The Hostage and the Runaways

When Isabella awoke the second time her body was cool, the fever had broken. She also smelled food cooking in the kitchen a few feet away and hushed conversation from the chairs that were maybe two or three feet.

She opened her eyes slowly, Killian’s arms pressed around her and his face a mere inch from hers.

Isabella smiled and breathed deep, his breathe a mix of fresh mint and wintergreen. She loved his smell, his smell was masculine but soft. It was hard to describe but she looked forward to waking up to it every morning. For the moment she breathed him in and stared at his peaceful face.

“I love you.” Isabella whispered when his mouth twitched and his tired eyes opened, sensing he was being watched.

Carefully she brought her head over and kissed the tip of his nose, which made him chuckle and sought after her mouth with his tender lips.

“God, that’s still nauseating. Get a room you two.” Harry piped, his hushed conversation coming to an end, masking his face with a relieved smile. “Hi luv, welcome back to the world of the living, you gave us all a bit of a startle.”

Isabella broke Killian’s kiss and sat up with the same light smile.

“I didn’t mean to. Ethan, he –“Isabella broke off, the smile leaving her lips remembering. Harry approached the bed, crawling onto it and wrapping his arms around his former captive.

“He won’t hurt you, no one’s going to hurt you again, luv. That is a promise. You have seven guys here –all of them willing to protect you. Just rest assured and take comfort. Like Killian says, true love is not always about getting the girl, it’s about defending her when she really needs them to.”

“I see my lessons on wise words have not fallen on deaf ears.” Killian grinned, also sitting up and rubbing his love’s back.

“You got more influence with your words then you think, mate.” Harry confirmed, kissing Isabella on the cheek and standing up and stretching.

Isabella frowned when she saw Emory on one of the chairs.

Killian followed her stare and shrugged.

“Not in our control, little fawn.” Killian said softly, watching her frown deepen.

Emory’s hands were secured together behind him with Velcro, his ankles bound in the same fashion while a longer piece of it secured him tightly to the chair. The gag that had been continuously forced into his mouth was rubbing the corners of his lips raw, making them bleed slightly. On top of that there was a black circle around his eye where he looked to have been punched.

“Emory?” Isabella called softly, watching him pick his head up, turning to where she had called him. The whole room going silent.

His green eyes were worn and defeated. He simply sat placid against the chair, his head dropped to his lap and his eyes red from crying. There were a few drying tears stains but he simply stared submissively at the beautiful and broken girl.

“Are you okay? Do you need anything?” Isabella asked, moving to the edge of the bed but Killian’s arms wrapped around her chest and his lips lingered by her ear, whispering something Emory couldn’t hear.

Isabella faltered, looking at Louis who sat the closest to their prisoner.

“Lou? Please? We’re not like Glen –we aren’t even the same species of human to Ethan. We’re not –“She saw the disapproving look Louis was giving her and let her voice trail off.

“I’m not caring for rubbish. He’s a shum, a duffer. He deserves nor should expect any pity from the way he treated you. I’m actually having a hard to fathoming why you see him as human at all.” Louis huffed, folding his arms across his chest as the tension in the room spiked.

Isabella felt a pang of guilt shoot through her chest, casting another glance at their prisoner.

“Because we’re not Ethan or Glen, because we are kinder –you never treated me so horribly, you never left me without water or food. In fact, I recall my first night at the flat as your hostage, being forced to eat Shepard’s pie. He hasn’t had anything since before we took him, has he?” Isabella asked flatly.

“I gave him water earlier, he’ll get some more later but feeding him is not a spoken accordance of responsibility that I nor the others agreed to.” Louis returned, annoyance edging in his inner tone.

“Then let me or Killian care for him. I will take the responsibility, all that would need to be done is an extra plate be set and made up, I’ll take the responsibility of feeding and giving him water if it is such a huge deal. Killian can have bathroom commitment but you can’t treat someone like that.” Isabella frowned watching Louis slam his hand on the table, his eyes on fire.

“He told you about your parents, why are you so ready to forgive?!” Louis yelled, his voice echoing around the small bunker.

Isabella let a year slip down her eye.

“Because I remember a certain blue eyed Doncaser boy doing the same thing for me. Because we’re human. I’m begging you Louis, don’t start losing your humanity –don’t start losing who you are. Look at him, truly look at him. Does he look like a threat? Does Emory look like a henchman of Ethan or Glen? He’s crying, he’s sitting there quietly. He looks how I did when you took me hostage. I wanted to run; he wants to go home. Let him go. Just – let him go.” Isabella pleaded, shaking her head.

“His home is a raging inferno, luv. I doubt there’s much to return to.” Harry smirked, seeing Emory’s eyes widen and muffle an unheard question through his gag.

Louis pulled it harshly from his mouth.

“My home, what?” He asked, his chest tightening, his breath heaving.

“Oh, Ethan blew up your cabin. He was covering our tracks.” Louis dismissed with a wave of his hand, standing up and going over to the kitchen, pulling a cold water bottle from the fridge and making his way back.

Emory whimpered and struggled against his bonds.

“N-no, please not again!” Emory begged, seeing Louis pop an eye brow before putting it to his own lips and taking a drink.

“I wouldn’t waste the water,” Louis replied, watching new tears make their way down green eyes cheeks. “God, you’re pathetic. Chill, we have no intentions of hurting you.”

Zayn just shook his head, glancing at Liam who returned the notion before Kellie interjected.

“You gents don’t worry about it. Killian and I will take care of the prisoner. Ella’s right and that’s the first lesson you will all be taught in your training. Compassion – believe me, you blokes are in for a crash course.” Kellie said, going to the fridge and pulling a water bottle out and opening it, walking in front of Emory and bending down to his eye level.

The room was silent again, watching the two interact.

“Here’s the deal, Emory. I’m going to untie you. You’ll go use the lavatory and clean up since you’ve seemed to have had a blatant accident. Killian will assist you for security reasons. Shower and change, Ethan left us all a good sized box with spare clothes. When you come back out, you will be tied back up with your hands in the front for when dinner is served so you can feed yourself. If you try and pull anything, I will mummify you in Velcro and snap every single limb you use on a daily basis, starting with your wrists. Am I understood?” He asked, offering the man the water bottle, tipping it gently so Emory didn’t choke.

“Y-yes.” Emory whispered in understanding when the bottle was pulled away and set on the table, his voice shaking as he bit down on his tongue to muffle his cries.

“Good, now –“Kellie trailed off, reaching behind Emory’s head and unknotting the gag before discarding it on the table beside his water bottle, positioning himself in back of Emory’s chair and releasing his hands and the prisoner himself before meeting at the front to untie his feet. Once he was free, Killian got up off the bed, kissing Isabella with proud fondness as he did.

“Come on mate, let’s get you some clean clothes and a hot shower.” Killian smiled, helping the man from the chair, steadying him as he stumbled unevenly.

“Thank you.” Emory murmured sadly as Killian walked him slowly to the bathroom, shutting the door behind them.

Kellie rolled his eyes and went to Emory’s box that Ethan had left, noticing a few changes of clothes but amongst the box were a few personal items. A photo album, a silver ring on a gold chain and the photo he had mentioned that he was supposed to put in Kathy’s coffin. There was also a bag of inhalants.

Kellie saw a change of nightwear and picked it out, going to the bathroom door and knocking before stepping in and shutting the door.

“You forgot to get his spare clo-“Kellie stopped short.

Emory had discarded his old nightshirt, his arms littered with self-inflicted cuts. Some mere scars while others looked fairly newer.

Kellie cleared his throat and handed the new clothes to Killian.

“Make sure if there’s any open wounds that they’re bandaged and cleaned well. That’s one thing of many that you won’t be doing in our care. I don’t know the full extent or story of why you feel the need to cut but that’s here by now, stopped. Clean up, you have thirty minutes. Rookie? If he uses a razor to shave, watch him carefully.” Kellie ordered grimly, keeping his temperament in check.

Killian nodded and guided the blonde surgeon to the bathtub and turning on the water.

Emory got into the shower, the warm cascading liquid falling over him like a small waterfall. Killian stood watching silently.

Kellie left with the slam of the bathroom door going back out to the main room where Niall was setting the round table. It had a place each of them could sit comfortably, even Emory. Although he was fighting the urge to knock him from Sunday to next Tuesday.

“Kellie? Can I have a moment, please?” Isabella called, catching his attention.

Kellie smiled and went over to the bed, sitting down.

“Yes little sapling?” He answered pleasantly, pulling a piece of loose hair from her eyes.

“I want to learn what you know, I want you to teach me combat –I want to learn from you because I don’t want to be a dove, fawn or sapling. I want to be a wolf, a hawk and a thorn. I want you to teach me because I don’t want to be allowed to give up and I know you would never give up on me. You asked me earlier what I would do to Glen, what I would say to him and I’ve been mauling everything over. I would tie him down, take a bottle of superglue, and glue his eyelids and mouth shut. I would get a scalpel and cut his eyelids off so he couldn’t shut them and his lips because he could no longer kiss me without them. I would proceed to make sure he was bound tightly – wrapped in plastic wrap except his hands and feet. I would use the scalpel to remove pieces of his fingers – after I pulled his fingernails out. Each section of his fingers I would slowly cut off until they were nothing but bloodied stubs. Then I would repeat it with his toes. From there, I would cut his tendons so he could only walk with a shuffle for the rest of his life –which wouldn’t be long because after his tendons on his feet were thoroughly cut, I would castrate him – peel the skin from his dick, strip by bloody strip until there was nothing. All the while I would have a fire going, cooking the flesh and force feeding it back to him. I would say ‘you tortured me, you took from me, how does it feel? How does it feel to have something completely stripped from you –powerless to stop it, not able to stop it no matter how much you could? Huh!? How does it fucking feel!” I would bury him alive, keep him alive – cauterize and attend to the seared flesh. I would listen to his screams inside the coffin as he’s buried alive and left for days, air feeding down into it, an IV inserted so he stays alive. I would unbury him a week later, peel the skin from his flesh. His chest, back, legs – everywhere. I would peel it until there was nothing but muscle showing and then I would throw him in the coffin and put it over a low setting flame and gleefully listen to his pained cries as his body cooks. Once he was dead I would feed his body to the wildlife in the local forest. He deserves more, much more.” Isabella answered Kellie’s questions, angry tears spilling down her face. “He killed my parents and I want him to suffer. He raped me – dozens upon dozens of times. He’s hunted, tortured, maimed and degraded me. I want to learn what you know because I want to use it to protect myself – I want to use it to bring down Saudimere once and for all – I want to use it to hurt the ones who have hurt me and I want to learn because I’m tired of being weak. I’m tired of feeling useless. I want to learn because I want to protect someone, not always having someone protect me.”

The whole room was so quiet that a pin could drop. It was so tense that it could be cut with a knife.

Kellie listened on patiently and without interruption, getting up and going to where her box was, reaching in and taking out a small baggie, walking back.

In the baggie were five inhalants, he tossed them to her.

“Alright, then dry your tears. Go on, dry them. That stops now, no more crying. If you are truly ready, I want you to empty those inhalants and toss the shells in the trash. From now and here on out, if I catch you with any inhalants that is not for asthma; which I know you don’t have, you will have consequences. I call them demerits, demerits determine the hours that you spend on certain parts of your training or the punishments that I or Killian will choose for you. If you do not do as you are told, you will have strikes. Strikes will have longer, tougher and stricter training put in to your regime. You will have a series of rules and you will do what you are told at all times. If not, that is punishable by demerits as well. You want Glen Saudimere? Alright, then by shaking my hand, you are bound by legal verbal contract to which cannot be broken. Once you shake my hand, Isabella Jade Termlocke, you enter in this agreement by which you cannot forfeit. In simpler terms, once training combat commences, you are required to complete the training. There is no giving up, you won’t be allowed to give up. Do you understand everything in which I’ve explained them?”

Isabella gulped, staring at Kellie’s hand with wide eyes.

She thought about Emory and her parents – everything she had lost. She saw where they were, what conditions they were all living in while Glen had his mansion, his company – a permanent bed. Isabella had none of those half the time. She had her friends and Killian. She had nothing but the pleasant company, she wanted what Glen had – what she once had.

“Ella, don’t.” Louis pleaded softly knowing what that sort of training would entail. He truly didn’t see Isabella ever being able to handle that level of discipline and abuse. She was a Niall’s dove, Killian’s little fawn and a sapling. She was sweet and kind, she needed protected –she wasn’t strong enough, no matter what thoughts that coursed through her at the very moment, Louis knew that Isabella didn’t have the inner let alone outer strength.

“Yeah, luv, please? Don’t rush into anything. I know you want revenge but let us take care of it –let us take down Saudimere.” Harry backed up Louis with a plead of his own.

Kellie slowly retreated his hand with a soft smile, reaching over and kissing the side of her temple in a tender kiss.

“When you’re truly ready, love, I will teach you. You are sweet the way you are – tears and all. My little sapling. I wouldn’t change you at all if it were not vital for the training, for the survival.” Kellie answered truthfully, tapping her nose and winking.

“Did you guys enter in the agreement? Is he training you?” Isabella asked.

“We did.” Zayn confirmed.

“We’re doing it because we will be able to handle it. I’m not so sure you’re ready, love. I’m honestly not sure you’ll ever be.” Louis explained gently, which, the moment the words came out of his mouth, Harry closed his eyes, Liam and Zayn groaned in unison and Niall rubbed his face, stopping what he was doing at the stove and turned his attention to the unhinged girl, all of them looking on, watching her stare harden before she grabbing Kellie’s retreating hand, shaking it.

“I’m not weak. I, Isabella Jade Termlocke, agree to the conditions and terms in which they’ve been explained. I understand I’m not allowed to give up and that all training must be completed.” Isabella said confidently, her hand reaching into the plastic baggie and taking out one of the inhalers, emptying it out into the air before tossing it away from her. She repeated the process, destroying the inhalants before glancing at Kellie and drying her tears, fueled only by the thought of revenge.

Glen Saudimere was dead.

Kellie smiled softly and dropped his hand from her face.

“Alright, special agent rookette, your training officially begins now. Good luck, because kitten? You’re going to need it.”

With that he got up and went back into the bathroom to see if Killian needed help with Emory.

When the door to the bathroom closed, all eyes, minus Isabella’s, we’re on Louis.

“Way to go special agent big mouth.” Harry responded sarcastically, slapping Louis in the back hard enough to make the older boy lose his balance slightly and let out a belch.

Notes