The Rouges

s i x

THE DARK GREY room had become painfully familiar over the last few days. Each fissure in the wall, every stain descending from the ceiling, I knew them all. I had prepared myself for the cruelest physical pain, but this monotony was almost worse.

I knew how to control myself, to play along. My first two outbursts in this room had earned me a taser gun in the ribs. Both times I woke up back in the cell with Arden staring down at me. After that, I realized their immediate intention was not to kill me, but they weren't about to set me free either. Every day I asked them questions as I answered theirs, but my queries were never answered. I was no further now than I had been the day I woke up in the doctor's office. My few belongings were still gone and the little girl's situation was still unknown. Arden, while a decent companion, proved equally useless, knowing less than I did about the city itself or our whereabouts.

As I stared at the greying walls for what felt like the hundredth time, I could feel my composure slipping.

"Where were you born?" The sandy-haired inquisitor asked me for the hundredth time.

I ground my back teeth together. "I have told you that already."

"Tell me again." His piercing eyes bore into mine.

"I was born in The Sanctuary. No, I don't belong to a Tribe. Yes, I survived on my own. NO, there is no one else I am working with. And NO, I don't know anything about The Sanctuary. I have no family, as I have said before they're all dead. AND NO, I have NO idea how the hell I got into this pit you call a city!" My voice rose with each sentence until I was nearly screaming. "I'm not answering any more of your idiotic questions until you answer some of mine!"

I jumped up from my seat and grabbed the edge of the table. With a force that surprised even myself, I jerked the table into the air and then slammed it to the floor. Papers splayed everywhere as the glasses of water exploded on the concrete floor.

The reaction in the room was instantaneous. The inquisitor jumped backwards pressing himself into the wall while Maddox's hands wound around my neck. I flailed, clawing at his arms as he yanked me off the ground. His grip tightened, making black spots appear in the corners of my vision. I had lost control. I knew that, but I didn't care. Do it, I thought, go ahead and kill me. It would be better than reliving this same day over and over again.

The door to the tiny room exploded open as the white-haired woman burst in.

"ENOUGH!" She screamed over the chaosInstantly we all froze. Maddox's hands released me and I crumpled to the floor gasping for air.

"Get Veyron to take her to the showers. She smells like a Scavenger." Disgust was strong on her stern face, "Keep the boy busy, I want to see her in the cell alone."

With one last look of revulsion in my direction, she swept from the room. How long had she been watching us?

Maddox yanked me to my feet, half carrying, half dragging me down a new hallway. He threw me into a small room covered in bleached tile. There was a shelf piled with clothing in the corner and a showerhead mounted to the wall. He shut the door behind him as he entered and I moved to further myself from him in the small space. Panic rose in my chest. I was trapped.

A hunger rose in his eyes as he gazed at me.

"You heard the boss, you smell like a repulsive rat." He gestured to the showerhead with his gun.

"She said for you to find another guard to take me here. I assumed Veyron would be a woman." Ice burned in my voice.

"Veyron has better things to do than babysit a defector like you. Besides, what's the matter little girl, embarrassed about your body? You know if you can't do it yourself, I will be forced to do it for you. And I won't be gentle." His dark eyes danced with pleasure as he attempted to intimidate me.