Part 22 (1/2)

Riley looked around. She was lying there, clutching her ankle. She grimaced as she gripped onto it. Behind, Riley saw more of Mattius' people coming.

”My ankle,” she said. ”f.u.c.king thing. I knackered it the other week. Must've-” She yelped again when she tried to move it.

Riley tensed his jaw. He wanted to go back there. He wanted to help drag Melissa away. ”Amy. You get her left. I'll get her right. We can get out of this.”

He didn't hear a response from Amy.

”Amy!” he shouted. ”If we don't help Melissa, Mattius' people are going to...”

He stopped speaking when he turned around.

The first things he noticed were Siobhan and Carly. They had gags around their mouths and cuffs around their hands and legs.

Then he saw Amy.

She had a hand around her mouth. A man's hand.

Riley remembered this man, with his jet black, curly hair and his piercing blue eyes.

He remembered him being right by Mattius' side when he'd killed Chlo and Jordanna.

Static crackled through a walkie-talkie. The man lifted it. ”Ricky?” the voice on the other end said. ”You got 'em?”

Ricky paused for a few seconds. He hesitated, looking right into Riley's eyes.

Then he clicked the b.u.t.ton on the walkie-talkie and tightened his grip around Amy's mouth.

”Got them,” Ricky said.

Chapter Five.

Riley had no idea how long he'd been locked up in total darkness.

But when the light finally arrived, he kind of wished he could return to that darkness again.

He had no idea what time of day it was up until that point. There wasn't even a minuscule crack under the door that let in any light. Part of him wanted to believe he'd been in here a few hours. But he was thirsty. Really thirsty. His throat was so dry; dry enough for him to wonder if he'd been in here longer, unfed, unnourished.

And as he lay there, strapped to the table by the ankles and the wrists, he started to believe that he was just being left to die in here.

It didn't take long for the voices to set in.

First, there was Jordanna's voice. He thought he saw her sitting on the other side of the room, one leg over the other. Her face was blackened, but Riley knew it was Jordanna.

”Are you happy now?” she asked.

Riley heard the disappointment in her voice, and that in turn disappointed him. He felt like he'd let her down, somehow. And in a way, he supposed he had. He'd allowed himself to be too driven by revenge. He'd been careless in his attack on Mattius' place, if he could even refer to it as an attack.

He'd allowed emotion to get in the way, and allowing emotion to get in the way got people killed.

All over again, people had got killed.

Something had to change.

”Things change when you get your revenge on Mattius,” Chlo said. ”For what he did to us. For what he did to you.”

Riley tasted bitterness in his mouth. He knew no matter how much he fought the demons of his own consciousness, he was always going to end up reaching the same conclusions; cornered by the same hurdles.

He'd try to distance himself from that need for revenge, and the memories of Chlo and Jordanna falling would surround and suffocate him all over again.

He allowed himself to get too close-too absorbed-to that need for revenge and... well. He ended up strapped to a table and left in the darkness to die of thirst.

Then the door opened.

The sound made Riley jump. The light wasn't much more welcoming, either. He heard footsteps, then. Footsteps walking closer towards him. In the air, he smelled sweat cutting through the damp mustiness of this room.

He lifted his head to get a look at who was coming.

When he saw, his muscles tightened.

Mattius was in the room. He was walking towards him. In one hand, he held a plastic flask of water.

In the other arm... Kesha.

”Let go of her,” Riley begged, rabidly struggling against the cuffs. ”Let the f.u.c.k go of her!”

”Whoa, now,” Mattius said, standing by Riley's side. ”Language. And calm yourself, man. She's relaxed at the moment. Wouldn't want to get her into a state. You know how much effort it takes to calm her down when she's in a state? Oh, wait. Yeah. You'll remember very well, won't you?”

”If you hurt her. If you hurt her in any way, I'll-”

”What? You'll what, Riley? See, from where I'm standing, you're the one pinned down right now. And besides. Why the h.e.l.l would I want to hurt her? Not just because of the cure in her bloodstream, which is very handy, by the way. But why would I want to hurt such a ray of sunlight like her?”

Adrenaline sped through Riley's bloodstream at full throttle. He wanted to fight. But he was just too mixed in his emotions. Just too weak.

”Anyway,” Mattius said. He poked the flask of water into Riley's mouth and squeezed so hard that Riley coughed up some of the water, regardless of how much he wanted to drink it. ”I thought I'd pop down here just to see how you were getting on. Figured you could do with a drink. And, y'know. A morale boost. Seeing Kesha's okay. Something like that.”

”My friends,” Riley said, still choking a little. If there was any goodness to be had from that water, it was gone now. ”You didn't...”

Mattius sighed and tilted his head. ”Riley, contrary to what you might think, I'm not a monster. I told you. If you cooperate, I'll cooperate back. Now we've had a few occasions where you haven't cooperated. And for that reason, unfortunate things have happened. But hey. Look at all the damage you've done to my group. Think about the heads you severed from innocent people. Fathers. Think about the bodies you left to burn. Mothers. Think very hard about all those. When you think about it, you'll realise how lenient I've been. You are not the good guy, Riley. Not like you think you are.”

Riley didn't know what else to do. He didn't know what else to say. He was trapped. Mattius, as much as he wanted to get his revenge on him, had spared Kesha's life. That was something. It had to be. ”What now?” he asked.

A sinister smile crept around the edges of Mattius' face then. ”See, I'm done. I've forgiven you. I've let revenge go, and I've let go of my demons. You should try it some time. But there's someone else who I believe still hasn't quite finished with you yet.”