not telling us now.”

The men left, leaving me with Lily. I couldn’t speak still and Lily wasn’t speaking either, though whether she was able to or not I could not tell. I worked on one wrist-tie, trying to loosen it enough to get my hand out, but my efforts were producing few results. I tried for what seemed the hundredth time to push the cloth out of my mouth, but I could not get it out. I heard a faint sound of something falling to the ground and then I heard Lily sigh.

“Aaah,” she said, her voice slightly raspy, “That was disgusting.” She was silent for a long time before changing the subject, even though I hadn’t spoken, “I’m really sorry you got dragged into this. I should not have let you come and save me. It just seemed too good to be true. I just wished, so much, that I could get out of here, but-,” she paused again, “I just wanted to see you again. I’m sorry. That sounds so stupid and cliché, but that is all I could think about. Seeing you and having you still accept me. Maybe this was all a dream. Maybe they have started using drugs on me and none of that was real. I can’t see you now, so maybe you aren’t there. It is just a dream.” By the end of her speech her voice had faded into almost nothing and her voice displayed a note of such sorrow and regret that made me want to hold her and tell her everything would be okay, but I couldn’t do that in my current situation. What I tried to say was: “I am here. I’ll get us out of this again.”

“Nnnnnnnn,” I groaned through the cloth. Not a very successful transfer of thoughts to words.

“At least you still seem to be there. So maybe my hallucinations are consistent. Now to-,” she cut herself off. I wondered why for a moment before I heard the footsteps growing closer.

“I told you two to run,” the person behind me said and I recognized him both from his tone of voice and what he said, “Why didn’t you get out of the way?” I heard a few snaps and then Lily walked into view slowly, holding a pair of scissors.

“Oh,” she said with wide eyes, looking at my wrists, “I was zip tied to bars. Here, I’ll get you out.” As she cut the ties holding me to the table, the man came forward holding my backpack. I glanced down at it, noting how much bulkier it was than I had thought it was. Soon I was not attached to the table anymore and the man handed me my bag. I took it, a skeptical look on my face, as I pulled the cloth from my mouth.

“You need to find some way to get out of here quickly!” the man insisted, “If they find you again they will put constant guards on you.”

“Why are you helping us?” I asked him, not trying too hard to veil my suspicion. Lily nodded, standing a bit to the side of me. She moved a little closer, holding onto the scissors like a weapon.

“I-,” he started, but paused, “I don’t believe what they are doing is right. Does it matter what I think about this? I just want to help you out of here. Will you follow me out of here?” Lily looked over at me in confusion. She nodded slightly, an expression on her face that told me she had something to say. I looked back at the man.

“Okay, we will follow you,” I told him, “But we will be behind you the whole time.” The man nodded and moved past me, leading us out a door on the other side of the room. The large backpack felt strange on my back as I followed closely after Lily, watching her in case she fell again. The door led to a hallway that hadn’t seen in my previous exploration of this building. Turning left, we continued down the bright passageway slowly. After walking for what appeared to be a long time, the man stopped and opened a door on the right side of the passageway. He waved his hand, beckoning us to go through the door but I shook my head.

“You stay ahead of us,” I said softly. He sighed but went through the door. I held open the door as Lily went through, still watching the man. I closed the door gently behind me and looked around. The room was darker than the hallway had been and it took a few moments to readjust to the change. We were standing in a large storage room. The man had walked over to a box and sat down on it.

"What is your name?" Lily asked the man. He looked over at us when I moved to hold Lily up as she began to sway.

"Is it relevant?" he asked.

"It is very relevant," I said, "At least we will know what to call you. I can assume you know at least her name?" The man nodded with a little shrug of his shoulders.

"The name is Quincy but I don't see how it will be of much use to you," he paused, "Are we okay now? No matter, I need you two to stay in here for a while. They will start a search outside again, so staying in here is probably the best option. They will also search the building, but there are many places to hide in here so it should be easy to hide you two effectively. A few of these boxes have food and water bottles in them. Eat from there to keep the backpack full because I don't know when you will need to escape." He looked over at Lily then added, "I think a few of these boxes might also have clothing if you want to get out of the jacket and shorts. The boxes ought to be labeled. Oh," he said, lifting his finger in exclamation, "I forgot to say that there is a bathroom at the other end of the room. It has a shower in it and such. I'm sure you will appreciate that in the future." He stopped talking, stood up and began to move towards the door. I had helped Lily to a box upon which she was now sitting while he was talking, so she looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"Sounds... Good," I said in defeat with the realization that there were very few options at this point, "But... Why are you helping us?" Quincy stopped walking and turned to face me.

"Well," he started slowly, addressing Lily, "I decided that I was not okay with what they were doing to you, Lily. I don't know why anyone would be. Of course, they’re not all right mentally." He sighed, closing the door behind him as he made the rest of his way out of the storage room. After a moment I turned to look at Lily. She seemed a little shocked by what Quincy had said. She was silent for a while as I looked around at the labels on the boxes.

"It-," she started, but paused, "It is nice of him to care enough to help us." I turned to her and nodded.

"Yeah," I said, and after a long paused continued, "Hey, we should probably look for the things we will need. You can stay here if you like. I'll go explore the place." Leaving the backpack with her, I walked away, wandering around the boxes, reading the labels and opening a few. I couldn’t help but think of any other reasons that this “Quincy” could have to help us. Even though I couldn’t think of any reasonable motives that did not convince me that he didn’t have an ulterior agenda.

I climbed up one of the pyramids of boxes, looking at one near the top that read “Medical Supplies”. I pried open the lid and glanced inside. There were a couple first-aid kits as well as smaller boxes of medicines that I did not recognize. I took out a first aid kit, not sure if it would come in handy or not, but willing to carry the extra weight for when or if it was needed. After exploring for a bit more I returned to Lily with the first aid kit, a couple bottles of water, a few cans of different foods, and a can opener with some kitchen utensils. She was sitting in the same place and I would have thought that she hadn’t moved if she were not wearing different clothing. My jacket and shorts were folded beside her and she looked up at me as I neared her.

“I see you found some better clothing than my shorts and jacket,” I said to her, “Where did you find the boxes?”

“Right over there,” she said, pointing to a large pile of boxes close to the far wall, “I think we could use those as places to sleep too. There are a few that have blankets in them.” I wondered how I had missed that but nodded and placed the cans next to her.

“Here, eat something. There is a lot of food.” She chose one of the cans and took the can opener from me. I chose a different can and we both began to eat slowly. Time passed in silence except for the occasional click when a utensil tapped the side of the metal cans. When were finished we continued to sit and stare out at the piles of boxes until Lily interrupted the silence.

“I’m sorry. I keep making things worse for you.” I shook my head, scooting closer to her.

“You are not doing anything to me,” I told her. She looked down, a sorrowful look veiling her face for a moment before she slipped off the box and wobbled for a moment before catching herself on the edge.

“I’ll go and find a box of blankets to sleep in,” she said as she began to wander off. I followed her quickly, hoping to keep her on her feet. When we got to the pile of boxes she began to climb and I helped her up to a box where she pulled off the lid. After helping her into the box, I pulled a blanket over her, making her more comfortable.

“I’ll go put the things away and leave you alone. Go ahead and sleep, okay?” I said to her.

“I should help,” she said, starting to get out of the makeshift bed, “Nothing is an excuse to not help you out.” I held her down and shook my head.

“Stay here. You need sleep and you have had more than enough troubles. Stay, okay?” She looked up at me and nodded. As I climbed down and went to put away the trash and utensils I only worried about her well-being. After hiding the can opener, the extra cans, and the utensils, I grabbed the backpack and put it near the box that Lily was lying in so that it could easily be grabbed in case of an emergency. Lily’s eyes were closed. I bent down beside the box and looked closer at her. I could see the tear-tracks that ran down her face and I reached out a hand to wipe away the wetness. She didn’t move but I knew she was awake and I leaned over her and kissed her cheek gently before finding my own box of blankets and preparing to fall asleep. While we were separate, the boxes that we were both in were close enough for me to help her very quickly if she needed anything. I closed my eyes and drifted into uneasy sleep.

***

When I awoke, Lily was sitting on the edge of my box, facing away from me, her hands clutched to the sides of her. I covered her nearer hand with mine as I dragged myself into a sitting position. She turned to look at me. She looked happier than the night before and she hopped off the edge and began to help me up.

“Good morning,” she said to me, “You slept a long time.” I stretched, feeling slightly sore.

“How can you tell?” I asked her as we put the lids back on the boxes and descended to the floor. She pointed at the wall and I looked over to see a clock.

“Oh,” I said, “That could be a good indication.” She smiled at my embarrassed face.

"Well," I asked, "what have you been doing while I've been sleeping?" she looked around.

"Getting acquainted with this place."

"Ah. I guess that is useful. Did you find anything interesting to do?"

"Well I wasn't searching for interesting. I was looking for anything we would need," she explained. She was always the more sensible one. We slowly walked over to the food containers and picked out a couple cans of fruit for our breakfasts. When we were done eating, Lily led me to a place that we could dispose of trash in.

"Alright," I said, "What would you like to do now?"

***

I awoke with a start. It had been a few weeks since we had been brought there initially and it was starting to feel oppressive. I couldn't see Lily, so I looked around. Nothing was moving, so I looked over to where she had been sleeping. The blankets seemed to be covering her, so I relaxed a little. Why I had woken up with such a start, I couldn't imagine. As I slowly fell back to sleep, I wondered vaguely what time it was.

***

I woke up what must have been a few hours later, but strangely, as though I had been drugged again. My mind was once again a fuzzy haze. I tried to move, but it made my mind more rattled so I stayed still while my nausea faded. I looked forward, staring at a wall, then a man came into view. It took me a moment to wrap my mind around it, but I began to recognize him.

"You need to get out of here!" Quincy said, "They've already captured and taken Lily again. Run, please, before it is too late." I began to sit up. They had Lily again?

"Where did they take her?" I asked forcefully. Quincy shook his head.

"There is nothing that you can do. Just run, please, because they are going to come back and kill you. And my intention, when sending you those keys, was not to kill you. I only wanted to help Lily." The pleading look in his eyes confused me.

"Why didn't they take me when they came to get Lily? I was here the whole time and they could easily have captured me too."

"Well," Quincy began slowly, "They wanted to wake you up and..." He faded out, his face taking on a sorrow-stricken look.

"Just leave, please," he begged. By now I was able to think and move around again. I got out of the container and immediately began climbing down the stack.

"Take me to her, now," I demanded of Quincy. He was climbing down after me but, when I made my demand, he stopped for a moment and stared at me with wide eyes.

"You can't do that!" he said as he started climbing down once again.

"Take me to her," I demanded more forcefully. The sorrow on his face was enough to make me turn away. There was a pause in the conversation while Quincy was thinking about what he should do.

"Okay, but don't blame me for this," he finally said. He began walking hurriedly in the direction of the door we had originally entered through. We were silent as we went through the door and started walking quickly down the hallway to the right. After a few minutes of following Quincy through the twists and turns, we began to hear footsteps and relaxed conversation coming our direction. Quincy looked panicked and glanced around. A few yards behind us was the nearest door. Quincy pointed to it and hurried over to it as silently as he could. I followed and squeezed into the small storage room as best as I could. It w a tense few minutes as we listened to the footsteps and talking get slowly closer and, finally, pass by and fade into nothing. We waited a few more minutes to ensure that they had gone then I slowly opened the door and looked out. When I didn't see anything I eased my way out of the small room and let Quincy out. He began leading again, twitching at every sound. Eventually we got to an area that I had been to before. When I had tried to find Lily I had found her in one of the rooms off of the hallways we were walking down.

"Is she in the same place?" I asked. Quincy only nodded. I sped up, trying to get to Lily quickly. Finally we got to the room. I threw open the door and entered to room, looking for Lily and hoping that she was okay.

"Lily. Are you here?" I asked the room. There was no answer as I found the light switch. I flicked it on and looked around the room. The room had mostly been cleared of objects and I could see random splashes of blood around the floor. The table with the metal casings was still in the middle of the room and there were objects lying on the top. There were a variety of knives and other objects, but I wasn't focusing on those. I could see flesh encased in the metal cage.

"Lily?!" I yelled as I ran forward, "Lily!" I could feel my eyes filling up with tears as I looked down at her. I moved the objects from her body with heavy arms. She was closed into the cast, her head skewed to the side. I couldn't bear to look at her body. I was clutching a knife that was covered in blood that I had moved from next to her face.

I wiped my eyes, looking closer to her. I stared at her once-beautiful face, now marred with cuts and bruises. I couldn't bear to see that she had been hurt. I gathered my courage to look at the rest of her. Her clothes had been mostly torn off and they were covered in blood. The areas of her body that were not covered by metal had been gouged out with knives. Her heart was exposed, a small ornamental dagger embedded in it. I couldn't stop the tears and I couldn't stand to look at her for very long. How could I have let this happen to her? How could I forgive myself?

I couldn't speak, the words I wanted to say to her would make no difference and my airways were closed and constricted. What would it to do tell her, now, that I loved her and that I was sorry? That it was my fault and that I should have been the one to suffer?

"Grown men don't cry, little boy."

The voice startled me. I looked around and saw a man standing in the doorway. Behind him, I could see a body sprawled on the ground. It could only be Quincy. I shuddered and looked back at the man. This was the man who had taken Lily in the first place, the man who had driven to her house while I was there, drugged me, and taken her away. And now he was insulting me.

"You couldn't save her then and you couldn't save her this time. Why do you continue to bother? You only ever lose in the end. Besides, she was pathetic as well. You ought to have heard her screaming. Would you like to see the full extent of her beating before we finally got rid of her puny life?" His words cut deep. My mind was thrown into pure rage and there were no longer thoughts to regulate my actions.

I threw myself at him.

Ending 1

I was moving toward him, fast, and, in a quick decision based on fear, I rushed past him. Quincy's body was lying, bleeding, on the ground and I took off in the direction I remembered from the last time I had been in that part of the building. I didn't want to die, not here and not now. I could hear the man following me, yelling something at me, but I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying. I just needed to get out.

I took the turns as fast as I could and the footsteps were fading behind me. I couldn’t catch my breath and a stitch had formed in my side.

“Lily,” I thought to myself, “She is gone. Dead. Mutilated.” As these thoughts invaded my brain, I succumbed to my body’s wishes. I fell to my knees then to my side, pain washing through me as I let my eyes well up in tears.

“How could I be such a coward? I had run away from the opportunity to avenge Lily’s death,” I thought, angry at myself. But I was scared. I couldn’t deny that to myself or to anyone else. I was terrified of death, even at the risk of regretting this moment for the rest of my life.

“Lily wouldn’t have run. She would have fought for me. She would have pushed her emotions aside and done what needed doing. I’m a coward. I’m pathetic. I’m sitting in a hallway and crying. What more could I do wrong,” the thoughts cut at me as though they weren’t my own. As though someone were insulting me and telling me to be a man. But I wasn’t a man. I was a boy. A teenager, sure, but a little kid still.

The footsteps were coming again.

I leapt up, adrenaline searing through my veins and dulling my pain as I looked for an escape. The only way was to continue down the hallway, so I pelted. I got a few yards before I once again was on the ground. Terror filled me. I couldn’t die. I didn’t want to die. But I was about to.

I rolled onto my back and looked back down the hallway. The footfalls slowed as the jog fell into a walk. As he came into view, he let loose a booming laughter.

“You aren’t scared of death, are you? She wasn’t, you know. Just begged me to spare you,” he taunted then broke once more into his thunderous laughter, “You’ll join her soon enough." I couldn't move to save myself.

Ending 2

As I was still in the air, I brought the small knife that I had clutched in my hand forward to meet the man’s flesh. He dodged, hitting me as he did so, causing me to hit the edge of the door and fall to the ground in a lot of pain. I was right beside Quincy's lifeless feet, but I couldn't bear to look at him. I looked up once more at the man. I couldn't let him get away with what he had done to Lily. He needed to die.

I pushed myself up as quickly as I could, trying to ignore the pain, but I'd never had to deal with so much pain before. I saw the man pick up a longer knife than I had from the ground that was covered in Lily's dried blood. It came slicing through the air towards my chest, but I brought my small knife up in time to deflect it. I'd never fought a knife fight before, and I knew this wouldn't end very well for me. But I was going to try.

"You think you stand a chance against me?" the man asked with a sneer, "It was pathetic really, how easy it was to kill your little friend. Of course, she tried a little to defend herself, but she just ended up begging for me to allow you to live. Pathetic." He grinned to himself as though thinking of a cherished memory. I was slowly moving around him, trying to find an opening. He was turning as well, keeping the long knife up in the space between us.

"Why did you do such horrible things to her?" I asked, trying to keep my voice steady and the tears from my eyes. I couldn't show this man weakness. The man smiled again.

"Because I could. It was easy."

I burst forward in anger, running at him blindly and stupidly. I knew it was a mistake, but the anger in me wouldn't allow me to let that reason slide. The man laughed in the moment it took me to run at him and blocked my knife with his. I slashed almost wildly, but the man parried every one. He was toying with me and I could feel that. I stabbed straight forward, dodging his block and continuing straight for his dominant shoulder. As my knife began to slice into him, I felt a cold, almost smooth feeling right over the right side of my pelvis. I quickly let go of the knife in his shoulder and looked down to see his knife stuck in my side. He pulled it out with slow deliberation as I began to feel the pain. He slid the knife out of his shoulder and threw it to a corner of the room as I feel to my knees in front of him, clutching the bleeding wound. I couldn't tell if hiss would kill me, but I still hadn't killed the man before me and I couldn't give up just yet.

"Now I can kill you just as slowly as I killed your friend here. What was her name, may I ask?" he sneered at me. He brought up a foot and lightly tapped me so that I fell onto my back. He was holding the knife with his uninjured arm, pointing it at me. He flinched a little in pain before bringing the knife up then, with as much might as he could, back down. I rolled over just before, gasping at how much pain that caused my side, and got onto my hands and knees. I grasped my side with one hand, as I quickly searched the floor near me for something useful. As I did so, the man kicked me, hard so that I was once more thrown to my back. His face no longer showed a sneer or a grin. The anger was very evident.

"Don't bother, scum," he growled, "There is nothing that can save you now." As he said this, he slashed once more with the knife, cutting open the skin over my stomach. I could feel the cold, almost searing, blade as it did this and cried out in shock and pain. Before he finished the arc of the blade, however, I grabbed his hand. He yanked back, but I clung on as though my life depended on it. I knew I wouldn't be able to take the blade from him, so I turned the blade towards him and, before he realized it, let go as he pulled back with a mighty tug. I watched as the blade sunk into his abdomen to the hilt of it. His eyes were wide as he looked down in shock and confusion. He cried out in pain and collapsed beside me. I could tell that he would leave the land of the living shortly.

Blood was oozing from my wounds, but I plucked up the strength to drag myself the metal table that had Lily still in it. I cried in pain as I hauled myself to a sitting position and then to standing. I pulled the small, decorative knife from her heart and threw it away. As I looked down at her face, I let myself cry as I, too, was going to join her in death.

I fell once more to my knees, then my world went black.