Broken Dreams(136)

I lied. I stood at the top of the stairs for moment before I walked down part way.



***



I saw Sophie standing in front of Kellan. He was sitting, now ungagged, in a dining room chair. His hands were bound behind him, and his legs were bound to the chair legs. There were chains wrapped around him, secured with locks. Nick had tied him up like a boss.

Nick must have raided the garage. Dad always had a wide variety of items for that “just in case” situation. I suppose this situation would fit in that category.

“Do what you want, you whore. Roger knows where all of us are, even now. Did you two forget about those?” Kellan motioned his head to Sophie’s forearm.

“Forget about what?” Nick asked. Sophie stood still. “Sophie! Forget about what?!”

“Oh, anger. I like anger. Turns me on.” Kellan laughed. He seemed unfazed by his injuries.

“Oh shut it, you sick fuck.” Nick sounded bothered.

“Tracking devices,” Sophie whispered as she looked at the underside of her forearm.

“What!” Nick reached out and grabbed her arm, and ran his fingers down the two inch scar on the underside of her forearm. She was clenching her teeth together, fighting her tears.

“Are you going to cry, Sophie? Because if you are, I want to watch every single tear run down that whore face of yours.”

Nick had enough and he punched Kellan in the mouth. He spit out a couple teeth and blood on Nick’s shirt. Nick grabbed him by the throat. “If you don’t shut your fucking mouth,” Nick put his Sig to Kellan’s temple, “I will give you a one way ticket to Hell. Hmm… Maybe I’ll just let the virus take over. I know that’s what every last one of your kind fears the most. The pain of slowly dying from the inside out.”

“My kind? It looks like we’re in the same boat, mate.” He stared Nick down. It was a jarring reminder of what was now Nick’s life. His arm twinged with pain, reminding him of the virus that now lived in his brain.

Nick turned back to Sophie. “Tell me about these fucking tracking devices.” Sophie stood there, looking at Nick like a deer caught in the headlights. “Tell me now!” He screamed so loud that it almost felt like the house rumbled.

“They implanted us with them when they put us into the program.”

“And both of you failed to mention this?!” Nick was growing more impatient and angrier by the second. “Damn it all to hell, Sophie! Tell me now!” Nick raised the Sig to Sophie’s head. Kellan was laughing, blood still trickling out of his mouth, enjoying the show. “Shut up! Shut up!” Nick screamed at Kellan. His laughing was like nails on a chalkboard. Chaos was running rampant. Nick was losing control of himself.

“Do it!” Kellan roared.

“Okay, okay!” Sophie screamed. She broke down and dropped to the floor, pushing herself back against the wall, and pulled in her knees. She looked like she regressed about two decades. So much had happened to her in Roger’s custody. It was surprising it took that long for her to shatter.

Claire jumped up and ran over to her. Until then, she and Thomas had just watched the scene from the sidelines.

“Aw, now, isn’t that cute? The little princess taking care of the Barbie whore.”

Nick turned around and pistol whipped him across the temple, knocking him out. Nick grabbed the gag, tying it taut across his mouth again. He wasn’t even sure why Sophie ungagged him in the first place, and he was going to be sure it wouldn’t happen again.

“Sophie, tell me what the fuck is going on.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything! I want to know everything.”

“You know most of it already.”

“I feel like I know nothing at all!”

“Nick, calm down.” Claire stood up in between him and Sophie. “It’s devastating for her.”

“She could have been leading this waste of valuable air to us the whole time.” Nick motioned at Kellan.

“Come on, Nick. Think about it. Isn’t it painfully obvious? She’s terrified of him! Look at her! She wouldn’t purposely lead him to us.” Sophie still sat on the floor with her knees pulled to her chest, resting her head on them.



***



I wanted to intervene, I wanted to ask questions, but I lacked the energy to go down the stairs all the way. I decided I needed to go check on my mom. I turned around to walk back up the couple of stairs I had gone down, and Henry was leaning with his back against the wall, grimacing in pain.

“What are you doing up?”

“I knew you would try to go back down the stairs. I wanted to stop you, but I couldn’t get any further.”