Danger Days

Trust No One

Morning passed, but Diamond slept on. She shifted in the bed, trying to get comfortable despite the bright sun in her eyes.

Wait. She had the curtains closed when she went to sleep. And she was cold. Hadn't she wrapped herself in a blanket? She opened her eyes wide, to be greeted by a harsh bright lamp in her face.

"Augh!" she tried to raise a hand, to shield her eyes from the hot lamp, but her hands were restrained. So were her hips and her ankles. "Who's there? Someone answer me!"

A low chuckle in the darkness around her. It was like a scene from a bad horror movie.

"Glad to see you're finally awake."

Even after only meeting him yesterday, she knew exactly who was speaking to her.

Party Poison pushed himself off the wall he was leaning on, crossing his arms over his chest and walking towards the table Diamond laid on.

"What do you want from me?" she asked, still squinting to find him in the darkness.

He lifted the lamp up, allowing her to see more of the room. It was dark and smelled dirty. It gave her the creeps.

"We just want two simple things." Party smirked, "Names. And locations. Just tell us where Dr. Death Defying and all his little friends are. That's all."

"Never." she spat.

"I figured you'd say that." Party shrugged, "I just wanted to see if you would respond to playing nice. Seeing as you won't, I guess..." his hands drifted to rest on a small table. On a tray there was an array of scalpels and knives. Diamond felt blind fear.

"...I'll have to play mean."

_________________________________________________

Ghoul woke up with a strangled scream caught in his throat. Something was wrong. He had to talk to Jet...

And then he noticed Jet was sitting on the floor across from his bed.

"Sleep well?"

"How the hell did you get in here?"

Jet shrugged. "The dracs let me in. All I had to do was ask. It was weird, but hey, it worked."

"Do you think they'll let Diamond in here?"

Jet just looked at Ghoul. "I asked them about her. They said she was in questioning."

"Then what the fuck are we doing here!" Ghoul bounded off the bed and nearly crashed into the door. Jet held him back.

"Calm down."

"I will fucking not calm down! Don't you know what they could be doing to her..." his eyes filled with angry tears. He was crying a lot lately. Damn it. He was such a woman sometimes...

"I have a feeling. But she won't tell them anything. We know that."

"Let me go! I'll be the one they torture."

"Now how much do you think that will hurt Diamond?" Jet retorted.

"What if they drug her? What if-" he gasped, panic surging through him, "What if they make her like Party!"

"Calm down!" Jet repeated as he stuggled to keep Ghoul from the door, "I heard them talking. They're going to release her from questioning later tonight. We'll see if she can come here later."

"Oh god..." Ghoul felt the will to fight leave him. He couldn't bear losing another daughter. It was too much. He shuddered violently. Jet helped him back to bed.

__________________________________________________

Every time she refused to talk, a new cut was made. They were small, just little knicks of the skin. But six hours of little knicks amounted to a lot in the end.

Every little cut left its own small trail of blood, running down her skin until it looked like someone had drizzled her in dark crimson. Most of it had dried by the time they returned her to her room. They didn't even clean her off.

The white tank top she now wore was spotted with blood, but not much. Not until she wrapped her arms around herself. Damn it, that hurt. She returned them to her sides, the blood more evident on her chest.

To her surprise, Ghoul and Jet were there. Well, Jet was there. Ghoul was curled up on the bed, snoring lightly. The moment the dracs shoved her in, he gasped.

"Hey." she smiled weakly.

"What the hell did they do to you?" he immediately got up, trying to find some fabric he could get wet, to wash the blood off her.

He managed to find a white towel in the bathroom. He placed it under the running sink, making the water warm. When he returned she was sitting on the bed, looking down at a sleeping Ghoul.

"He wanted to go to you so badly." Jet said. She sighed.

"He really cares about me that much?"

"Oh yeah. He was willing to give himself up for you."

"Why didn't he?"

"I held him back. Letting them see his reaction to all this will only make it worse for both of you in the end."

She nodded, "I understand." She placed a hand on Ghoul's shoulder. He stirred, she pulled her hand back. Jet noticed every move she made with her arms caused her to wince slightly in pain. He remembered the dripping towel in his hands. He gently took hold of one of her arms.

"Hold still. This is gonna sting a little." he placed the towel on her forearm.

More like sting a lot. She had to bite down on her tongue to keep from cursing in pain.

She looked over at Ghoul. To her surprise, he saw awake, staring at her. Pain filled his eyes.

"Who did that to you?" he spoke, his cracked voice never above a soft murmur.

"Party."

Rage. Rage like she'd never seen before.

"I'll kill him." his voice broke on "kill".

"It's not his fault."

"He's letting them turn him into their puppet!"

"You think he would if he wasn't stuffed with drugs?"

They were silent. Jet moved to her other arm. The small marks were much clearer now that they had begun to heal. Thin dark scabs spotted her pale arms everywhere.

"Any word on Kobra?"

"None." Jet shook his head. "But, we do have a plan."

"Wait-we do?" Ghoul looked confused.

"We do." Jet insisted.

They talked for awhile, ironing out any kinks there could be in the plan.

"So it's settled." Jet nodded.

"I guess it is." Diamond looked at Ghoul, who looked worriedly at her.

"You're sure you're okay with this?" he asked.

"Positive."

"Ghoul, she'll be fine. They won't get a chance to do anything to her."

He looked at Jet. "You can't know for sure."

"You're right. I can't." Jet shrugged. "You'll just have to trust me."