Rushing to the old subway, we hurtled down the cold concrete of the tunnel, dodging old, jagged wooden boards that had once sealed the subway in. The slim streak of light that shone into the tunnel gave us little vision, the many dust particles eventuated in the limited sunshine.
'Where are we going?' Isaac worried, shivering as our surroundings became colder by the second. 'Why are we... Here?'
'This is where the Culebra gang are hiding,' I explained, starting to feel cold myself. 'It's where we were captured and Helena-'
'Saved you, yes, I get it,' Helena rolled her eyes whilst interrupting me. 'You don't have to keep mentioning my 'heroic' act, honestly.'
But I did. I knew Helena didn't believe in herself just yet, and she resorted to brushing off her true ability just like that. It really was annoying.
'Aria's right,' Ted swooped in, backing me up. 'You did save them. You're a hero, Helena. You just need to believe in yourself.'
As Helena blushed, I had my fair share of eye rolling and we continued down the tunnel.
'Well this is pleasant,' Elliot commented sarcastically as we arrived at the centre of the tunnel network, where Tommy and I had ended when we awoke here after being sedated and abducted.
Inspecting the place for any new surprises we would stumble across, I noticed there were more signs of wear and tear throughout the space. The tiles looked as though they had undergone even more damage, and there were many almost unnoticeable reddish-brown stains scattered across the walls. Blood.
'It looks like there's been some sort of fight here,' I observed in curiosity. 'I'm surprised, the gang usually deal with their nuisances with their pet snakes.'
'It's as if some was trying to escape,' Ted joined in with my deductions. 'And it got bloody.'
'This person must've been too quick,' Helena hypothesised with a frown as she tried to think of a possible scenario. 'Do you think they survived?'
'I'm not sure,' I said slowly, looking at the damage on the wall some more. 'Wait, look at the scratches on these tiles.'
The old, grubby grout seeped the crumbling tiles, the softness of the tiles and the dirt accentuating the clean, new scratches indented into the material. They carried on to an opening in the wall just large enough to squeeze through, as well as the same trail of blood we had just noticed.
'It's as if someone's dragged their way into this hole here,' I supposed, pointing towards the opening I was referring to.
'They could be in there, waiting for help!' Isaac exclaimed, caring and concernedly.
'Hello?' Helena projected her voice through the unknown in front of us. 'Is anyone there?'
Nothing.
'They must've moved-' Ted started, but was cut off by a hurried sound.
'Yes! Yes!' A strained voice croaked back to us from the darkness, replying to Helena rather delayed.
'Pass me a torch,' Ted instructed, a very organised Isaac immediately aiding him with his required equipment.
As Ted shone the light into the opening, he and Isaac climbed through, pulling out two mucky and bloody arms from the shadows. Out came a man, a normal, helpless man, pale as a sheet and only wearing ripped rags in place of his clothes.
'Oh my gosh, are you alright?' Helena asked at once.
He just burst into tears.
'Th-hank you-u,' he shivered, his already cold body hitting the freezing temperatures from outside his awful refuge. 'Wait, who are you?'
He retreated back into his hiding place, hastily peering at us from the jagged edges of the wall.
'Seriously, are you alright?' Isaac inquired anxiously.
He seemed awfully shaken up, as something diabolical had happened to him. It was probably the gang's fault.
'Are you... Them?' He quizzed quietly, before quickly realising how stupid a question that was. 'Well, if you were, you wouldn't tell me that...'
'Are you talking about the Culebras?' Ted investigated authoritatively.
'You know who they are?' The man trembled, a slight look of hope on his face.
'What did they do to you?' Elliot exclaimed suddenly with a caring edge to his voice. 'Why are you so frightened of them?'
Helena stretched her hand out for a second time, and he took it willingly. He really was in ruin, the fingernails he lightly dug into Helena's palm untidily bitten with stress. At once he fell to the floor, his side slightly bleeding out into what was left of his dirt-ingrained shirt.
'This isn't good at all,' Elliot mumbled, jumping to his aid and closely assessing his injuries for a minute or two. 'You've been bleeding for a good few days. And you've been internally bleeding underneath the skin around the wound.'
'I thought that was just bruises from when they...' The man left his sentence unfinished in upset.
'Unfortunately not,' Elliot shook his head. 'If we don't get you to a hospital soon, you might not make it to tomorrow.'
Elliot surely didn't hold back when diagnosing his patients. I'd hate to be at the end of his medical reports.
'It's all because of what I did,' the man burst into tears. 'I'm the reason I'm going to die. It's all my fault-'
Glaring at Elliot, I tried to calm down a distraught wreck of a man.
'I'm sure it's not your fault,' I smiled, taking one of his hands like Helena did. 'Sorry, what was your name?'
'Glenn,' he said quickly as he felt a sudden shooting pain up his ribcage.
Elliot tried to tend to Glenn's wound, but without his first aid kit, he had no means of cleaning the gash.
'Why did you end up here?' Ted interjected whilst Elliot ripped some cloth from his t-shirt and tied it around the man's wound. 'What did they do to you?'
'I was trying to stop them,' Glenn told us. 'They're trying to take over the city by cutting off all the medical equipment-' He stopped. 'I've said to much.'
'We already know that, don't worry,' Isaac smiled.
I tried to smile too, but his last sentence had made me feel like there was something not right with Glenn. It was an odd way to tell us he knew more than the average Joe.
'What do you mean?' I inquired suspiciously.
'I wasn't supposed to know about this,' Glenn bowed his head, almost... Ashamed.
Ashamed?
'How did you find out about this whole operation then?' I further pushed my questions.
'I found them down here,' he said shiftily, avoid my eye contact.
'So you just 'happened' to find them?' I spurted sarcastically, trying to get to the bottom of it all.
'Aria!' Ted shouted over me. 'That's enough. He's been through enough. He's not the enemy here.'
Ted, and the others, seemed to have taken a liking to Glenn, the caring, unjudgemental people they were. But we all needed to be wary of this Glenn. If he was even called Glenn. He was not to be trusted.
'Could you show us where they are?' Helena asked Glenn, helpfully moving the conversation along after a long, awkward silence whilst Elliot gave him his jacket.
'No!' Glenn exclaimed in fright, ever so slightly retreating back to the wall as soon as he could stand up.
'Sure, they beat the hell out of you, but you can at least help us,' Elliot proposed, a hint of annoyance in his speech.
'He won't need to help you,' a booming voice chuckled frighteningly, one that I recognised instantly.
It was the Culebra gang's boss, Mr Bellini.
'You really believed he just happened to find us?' Bellini narrowed his eyes in amusement.
'See!' I exclaimed, as if I had won the grand price in the event.
'Well done,' Bellini sarcastically remarked at me, making me shut up.
'Then how did you find them?' Ted frowned at Glenn, the look of betrayal painted across his face.
'Why, he works for me, of course!' Bellini smirked at my friends' trust in him. 'And, you know why he was scared?'
'Oh I don't know,' I rolled my eyes.
'Because of our family recipe,' Bellini encircled us, his henchmen suddenly appearing beside him.
He took a syringe from behind his back, an amber, almost-clear liquid nearly filling the tube. Before we could fight back, Bellini's men restrained us all except from Glenn, who Bellini held himself.
'Working for this gang can be so very toxic,' Bellini said, as if he was quoting some famous book, and dug the needle of the syringe into Glenn's skin.
The area around the puncture immediately swelled and reddened, Glenn erupting with a fit of coughs before he died in seconds.
'You killed him!' Helena exclaimed, saddened by the loss of a person we could've saved.
We could have saved him. We could have beaten Bellini. But instead we were being held back by his men and we couldn't fight back. Even the Vigilante couldn't.
'I would have given him something worse than death, but I'm leaving that surprise for all of you,' Bellini winked ironically, taking a small device from his pocket like he had the day Laurel had been bitten from Bellini's doing. 'Goodnight children.'
And then I felt as thought I was falling to the floor and to the land of dreams.
Oh wait. I meant nightmares.