You're Mine

Chapter Eighteen: Taking One For The Team

"You bastard!" I yell out as I come up to the next room. The door is stuck, so I slam against it which makes it budge a little. I step back and begin to kick it. "I'm not choosing between them! They're my family!" I grit out between kicks.

"You know what, I'll give you three more minutes. If you find one of them, you'll only have to pick between them and your brother. I think that sounds quite fair, so I'll bring the connection back to them for you," He tells me before the speakers go silent.

With a final kick, I finally get the door open. The sight that awaits me nearly makes me hurl. There's blood on the floor that leads to a puddle underneath a tied-up person in the chair. I race over and quickly remove the sack from their head. It drops from my hand as I stare at the person in front of me. "It's the man from the train station," I mumble as I stare at the words carved on his face, "Liar? So he wasn't the killer?" I question out loud.

"Cassie, were you banging on something? I can't tell if it was the echo or you, but it sounded close to me," She tells me.

"I only heard the echo. Maybe you're close to Kara, Cas," He tells me. "Whatever you found, move on from it. You're on a time limit!" He adds before a coughing fit takes over.

"Okay, Okay!" I say as I quickly leave the room before my stomach decides to make me revisit my meal from earlier. "Kara, can you hear this? I need you to really listen," I tell her as I pick up a stray wooden board. I swing it as hard as I can against the wall. I breathe a small sigh of relief when it makes a loud crack and splinters some of the wood.

"I heard it!" She tells me with a bit of hope in her voice. "You're close, but if you find me," She trails off as the realization hits.

"I'm going to find you both, okay. We're all going to get out of this hellhole," I reassure her.

"Cas, you have only a few minutes left. There's no way you can find us both in time. If you find her, you'll have to choose between your brother and me. If you don't find her, you'll still have to make a choice," He takes a shuddering breath, "Choose me, just pick me and you two get out of here." He tells me.

"No!" I run to the next room, "We're going to get out of here. All of us are leaving here not just the two of us." I tell him as I look under the bed before moving to the closet. I jerk the door open to see it's empty again.

"Ash, you shouldn't be the one to be chosen. You have more to offer to this world than I do. I mean an artist compare to a brilliant mind. The choice seems pretty clear to me because I know she's not going to choose her brother. I couldn't ask her to anyways; he's all the family she has left," She says softly.

"Will you two just shut up!" I yell in frustration. I take a deep breath as I try to calm myself. "I'm not choosing Alistair. I'm not choosing you. I'm not choosing Ash either. It's me he wants and has wanted this whole time; I'll choose myself over you guys. So I need you two to quit talking like you're about to die," I tell them as my voice starts to tremble some.

"But aren't we? Cassie, you need to face it. You can't save us. I know you're trying, but he's got you in the perfect trap. I mean ash and I came to save you, and he got us," She tells me.

"Two WD, you used our old name to tell us every second word. It honestly took me forever to figure it out. It took us even longer to figure out everything," He explains to me with a sad chuckle.

"You idiots weren't suppose to come after me. It was so you guys could find me if this went south. I know things seem bad, okay really bad, but you can't give up. I'll figure something out. I'll get you out of here!" I tell them as I look down the hallway to the last three rooms on this floor.

"Aw, how touching, you really moved my cold heart with all these little speeches," The killer's cold voice comes through the speaker. "Time is almost up my dear, so have you made your decision yet?" He asks me.

"I already told you that I choose myself! I'm not playing your stupid game anymore. This is between us and only us. Let them go!" My voice is laced with hatred as I look around the hallway. If I keep him talking, I can finish searching this area. I think to myself as I go to the next room.

"Cassandra, I've already told you that this is part of the thrill. You're the one who let your friends down, not me," He tells me.

"I've let them down by telling you to let them go. I've let them down by telling you to come out and face me instead of hiding," I muse as I search the room. There are only two left rooms left. My old room and that room. I think to myself as I look at the oak doors near me. This was her room. Would he have hidden one of them in there? I wonder as I head towards it.

"Since you won't pick, I guess I will have the honors of killing all three of them. It really is a shame that you wouldn't just pick one. It's only one little life after all my dear. One life to save two others, but you chose to be stubborn. Oh well, you'll be seeing them real soon, so I guess it's not a total loss," He muses.

While he was talking, I tried to open the door, but it will not open from the outside. I'm about to kick it when I hear an all too familiar sound of a gun being cocked. "Wait!" I yell at him.

"Did you finally make a decision, or do you plan on begging me to spare them some more?" He asks me.

"I..." I trail off as I look at the door. What do I do? She may not even be behind this door, and I don't know where Ash is. I can't choose between them. However, he could be telling the truth about Alistair. I can't lose him when I just got him back. "I choose," I pause as I look from the door to the speaker, "I choose Ash." I mutter out as I feel my eyes fill with tears.

"I have to say your choice surprises me, but you finally made a decision, sorry buddy," He says before a single gunshot echoes throughout the house.

I drop to my knees as the door in front of me unlocks. "I'm so sorry Ash. I'm sorry," I whisper to myself as the killer laughs.