a phoenix in the fire » fillie

chapter 19 ↝ gone boy

IT'S ALL A GAME, HONEY. YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND, AND YOU NEVER WILL.

Noah blinked, looking around. He choked as he realised he was gagged. His head throbbed painfully. He kept blinking until his vision cleared. He was located in a dark room. The gag muffled any words he tried to speak.

Footsteps pounded on the hollow floor, causing Noah to flinch with every step into the room. Noah was tied up sitting down. He glared at the person entering.

"Wha-"

"Don't speak, baby." The voice was calm, soothing to Noah's ears.

"Wh-"

"Don't strain yourself. We have big plans and a short amount of time to spur them into action." Noah fearfully followed the figure around the room with his eyes. "Don't be scared. This will only hurt if you think it'll hurt."

The figure pulled the gag out of his mouth and injected a needle into Noah's arm. Noah gasped at the feeling of the needle. He had never done drugs with needles. With a shudder, he helplessly let the ecstasy of the drug run through his veins.

All too late, Noah realised it was Gamma Hydroxybutyrate, a powerful stimulant and depressant drug.

It was just another thing for him to get addicted to.

—

"Where is he?" Sadie worriedly asked. Her anxiety rose as the silence continued. "Guys!" she shouted. People looked at them. Sadie refused to back down, glaring at each of them individually.

"Sad-"

"I'm replying then," Sadie annoyedly snapped. She started a text reply back to M.

"No, Sadie, we need to think this through," Finn said, grabbing her phone.

"We need to find Noah. We know what M is capable of. We've seen her do crazy stuff— she ran me over with a car. How can you expect me not to be worried?"

"God, where is he?" Caleb murmured lowly.

"I just need to know he's okay." Sadie teared up. She ran her fingers through her hair, leaned forward, and hugged her knees to her chest.

"What can we even do?"

"We can't get the police involved," Finn sighed. "You remember what M said."

"What are we going to do?" Sadie repeated.

"We play M's game. We just can't let them win," Gaten decided. Sadie looked at him. He was stressed, that much was obvious. As she kept staring at him, smaller things began to emerge. His fingers quickly twitched along to a beat, presumably his racing heartbeat. He bit his lip and met eyes with Sadie.

Flustered, Sadie looked away. "Let's play the game then." She started a new text to M.

"Game on, Bitch. What's first?"

—

Noah woke again. This time, his bonds were gone, but he was in a church. The bell rang and startled him out of his stupor. Somehow, he was awake. The drug was supposed to give a high of twelve hours. Why was he awake?