Unknown
An old, institutional building with an elevator and cells in a dingy lower level. Undisclosed location.
Continued from The Road to Nowhere
Characters
 |
 |
 |
| Brooke Bishop | Siobhan Donovan | Lizzie Young-Bennett |
The sudden infusion of light causes Siobhan to blink and squint. It's not a lot of light, only dim florescent lighting provided by the institutional overhead lights. A few are either blown or missing, and one in the corner is doing an annoying half-flicker at irregular intervals.
Siobhan pays no attention to Astrid, turning in a slow circle to get the lay of the place. There is one cot with a mattress that looks as though it's been through war, a swamp, and everything bio-hazardous. An old rusting metal sink stands against the fading gray/green institutional wall. It drips a bit and obviously leaks if the stain on the cement slab floor and around the wall pipe is any indication. Beside it is a toilet, that looks to be as old as the room they're in. It must work, however, because a delicate sniff doesn't provide any odor.
No odor from the toilet; there is the odor of bodies. The old locker room scent of sweaty, musty unwashed bodies pervades with hints of ammonia and bile, and something slightly metallic, beneath it all.
It's truly a cell, Siobhan realizes as she completes her visual circuit of the room. There are bars on the front of it, sturdy thick iron ones. She can't repress the shiver that runs through her as she gazes out at their kidnappers on the other side.
~*~
Spotting the singular bed, Brooke wrinkles her nose. She'd much rather sleep on the damp floor than contemplate what has been on that mattress. She doesn't give the place as much of a look as Siobhan does, mostly because she doesn't care. It's a cell, she knows it's a cell, and there's not much they can do about it unless there's a chink in a spell somewhere. Finding that out is going to be extremely difficult, and not one she can work on if they're on camera 24/7.
"Well, looks like home, doesn't it, Siobhan. We might as well make the most of it." Wiping a drop of blood from her nose from when she fell, she lifts her shoulders in a somewhat defeated shrug.
~*~
"That's right, Red. It's home. For now. Until they need you. You hybrids are hard to find, but… worth a whole lot."
~*~
"Home sweet home," Siobhan murmurs. She looks around again and then opts to sit on a dry space of floor, leaning back against the wall. The floor is cold and hard, but Siobhan doesn't feel like standing for the next few hours.
~*~
"Are you going to be alright?" Brooke glances over at her mentoree, and sighs. "I'm sorry, Siobhan. You should've never been in this position. Whatever they want with me, I'm sorry you got caught up in it." Now that they're not bound, she maneuvers herself to sit on the floor beside Siobhan. Wrapping her arm around the younger witch, she quietly whispers, "I don't know how they'll find us, but Kieran will know we're gone soon. I had a date with him tonight, and he knows I wouldn't skip it."
~*~
"Yes."
Beat.
"No."
Beat.
"I don't know." It's completely honest. Siobhan has no idea if she's going to be alright. She doesn't even have any idea if she's going to be alive come tomorrow morning. She leans against Brooke and wraps her arms around her knees, pulling them to her chest.
She wants to point to Brooke that Kieran will know she's gone soon, not Siobhan, and that he'd hardly care about some girl he doesn't know. Still, she knows the older woman is trying to be supportive. There's no reason to spew her negativity.
"It's not your fault," Siobhan whispers. "You didn't ask for this."
~*~
"N-no one asked for this," comes a quiet voice from a corner. It looked like a pile of blankets, but that's because Lizzie has taken to hiding whenever the captors come around. There's the knowledge that they'll pull her out if they need to, but until that time comes she wants to separate herself from them as long as possible.
~*~
"It might not be my fault, but if I hadn't told you to come over, you wouldn't be here right now." Brooke pets Siobhan's hair, trying to be as comforting to her as she would be to her little sister. "Kieran or Bryn will find your ring. Someone will know it's not mine, and I'm sure someone will be able to figure out it's yours. They'll find us." Her words are still quiet, because she's not sure if people are listening in as well.
Blinking at the voice, she looks around. "Hello?"
~*~
"If I hadn't screwed Cooper, I wouldn't have been sulking and needed to come over." It's really, as her Grams would say, six of one and half-dozen of another. They can do the blame game and who's responsible for hours, but it won't change the fact that they're here. Wherever here is.
Siobhan literally jumps at the sound of the unexpected voice. She lifts her head and whips it around, peering into the dark shadowy corner. "Who's there?"
~*~
"M-me," comes the voice. Lifting the blankets up, Lizzie peeks out. "I'm guessing you're witches too? Only, I don't know why my magic isn't working, or where I even am. Do you?" Shaking off the rest of the blankets, she pushes her hair back from her face glancing over at the pair with big eyes.
~*~
"We've been over this, Siobhan. You didn't do it on purpose. It was wild magic." Brooke holds up her hand against any argument, then glances toward the blankets again.
"Yes, we are. I'm Brooke Bishop, and this is my mentoree Siobhan Donovan."
~*~
"We're - " Siobhan stops herself from saying what she intends. Instead she swallows and nods. "She's a witch. I'm a hybrid." The dancer doesn't elaborate. It hardly seems like the time and place to try and hide what she is. If the girl wants to turn her nose up and hate Siobhan because of it … well, it's not going to make their plight that much worse.
When the girl pushes her hair back from her face, Siobhan blinks and stares. Then she blinks again. The girl, as bedraggled and wan as she is, could be Jenna and Harper's younger sister.
~*~
"A hybrid? They've been calling me that too, only, my dad's a norm." Tucking her hair behind her ears, Lizzie looks over at the pair. "Bishop? You're one of the big three? Me too. Mom's a Young. I'm Lizzie." There's no point in going into details about her hyphenation of her name. "I've been here for four days. They grabbed me when I was coming from a party at another dorm. I'm sure the school knows I'm not there, but it's not like they're going to stress over one girl missing class."
~*~
"The big three?" Brooke almost laughs at that, but sobers quickly. "I think they're very confused, Lizzie. Either way, we're not going to hurt you, alright?"
~*~
Siobhan steals a glance at Brooke, but says nothing. She's had her suspicions for months. She even mentioned them to Harper and he talked her out of them. Clearly she wasn't wrong, but telling Brooke that her mother wasn't faithful to her father isn't going to help them. The suggestion that it was a Reynard will help even less. Siobhan doesn't know if they were just trying to rile Brooke up, or if they had it right on that one, but it will keep for later.
Beat.
If there is a later.
Siobhan tucks her hair behind her ear. "My father's a sorcerer. My mother's a witch. I guess I got the best of both worlds."
"Where do you go to school?" Siobhan's not making small talk to soothe anyone's nerves, however it may sound. If they know where Lizzie came from, they might have an idea of where they are. For all the good it will do.
~*~
"Juilliard." Lizzie bites her lip, chewing on it softly. "I'm pretty sure we're not in the city though. I heard someone a few days ago mention a school in Michigan." Worrying her fingers over the threadbare blankets, she glances at the pair again. "Oh! You're that Siobhan. I thought your name was Knight? My uhm… well… gran… she talks about you a lot. I guess her niece is the head of the Coven or whatever." That doesn't mean that her gran says nice things, but she's from an older generation.
~*~
"Regardless of her parents, she's not going to hurt you either." Brooke glances between the two young women, and frowns. "Do you know how many others are here? Or who it is that supposedly wants us?" The older witch is really trying not to dwell what they said earlier. She can't deal with whatever went on with her mother and a Reynard, or the veracity of it at the moment.
~*~
"Julliard," Siobhan repeats.
Well, that was a bust and not the answer she was expecting. There is hope, though, if the other witch has been her for four days and she's still alive.
"Yeah, that Siobhan." The dancer can well imagine all the wonderful sorts of things that have been said about her and her lineage. She's used to it though. She doesn't dwell and lets the implications roll off of her like water off a duck's back.
"I'm married now. I eloped last fall."
Beat.
"You're related to Regina." It's not a question, just an observation. Regina isn't high on Siobhan's list of people she's happy with right now; if the Matriarch had stepped in when she first told the woman about Cooper …
Shoving that aside, Siobhan rubs her nose. "Are they feeding you?" They must be; Lizzie doesn't sound like someone who's starving.
~*~
"Congratulations."
Lizzie fusses with the blankets again. "I guess. She's a second or third cousin. I've never met her. Mom doesn't go to the city often, and really didn't want me to go there for school."
Nodding she quietly says, "Twice a day. Porridge for breakfast, that's usually cold. Dinner is a sandwich. So I'm not starving, but the food could be better."
~*~
"So you're from New York." Which really doesn't help them in the least, since that's where they're from as well. Brooke closes her eyes for a few seconds, praying that Kieran finds them. Not soon, just finds them. Or at least hires someone to find her.
"We are as well, but I can't tell how far we are from the city. They knocked us out for a while with some drug."
~*~
Siobhan blinks again at the other woman. The congratulations takes her by surprise. "Thank you."
She nods slowly. "Grains and protein." Enough to keep them alive and stop their bodies from breaking down. Not optimal, but it will keep the body going. Sometimes being the daughter of a doctor lends her to knowing things that she'd rather not.
"They didn't want me," Siobhan smooths her hands over jeans, glad she wore those instead of a skirt. "But they wanted Brooke, so I'm guessing that they knew exactly who they were after and why." She hasn't decided if she should be offended or not.
~*~
"T-that doesn't make any sense. You'd be the obvious choice if they wanted a hybrid, wouldn't you?" Lizzie bundles the blankets behind her, making a little pillow to give her a bit of support between herself and the wall. "They'll bring you your blankets soon. I just collected the rest of these from the people that were here before. Some go, and they don't come back."
Fidgeting, she whispers, "I don't know if they're dead, or just moved to another area."
~*~
Brooke makes a face at the food, and sighs. At least they're being fed, which means their basic needs are being taken care of. They can likely ration a little bit for a snack mid-day if they need to.
"You should be happy that they didn't want you," the older witch points out. "just because you weren't on the list for today though doesn't mean that you weren't on the list for later."
~*~
Siobhan shivers noticeably at the remark that people leave and don't come back. She fights back the fear and terror that that will be her. Or Brooke.
She shrugs, trying to focus on anything but her maudlin thoughts. If she lets herself go down that road again, she might not come back this time. "You'd think so. It's not like they seemed scared of my father, or the Coven."
Her fingers instinctively move to fidget with her wedding ring, but it's gone and she shoves her hands between her legs, squeezing them there just to stop the fidgeting. "Have you heard anything? Like what they want with us?"
~*~
"They're not afraid of the Coven. A lot of witches that have been here have been threatening the Coven, but no one from the Coven has been here. I know it's got a wide reach, but… I mean… I guess they need to realize that we're gone… or realize that we're not in our regular areas… and reach out to other branches…" Lizzie chews on her lip again and tries to brush her fingers through her hair to make it more presentable.
~*~
"It'll be alright, Siobhan," Brooke tells the young witch quietly. Hugging her mentoree, she sighs.
"Even with all their organization, the Coven will do things by the book. Sorcerers might not, but they'd have to pull out the big guns to do a location if the magic in this area is blocked." Brooke thinks about things for a moment, then grins. "So it might be difficult to find us, but I have a lot of faith that someone will come for us."
~*~
"My father won't," Siobhan says. That much she is sure of. Her father will throw the book out of the window if there is one. The problem is, he doesn't have a whole lot of help or backing. He has Mr. Harper and maybe the Priory, but that's contingent on him knowing she's gone. Her family probably doesn't watch the calendar that closely with her not living at home anymore. She might still be on tour for all they know, or taking a trip to Boston to reunite with Harper before he graduates. The only person who might notice Siobhan's not around when she should be right now would be Preston, but he'll be too busy fucking Cooper's brains out to wonder why the other dancer from the Company hasn't shown up. Or he'll assume she went to Boston, too.
Siobhan has to put her faith in Brooke's boyfriend coming for her, and being found the same way she was captured. Being in the same vicinity.
"Yeah. It will be." She doesn't fully believe it.
~*~
"Does your father have help? My parents don't know I'm gone. I know that. I'm not supposed to be home until the end of June. My dorm is taken care of until then, and I was going home for the summer to find a job to help with tuition next year." Lizzie wriggles around, adjusting the blankets behind her back. "The others that were here… I don't think a lot of them would've been missed, or at least… they didn't seem like people in good with their families. You know, maybe homeless people, or well… there was this one kid here. He's in a different spot, but I've seen him when Cruz takes him by."
~*~
"Cruz? I'm guessing he's not a very nice guy." Brooke takes a deep breath and rests her head against the wall. She's growing weary of trying to remain calm and keep a good face on things. Right now, she wants to break down and cry about her situation. Instead she just keeps her mind on Kieran, and being found, and how happy she'll be to see him, even if he's dripping in blood.
"We can take turns sleeping, Siobhan. You and Lizzie can rest against my legs if you want. I'll be up for a while."
~*~
Siobhan rakes her fingers through her hair again, and shakes her head. "Yes, a little, maybe. He can't go to his family. Not like they'd help even if he did." Siobhan rolls her eyes. "But there's Mr. Harper, he's actually a Nash, but he's friends with my father. There's Mr. Blackwell who's with The Priory."
Beat.
"Chance too, I guess."
Biting her lip, Siobhan sighs and tugs on her hair, playing with the tangled ends. "I have a friend who's a werewolf, too. Though I'm pretty sure the scent would be cold if anyone even thought to ask for his help. My husband …" Is a telepath, which is only good if someone gets a lead and knows the right people to ask. But she suddenly doesn't want Harper finding this out, with only less than a week left before his graduation. She doesn't want to ruin his special day.
~*~
"It's better than what most of us have," Lizzie points out softly. "Hopefully they'll figure things out." There is no indication that she knows any Harper's, Nash's or Blackwell's though.
"Who's Chance?" Since that's the one first-name she heard.
"A cold trail is better than no trail."
~*~
Brooke falls silent for a moment, just thinking about things. When she does speak, she exhales heavily. "I hope Lady's alright, or the dog walker comes in to feed her."
~*~
"Maybe." It might sound like a cavalry, but a cavalry is only good when it's called. "Except my father won't know I'm missing. No one knows I was back from tour, and even if they realize it when they see Coop - he dances with me - they'll just assume I went to Boston to see my husband."
Beat.
"Chance is my best friend's boyfriend. He's a sorcerer too and his father is friends with my father."
"She will be." Siobhan gives Brooke's hand a squeeze. "Animals are really resilient." Or so she's heard. She's never had a pet.
~*~
"Y'know, they have this really neat invention, right? It's called a telephone?" Lizzie tosses a grin at the younger witch. "If they all assume you went to see your husband, eventually someone will call him and see if you're there, right?"
After a few minutes, she slides herself across the cell to sit on the other side of Brooke. She may not know the woman, but it's nice to have someone else in here. Especially someone older than she is.
"You know a lot of sorcerers."
~*~
"Kieran will kill anyone if that dog is hurt." It's a weird thing for Brooke to hold onto, but at the moment it gives her something to think about other than their situation and surroundings.
"You girls rest. I'll keep an eye out, and I'll nudge you both when food is here. The best thing you can do, Siobhan, is try to sleep the remainder of that drug out of your system, and from what Lizzie said, we're going to need our strength to survive this."
