When We Were Humans | Book I

Chapter 12: Tempting the Devil

Viewpoint: Annie

I instantly blacked out as soon as I hit the concrete. The last thing I heard was my dad yelling my name. I half expected to wake up in my bed, but I woke up in a nightmare. I was sitting in a chair inside a small room that had a small table in the center with another chair on the other side. The entire room was lit up by a singular light on the ceiling. All of the walls were bare with the exception of the wall that had the door. I was handcuffed to the arms of the chair, and they were tight. Whoever was going to join me in the room, didn't want me to leave.

I waited a few minutes and I heard a knock on the door. Normally, I would have said, 'Come on in!', but I'm not in the place to do so.

The door handle turned and Athena walked in. She had a clipboard and a pen. She sat down in the other chair while giving me a sheepish smile.

"How are you feeling?" Athena asked.

"Where are they?" I responded coldly.

She paused for a second.

"You took a pretty hard fall back there," Athena said, as she looked down at the paper. "Sorry about that, Gates likes to make a really good first impression."

"Where. Are. They?" I asked again, growing slightly impatient.

"Look, I didn't mean for any of this to happen," Athena said sympathetically.

"Are they safe?" I asked.

"They are if they don't do anything stupid," Athena responded.

"My dad has a history of doing stupid stuff," I said, as I laughed nervously to myself. I grew slightly relaxed, as I didn't sense any danger at the moment. "Where am I?" I asked.

"You're in block A of the Bellaniva complex," Athena answered. "Your friends are all the way in block D."

"What's with the clipboard?" I asked curiously. "You're interrogating me for killing a Lurker?"

Athena just nodded.

"You and I both know that what's happening right now is wrong," I snapped. "You've been out there long enough to know that once you turn, you aren't alive anymore. I don't think Gates understands that."

"I know-"

"And you follow orders blindly that don't seem to go along with your morals," I said, with a rising tone.

"Yeah but-"

"AND you basically-"

"Will you shut up for a second?" Athena said, as she held out a hand to stop me from talking. I calmed down and let her speak.

"Now listen, they sent me in here to ask some questions. You are 'obliged' to answer them," Athena said, with air quotes. "But I'm just gonna ask you my own questions and act like I did my job, got it?"

I nodded.

"Where did you get that necklace?" Athena asked. I hardly thought it was the time for such small talk, but I decided to follow this conversation to see where it led.