Jeisa woke up with a splitting headache. For a few minutes, she could only feel her throbbing head, but those few precious minutes were heavenly compared to what came next. She began to feel the rest of her body. A red-hot branding iron pressed against her flesh would have felt like bliss compared to the agony that ripped through her right arm. The memories rushed back into her accompanied by a flood of frustration and humiliation.
She sighed.
This plan had disintegrated in the worst way possible.
At least she remembered why she was in such pain. For one, she'd thrown herself off that battered SUV like some foreign-named masked wrestler in an underground fight club. And then she'd been shot. She wondered if this, added to the fact that she was kidnapped, was a good enough excuse to miss her dojo training with Coach. He didn't appreciate it when she skipped classes. She'd trained through a broken leg once.
To distract her from the pain, Jeisa focussed on trying to feel her surroundings. Feel, because there was no way she was opening her eyes. Even her eyelids were aching. The information came in slow, but she was soon forming a picture of her situation. She was on something plush. A bed. Larger than her twin bed. Likely a queen. Holy Moses, the sheets felt awesome. It was like the best button-down shirt she owned had been turned into bed sheets. She nuzzled them. This was exactly what she'd meant when she'd asked her dad for "grownup Manchester". She finally decided to crack open an eyelid, if only to find the sheets' label and make a note of it.
The room was bathed in late afternoon sun. If she wasn't dead, then she was inside a lifestyle themed magazine. Or one of those shop displays that you had to consciously resist trying out at the furniture store. She lay on a cream coloured, four poster bed, with white drapes pulled back against the posts. The dresser, the mirror, the side tables, the lampshades on the side tables, the walls were all cream coloured. The duvet on top of her was a pale green. There was wood smoke coloured, wall to wall carpeting on the floor, with most of it covered in a fluffy rug streaked in various shades of soft brown. Everything in this room also smelt new.
Jeisa felt like she was in a doll house. She suddenly grabbed the sheets in a panic and threw them off her, hoping against all hope that she didn't find herself dressed up in some pastel-coloured dress that cinched at the waist and flared outwards to her knees in several layers of tule. Because, if this is the room the kidnapper had put her in, that wasn't beyond the realm of possibility. It would completely and truly traumatise her to find that someone had stripped her naked and dolled her up. She sighed in relief when she found herself still dressed in the bloody Adventure Time T-shirt, black skinny jeans, and a pair of mismatched socks.
Finally freaked out enough, Jeisa jumped off the bed and walked to the door. She listened for sounds past the door, but it was quiet. She didn't have her lockpicks with her, so she'd have to find another way to open the door. Or maybe not? She turned the knob and the door opened without resistance. She slipped into the empty hallway. It was all white, with a beautiful, multicoloured, striped rug that ran along it. Just as it was in the room, everything had that scent that told you it was brand new. It all seemed way too dreamlike. Way too perfect. Way too creepy. Way too wrong. Even Jeisa's penchant for perfection wasn't enough for her to not find this disturbing.
There were four other doors down the hallway from hers. Jeisa opened the first three doors and found rooms similar to hers, filled with just as perfect, brand-new furniture, although the colour schemes changed room after room. The last door, the one farthest from hers, had a definite masculine feel to it. It was still doll-house perfect, but there was no poster bed, just a standard queen bed, and the colour scheme was darker, looking gorgeous in shades of soft red and black. Cass was lying casually on the bed in the room, hands behind her head, staring at the ceiling.
"Cass?"
"Oh, hey Jeis?" said Cass casually, still staring at the ceiling. This place just didn't hold enough menace for one to be anything but casual.
"Hey." replied Jeisa, walking around to look over the décor and accessories that made up this dollhouse room. "Just in the neighbourhood. Figured I'd come rescue you."
"That's so nice of you. Thanks." said Cass, finally sitting up on the edge of the bed.
"Don't mention it." replied Jeisa, her back to Cass as she studied the intricate pattern on the woodwork of the room's dresser. Every piece of furniture in this building was incredibly made and that just added to the extreme weirdness.
Cass gasped, which caught Jeisa off guard, especially when Cass rushed over to her. "Shit! You're hurt!"
"Oh, this?" Jeisa said, her voice straining as Cass gently lifted her right arm to examine the gunshot wound.
Cass looked up at her and raised a brow. "Don't you dare say 'it's just a scratch'!"
Jeisa scoffed. "What? Oh no. What I was going to say is that it's a horrible gunshot graze that hurts like a motherfucker and that I can feel getting infected with each passing second. I am suffering profusely!"
Cass smiled. "Better."
Jeisa chuckled and let her fuss over the wound, Cass going as far as tearing up the perfect sheets from the queen bed – a section that had the label so that Jeisa now knew what to buy when she got back home – and using it to wrap up the wound, although what it really needed was an antiseptic wash while Jeisa needed antibiotics. But she no longer needed painkillers, because apparently watching Cass dressing the wound, all worried and bothered and flustered, was more of a painkiller than any dose of opiates could ever wish to be.
"Hey Jeis?" Cass said, as she slowly and carefully finished wrapping that torn sheet around Jeisa's arm.
"Yeah?" answered Jeisa. Cass was the only person she could tolerate calling her that without the urge to ram a raggedly serrated object down her throat.
"I know that this is the part where I get all sappy and tell you that I think I might love you – in case we don't make it – and trust me, I really want to say those words," Cass said, her forehead creased in concentration as she focussed on tying the sheet fragment in a way that wouldn't hurt Jeisa – an impossibility, unfortunately. "But then we don't really know each other that well and I figure it would probably scare you away if I said that, so, I'm not going to say it. Instead, I'll say this instead: if we survive today, I totally wouldn't mind it if we tried getting to the point where I could say those three words without it being weird."
Jeisa looked at Cass for a while. Cass was still focussed on the wound, staring at the knot she'd made hard enough that one wouldn't be blamed for thinking that she was manually confirming the sheet fragment's thread count. Jeisa liked to imagine that Cass' heart was thumping crazily in her chest, just waiting for Jeisa's response. Cass was nervous. It was the first time Jeisa had seen her like this, and it was too cute.
"I wouldn't mind that either, Cass." Jeisa finally said, tamping down her own nerves enough to lace the words with a slight detachment that made her sound really cool and collected.
Cass finally looked up at her. That sad look that Jeisa had seen more than once flashed through Cass' eyes before she sent it away with one of those classic smiles that seemed to have the power to banish Jeisa's breath for moments at a time.
"So, how's your rescue of the distressed damsel going?" Cass asked, walking over to the bed to pull her shoes on. They were neatly placed on the side of the bed, as Jeisa's were.
"We could just try walking out." said Jeisa, flexing her bandaged arm, which was surprisingly feeling genuinely better. "The place seems empty."
They'd made it to the floor below them, in this three-storey building, when they ran into Gretel. The woman was standing in this mostly green hallway, wearing an orange robe, using one hand to towel dry her hair and the other to point the gun from "not-Charles" at them. Jeisa instinctively moved in front of Cass, her heart pounding painfully against her sternum and adrenaline washing through her, seemingly cell by cell. Damn it! Cass had just told her she might love her. Jeisa was going to make sure those words lasted for more than a few minutes at the very least.
"Clean towels and clean clothes are in the shower down the hall. I'll have some food ready downstairs in fifteen minutes." said Gretel indifferently, using the gun to point the way to the bathroom and down the stairs. "I remember you both saying you were hungry."
"Hold the poison and/or spit balls, and I'm in." said Cass.
Jeisa stayed silent and just shrugged, resigned. They'd have to figure out this escape thing later. Besides, having just had a muffin at breakfast with Robyn, she was starving.
"What the hell is her story?" Jeisa whispered when they walked into the shower and she locked the door behind them, listening at the door for any noises outside. "What's her plan?"
"Like you said, it's not killing us." Cass replied.
Jeisa heard rustling behind her and turned to find Cass undressing.
"We need to brainstorm on what might happen when we get out of this shower and figure out how we'll react!" Jeisa emphasized, going back to listening for any sound beyond the door. "How are you not freaking out right now?"
Cass walked over and made Jeisa face her. Jeisa's breath hitched at Cass' naked form.
"Jeisa, life happens," Cass said, helping Jeisa out of the Adventure Time t-shirt. "I find it a waste of time getting in its way. It doesn't give a fuck and will always run you over. I'd rather just go with the flow."
"Have I ever told you that I love how your mind works? How you look at the world," Jeisa said, pulling off her pants. "How you think."
Cass chuckled, giving Jeisa a smirk and looking her up and down. "If only you knew what I was thinking..."
Jeisa closed the distance between them. "Am I allowed to guess?"
Whoever said that sharing a shower with a buddy was a water-saving activity was not doing it right. Or maybe they weren't under the glorious warm spray of a perfect, magazine cover page shower with their girlfriend in a weird kidnapper's lair.
Jeisa and Cass definitely didn't save any water.
*
They found Gretel in the dining table of this strange doll house building. Following the theme, this dining room was as showroom worthy as the rest of the house.
The centrepiece was the dining table made of a gorgeous slab of dark brown hardwood with a beautiful wood grain pattern, flanked by fancy white, solid, high-backed chairs. A narrow cloth runner than complimented the table's dark colour lay in the middle of the table, along its length and on it were three sets of drinking glasses, eat set including a wine glass, a water glass, and a beer tumbler. Next to each glass set was a stunning porcelain set of plates, including a dinner plate, salad plate and soup bowl, flanked by a dinner fork, dinner knife and soup spoon, cutlery that was likely real silver. An elegantly folded napkin finished the look.
"I'm sorry it's not homemade pastrami and mini baguettes," Gretel said as Jeisa and Cass walked into the dining room. Two women in maid uniforms brought in some food at the same time. "But it's edible."
The servers brought in a steaming bowl of pumpkin soup with a swirl of cream marbled beautiful through it and a pile of crispy bacon bits at the centre, a massive bowl of salad tossed in a tart and sweet vinegarette, and a large serving of fried chicken and waffles, with a jug of maple syrup on the side.
Cass and Jeisa took the other two seats where the dishes were set. They were both in a pair of baggy grey sweats, plain black T-shirts, and black socks that Gretel had left out in the bathroom. Gretel sat across the table from Jeisa, and Cass was to her right. They were all quiet as they enjoyed the soup. Can't go wrong with pumpkin, cream, and bacon.
"This has mayo in it, doesn't it?" Jeisa commented with a begrudging smile after she'd sampled a bit of the fluffy, rich, moist homemade waffles. Jeisa hated that she was absolutely loving this simple meal and letting her guard down. Hated that she couldn't help herself.
"Correct. Made the batter myself this morning." replied Gretel, beaming.
Cass sipped at the pomegranate juice in front of her as she watched Jeisa and Gretel discuss crispy fried chicken batter tips and the better chilli oil recipe. Cass had her legs crossed at the knees and her foot slowly played up and down Jeisa's shin. This definitely had to be the weirdest kidnapping experience ever! Jeisa was turned on, creeped out and hyped up all at the same time.
"So, Gretel," Cass eventually said, at the presence of a lull between the food talk. "What exactly happened here? Did you experience some hardcore Stockholm syndrome? Take over the witch's candy house and start kidnapping innocents to stuff into your oven? Are you prepping us for a pie to take to tea with your buddy Hannibal? Or is that a different multiverse?"
"Cute." Gretel scoffed, her fingers brushing against the black steel of the gun next to her as she reached for her own glass of juice. "Going to ask about my brother Hansel next?"
"You know I am!" Cass replied. "Except if it's a dark romance kind of thing. I'm not into that sort of thing, especially when drinking fancy juice that tastes like dirt and already has me on the edge of nausea. Seriously, why would anyone juice pomegranates?"
"Gretel why are we here?" Jeisa asked, before Cass annoyed Gretel enough to shoot them.
"To enjoy some waffles and fried chicken, obviously. That's real maple syrup too, by the way." Gretel replied, taking a bite from the crunchy chicken on her plate.
Panko breadcrumbs. That was the only way to get that super satisfying crunch. Well played Gretel, thought Jeisa.
"And to get to know more about Cass." Gretel continued.
"If this is about my business as a Fence," said Cass between chicken and waffle mouthfuls. "I already told you. I can't get that purple case back."
"No, that's not what this is about," said Gretel. "You were a legend long before you were the Fence, Miss Tallum. Before you were even born."
"Is this where the bad guy gives us a whole spiel on her plan for world domination?" Cass sighed. "Is there a PowerPoint? I'd prefer a PowerPoint. I focus better with visual stimuli."
Gretel laughed. "You know, good guys would just be 'guys' without the bad guys."
Jeisa choked on her juice.
"Not that I even believe in the dichotomy," Gretel continued. "From what I've seen, it's all about power. I believe we're all born neutral, generally leaning towards the good, until a few people are presented with power that exceeds that of the many. That's when they not only become the 'bad guys', but they turn feral, killing every good thing inside them."
Jeisa slowly lowered her glass, supressing the feeling of wanting to cough her lungs out after breathing in her drink. Her mind was still reeling from hearing her dad's phrase repeated back to her by this woman, but it was the latter argument that boiled her blood.
"It's a choice, not a given." Jeisa said, trying to keep her voice even. "The same thing can happen to two different people, but it's their individual choice how they react, not some unwritten rule that they'll react in a defined way."
"I disagree." Gretel said, wiping her mouth and pulling out a phone. "When it comes to humanity, I don't think a powerful minority turning vile and treating the weaker majority in a way that's pure evil is a bug. I think it's a feature. I think that somewhere in our evolutionary line, we took the wrong path and missed out on what people call 'enlightenment'."
'Enlightenment will only come with your deaths!'
Was it a coincidence that Gretel had just used the same word?
"And I'm just about to prove this theory without a doubt." Gretel finished as she entered a message into her phone. A few seconds later, four men walked into the dining room. Jeisa began to wonder just how many mercenaries the woman had hired. "This isn't personal, Cassidy. This isn't just about us. It's about the human race. It's about the universe. Trust me, you are now fighting at the forefront of a galactic war, and you are the key to end it."
Two men each grabbed both Cass and Jeisa, leading them to the basement. Jeisa struggled to wriggle out of the tight hold. To spark, she needed skin to skin contact, but those baggy sweats were playing against her. In the end, she resigned to the men's hold and let them carry her to the basement. This room finally broke the theme of the other whimsical rooms that made up this dollhouse. The basement floor and walls were covered in garish, gleaming white tiles. Several drain holes were visible close to two corners of the floor.
The better to wash away your blood, little Red Riding Hood, thought Jeisa.
Now this was more like it. The whimsical, showrooms and that pumpkin soup, waffle and fried chicken experience had been way too messed up.
As if reading Jeisa's mind, Cass said, "And here I was, really looking forward to dessert. What was it going to be? An ice cream sundae? Please don't tell me we're missing out on an ice cream sundae!"
Gretel and the men stayed silent.
One of the pieces of furniture in the room was a metallic chair. The men holding Jeisa forced her onto this chair, pulled off her baggy sweatshirt, then began to wrap her up with large metallic chains tightly encircling her body. The chain links were cold against the skin not covered by her T-shirt. The men then plunged Jeisa's feet into a basin of water. All she needed now was a power source and she would be sweet! She'd burn the whole place down, no problem. Or maybe she'd just blow out all the lights and hope to make it out of the dark basement with Cass without either of them getting shot. Yeah, that was a much better, safer plan.
Her eyes went wide in disbelief when one of Gretel's minions actually stuck jumper cables to her chains. The cables were connected to an electronic machine that was plugged into the wall.
What the...?
Gretel had one of the men drag another chair next to the machine. The men holding Cass dragged her to the chair, wrapped her feet to the chair legs with duct tape and her left hand to the chair's left arm. Gretel then had one of the men duct tape Cass' right hand, palm side down, onto the machine.
"Apologies for the rough handling. I didn't want to ruin my carpets upstairs. You understand, right?" Gretel said to Jeisa, looking genuinely concerned about those carpets. Gretel then turned to Cass. "I am about to pump a thousand volts into your friend Jeisa, Miss Tallum. All you have to do is stop me, as I know you will."
Well, this was going to be awkward, thought Jeisa.
"What the hell are you talking about?" screamed Cass. She was genuinely scared. The machine under her palm whirred to life. "Wait! Wait. Stop. You don't want to do this! Please!"
"You have only a few seconds to decide, Cassidy." said Gretel.
Jeisa's breath caught. Clearly, Gretel wasn't one of those bad guys who'd wait for you to stall and think of a way to escape. In fact, Jeisa was pretty sure that those few seconds were only because that was how long the machine would take to work. Jeisa wasn't sure what one thousand volts would do to her. She could control her ability now, but she'd generally been holding it back to keep from destroying things. She hadn't intentionally tried to spark since that little microwave demonstration for her father.
After that lightning strike... after that insane buzz...
It took Jeisa a few seconds to finally admit it as she struggled against the chains, but she was scared. Looking at Cass' face turn white, Jeisa was scared. Scared because Cass was about to be on the other end of a major spark that would likely electrocute and kill her. Scared because Jeisa knew that she wasn't able to stop this. Because she knew that she didn't want to. Knew that she was going to enjoy this.
A lot.
"I know you, Technopath." Gretel said to Cass as the whirring machine got louder. "The ATMs, the warehouse toys, the pay phones. You always leave behind a distinct electronic signature. You turned off the purple case. Only you could do it. I know you, Technopath. I was there when you were born, or rather, made. And I can program you. You're mine. My weapon. Now show me what you can do! Or let your friend die. The choice is yours."
A scalding, tart, deafening, blinding white lightcovered every single one of Jeisa's senses when that delicious thousand voltsof unbridled energy finally hit her!