Perfect (Rewrite)

Chapter Eleven

"So do you want to talk about it?" Jacob asked and then Chloe froze. How much of last night had he seen? Had he seriously waited until the end to enter the room? It wasn't too big of a shocker for him to have seen at least some of it, but he seemed to know more than she wanted him to. "I know that Rachel can be mean at times, but she's really a good person. Right now she's just..."

"Being a bitch," Chloe exclaimed, relieved that he hadn't been talking about her family. She grabbed a dish after he washed it and dried it; then she searched around the kitchen for the right cabinet. On the inside of each of the cabinet doors there was a detailed list of the correct contents. The system was neat and organized, it reminded her of a show she saw on TV a long time ago. Everyone and everything had a place on that show, and the host didn't like it when things got out of hand or order.

"I guess you could say that," Jacob said, his smile, for only a second, grew impossibly brighter. "But she'll get nicer. When she first showed up she was like that all the time."

"Why do you think that is?" Chloe asked, putting away a bunch of freshly washed and dried silverware in the drawer next to the sink. She glanced into the living room to make sure Rachel hadn't made her way back down the stairs, and then went back to doing her job. Rachel was still upstairs, doing whatever she was supposed to. She wasn't eavesdropping as Chloe had suspected she would be, or was she? How thin were the walls of the house?

"Probably because she has two strikes," Jacob told her as he grabbed another dish and scrubbed it clean. Then he handed it to Chloe, and she dried it as she glanced down at his wrist. Surprisingly, he only had one of his own. She didn't know why she found it so shocking. "What were you expecting?" He asked with a sly expression. He was watching her watching him. What a romantic scene.

"Two," She answered honestly and then they both let out an awkward laugh, and Chloe sighed at the end of hers. After they finished the dishes, they retreated from the kitchen and sat down in the living room as they once again stared at the blank screen and waited for the time to pass, for night to come, specifically nine p.m. Rachel rejoined them and took her usual spot on the couch. Chloe sat on the other end of the couch and David sat between them. Margaret was in the recliner closest to the door and Jacob was in the other one. Everything was still and silent, even their thoughts, at least, it was until the door burst open and the men in black, the men in masks, entered the room holding guns, aiming them at the five teens innocently sitting on the couch.

The six men approached the group and stood in front of the seats. The five of them were sitting on the edges of their seats, terrified of the possibilities. None of them said a word. All was silent as it was before, until one of the men said, "Rachel Cree, we need you to come with us." Her jaw practically dropped to the floor. What could she have possibly done while upstairs alone?

"What?" David asked; he jumped to his feet. One of the men raised his gun and aimed it at his head, but he didn't say a word to stop him. It looked like he wanted David to give him a reason to blow his brains out. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Rachel Cree has earned her third strike," The only man who had spoken answered. Then he turned his head to Rachel and said, "You can either come with us the easy way or the hard way. Which will it be?"

"No," Rachel said as she jumped to her feet. She leapt over the couch and started off towards the stairs, but one of the men ran after her and caught ahold of her hair halfway up the stairs. He dragged her back down the steps, her body hitting the ground hard with each step.

"Stop it," Chloe said as the man dragged her towards the door. "Stop it!" She shouted again, but the men paid no attention to her. They all started walking towards the door, leaving the other four worried over Rachel's safety, but Chloe couldn't just let them take her, even if Rachel hated her guts. This wasn't right. She couldn't get her third strike. Chloe hopped up from her seat and jumped over the recliner where Margaret was sitting; then she grabbed ahold of Rachel's leg and pulled against the man's force. He let her go and Chloe pulled her as far away from the door as she could before her arms were grabbed and forced behind her back in a painful position, subduing her long enough to get regain ahold on Rachel.

"I'm sorry!" Rachel shouted as one of the men grabbed her by the arm too and pulled her to her feet. "I swear I won't do anything bad again, I swear!"

"Rachel Cree and Chloe Provan please come with us," The speaking man said, ushering them out the door. Chloe turned her head and watched as Jacob jumped up from his seat, but she shook his head at him. There was no point in him earning a one way ticket to the same destination as the two of them; he didn't need to get sent back to the white padded rooms too. Chloe knew she had done the worst thing possible, and the thought of what would happen to her now was terrifying. But for some reason, she didn't want the same to happen for him. Jacob deserved better.

Chloe took one last longing glance at Jacob; then she was pushed into the hallway and the door slammed shut, hard, behind her. The men led the two of them back down the hall from where they had come. All of the chairs still sat in their usual places and some of the names had changed, which was no surprise to Chloe. Not everyone had the same name. They were taken down the hallway with the white padded rooms connected to them, and then Rachel with three of the men entered a room, leaving Chloe and the other three guards alone in the hallway. She gazed at every door in the hall as they passed them, but it took them forever to finally stop and open the door at the end of the path. 

After they entered the room, one of the men shoved her into a chair, and the other two tightened straps around her arms, wrists, and legs, making sure her wrist with the three boxes was facing the ceiling. Chloe struggled against the restraints once they let go of her, but it was no use. There was no breaking free, and even if she had, where would she have gone? The hallway wasn't safe and neither was anywhere else in this facility. She was a sitting duck, waiting for the worst to come.