Rabbit Hole

File Room Massacre

WARNING: This chapter contains an abusive boyfriend revealing his true intentions, strong moments of violence, threats of brainwashing and violence, themes of manipulation, and implications of abuse. Please proceed with caution.

Amanda's POV

"Shit! Guys, any idea how to open this?"
"It's slammed down and Liv has the bat, we can't do anything."
"Hey, Nick?"
"Yeah?"
"You don't like blood, right?"
"Obviously."
"Then probably look away for about ten seconds."

He turns to face the wall opposite as I stab into the wall next to the door with the still-bloody knife. This isn't subtle at all, but I'm not trying to be at this point. Eventually, I'm able to cut out a square in the wall, seeing the wires.

"Jade, can I borrow the scissors?"
"Amanda, I broke them. They aren't gonna do shit to those wires."
"Oh yeah. I'll use the knife."
"It has been about five minutes can I please turn around?"
"Yeah, all of it's essentially come off the knife."
"Ok- oh my god."
"It's our only option."
"Ok, fair. I thought you were gonna stab something living again."

I cut a thick red wire infront of my face and the door goes up. It worked.

"Hey, Nick?"
"Yeah?"
"I'll apologise in advance for the amount of blood you're about to see."
"I think I'm used to it at this point. I've not thrown up yet, have I?"
"That might change."

Liv's POV

"Hey, can you guys make sure she doesn't try anything?" Andrew signals to the guards. One of them pulls out similar handcuffs to the one the officer had. I move to swing the bat at them, but Andrew points the gun harder.

"I mean, there's a gun pointed at your face, Liv. You sure you wanna try that? Elliott and Blake aren't here to help you out of a fight, and there's way more than one of us. Drop the bat."

With no other option, I oblige and the guard uses the cuffs.

"Ok, now sit down."
"On what? There isn't a chair in here?"
"The table."
"Why should I-"
"Gun."

I do it. He's really enjoying this power trip.

"How long were you working with them?"
"Oh, whole time."
"Whole time?"
"Before I met you, Liv, I was working with them."
"What?"
"Ok, let me explain. Two years ago, my father started working for Wonderland. After hearing their goals, I joined too. Even at 14, I could see the world was changing for the worse, and I was willing to step up and change that. You're not the first, Liv. It's a repeating cycle. I find someone like you, earn their trust, make them distrust everyone else, then get them here. About one year ago, I moved to your school, St Eggers. For a few months, it was quiet. That was bad. Much longer of the dry spell we had and I'd have to pack up and try somewhere else. Then one of my friends, Ernest, got a boyfriend, you.
"Was he-"
"Heh, absolutely not. You think I'd have worked with him if I didn't want something out of it? I know that queer people usually hang out together, so if I befriend one who isn't a target, I'd find someone soon enough. So, he started dating you, and I stuck around. I didn't have proof back then, but I noticed something in you that was similar to the others. Eventually, my hunch proved right. In an explosive rage, Ernest tells me that you 'were a fucking girl the whole time'. His exact words. He really felt that betrayed by you. So I took that perfect chance to finally break off our 'friendship' and lure you in. You were so gullible. I mean, you had to be, right? You lost your privacy, and it seemed like the whole school hated you. And you parents, they could never find out. What if they reacted the same? It was pathetic. Luckily, I know how to use that to my advantage. So, you fell quick, and I pretended to fall too. Once that happened, I just needed to keep you small. Keep you hating everyone, not trusting anybody, except for me of course. Then you got outed to your parents. That was me by the way. I wanted the catalyst for it to happen. You were supposed to be in Wonderland three months before you were. Roatation 12, not 10. But things went horribly wrong. They actually bought it. They let you be a girl. They accepted you. I was really annoyed to find my plan had failed. So I created a new one. You panicked about literally everything, so I used that. I call you to warn you about your parents sending you to conversion therapy (if you hadn't figured out yet, Olivia, they never intended that at all) and that I was on my way to help you. You didn't pick up. You were asleep. So, I did the normal thing for someone to do, and smashed in your bedroom window to warn you. You bought it, you really trusted me more than your own parents. So we escaped, and I made sure to lead you to the exact location where the guards were, and you got knocked out. I fully intended for it to end with me leaving you, but you surprise me. A month later, I get a call that you escaped, and I need to come back into the picture. I'd dug myself into a hole, and to be fair to you, you were making it a nightmare to climb out of it. What did I do? Well, Wonderland knew about your phones being stolen, and that you were staying with a liar. I presume you know about that too? Jules never came here, yet you bought that too. She's not with us, by the way. Nobody knows who she's with and what her motives are. So I called all of them the same night, and arranged a coach to get to here. That was paid for by Wonderland. After we arrived, the fake officer arrived. I thought I'd lucked out, we instantly win. I go to cuff you, I mean I eventually got to go through with that, but back then, Blake had to fucking ruin it again. I didn't call them. They came on their own accord. With my plans going horribly wrong, I realised I had to go ahead with the raid. Then came grouping, and I was foiled AGAIN. So, tonight. My first job was getting away from Ace and Pat, which is where the doors really helped. And then it was to find you and get you to Wilfred for the process, but it seems I didn't have to tell you I was with them, you found out yourself. You just had to read the files, didn't you?"
"So what now? You take me to Wilfred?"
"Well, I don't think you're able to fight your way out."
"I'll try."
"What?" he replies, almost offended. He's had his power, so I'll mess with him even if it puts me in danger.
"I'm not going."
"You have to. You can't go anywhere."
"I still got my legs, don't I?"
"Fuck. I guess that was an oversight. Thanks for warning me though." he pulls out a roll of duct tape, partly used. "And they never asked why I had this."
"No. Get back! No!" I make it seem like I'm panicking, but in reality, I've seen the door. They're on the other side, and I needed to make enough noise to drown out the metal sliding back up.
"Maybe I sould sort out the noise problem too."
Jade and Amanda sneak through.

And Amanda hits Andrew in the back of the head with the blunt end of the knife.
He falls to the floor.
Jade shoves one of the guards to the door.
Nick's holding on to something in a hole in the walls.
Seemingly pulling two things together, he drops the metal straight onto one of the guards, decapitating them.
Quickly reopening the metal, Nick runs through and grabs his bat back, throwing me my knife. Even with my hands behind my back, I catch them.
Jade starts violently stabbing another guard.
Amanda runs to the guard's body and grabs some keys.
She throws them to Nick, who uses them to unlock the cuffs.
As soon as I get out, I look for Andrew, but in the chaos, the coward escaped.
Nick swings for one guards head, but another shoots him through the leg.
In anger, Jade throws both scissor blades, hitting both guards in the head, killing them.
Amanda and I go for guard 5, both of us stabbing at the same time.
That left one final one. Before he could try to shoot us, however, Nick wraps the baseball bat around his neck, and suddenly jolts it to the right, snapping the guards neck. An instant death.

With the fight other, both of us rush to Nick.
"You okay Nick? Please be ok."
"It's fine, Jade. The shot missed anything too major, I think. It'll bleed a bit, but I won't bleed out or die."
"Shit."
"Well, at least I didn't throw up this time."
"Hey, you two?" Jade turns to me and Liv "Can you go without us? I remember passing signs to a first aid room. I'll try to help Nick and get him there."
"Ok then. See you after we kill these fuckers."
"Wait!" Jade suddenly yells, "Should we put the lights on the radios?"
"Jules said to do it if incapacitated, fatally or not, so yeah."
"Ok."
"Also, we still on for Sunday?" Nick still wants to know about film night, even after he's been shot.
"Yeah, don't worry." I reply.
Jade carries Nick out, and we're both left in the bloody file room.

"So, find anything else interesting?"
"Jules was never in Wonderland. She lied. But she's not working with them, she's her own thing. I think we're safe, but we should be cautious."
"Ok. You checked iteration I?"
"No."
"Well, we probably should do that quickly."
"What happened to our cameras?" I ask, realising both of ours are missing.
"Shit. The guards and Andrew must have got them in the fight. We'll just wait."
"Ok."

We go through the files, and while nothing stands out, the Alice file does.

"Oh my god."
"What?"
"This is Kathrynn Rower."
"Wait, isn't that-"
"Lewis's daughter. His first test subject was his own fucking daughter."

With that revelation, Nick's injury, and most of all Andrew's true motives, we were now more determined to take down Wonderland than ever.