Silas' POV:
When I wake up, my head is pounding like a fucking mac truck hit me, and I can't see straight. Everything that happened in the filing building is living in my mind, so I am terrified.
My vision is blurred, but I can tell from the gentle whispers and how spacious this place is that I'm not alone.
"Hey, buddy," I hear a familiar voice say, and a face moves above me. "Welcome back to the real world."
My vision focuses a little more and I see Jared above me, Aviana right beside him. There are more people in my peripheral, but I can't pick out their faces.
"My head hurts," I mumble, Jared helping me to sit up, and it only increases the pain to my poor brain. "Where are we."
Aviana and Jared both shrug, which is not reassuring whatsoever.
"Some kind of warehouse, I assume," Aviana whispers. "We've only just woken up."
There's fifteen other people in here, and I notice that we're all chained together, our ankles held by cuffs and the chains attached to the wall so there's no way to have everyone work together to walk out of here. Along with the leg cuffs, there's a fat cuff around my neck, and neither Jared or Aviana have it.
"Why did I get the ugly necklace and you two didn't?" I ask bitterly, tugging at it.
"Because they don't have Mistacesemia," someone says, and I see a boy who must be around my age sitting a few feet from us, and he too has a cuffed neck. "They keep us from using our powers, or we'd have been out of here months ago."
Well, that makes a lot more sense.
"Did you say months?" Aviana asks, and she looks horrified.
The boy nods. "I've been here for five months, sixteen days," he tells us, raising one of his hands to scratch at the raw, infected looking skin around his neck. "You're the first ones we've had since I was brought here."
"How long have the others been here, then?" I ask him, because if he's been here for five months and he was the newest... how long have the others been here?!
"Longest is the first one on the chain, in the back," he says, pointing to a woman in her thirties. "She's been here for three years I believe. Not just here, though. She's been transported before, but she's been kidnapped for that long."
Jared sighs. "Well, we won't be here that long. We're going to break out," he says in a plain voice, as if it's the most obvious thing ever.
The boy laughs. "Listen, I don't know if you heard me right, but these things on our necks stop our powers. Girl in the back? Been here three years. No one has ever escaped, and from what I have been told, the last person who tried was beaten and brutally killed before they moved and captured me. Then, we moved again. We have no information, no updates, nothing. We don't even know what state we're in."
"Oregon," I tell him. "The three of us are from Oregon and the furthest they could have moved us in the time we were knocked out it probably Washington. Unless we were out for much longer than I think we were."
He hums. "That's smart. I was born in Maine, so it makes sense that they'd move across the country, just for safety measure. Not that it matters, because no one is looking for us, anyway."
"I'm sure that's not true," Jared tried to sympathize, but the boy shakes his head.
"No, like, there's literally no one looking for us. The people kept in here have no one they care about, no one they love, because if they let us do their dirty work, we'd definitely betray them and get help for the other people in here. The ones that have someone they care about... they're the ones carrying out missions, because the lives of their people will be threatened."
Jared looks at me. "So we were right about Andrea."
"Who's Andrea?"
Jared begins to explain her story, but the boy covers his mouth when the door to the warehouse opens and three people wearing masks enter.
Everyone else in the room falls silent as well, and I follow suit, because getting killed is not on my to do list for today.
One of the men takes off his mask, and the desire to murder burns inside of me.
"What the fuck?!" Jared exclaims, and I'd be freaking out too if my boss was standing in front of me with a gun. "Darrel, what the hell?"
Darrel shrugs. "I really wish you hadn't been there, but shit happens," he says, putting his gun back in its holster. "Atticus is running on a wild goose chase, thinking he's going to be able to narrow down where you guys are."
"I'm not surprised you're part of a Mistacesemia hate group," I say, wishing I had thrown him harder against the wall when we first met.
"Yes, it isn't that surprising. However, you may even be more surprised that you are now a part of the group!" Darrel exclaims. "Your interference got Andrea on the news, so you get to carry out her missions."
I scoff. "Or what?"
"Well, I work closely with Atticus and I know where Lincoln works. It would be a shame if an accident were to befall them..."
My heart pounds, and I feel anxiety and anger bubbling up inside of me.
"Leave them alone," I say, trying to go for a menacing voice, but it comes out weak and desperate.
Darrel reaches over and ruffles my hair, as if he didn't just threaten the lives of my boyfriends. "That's up to you, Mr. Murray. If you do as we ask, we won't have to kill them," he says, standing back up and walking over to the other two. "You won't start for another couple of months or so, since Atticus and Lincoln will actually be looking for you."
"They'll find us," I say, even though I don't even feel confident in my own words.
"How sad, that you've lost hope so quickly," Darrel coos, tapping my cheek harshly, almost slapping me. "I just wanted to greet you, because I hate you."
I force a smile. "The feeling is mutual."
Darrel laughs before he leaves the room. "Don't feed that rat," he tells the two standing at the door. "The rest can eat."
Well, he's even more of a dick than usual.
"What's your name?" Jared asks, extending his had to the boy that we had been speaking with earlier. "I'm Jared."
The boy takes Jared's outstretched hand and shakes it, even though he's hesitant. "Leo," he says, taking my hand and then Aviana's as we introduce ourselves.
"What's the point in keeping hostages if they want us dead?" I ask, because I know that I'm easy to use as a killer because I will do whatever it takes to protect my boyfriends, but what use do they have for people that they want dead?
Leo looks nervous, and for a second, even though he's probably older than me, I see a scared child in his eyes. "Crazy scientists that work with The Onyx," he murmurs, looking around. "Those of us who are somewhat young and won't be missed... they like to run tests on us. And the normal people here... misfortunate people who were captured when some of us were."
I look around the room, and out of the fifteen people (excluding myself, Jared, and Aviana) there are nine people with collars on, signifying the malfunction, and only six of them are normal humans.
"So you guys who have no one they can use against you... you're test subjects?" I ask in a hushed tone, and Leo nods.
He pulls up his sleeves and reveals bandages on his arms. "Weekly blood tests, urine tests, they bring in portable plasma machines... and that's just the basic testing they do on us. Some people here don't even speak anymore because of the horrors they've faced."
Jared is gaping at Leo. "And this is normal?!"
"I don't think any part of kidnapping is normal," Leo deadpans. "But the oppression and people treating us more like animals than people? Yeah, that's pretty normal."
I nod in agreement, and Aviana doesn't seem too surprised, but Jared is in shock.
"How can it be this bad?" Jared whispers, looking at us with so much sadness and horror that I want to hug him, but I hold back. "I knew that things were bad, but I didn't realize that... oh my god."
Leo pats his shoulder. "Don't worry about it. As long as you're not a prejudice cunt..." He pauses and looks right at the door where the guards are standing outside. "Then I don't blame you. The world is unfair, so we have to make the best of it."
"Do you know any way we can escape?" I ask, cutting off their conversation. "Any weaker guards, anything like that?"
"Don't get your hopes up, Silas," Leo says, sounding more and more irritated by the second. "Only the leaders have keys to our chains, because they oversee the experimentation. They know we'd try to fight the guards, so the guys that keep an eye on us 24/7 don't have keys."
Damn, they thought this shit out.
"It's okay, Silas," Jared assures me, and I can tell his smile is forced. "It's all going to be okay."
I don't believe him, because Leo has been here for five months and has already lost hope. There is a way out of any problem, but there's fifteen hostages who have been here for a long time and I'm sure there's at least one person here who is more rebellious than me.
"I just need Atticus to step up his game and find me," I say, smiling softly.
"Who's Atticus?" Leo asks me.
My smile grows at the thought of my boyfriends. "He's my boyfriend. Well, one of them. I have two boyfriends, Lincoln and Atticus. They're the best people I know."
"Gee, thanks," Jared mutters.
I glare at him. "You arrested me when we first met, asshat."
Leo stares at us. "What?"
"Long story," Jared replies, scooting a little closer to Leo. "I won't complain if you wanna lay your head in my lap while I tell it."
Leo's face contorts into a bitter glare. "Are you seriously flirting with me right now?!" he asks, his voice loud enough that it grabs the attention of some of the people further away from us. "Of course you are! All you have to do is sit here while the rest of us get our veins pricked and fear for our lives because you're normal."
"Nice one, bro," Aviana says, laying down on the hard floor. "Don't worry, Leo. I'll help you hide the body."
Jared scoffs. "What are you gonna do? Dig a hole in the cement?"
"Can we just focus on an escape plan?" I beg, but they all shoot me looks that make me know that they really don't want to discuss anything about escape right now.
It requires a lot of thinking, and my head still hurts.
"I'm just saying, this warehouse is probably cold at night, right?" Jared points out, and Leo narrows his eyes and nods. "If you need someone to cuddle with..."
Leo scoots away from him. "If we ever escape from here, the first thing I'm going to do is celebrate having my powers back and murder you," he growls.
"I think I'm growing on him," Jared whispers to me.
Well, at least I have some form of entertainment while I wait for my boyfriends to save us.