TW-- this chapter suggests sexual assault.
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Sleep could not find Emma that evening, nor could hunger. She huddled into a corner furthest away from Draco who was breathing softly and evenly as he slept. Emma wrapped her arms around her legs and buried her face into her knees to keep anyone from hearing her cries. She wasn't sure how she still had tears-- she had been crying all day and night.
A selfish thought creeped through at one point during the night that made her actually consider giving Jakob a baby if it meant saving Mia's life. Emma hated herself for it. She didn't trust that Jakob would let any of them go... knew that all three of them would likely die here together. There was no way Jakob would risk Emma and Draco telling authorities about this place and about what the cult were doing. There was no way he trusted they'd be hypnotised to forget either.
Draco shuffling in his sleep snapped Emma out of her thoughts, and she glanced over to see him slowly sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He quickly became alert when he realised he and Emma were alone for once.
"This is it..." he mumbled, his hands flying to the inner pocket of his shirt.
"What are you doing?" Emma said. Her voice was cracked and croaky from how much she had cried. She watched the man pull something from his pocket, pulling it into two and bending with his hands. "Draco?"
"Remember when I went to pee?" he whispered, still focused on what was in his hands. He held them up at last, revealing a paperclip broken into two pieces in the shape of an L. "Changed my mind and told him I had to crap. Gave me more privacy and time to find something we can use to try and break out of this dump."
Emma quickly scooted over towards Draco's cell, watching him try to pick the padlock on his cell door with the bits of paperclip. Again, she tried not to let her hopes get the best of her, but sat there watching in anticipation anyway.
Minutes passed and nothing happened. Draco continued to curse under his breath, saying it was too dark. Emma slumped on the spot, staring down at the dirt. She winced slightly, reaching up to touch the dry, cracked blood on the side of her face.
"You okay?" Draco whispered, pausing what he was doing.
"Yeah," Emma replied quietly. "Please, don't stop on my account."
Draco sighed, continuing to toy with the padlock in his cell. "I really hope this works."
No more than a minute later, loud footsteps came closer and closer towards the cells, where a flashlight shined in Emma's face. Draco had long drawn himself back and hid his self-made tool. There were two robed figures whispering quietly to each other, both men who Emma did not know. One held the light in Emma's face and one fiddled with the key to unlock her cell.
"What's going on?" Emma asked as the cell door swung open. The man who unlocked the door walked in wordlessly and seized Emma hard by the arm, yanking her up off the ground and pulling her with difficulty out of the cell. "Hey, I said what are you doing?!"
"Shut up!" The man hissed, and with one hard pull he managed to get her out of the cell.
Emma used her free hand to slap the man hard across the face. He wasn't wearing a mask, but his face was still mostly hidden beneath his hood, save for his dark brown eyes that glared her way.
"Where are you taking me?" Emma demanded. "Are you taking me to my daughter?"
"No," the man hissed at her. "We're about to make another."
Emma jerked her head back. "What? Jakob said he'd only do that if I agreed. I most certainly don't agree in case you didn't get the memo."
"Who said anything about Jakob?" the man holding the flashlight snickered menacingly.
"Hey!" Draco shouted, rushing up to his cell door and slamming his hands against it, rattling the entire cage. "You unhand her this second or I'll find a way to strangle you. I mean it!"
The men ignored Draco and quickly switched the flashlight off. The man who opened Emma's cell door grabbed her by the arms and slowly dragged her away as she tried to wrestle against him. She could hear Draco's cell shaking as he yelled, before he went completely silent.
"Let go of me!" Emma cried out, lifting her leg and stomping her foot down onto her captors. He gritted his teeth in pain, growling, but loosened his grip a little.
Emma quickly spun around and snatched the flashlight out from the other mans hand and used it to swing across and hit one of them across the face with all the strength she had in her. The man who had just had his foot stomped into flew across to the right, straight into the railing with a hard thud.
Something flicked outwards-- a switchblade. The unhurt man held it out towards Emma threateningly as the other slowly stood back up, groaning. He looked Emma hard in the eyes, still gripping the side of his head, and he growled, "I wasn't going to make it slow and painful, but now it will be."
The man snatched the flashlight out of Emma's hand and used it to swing down to the side of her head. For about a second there was nothing but a harsh ache and the sound of static, but then it was like one long blink and suddenly it was bright.
Emma slowly adjusted to the brightness of the room she was in. Bits and pieces started to make its way back to her and she gasped, trying to sit up but she was strapped down to a medical gurney. Her arms were strapped above her head, straps went over her stomach, and her legs were strapped to either side of the end of the gurney.
"What is this?" Emma gritted, trying to pull her hands free.
There was movement behind her where she couldn't see.
"I said this was going to be painful," a voice growled, and the man from earlier suddenly appeared at her side. "Nice to see you're finally awake."
"I changed my mind," Emma said quickly. "I want to agree to Jakob's terms-- go and tell him."
The man shook his head, chuckling. He lowered his hood to reveal his shoulder length brown hair. "Do you think Jakob cares who puts the baby in you? So long as it's a baby with magic I don't think he really cares." The man slowly moved closer to Emma, and she leaned as far away from him as she could. "Jakob doesn't have the heart to do this to you against your will... but he'll be more than pleased that someone has."
Emma shuddered, feeling a cold tingle run down her spine. She was instantly panicked and running out of ideas on what to say to this man. "Where is Jakob?"
"Upstairs with your kid," the man replied, dropping his robe to the floor. He was dressed in dark grey slacks and a hideous plaid shirt-- something Emma wouldn't have expected to be hiding under those robes. "Hell... he probably knows what's going on right now... what's about to happen."
"Don't do this..." Emma whimpered, still fighting to get her hands free. "Don't. We can figure something else out."
"What else is there to figure out? We'll have a kid who can do magic, do anything we want, give us anything we want."
Emma frowned. "I don't think you understand our magic. It has it's limits-- things that can't be done."
"How do you know what I want?"
"What do you want?"
The man gave her what was meant to be a pointed look. "Money... fame... everything I could ever dream of."
"It doesn't work like that! We can't just pull money out of thin air!" Emma exclaimed, searching the man's eyes to see if he even believed her. He looked skeptical for a moment.
"I don't believe you," he said, beginning to unbuckle his belt. "Guess we'll just have to see for ourselves, huh?"
"See this."
Emma frowned and looked upwards as far as she could but she could barely make out anything. There was the loud sound of something hard connecting with the cultists face, and he spun on the spot before toppling over onto the floor, knocked out. Emma jumped in fright at the sight of Draco running around the gurney to where she could see him, sighing and offering him a small smile from relief.
"I got you, Freckles," he said quietly, unstrapping Emma as fast as he could.
"You got out," Emma stated the obvious, sitting up once she was free. "Your paperclip, it worked?"
"Some," Draco shrugged, reaching up to pull Emma down off the gurney and ducking along with her as to avoid being seen. "I don't know where the other bloke is... I'm assuming he's upstairs in that room with Jakob and Mia. I don't even know how much more of them are still here."
"Our wands could be in there, too," Emma whispered. Crouched down with Draco at her side, she shared a look with him. "We should... burst in there. They wouldn't expect it. We could stun them, grab Mia and run."
Draco was quiet for a moment before saying, "Stunning them isn't good enough for me. Come on, we'll sneak up and try and peak through the window." Draco started to pull Emma by the hand towards the door before stopping in his tracks, glancing down at the unconscious man on the floor. "He didn't..."
"No," Emma said firmly. "You got here just in time."
Draco instantly looked relieved. "Good," he said, looking away from Emma and creeping with her towards the door.
Once out, he peered around the opened door for any sign of movement. Emma couldn't see any as far as she could tell; she wondered if the other cultists appeared like normal people to the outside world, living a double life where they were married with children in one of them, and an insane cultist in the other.
"Okay," Draco whispered, moving quickly with Emma beside him. He gripped her hand tighter as they reached the stairs, and they moved up them as quietly as they could.
Emma breathed out when they reached the top platform. She didn't even realise she was holding her breath. Draco walked with her hand still in his, guiding her slowly towards the door but still keeping an eye out for anybody.
Something cold and sharp felt against Emma's throat and her head was suddenly pulled back, hard. The other man from earlier this evening held his switchblade at Emma's throat and used his other hand to pull her head back. Emma could hear her heart beating loudly in her ears again, stood there wondering if she would ever see Mia again, or Harry, or her dad... wondering if Draco would be from here on out traumatised by the image of Emma's throat being slit.
"Hands up," the man instructed Draco, who quickly obliged.
"I haven't got anything," Draco panted, his voice full of emotion. Emma could barely see him, he was blurry as she looked down at him. "Don't... don't do anything you may regret."
The man holding Emma huffed. "Regret? What makes you think I'd regret this." The switchblade pressed harder against her throat, causing Emma to stiffen and take in a deep breath. She could feel the warmness of her blood trickling down her neck. "Look at that. Looks like the rest of us when we bleed yet somehow this blood must make you feel superior, hmm?"
"You think I feel that way when I've got my period?" Emma said. The mans grip around her tightened.
"I didn't ask for your smart-alec response, witch bitch," he chuckled, yet there was no humour in it-- only anger. "Say your goodbyes now. First I'm going to slit your throat. And when your friend here falls to his knees in despair I'm going to slit his throat. And then eventually it'll be your daughters turn. You'll all be reunited...soon."
Emma could hear the quick shuffle of Draco's shoes the same time a loud bang had come from the exit door downstairs. The man holding Emma released her and took off ahead towards the door Jakob was currently in. Draco quickly reached Emma, concern in his eyes as he looked her over before he glanced down over the railing to see what the loud noise was.