Strings and Schemes

Chapter 3

AN: Thanks to AI for making photos I could never make myself. 

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The next morning, Louis and I depart from the same residence. Unable to fully look him in the eyes after the mind-blowing, crazy, ridiculous night that we had. Louis laughs at me as he throws his shades on, chewing some gum.

"Rain, be normal." He laughs, "I was only too happy to oblige to that little fantasy of yours from oh so long ago."

I laugh, shuddering slightly at the wild ideas 16-year-old Raina had, "I'm not saying I'm upset about it," I stop myself, "I just can't believe we did that." Shaking my head and leaning into Louis, giving him a side hug as we laugh together at the ridiculousness that happened.

Honestly, I'll probably be having flashbacks of that night for a long time to come. I blush slightly, feeling the excitement creep back up my body. I have to remove myself from his arms immediately. Louis smiles down at me and kisses my forehead, before he points out my uber black.

I kiss his cheeks, and suddenly I see an unmarked car coming straight for him. It peels up the sidewalk and stops mere inches from him with a high-pitched, squeaking sound.

Louis eyes widen, mine following.

"Lou, when did we last do that training?" I whisper in fear.

He shakes his head, "almost a year ago," recognition on his face.

I shake my head, "No," I groan, sounding childlike an my whine, " this can't be happening right now. Fuck."

Louis smiles sadly and encouragingly at me as we hear another car peel up, and I turn to see it stop mere inches in front of me.

Fuck it.

I kiss Louis passionately, knowing we are about to go through the worst 48 hours of lives together, "love you, friend."

He smiles down at me as the unnamed man peels out of the passenger seat, with zip ties in hand, certainly double mine and Louis weight together with muscle mass. He approaches Louis, who normally would fight this, but last time we both fought this we were still taken, exhausted and kept awake for 48 hours with every torture technique and stressful situation thrown at us.

"Love ya, babe." He says, his usual rock and roll attitude shining through. "See you on the other side."

Louis' wrists are zip tied together and I am soon in the same position, thrown into the boot of separate cars going opposite directions. My heart is pumping so fast I can't hear anything outside my own heartbeats and quickened breathing. I remember the last time we did this training, and try to talk myself through the process.

Slow your breathing, Raina. Good, good. Now, count every stop you feel that feels like more than a walkway for pedestrians and each turn.

I do exactly that, counting two long straight aways between a left hand and a right hand turn. We couldn't be circling could we? I laugh to myself. Of course they'll do that to us when we are still fresh from last year.

I breath heavily through my nose, exhaling the stress. If I can't know for certain how many turns, and how many needless circles we are doing, I need to find a way to calm myself down.

My mind wanders to the safe value of memories to pull from.

It was winter in D.C., and Louis came over to my always empty apartment. I had thought that my parents would be around more considering we were stationed at home in the States, but that's often not the case I've since learned. Often, that means you're attending conference after conference around the country, and attending the odd one in Canada, too. My parents were in Georgia for some conference, meeting, or event, or maybe just to get away from me.