[JUNEBUG]↣ criminal minds

|three| : stockholm syndrome

Bella stood alone in a room with a bed, a closet, and a bathroom. The walls were dark grey and the floor, surprisingly, was covered in fluffy carpet. the devils plan on staying here. they wont move, not when they took so much effort putting the place together. Bella sighed loudly and flopped onto the bed, looking up at the ceiling. by now, she was sure, my team must have realized i was missing. An alarm clock blinked 8:54 at her. Bella decided falling asleep would be pointless. But what else was there for her to do?

She didn't know anyone, not really. And frankly, she had no desire to. These guys were dangerous. Murderers, rapists, drug and arms dealers, robbers, god only knew what else? But the boy, Donte, he seemed different. He struck her as too young, too awkward to be in with all of these guys. She couldn't imagine Donte even raising his voice, let alone murdering someone in cold blood the way Ash Ives did thirty minutes ago.

A knock at the door pulled her from her thoughts. Donte Fox walked in. "You should really think about locking that," he suggested, "You never know what kind of creep could walk in."

"A creep like you?" Bella tested, giving him a small smile to show she was only playing.

"Oh come on, I'm not that bad! Anyways, there's breakfast if you want it?" Donte offered. Bella perked up.

"Where?"

"The kitchen."

"There's a kitchen?"

"Why wouldn't there be a kitchen? We're gang members, not animals. Come on," Donte said. Bella thought about the murder cases she had seen because of gangs like this one. As far as she was concerned, they kind of were animals.

Donte pulled Bella out of bed by her hand and pulled her out the door. He led her through a few hallways and down a set of stairs, into a normal looking living space/dining room. There, sitting at the table, were Ash and a couple of older men. "Breakfast?" Ash asked, looking between the two. Bella made no move to answer, so Donte nodded for the both of them.

Ash set two plates of food down on the table and dismissed his men, telling them they would finish talking later. They left, and the teenagers sat at the table with Ash. No one said anything. Donte was digging into his food.

"You killed that guy," Bella said quietly. She picked at her food, suddenly losing her appetite.

"What was I supposed to do? He put his hands on you," Ash said, as if his explanation made him sound rational and not compleasty psycho.

"I mean, not kill him? You realize that most people don't kill people when they get mad, right?"

"That's not how it works around here, Junebug." Bella opened her mouth to argue and he cut her off. "You want these guys messing with you? You want them putting their hands on you like you're one of the girls they bought?"

"You're into human trafficking?" Bella asked. The FBI had no record of that in any of their files.

"Not the point, kid. They're not gonna do any of that to you. Do you know why? Because I showed them what will happen to them if they do," Ash said casually, taking a bite of his pancake. He reached for the syrup.

"What do you want me to say? Thank you for killing that guy?" Bella asked exasperatedly, cutting and taking a bite of her own food.

"I'm just trying to keep you safe." Ash said shortly. It was quiet for a few moments after that, as Bella took a deep breath and tried not to explode. "There's clothes in your closet and a bunch of stuff in the bathroom, too. The doors have alarm systems. You should take my word for it, you don't want to know what I'll do if you trigger them. Plus, we're in Virginia. A long way from home. There's lots of scary people out there, you know?" Ash said. Like he didn't just put a bullet in some guys head an hour ago.