• Chapter Four


    An excruciating ache in my arm throbbed to my heartbeat. For a disoriented moment I feared it was the needle, and that I hadn't really pulled it out this morning after all. I lifted my arm to feel for the needle...

    Only I couldn't lift my arm. My eyes snapped open, my muscles straining against my bonds. I started to panic, feel claustrophobic, struggling and jerking my limbs, but my arms and legs remained firmly tied. In my drugged stupor, my vision was too blurred to see and my hearing too muffled to hear. I thought I heard startled shouts, but I wasn't sure. An icy coldness flooded my veins, and I felt my muscles relaxing, my vision darkening, my thoughts fading into silence. In seconds I fell back into a deep, drugged sleep.

    ~*~


    I woke up sweating and panting, like I'd just been sprinting for my life. My heart pounded in my chest so hard I almost thought it was about to burn itself out and die on me.

    I scrambled into a sitting position and huddled in the corner of the bed, clutching the blanket to my chest. It was just a dream, I tell myself. It was just a bad nightmare. But it had seemed so real. The restraints, the pain, the cold; It was all so painstakingly realistic.

    I started to calm down as I took in my surroundings. I was in my own room. Okay. On my bed. No, Claire's bed. There was the window, the dresser, the kitchen doorway, the lamp on the bedside table. Everything was in the right place. None of it had really happened.

    No, the needle in my neck was real. They truly had knocked me out. But the rest of it had all been a dream. It must have been. Mustn't it?

    Then my sight locked on something that shouldn't have been there. A woman, standing at the foot of the bed, staring down at me. Her auburn hair fell in perfectly straight, perfectly brushed locks down her back. Her eyes were grey and cold, like ice, and her expression completely neutral, revealing nothing. She wore all black; black, form-fitting sweater, black dress pants, and, I assumed, black heels, too, though I couldn't see her feet from my position.

    "Good, you're awake." She didn't sound happy whatsoever.

    She came around to the side of the bed. She was wearing black high-heel strappy shoes. My eyes followed her every move.

    "Where's Claire?" I asked.

    I was ignored. Rather than answering me, she said, "You've been causing a lot of grief for administration, haven't you?"

    Now it was my turn to ignore her, so she skipped right to the point. "Due to your misbehaviour and significant lack of discipline, you have had a tracker implanted in your left arm." My mouth dropped open, and I looked down at the blanket, where my arm was hidden. None of it had been a dream. I had woken up in the middle of their little surgery.

    Now I felt the rage bubbling up inside me again.

    "You have also been assigned a bodyguard," she continued. "This bodyguard will shadow you everywhere you go. He has been given specific orders to take any steps necessary to keep you in your place."

    "What?" I exclaimed. "But that's... that's a complete violation of my privacy!" He would hear every conversation I had, see everything I did, go everywhere I went. Eventually he would know everything about me that I didn't want him to know!

    I could see the woman's cool demeanor slip, and her grey eyes flared angrily, like a colourless flame. "You've caused bodily harm to several individuals, vandalized others' property, caused trouble for security on multiple occasions, refused to be where you're supposed to be, and overall broken the rules. You violate our trust, and we violate your privacy." Before I could respond, her cool, calm composure returned, and she stood straighter, smoothing her black jacket. "Well then," she said in the brightest tone I had heard from her so far. Which wasn't saying all that much. She even had a slight smile. "Let's meet your new friend, shall we?" I glared daggers at her back as she spun and stalked gracefully to the door. That was the only way I could describe her movements; the woman moved like a predatory cat stalking its prey.

    She opened the door with a flourish and waved her hand with exaggerated welcome.

    Jerk.

    I wanted to scream.

    I could almost picture steam rising off my skin when my new bodyguard walked past the woman into the room. There was no doubt he could read the expression on my face, yet he continued to smile in a friendly manner. He looked about in his early forties, maybe late thirties, with short black hair, greying at the temples, combed back neatly. He was fit, but not exactly ripped; muscular but not big; trim but not small; aged but not old. In reality, I wasn't quite positive how to describe him. The man seemed to contradict himself at every angle.

    I hated him even more for it.

    "This is Viktor," the woman introduced him with an evil, gleeful grin. Apparently she took great joy in making other people's lives miserable. Cow. I quickly decided that this is what I would name her, since I didn't know her true identity, and "Cow" seemed to suit her just fine. "He has complete rights to know exactly where you are at all times," The Cow continued, "and to have you in sight every second of the day." The Cow gestured to a bag I just now noticed slung over his shoulder. "He will also sleep in this room, in order to keep constant tabs on you."

    Immediately, my brain began whirling with possibilities. Perhaps if I could tip-toe past him to the window...

    As though reading my mind, The Cow said - with a gleeful smirk, I might add, "He assures us he is a very light sleeper."

    Moron.

    The Cow turned to Viktor with her Cow grin still in place. "Feel free to set up your things wherever you'd like," she briefly placed a slender hand on his shoulder like they were close friends, and she slipped out the door, off to her next prey. The door closed behind her.

    For a moment I just sat there at the head of the bed, grinding my teeth in frustration. It wasn't like I purposely disobeyed them today... Okay, I did, but it was for a good reason!

    Viktor opened his bag and started setting up a sleeping bag on the floor beside my bed. While I slid underneath my own covers, he climbed under his.

    I reached for the lamp on the bedside table beside the pillow and pulled the cord; as I lay back on the mattress and stared up at the bunk above me, I heard Viktor's deep voice for the first time. "Sleep well, Miss." I could hear the smile in his voice, maybe one described as fatherly. While most people would probably find themselves taking an instant liking to a man of his character, I found myself disliking him past the point of disliking him.

    Frowning, I flopped pointedly onto my side, facing the wall and away from him.

    ~*~


    The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the dust floating and swirling through the window, like a beautiful dance all its own. A small, contented smile rested on my lips. At once I knew it was going to be a perfect day.

    And my perfect day was shattered, just like that, in the exact moment I caught a glimpse of a certain someone walking around in the kitchen.

    Scowling, I stood up, went to the dresser, grabbed some clothes, and strode across the room to the bathroom. Standing beneath the steaming waterfall, I closed my eyes and tried my best to forget the predicament I was in. My brain, though, refused to let me, so I stood there for half an hour, steaming more than my shower. By the time I turned off the water I was crankier than I was when I turned it on.

    I yanked on a pair of dark denim jeans and a black tank top, dried my black hair with a towel, brushed it, tied it back with a yellow elastic, and outlined my green eyes in black kohl and mascara. Slowly, quietly, carefully, I eased open the bathroom door enough to poke my head out into the main room. Viktor wasn't in sight; he must have still been in the kitchen. Using this golden opportunity to my full advantage, I decided to sneak out the door into the hallway. I would find Claire and be with Noah without my new shadow.

    My plan was foiled from the first step, literally. No sooner had I set foot outside the bathroom door, than I heard Viktor's voice from the kitchen doorway. "I made us some pancakes for breakfast."

    I turned my head to glare at him, my deep scowl back in place. He stood in the threshold to the kitchen, smiling like he didn't suspect a thing. "I hate pancakes," I snapped, somewhat childishly, I thought, and started for the door.

    Suddenly Viktor was in front of me, leaning with his hand against the door, the same smile on his lips. "Really?" he asked, feigning confusion while still looking like his normal, irritating, good-natured self. "I thought everyone loved pancakes."

    I hated that man like nothing else.

    "Well, I'm not 'everyone', am I?"

    I moved to reach for the doorknob, but the big man put his hands on my shoulders, spun me around, and started to gently push me to the kitchen faster than I could react. "You need to eat something before you go anywhere," he told me in his ridiculously nettling tone, as if he was actually concerned about me. Ha. He was just a hired man, hired to make sure I was a good little girl and caused no more trouble for the guys up top.

    "I'm not hungry," I snarled, wrenching myself from his light grip and veering away to the dresser, even though I had no plan as to what I was going to do there. It simply gave me something to do that didn't involve following his directions.

    "I can take you to see your friend... er..."

    I stopped in my tracks and spun around, staring at him warily. "You know where Claire is?"

    Viktor nodded and smiled, sweeping his arm towards the kitchen. "But you have to eat first."

    I shot him a glare as I walked by, but I brought myself to do his bidding. Seeing that Claire was safe was significantly more important than my own selfish stubbornness. "This is blackmail," I mumbled grumpily as I plopped a pancake onto my plate.

    ~*~


    "Don't tell anyone I did this for you," Viktor told me as we walked down the hallway. "My boss will kill me."

    I shot him a surprised glance. His voice was so deadpan serious that I wasn't sure if he was serious or not, but when I saw the good-natured twinkle in his baby blue eyes, I decided he was joking.

    Both of us were quiet for the rest of our journey down the hall and up to the fourth floor. I was quite surprised my "bodyguard" never tried to make any conversational efforts. I may not have known him very well at all, but the man seemed to be the type to take any opportunity to make nice with someone. I studied his face for any indication of his thoughts, finding none. His expression was a mask of happy smiles and always-laughing eyes.

    I hated it. I was gathering a long list of things I hated about him.

    I looked away, frowning, and heard a deep chuckle of amusement. I frowned deeper and silently called him a along list of names, none of them flattering.

    All grudges were forgotten as soon as we stopped and Viktor knocked on the plain white door. I was practically beside myself as I waited for Claire to answer. After what seemed like forever, the door opened and a girl with long, waving, mahogany hair pulled back in a loose ponytail stood in the opening, staring at us. "Hello...?"

    Suddenly I couldn't make myself speak. I was too nervous. What if Claire wasn't here? What if they'd taken her? They could be doing something unthinkable to her right now!

    I blinked, pulled out of my own paranoid thinking, when Viktor took it upon himself to answer her. "We're looking for Claire," he told her with a pleasant smile. "Is she here at the moment?"

    The girl's face cleared of all confusion. "Oh, yeah, she is. I'll just get her for you." She took a step back, craned her neck around, and yelled, "Claire! There're some people here to see you!"

    I heard a muffled reply from the doorway to another room, maybe the kitchen, and the girl opened the door wider, stepped aside, and invited us in with a gesture.

    If she hadn't been there, I would had run straight through the room to Claire, but this was the girl's space, and simple rules of etiquette compelled me to take a step into the entrance and wait politely for Claire to show up.

    After a few seconds, the girl went through the doorway that housed Claire. I heard some clanging of cutlery and plates, and Claire emerged wiping her hands on a dish towel. "Sorry, I was just finishing up with the-" Her voice was cut off as she looked up and realized who was standing in her new doorway. I anxiously watched her reaction, and I saw a flicker of joy and relief, quickly replaced by anger and... disapproval? My excitement and anxiety fizzled.

    "So you're okay," she said flatly, tossing the dish towel on a nearby sofa, and I knew she was furious with me. She walked up to me and crossed her arms, gazing levelly at my face. She must have read the surprise on my face, because she snickered and asked coldly, "Well, what do you expect, a welcoming committee? After what you did? Can't you just do what you're told for once in your life?" She was pretty much yelling now. "You never give any thought to other people. The only important person, the only person that really matters, is you, and you just head off and do your own little thing with no consideration of the consequences." Her voice quieted to a regular conversational volume, but her tone was still furious. "You know what happened? You know what they were going to do, before you screwed everything up with your little rebellion? They were just going to talk to you, warn you of what would happen if you kept causing trouble for them. They waited patiently for you as long as they thought was reasonable, but, of course, you had to cause more trouble for them. They deemed you unsafe and moved me up here. Do you know-" here her voice broke, but she continued, "-how worried I was about you, Ashta? Do you know how late I stayed up last night wondering what they were doing to you?"

    I hadn't put a single thought into the effect my actions yesterday would have on Claire, and I did feel terrible, but all that came out was, "So you do think they're capable of horrible things!"

    "My God, Ashta!" Claire yelled, truly losing her temper now. "Is that all you got out of that? Do you just hear what you want to hear and conveniently tune everything else out? I'm trying to get through to you how I feel, and you don't- God!" She paced in a small circle, running her hand through her wavy blonde hair. Then she stopped, facing away, and pointed to the door. "Leave."

    "But-"

    "Leave!"

    I stood, shocked, behind her for a few seconds, then turned and walked slowly and silently to the door. I put my hand on the latch and began, "I didn't mean to-," but I figured my words would be lost on her, so I opened the white metal door and walked out into the hallways. Not until now did I notice that Viktor and left the room to give us some privacy. Fat lot of good that did. Maybe if he'd stayed, Claire would have curbed her anger and been less quick to scream. Somehow I doubted it. Claire had put up with me for as long as she could, but I knew I'd reached the end of the line. In fact, I'd wrenched on the line as hard as I could until it snapped. Now I was left with a broken lead, my own self-pity, and an old man hired to keep me on a leash. It was only a matter of time before I managed to push that one to its limits as well.