Breaking the Curse

Chapter 38

The base was a mess, with shattered glass everywhere, panic, and a whole lot of cussing. By the time Liny arrived, the witch had been contained on the Thai side of the base once more and was weakened after getting shot by Thai poison gas bullets.

"You're late." Master Sovan sneered, grabbing Liny by the arm.

"I'm sorry, Master, I was focused on my other mission," Liny tells her master, but he does not care. He rolled his eyes and pulled her into the electromagnetic wave room, which had become Liny's torture room.

"Let this be a reminder to always keep your radio on." He grabbed her wrists and tied them down, revealing a screen in front of her. The screen blurred until a clear face was seen—her mother's. Tears built in her eyes. She hadn't seen her in months.

"M-Mother." She smiled as she looked up at her with tired eyes. She looked horribly abused.

"I missed you so much, my baby girl." Liny's mother says as she wipes her tears with her restraints and smiles.

"We'll meet again, I promise." She began to sing the beginning of Liny's favorite childhood song and put an electric helmet on her. He turned the switch, and as pain and electricity were sent through her brain, the lullaby became a chorus of screams.

"NO! MOTHER! STOP PLEASE!" Liny screamed, but nothing would work. It was her fault for becoming too attached to that boy. She lost her focus.

"You could have avoided this if you had listened to your radio and come to help us contain the witch. All of our ammo would be in good supply, but because you decided not to, our supplies are drained and we are not ready to take the boy. Our timeline is ruined." In a bitter tone of voice, Master Sovan says. He sneered, slapping Liny across the face. "You better work hard if you want your shitbag of a mother to see you again, or she'll end up like your father—dead in an instant, you understand?" He spits before walking out of the room.

*-_-*

"T-they have Alice. We need to tell Sabastian," Miles said quietly after the long silence.

"No! Sabastian had already put his life on the line to save this town once. We can't do that—not yet." Adeline responded to her brother.

The group of misfits stayed quiet for a minute as they contemplated what to do next. The CIA had cut off all contact with Captain Jack, and it would take a lot to get them back. He just tells them that one of their superior agents just went rogue.

"The CIA would help us kill the witch, catch their rogue agents, and defeat the Thai, but not get the girl," Captain says. " They wouldn't risk it, those selfish scumbag bastards," he scoffs, banging his hand on the table.

"We have to wait it out and slowly investigate. Once we have enough information and evidence, we call the CIA and rescue Alice. But for now, I think we should have Sabastian stay with that friend of yours, Liny." Jackson said.

Back at Liny's apartment, Sabastian helps clean up the room while Liny does the dishes in the kitchen.

"Well, thanks for letting me spend the night, Liny. It was really nice of you," Sebastian said, getting his stuff together by the door.

"Anytime Sebastian! I may not be part of your little friend group yet, but remember, you're always my friend! See ya later!" she said as he began to walk away. He jumped in the back of Captain Jack's Jeep, and V made eye contact with him, who was staring at Liny from the passenger seat. His face immediately went red as Liny smiled, and he fumbled with his hands to give Liny a shy wave.

"Hey, Liny! Can I talk to you real quick?" Margaret said, coming out of Capt's car.

"Nice to meet you, by the way!" She said, holding out her hand.

"Thank you so much for being such a great friend. I work a lot, so it's always good to know the kids have good friends to look out for them; by the way, is your father or mother home?" She asked, peeking into Liny's home.

"U-um no, he's at work. He works at a manufacturing company around 45 minutes away from town. He's hardly home, but I manage to protect myself." Liny says as Margareth eyes the gun cases in her living room.

"Oh, okay, and your mother?" She continues.

"I- my mother.. she's not around.." Liny says as she looks down at the floor, tears besting up in her eyes as she recalls the previous night.

"Oh, sweetie," Margareth said as she hugged Liny. "I'm so sorry. Remember, you always have me, only a call away." Margareth smiled, and Liny felt a pain being lifted off her shoulders. This was the moment she realized Margareth was such a caring and amazing person.

"Thank you, Margareth. It means more than you know."

IN CAPT CAR - A MOMENT LATER

"That girl still seems suspicious to me, I swear to God. The car we saw at the base is the same car that parks in Liny's apartment driveway every day," Ellis said, eyeing V and Miles.

"It could have been her neighbor's car or something! It wasn't in her driveway; it was just parked on the sidewalk." V said.

"Look, I know we can't trust her fully because we don't know much, but who else is there to turn to at this point?" Miles suddenly stood up as Ellis started to argue.

"JUST STOP! We can trust her! She's nice, not suspicious, and we all know if she wanted to do something to me she would have done it already! What other option do you have, Ellis?" Sebastian said, getting dangerously close to Ellis.

"Sebastian! Sometimes you are blind as fuck; you care too much, and we all know why. You clearly have a crush on her! You've only known her for six months and you're already willing to put your trust in her and spend the rest of your life with her! Can't you see? We don't know her background, why she has so many scars, why her dad is never around, how she is so rich, and most importantly, why there is a car that we saw parked in her driveway every day, at a Thai fucking secret base!" Sebastian's face glowed red with the accusations of being in love with Liny.

It was clearly true that he had never felt like this about a girl after Alice's death before, but it felt wrong that Ellis was trying to steer her away from him.

"I think we have bigger problems to discuss rather than Sabastian's girl crush and Ellis's trust issues; we need to talk about getting into the base and killing that witch again, this time for good," V said, inspiring a new conversation.

"So from what we've heard from Margareth and Captain Jack is that the Witch is still out there, and there is not only one portal here in Lakewood and another one somewhere in Thailand. Somehow we needed to find a way to get across the portals and into Thai soil, but with the Thai Army there and the gateway being monitored 24/7, we needed to find a better plan." As much as she hated the plan, Margaret knew that they needed to do it themselves.

The CIA task force will refuse to rescue Alice in hopes of staying far away from the world of hostages and war and instead just overtaking the Thai base in the name of science.

In the end, the only way to rescue Alice would be to get Sebastian involved, and she knew he would do it in a heartbeat, Alice is the only girl that has a strong connection with him and always cares and never gives up on him after all. With shaking hands, Margareth handed her son a sandwich while thinking in her head "I can't lose him again."