Sky bolted.
Tony sat up with a gasp, as Troy snarled and pointed in the direction of Skylar, weaving her way in and out of tables and giant computer screens.
"Get her!" he roared at Stacy.
I dashed out in front of Stacy, my upper body erupting in flames. The harsh brightness and heat of the flames caused Stacy to jump back, his black eyes burning brightly, but I didn't know whether it was from anger or the flames.
He hissed angrily, but made no move to jump past me.
"Skylar!" Tony shouted at the top of his lungs. "Skylar, relocate! It's too obvious, tell them to move to Harry's favorite place!"
"GO AFTER HER!" Troy screamed. "STACY, GO!"
Stacy took a step forward, but I increased the height of the flames on my body, and held my out hands. The flames lit up the dark room, casting eerie shadows on Stacy's face and the computer screen.
He started forward, but I grabbed his arm, burning him. He pulled back angrily, hissing in shock, his face contorting.
The door slammed shut as Skylar found her way out, and Stacy growled menacingly, but I stood my ground.
Troy spun around to face Tony. "Where is she going?! Where is Harry's favorite place!"
Tony smirked up at Troy. "Like I'll ever tell you."
Troy straightened his back, and looked down at Tony who was sitting on the ground. "Stacy, stand down."
Stacy stopped growling at me, his features immediately relaxing into an unlined, calm face.
I let my body cool down, but not entirely. My arms still glowed like embers, and I could feel heat radiating from my face.
Troy picked a walkie talkie, and spoke into it. "Alexandra. Can you hear me?"
Tony and I exchanged a confused glance. Who was Alexandra? Tony jerked his head toward the door, and I nodded. I glanced at Troy, but he was to preoccupied, barking out orders into the walkie talkie.
I started inching towards the door, but as soon as I started moving away, I bumped into something hard. Something seized my arm with an iron grip, and I screamed.
Troy spun around, reattaching the walkie talkie to his hip. "Well done, Stacy." He smirked. "Don't let go."
The clone hummed with pleasure, and tightened his grip on my arm, even though it was still scorching hot. I made my arm go as hot as it could, without catching on fire.
Stacy stiffened next to me, but to my dismay, he didn't let go. Troy chuckled. "He won't let go, Parker. He physically can't, since I ordered him. He'll just hold on while you burn his skin."
The smell of burning flesh hit me like a slap, and I glanced over at Stacy. His face was contorted in pain, and I saw something flicker in his black eyes; panic.
I remembered something Jamie said to me when he first joined us on the way to California.
I'm sorry if I avoid you, Evie. Nothing against you...it's just I've had bad experiences with fire. I'm skittish around it. It happens to be one of the few things that terrifies me.
Guilt racking my stomach, I stopped burning Stacy's hand as Troy turned back to face Tony.
"Now." Troy clenched his fists, steel grinding, making a horrible noise. "Where is Harry's favorite place?"
"I'll never tell you." Tony repeated venomously.
"Well then," Troy said slowly. Steel scraped against steel again, but this time he wasn't clenching his fists. He was slowly dragging a small hunting knife out of its sheath. "Maybe I'll just have to force it out of you."
***
Tony's head whipped violently to the side as Troy's steel hand smashed into it. "TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE." Troy shouted, furious.
Tony calmly spat out some blood, and glanced up at Troy. "No."
I desperately wished I could do something, but Stacy had handcuffed my hands behind my back, and was holding a knife to my throat. He had orders from Troy to slit my throat if I made any attempt to escape or intervene. So, I could only watch in horror as my best friend was beaten in front of me.
Tony was also handcuffed with steel cuffs, and he was sitting in a wooden chair. Blood dripped from his nose, and his cheeks were seriously bruised. His accelerated healing was having a hard time keeping up with the fresh injuries he kept receiving.
Troy traced the knife over Tony's top lip, drawing blood. I winced, but if Tony was in any pain, he didn't let it show.
"Antonio," Troy said softly. "If you don't tell me where they are, I will not hesitate to plunge this knife into your heart."
My stomach lurched, but Tony simply smirked. "Yes, you will. You need me alive to tell you where they are. This building is huge. They could be anywhere. Even if you have every doctor and clone searching, it could take days to find them here."
Troy snapped his fingers, and with a clack, the handcuffs fell off of Tony. He wrenched Tony's hands forward, and held onto his right thumb. "Tony," he said fiercely. "Tell me where they are. Or I'll break every single of one your fingers, one by one."
Tony's mouth stayed shut, but his face turned gray.
"Very well then." Troy flicked his wrist. There was a sickening crunch, and Tony let out a harsh cry of pain.
"Tony!" I cried out. Stacy snarled, and dug the knife a little deeper into my throat.
"Listen here, Sparks." Troy growled, snapping Tony's index finger, earning another cry of pain. "This whole building is on lockdown. Even if it meant searching for weeks, I wouldn't hesitate to kill you here, today. Because there is no way in hell anyone is getting in or out of this building. This is your last chance. Tell me where they are. Or you die."
Tony didn't say anything. "What's is gonna be, Antonio?"
"Just tell him, Tony! It's not worth dying for!"
Tony's eyes snapped up to meet mine. "Not worth dying for? Skylar isn't worth dying for? Derek, Evalynn, David? They aren't worth dying for?!"
My brain couldn't comprehend anything, except the fact that I was probably going to see my best friend die any moment now.
"What's it gonna be, Tony? You gonna tell me where they are or not? Yes, or no?" Troy spun the knife around on his fingers.
Tony didn't answer, just stared at the ground.
"AUGH!" Troy roared. He grabbed Tony's wrist, and violently twisted it to the side. The sound of bones breaking echoed through the room, but was quickly covered up by the sound of Tony screaming in pain.
I sagged back against Stacy, not caring about the knife at my throat, sobbing in terror.
"YES OR NO, TONY! ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION."
"Sí." The word was a whisper, barely heard.
A smile grew on Troy's face. "Sí?" He repeated. "Sí?"
Tony looked up at Troy with all the hate and rage of a demon. "Sí you in Hell."
*** Diamond's POV
"What do you mean by that?" I demanded.
Jamie shrugged. "Forget it."
"No!" I said, reaching out to grab his shoulder. "Tell me!"
"Get back!" Jamie jerked out of my reach.
I yanked my hand back to my side. "I'm sorry..."
"No, it's not you. It's just that as of right now, since I'm only half a soul, I need another half. So it's searching for one. The ideal one is the one Stacy has. But if you touch me, my half soul will latch onto yours, and I'll become part of you."
I cringed. "That sounds a bit disturbing."
"Yeah. I've seen it happen too. Only a full soul can get into Heaven. Half a soul waits here. We are called the Lonely Ones. When the Lonely Ones accidentally latch into a full soul here in Purgatory, it becomes a soul and a half. I've seen it happen. They can't get into Heaven either. They are called the Damned."
"And where do they go?" I asked, already knowing the answer.
"Hell."
Suddenly, a strange sensation, like being inside a wind tunnel overcame me. Jamie and the white room seemed to be getting further away, and he was harder to hear.
"Jamie, what's happening?!" I cried out.
"They found a way to bring you back." He smiled at me. "Good bye, Diamond."
An idea formed in my brain.
"Wait! If the rest of your soul is nearby, but you touch a full one, what will happen!" I screamed to be heard over the rushing wind and fading room.
I saw Jamie frown. "I don't know, it's a risk. The two half souls will probably fight to be with each other and ignore the full soul. But I don't know for sure, why?"
That was all I needed to hear. I started walking forward, reaching out, feeling like I was swimming up a waterfall, the white room around us becoming dark.
"Diamond, no! Stop! You'll get us thrown in Hell!"
"You don't know that for sure!" I shouted back. "You could be fully alive again!"
"Is that a risk you're willing to take?!"
I reached his side, but he jerked back, and I found myself unable to move forward anymore.
"Jamie!" I screamed at the ever fading room, seeing his pale face disappear. "You might be able to see Skylar again!"
For a horrifying moment, I thought my words were lost in the howling wind, but then something grabbed my arm with such force I cried out in pain. The last thing I saw was Jamie's determined, yet terrified face as darkness came from every corner and swallowed us whole.