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CHAPTER SIX diner discussions
⋆*✧･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:
KADENCE HAD NEVER imagined that something as extreme as taking a hostage could be boring. Most of the movies she'd been into when she was younger—action and superhero films, of course, to mirror her actual life—featured sacks over the head and bright lights shining into a prisoner's eyes and ropes tight enough to cut off the circulation in their wrists. Kidnapping was a dramatic thing, played up for the cameras, and usually ended either with the prisoner chewing off their own nails to pick the locks of their handcuffs or a hero bursting theatrically in at the last minute and saving the day.
None of the movies Kadence watched had a prisoner who was basically given free rein of a mansion. Nor one who received free appetizers—crackers and cheese, pigs in a blanket, and mozzarella sticks, all prepared by a slightly malfunctioning Grace—every half hour, if he so desired. No movies ever had a prisoner who seemed completely content to sit back and just wait to be let go.
But that was their situation right now. Not only were Ben, Sloane, and Fei all insistent that Luther Hargreeves be able to have everything he needed—"We're not tying him to a chair and blindfolding him, Kadence. Jesus, we're trying to be good hosts, here!"—but their prisoner himself had spent his entire time in captivity with googly eyes. Sloane had forced Kadence to come along to give him the tour of their facilities, and with each room they entered, his grin only grew wider. Even Kadence's frequent threats of what she would do if he even stepped a toe out of line—most of them featuring an encasement of rock around his brawny figure—didn't snap him out of his excitement.
Sloane finally told her to leave. Her sister seemed to want alone time with their prisoner, anyway—and the implications of this made Kadence gag—but even if she hadn't, Kadence needed a break from the real-world equivalent of Kronk from Emperor's New Groove.
So she headed back outside to the garden again. There were two aims to this—one, it was something to do other than make throat-slitting motions at their prisoner, and two, it could distract her from the likely idea that the Umbrella Academy had kidnapped Marcus. Oh, it wasn't like she was worried about him—they were all a bunch of imbeciles that he could surely outwit—but she hated to imagine the slightest possibility of him being hurt, regardless. Marcus had been about as good to her as the rest of her siblings had, but he was still her leader. She couldn't help but want to see him safe.
Which was how she ended up here, clipping overgrown leaves and spreading fertilizer on the fresh dirt. The sun beat down on the back of her neck, surprisingly hot and heavy for April. Dirt streaked her face and arms.
To her surprise, though, she was only out there for half an hour before Jayme and Alphonso came to find her.
Jayme was clad in her usual dark hoodie, her expression as sour as if she'd just sucked on a lemon. Kadence didn't take it personally—Jayme always looked like that. Alphonso was in a jacket and appeared marginally happier than his sister. He grinned when he saw Kadence, throwing an arm around her shoulder.
