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The sting -and inevitable bruise- burned up their necks as the woman pulled the four inside a bright room. It looked like a bathroom by the tiled floor and the drains lining the outer frame of it. But instead of showerheads, there were only mirrors. At least a hundred of them perched in different angles, reflecting the cold light.
Before closing the heavy doors behind them, the woman spoke to the men outside, grinning as they came to an agreement.
With her face straight, the woman turned to them. "There are two people outside that door waiting to stab a knife through your stomachs if you try to leave. You are here to change into appropriate clothing before your trial, and if you so much as attempt to disobey Akemi's orders, she will know." She pointed to the three cameras on the edges of the walls. "The mirrors make it so there is not a blindspot in here."
Billy heard her mocking voice, but forced himself to look at his palms. That seemed like his only safe place, because everywhere his eyes landed, he saw that woman.
This whole experience had been too much for him. He was warned about it, offered a way out, but this had exceeded all his expectations. His mind, he knew now, wasn't meant to take on this much cruelty at once and it was slowly driving him crazy. If he once understood himself to be a calm person, at this time he felt like shoving the woman in front of them to the ground. That is because she, in some way, represented it all. Torture, the murder of kids, the pain of his friends.
In some deep corner of his mind, killing her would mean his journey came to an end and he could go home.
Another word from her, and Billy would snap.
The woman's voice lowered to a whisper. "Don't talk, just listen.'' Her demeanor stayed the same, cold and still, as she eyed every single one of them. "In five minutes the cameras will malfunction. They'll stay down for forty seconds, and in those forty seconds we'll have to navigate this place and get out."
Billy halted.
"What?" Marcus blinked in shock.
"What the hell did I just tell you?" Her glare was so piercing, Petra felt the very weight of it bang against her skin. "Shut up and listen. All you need to know is that you'll be out of this place by noon, and out of the country before sunrise. And the person who's making it possible is me."
Billy stepped forward. "Who are you?"
"Are all Americans this thick, or is it just you?"
"We have been in a cage for the last two days, hearing our friend be electrocuted. So, forgive us for not embracing trust the moment someone offers to help." His jaw was tight. His whole body tense from the rage he'd been hosting since he stepped foot in the Omoyari household. "Either tell us who the fuck you are or shut your mouth and fufill Akemi's orders."
The woman scoffed at his demand, dark humor glazed her eyes as she scanned the four of them. "My name is Isabella. I've been making my way up the ranks of the Yakuza for five years, and I'm wasting those five years to free some teenagers who were stupid enough to pick a fight with the most dangerous family there is." She smiled. "Does that satisfy your honor?"
Billy's eyes narrowed, finding her sarcasm unamusing. "If wasting your rank is this painful for you, why even help us?"
"Your daddy called in a favor." She breathed in deep, irritated. "God knows why Lin cares about you, but he does. Enough to trash his most valuable contact."
"Master Lin?" Lex gawked, looking at Marcus for his reaction.
"The very one." Isabella confirmed. She unlocked their collars, letting them fall to the ground, then raised her voice to the volume it originally was. "Your clothing is to your left. Get dressed."
Petra was the first to make her way towards the clothing rack that held four identical outfits. She pulled out the dress shirt and tailored pants out of the hanger and went to a corner of the room to change,
The rest followed behind, silently agreeing to put their lives into a stranger's hands.
Marcus held his new clothes close to his chest when he approached Isabella. He didn't face her to maintain his status as a prisoner, but he stood at a close enough distance that she could understand his words. "What about Jun and Saya?" He asked, taking off his clothes.
"My mission is to get you out of here, Lin said nothing about the sisters." She pretended to analyze the shine of her sword, head low to hide her moving lips. "Even if he had, there is nothing I can do for them now. Their fate is set."
Marcus felt the cameras on him, his paranoia taking over due to panic. "They will die if we leave them here."
"What do you think will happen to you if you stay?"
"We can save them." He tried to disguise his shaking fingers by grasping onto the hem of his shirt. "We have a plan."
"Does your plan involve any of this?" Her attention casually drifted to the cameras, then the steel chain on the ground. "Your plan didn't work, kid. Get over it."
Marcus turned to the wall, a mirror startling him with his own pale face. He placed a hand over his reflection, closing his eyes. "Get them out of here. Safely."
Isabella frowned. She stole a look at the distraught boy, his desperation being such that she could almost see it revolving around his head.
Her features softened in sync with her anger. "I will get all of you out. And when you are free of cages and chains, you can choose to fight back. From the outside in." She pronounced her words carefully. "That is your best chance of helping Saya and Jun."
His hands became tightly closed fists. "How much time do we have?"
She smiled. "Seventy seconds."
"Then what?"
"Then I open up that door and kill the men outside."
Marcus sighed, as if he could summon courage from the air. "How will we get past all the other guards? I counted at least twelve on the way here."
Isabella laughed, resting her sword on her shoulder. "I didn't get this rank just because I have a pretty face, kid. I've been waiting to make Akemi eat shit for years, and dismantling her carefully thought-out security system might just do the trick."
