Love, War & Tears (AvaLance)

Chapter 3 - AVA

The dark night outside on the verge of daybreak, reflected the darkness in the room she was held, the air around her cool, causing a ripple of cold shivers down her arms. When consciousness caused arousal for her to awaken, Ava slowly began to open her eyes, her pupils dilating to adjust to the dimness of the dulled lighting in her surroundings. As the painful throbbing to the left side of her head pulsed through her, Ava tried to focus on the room she was in, or more accurately, the structure she was in. Though it seemed mostly dry inside the vast room she was in, it held an overwhelming smell of wet cement and moss that filled her senses. The walls and flooring appeared to be constructed of concrete and what she could tell, were a series of small windows in a row about three quarters of the way up the wall. The windows had been covered over with timber boarding which was now letting through streams of morning light as they beamed through the sides where the coverings didn't quite meet the edge of the windows. Ava considered the building to be some kind of bunker. Further in front of her was a bench and what she could tell looked like some tools sitting on top. There were several rows of lights hanging above, some faintly illuminated, others not, leaving dark shadows in an already dark space.

Ava's body ached from pain she couldn't remember being inflicted on her. She felt something crusty lining the left side of her head, her jaw ached and her throat dry. She had to cough but it hurt her throat as she tried to clear it. Ava's thoughts were now racing, trying to remember what had happened to her, was she dreaming, was this real, how did she get here, wherever here is. Her arms were aching and her wrists felt like they were burning. She realised that her arms were above her head and something was tied around her wrists, something bristly, rope. She felt the rope cutting into her skin as it held up the weight of her body with her arms tied above her. Her body dangling low enough that she could just feel the concrete floor beneath the boots she wore.

Like her Dad, Ava also worked at the Bureau, she worked hard to become a criminal profiler and had been with the Bureau for 10 years. Profiling was a gift to Ava and she was sought after by many policing agencies for assistance. She had just finished working on the Mike the Spike serial murder case when she had been tasked to interview Eobard Thawne. Thawne was suspected of working with Ra's Ah Ghul, an entrepreneur who the Bureau believed was the mastermind behind several recent terrorist attacks in Star City. Ava thought about Thawne, he was being kept at Iron Heights.

Ava struggled to piece together her movements and her memories of the previous day, memories that caused the pain in her skull to grow stronger. She took a moment to calm her breathing, recalling the events as they slowly crept back into focus. She had left DC to go to Iron Heights prison in Star City. She was going there to interview Thawne, was that yesterday Friday, is today Saturday. Ava was processing the thoughts that ran through her mind, how long had she been here?

She remembered pulling into the hotel of The Sleepaway Inn, it was just on dusk. She got out of her Subaru and went to reception to check in. Room number 3, yes, yes it was room number 3 as she confirmed the memory to herself. To Ava it felt like she was watching a video as she recalled the events that lead to this moment. Once she had checked in, she went back to the car to grab out her overnight bag and then walked over to room number 3. When she opened the door to the room, she took a step inside. Something hit her on the left side of her face. The ache on the left side of her jaw was now a painful reminder of why her jaw hurt. She had been punched to the left side of her face, someone else was in the room as she walked in. She remembered being grabbed from behind and then pushed into the wall, the glass mirror shattering as the force of the front of her head smacked into it. Ava tried to fight her way out of danger but she found herself becoming groggy. Her limbs turning to jelly with every punch she tried to throw. There were two people, a man and a woman, it was the woman who grabbed her from behind and the man who was already inside the room. Was she injected with a sedative, is that why she couldn't fight back?