Bounty

Getting to know your captor

Cassiel

 I head over to the cabin and hear him stand and look around. He sprints in the opposite direction of me.

“Tatius there is nothing around here, just come in.” It's his loss if he dies in the woods. Lawrence will give me more boys. I turn my head again and see his silver little head looking at me following at a distance. His hair was the color of the vial of mercury blood. It seemed fitting I use him to gather me more. Plus he was fun.

Tatius

 I reluctantly follow her, wanting to figure out more. I didn't even know her name but I knew how her long hair swayed at her hips, and she moved as if she owned the world. As far as I knew, she could. She approached the doorway of the abandoned-looking cabin, shack, prison, whatever you want to call it. She grabs a key off a chain. The door squeaks and some dirt stirs. The strangest thing is the cabin is lit. And clean. And furnished.

“And this is our hideaway for the time being.” She spins towards me and walks up seductively. Then bypasses me and closes the door with a passcode. Hightech huh. I take this time to observe the prison. The place was fairly nice, I could tell some good money was put into it.  It was completely secretive, with blackout curtains and gravel roads, you would think it’s just another old abandoned shack. Who knew it had a fully functioning kitchen and a small living area with two couches. I could tell you what was behind some closed locked doors, yet.

“There isn't much for us to do here, except workout, sleep eat, and plan. Maybe the occasional trip to town.” She pulls her hair up into a ponytail and strides over to me again. She grabs my shoulders and pushes me towards the leather couch and ever so forcefully pushes me down and grabs my knife from her pocket and cuts the rope on my arms off. Time to execute my escape, I need to be wary she has a knife and is obviously dangerous. Now I understood Lawrence’s warning. He was right for once. I roll onto my back and stretch my arms. Flexing my fingers and peering at her turned away from me. She is not expecting me to attack so soon, how foolish. Adrenaline pushes me over to her in one step and I let my mind go. My arms move and twist hers behind her back until she drops to the floor and turns over so I see her pitiful face. It was truly pitiful and she cringed. I thought she was strong. I moved my foot off of her chest unpinning her from the ground. In the snap of the moment, she grabbed my ankle and twisted and pushed me over and into the wall, crashing and sliding down. She jumps up in front of me easily. 

“Don't underestimate me, make this easier for both of us.” She smiles slyly. “It’s what gets most men, seeing the girl in pain and they freeze for a second. Then you move like lightning and sting them.”

Is she giving me advice, what even. 

“Okay okay missy, don't need to give me pointers it's clear you are sly but I have trained for many years.”

“And with all that physical training did you ever learn how to warp someone's mind, or bend them to your will? No, you just kill quickly and painlessly” 

“You are starting to sound like a serial killer” I will give her that, she makes me nervous. 

“I'm not doing it for fun, even if it is fun” She gives another sly smile and shining like false heaven, I wish it was the last thing I saw. 

“Why do you need me, if you are so good yourself.” 

“I needed an insider to get the God’s Blood, and you are an insider and probably one of Lawrence's top students, but obviously have a weak spot that I can use.” She replies without an ounce of emotion, “You are just my tool.” She closes a door on the other side of the living room. I just sat down on the black leather couch and rested my eyes a bit.

B-joing! Pans crash by my left ear and harshly vibrate my eardrums. I slide off the couch in surprise.

“Jesus!” The lights hurt my eyes, and my back was sore. My ears still ringing I get back on the couch startled as hell. 

“You wouldn't wake up any other way.” She comments without a second thought. “You need to eat because we have a heist tonight.”

“Who says I will cooperate with you?”

“I do.”  She spins around and slaps a ring around my ankle and presses a button on her bracelet. My body freezes completely and I couldn't.  take. a .breath. The cold floor slapped in front of me as I gasped for air finally. 

“What is this?” I touch the silver circle around my ankle and it gives me a little shock.

“Just something that works.” She looked proud for a second, pointed to the plate of food, and walked away again down a set of stairs in the back. I had no clue what this food was in front of me but it was super good and salty, probably some eggs and hash. There was a pile of black clothing sitting at the end of the table, I assumed by the size it was mine. After changing and splashing water on my face. My eyes were sunken and the roots of my silver hair are going out. How did I get myself into this just by doing a simple mission? I had never eaten food from an enemy or been defeated for that matter. We all have our rivals I guess.

I step carefully down the cement stairs that she went down into a dark-lit room that smelled like melting metal. She sits with her back to me hair tied up working on something. As I approached her I saw how focused she was on a small circuit board and a shoe? 

“What’s that?” She doesn't turn around.

“It's a new thing we are going to try during the heist.”

“That doesn't explain what it is.”

“What’s your shoe size.”

“10 and why-”

“Shut up I’m trying to focus here.” She continues welding a little piece and a smaller metal thing together. “Sit down.” I carefully sit on the floor and she grabs my leg and put my shoe in her lap. She slaps the little device on my shoe and it hooks on with ease and then a little piece on the heel.

“How will I walk with these clunky gadgets?” She finishes my other shoe and looks at me.

“Try it.” I try to stand and pressing my feet on the floor activated some weird light and the shoes changed into some light combat boots.

“What is this??” I am slightly startled by this contraption she has placed on me. 

“Just watch and stop asking so many questions.” She shows me the bottom of her shoes after tapping twice it unfolds into a similar contraption I had on my shoes. Double-tap it came back and she walked towards the metal wall of the workspace. Her foot placed on the wall stuck as she walked normally up the wall and was on the ceiling above me. Some of her scarlet hair was dangling down and touching my face. “It does this so far, but I'm making adjustments to get some levitation soon.”

“Are you some sort of evil genius? How can you just make this stuff? You are like 16.”

“I'm 19 actually and that's for me to know.”  I was stupefied by her genius as she returned gracefully back to the ground. 

“So where are-”

“Stop acting as if we are partners, you are a tool, a prisoner that is going to help me get to the god’s blood.” The words slapped against my body. She was nothing but honest. “Test out the shoes we are going to leave in a bit.” She saunters off now leaving again, and it was starting to annoy me. I tried to run up the wall and it was hard since my feet were so heavy on the wall. I got the hang of it at the time she came back and stood at the top of the stairs in a black sports bra and red leggings that didn't match her hair. Compared to my slightly bulky bulletproof outfit she was not ready for a fight. 

“Am I going to be your shield, or what is this?” 

“You are finally catching on silver boy, if it comes to it, yes.” 

“How will you make me- oh wait that anklet thing did you make it too.”

“Yes. Just get in the car and stop talking.”

“But how can you control me without the button?” She looks at me and I freeze again the air starts to leave my lungs and won’t reenter. The tension relievers and I try to speak but my mouth is locked by the same pressure. 

“Finally some quiet.” She pushes me towards my car and I get in the back even though I have a passenger seat, she must really hate me. I believe that I can crack the code to her interior, just give me some time. My mouth was still sealed tight as we took tight turns and sped through streets I didn't recognize. She drove stick well it never stalled once even though it was prone to.

“You have an electrical problem with your car, it's causing the shift to get stuck sometimes,” she comments while pulling into an alley. My mouth loosened and I could speak!

“Please don't ever do that again.” I cough. She doesn't even look at me as she removes her jacket. Her back finally so close to me had tiny white scars all over it. Almost like- I reached my hand and brushed across one and she turned faster than humanly possible and twisted my arm around.

“Don't touch me.”  Her eyes were cloudy and greyer than brown and there was a scar through the corner of her right eye. Where had she gotten all these scars?

“Sorry, won't happen again.” She releases me and starts surveying the wall. Once she reaches a spot that seems satisfactory she places her shoe invention on the wall and starts climbing. I followed her wearily close. Stepping slowly up the side of an unknown building.

“So what’s the plan?”

“The plan is to follow me and shut up.”

“Okay got it.” Two can play this game Cassiel. She keeps moving her head as if she is scanning the wall for something, as we are up to four stories she stops and draws out a pen from her leggings pocket. She traces a decent-sized square as if she is…

The wall disappears the instant she connects the line and she steps in perfectly. The room was dark, but she walked straight over to the wall and started unplugging various things. I stood quietly even though I didn't want to wait by the makeshift doorway. 

“Carry these in your pockets.” she starts handing me various computer parts. I slowly put them in my many pockets while she hands me more. “Someone is coming, get to the car.” She shoves me out the opening and my feet slide down the wall at a terrifying pace. I see her in the doorway and hear a yell as she flies through the air down four stories and lands next to the car gracefully. “Hurry up!” Men were looking through the gap in the bricks and she clicks the pen and it returns to a normal wall. Hopping in the car not fast enough to close the door before she speeds off. I have the chance to jump out, I can hope the anklet will break on impact or will stop working at a certain distance. I could break away from her right now. The problem is I am curious. All the scars on her even though she never lets me get close enough to touch her. Something bigger was going on here my senses knew it. I hesitate to close the door. I can still take care of the job from the inside, see what she really wants. I had this job, things just didn't start outright. She sped through the streets and then turned her head towards me and my eyes were forced closed. I was assuming it was an electrical sensor now, I will look into that. She doesn't let anything slide. I hear us turn onto a gravel road and slowly that turns to dirt. We stopped and my eyes are released from the pressure holding them closed. The dinky cabin with a hidden secret loomed before me and I followed Cassiel inside.

“Hand over the chips.” She puts her hand out and glares at me with her glossy brown eyes, I slowly reached into my many pockets and pull out six computer processing chips or whatever they were. I'm a fighter not a nerd like her, well I guess she is both. Damnit. She takes the parts and goes back into the basement for who even knows why. I was left alone or more so than usual. She had no care for my well-being or company. Walking to the kitchen slowly over the fluffy black carpet. The fridge had almost nothing in it. Eggs, celery, orange juice! I can’t even make anything! I let out a big sigh and close the door right as a screech comes from the basement. I cautiously step towards the stairs weary of attack. Cassiel is lying in the middle of the room on the cold concrete. I felt the need to rush to her aid, but I stopped myself before reaching out.

“What happened? Can I help?”

“I don't know, can you cure diseases?”

“Um, I don't…”

“Can you help me to my room? My legs won't work until tomorrow.”  I lifted her light body up the stairs into a very dark satin room and laid her down on the bed. 

“I know you don't like talking to me but what happened?” She was silent, I thought she wouldn't end up telling me why she is in so much pain. I was proven wrong, she looks away from me unable to keep her emotionless stare pinned on me.

“When I was born I was experimented on, these are just some side effects of the procedures.” She sighs as if trying to play it off, “Every couple weeks I have a day where I can't move my body.” I stare at her scars again thinking how terrible the person was who had done this. “And don't you even think about taking advantage of the situation, I can still control your electrons and kill you if you creep on me.” I slowly pull my hand further away from her. Well, now I know how this trap works.

“How are you so smart and scary.” I laugh trying to brighten the dark mood that loomed overhead, her dark shadowy room wasn't helping. It was my style though.

“I know you like how smart and scary I am.” her mouth twitched into a smirk for a second then disappears. Was that a hint of flirting right there? Did I catch that right??? “You see this scar above my eye.” She pauses and I look above her long black lashes at the ragged thin scar. “They opened me up and implanted a computer into my eye, everything I see can be built, controlled, scanned, saved into my mind with one look. I'm not smart I just have access to all knowledge.” 

“That's really cool,” I comment, but her eyes were fluttering closed.

“Make…. Hungry..” She was tired and shutting down and I was a kind and bored prisoner. I had run into the problem earlier of there being zero food in the cabin. After scrounging around without the distraction of a woman in distress, I compiled a decent recipe for pancakes and found a pan to cook them in. I took a break after making three and ate them without syrup. Dang, I may be a professional bounty hunter but I made some really good dry pancakes.