What You Deserve

Black. That's all I can see. Nothing but the shadows of my mind. But... for some reason, the faintest sound of people talking seems to echo through my ears. How long have they been talking? Am I dreaming?

After searching, I remembered shortly before... a man who kicked me in the gut... and someone injuring him, then someone grabbing me. Nothing else. I must have blacked out. Through my eyelids, I could see the faintest of lights filtering through the room, apparently onto my eyelids. But it was only a small spot, that barely seemed to penetrate my eyelids, and couldn't even cover them. Warmth. I needed warmth... so cold. The light wasn't enough to keep me warm. Then... it hit me.

My eyes shot open, and I looked around wildly. Feeling my heart pounding in my chest, I examined the walls, up to the corners with small cobwebs beginning to form due to lack of dusting that high. The room was unfamiliar. I had no idea where I was. This wasn't my home, nor Zach's. Realizing what had happened the night before, I knew that I hadn't gone home, because I had passed out, and the people around me were strangers. The question was, which of the strangers had it been to take me to their home? If this was a home. Was it the guy who hurt me, or the people who saved me... or tried, if I wasn't with them. And further, were they actually nice, or did they have a different idea in mind?

"My god..." I muttered, barely audible. Where am I? I mentally questioned, my eyes widening a little, as I swung my feet over what I had been laying on. A bed, with dark gray sheets on it. Carefully, and as lightly as possible, I pressed my feet to the ground, and rose off the bed, only to find myself sitting back down a second later, as my legs wobbled a little, almost forcing me to the ground. A couple of attempts later, I managed up, and took a few steps towards the door, hearing voices nearby.

"It wasn't a good idea to bring her here!" one voice insisted. Instantly, I knew the topic was me.

"Depends... is she our next meal?" another voice questioned. I could almost picture a smirk on the person's face, easily assuming it was a man from the tone. Were they going to eat me? I could feel my heart jump at that, as panic began to course through my veins. Cannibals?

"I think... I'm going to go take care of my turtle..." a different voice muttered, so difficult to hear, that it made me wonder if he had actually said turtle. I mean, it wasn't like that had been part of the conversation... unless they were talking about eating the turtle. Laughing mentally, I realized how silly it was that they were going to eat me. It would be more logical to eat a turtle than a human... right?

"Come on, we brought her here, and if we let her out, they'll get her again..." a fourth voice made it's way into the conversation now. "She doesn't deserve that. She can... be our pet. It's an interesting pet. Some people have cats and we..." he cut off. Of course! It was the turtle they were talking about... pet turtles are different than having cats and dogs. Much less common.

"Shut up... I think she's awake..." a familiar voice, from the night before, added in. She? She... as in... me? The voice sounded so much like the man who was by me right before I had fainted. Was it him, though?

"I want to check on her!" the second voice shouted, as I heard footsteps quickly hitting the ground. I swore, I could hear the one who stated 'she' was awake state that he wasn't allowed to eat 'her', but the footsteps seemed to drown out the voice. It sounded like he was running upstairs... then I realized the footsteps were getting louder. Was I upstairs?

Just to be safe, I rushed to the bed, as quietly as possible for me to be running, and climbed into it, similar to how I had been earlier, and shut my eyes, feeling my heart beating quickly in my chest.

"Hey, you awake?" a voice questioned, as the door flew open.

In the background, I could hear the first man shout, "I think she will be now!"

As I didn't move, I heard the footsteps nearing. They soon found their way to the side of the bed, "you're heartbeat is fast. You're awake, so stop pretending!" he sounded as if he was proudly accomplishing something. I didn't move, however. "Get up, before I throw you out of this bed," he instantly added, making my eyes open, to stare at him.

He had black hair, and his hazel eyes seemed to pierce through my mind, as if searching through my deepest thoughts. The most interesting thing that I realized about him was the brown colored hoody he was wearing... that was exactly like one I had at home... which was a girl's hoodie, not sold for guys, that I was aware of. Also, a tattoo of, what appeared to be, a scorpion was noticeable on his neck.

"...Who. The hell. Are you?" I mumbled lowly, scanning over him. I was trying to hide my fear as much as possible.

A strange expression twisted onto his face, "shouldn't I ask you that? You are, after all, in my bed," a faint smirk seemed to replace the look instantly.

His bed? His bed? I was in his bed? Great. Just great, I was in some guy's bed, and I didn't know who he was. "Jade..." I responded lowly, after a long pause.

"Great, I'm Frank. Now we know each other, it can't be so awkward that you were asleep in my bed. I slept on the couch. And now I want my bed back, because Gerard said that when you woke up, my bed was mine again, and now that it smells like you, I'm going to be hungry all night," he pulled on my arm, in order to get me out of his bed.

The second he touched me, it was like a chill ran through my entire body that I couldn't shake off. His hands were freezing, and pale. "You're cold," I murmured, and a pervert... hungry from my smell...yuck, looking around again. I could really go for a beer around now... to eliminate all of my confusion...

"You can get used to it. If Gerard wants you to sleep in a bed again, it's either mine or Mikey's, and if it's mine, I'm sleeping in the bed too. I don't think Mikey'd give up his bed either!" he spoke, pulling me onto my feet, and causing me to stumble into him slightly. Just enough for me to shiver from how cold he was. "Now don't you smell pretty? Well... you would if it wasn't mixed with all of the... things... you've had last night..." he muttered. How did he know? And how much of a pervert was this guy?

"Whatever," I muttered, pulling my hand loose from his grip, and turning towards the door, though not missing him lick his lips quickly, as if trying not to let me see that he had. Grabbing onto my wrist again, he pulled me out the door, where I came to see that I was, indeed, upstairs. Guiding me down the stairs, we said nothing, as my eyes continued to glue themselves to the back of his head, almost as if he were going to turn around and kill me in a second.

"You didn't kill her, amazing," the familiar voice mused, as I turned to see a dark haired man standing at the side of the stairs. It looked like black hair dye was beginning to fade from his hair, revealing that it was actually a brown color, and somewhat messy.

Looking over at him, Frank stuck out his tongue, "I've got just as much control as you!" After that... it seemed like the tattooed man was pouting. But the word 'kill' just seemed to be the only thing that kept in my mind, as we reached the bottom of the stairs, and the two men led me into another room.

It was a fairly normal living room, with a dust-gray coloured carpet, and off-white walls, that didn't seem to have a window on them. It had a couple of couches in it, and a tv, that gaming consoles were hooked to, along with a few cases for games scattered around it. A coffee table... and three other men where also in the room.

They all seemed to look at me, but the middle one, with black messy hair, seemed to be more interested in what his friends were doing, rather than me. One had an afro, and the other was blond haired, holding a small turtle in one of his hands. He was the only one that hadn't spoken in my presence, that I could put a voice to, due to the small animal held in hand.

"Her name's Jade," Frank spoke up, as he led me to one of the couches, and sat down, still holding my wrist, as he pulled me down to sit beside him. As I sat down, I could feel his grip lighten, but didn't let go. Most likely to make sure that I didn't dart off the second he did. "What do we do with her?" was the next thing to roll out of his mouth.

"I'd have to agree with Gerard on this... she can't go back out... especially after our scent's been put on her. They'll find us, after killing her," the man, that had been at the stairs, finally stated his opinion.

The messy-black haired man, who had been eying his friends shortly before, sighed, "you know my opinion."

The man holding the turtle held it up, "depends on if she likes turtles... do you like turtles? I do," he smiled faintly, looking at me with interested blue eyes.

After a short pause, I spoke up, "uhm... yeah... I guess. Turtles rock," I nodded. It was an odd question. I don't think anyone had ever asked me if I liked turtles. At that, the man smiled, and looked at the messy haired man, lipping an 'she's fine with me,' to him.

"You know my opinion, too," I heard Frank's voice echo off the walls, as I glanced at him, realizing his face was much closer than before. To the extent that I could now feel his breath against my neck. "It's tough not to get caught... she walked right to them anyways... so she either would have been turned, or eaten... so, we may as well have a meal... can we share, Gerard? She smells too nice for just you to have her... I know you're hungrier than us... you have to be, and you and Mikey got her... but it's temping..." At this, I pulled away, as much as his tightening grip allowed, to remove myself from the close range his face had been at.

"No. Nobody gets to eat her," the messy haired man, I'm assuming named Gerard, spoke up. "Either she stays, or we set her outside our door, you stay here, and everyone else leaves, so they'll find her, and you. Unless Ray has a problem with her staying in our home..." his eyes flickered to the man with the afro. Obviously Ray.

"No problem, then. I don't want to stay here and have to deal with all of them, and only have Frank here," Ray quickly replied, as if avoiding whoever they were referring to.

"Then it's done. She stays," the man, Gerard, stated. "Either she'll be residing in Frank, or Mikey's room... Bob and I haven't eaten in a while... and it isn't a good idea for the scent to be covering Ray's room..." he sighed. "Girl... Jade. Be careful what you do, and how you do it. We'll kill you if you think of doing anything stupid, and keep in mind that we're fully capable of tracing your scent. Keep in mind it's on your family and friends. We'll kill them if you run away, and it would be only a matter of time before we find you again, or they do,... so you may want to consider that before you walk out that door..." he explained.

"O...Okay..." I managed, thinking of how they could do that, and why he was telling me this. Was I going to be tortured for the rest of my life? Was I going to die anyways from them?

"I'm Gerard," he continued, after hearing my response, "this is Bob," he pointed to the blonde haired man, "that's Ray," he motioned to the man with the afro, before he made one towards the only other man that was unnamed, "and Mikey. Frank seems to have already introduced himself," he added. "And you're our new... 'pet', for lack of words."