Chapter Thirty-Eight:
Coffee Shop
.・。.・゜✭・.・✫・゜・。.
trigger warning: graphic violence, racism
Screams ripped from Ramona's throat as the brand burned her skin. "Stop! Stop it! Don't fucking touch me! Don't fucking touch me!"
The soldier's eyes flickered up to her, a sick grin forming on his lips as he dug the scalding hot iron tool deeper into her hip. "I thought our talk about... what's the word? Ah, yes, respect, had gotten to you. Sadly, no."
"Please!" Ramona cried, her throat burning as she struggled against the restraints digging into her wrists. "¡Déjame ir! ¡Déjame ir!"
Tears streamed down her face involuntarily. If she could, she wouldn't react at all. She wouldn't give those soldiers what they wanted. But she couldn't. She was just a kid. She wasn't cut out for this... She was just a kid. "Please.."
Ramona's voice was weak and shaky, barely above a whisper as she let her head fall back, hitting the cold metal table. She squeezed her eyes shut
"Are you going to speak yet?" The general loomed over Ramona's face, a smirk plastered on his face. "Who do you work for?"
A whimper left Ramona's lips as she shook her head. Anger flashed through the man's eyes as he looked up, spitting something in Russian to the man holding the branding iron.
"We will see how long this disrespect lasts, yes?" He spoke, an evil glint in his eyes as he stood. Panic shot through Ramona's heart as they spoke in a language she couldn't understand.
Her heart stopped in her chest as her eyes landed on the torture device she'd only seen in horror movies. Ramona's blood ran cold as panic took over her body. Sobs and pleads to let her go fell from her lips as she pulled at the restraints, trying to form her hand into a fist to avoid the pure agony she was on the verge of being put through.
"Please.." Ramona whimpered as he stuck the needle of the device under her nail, "Don't."
"We could free you. Feed you, we have doctors. Very good doctors." The general listed off, "If you tell us... who you work for."
"I work at a coffee shop! No, no, please, do-" She cut herself off with a scream as the feeling of her nail being ripped from her finger spread through her hand.
Her eyes drooped and her groans and screams stopped as she fell unconscious. The general scoffed, muttering 'weak bitch' in Russian under his breath. "Wake her up."
~~
A blank expression plastered onto Ramona's face as her eyes focused on the hellish creature chasing after the car.
The ringing in her ears drowned out any other sound trying to force its way through. The world around her became muffled as she zoned out on the creature, staring emotionlessly as she brought her knees up to her chest.
Her throat felt dry and scratchy, begging for water to quench her thirst. Her stomach rumbled, but food was the last thought on her mind. Survival instincts had kicked in, and even if she didn't know when, she knew there was no turning them off anytime soon.
The adrenaline pumping through her veins began to fade away, being replaced with the dull aching pains from her whole body. Not that she'd even acknowledge what she'd gone through tonight. She didn't even want to think about it. It didn't even feel real to her, and part of her thought that the whole experience was just one bad dream that she would wake up from.
"Ramona?" Steve's voice was faintly heard, not loud enough to break through to her. Her eyelids felt heavy, threatening to droop and shut at any given second if she didn't focus her energy on keeping them open. "Ramona."
Her body felt shaken, but she couldn't be bothered to pull herself out of her trance. She was tired. No. No, she was exhausted. She had been broken down. Tossed around and treated like trash. Like she was the scum of the earth they walked on.
These past few days, if she could even call it that. Ramona had no way of knowing how long it had actually been. She had no way of knowing just how long she was strapped to metal table, left in a completely dark room. Almost as if she'd been blinded. The only indicator that she hadn't been, was when the searing white light would burn into her skull as the doors opened, followed shortly by soldiers with torture devices straight out of a horror movie piled in their arms.
She found herself praying that the Russians would come back sooner everytime they left her covered in her own blood. At least while they were in the room, she wasn't surrounded by darkness.
Ramona found herself pulling her eyes away from the demonic creature to look down at her hands. She became shaky as she found herself hyper-focusing on her empty nail beds. The longer she stared, the more painful it became. Flashbacksof the torturous pain she'd felt in those flooded her mind, drowning out any hope. Her fingers ached and throbbed, the memories embedding themselves in as she focused on the dried blood stains drip from her finger tips.
"Ramona!" It was Robin's voice now. "Look at me, would you?"
Steve shared a look with Robin, his eyes growing wide. He hadn't even noticed her hands before, let alone her missing nails. Which made him wonder what extent of the torture she'd gone through he actually knew. The very thought of that made him angry. The boy was filled with rage at what they could've done to her, and that he did nothing to stop it.
He wanted to watch them burn. He wanted to to be the one to do it. He didn't care if it made him a bad person, he wanted each and every one of those sick bastards to pay for what they'd done. For what they put her through. He wanted to watch every single one of them suffer, and he wanted them to suffer every single day for the rest of their miserable, God-forsaken lives.
And then, then Steve wanted them to burn in hell.
~~
"Dusty-bun, you copy?" A feminine voice broke through the radio static.
"I copy, Suzie-Poo." Dustin' familiar voice followed the unknown girl's. "It sounds much better now, thanks."
"Suzie." Steve breathed out in realization, a short and shocked laugh leaving his lips at the realization of who the mystery girl was.
"Okay, so, listen." Dustin continued. "Do you know Planck's constant?"
"Do you know the Earth orbits the sun?" She countered.
Dustin snickered lovingly as Ramona managed to pull her eyes away from her hands to look at the radio. "Okay, so I know it starts with two sixes, and then a.. a... what is it?"
"Okay, let me be clear on this. I haven't heard from you in a week, and now you want me to tell you a mathematical question that you should know so you can save the world?" Disbelief shined clearly through the girl, Suzie's, voice.
"Suzie-poo, I promise, I will make it up to you as soon as possible.
"You could make it up to me now." She suggested.
"What?"
"I want to hear it."
"Not now." Dustin disagreed, his voice raising in pitch.
"Yes, now, Dusty-bun!" Suzie urged. Ramona rolled her eyes, muttering in Spanish under her breath.
"Suzie-poo, this is urgent. The fate of-"
"Yes, yes, you're saving the world. I heard you the first time." Suzie cut him off, "But Ged is also saving Earthsea, and he's about to confront the shadow. So this is Suzie signing off."
"Wait!" Dustin said suddenly. "Wait, wait.. Okay, okay, fine. Fine."
"Oh, no." Robin muttered under her breath, scrunching her nose up in worry.
"Turn around.. look at what you see, in her face, the mirror of your dreams." Dustin started. Ramona rose her eyebrows, shaking her head in disbelief as he continued. "Make believe I'm everywhere
Given in the light. Written on the pages, is the answer to a never ending story! Ah. Reach the stars. Fly a fantasy, dream a dream.. And what you see will be!"
Steve and Ramona shared a look with Robin as their synchronized voices crackled over the radio.
"Rhymes that keep their secrets will unfold behind the clouds. And there upon a rainbow is the answer to a never ending story! Ah! Story! Ah!"
"Planck's constant is 6.62607004."
"Lovely..." Ramona muttered, pulling her eyes away from the creature, "Awesome... So, uh, now what?"
"Now," Lucas started, shifting around to look at the trio, "Now we kill it."
{ A/n: im sorry if this was bAd but,,, theres only like 2 chaps left and im sad :( }
{ Translations: let me go!, let me go! }
{ Edited: No }