The weeks of Christmas break passed, and rather than being where I was supposed to be, I was running closer to where’d I’d rather be. As far away from the Red Pathways and their bonkers plan as possible.

I’d reached my limit on what I could handle from them. It had been non-stop training for weeks now. My body ached constantly, sleep had been nearly non-existent, and I was sick of it. So today, I’d thought enough was enough. And rather than go to more of their training, I was taking some well-deserved me time and going for an easy shake-out run.

Along the residential street, the sun beamed down between wisps of clouds and bare tree branches, warming my face on a rare, non-windy day. The temperature was still well below freezing, and my breath plumed evenly in front of me, while cardinals trilled their morning songs, my feet gliding over the snow-packed cracks in the sidewalk.

I tensed reflexively at the sound of a car engine as it picked up speed on the street behind me. My shoulders loosened as I listened to its engine grow farther away. As I approached the next corner, I glanced down the road, and other than a few parked cars, it looked clear. So, I made to cross the intersection at an angle. Otherwise known as jaywalking; a law I break on a regular basis. You can even tell the cops that one. I’ll allow it.

Mid-way through the intersection, a prick like a bug bite stung my neck. I whipped a hand up reflexively to swat it away before my brain could remind me that it was the dead of winter, and there were no bugs. And then my fingers met a small object the size of the end of a pencil with a needle on the end embedded in the side of my neck. I had about two seconds of wondering what it was, before my left knee gave out on me. My vision pulsed, and the rest of me followed suit.

What is happening?

Fuzzy blobs approached my prone figure on the icy ground as my vision slowly darkened into nothing.

               .                                                     .

Breakity-break in my cognitive processing of time.

“Wake up Sawyer,” a condescending voice cooed. “Beauty sleep is over.”

I blinked open my eyes. Poop on a stick. I was in that diggity darn chair again. Might as well glue my butt to it at this point and carve a hole.

“Ughhhhhhhhh.” I groaned way more dramatically than necessary and hung my throbbing head back. “What do you guys want now?” Was light always this bright? Everything was hazy yet.

“Just as condescending and mutinous as usual, I see.” Jade Hornet dragged her dexterous fingers across the top of the chair, just brushing across the nape of my neck, making me shiver. My mind cleared instantly. Not this crap again.

My gut tightened, but my mouth did not. Some things just don’t change. I chuckled, shaking my head. “You guys are so darn dramatic. It’s amazing. Thinking you can just kidnap me and strap me to this stupid chair again. I thought this was a partnership, a mutual need from both parties. Where’s the trust? Where’s the—”

“You cannot be trusted yet. You made that perfectly clear this morning when you failed to show for training,” Jade Hornet clipped out.

“Really?” I said with a wave of my hands tied tightly behind me. They couldn’t move far, but it was important for conveying my feelings. “You’re hung up on that? I just wanted one measly day off. You’ve been working the garden peas out of me for two weeks straight. My muscles feel like shit. The bags under my eyes are worse than they were during finals, and that’s saying something.

“I haven’t been able to run comfortably in days. And Kyle’s been on my ass all break, wondering where I’m going every day. He’s beginning to doubt that this is all just for some extra credit. I want a break.” I emphasized my last few words and glared up at them.

I took in their out-of-uniform appearances, a rare sight for one of our sessions. They must’ve changed into civilian clothes to draw less attention to themselves while they tracked me down. I really did just want a day off. I could barely open my stupid cheap apartment door after training yesterday. Absolutely every muscle was in pain. And then there was the mental and academic training. Christmas break was supposed to be a break. Did they need me to demonstrate what that meant? I breathed heavily as I gazed at the three of them standing before me, unmoved by my outburst.

WHAM!

My head snapped to the side from Pointed Storm’s backhanded slap, her thick suede winter gloves leaving faint scratches across my cheek. My breathing wavered. As much as I didn’t want to react to the abuse, the rest of me wasn’t as easy to keep in check.

“Curb your tongue,” Pointed Storm said in her lilting voice, “or do you want me to make it stop entirely?”

Jade Hornet’s blades glinted just behind Pointed Storm, along with her impeccably white teeth and that infuriatingly triumphant smile of hers that I loathed just as much as I loathed “4’33” by John Cage.

I glared back at them, my cheek burning, heat welling in my chest. I was furious, but apparently it was above my station to express it.

“Aren’t we past all this?” I said with a level voice. “I’m in too deep to back out, I think that’s pretty obvious by now. Jade Hornet, your dog loves me, we ate delivery pizza together last week, doesn’t that mean anything?”

“Know that we don’t do this lightly.” Pointed Storm approached calmly, her booted footsteps even on the frozen dirt floor. “Breaking protocol and deliberately disobeying orders are serious offenses, both of which you have committed. Loyalty is paramount to our organization, and this method has proved effective countless times.” She waved Werner, AKA Rusted Venom, over from his position off to the side where he’d disappeared a few seconds ago. “The collar please, Rusted Venom.”

I turned wildly to look at his approaching figure, eyes flaring open. Sure enough, a wide banded collar was there in his gloved hands.

“Ooookkkay. Can we—can we not do that?” I started to squirm against the bonds holding me to the chair. “Come on you guys, no need for drastic measures, right?” I let out a breathy laugh. “You can’t really blame me for wanting a break. I mean, think if you were in my situation, wouldn’t you do the same thing? Everyone likes having breaks, they can be really relaxing. I was gonna show up tomorrow right on time, so I can’t really see how missing just one day could be such a big deal and I really don’t want that thing to come any closer to me please go away while I’m still being polite and there’s room for retreat. NonononononoNono.” I cringed as the rough fabric and wires tightened around my neck making it hard to swallow.

“I really don’t—” My words were replaced with a scream as a powerful shock rocketed through my body, making me cough and spasm. Then as fast as it had come, the pain subsided.

“What the cr—” The second time was even worse. I clenched my lips together, trying to suppress my screams until it stopped.

I was breathing heavily, sweat pouring down my face. What is this thing? My mind spun, trying to figure it out. It wasn’t any device we’d gone over in training. Rusted Venom was a master at chemicals and mechanics, but that was way out of my league of understanding. It could be anything.

The fear morphed into a flash of anger. How dare they do this to me. After everything I’d already sacrificed for them.

I raised my head and glared out at their grinning faces. “Get this—”

BAM. It ripped through me again. My body convulsed from the pain, eyesight flashing white. Dear goodness, it was everywhere. When I could finally stop screaming it stopped, and I figured out what triggered it. Not a remote device, not movement, not some sick obsession with torture.

Me. It was me speaking, and probably more specifically, the very vibrations of my vocal cords. Pardon my language, but those fucking bastards.

“Are you done?” Rusted Venom stated, clutching his hands behind his back and leaning forward. His glasses reflected my pain ridden face, while his impeccably ugly, but pristine, suit pulled across his shoulders. His civilian clothes were particularly distasteful in my opinion. Plaid striped suites, texture rough, and colors always some variation of brown.

Drool pooled out of my mouth as I took in labored breaths. Unbridled fury consumed my insides, leaking into my eyes making them burn. There were so many things I needed to say in that moment.

“I can only imagine the foul things you want to utter right now,” Rusted Venom stated calmly.

I jerked against my bonds baring my teeth.

He smirked. “Good girl. You figured it out. Now, moving on.” He turned on his heel and began circling me calmly. “The reason you have not seen this device previously during training is because it’s used only on high-risk hostages in order to keep them silent during ransom videos. And the reason it’s now on you is because of your incessant chatter and,” he turned to face me, gripping the back of the chair and leaning down to get in my face, “we knew it would infuriate you to be silenced.” He pulled away and continued walking. “And I see we were correct. You need to learn discipline, Sawyer. That is the core principle we have been trying to teach you these past few weeks, but I suppose we weren’t being strict enough in our ministrations. You were the one to force this upon yourself. Let’s hope you come out of this all the better. You will not be graduating without it.”

Lecture of the freaking century, but my body shook all the same. For once in my life, I was actually concerned with what was going to happen next. They weren’t going to kill me, but there were things worse than death.

.                                                     .

Once they were done, I was just left there like a sack of potatoes. They took the straps and that humiliating collar off of me, but it didn’t matter much, because it’s not like I could’ve really moved anyway. I was surprised I didn’t fall out of the chair.

The exhaustion I felt in that moment was beyond description. It reached to the depth of my core and left me limp and broken. I took in a shuddery breath, trying to gather my strength, if you could even call it that.

I needed to get home. It was past sunset now, and Kyle would be wondering where I was. I paused, uncertain. Would he, though? Since when did he actually care about my well-being? He mostly just berated me for all my mistakes and childish antics, more worried about how they would cause him problems.

I let out a painful breath of laughter, he probably thinks I was just in my room the entire time, ignoring him or wandering around the neighborhood like a lunatic.

A sudden hot spark of pain had me gasping and weakly clutching my abdomen. They said I wouldn’t have any internal damage, not even a cracked rib. I grimaced, yeah right. I think Jade Hornet got a little too excited as she did her part.

What still pissed me off was that, for a good portion of the time, they just had me sit there, perfectly still and perfectly silent. Regardless, it’d taken the whole day, so who knows what was goin’ on inside this abused flesh sack. Maybe I should switch my major to medical.

I attempted to heave myself up, but it was pretty anti-climactic, ‘cause nothing freaking happened. Stupid muscles being uncooperative.

‘Kay, I could work with this. I decided to try the opposite. Perhaps if I could scoot down to the floor, I could crawl to the wall and use it to boost myself up. Yeah, that might work. My internal cheerleader gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up from the sidelines, before going back to check her phone.

I inched my butt closer to the edge of the chair, my shallow breaths becoming increasingly quicker and raspier. But it was working, I was gradually making some progress. Reaching the edge of the seat, instead of using my arms to catch myself, I flopped to the frozen dirt, smacking my face and pinning my arms underneath me at painful angles. I let out a cry of, let’s say surprise, but it was probably more like misery. Poop on a stick.

With that, the train picked me up for a round trip to sleepy town.

.                                                     .

When I finally did wake up, all that pain I had been feeling had increased ten-fold. I let out a pitiful groan of anguish into the dirt. However, when I tried to move this time, I actually had some luck. Not sure if the increase in pain was a fair price for the ability to move, though. The internal pain itself had subsided a bit, but I think it’d be safe to say I’d gotten a few contusions out of the ordeal. Yay! Blood, blood!

I grinned, despite it all. What a pickle I was in, I guess this is what I got for getting cocky. Thinking I could disobey those fudge muffins without getting fried. I coughed unexpectedly and, also unexpectedly, some chunks came with it. They shot out of my mouth and onto the frozen ground. Doth mine eyes deceive me? I do believe those lumps of matter looked reddish.

If I could’ve laughed, I would have. Oh dearie me, I really must be crazy.

On the plus side, I could breathe better. That extra oxygen to my brain gave me just enough juice to push myself onto my hands and knees, albeit not very sturdily. A newborn doughy baby probs could’ve done better.

I could barely keep my eyes open, but I focused my blurry vision on the metal flappy sheet that was supposed to be the door. In my esteemed opinion, it still wasn’t trying very hard.

I decided not to push it too much, and slowly started crawling across the ground. I wasn’t quite up to trusting my legs to hold the entire weight of me just yet. We had a long way to go before we got home. Four miles in fact. I needed to conserve that strength in my legs for when I got to more populated areas where, if they saw a raggedy girl crawling across the ground, they may have some concerns. Not unmitigated concerns of course, but concerns all the same.