unbreakable - corpse husband

xi - promise

tw - mention of abuse/death

lindsey bit her knuckles. i said too much,  she thought. i said way too much.

"lindsey...lindsey you need to bring me to him. you have to stop her," aviva said frantically.

"i told you he's dead," lindsey said, trying to preserve what she had left of her act.

"that doesn't make any sense. i won't believe you until you tell me why," aviva responded, seeing right through lindsey.

lindsey took her phone out to check it. what in the world is taking her so long?

mira: blake is being impatient. gonna take longer than expected. if he wants her, he's gonna have to stop disrespecting me

lindsey: are you serious mira?

lindsey: the longer u make him wait the angrier he'll get

mira: how many times do i have to tell u to trust the process?

aviva was about ready to accept defeat.

her abuser was going to have her back in his control.

her love would be forced to be with someone else.

her world was falling apart.

"when i was being abused, you were there for me." memories started coming back to both of them again. "you didn't ask me what was wrong, you didn't drill me for information, you were just there. any time i needed you, and even in times when i didn't know i needed you."

"i'm so grateful for you linds. i don't think you realize that."

"i didn't think i'd ever be in a situation where the same person who got me through my abuse would be the one to make me go through it again."

"yet here i am. here we are."

"i will hate you. forever. but i won't forget what you've done for me." tears rolled down aviva's cheeks. she looked up and saw the exact same look on lindsey's face.

"mira...let's just say she has, connections, with the police. she was able to get blake's bail lowered just for her so she could pay it," lindsey said, wiping her tears away.

"just for her?" aviva asked.

"just for you, viva."

"yeah," lindsey replied, thinking of what to say next.

"why are you telling me this?" aviva asked.

lindsey grabbed a knife off a table she was leaning on and walked towards aviva.

aviva shut her eyes and braced herself, then realizing what lindsey did.

she cut the rope that tied her to the chair.

"i'm getting you both out of this mess if it's the last thing i do." lindsey cut the last of the ropes carefully so she didn't hurt aviva.

"what? lindsey just a second ago you-"

"shut up before my fucked up mind tells me to turn back." aviva flinched at what lindsey said. "sorry."

"corpse is being held in a warehouse just like this one not too far from here. currently blake and mira are both there. the plan was for mira to silently escort blake here so corpse wouldn't realize what was going on and to let blake do what he wanted, but clearly that isn't working out," lindsey explained.

"so what do we do?" aviva asked, deciding to trust lindsey for now. there was no point in not trusting her.

she could kill her right there if she wanted to.

lindsey thought for a second. "we both go to the warehouse. i'll go inside, you hide outside, and i'll text you when it's safe to come in."

"won't mira be suspicious as to why you randomly went there?" aviva asked. "and won't she also think it's suspicious that you just left me here alone?"

"i can tell her it's because i wanna see what's going on for myself. there's a security camera in here. before i let you out of the ropes i took a clip of you alone in the room and set it to what mira sees on the security cameras for this room, so she'll think you're still in here," lindsey responded.

"so we just have to hope everything goes according to plan?" aviva asked, bad outcomes flooding her mind.

"basically," lindsey said, scratching the back of her neck. she had to admit, it was a very flawed plan. but it was also a terribly difficult situation to come up with a plan for.

"lindsey i need you to promise me one thing." aviva looked at lindsey and she looked back at her.

"what?" lindsey questioned.

"you have to promise me that corpse will get out of there alive and safe, and he won't have to deal with either of them. i don't give a fuck about myself. all i need is for him to be safe and to not have to suffer any more than he already does," aviva said.

of course she wanted to be with corpse.

it was the thing she wanted most for herself.

but what she wanted most of all was his safety.

"you have my word," lindsey replied.

the two talked through their plan a little more before leaving for the other warehouse.

corpse sat in silence, trying desperately to think of what to do. 

he couldn't let blake get out of that room.

he went through all of his options, and he finally came to the conclusion that trying to get through to mira was the only possible one.

"mira...please think about what you're doing."

"what do you mean?" mira asked, her horrifying grin still spread across her face.

"you want me to be with you, right?" corpse said, disgusted at his own words.

"more than anything."

"if you let him anywhere near her i will never be the person you think i am towards you. you keep saying that i'll learn to love you, but i won't. i will never show you any love or kindness if you do that to her."

mira's grin got smaller.

"but, if you keep him away from her and let her be free, i'll d-do whatever you want."

mira didn't reply.

"aviva didn't do anything to you, mira. from the first words you said to her you were horrible to her. if it's me you want, why do you care so much about her? if you see how much i love her, why do you think making her go through endless suffering would make me want to be with you any more?"

suddenly the door opened. lindsey entered the room.

"lindsey? what are you doing here?" mira asked, turning towards her and immediately reverting to a straight face.

"lindsey?" corpse said in disbelief. at first he thought, is she here to stop this?

lindsey glanced at corpse briefly before looking back to mira. "i'm here to help so we can get a move on."

"i told you to not leave that building under ANY circumstances unless i SPECIFICALLY tell you to. what if she escapes?" mira said, lowering her voice a little for the last part.

"i made sure she won't be able to. plus, look." lindsey pointed to the screen with the security camera footage playing on it.

she's with mira? i knew it. she was the one who kidnapped viva. corpse thought.

"if you ruin this for me i swear to-"

suddenly more muffled banging came from the room blake was in. 

"oh my GOD are you fucking KIDDING ME?" mira said angrily, going back into blake's room.

the second the door closed lindsey immediately pressed send on a pre-written text.

lindsey: it's safe. come in now.