The Rogues

36- Let go

I blinked, trying to make out anything but pitch black, but the fold of shadows was all my eyes bore to see. Reaching my hands in front of me, I tried to feel around for anything. A wall, a table, most importantly a door, but I felt nothing but the cool air cutting through the tips of my fingers.

My hand clashed into something. It was smooth and cold, a flat surface of a sort. I reached my hand farther up and the circumference continued. A wall. I shifted over, feeling across the wall and my fingers brushed over a metal like sphere. I grasped onto it, and it turned under my touch, my hopes lifted immediately. A door! I can get out of here.

I surged my arm back, pulling the door open a crack, when a flood of lights engulfed the darkness of the room. The light penetrated through my vision, shocking my body and making my head thump worse with pain. I couldn't even open my eyes, the light was so bright. Before I could take another step, a ripple of troopers pounded through the door, hooking their arms around mine and pushing me back into the seat I had started in, holding my hands so I couldn't move.

My vision was still a cloud of blurriness, but I didn't need to see the person in front of me to recognize their voice.

"Trying to escape again?" Said Grado

"No, I was looking for the bathroom." I wanted to roll my eyes, but I still could barely open them.

"Hmph." Grado crossed his arms  and gestured to me, "Put him in shackles this time. Whichever one of you dumbasses decided to tie his wrists with a rope should have their head strung on a rake!"

A trooper gripped tightly onto my wrists, sliding my hands in an icy collar of metal behind my back. I blinked my eyes, finally able to see the wicked red stripe plastered on Grados helmet, his cape hung pleasantly over his broad shoulders and Vermillion rake tucked in a belt wrapped on his torso. If only my hands werent tied, it would have been so easy to reach and grasp the blade right from his armor. I would plunge it into his chest and watch him bleed, twisting it into his flesh like he did to me, making it slow and painful. Making my face the last thing he sees before he dies. But I couldn't do that...I was tied up like a goddamn animal. I felt like a prisoner again. I felt ashamed.

I peered behind Grado, it was a mix of doctors with clipboards, troopers with artillery, and some others in expensive suits and formal attire. Among them stood another face id gladly punch anyday, Grant Holden. That bastard's family stuck every bolt of electricity into my brain, injected every burning liquid into my veins, and fed me every drug they acquired. The Holden's experiments were the worst of them all. And though Grant was younger than me, he held the needle a few times, always a flaunting reminder of his supremacy.  But what the hell was he here for?

They're gonna perform another experiment on you. My chest tightened.

"Enjoying yourself Dominic?" Grado titled his head back, studying my body shackled in a chair.

"I feel like a prince." Now, I rolled my eyes.

"I must admit," Grado picked up his feet, clicking his leather boots as he paced around me. "I did really think I killed you, Though it was a good thing I didn't."

"Good thing?" I snorted, "You've wanted me dead for a long time."

"Yes, and I still want you dead. But after some thought, I feel you can be very useful."

Useful? He's gone mad.

"I'm no help to you Grado." I glanced at Grant, his stone eyes glared at me coldly, "Even if you were planning on finishing the experiments, I'd never help you." 

"Oh, that's not what we need you for, not yet at least." He clasped his hands behind his back, and lifted his chin. "We only need the girl. And soon, she'll be ours."