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I looked around cautiously, though at the same time curiously; I wanted to know what they were planning, though at the same time I was pretty damn sure I really didn’t want that. Within a minute of utter silence, two huge guys walked into the room, carrying this tub-like thing filled with water. I couldn’t help but bite my bottom lip, while thinking of things they could do with the water. Perhaps it was the adrenaline from minutes before that enabled me to think properly or perhaps it was just fear of what was coming. Okay, I wasn’t exactly frightened, I mean, Nicholas didn’t want me dead, therefore I wouldn’t die, so why would I be scared? It was more like a feeling something bad was about to happen, and when I say bad, I don’t mean the ‘darn it, I stepped on some Lego’- bad, I meant the ‘darn it, do you think that could get us killed?’- bad. ‘Where do you want it?’ one of the guys asked Nicholas, who simply gestured at a spot somewhere around the middle of the room. ‘Remove his shirt and tie his hands,’ Nicholas ordered, sounding anything but bored; there was actually excitement in his voice, which he obviously tried to hide, but failed miserably, causing me to get rather nervous. For God’s sake, what is he planning? I thought, frantically trying to think of things so I could prepare myself. The two guys now walked up to me and practically ripped my shirt apart. ‘Hey!’ I called out, ‘I liked that shirt!’ I tried to look in their eyes, but the avoided my look and ignored my protests, as they quickly tied my hands together. Without my shirt, I suddenly felt how cold it was in this room and goose bumps were rapidly appearing on my skin. All those feelings together caused me to feel a little sick, but Nicholas didn’t give me any time to get over it and put on a brave face, as he forced me on my knees in front of the tub. His fingers entangled with the blonds strands of my hair and pulled a little, causing me to hiss in slight pain. It was at that point that I finally got his intentions, but it was too late to do anything about it; Nicholas was inevitably pushing my head down; quickly and rather painful. I widened my eyes at the sight of the water getting way too close, then quickly squeezed them tightly shut out of reflex. Before I could even take a last, deep breath, I found myself surrounded by ice-cold water and only seconds after that my lungs were screaming for fresh, new air. Alarm bells started ringing in my head, trying to tell me to get the hell out of the cold hell and of course I tried, of course I tried to free myself from Nicholas’s tight grasp, but without my hands to support me and in this rather uncomfortable position it seemed like an impossible task; all I could do was sit there, try not to open my mouth nor eyes and try not to faint. That second thing, though, didn’t last long. It felt like something took over my body and forced me to breath, but since there was water instead of air, my mouth was filled with something useless. I felt the water find its way down my throat, then to my lungs, which caused an extreme pain to erupt in my chest and lungs. I opened my eyes in shock and gasped again, which wasn’t exactly the smartest thing to do, as my eyes now began to sting as well. I felt dizzy, lightheaded and like I was about to pass out any second, though I didn’t. All the muscles in my body then relaxed from the tense position they were forced in before and I knew they were about to give up. For some reason, the pain faded a little, too, like the tenseness had caused it. Then, right at that moment where everything seemed to be a tad easier, the grip at my hair became stronger, therefore so did the pain, though I didn’t quite realise it. Nicholas pulled my head out of the water and I immediately started coughing, gasping for air. My breathing was ragged, uneven and even though my lungs were indeed getting fresh air, it didn’t seem enough, I needed more time, if only it was granted... When Nicholas started to push again, I immediately panicked again and this time I put up more of a fight. With all the power I could master, I tried to stop him by pushing back, which actually seemed to help; the man grunted in frustration and the hand moved away from my hair. While he gave some instructions to one of the men, I took my time to even out my breathing, to try to stop trembling like a leaf and to get rid of that weird feeling in my chest. I put my hand on my chest and felt my heart racing. Even my breath came out shakily; everything in my body was seemingly insisting on telling me how that should never happen again. I then cupped my face with my hands, after which I rubbed the water out of my eyes and my wet hair out of my face. Still crouching, I looked at Nicholas and another man, not yet noticing one of them had left. ‘Don’t rejoice too soon, kid,’ Nicholas snickered, to which I frowned. It wasn’t over? Well, at least nothing could be worse than the drowning... or could it? I frantically tried to get up, which was surprisingly hard while tied up. When I was halfway there, though, the man moved rapidly over to me, hovering over my slightly damaged body. I screwed my eyes shut tightly and actually stumbled back. Sadly, that didn’t stop him from kicking at my chest, causing my first of many screams to echo through the room. Less than seconds later his foot hit me again, while an agonizing pain was spreading. I didn’t scream this time, no, I just lay there, took it and waited for it to be over. Though that was getting harder and harder with every kick my already sore chest received. After a couple more, I couldn’t even feel clearly where he hit me, my body felt numb, though at the same time everything hurt. ‘till That point I had kept myself from moving and producing any sounds rather good, but – just as laying still did – it got harder. A dry sob found its way through my throat and made my chest shock slightly. Soon after that more followed and it didn’t take long for me to just burst into tears. ‘Please!’ I called out, my voice completely wrecked. ‘Please, stop!’ Even though I wasn’t talking that loud, my voice sounded like a freakin’ plane in this goddamned room. ‘I beg you, leave me alone!’ I frantically tried to protect myself, but it was of no use. The pain I felt was close to indescribable, I didn’t even know the human body could put up with such misery. ‘Please...’ I sobbed once more, this time rather quiet. My voice sounded downright broken, just like how I felt. Why didn’t they stop? What in heaven’s name were the benefits for them? I tried my best to look up, to get the man to stop using my abilities, but that too was of no use; he knew about my powers, the whole camp probably knew about my powers. Hopeless. That’s probably the only word ably to describe anything close to what I was feeling. I thought they would never stop, I thought they would never let me out of there again, that they’d keep me here and torture me ‘till the end of all times. When I look back to it, that was something stupid to think; of course they’d never do that, they had better things to do and it seemed Nicholas realised that too. ‘Enough!’ he suddenly yelled and the man abruptly quit his movements. ‘I think he’s got enough of that, perhaps now he knows who’s in charge,’ he continued. I didn’t even try to get up, nor move at all. Laying there hurt enough by itself and I noticed quickly that every movement set my body on fire. ‘Give him some time, or he won’t survive the whip,’ Nicholas said calmly, like it was something that happened every day. My eyes widened at those words. What whip? I thought. There was that hopeless feeling again. ‘Please,’ I started again without really giving it much thought, ‘don’t do this to me. Ask me anything and I’ll answer, just...’ I didn’t even know what to say anymore, nor could I say anything, as heartbreaking sobs muddled my words. I’d love to tell you that I felt a glint of hope that Nicholas would have mercy, but I didn’t and that was deservedly. Nicholas just chuckled at me. Under normal circumstances I would’ve felt highly offended, but at that moment it went right past me. ‘Look, kid, this isn’t even about your quietness anymore; you hurt two of my best men and you’re gonna pay for that, got it?’ he spoke calmly, like he was talking to a toddler, but his voice was as cold as could be. My jaw practically dropped at that; for obeying that bitch and having my fair way with the rat bastard, I deserved this? Remember how I said I was starting to like this Nicholas? Scratch that. I don’t think I had ever hated anyone the way I hated him. I wanted to hurt him so badly, I wanted to just punch that smug grin of his face, before making him beg for me to end his miserable, pathetic, little life and again I swore to get my revenge. As I did, the man that had left before came back, with a long, horrifying whip. ‘Get on your knew, kid,’ the man said, while handing the whip to Nicholas. It took all my self control not to scream in agony when I moved to the position that was asked and when I’d accomplished the seemingly simple task, I felt exhausted, like the water and the kicking had drained all the energy from my abused body. The first hit came as a complete surprise and a loud scream left my throat, because of the sickening pain. I screwed my eyes shut again and tried to fight the tears. Without noticing Nicholas had crouched behind me and was studying my back, I prepared myself for a next hit, but all that came was a light, almost gracing touch, which probably shocked me even more than the hit. It was Nicholas’ finger and it now traced along the line where the whip had hit me. ‘That’s gotta sting,’ Nic said, ‘but I take it you enjoy it at least as much as when you were man enough to beat someone like, half your size.’ He obviously enjoyed the pain, the trembling of my beaten body and the shivers he sent up my spine. He got up with a small grunt. ‘Sadly,’ he started and let the whip smack on my back again. ‘I don’t...’ Smack. ‘Give a...’ Smack. ‘Shit.’ Smack. Every time the whip hit me, the pain grew worse and my ability to react to it decreased. It was like the pain sucked my energy away. Nicholas then let a tense silence all, during which only my soft sobs were heard. ‘God, kid, grow a pair and stop that petty crying of yours,’ Nicholas snapped angrily, letting the whip hit my back again. I tried to stop, I really did, but that is surprisingly hard when a whip was scarring your back over and over again, now barely with pauses in between the hits. By then the world around me already seemed blurry and the only thing clear to me were a couple drops of blood finding their way down my back. I felt dizzy and to be honest, I just wanted Nicholas to kill me, right then and there. Sadly, he didn’t. He did however stop hitting me for a sec, when one of his men distracted him. ‘Sir... with all due respect, I think the lad’s had enough. He won’t be of any use if you continue this,’ he said, rather confident, actually. Nicholas let out a humourless laugh, followed by a short silence, as if he was seriously considering to stop. ‘I think you’re right; he’s had enough... of this.’ ‘What do you mean, sir?’ the man asked again, now a little less confident. A soft hum left Nicholas’ mouth and I could just tell he was still smiling. He yanked my up with a strong grip on my hair again, causing me to whimper in pain. As soon as I figured out his little plan, I took a deep breath – just in time, because in no-time I felt my head surrounded by water again. I tried to last as long as possible and it seemed to go better than last time, though even now a head ache started to pound through my head. I didn’t even notice Giselle walking in, as the water muted all the sounds from above and I felt like I was about to pass out. Then, suddenly, the grip on my head disappeared. My body once again seemed to think on its own, as I pulled my head out of the water. While coughing uncontrollably, I rolled to my side, not thinking about anything but getting air inside my lungs. When I caught my breath again, I noticed that someone was untying my hands. I looked up and got surprised by who I saw. It was Giselle. What was she doing here? She could’ve got in serious trouble for helping me and disobeying Nicholas. ‘Come on, I'll get you to the healers,’ she said, a little softly. She almost sounded... sweet, caring. I thankfully let her help me up, as I probably wouldn’t be able to on my own. We walked in silence for a while, her leading us to the healers. I felt like I needed to say something. ‘Thank you,’ I whispered eventually, my voice sounding rough, wrecked, but it came out quite decently. She seemed a little surprised at that, as she looked at me for a moment with a raised eyebrow. She did ignore it, though, which didn’t exactly shock me. The awkward silence returned and it wasn’t broken before we got to the healers. There weren’t many people yet, only some Mortalia. The sight of them made my crunch my face up in utter disgust. I had never understood how the Xotikoi could live with them; they were useless and nothing more than a waste of time. One of them did seem to catch Giselle’s attention, but mine was currently focused on the pain every single move caused. It didn’t hurt as much as the hits of the whip itself, but still... Giselle then told me to get on this table-like thing, I obeyed. A Mortalia rushed to my side immediately and took a look at my back. ‘That will probably leave some scars,’ the young man mumbled. ‘Stay away from me,’ I growled. My voice was still a little wrecked, but it was already a little easier to understand. ‘Look, I’m only trying to help. It will be a lot easier for the both of us,’ he said, to which I raised an eyebrow. He took this rag thing drenched with some other shit and traced one of the parts of my back the whip had torn apart. It stung like hell and made me cry out loudly. I shot up from where I was laying on my back. ‘I said; stay away from me!’ I yelled, surprising the lad. Apparently he didn’t know about my powers, because he didn’t even try to avoid my look. I held my powers back a little, so it was only a warning. I could however see his shock and the pain; his jaw dropped, just like Giselle’s had done and his eyes widened. Again, just like Giselle’s had done, but the pain seen in his brown orbs was way less than it was with her. He didn’t deserve such pain, yet. I mean, he did try to help me, but I would never have a Mortalis help me. Never. 

As soon as the Mortalia boy’s look got torn away – quite literally – I closed my eyes, not wanting to hurt anyone innocent, or Giselle. I can almost hear you thinking, ‘but she is innocent!’, but believe me, she’s not. She tried to kill me, remember? Her getting me away from the asshole, aka Nicholas, was saving her butt right now, though. After a brief moment, I opened my eyes a little again, looking somewhere around Giselle’s neck while she screamed at me. I clenched my jaw, of course it was necessary, how else is he gonna learn to listen to me? Somewhere she was right, though; he was helping me, but that doesn’t immediately mean I wanted him to help me. I think I made it very clear I didn’t want his help. If he had just listened to me, none of this would have happened. Exactly when I wanted to tell her to shut het big mouth, one of the healers stepped in. His voice was almost frighteningly firm, making sure to make his point very clear. I rolled my eyes at Giselle’s comment, like she could ever kill me. When the healer ushered me to lie back down, I grunted; the movement caused quite a lot of pain in my back. Some of the blood had already dried, creating tiny clumps that poked into the wounds. I took a deep, though shaky breath, trying not to scream at the top of my lungs when the healer did something – I didn’t even know what; pain seemed to numb my common sense completely – to my back. At first it felt like he had put some extra weight on my back, adding pressure and hurting like hell, but after a little while, it just felt like pressure; the pain disappeared slowly, the pressure went away after that as well. I frowned, I was surprised. Of course I was surprised; only minutes ago every movement had hurt like fuck, and now it just went away? Seemed pretty implausible to me. But, apparently, it was possible. I tried to sit up, just in time to catch Nic bursting into the room, looking much but happy. His eyes quickly found Giselle, after which he practically exploded. I raised my eyebrow at the things he yelled. Like this, the man could easily fit in with the chaps of my camp. My look kept switching from Giselle to Nic, from Nic to Giselle and so on, watching Nicholas’ expression go from mad to furious and waiting for an actual response from Giselle. Would she seriously let him talk to her like that? If I were her, I would’ve killed Nicholas already, like, three times or so, but Giselle actually looked... scared? I didn’t even know she could become scared in the first place. I admit, I didn’t exactly know her for that long, but I had only seen her confident or annoyed, not the slightest bit scared. Nicholas had come to a certain point of angry where his words were downright inaudible, his face was red and seemed about to explode for real. I already saw visions of his brains splattered out across the walls of the room, when the man crossed a line. He lashed out and slapped Giselle across her face. My eyes widened at that, absolutely not expecting anything close to that. I quickly got up, barely realising the pain was almost completely gone, but I wasn’t yet sure what to do. When Nic hit Giselle with his knee, though, it all seemed clear to me. She didn’t deserve any of this; she only helped me, for crying out loud! I took a couple of steps more, before I reached Nicholas. With my hand on his chest, I pushed him back a little. I didn’t use that much force, I just wanted my message to be clear. ‘Enough,’ I said firmly, standing in between Giselle and Nic. ‘Don’t you dare hurt her.’ My voice was low, threatening and I spoke slowly, making sure he’d catch every word of the simple sentence. I looked somewhere around his neck, while he just stared directly into my eyes. If only I looked up... but I didn’t, I wanted to give Nicholas a chance to get the hell out of the room, before I would hurt him. His face expressed complete and utter surprise, which, under normal circumstances, would cause me to chuckle lightly, but now my mouth formed a tight line, my eyes were sharply fixated on the pulsing vein in Nicholas’ neck and my fists were clenched, turning my knuckles white. The only thing keeping me from assaulting him right then and there, were my nails digging into the palms of my hands. I wanted to wait for Nicholas’ response, before I would kick his sorry ass. ‘Get out of my way, lad,’ he commanded, probably actually expecting me to obey and get back on the table, but – of course – I didn’t. ‘I said; get out of my way,’ he repeated, sounding angrier now. The man quickly lost his patience, as he, almost immediately after repeating the sentence, lashed out again, this time with his fist, and hit my jaw. A sickening crack sounded, but it only triggered my anger more. I lurched forward, my fists still clenched. I didn’t try to look away from him and neither did he, enabling me to use my powers close to full strength. My fist hit his cheek, though, the impact forcing his look away from mine. He stumbled back and almost fell, but kept himself standing. My second fist hit his nose, probably breaking it. This time he fell back for real, hitting his head on the floor hard. His grunts of discomfort and pain went unnoticed, as I straddled his chest and gripped his jaw. He looked bewildered, but when I forced him to look at me, his expression turned to horrified because of the pain I sent through his body. 

While I was still letting my anger out on Nicholas, I barely heard what the healer was saying to try to stop us - well, me, Nicholas wasn't really doing anything. He was practically unable to move, since I was still pretty much sitting on his chest. Then, all of the sudden, I felt myself get pushed, causing me to lose my balance and collapse to the side. I was close to just falling on the floor again, but I could prevent that in the nick of time. As soon as I could, I got up again. Because of the healer's words, I stopped fighting and so did Nicholas. I averted my look from him; he had learned his lesson, hopefully. I couldn't help but grin a little smugly when Nicholas got scolded, but that grin disappeared quickly when the man started yelling at Giselle again. Didn't he ever stop? What had that girl ever done to him? Without her, I might have killed the guy! Before I could intervene again, Nicholas left the room. My mood had changed completely again and I was positive that it would change a couple of times more. In the short silence that fell, I realised the ache in my jaw. I've felt worse pain, but I had to admit that Nicholas's punch was rather effective. I didn't show anyone my pain, though, I wasn't pathetic like that. My pride was the reason that I simply nodded at the healer's question, even though I obviously wasn't alright. Before the healer could do or say anything else, Giselle did something I honestly didn't expect; she thanked me. From what I had seen of her, she didn't seem very nice, therefore I had assumed that she would be very reluctant when it came to things like expressing gratitude. I guess I had judged her too soon. My thoughts were disturbed by the healer. Even though I had made it pretty clear that I was fine, he seemed determined to help me. Oh well, as long as it was him and not some Mortalia, I didn't mind. It felt the same as when he healed my back; it hurt a little more at first, but then the pain faded slowly. After the fuss with Nicholas, I hadn't said a word and I kinda liked it that way. It prevented me from accidentally saying things I would regret later on. Besides, if I didn't say anything at all, I also couldn't say anything offending, therefore I couldn't piss anyone else off. When the healer finally let us go, I was in for another surprise; Giselle just took me  there, without any precautions. No ties or blindfolds or anything. it felt rather comfortable to actually be able to move on my own. I realised she did that because there was really no use in trying to escape, the camp was stuffed with Mortalia and Xotikoi. I could handle one, maybe two and if I tried very hard, just maybe three, but all of them at once was too much, even for me. The silence that fell while we were walking to I assumed the prison suddenly got interrupted by Giselle talking to that Mortalia boy. I frowned upon seeing him again and he didn't seem very excited either. My attention got brought back to Giselle when she spoke up and I rolled my eyes at his comment. Wasn't it obvious that it was useless to even try to escape? I wasn't that stupid. Before I could snap something at him, they continued their conversation. So she had a brother? Interesting. I had always loved children, at least they weren't ruined by society yet. The mortalia kid easily agreed to Giselle's request, after which we resumed our trip to the prison. The silence returned, while Giselle opened the door to the prison for me. Inside the cell there was a simple bed - the kind of bed I was used to; the camps were never very luxe either. Besides the sheets and the pillow that were on top of the bed, the prison was empty. I sat down on the bed, which squeaked a little because of my weight. When I found that it was actually rather comfortable, I kicked out my heavy, black boots and swung my legs up the bed, laying down on it. The mattress was surprisingly soft and laying down on it was even more comfortable. I could get used to this bed. Neither of us had said anything yet and besides the occasional squeak from my bed, everything seemed quiet. It was then that I suddenly realised how great the amount of things that had happened was since I got to the camp. So much had happened in so little time, I hadn't had time yet to process it all. A part of me didn't even want to process it – it would only cause a headache, which would just mess up my mood and nobody would benefit from that. I stared at the ceiling, feeling exhausted and suddenly realising I would probably be stuck here for a while. That meant that maybe I'd get a chance to have some revenge on Nicholas – meaning I would kill him as soon as I could – but also that things like the torture and the encounters with Mortalia would happen more often, something I didn't exactly look forward to.  A cold breeze then pulled me from my thoughts and I shivered. As I looked outside the tiny window, I noticed little drops of rain falling from the sky. Great. Fucking perfect. That one time that I was stuck inside a badly isolated cell with no shirt on, the weather decided to be a little bitch and make the temperature drop a couple degrees. And if that weren't enough, dark clouds blocked the sun and the dark prison got even darker.

The first thing I did after the guy was locked up in his cell, was making place on the table that stood in the small hall, so I could sit on it, because I wasn't planning to stand all night and it was actually the only thing that would be a little bit comfortable to sit on. Besides, the only thing that was on the table were some papers, which didn't seem very important anyway. My look turned to the man in the prison cell, who seemed to made himself at home already. Well, as far as that is possible when you're locked up in a prison cell with only a bed. However, the cold did seem to bother him, which shouldn't surprise me, because he still hadn't got a shirt, or anything like that, to replace the one they - probably Nicholas - ruined. I could make some effort and look for a shirt that the guy could wear or I could just ignore it to make it easy for myself. The second option sounded really tempting, I must say, but still, it was not like that there were so much more better things to do here, so I decided to go for the first option instead. Without asking him or saying anything else to let him now what I was going to do, I stood up and walked out of the room, into a smaller one, meant to store things. If there were extra clothes somewhere in this building, then they must be there. It still surprised me that I was able to find a shirt that looked large enough for the man so quickly. I actually thought that would take some more time, not that I mind, because the sooner I'm done, the sooner I can make myself comfortable again. "Here," I said, after I walked back and while I was throwing the shirt into his cell, so he would be able to get the shirt. Otherwise it still wouldn't help that much, I think. "I am not gonna get you another one, so you better be careful with it," I warned him, sounding a bit irritated again, because I wasn't planning to play his little servant and give him all that he wanted. He should be happy that I gave him this shirt in the first place. Besides, tomorrow it wouldn't even be my business anymore, so it didn't even matter that much. Actually, the only thing that did matter was the rain, which had only gotten worse since it started, but as long as the weather would stop getting worse now, I could live with it. "So… are you going to tell me your name or do you still want to keep it a secret?" I asked him, this time just to break the silence and okay, maybe because I was a little bit curious as well. I mean, he already knew my name, so wouldn't it be fair if I knew his as well? "Hmm… I think I'll keep it a secret for a bit longer," he replied and it was probably the smile on his face, even though it was just a little one, that annoyed me the most about his answer. It gave me the feeling that he said that just to get on my nerves and I never liked it when people did that. "Come on, you already know mine, so why can't I know yours? Is it so bad or do you just like being called egghead?" I asked, giving it another try, but this time sounding a bit annoyed, because he didn't give me the answer I wanted the first time.

"Are you sure?" I asked him, still hesitating, but when he simply nodded as a response, I slowly got up, after which, I walked towards the door of his cell to open it with the keys, so I could walk in, ignoring the part of me that told me to get the hell out of there and listening to the stronger part of me that was too scared to even care about any risk. That was also the part of me, through which I eventually sat down next to the boy on his bed, looking away from him on purpose, as if that would help to make the whole situation any better. At least this was already better than the situation of a few seconds ago, as it was less alone and therefore less terrifying. Not the most logic reasoning, because technically he was still the enemy which should make me feel less safe, but honestly, in this situation anything - or anyone in this case - was better than nothing.

"Can you talk to me?" I asked, turning my look to him for maybe a second or two, making sure I was still avoiding his eyes, because I didn't need to be rememberd to what they could do. "Doesn't matter about what, just need something to focuss on," I added quickly, while I turned my look away again, mumbling the last, making it hardly possible to understand what I was saying.

"Ehm… sure," he replied, after which he took some time to think of something else to say, or ask actually. "So, you've got a brother, huh?"

"Yep," I answered, trying to take my mind off of the weather and to focuss on his question. "But we don't really look like each other," I decided to add, almost whispering, because it felt like I needed to say a bit more than just one simple word, as I was the one that wanted to talk so badly. "And you? Do you have a brother?" I asked, after taking a deep breath in the hope it would help me to calm down and let me stop shaking. The conversation did help a bit, but it was just not enough, because even though the weather seemed to calm down a bit, most of my attention was still claimed by the lightning that was striking every few minutes, so I forced myself to turn my look at the man again to make it harder to focuss on other things.

"No, I don't have a brother." He looked down at the ground, which made him the one avoiding my look right now and after a few seconds of silence it started to feel like I had asked a wrong question. It made it pretty obvious that he didn't want to talk about his family, but to my relief he eventually started talking again. "Wanna tell me more about yours?"

"What do you want to know?" I replied, not knowing what to tell about my brother, because there were a lot of things to tell, but most of it, wasn't his business and just too personal to tell someone I had known for less than a day.

"Anything. How old is he, for example?"

"He is thirteen years old, fourteen in less than two months, and he always gets himself into trouble, by which he usually pisses Nicholas off. He just doesn't really listen that well to people and Nicholas can't stand it when people-" The weather decided to interrupt me with a deafening noise coming from the thunder outside and it honestly scared me to death, causing my eyes to widen a little, while the rest of my body decided to freeze totally for a few seconds. "I wanna get out," I whispered, breaking the silence that had followed the struck of lightning, without moving anything but my lips. It didn't take long before I started moving again, and shouting a bit. I just freaked out actually, really freaked out. "I need to get out. I really, really need to get out of here," I started saying over and over again, at total panick, till it was more shouting than talking and I had jumped off of the bed, hoping there would be a way, anything, to get away from the ligthning, escape from it or just hide. I eventually ended up in one of the corners of the cell, sitting on the floor with my face hidden in my arms, that rested on my knees, which I had pulled up towards my chest, trying to lock everything, especially the lightning, out.

Immediately when she started about my family, I tensed up. I probably could have expected her to ask this question, since it was the most obvious. Maybe it hadn't been very smart to bring her brother up again, it was not more than logical that she asked about mine. I didn't have a brother, I had a sister, and not only did the question make me think about her, it also reminded me of the rest of my family, something I really, really didn't want to think about, let alone talk about. After a little bit of silence, I just told her that I didn't have a brother, while avoiding her look and staring at the ground, I didn't want to mention my sister; it would only get het more curious and I didn't feel like talking about her at all. Besides, it was none of her business – she was technically still an enemy, knowing my weak points would be advantage on her side. Although I wanted that to be why I didn't want to talk about her, I knew it wasn't. The memories of her would be too painful to talk about.
Before more memories would find their way back into my thoughts and before she could ask any more questions, I asked her about her brother again. I was glad to see that she seemed to relax a little while talking about her brother, but it didn't last long. While I just looked up and frowned a little, Giselle seemed to be a bit more bothered by the thunder. She just sat there for a while, seemingly frozen, but that changed all too soon. After having whispered the phrase, she quickly started almost yelling it. I got up quickly too, but was too confused to actually do something about it. I was pretty sure that the lightning caused her fear, though I had really not expected someone like Giselle to be afraid of lightning. She seemed all badass and tough before, it was a little weird to see her attitude change this quickly.
I was just looking at her for a while, too shocked to act, but when she was sitting on the floor, I realised I really did have to do something, anything. It would be rude and rather awkward to just let her sit there, especially 'cause she looked downright mortified. I walked over to where she was sitting, thinking about what to say while I crouched down next to her. A bit awkwardly, I put a hand on her shoulder, trying to get her attention. I bit my lip, before saying: “You know...” I trailed off, not sure what to say next. Then I just stopped thinking and said the first thing to come to my mind, which actually worked out pretty well. “There's really nothing to be afraid of, we're safe in here.” I kept my voice soft; the last thing I wanted to do was upset her even more. Somehow, she kind of reminded me of my sister, but this time in a good way. My sis had been afraid of loud noises as well, and sometimes there was no-one but me to comfort her, although I was a lot more comfortable around my sister than around Giselle, so it was harder to console her. I then took my hand off her shoulder and changed my position to sit a little more comfortable. She didn't say anything, just shook her head, disagreeing with what I said. I couldn't help but smile a little; even though she was obviously scared and trembling in a corner, she was still stubborn, just like his sister. He didn't really want to think about her because of everything that had happened, but on the other hand, it was fun to think back to the nice memories.
"Really, we're safe, we're inside, nothing can happen to us here, I promise." I felt like I should look at her, but I knew I'd hurt her, so I just kept my look on the floor, silently waiting for her response

"How can you know?" I asked him, after taking a deep breath in the hope it would stop my voice from shaking. Didn't really work, sadly enough. After lifting my head a little to look at the guy, hopellesly trying to find a way to make everything less embarrassing. "I mean," I started and tried to think of something to say that wouldn't sound terrible. "Well, it's just…" I tried again, noticing this was harder than I thought. How can it be so hard to say something decent? "You know." I turned my look away again and started to look at tralies I was sitting against. "Anything can happen," I said softly, not knowing if that sentence would make the situation better or worse. To prevent myself from saying anything that would be stupid for sure, I decided to shut up again. It was already embarrassing enough and the fact that that stupid fear just wouldn't go away, didn't make it any better. It was only frustrating that I couldn't get over something so stupid and I eventually just gave up and surrended to my fear. The situation couldn't get that much worse anyway and otherwise I would probably never have done the thing I did next. I slightly turned around towards the guy and curled up to him, laying my head on his shoulder. The weirdest thing of it all, was probably that it did make me feel saver as I hoped it would. The other things didn't matter that much to me anymore, because that small piece of safety was what I needed at the moment.

I couldn't help but feel bad for the girl. She was obviously terrified, and my words didn't seem to help the slightest bit. I had never been very good at consoling others, but I had hoped that it would at least cheer her up a tiny bit. I hadn't expected her to feel all better immediately, but that it didn't help at all made me feel a little bit guilty. The last time I had felt guilty was a very long time ago, and why this girl could make me feel that way so easily again, I didn't know. Probably because she reminded me of my sister, but either way, I didn't enjoy the feeling and wanted it to end as soon as possible.
I couldn't think of anything else to say to her that quickly, I was too distracted by my other thoughts, but it didn't seem that she wanted me to say anything else, as she herself remained silent as well.
After a while, she managed to surprise me again. Because I hadn't been paying a lot of attention to her, I didn't notice that she changed her position, I only noticed that when I felt her head on my shoulder. I couldn't help but frown a little, but I didn't push her away. She then actually curled up to me, and my frown deepened – why would she do something like that? Had she forgotten that I literally could kill her just by looking at her? I couldn't deny that a little human contact felt nice, though, it had been God knows how long since I had touched another human being without the intention to hurt them, so this was a nice change.
Neither of us said anything in the time that followed, but it was a comfortable silence for a change, I didn't feel like I had to say something to break it, I didn't even feel like Giselle needed me to console her. The storm was getting less bad too; the thunder sounded less loud and there were longer pauses in between lightning, after a while it died down completely; it was only still raining a bit.
Eventually I started feeling tired, but I didn't want to risk waking up Giselle now that she was finally calm and asleep. Besides, I couldn't just let her lay on the floor, could I? I took a deep breath, as I realised that I was gonna have to carry her to the bed. She probably wasn't very heavy, so it shouldn't be a problem, but it would be rather awkward if she'd wake up. Oh well, I'd just have to take the risk. I slowly moved my arms until one of them was supporting her back and the other her legs, after which I carefully lifted her up. So far, so good; she hadn't woken up yet, and nor did she while I walked to the bed and put her down. The bed wasn't too big, so I decided to just leer have it, I could sleep on the ground. Or that's what I thought, the ground turned out to be a lot more uncomfortable than I had anticipated. Probably just around midnight, I'd had enough.
"Screw this,” I muttered under my breath, and got up. My muscles were already aching from having lain on the floor for all this time, but I could manage to climb over Giselle to the side of the bed that was closest to the wall without too much swearing. Even though the bed was small and pretty hard as well, anything was better than the concrete floor. I sighed, as this was so much more comfortable, and fall asleep with ease.  

The bad words that were leaving my mouth, because the flour certainly wasn't that soft, stopped when I looked up and saw Nicholas standing there with a furious expression on his face. I only needed to look to my side to see why, as the man I had to guard was still at the bed I had just fallen out. Everything of yesterday came back to my mind within a second and if it had been possible, I was sure that my cheeks would have gotten even brighter red.

I got up and got myself out of the cell as fast as possible and made sure I locked the door, so there was at least one thing Nicholas couldn't complain about. Not that he needed anything more to blame me for, because with only this he could probably shout at me for days already. Still, wouldn't be smart to mess it up even more, even though I actually couldn't have made a bigger mess out of it. I knew I screwed up, but Nicholas wouldn't be Nicholas if he wouldn't made that as clear as he could and what is a better way to make clear that someone had done something wrong, than by slapping them in their face.

"What the hell were you thinking, you filthy little bitch! Is thís what you call guarding someone?!" he shouted right in my face, just as he had done the day before. The only difference was that it was a lot more serious this time, as I got myself in a lot more trouble than the last time. Besides, he was probably still pissed, because of yesterday as well.

"Well no, but-" I said, but got roughly interrupted by the man in front of me. The second and third try to say something, failed as well, as he didn't want to hear a word I said and I honestly wouldn't know what I could say to talk my way out of this.

"First you cross me during an important interrogation and now you screw up by sleeping with the guy! Don't you know who he is?! He is the enemy Giselle, not a suitable bedpartner! Seriously, have you lost your mind?! I would expect you to know better, especially after what he did to that stupid friend of yours!"

It were especially his last words that drew my attention, as they confused me the most and were able to turn my mood in less than a second. "Wait, what?! Did anything happen to Samuel? He is not hurt, is he? Tell me what happened!" I was the one interrupting him this time and I wouldn't let him cut me off again. If anything had happened to Samuel, then I wanted to know. They couldn't tell me there happened something to a friend of mine and then not tell me what. That wouldn't be fair. Though, all I got was a simple frown, as he didn't understand what I just said. "Tell me!" I repeated and I could see his face darken a little, when a grin appeared.

"You don't know?" Nicholas seemed to enjoy this way too much and that confused me even more, while it made me fear for what would come next as well. "Well, I think that your new boyfriend would love to explain it to you, don't you boy?" he continued and eventually turned his head to the man behind the bars.

"Just tell me what's going on!" I said again, this time frustrated, as I couldn't stand the idea that something bad had happened to Samuel, nor that they wouldn't tell me what.