by Forgy, M. N.
“Did someone shit in your cereal?” I sneer in return.
She scoffs at my statement. “I have your phone. Do you want it?” she changes the subject.
“Yeah, I have a lot of pictures and stuff on there.” She turns without saying a word, and I follow her out to the back lot where the cruisers are kept. I wonder if I said something to upset her. She opens the passenger door and gestures her hand to the console.
“Thanks for keeping it for me, if it was put into evidence it would probably be cracked or—”
Before I can finish my statement a blinding white light slams into my head knocking me into the car face first. Losing consciousness everything turns black, and I instantly wonder what the fuck I got myself into.
Felix
Sitting at the desk, Salvatore continues to puff on his cigar, eyeing Zeek and I over the smoke dancing between us. I can’t pinpoint the type of cigar but it’s strong and more than likely expensive. The desk shines as if it has been recently shined, and the windows are so clean I can see my reflection from here. He’s made himself comfortable here, and I find it unsettling. I find everything about this fucker off, and I’m done playing puppet. Blood will be shed, and the vengeance of an untold war will start before I leave this room tonight.
“Seems your club has survived the target that was placed on your back,” he replies smugly.
“Didn’t notice there was one,” I reply arrogantly.
He chuckles. “I’m sure you didn’t. I’ve called you guys here today to settle a score. You don’t want to be our muscle, that’s your loss. However, what about doing business?” he offers.
“Depends what it is,” Zeek crosses his arms.
“We will call off the heat if you agree to ten percent.”
“Of what?” I ask, getting tired of his vagueness.
“Us letting you stay on the strip of course.” He laughs maniacally.
“You’re trying to shake us down?” I raise a brow, standing. I’ve had enough of this shit.
“You need our protection boys, it’s clear to see.” He holds his hands out, his voice serious. “The Bosses aren’t happy with you guys if you remember?”
Quickly I pull my gun from my waistband and aim it at his head. Two of his men instantly pull their guns in my directions. Zeek remains sitting, calm.
“I have a message for your boss,” I tell him, and his eyes widen. “No deal.” I change the aim of my gun and pull the trigger. A bullet slamming into one of his guard’s heads, just as Zeek puts a bullet in the other’s head. They both fall to the ground, their blood staining the floor.
Salvatore stands, his face red and flustered. He’s scared shitless that we were so bold to have killed two of the mafia’s guards, but maybe now he will get the fucking hint of who he is fucking with.
Salvatore sits back in his seat and takes a drag of his cigar.
“I’ll deliver your message,” he replies eerily calm.
“Good,” I quip.
Alessandra
Waking up my mouth is dry, my head hurts, and my face feels wet. The smell of damp dirt and the familiar smell of old blood lingers around me.
Reaching out to touch my sore head my hand hits something hard. Looking up, I notice I’m in a cage of some sort.
“Hello?” I scream, shaking the cage, but nobody answers. My head rings, and the dry blood mats my hair. Fear begins to sink its teeth into my chest and I start to hyperventilate.
This cage, this place, it’s familiar. But how?
“Brown 5, you are not a little girl, and you are not a human. You are a weapon, do you understand?”
Pulling my knees into myself my hair shielded my face from the man pacing in front of my cage. His black hat was pulled down so far I couldn’t even see his eyes. Just a broad nose, and thick lips.
“Yes sir,” I responded meekly. Not sure the difference between a little girl and what I am anyway.
I shake my head of the image and gasp for air as if I was just shoved underwater and couldn’t breathe. I grab at the bars in front of me, my knuckles white from the grip.
This is all too familiar, little pieces of the nightmares over the years of my life suddenly becoming my reality.
“Starting to piece it together?” The familiar voice of Raven echoes through the dark area before she finally steps into view. A small light bulb swings just above her casting an eerie glow down amongst her.
“I… I can’t remember.” I blink rapidly, the answer to everything on the tip of my tongue. It’s all so familiar, yet strange.
The sound of kids screaming in the cages next to me. Bruises and fights reeling through my head like a bad movie. Swallowing hard I try to resist the thoughts coming through my memory, needing out of this cage, this place.
Wait, I have the phone Felix gave me. Instantly I shove my hand down my back pocket and Raven laughs.
“Yeah, we took that. How dumb do you think we are?” Raven laughs, and my hooded eyes draw to hers.
“You’re a fucking traitor,” I grit, and she scoffs.
“Speak for yourself, Brown 5.” Her calling me Brown 5, hits me like a beaming black light sent from hell.
I used to live here. Fight here. Not live, but survive. Not just me, but lots of kids.
“This is crazy. This isn’t real,” I mutter, trying to pull it all together. This is just a nightmare, this isn’t real.
“It’s very real. Iraq, Pakistan, lots of places do what happened here. Taking children from happy homes, ripping them of their memories and personalities, and making them into human weapons,” a male voice adds. My head snaps to the right, watching a dark shadow enter into the meek lighting. He’s wearing a hat lowered on his head, a dark shirt that is ripped showing hard abs, and black jeans.
A tall man with a black hat hovering over me filters into my memory, and I begin to shake where I sit. He hurt me, starved me, and then cared for me. I don’t remember him fully, but the terror wracking through my body tells me I hated him. He’s older now, his face wrinkled, and hair grayed. He looks more terrifying now than he does in my nightmares.
“Wh-what is this?” I stutter, looking at Raven through thick steel bars.
“Let me remind you. I’m Black A,” she seethes.
Dark memories swirl in my head, flashing behind my eyes. Clutching my head, I lower it trying to slow all the images stringing together behind my eyes. The voices and sounds that weren’t there coming forth now.
“You will defeat Black A, or you won’t eat dinner. You’ve defeated her three times, but if you beat her five times in a row the master will put her to rest and you will be the best!” Black Hat explained, a tear slid from the corner of my eyes. I didn’t want to hurt her, I didn’t want to hurt anyone.
“Enough of that. People cry, weak people cry. You are not people, you are a machine!” he hollers in my face, locking me into my cage, my home.
“Black A,” I whisper, everything about her returning. I eye her, my opponent that I was conditioned to forget. My dad - I cringe at the term. I remember him finding me, and the therapy treatments to forget my past, but everything else is a blur. How he became my father, how my life became normal I don’t know.
“But you’re my partner?” I ask confused.
“I was pushed into being a cop to get close to you, dumbass!” she snaps. Raven, Cross, and Black Hat. All of this was a set-up.
Black Hat hunches down in front of my cage, flicking the lock with his finger effortlessly. Showing me I am his prisoner, that I’m not free.
“What are you going to do now that your man isn’t here to protect you?” he sneers, talking about Felix.
“I don’t need a man to handle my shit,” I mutter, my head lowered, eyes hooded. If I’m released from this cage, I might kill this man. The urge running through my veins is toxic and unpredictable. I can’t control the darkness lurking through me when I look at him.
“I broke you once, I can do it again,” he threatens. I’m scared, nearly ready to
piss myself, but I won’t let him know that.
“Fuck you!” I growl. He tilts his head to the side with a look of desire. “You were a child back then, now that you’re a woman, that can be arranged in your training, Brown 5,” he’s smug, and something dark rears its head as I lash out trying to grab him through the bars.
“I’ll kill you!” I roar, not sure where the words or anger are coming from.
“You’re going to have your work cut out for you.” Raven eyes me like a wild animal. It’s accurate, I feel like one.
“Yeah, but when she breaks, she will be the one to bring The Sin City Outlaws to their knees. Starting by hitting Zeek right where it hurts, by taking his children,” Black Hat informs. “Cross will take over and everything will be back to the way it was.”
My head snaps up with his news. “What did you say?”
Hunching over I throw up, my uniform pants painted with warm chunks from the donut I swiped on my way to the locker room. Black Hat laughs deeply, pleased with the terror etching itself into my memory one image at a time.
Cross worked for Frank who used to control the Sin City Outlaws, but I never knew how fucked up the man really was. He is going to take Jillian’s kids and do to them exactly what he did to me and Raven.
“I’m going to let Cross know we have her and grab that box of shit you brought to get this started. Watch her closely,” Black Hat points at me, and I flip him off in return.
“Don’t forget my wine!” Raven hollers after him.
She stands just underneath the light, her arms crossed as she looks at me curiously, angrily. The rookie I thought I knew long gone, and placed with a mysterious dark creature.
“Why are you doing this?” I ask, pushing my emotions to the back of my throat. Raven is free, I am free. Why wouldn’t she tell me all of this when she met me and we could work together in finding Cross and these human trafficking rings?
“Because, you were saved and I wasn’t!” she screams so loud my ears ring, all of her pent up emotion spilling at once. “You were privileged enough to forget about what happened here, but I wasn’t! I will never forget, Brown 5!” she screams, kicking the cage I’m contained in. The rage in her voice, the resentment in her tone, I know she more than hates me.
“You tried to have me killed didn’t you?” I eye her, the stitches in my side itching and burning. They are probably pulled apart.
She laughs mockingly. “If I wanted you dead, you would be. That day we were going to take you if fucking dispatch didn’t call it in,” she informs, and I clamp my eyes shut. I should have listened to my gut, I shouldn’t have trusted Raven. Suddenly Raven turns, lifting her shirt revealing a scar in the shape of an X.
“I am Black A, and nothing will change that. Just as you are Brown 5, and always will be. You will remember everything, and hurt just like me, ” she informs gravely, my life as I know it vanishing as I know it and replacing with something much darker.
I slide my hand up the back of my shirt, the pad of my finger sliding over the scar on my lower back that is identical to hers.
“This X will remind you that you are branded, that you are stock and replaceable. You are owned, Brown 5. Your parents are no longer, I am your parent your teacher.” Clenched eyes I wail as searing hot metal burns into my lower back.
I shake my head of the flashback, willing them to stay forgotten. The darkness creeping through my veins at these memories making me feel cold and bitter.
“This is what we are bred to do, made to do. We were handpicked to be the best criminals in the world. Trained to be lethal, and killed if you’re lesser than that.” She points at me. “You are my lesser, tainted and weak and I will prove that!” She kicks my cage, and I flinch.
“It’s an act of terrorism, Raven, not strength,” I explain, trying to dig the world of law enforcement up through all of the broken memories trying to take over.
“Every day I went without food because of you. No shower, or blanket because of you. You haunted my dreams and made my nightmares. You are the monster that lurks behind a badge without a clue of what you’ve done and it’s not fair!” Her face is red, sweaty, and she is irrational as she releases her pent up aggression.
Black Hat struts back into the room with a box, sliding it onto the table behind Raven.
“Everything okay?” he questions her, and she takes a deep breath.
“Of course, I can handle it,” she replies calmly, as if she didn’t just go crazy bitch on me.
“I brought that cheap ass wine you like, thought we could celebrate catching her,” Black Hat chuckles.
I rattle the bars, needing out. Feeling suffocated, and hopeless. I can’t just sit here and let all of this happen again.
“SOMEONE HELP ME!” I scream so loud my throat bleeds. I know nobody can hear me, but I have to fight back.
“Shut up!” Black Hat throws an empty beer can at me.
“Let me out of here now!” I kick the cage back, not caring of the repercussions.
“That’s it,” he seethes, turning behind him he grabs something off the table. Being down on the ground I can’t see what is on it. Hunching down, he unlocks the cage, and I begin to kick and scratch. Bite and scream. Anything to gain some control and escape. He sits on top of me, the cage so small I’m pinned to the cold ground. Fisting my chin harshly, he dabs something on my lips, and I whimper as a thick warmth coats them. Using both hands, he pinches my lips together, before blowing on them. His dark eyes bringing so many memories to the surface. I close my eyes, not wanting to remember the terror this man brought to my life but it’s no use. They fly into place and I feel more like myself than I ever have. It’s scary. I feel dangerous, alive, and ruthless.
I was Brown 5, taken from my family to train to be the best killer. I have no life, this was life.
He pushes me back into the cage and slams the door shut, locking it.
Opening my mouth to scream at him I can’t. My lips are sealed shut and when I try to pull them apart it tears at the skin brutally.
My wide eyes cut to his and he holds a small tube in between his thumb and forefinger. Super Glue. He fucking glued my lips shut.
“Watch her, I’m going to go take a piss,” he orders Raven. When he leaves the room, I pry at my lips, clenching my eyes shut as I peel them apart like layers of an onion. It stings, burns, and I have to stop halfway as tears slip from eyes from the excruciating pain.
“You really are fucking stupid,” Raven taunts, watching me tear my lips apart. It’s just pain, I can do this.
Taking a deep breath, I bite my cheek and try to pull my inner Brown 5 to the surface. A warrior not scared of pain, but a survivor. Trying again I jerk at my lips and the soft skin of my lips tear and bleed, but finally they part slowly.
Sobbing, I wipe the blood splitting from my bottom lip with the back of my hand.
Raven eyes me like an animal that just did a trick, amazed. She may hate me, but she looks up to me. I can tell.
“I remember most of everything, Raven. I remember how scared I was back then, how hungry I was, I was in that shit with you, and…” My head falls, wishing so hard I could change what happened but I can’t. Not wanting to remember the hurt and pain I caused others just like me.
I’m a fucking monster and went around with my head held high knowing I was different but not the depths of it.
Looking up through blurry eyes, lips bleeding, I sigh at a loss for words.
“I am not your enemy, he is,” I point where Black Hat went. Her hands drop as she eyes the room Black Hat went in. Her body tensing. “Cross is who took everything from us, and broke us.” I tremble with anger, with pain.
“No, you went on living a normal life. Sunday church, a cheesy family. I’ve been drowning in pain this whole time,” she states and a crack of emotion shows. I slipped past her mask of control, and this is my chance to work her. To get out of here.
“I would have taken you with me if I had the choice,” sympathy laced in my
tone. “I would have taken everyone,” I gesture toward the other cages, and her eyes flash with an unknown look.
“It’s not too late, you can have normal. Have a family, start over. If I can do it, you can do it.” I shrug.
She hunches down, eyeing me with softer eyes. “I still remember my parents, do you?” she asks with glossy eyes. My head falls, and no matter how hard I dig… I don’t see them in my heart.
“I don’t, but I wish I did,” I cry, tears stinging my raw lips.
“It’s the only thing I hang onto, my mom and dad. The memories of us before my life was turned into…” she shakes her head. “I’ll never escape this hell,” she whispers.
“You can escape now, Raven,” I coax her, and her head snaps to mine. “You didn’t have control last time, you do now,” I continue hoping to rub her down.
“I…” she stumbles on her words, her eyes filling with tears. “I’ve hated you my entire life, and thought about what I would do to you given the chance.” She hangs her head, a tear slipping down her cheek. “And now all I want to do is let you go.” Her voice thick with emotion. “Why?” she shrugs.
“Do it, let me go, and we can fight this together, Raven.” I jump at the bars, reaching through I cup her hand. It’s cold and hard, anything you would expect a human to have voided. Her eyes peer up at mine.
“No,” she grunts. I blink. No what? No, she won’t let me go? Or no we won’t fight this?
Standing, she grabs something from the table, and bends back down, unlocking the lock. She looks at me with sad eyes. She’s so broken, so hurt and confused she doesn’t know what she wants. She just wants to be loved, belong somewhere. I know, because I remember the feeling. If this whole experience brought anything back, it was that cold, searing feeling of not belonging. Dropping the key to the ground, she whimpers before slinking out of the room like a ghost.
Oh my God, I’m free. I’m free. Quickly I unlace the lock holding the door to the cage and push the gate open just as Black Hat walks into the room.
“Where do you think you’re going?” He rushes at me and I quickly stand and kick him in the face. His head whips to the side, but it doesn’t slow him. He grabs ahold of me and slams my head into the table. A bright light flashes behind my eyes, my head throbbing painfully. I notice a rusty screwdriver lays ahead on the rickety table. I reach for it, but it’s just out of reach. Fuck! Using my tiptoes I push forward, and my fingers tickle the metal that makes up the straight edge.