Alright, the Discord server is officially done. At least, I think it is. We'll see how it goes.
Anyway, I'll be posting the link on my Wattpad profile, as well as my Instagram profile. I will also be posting it in an announcement about the server on my Wattpad profile shortly after this chapter has been posted. So keep an eye out for that for those of you who wish to join.
Next update will be back in Everly's POV.
Melanie is Agent 34, by the way. For those of you who may have forgotten.
Melanie's POV
I was dizzy, my head was throbbing, and my body felt like it had been run over a few dozen times. My ass was also numb, but that seemed to be the least of my problems.
I tried to move with little success. Tried to open my eyes to take in my surroundings, but my eyelids felt as if they were glued shut. Even breathing felt like a chore.
What was in that dart she shot me with?
The only thing that didn't seem affected by whatever drug had been used on me, was my hearing. Of course, there wasn't all that much to hear. The only audible sound around me was the clicking of keys on a keyboard. Even that, however, was rather faint.
I tried to will my body to move, but I literally couldn't. After fighting with my eyelids for what felt like forever, finally, I was able to open my eyes just barely. There wasn't a whole lot of light in the room, but there was enough to hurt my eyes.
I blinked once. Twice. Three times. Four, before finally my eyes seemed to adjust to the bright light.
I took a moment to look around the room. It was spacious but mostly empty. There was a desk set up in the middle of it, right across from where I was sitting on the floor. It was set up facing the door, and I was sitting to the right of the door, facing the side of the desk. Most interesting, however, was the woman sitting at the desk, typing away on her computer without a care in the world.
She'd introduced herself as Lydia.
If I had to take a guess, I would assume that this was the same Lydia that Tessa had been working undercover for. Which wasn't a good thing. From the stories Tessa had told, Lydia wasn't one to be messed with.
I was able to move my head with a lot of effort, and feeling was starting to return to my fingers and toes. Still, I wanted to be able to push to my feet. I was feeling like I was trapped under a heavy weight while hyenas were circling nearby, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling.
I did notice something curious, however, in my efforts to move more than just turning my head or lifting my finger. I wasn't restrained. There were no cuffs, no chains, no ropes, no duct tape. Absolutely nothing holding me in place. Nothing stopping me from getting back on my feet and fighting my way out of there.
Nothing except my drugged-up body.
But given enough time, that would no longer be a problem. I looked cautiously at Lydia as she continued to type away on the laptop set in front of her. She hadn't once looked in my direction. Hadn't once given any indication that she even realized I was there, or that I was now awake.
I was careful to keep my movements subtle and small. Taking great effort in ensuring that little by little, I could move. All of my body felt sluggish and weak, but I was willing to take the chance that I could get to the door before she could get to me. After all, I was closer and she had a desk in her way.
I started to balance my weight on my hands. Started to slowly pull my legs up. Started to slowly get into a position where I could quickly push myself to my feet and make a run for it. All the while my attention was fixated on Lydia. On making sure she wasn't watching my moves and was too preoccupied with her computer.
"If I have to chase after you," She suddenly spoke before I even had the chance to push to my feet. "I'm going to be very unhappy."
I didn't say anything. I didn't move. I just stared at her. It was dead quiet in the room once more except for the clicking of keyboard keys and for a moment, it was easy to believe she hadn't spoken at all. That my nerves were just causing me to imagine things. That is until she finally stopped typing and turned her cold gaze onto me.
I resisted the urge to look away. The expression on her face, the look in her eyes, was downright terrifying. Like locking eyes with something deadly just before it devoured you. There wasn't a hint of life in her eyes. Just the gaze of a predator and she watched me like a shark that had smelled blood in the water.
I opened my mouth to speak, and found I had some difficulty. "Why . . ." I had to stop to clear my throat. "Why am I here?" I was finally able to ask.
She stared at me for a long moment before turning back to her computer, her fingers once again typing away. "You did enough damage to your room that I can't put you back in there until it's repaired. I don't have any other spare rooms to put you in and the cells haven't finished being constructed yet." She paused in her typing to look over at me once more. "No one else has time to keep an eye on you, so I'm stuck with you . . . or rather, you're stuck with me."
"That's not . . ." I started to say and then thought better of it. Did I really want to engage in a conversation with my kidnapper? My eyes strayed to the door once more and the decision was made. No, I did not want to have a conversation with her. Unless she was the one being held in a cell. I wanted to get the hell out of there.
I wanted to be back with my team. Back at the agency.
Or you know, anywhere but here.
"I really wouldn't," She spoke up again. "if I were you."
She wouldn't. I however totally would.
I shoved to my feet as quickly as I could and ran for the door. I wasn't as fast as I would have liked to be as there were still drugs in my system, but still, I was able to move quickly enough.
At least, that's what I had thought, until a wave of pain so intense passed over me, that it brought me to the floor.
I gasped as it felt like my whole body was suddenly lit on fire. I clawed at my skin as if that would do something to stop the pain. I felt a scream trapped in my throat, but I couldn't let it out. And just when I thought I would rather die than endure this any longer, the pain faded until it was gone.
I was lying on my back on the floor, my chest heaving and my breathing coming in short, fast pants. Tears were streaming out of my eyes and I couldn't stop myself from trembling.
I'd had a lot of injuries as an agent. Almost died in several different ways. I'd been drugged before. But that was something completely different. And I never wanted to feel pain like that again.
"Well," Lydia's voice echoed around the empty room. "I suppose Sebastian deserves some praise for this."
I turned my head to look at her as she held up a small little black remote.
"What-What is . . .that?" I managed to get out between gasps of air.
Lydia turned it over in her hands, admiring it. "The controls to that collar around your neck."
I reached my hands up slowly, feeling at the thick metal contraption around my neck. How I hadn't even noticed it until she said something, I had no idea.
"You put a shock collar on me?" I questioned, anger and disbelief beginning to take the place of the pain and anxiety. "Like a dog?"
She waved a hand at me dismissively. "Of course not," She replied as she set the remote down on the desk and turned back to her laptop. "That would be inhumane and crude. No." She shook her head. "No, I had my people develop something much worse."
The door that I had been trying to make it to, suddenly opened before I could say anything in response.
A man I had never seen stood in the doorway. He paused as he looked down at me on the floor, still trying to shake off the lingering pain, and then back up to Lydia who was preoccupied with whatever she was doing.
He let out a sigh and shook his head, causing the longer strands of his blonde hair to fall onto his forehead. "I told you that was not ready for testing yet."
"Well, I deemed it ready and good news for you, it works," Lydia replied as she looked up from the computer screen to him. "It means I'm not going to string you up for the list grievances you've caused me . . . yet."
"I'll throw a party," He replied as he stepped over me to walk up to her desk. "You won't be invited though."
"And I'll forever lose sleep over that," Lydia said without looking away from her computer. "You got something for me?"
I hesitantly pushed myself into a seated position, my body aching in protest. I felt at the metal contraption around my neck, trying to figure out how to get it off. All the while, I listened to whatever they were talking about. Even though it didn't make much sense to me.
"Yes and no," He replied to her. "I haven't had any luck figuring out how the mercenaries are tracking us down and I've been through everything. We're not leaving any trace that I can find. So that leaves only one alternative to how they're finding us."
I watched her lean back in her seat with a frustrated sigh. She drummed her fingers along her desk.
"We have a mole," She said, completing his unfinished thought.
He nodded. "It would appear that way, yes."
She continued to drum her fingers on the desk as she looked at him. "Can you find them?"
He nodded. "Yeah. Just give me time."
"We have none," She replied. "Ever since we got involved, we've been pushing the mercenaries to move up their timetable and they're beginning to grow tired of our meddling. Eventually, they're going to come after us full force and when they do, I would rather they didn't have a leg up on us." She turned her attention back to her computer. "Find the mole. Or find a suspect and I'll take care of the rest."
The man she'd called Sebastian nodded. "I'll get it done." He turned and walked away, stepping around me this time as he walked out the door.
Lydia's attention was then completely on me.
"So," She said as she watched me carefully. "What am I to do with you?"
I glared at her from my place on the floor. I was no longer feeling any fear or anxiety around her. Now, I was just pissed and more determined than ever to get away.
"Letting me go would be a great start," I replied.
She just stared at me. "Tread carefully," She replied simply. "The person who can usually keep me from spontaneously killing people who get on my nerves is away on business."
She turned away from me, her attention once again on her computer.
I pushed to my feet cautiously, waiting for her to push that button. To bring me to my knees in pain. She didn't though. Just kept looking over her computer, as if I wasn't even in the room. I figured if I made a break for the door again though, I would once again end up on the floor in agony. And that pain was not something I wanted to relive.
"What do you want from me?" I questioned softly, barely aware that I'd actually spoken the words out loud.
She didn't even look at me. "At the moment, silence and cooperation. Though something tells me I'll get neither."
"Why am I here?" I questioned again.
She let out an annoyed sigh. "To put it bluntly, your current choices are death or imprisonment. Right now you've chosen imprisonment. Should you continue to get on my nerves, you will have chosen death in which case I will let you walk right out that door and the mercenaries who want you for their nefarious reasons will take you. The next time anyone sees you, you will be floating face down in a river."
I stared at her, trying to make sense of what she was saying. Mercenaries? What was she talking about? I studied her closely for a beat longer before looking around the room once more. There were no windows, no clocks, nothing to tell what time it was or even what day it was.
"How long have I been here?" I asked her.
"When you asked me what I wanted with you," Lydia said instead of responding to my question. "Did you choose to ignore my response? Or should I have you fitted for hearing aids?"
I narrowed my eyes at her. More and more she was seeming less and less like a threat and more like an annoyance. I suspected she thought the same of me. "How long have I been here?" I repeated.
She turned her dead-eyed, shark-like gaze onto me. "Well, you were out for eight hours. So, if I were you, I'd safely assume you've been here longer than that."
"You don't even know?"
"Of course, I know," She responded. "I just do not feel inclined to play your little game of twenty questions seeing as it has no benefit to me. Now sit down and shut up."
I glared at her further and looked at the remote she'd left sitting on the edge of the desk.
"Don't try it," She said as she leaned over the side of the desk, pulling open a large drawer near the bottom. I watched as she removed a box from that drawer and from within the box, a watch. She fastened the watch to her wrist and turned her piercing gaze back to me. "This will not end well for you." She then shrugged. "Then again, go right ahead. Brighten my day. I haven't hit anyone in a long while."
That was easy for her to say, she wasn't the one collared like a dog.
Of course, she was definitely expecting me to try something, which actually gave me the advantage. Ultimately, she was expecting me to make a move for the remote and then the door. True, I could still make a move for the door, but that wouldn't get me very far since she had the remote. With that thought in mind, I decided I would go for neither of those options.
So when I charged at the desk, I kept my attention on the remote the entire time. Let her think that that was exactly what I was going for. I watched as she rather calmly reached for the remote. She would reach it first if that had been my goal.
For a split second, I saw the surprise on her face when I dropped to the ground. When I let my momentum carry me across the ground as I slid under her desk and kicked my foot out right into her chair.
Her chair fell back with her in it. Meanwhile, I was still under the desk. I took the opportunity to pull myself out from under the desk and snatch up the remote. Before I could make a break for the door, however, something was slammed into my back and I fell forward onto the desk with a groan, looking over my shoulder as Lydia dropped the now broken chair to the floor.
She grabbed a fistful of my hair and pulled me off the desk. I clawed at her hands in my hair with one hand, the other hand securely holding the remote.
I tried to get a good look at the remote. Tried to see exactly what buttons did what. I suspected one of the buttons would remove the collar from around my neck, but with her death grip on my hair and pulling me back, I couldn't make out any of them.
I stopped clawing at her hands in favor of bringing my elbow forward and then slamming it back into her side.
She let out a hiss and the grip on my hair loosened enough that I was able to pull myself free at the cost of a good portion of hair. That wasn't my biggest concern, however.
I dropped to my hands and knees, still holding the remote in one hand, and crawled under the desk. It didn't offer much cover but was enough for me to take a second and get a good look at the remote. And sure enough, there was a button that had a locked and unlocked icon on it.
Before I had the chance to press it, however, I was grabbed by my leg and pulled forcefully out from under the desk, the remote slipping from my grasp. I tried to grab it as I was pulled back. Tried to grab hold of anything to stop myself from sliding across the floor. When that didn't work, I turned back to Lydia and kicked out at her with my free leg, but she just jumped out of the way. Still, she'd let me go and I lunged for the remote once more.
My fingers just barely closed around it. I looked at the button that would hopefully unlock this thing from around my neck, and I pressed it. Not a moment too soon either, for the second after I pressed it, a booted foot slammed down on my arm.
I let out a shout of pain and tried to instinctively pull my arm back, but she didn't let up on the pressure, effectively keeping my arm pinned in place. I did notice, however, that the contraption around my neck had loosened and I still had the remote in my hand.
A thought came to mind and before I could come up with a better plan or one I was sure would work, I pulled the collar from around my neck with my free hand and then clamped it down around her leg, hitting the button to lock it in place and then pressing the only other button on the remote.
I wasn't even sure it would work, seeing as it was clearly meant to go around a neck, not someone's leg. It would have been looser around her ankle, that was for sure, but I had reached up higher and had clamped it down just above her knee in an effort to make sure it stayed on.
There was no scream, no sound from her as she suddenly collapsed to the ground, just as I had done earlier.
I pushed to my feet, wiping blood from a cut on my head I didn't even realize I had. I looked down at her on the floor, the remote still in my hand. "I honestly expected more of a fight," I muttered. I went to step over her to get to the door, and suddenly I was on the floor and she was kneeling on top of me.
The remote was removed from my grasp and she pressed the button to unlock the collar. She let out a gasp and flung the thing across the room as if it were on fire. She glared down at me, an anger in her eyes I hadn't yet seen from her.
"You are proving to be much more of a hassle than anticipated," She said, her voice breathless, her chest heaving up and down, and even as she tried to hide it, I could see her body shaking from the lingering pain. "It's beginning to piss me off."
"That's impossible," I muttered. "I couldn't even move. How could you-"
She leaned down so her face was just inches away from mine. "I'm not you," She hissed before bringing her arm back and slamming her fist into my face.
My head bounced off the concrete ground and pain exploded behind my eyes. And for what felt like the millionth time, darkness encased my world once more.
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