The Rogue

three - not just a dream.

It was a dreamless sleep, As I slowly came back to reality I felt heavy, my shoulders and wrists ached. I was laying on something soft mildly easing the tenderness. Panic consumed me as the events from before I passed out came flooding back. I know how these stories go in the movies and I prayed that my story would have a different ending.

I bolt upright gasping my head was spinning. My eyes fell on him, the caterer turned captor, sitting, watching, waiting for me; His expression was revealing nothing.  

"Welcome back to reality," he said his eyes locked on me. 

I tried to jump up out of the bed away from him, but I realized too late the ache in my wrists was coming from them being bound together by cable ties and I fell to the ground in front of him. Thankfully I discovered the bed was nothing more than a mattress on the floor in this tiny darkroom.  He shuffled towards me and kneeled holding out his hand to help me up. The twisting edges of black tattoos poked out from the end of his black sleeves. 

"Don't touch me!" I snapped whilst lying on my elbows, struggling to prop myself up. I am weak. Nausea swirls in my stomach and a moan escapes me. Whatever they injected me with was strong, I cringed at what those hands waiting to help me have possibly done to me or others.

"Let me help you" he held a hand out again, his voice softer, calmer. Reluctantly, I nod and slid my bound wrists out towards him. He pulls me up by the ties and plunked me back down on the mattress. 

Resolving to helplessness, I took in my surroundings. It’s a tiny, maybe 3m by 2m plain white room. Rails hung from the sidewalls. It was once a wardrobe, I think. There's one dull light in the corner, just s small battery-powered lamp. Myself, him, and the small single mattress, pillow, and blanket I was laying on. 

He sat there just watching me take it in. His dark hair had fallen forward over his face, framing his green eyes. He wore the same black pants with their many pockets and straps and black boots like some kind of soldier. He shuffles back and sits resting against the wall opposite me never taking his eyes off me. 

"You drugged me didn't you”

“Yeah" He shrugged.

"Did you touch me?” I’m not sure if it was a question or a statement but the words made my stomach churn, besides nausea and the aching wrists, I felt unchanged. Still, I had to know, because for what other reason could he have had to trap me?

"I did drug you but r**e is not my style, unlike that boyfriend of yours" he hisses. 

"Boyfriend?" 

"That blond you were with?" he raises an eyebrow. 

"Evan? He’s not my boyfriend" I don’t know why I felt I needed to explain myself to him but the way he assumed make me defensive. Perhaps because he had witnessed us on the balcony but really, if anyone to judge a man's treatment of a woman he made Evans behavior look like an act of sainthood.   

"Noted" he nods. 

We sat in silence for some time. Taking each other in. He seemed calm, patient yet bordering irritated at the same time like an underlying restlessness he couldn't quite conceal. His jawline defined and graced with just a hint of stubble kept drawing my attention. His eyes watched my every move making me feel exposed.

"What the f**k am I doing here?" 

"You have a bit of a foul mouth on you for a high society brat" he smirks. 

I glared at him. I'm not a high society brat, as much as he seems to think I Am. 

"I'm wrong am I?" he muses eying my dress. 

"The swearing no, the high society brat yes." I tried to stay calm and in control clinging to the one bit of hope, that if I didn’t give him the reaction he wanted hed let me go.

"You are Ivy Hale are you not?" 

"That's what I told you."

He stiffened and moved faster than I had ever seen anyone move. His fingers move expertly as he released the ties from my wrists, deep red lines now circled my pale skin. He pulled and turned over my right arm, holding it out between us.

"Ivy Hale. You are now a prisoner under the order of Orion. You have been marked as an accomplice to the crimes of your father Nicholas Hale. Until declared otherwise you are ours" He pulled a small device from his hoodie pocket. Panic filled me and I tried to pull back against his grip but it was no use. He pressed the device against my forearm and clicked. Pain Sears and I screamed as the warm flow of blood ran down dripping onto the mattress. He released his grip and I pulled my bleeding arm back towards me. The pain was burning into my arm.  

"What crimes?" tears were stinging my eyes. 

"Don't play dumb” 

"I'm telling the truth, I'm just an object to my father, I don't know anything!"

“you’re lying, I don’t like liars” he is still calm, waiting whilst I come undone.

“I swear I am not lying. I don’t know anything my dad just takes me to his parties” Tears were streaming down my cheeks, a lump formed in the back of my throat. I needed him to believe me. I couldn’t be a prisoner for something I know nothing about.

"We will see about that." he slipped out the door and I heard it lock from the outside, the light shut off and I found myself in darkness again. Stumbling to my feet I banged on the door, throwing myself against it. Screaming for help, screaming for anyone. But I was only answered by silence. 

My throat was raw and my eyes stung from the tears when I finally give up and slid back down crawling onto the mattress. My mother always told me my father was a bad man, but I always thought that was just because of his lack of genuine interest in his daughter, and the tales from a heartbroken ex-wife. Now I wasn't not so sure, Clutching my wounded arm curling up on the mattress, I closed my eyes willing for the nightmare to end. 

Time passes, as I lull myself in and out of sleep awoken each time by nightmares of what was only recently reality. Tears come to and go, as I find no peace awake or asleep. At some point I am given a bucket, to relieve myself in I suppose, and one bottle of water, which periodically he comes to check if it's been drunk, and then scowls when he sees that it hasn't been touched. Despite the dryness and hoarseness in my throat, I was too afraid to touch the water. My stomach growled at me, begging for food, but I curled myself tighter into a ball willing it to go away. I had no awareness of time, day or night in the darkroom. Slowly my fear and distress turned to anger.

“Let me the f**k out!” I wasn’t sure if there was even anyone behind the door to hear me. The ceiling light suddenly switches on, burning my eyes from the sudden brightness. I am disorientated as I try to bring myself to a sitting position. 

"Ready to talk then Ivy Hale?"

"depend’s on what you want to talk about" 

He said nothing but instead, he grabbed me by my arm, pulling me up onto my feet. Once again he’s leading me, only this time, it was through what appeared to be an average suburban home. I get glimpses of white walls and doors until we entered another semi-dark room. In the dim light, I was able to make it out as a kitchen and dining area. The room looked barely lived in, there was no clutter, just a kettle, a toaster, and a fruit bowl on the benchtops. The dining area only held one plain wooden table with 6 chairs, not a single picture adorned the walls, nothing to make this house feel like a home.  Two men joined us from an entry at the other side of the room and, I remembered them as the other two men in the backseat of the car. 

"Adam, are you sure on this?" one of the other men asks. Adam. Finally, he has a name. 

"Yeah, Adam are you sure" I smirked.

The three of them looked at me with confused expressions. Adam didn’t respond to either the man or me, instead, he sat himself down in one of the wooden dining chairs, pulling one out for me at the of the head of the table. I cautiously sat down and the other two men took seats next to me.

"I'm going to ask you again, tell me what you know about what your father?" Adam says leaning back in his chair his arms crossed over his broad chest.

"I don't know anything…"

He thrust forward hitting me just below my collarbone with a small device and I screamed out as my body is filled with pain; I spasm and fall forward on the table moaning as the pain faded. 

"Last chance Ivy” he warned. 

"If you had let me finish, I don’t know anything about his crimes." I take a breath trying to calm my racing heart before continuing "All I know is, my Father, left my mum and I when I was 10, and now he's paying for my university study as long as I attend his parties to help him get funding for his research."

“She's telling the truth." The brown-haired man says softly.

"Shut the f**k up Seth!" Adam snaps back but I notice him put the device into his pocket. 

"You need to tell us anything else you know." Seth’s voice is soft, gentle. He has olive skin, clean-shaven, and soft hazel curls; he radiates warmth.

Seth looked at Adam the two of them passing knowing glances, a conversation so subtle they would only understand. Adam sighed before getting up to the kitchen. I sat in silence with Seth and the other man. When Adam returned, he tossed a bottle of water and a banana down in front of me. I give him a smile at his small gesture of hospitality that felt like a peace treaty. The four of us sat in silence, while I ate the banana and sipped the water. I hadn’t realized how famished I had felt until I felt some of the fog lifting from my brain strength returning.

"We need to release her," The auburn-haired man beside me said breaking the silence. Seth nodded in agreement but Adam remained stone-faced as he spoke his reply.

"No"

"Oh f**k off Adam!" The man snaps. 

"No, you f**k off Bryce. I am in charge and I say No." 

"But she doesn't know anything" Seth chimed in. 

"We have our orders, she marked, she stays," 

"I want to go home." my voice was low. I no longer held any hope that he would free me; At least not yet still, I had to try. "Please Adam, I really don't know anything" I tried to meet his gaze, to beg with him. 

Instead, he got up and motioned for me to follow. Adam led me back from the kitchen and down the hall, stopping at a room midway. Stepping inside I was transported from this plain suburban home to a high Tec command office. Multiple computers sat on desks around the room, all sorts of lights and gadgets. A woman, with a bob, cut half tied up in a bun, sat in front of one of the computers, headphones on furiously clicking and reading. She turned at our arrival, looking me up and down with a curious gaze.

Adam pulled out a chair and sat me down in front of a screen. Leaning in front of me, clicking and typing, I could help but notice his cologne. A rich warm, earthy scent, that reminded me of summer bush afternoons.

“Tell me Ivy does this jog your memory?” He mumbled as a video appeared on the screen.

A small blond child is sitting in a chair in a large white room. The camera is clearly hidden from her sight. She looks afraid, her eyes dart around the room before settling on the man kneeling in front of her. A man I could recognize, my father. He’s telling the girl words of reassurance and she nods biting her lip. My blood ran cold as my father, loads up the needle, a deep navy color liquid. I want to look away but I couldn’t, I know what’s coming but still, I have to see this.

My father injects the liquid into the girl’s vein in her arm. Unconsciously, my hand moves to rub the same spot on my own body. He places a sort of crown on her head, of wires and electrodes connected to a monitor, before walking out of the camera view. At first, the girl is still, but soon she starts to twitch, her pupils dilate. She stays in this state for what feels like an eternity, before beginning to convulse in the chair. Blood begins to trickle from the girl's nose and the video cuts off but not before showing the girl falling unconscious.

Tears silently rolled down my cheeks as memories I had spent the last 10 years trying to bury come rushing back. Memories my mother had time and time again had told me weren’t real, were merely bad dreams.

“Tell me again that you don’t know anything Ivy Hale,” Adam says low into my ear. I shook my head; fighting the all-consuming darkness I had spent years concealing fighting its way to break free.

“I thought it was just a dream.”That was all I could say before I lost control and let the memories take over.