๑『CorRUPted』๑

【Chapter Four: The Price Of [Freedom]】

【Chapter Four: The Price Of [Freedom]】

Waking up was easy. Standing up was hell. Everything felt wobbly, and unstable, like jell-o on a plate. It looked firm, but the moment it started moving you could see it was really just… unstable. Rubbing my head, I looked about myself. At first, my setting was completely unknown for only about a second. Then the memories began to flood in and it took me everything not to cry. The old abandoned hotel suite. The large veranda that overlooked the dark, ruined city. And the blankets that I’d woken up in… they too were the same. Everything…

On shaky legs, I walked out to the veranda and stared down at the dead, dirty world. The streets were empty, the cars from so long ago having all been taken away by Levigation City and other cities for re-use. What was left was dirt scraps and trash. That and puddles of muddy red stuff. That same stuff I’d let drain away into the sewer pipes two days earlier. I fell back, bile rising in my throat, and almost screamed when someone picked me up. 

“Good morning.” Before I could even form a protest, his lips were on mine, hard and hungry. Demanding. I gasped, pushing him away, and fell to the floor with still too weak of a body. When he pursued me, I crawled backwards until I hit the bed and threw myself over it, taking the ancient phone that lay on the drawer beside the queen sized bed and holding it up like a weapon. “So now I can’t even kiss you? What a pity, Pet.”

“Stay away from me.”

“I’m afraid I can’t listen to that demand.” That was all he said before I was pulled off the bed by the ankle and thrown onto a chair. I tried to launch myself off but Sion was faster, pushing himself onto me and holding me in place with his body while he pulled a few ropes from the grounded and brandished them before me. I stared, stick stiff and shocked. Now why would he need ropes…?

“What the hell’s going on he-” He plastered tape onto my lips. Tape, of all things. I stared at it, then at him, incredulous. What did he think he was doing? Who the hell did he think he was? I screamed unintelligible words for a while before it became clear he wasn’t going to listen to me. So then I watched as Sion set up a camera and all the little historical light gadgets so that my face would be lit up. I blinked at the lights, slightly blinded, but then Sion grabbed a hold of my face and forced me to stare at the camera. He clicked a button and a red blight blazed.

“Hello there, citizens of Levigation City. See this pretty little woman here? You know her as a Corrector, the best thing that’s ever happened to the world, right? Well, she’s going to become exactly that soon. But only if you listen to me. Darcy here, she’s quite the skilled Corrector, but she’s also quite the beautiful woman, so if I grow impatient…” he leaned forward and nuzzled my neck. I “eeped,” though it was muted by the tape once more. Panic ran through me at the realization that I was tied down by Sion and he could pretty much do whatever he pleased with me. Oh, god. “So now, my instructions are simple. Shut down Bellicose. Close away the Correctors project and stop with this Perfection idea. No one is perfect, not even Darcy here.” He paused then to look me in the eyes, and when I finally looked at him, he did the one thing that I wish had never happened.

He ripped the tape from my mouth, forcing a gasp from my lips. Grinning, Sion took advantage of the moment and leaned forward, pressing his lips to mine and holding me captive in a slow, passionate kiss I could not break away from. A kiss the world would soon be seeing. When he pulled away, I was too breathless and dizzy to even say anything. Sion was still grinning when he turned to the camera and said, “Do as I say, and you get Darcy back. Don’t listen to me? She stays mine forever.” Sion pressed the button to stop recording.

My mind broke away and shattered into millions of tiny pieces.

* * * * * *

Immediately after the video, I was untied and thrown onto the bed. Sion, throwing me a quick glance, grinned once more before saluting and slamming the door shut behind him. Alone. He’d left me alone in the room I’d grown to love, the room I’d been born in and the room I’d run away from when I’d stepped onto the solid, clean ground of Levigation City. My old home, pretty much. Did he seriously expect me not to know how to get out through the window? Twenty feet was nothing.