| Who are You? |

Chapter 21 | Who are you? |

XXX Jack

My head was pounding. I groaned. Is this what a hangover feels like? I wonder to myself.

"He's awake." I hear a girl's voice say. My eyelids peeled open. I see guns all around me, it must have been a gun shop.

The shop had all kinds of guns on display with multiple handguns, shotguns, and rifles. I was in a metal chair with my arms painfully tied behind me with rope, and my legs were tied to the legs of the chair in the corner of the room. I see two people in front of me. My eyes widened. They looked like they were twenty!

I studied the older boy in front of me. He was wearing green cargo pants that had a knife strapped to his belt, with a black tight tank top and I jealousy noted his well-toned muscles. By the looks of his confident face and handsome features, he was probably a ladies-man. His raven black hair was tousled hanging over his forehead.

The girl beside him looked hawian with tan skin and dark hair that was wavy and looked perfect. She was wearing booty shorts which I paid a lot of attention to, she also wore a pink crop top. Her lips were full and she had rosy pink cheeks with freckles splattered all over her face. She wasn't as pretty as Vanessa, though.

"Done staring?" the stranger says, clearly amused, I recognized his voice, this was the guy from last night, my captor! No wonder he overpowered me, he had to weigh 50 pounds more than me. I sighed.

"It's hard not to look when you guys are such eyesores." I spat, I really didn't need this right now. He chuckled and walked towards me leaning on his knees so we were eye to eye.

"I don't think you should be trying to insult me no matter how wrong your insults are." He said softly so I had to strain to hear him, it definitely made him even more terrifying. The way he smiled at me sent shivers down my spine, I knew he meant business. "So this is what's going to happen, answer my questions and I won't hurt you." He breathed. I sighed and leaned my head back.

"What do you want to know? Because honestly, I am an open book." I say yawning, these past days just haven't been my days.

"How long have you been here?" He asks coldly.

"Mhm. Don't know, don't care." I say before he slapped my face. My head rocked back, even though he wasn't even probably trying. My face smarted from the hit. I shook my head trying to clear my vision.

"Did that help you figure out how long? I told you no games." His yellow-gold eyes gaze burned through me.

"Well, you actually didn't say no games---" He slapped my face again on both sides, but this time he didn't hold anything back. My neck snapped to both sides making pain shoot up my spine. I thought my spine was going to break!

My vision blurred before refocusing. My eyes began to tear up involuntarily. By the time my eyes and mind refocused, our noses were almost touching, his gaze burning into my tearing eyes, cold metal was touching my throat. It took me a second to realize it was his knife from his belt.

"Shut your mouth and listen." He paused making sure he had all my attention. "I can kill you right here, understand? All, I have to do is go kidnap some other poor soul and just torture what I want to know out of them. You're nothing to me and I won't hesitate to slice your throat."

He stopped for a second pressing the knife to my soft flesh underneath my chin. I felt a drop of blood roll down my neck. I tried not to shift as much as possible. "The only way you will survive this is that you stop being a pain in the ass and tell me what I want to know." He says dangerously. "Understood?"

I swallowed and tried my best to nod without drawing more blood.

He smiled heartlessly, "Good." He says without taking the knife away from my throat. "How long have you've been here?" He questions again.

"I think almost two weeks," I say shakily, trying not to open my mouth too much so that the knife wouldn't puncture my throat again.

His golden eyes bored into mine as if he was trying to figure out if I was lying.

"Okay, how many are you?" I swallowed, immediately wincing when the knife cut my neck again.

"I think fifty, but that's me guessing, all ages from thirteen and up." He sighed.

"Great, Mia, now we have fifty kids to babysit." He says to the girl who was in the booty shorts. She sighed and seemed to be in deep thought.

"It's nothing we can't do Maddox, especially with the number of people in our group. I'm just worried about the power-hungry idiots." She muttered.

Maddox's eyes turned back to me.

"How many teens have died so far?"

"Before my group was taken over about thirteen." Maddox's eyes widened and then I thought I saw sadness flash across before it was quickly swooshed away.

"Are you an idiot?" He yelled at me suddenly the knife pressed harder against my neck making me gasp.

"It wasn't me!" I yelled at Maddox.

"Then who was it?" He yelled back at me.

"We were attacked, god! Get that knife off me!" I shouted.

"No, tell me first what happened." He says, easing the pressure on the knife, slightly.

"We didn't know what it was, and we still don't know. It was some kind of animal hybrid." Anger consumed Maddox's face. He pressed the knife again at my throat, again.

"You expect me to believe that?" He shouted in my face.

"Just look at my friend's back for god's sake! Nick ended up killing others for trying to make a run for it! Why do you think I was in handcuffs and beat up when you found me? Huh? I took care of my group! Nick is in alliance with the man who put us here, The Maker is what they call him, The Maker lowered our numbers from that lizard monster, so Nick could take control. And now he's just waiting for the thumbs up from The Maker to kill me and my two other best friends for just being the leaders! So don't blame me!"

I yell at him, rage consuming me.

Maddox took a step back from me pushing his fingers through his hair. He slid his knife back into his sleeve that was attached to his belt.

"Why were you beat up?"

"Because I attacked Nick, I got a few punches in before I was pulled off by his thugs. Then he had his little useless minions beat me to the pulp." Maddox sighed and stood in front of me again.

"Do you guys have your memories?" I shake my head. My eyes widen when he takes his knife out again.

"Relax, I'm just cutting your ropes. " I sighed in relief.

"Uh, so what now?" I ask as he cuts my legs free.

"You are going back."

"Wait, What? But Nick might set his goons on me for just disappearing." I say panicked.

"Relax. You'll look like the victim." My eyebrows scrunched in confusion.

"What? How?" I ask Maddox nervously, he ignores me and reaches in his pocket. He pulls out a rag that sends a wave of chemical smell.

Chloroform.

Dread filled me. Maddox stepped over before he clamped the rag on my face again.

"Breath, this is for your own good." I rolled my eyes as fury coursed through my body. I am not breathing in. I held my breath. It must have been a few seconds before my lungs started to feel like they were ripping themselves apart.

"Just breathe! Stop being stubborn, pathetic eight years old." Maddox says to me, still keeping my face secured to the rag.

I breathed in, but might I add, I had no choice. The sweet smell made my head swim like the last time. And by the minutes past, I felt myself fade slowly away before feeling myself slump in my chair and pass out.

I woke up to a very angry Nick.

"Where the hell have you've been?" He asked angrily. I was back in the gymnasium standing against the wall underneath the basketball hoop, with my hands still tied behind me. Josh and Carter both of one of my arms, holding me up since I just woke up.

"Mhm, shh. I'm still trying to wake up. I just passed out from chloroform, give me a break." I mumble trying to soothe my pounding headache.

"Explain to me why you disappeared last night? Huh?" Nick was pacing back and forth nibbling on his thumb which apparently was a habit for him.

"Simple, I was kidnapped. But honestly, I don't think I was kidnaped because I was taken away from you, so I'm pretty sure it was more of a rescue." Nick's face drained.

"There's another group?" He asks, suddenly nervous.

"Well, yeah duh. Who would I be kidnapped by?" I say sarcastically.

"Shut up!" He snapped still pacing back and forth. "How many?"

"I don't know, I just saw the leader, I think." I paused almost grinning at Nick's reaction.

"Oh, and guess what?" Nick's head snapped to me.

"What?" He says practically gnawing his thumb off.

"They were way older than us like I think they were twenty." I felt Josh and Carter's grip tighten on me, when Nick sped towards me, gripping my shirt collar.

"Are you sure? You better not be lying." He hissed clearly feeling threatened by the newcomers.

"Are you scared, Nick?" I taunt. Nick's face darkens, tightening his hold on my shirt collar. He shoved me into the wall, Carter and Josh let go of me.

"I'm not scared of anyone." He snarled. I raised my eyebrows.

"Looks like you are," I say honestly. He threw me to the ground.

Wompf!

All the air knocked out of me after I fell straight on my stomach, bracing myself the best I could since my hands were tied behind me. Low blow Nick. I hear Josh snicker from behind me.

"Shut up! Don't give me smack talk!" He growled. Nick walked away, leaving me like a fish out of water trying to suck in air. Carter and Josh pulled me to my feet, walking me back to where Chase and Adaline were.

Chase's anger was evident on his face when Josh shoved me towards them, making me stumble and fall on my face. Ouch. I sat up and scooted the rest of the way towards Chase. Chase looked eagerly at me.

"What happened to you? Where did you go?" He asked excitedly. I rolled my eyes.

"Yes, I am fine thanks for asking."

"Uh, sorry, Jack." He mumbled.

"So what happened?" I heard a voice behind me, I grinned.

"Hey, Vanessa," I say turning around, she showed me her billion dollar smile. My heart beated as she sat by me, sitting across Chase and Adaline. She nudged my shoulder.

"Sorry about your predicament." She says jokingly gesturing towards my tied hands. I chuckled shaking my head.

"Not your fault, but I wonder how I'm going to use the bathroom." I am actually thinking about how I was going to. She giggled.

"Sucks to suck." She paused dazed for a moment. "Chase?" she says turning to him. He smiles at her leaning against the wall with Adaline in his arms.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think you can walk?" He frowns.

"I think I could walk for a while. Maybe an hour, until I would start slowing down." She clapped her hands together.

"That's good. For a second there I thought we were going to have to drag your butt out when we escape." She whispered, chuckling. My eyes widened. Escape?

"Where would we go?" I ask her.

"I was thinking you would help me with that. Where is the group that kidnapped you?"

"I don't know, I just woke up in a gunshop. Maybe we can search for gun shops for their group." I suggested. Escape? Away from Nick? That sounded amazing.

I looked across the room to Axel. He was sitting alone in another corner of the gymnasium with Carson. They didn't bother to tie Carson. He was sitting with Axel babbling. I smirked, if glares could kill Carson would be decapitated. Axel huffed and turned away from Carson laying on his side. Carson looked offended and clamped his mouth shut in a thin line. I chuckled.

"Does Axel know yet?" I say looking at Vanessa's beautiful face.

"Yeah, we're leaving tonight." She whispered back. Tonight? Joy coursed through my body. We were escaping tonight.