Are They Broken?

Chapter 3: Negotiate or Manipulate

Kaitlyn closed the notebook as she left the warehouse and headed down the street. The busy sidewalks and roads, crowded with people and cars, were comforting after the isolation that was Kit's cell. Just how many people worked there? She had only met Holden, Luke, and the nurse, plus the other guards that she didn't know the name of. At least Kit was able to move around some. Despite Kit's conflicting behaviors, he was still human and being stiffly restrained for hours would not be good for his body.

Kaitlyn shook her head and tried to stop thinking about him. She had an hour of free time to herself to stop thinking about how stressful being near Kit was and just relax. She walked into a small diner that she liked to visit. The staff was friendly and the food was homemade. Hard to find considering fast-food had taken over, but still existed.

"What can I get for you?" a young woman wearing an apron asked as Kaitlyn got comfortable in her seat.

"Eggs and toast," Kaitlyn said.

"Well-done?" the waitress asked.

"Yes."

"What would you like to drink?"

"Orange-juice."

"I'll have that right out," the waitress said, smiling before walking away to the kitchen.

Kaitlyn rested her head on her arms and closed her eyes, but found her thoughts wandering to Kit. He did manage to keep her attention on him. He was such a jarring specimen that he was hard to forget or ignore, even when he wasn't there.

Kaitlyn felt a tap on her shoulders and sat up so the waitress could set down her food.

"Here you go, hon," the waitress said, setting down the glass of juice and walking away.

Kaitlyn ate slowly, trying to focus on her food instead of the unnerving man she had to go see in thirty minutes. She heard screaming and turned around to see a man in a face mask and sunglasses holding a knife. He suddenly jumped toward her and held the knife to her throat. He was saying something but his words were muffled. Her vision went blurry. Her body froze. Time had nearly stopped knowing that her life could be taken at any moment.

By the time she realized the attacker had left, she was being hugged by the teary-eyed waitress, who was rambling about the robber being gone. Kaitlyn reached for her purse and paid for her meal with trembling hands. She picked up her notebook and left the diner, clutching the skinny book against her chest. Though she tried, her body wouldn't relax. Every muscle was tense and ready to spring her away from danger. It felt like eyes were watching her from every alley she passed. Finally, she broke down and sprinted back to the warehouse, smashing the 'five' button on the elevator panel and dropping to her knees on the elevator floor. She felt tears gather in her eyes and tried to blink them away. When the elevator opened, she jammed her earrings into her purse and practically threw her purse at one of the guards before racing through the metal detector.

When she was in the hall with the cell doors, she stopped. Who was she running to? It's not like Kit would comfort her. He'd probably laugh at her panic. Besides that, she was twenty minutes early, so she couldn't go in to Kit's cell. She sat down against the wall and finally let her tears slide down her cheeks. She dropped her notebook and pressed the heels of her hands against her closed eyes. She let out teary gasps for a few minutes before trying to wipe up her eyes.

She felt moisture on her neck and figuring it was tears, she wiped it away. She was horrified to see a bright red staining her fingers. The sticky, metal-scented liquid was clearly blood. She felt her neck and found that a substantial cut was on her neck. In the hysteria, neither she nor the waitress had noticed the cut and pure adrenaline had prevented her from feeling the now present pain. That would explain some of the strange and concerned looks she had received from the guards. She looked down at the red staining the neckline of her white top, making her look like a horror movie victim even though the cut itself wasn't deadly.