Finding Lily

7- Alex

"Who do you work for?"

The guards stopped suddenly and I looked up to see who spoke.

Ray.

"What?" I asked.

Ray's brown eyes searched mine from behind thick-rimmed glasses. His lips pursed as he took in all of my features. I couldn't imagine he'd figure out who I was. I'd never seen this man before in my life.

"Who do you work for?"

I didn't respond. Instead, I glanced at Felix's unmoving corpse. Did it make me feel better, knowing he could never hurt anyone again?

Ray shook his head at me, disappointed. "Take her to the basement. I'll take care of her in a minute. Eric, watch her."

Eric. A guard standing over the bodies grunted in response. He was just as big as Felix. Just as mean. His dark eyes met mine for a second, full of danger and with a promise of violence.

It didn't matter. I had gotten what I came here for.

*****

I was in a cement box. They sat me in a wooden chair with my hands tied behind my back. When I kicked at them, they restrained my legs too. I was stuck in a basement, with nothing in it but stairs and the chair I'd been forced onto.

I was alone, for now. All I could hear was my own ragged breathing and the occasional creak of a floorboard above me. And shit, my arm hurt. I hadn't realized a bullet had ripped through it until after they dragged me away. A trickle of blood still oozed from the exit hole on my tricep, the warm liquid steadily making its way to my bent elbow before dripping to the floor. The quiet sound echoed in the room, distracting me from the pain, distracting me from my impending doom.

I promised myself then that if I somehow made it out of this, if I somehow survived, I would kill Ray. After all, he was the one that sent Felix to kill me.

Quite a bit of time had passed before I finally heard footsteps coming down the stairs. How much time, I couldn't be sure. The stinging in my arm had dulled to an ache now, and the dripping blood had slowed considerably.

Eric came down first. He walked to the corner behind me, glaring at me the whole way. He was waiting for something. Ray, most likely.

I tested the strength of the rope tied around my wrists. It was coarse, tight, impossible to break out of. My skin was already starting to feel raw and my right arm was useless thanks to my injury.

Ray came down a moment later. He stood in front of me, arms crossed, eyes narrowed. He didn't waste time with pleasantries. "Who do you work for?"

I didn't answer. Answers wouldn't buy me time. They wouldn't help me survive. If anything, they'd give him more of a reason to kill me.

"I'll ask you again, who do you work for?" Ray persisted.

When he was met again with silence, he shot Eric a look. I knew the punch was coming before his fist connected with my cheek, snapping my head to the side, my brain colliding with the thick skull that protected it.

"I don't want to hurt you, but you killed a friend. I want to know why."

My cheek received another hit, just as hard as the last. I tasted blood in my mouth so I spit it out onto the concrete floor.

Ray took a step closer to me. Me sitting and him standing almost made our heights equal. His expression was intimidating enough, but it didn't affect me. Nothing did.

"Felix hurt you, didn't he?" Ray asked.

I ran my tongue over my blood-stained teeth. "Go to hell."

Ray let out a sigh, disappointed at my lack of cooperation. He backed up a step and looked at me with sad eyes. "I'll find out who you are one way or another. Save us all some time."

"Go. To. Hell." I said, enunciating clearly just in case he didn't hear me the first time.

With a sigh, he gestured for Eric to go upstairs. Ray followed after shooting me one last sad smile. Was that pity I saw? I struggled against the binds holding me, a new wave of anger washing through my concussed brain.

They left me alone. Hours passed. I tried to focus on something other than the pain, but the room was empty. There was no more blood leaving my body, no footsteps upstairs, no window to the outside world. Nausea was building in my stomach as my vision blurred. I'd been concussed before, but never this bad.

Visions danced in my head. Visions of Felix on the ground. Visions of me standing on the cliff where I killed him, staring at the ocean crashing beneath me, my feet ready to jump. I turned and saw Luke behind me, telling me not to, telling me to come with him.

I didn't realize what part of my dream was reality until I was back in the basement, staring at a man in front of me with a knife in his hand.

It was Luke.