The End of Fire and Ice

chapter 18: spark

"Never to suffer would never to have been blessed."
ೃ⁀➷ Edgar Allan Poe

┊ ➶ ｡˚ 　　°

I didn't get to spend the rest of training the way I wanted to. Writing down my song with Jay and taking his mind off the pain he was facing.

Now it was me facing the pain instead.

With a shove and a slam, Doyle had me trapped in his interrogation room.

I really fucked up this time. It seemed as though the brief kindness bestowed by Doyle recently was simply pressure against an ever-weakening dam.

Like he was just waiting for a breach to bring on the flood.

"How'd you get in there? Huh? Tell me, damn it!" He pushed me into the table, causing a pungent pain that I knew would bruise.

"The code. I knew the code," I rushed out, struggling for breath and overrun with panic.

"Who told you the code? Did you have help?"

"Nobody. I saw one of the faculty put it in. I did it by myself." I didn't hesitate to lie to him. I did it all the time.

"You crazy bitch! Why'd you sneak away? Why'd you go there?" He jerked me by the shoulders, shaking me like a rag doll until I couldn't think straight.

"I needed a pen. I just wanted to write!"

"We should have never even taught you to write." He slapped me straight across the face and I stumbled back to the wall.

"You know, it would have been so much easier if we just killed all of you when you were babies. But no! Your mother wouldn't have any of that!" He shoved me so hard into that wall I thought I might pass through it.

"So why did you really go in there? What do you know? You must know something!" He snapped.

"I don't know shit and neither do you."

His fist collided with my jaw as a metallic taste stung my tongue. No amount of snowflakes could help me now.

"You conniving snake! It must be you. It must be. I always had a feeling it would be you."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I spat the blood collecting in my mouth onto his squeaky clean shoes.

"I've tolerated your antics for far too long. I've got to make you see reason," he seethed, clicking that special button on the side of his watch that detonated my doom.

My spunk was now gone. Any desire I had to fight was extinguished the moment I looked Doyle in the eyes and saw nothing looking back.

I snapped my head towards the door and awaited the man who would add another scar to my story. Another rip to my page. Maybe the spilled ink would be permanent this time.

In just a few moments, a guard came thundering in. At first, he paid no attention to me and looked straight at Doyle for instructions.

"Beat her until she confesses."

I still didn't know what he wanted me to confess, so I wasn't entirely sure I wasn't guilty.