Escape

Ryker

I disengage from my snowflake, and stand up. "Ryker..." Scout whispers.

"I'll go." I answer, ignoring her for a moment. He nods.

"Fine then." He wants Cade to go. Cruel bastard. I walk to the room, and glance back one more time. Scout smiles sadly, and then she turns away to say something to Cade. I step into the room, and I nod, ready to start.

At this point I know how this works. The guards will come out from my left, and they'll try to shoot me. Simple enough. "Good luck dude. Oh and sorry about your girlfriend. She should have known what she was getting into."  I roll my eyes and respond by flipping him off. I can hear the guy grunt from over the speakers before a road breaking through the woods appears around me. I stop moving, and watch the guards stalk closer. I keep the calm that appears before the heat of a battle.

Once they get close enough, I spring on the woman, remembering Scout targeted the knee. I kicked at her knee and she gasps in pain. But somehow she keeps up a fight. Blocks and parries meet punches and kicks. I feel eyes on me, from my back and I duck. BANG! The bullet hits the woman in a visor, smashing it and she cries out once, before collapsing, unfortunately, on me. I shove her off and turn to face the other guard. He smiles.

I disarm the gun, leaving him defenseless. My turn to smile. I bash the visor in, and nail his gut. He groans, and he keeps fighting. I fake out a punch and nail his temple and he crumples unconscious. The computer room appears without a word from Falcon. The adrenaline gone, I pace around looking for a solution. Finally, after what felt like four minutes, I spot the plug to the computer.

I rush over to it, and yank it out. The doors close, right as I hear the footsteps pounding on the metal floors. I smirk, and go over to the computer, and swing a fist at the screen. I grimace at the pain for a moment, and the blood. I shake it off, getting the red onto the floor before it falls away, to another small room. I know this room. It's the counseling room. I spent two weeks in here whenever I wasn't trying to eat after I escaped the first time. Two guards bare their teeth at me.

"Thought you could escape again? Well, we'll show you what happens to kids like you." One man says, with a scary calm. He grabs a handful of my hair, forcing me to look him in the eye. "What do you say bastard?" He spits in my face. I yank my head from his grip, pain striking me.

"I say screw yourself." I growl, trying to get away from the chains around my wrists, keeping me on my knees.

That's when the first whip stroke nails my back. I stop struggling and cry out. I forgot how much this had hurt. The other kicks at my nose and torso, leaving bruise and crack after bruise and crack. I scream in pain, knowing there's nothing I can do to get free. Finally, they stop, before consciousness leaves my system. I hadn't heard that scream in a long time. It sounded unreal to me. I lay there, crumpled on the ground, shaking, still in pain, a dull throb now. Footsteps come toward me. I glance up through blurred vision and see beach blonde hair, pale skin, and dark clothing.

Scout, my fallen angel, my white wolf, walks toward me. She both glides with a grace, and stalks with a calculating step. I attempt to stand, and manage to, leaning against the wall behind me in the apartment. I think she's going to collapse into my arms, start talking, until I see the look of cold fury in her eyes. The grey eyes fix on me with the look as some of the guards. She punches my nose again, and fresh blood oozes out, falling into my mouth. The bitter taste engulfs my tongue.

I cough it out, I didn't want the taste right now. "Scout..." I manage to say around the crimson still flooding into my mouth. She growls.

"Bastard. You pathetic bastard." Those words hurt worse than the punch in the nose. It stabbed through my mind, the numbing feeling of shock setting in first.

"Wha-" I start, when she explodes on me, ripping me apart.

"You are the most pathetic person ever! How the hell did you make it to town without dying? Someone as pitiful as you shouldn't have made it the first mile. I don't know how those guards didn't see you. And the fact you failed the first time. Ha! Just to prove how pathetic you are. I don't even know why I saved you. I should have left you on the streets, wait for the Imperium to get you again. I should have left you to rot on the streets, in the Society. You are of no help to the place. You just burdened us, Jason said so. I agreed too.

"You were nothing to me. You are nothing to me. Nothing to Jason. Nothing to anyone." All the while she starts to push me to the fire escape. "It was such a mistake fighting for you. It was a mistake to save you from Jason. I should have just let him kick out out. I wish I never met you. Because I never loved you. I felt nothing looking at you. I." Another step. "Felt." I start leaning back, she's so close. The scent of lavender and peppermint tickles my nose. Who is this? This isn't Scout.

"Nothing." I'm on my toes as she keeps pushing me over the fire escape. "I hate you, Ryker Sander, you pathetic bastard. Rot in hell." Then she pushes me, and starts to laugh, a cackle of glee at watching me fall. Her cold grey eyes and scent follow me to the bottom of the building. Just before the impact, the room of red dots shows up. I groan, more tears falling. That was Scout. My Scout. She said that. That was her. It looked like her, smelled like her, talked like her, moved like her. But it wasn't her.

I stagger out, leaning against the wall outside the room. I never want to be in there again. That was horrible, to watch and experience. Through tear blurred vision, I see golden blonde hair, pale skin, and dark clothes. Scout runs over, wrapping her arms around me. Her eyes have traces of tears in her eyes, only a few though. I pull her closer, breathing in the smell of my real Scout. "It's alright." She murmurs in my ear, and pulls me over to where we were sitting.

Falcon smirks at that, his eyes showing amusement. "Should have seen that coming." He snorts. My arm around my snowflake's shoulder, her arm around my waist, we again glare at him. Scout rests her chin on my shoulder.

"It's not real. Remember." She whispers. I glance down at her, twirl a strand of her hair around my fingers.

"It felt real. It was you. Down to the last detail."

"That's because it's your fear. Of course it'd put me as you saw me. Don't worry. It wasn't real, no matter how real it feels. I'm still here. And I don't regret anything. I don't ever think those things. I'm glad I fought for my raindrop." She mutters, turning her eyes to mine. Grey like ash, with a hardness, and an underlying softness very few can see.

"As long as I get to keep the real you close, I'll be fine, snowflake." I respond. Her face turns red as Falcon faces us again after writing a couple things down.

"Next?" His eyes glance at Cade, teasingly, cruelty in them.

"I suppose it's my turn to 'give it a whirl' as they say." Sheila says, walking to the door. She adjusts her glasses, using her thumb on one end of the spectacles and her middle finger on the other, she makes a shield across her eyes as she pushes them up her face.

*Hey guys, for Shiela's glasses, when she pushes them up, it's like Rei Ryugazaki from the Free! Iwatobi Swim Club... just so you guys know. Thanks for reading!*