“Shh, beautiful, it’s me,” he pleads.
“Don’t,” I snap. “I don’t know who the fuck you are, but I’m not playing this game. Back.Off.”
He winces, but my attention is pulled to the other stranger as he clears his throat and half-heartedly raises a hand. “Pretty sure you’re attacking the wrong guy.” With horrified fascination, I watch upside down as his short brown hair fades to white and grows, crimson eyes morphing to grey as his features twist into Bellamy’s until he’s a mirror copy. And if I watched him transform, that would mean that…
“Shit,” I breathe, head aching and muscles screaming, but finally catching on. Turning back to the man that tackled me, one eye already starting to blacken and nose gushing blood down his face, I feel like a real asshole.
Secretly pretty proud of myself for being able to do that much damage, though.
Hesitantly, I whisper, “Bell?”
The harsh steel grey of his eyes softens. “Yeah, baby. It’s me.”
Before it can completely flicker out, my rage reignites. If this reallyismy Bellamy, he sure isn’t looking all that pissed off at the sight of the guy that kidnapped us.
“What the hell is going on here?”
He flinches, climbing to his feet and lifting me to mine before I can protest. Grabbing my hand, he tugs me back towards the room I just bolted from. “Not out here where our nosey-ass neighbors can eavesdrop,” he murmurs.
Muscles taut, I begrudgingly follow him, shooting frequent glances behind me to where fake Bellamy is watching with his head cocked. Before his face can melt off and scar me for life a second time, Bell shuts the door, leaving the two of us alone in an underground… apartment?
Running a shaky hand through his messy hair, Bell gives me an apologetic grimace and says, “We’re in the mimic compound. My team freaked out when I disappeared and made the mistakeof texting them that day in the computer store when Ledger stepped in to protect us. Even though I told them it was a false alarm, they tracked my phone and decided to ‘rescue’ us both. We’re safe; nobody would dreamof hurting you here. All of the residents that aren’t mimics devote their lives to protecting our kind and this place. They just… don’t always go about it in the best way if left unsupervised.”
Taking in our surroundings, my confusion only grows. “So they kidnapped us… just to lock us in an apartment?”
I guess it’s not theworstcase scenario, all things considered. Nobody is trying to use us for a power boost, sell us, or breed us. We’re not in chains, cages, and being raped or beaten.
Gotta find those silver linings where you can when you’re on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
“It’s a,” a blush stains Bell’s cheeks as he glances away. “A family suite. Apparently, they took the liberty of moving my stuff out of the bunks while we were unconscious.”
Well that’s… uncomfortable. It’s like they’re treating us like a pair of dolls and forcing us to play house for their amusement.
“So how do we get out of here?”
Fuck, the guys have to be losing their shit right about now.
Bell exhales wearily. “I’m working on it, don’t worry. You only need to focus on feeling better.”
Seeing ashe’sthe one with a black eye, I’m obviously throwing that suggestion into the fire where it belongs. “These people are your family, right? Just let them know you’re okay and are leaving of your own free will.”
Bell moves to the small kitchen area and wets a rag, cleaning the blood off his face. “It’s not that simple.”
I narrow my eyes, piecing the few snippets of information I have together. He says they won’t hurt us, yet they won’t let us leave. That they’ve devoted their lives to protecting mimics, but don’t always go about it in the best way. “Is this one of those‘it’s for your own good,’ situations where the people protecting this place decide they know what’s best and are actually our keepers?”
“No, of course not.” Setting the bloody rag aside, he leans against the stone counter, studying my face. “A decent chunk of these people have never accessed the internet and have spent their entire lives in the compound. Others came here when they were young and never left, along with some teenage and adult mimics we’ve rescued that came here in really bad shape. But while most of the community is sheltered, they’re not ignorant, especially because we bring in new blood from all over the country. Everyone knows damn well the dangers out there and concentrate their efforts on making our little corner of the world better than the shitshow hellscape outside of these tunnels. None of us havewantedto leave the compound before, so this is actually a first.”
Again, not seeing the problem.
I frown. “You run the retrieval team, though, right?”
“Yeah, but I don’tleavethe compound to do it. At least, not until you. And everyone that does supply runs or retrieval missions always comes back home.”
Groaning in annoyance, I scrub my hands over my face and lean against the counter beside him. I take the stone cup Bellamy passes me and drink my fill. The faster I can flush the residual drugs from my system, the better.
“I’m going to need you to spell this out for me, because clearly, I’m missing something obvious here. If nobody is going to stop us, why can’t we call the guys to come pick us up? Because if they find us before they realize it was your family that snatched us off the street, it’ll be a bloodbath.”
“Sure, go right ahead.” Bellamy pulls a new, in package burner phone out of a drawer and offers it to me with a pointedlook. “Mine broke during the struggle, and I don’t have any of their numbers memorized. Do you?”
