Callie Jackson, The Redemption

Chapter XVII

Callie's POV

They weren't fooling around when they talked about torture. But I wasn't going to give in. The blood from the cut on my forehead dripped into my eye, and the bruises on my skin ached. The tallest boy who dragged me in here jerked a silver knife across the inside of my forearm. I grit my teeth and balled my fists in frustration and pain. The chains that held my wrists and ankles to the wall jingled.
"So why'd you come here, pretty girl?" He asked, running his finger through my blood on the knife. I wrinkled up my nose at the name he called me.
"How have you not gotten through your head that I'm not going to tell?" I snapped.
"Oh I'm not going to quit until you tell. Playing hard to gets pretty cute too, you know." He squatted down in front of me, and wiped the blood off of my cheek. I looked into his eyes. Those muddy brown, sick, torturous eyes. He was enjoying this. I worked up all the courage and saliva I could, and spit in his face. He squinted his eyes, wiped the spit off of his nose, and slapped me.
  "Fine then." He snarled.  He slit the top of my wrist, and I cried out in pain. He grabbed my chin, and pushed my head up quickly to see him. "I'll be back sweetie. And then the fun will start."
  "Sure." I snapped. "I won't break."
  "I've heard that before." He said.
  "From cowards." I responded through gritted teeth. "You've probably said that before yourself. So how much did spill about the camp?"
  "Enough." He smiled, strapping his knife to his belt. "To have you chest deep in monsters." And he left the candle light, to where I couldn't see him.

Now to my own thoughts. I wondered what Noah, Malcolm, and Nevaeh were doing. Would Noah be stupid enough to get caught like I was? No. I couldn't worry about that now. I needed to get out of here. But how? I was in chains. My knife. They never took my knife. I carefully moved my hand towards my pocket, trying to not look like I was doing anything. My legs burned and my arms ached from the cuts, but I needed this knife. I groped for the handle in my back pocket, and wrapped my hand around it, slowly pulling it from blue jean pocket. I took the tip, slowly running the tip against the rusted metal, trying to find the key hole. But a familiar voice stopped me. Shit. Familiar voices meant familiar faces.
"What'd you do to her?" I heard a boy scream. There was a clatter of metal, probably weapons, then more talking.
"Wouldn't you like to know." Said someone is never heard before. More metal.
"Tell me where you hid her, and I'll let you go." The familiar one snarled. Noah. Noah was looking for me.
"Noah!" I screamed. "I'm in here! Over the hill!"
"What is she-" snapped one of the torturers, but I listened to the background.
"Listen man." Said a panicked foreign voice. "I don't know where she is. I just deal with the entries."
"Callie!" Noah screamed. "I'm coming!" There was no answer from the other boy; just Noah's footsteps.
"Noah!" I yelled. A large boy stormed over to me, and covered my mouth. I quickly bit his hand, and screamed to Noah. "Hurry!"and the dude covered my mouth; this time with duct tape. And he went to work with his sword. I let go of my tough kid act, and screamed as he carved into the skin on my thigh. He kept doing this, and whispering in my ear.
"You'll never be as good as your brother." He snarled.
"That's not... my goal." I whispered. I grit my teeth for the thousandth time this evening, and tried to speak as loud as I could. "It's to kill your bastard ass."
"Good luck with that." He said. After a while, I zoned out. He quit cutting, and all was quiet. Until, I say, Noah decided to change that.
"Let me go!" He shouted. Then I saw him. He and two others were silhouetted at the top of the entrance hill. The one in the middle, obviously Noah, squirmed in their grip. At once, he stiffened. Then, as quick as lightning, he brought back an elbow into one of the big guys ribs. He pried the other one off, and charged down the hill, stopping at the bottom.
"Where is she?!" He yelled. "Let her go!" He walked into the light.
"Noah." I croaked, trying to get his attention. "Noah." But he never even glanced at me. I let me shoulders fall, and slumped me head onto the right one. He left the dim light, into where the people who have tortured me went. I couldn't understand what they were saying, but I heard clanging off swords, Noah grunt, a cry of pain, and the thud of a body hitting the floor.
"Now." I heard Noah say loudly. "You tell me where she is, or I do that to you." I heard the murmurs of someone else talking, and then the quiet thumps of Noah's shoes.
"Noah." I croaked, praying he could see or hear me.
"Callie!" He said excitedly, and ran to my side.
"Nice to see you too." I grinned. He took my knife and twisted it into the cuffs, and helped me up.
  "Can you stand?" He asked, placing a supporting arm around my waist.
  "Yeah." I said. "Or... I think. Do you have any water?" I threw my arm around his shoulder, knowing I couldn't stand. He pulled a stainless steel container out of his back pocket, and opened it. I stuck my arm out for him to pour the liquid on it, and heal some of the wounds.
  "A flask?" I asked as he started to drizzle it on my right arm. "Really?"
  "It's tiny and it works." He defended himself. "Give me your other arm." I flexed my fingers on my right hand, and took the flask, trying to pour the water myself. His grip tightened around my waist, the only thing keeping me from falling.
  "Give that back." He said. "You're shaking too hard." He started to drizzle it down my other arm, and I watched the scar tissue form over the cuts. I could heal them better later. Right now, I needed energy. He wet his hand, and wiped the water on my face. He poured it down my legs, and shook the flask.
  "That's the last of it." He sighed, letting go of me and screwed the top back on. He stuck it in his pocket, and unsheathed his sword, also handing me my dagger off of the ground. I realized how drained I was, and snapped back to reality. I'm fine now. Time to fight. I felt like an action movie star. Except this was real; and so was death. Trust me. I knew.
  "Where'd that other person go?" I asked.
  "Oh that girl? She ran. I must have scared her." He smirked.
  "Sure. And puppies scare pit-bulls." I grinned.
  "That's about as scary as he is." Said a voice from afar. There was the girl at the top of the entry hill, standing with about seven more people. Suddenly, the smallest person was shoved down the hill. And I knew who it was.
  "Malcolm!" I yelled. He jumped up and scrambled over to us. He spit blood.
  "Hi." He said.
  "You ok?" I asked, noticing the small cuts and his matching black eye to mine.
  "Been better." He remarked.
  "Guys, we kinda have a problem." Noah said, panicked yet slow. I looked up at the hill. The six people had multiplied. No, they didn't have kids. There were now about 20 kids, and lots of monsters.  
  "Well fuck me over." Malcolm whispered.
  "Where's Nevaeh?" I asked.
  "With her people." Malcolm said, and pointed. Then I saw her. She was standing, towering over us with the others, and she did one think: wink. What was she doing? And right then started the commotion started; when Nevaeh stabbed the leader. The girl beside the victim screamed and caught her. She laid her down and everyone's immediate attention was turned to her. They didn't even pay attention when Nevaeh ran towards us.
  "You guys okay?" She breathed heavily.
  "What the hell was that?!" Noah asked. "We thought you'd betrayed us!"
  "Calm down sunshine." Nevaeh started.
  "Only Callie can call me that." He snapped.
  "Don't get your panties in a wad. I bought you time. Go." She rushed us, pointing to a pile of rocks. "There's an opening under those rocks." I decided to trust her.
  "What about you?" I asked.
  "Oh I'll be fine. I got away from them once, didn't I?"
  "Don't be so sure, Nevaeh." Said a tall blonde girl standing on top of the hill. They dragged the former leader down the side. A small girl, maybe my age, ran up, wiped a tear off her her cheek, and scowled at us. She resembled the deceased girl; maybe her little sister, who probably wanted to peal the skin off of our faces.
  "And why the hell not?" Nevaeh asked her. "You've always been over confident Chloe. Take a break."
  "I will when you're dead." She snapped.
  "So you'll never take a break." Noah sighed. "Cause none of us are dying."
"Callie." Malcolm whispered. "Over there." He cocked his head towards the right side of the cave, closest to him. A dim light shown. "I think that's where Kat and Hestia are."
"Hidden in plain sight." I whispered back. "Malcolm, you're a genius!"
"Is that so?" She grinned. "CHARGE!" She yelled at the army; and that's when all hell broke loose.