The Price of Power

Chapter 5

     The rest of the night had continued without another appearance from the doctor. Everyone continued to try and guess what this madman could possibly want from us. The guesses ranged from ransoming us off to selling our organs on the black market. None of it really lined up with what we knew of our situation so far. The best guess was actually a crazy conspiracy theory that the government had kidnapped us for some kind of experiments.

    Over time we figured out what the tubes were for. There were three in total, the first indeed being a feeding tube. Everyone had to agree that as the brownish sludge in the tubes had drained into us that any signs of hunger had dissipated. The next two were jammed in our lower regions. Seeing as no one had defecated themselves by that points, and the tubes could occasionally be seen transporting a clear yellow fluid and brown substance, we figured they had to be draining our systems of all our waste.

    Knowing what the tubes were for could only offer a mere moment's relief for some, but the rest of us quickly figured out the full implications of what having these tubes meant. It meant he could keep us like this, chained to these beds. It eliminated the need to feed us properly, eliminated the risk of letting us up to use the bathroom. It provided the means to keep us here indefinitely, only minimum upkeep required day to day. It reduced the risk of escape, keeping us tied up. The sick bastards meant to keep us for the long run. He had a lot of plans in store for us.

    Slowly a yawn started to spread through out all the chatter and people began falling asleep one after another. It had been a long an tiring day. While we were all scared out of our minds, that fear and panic had reeked havoc on our bodies, completely exhausting us. As I closed my own eyes, the buzz of the fluorescent lights lulled me to sleep.

---

    I held his shirt against my face and breathed deeply. His sweet scent overtook my senses and a warm, calm feeling over took me. I held the shirt close against my chest and could imagine the warmth of his arms wrapped around me once more. That image felt like pure magic, utter happiness, complete bliss. It felt like heaven. I could of melted into his shirt at that very moment.

    In my mind, I reviewed every moment of our date over and over, again and again. I had never been happier in my life and I could only wonder how I could have ever been so lucky to have ended up with such a handsome and sweet person like him. He was not only the hottest person I had ever met, with his piercing black eyes and slender yet perfectly toned body, but he was also the most genuine and kindest person.

    The mere memory of my hands running through those luscious black waves of hair on his head melted my heart. I longed to feel the warmth of his chest under my cheek again. I couldn't wait to see him again.

    I wish I could see him again.

    I'll never see him again.

---

    My heart might as well of been on fire; it burned through my chest, the pain building to unbearable level until I felt like screaming. Still, the only thing I could focus on was that memory of his bright, beautiful face. I'd give anything to see him again, to see that smile spread across his face once more. He was my happiness, and now all I could do was to hope that, wherever he was, that he was happy now. His happiness was still my top priority.

    Tears were streaming down my face once more. The pain was just too much. I muffled my sobs as much as I could, but I could still here them echoing throughout the entire room. I didn't care, not any more. I felt like I was being strangled with these feeling and I needed to release them.

    ".... ea...... drea........ Andrea.... Andrea" I heard a soft, honeyed voice calling out to me. Alec? My heart fluttered in hope for half a second, longing for my love's warm embrace, before falling through the floor as I remembered the utter impossibility. I shuddered slightly, whimpering. I could feel the bed as it began to move suddenly, but not very far, then I could feel a hand wrapped around mine. A gentle warmth radiated from it as it squeezed my hand comfortingly. "Andrea," the voice called out once more, now much closer to me."

It wasn't Alec. This voice was darker, more honeyed in tone. Alec's was brighter and rung out like string on a guitar. I slowly creaked open my eyes, peaking down at the hand wrapped around mine. It gently rubbed the back of my hand in comfort. I could also see a foot that had been wrapped around the guardrails of my bed to pull us together. Confusion danced across my face as I looked up at the owner of said hand. My eyes met with Max's, concern washed over his features as he gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

    "You ok, Andrea?" he asked, his voice soft and delicate, as though speaking to loudly would risk breaking me, "You were crying in your sleep."

    "I..." I started before shaking my head, "it's nothing." I sheepishly turned my head away. I could feel a red flush spreading across my already puffy cheeks. I couldn't believe I'd just called so much attention to my tears.

    "It's ok Andrea," he said rubbing the back of my hand with his thumb, "you don't have to talk about what he did if you don't want. I'm still here for you, ok?"

    "It's not," I hesitated, looking back at him and searching his amber eyes, "it's not about the doctor." The last word came out as a sigh, as soon as they left my lips, my eyes dropped down to my feet, unable to meet his gaze anymore. I should of just stayed quite, let him believe it was about our cruel captor and what he did to me. At least that would of been a rational thing to be obsessing over now, in our situation. He could of understood that.

    Confusion momentarily swept across his face, "That's ok. Whatever it is, I'm here for it and I'm here for you, ok?" He gave my hand another gentle squeeze before joking, "It's not like I'm going anywhere. If you want to talk about it, I'm here for you, no judgement. If not, that's fine too. No pressure, ok?"

     I took a deep breath and looked back into his golden amber eyes. I could feel the care and concern radiating from him. I didn't even really know the guy, yet he was being so kind to me. I felt a bit guilty, actually. "It's about my ex," I sighed, again unable to meet his gaze.

    "What about him?" he asked.

    "He was... he was my world," I muttered, trying my best not to break down in front of him, "but, but he left me a couple weeks ago. I just, I just hurt so much, I've lost everything dear to me."

    "I see. Dealing with this unreal situation on top of a recent heartbreak must be difficult."

    "It's, it's like an unending nightmare. Like my brain keeps trying to add impossibly impossible situations on top of one another to create the worst world imaginable. Each time I close my eyes, a part of me is expecting to wake up, back in my bed, with his arms tightly wrapped around me. I keep expecting his comforting words, reassuring me that it's only a nightmare, that he would never actually leave me or let anything like this ever happen to me." My voice was wavering throughout and started to crackle by the end. More tears were trailing down my face as soft sobs caught in my throat, leaving me gasping for air.

    "What happened?"

    "Probably got since of how stupid she is," Steven scoffed, "I mean we've only known her a day and she's already made some of the most idiotic choices I could imagine."

    "Shut up," Max snapped at him before looking back at me, "ignore him, ok? He's the idiot."

    "Hey, I'm not the one stupid enough to try to piss off the sadistic doctor. That role goes to none other than the two of you."

    "Hey, at least she tried to do something! What did you do? Or did you just sit quietly and let him take you?" I could see the anger and frustration building in Max's eyes as he shouted past me at Steven.

    Part of me hoped that this was enough of a distraction for him to forget about my stupid heartbreak. I was starting to feel like Steven was right, I am a total i***t. Here we are, kidnapped, strapped to beds, tubes literally sticking out of our asses, and all I could focus on was that the love of my life had left me at the drop of a hat and refused to even talk to me this past week. My frustration at my own stupid emotions bubbled over as I started bawling out tear.

    "He's right," I cried out, my chest heaving with every sob, "he's right. I'm so stupid! We're at the mercy of a mad man and I can't stop crying over my stupid ex. I can stop remembering his sweet smell, or the way his smile lit up his entire face, o all the times he held me so close against him and told me he'd never leave me." By this point everyone seemed to be staring at me and my overly dramatic scene. I wanted to stop, to run away, to make myself as small and unnoticeable as possible, but I just couldn't stop my tears. Every time I tried to take a breath, I'd start hyperventilating and be left gasping for air. "I'm such an i***t. I deserve this. I deserve whatever happens to me here. I'm such an idiot."

    "What? No way!" Clarissa called out.

    Aiden chimed in, " There's absolutely no way you deserve this. Nothing you ever could have said or done could make you deserve this. I don't care what happened."

    "No one deserves this! And you're not stupid," someone else called.

    Max squeezed my hand once again, his argument with Steven long forgotten. "You're not stupid, Andrea. You're in pain. You're in a lot of pain. Maybe it's just too much for you to process anything else yet, and that's ok. You're allowed to be upset and hurt about your breakup. You're allowed to be upset about our current situation. You're not stupid for feeling upset for one over the other right now. We all have to process things in our own time."

    My tears continued on for a long while longer. Half the room seemed to have comforting words for me, reassuring me that it was ok to cry. One girl, Megan, told me about her father. They had just discovered that he had cancer a coupe weeks ago. The day we were taken, she was at the hospital with her family. Her dad had been in surgery for two hours and she was felt like she was suffocating sitting in the waiting room. She said the last thing she remembered was sneaking into the alley out back for a bit of privacy as she broke down into tears.

    "Since waking up here, yeah, I'm scared. I'm petrified to be honest, who knows what's going to happen to us? Yet, I can't stop thinking about my dad. Sometimes I'm so caught up worrying about him and how his surgery went, wondering if he's even still alive, that my fear for him overwhelms my fear for me. I just hope he's ok."

She wasn't the only one with a sad story to tell either. After hearing her story, a couple more people opened up about what they had been going through leading up to the kidnapping. Liam's do had just died and he was on his way home from having him cremated. Juan had just lost his wife and baby in a difficult delivery. He was out mourning his lose in a bar. Aiden's wife just left him for another man. Mayu was failing out of university and her father had threatened to kick her out of the house. Even Steven had come forward with how he had just lost his job.

    As all their stories came spilling out, one thing quickly became evident. Everyone in that room had been taken while they were in a very emotionally vulnerable state. We were all taken at times when we were alone, our guards down. Perhaps that just made us easier targets. Maybe the only reason any of us were taken that day was just because we were easy targets at the time.

    I had to admit that was pretty true. The last thing I remembered, I had collapsed in tears on the side of the road. I was in no position to fight back. Heck, I wasn't even remotely aware of my surrounding at the time. It was probably exceedingly easy at that moment in time to sneak up on me and knock me out from behind.