Bound to You

“I’m not telling you anything because I don’t know anything!” Michelle screamed at Zack angrily, pulling against the silver chains holding her against the cool stone wall of the Solitary room in a futile attempt to get free from their hold. “How could you even think that I would do something like that to you?”

“There’s ample evidence that says you did, Michelle.” Zack replied angrily, reaching into the manila envelope that Joel had handed him shortly after Michelle and Brian had been separated. He pulled out the first photo on the top, a picture with Michelle and Sean eating dinner at some French restaurant in New Orleans. When her eyes rested on the picture, she turned her gaze to Zack, the green-tinted hazel that were so similar to Val’s now completely darkened with rage.

“I don’t know where you found that, but it’s none of your business.” She spat angrily. Zack scoffed and tossed the folder onto the ground, the pictures and documents spilling out around his feet on the cold concrete ground as he glared at Michelle. He was so beyond angry that he couldn’t even comprehend it; never before had he felt such strong hate for someone. Before this turn of events, he wouldn’t have believed that it was possible to go from trusting someone completely to hating their guts within a few short days, but it had happened. For what Michelle had done to not only him, but Brian personally, she deserved a fate worse than death. Unfortunately, it had been decided between himself and the others that she needed to be kept alive for awhile longer to get as much information as they could out of her.

“I think it is, you little bitch.” Zack told her, his voice completely blank of emotion as he stood in her face, grabbing her neck with his hand in a painful grip. She hissed in the way only a hungry, furious vampire could do, and seemed to mock him.

“Why’s that, Zack?” She asked him as soon as he let her neck go, fearing that he’d go too far and strangle her to death. He didn’t need to deal with the consequences that would possibly entail.

“Do you even know what you’ve done to Brian? You’ve completely fucking shattered him. He won’t talk, he won’t eat. All he does is sit out there, on a cot, looking at a picture of the two of you on your first fucking date. He fucking loved you, and all you gave him in return was a broken heart.”

“If he’s such a smart vampire, he shouldn’t have fallen in love with someone who so obviously didn’t return his petty feelings.” Michelle sneered at him, though Zack did see a little bit of regret in her eyes. It didn’t matter to him at all if she felt guilty for what she had done—nothing she did or said, or felt, would make him forgive her. She was beyond redemption in his eyes.

“Petty feelings? That’s what you think of what he felt for you? Tell me, Michelle. When you were in that hospital dying, did you see your life flashing before your eyes? And when Brian essentially went against what all of us have ever told each other and turned you, are you honestly saying that you felt nothing?”

“Yes.” She replied in a simple voice, meeting his gaze with cold eyes. “I felt nothing when he turned me except the satisfaction that I got what I’ve wanted all along. Well, almost. But the rest will come in time.”

Zack knew what she was going to say, but the door opened suddenly, Joel’s face gaunt and dead serious as he stepped into the room. “Zack, there’s something you need to see.”

“I’m busy, Joel.” Zack said, not letting his eyes stray from Michelle.

“It’s about her.” Joel said, glaring at Michelle. He felt as betrayed as Avenged Sevenfold did, and he couldn’t believe someone like Michelle would turn her back on them. He had considered Brian and her family, and she had gone and done this. It was the worst form of treachery he could imagine, and he sincerely hoped that at the end of all this, Michelle was put through the worst kind of pain she could feel before she was killed. “I think I found out why she did this.”

Zack snapped his head around and motioned for Joel to come in and shut the door. He did, and handed Zack a picture. He studied it carefully. It was a small photo of a little boy who was a dead ringer for Sean Castro except for one prominent feature.

His hair. It was the exact same shade as Michelle’s hair.

“Where did you find this?” Zack asked, studying the photograph carefully. Michelle couldn’t see it, and had begun struggling against the chains again as she tried to see what the photograph was of.

“Leigh.” Joel told him, causing Zack to give him a look of confusion. Joel sighed before he continued. “It’s a long story that we don’t have time to go through right now. She told Matt that Sean had married her mother when she was a little girl, and that he had a room in the basement or something with photographs of this kid. Leigh…She says it’s his son.”

“What’s that have to do with—” Zack started before Joel cut him off.

“When Matt told me what Leigh told him, I did some research on the database. It turns out she kept pictures and documents of this same kid in locked folders in the computer. After a couple of minutes I managed to find this.” He finished, pulling a piece of paper out of his back pocket and handing it to Zack. He ignored Michelle’s screams and read the words on the piece of paper aloud.

“Jared Sean Castro, born at 7:34 AM, May 14th, 2000. Father, Sean Castro. Mother, Michelle DiBenedetto.”

Zack handed the paper back to Joel before turning to look at Michelle. “You’ve been planning this little betrayal for quite some time, haven’t you, you fucking whore? You had a child with someone you’ve claimed to hate for years!”

Michelle said nothing at Zack’s words, but instead let her gaze drop to the picture of the little boy in the picture. He was ten years old this year, and would perpetually have the appearance of a seven year old child. Sean had turned their son on his seventh birthday.

“I can’t look at her anymore.” Zack said with disgust on his tongue as he walked out of the room, Joel right behind him.

-x-

Brian couldn’t believe it. The woman he’d thought loved him—the woman he’d fallen in love with—had betrayed him. Not only that, but she’d sunk one level lower. She’d betrayed their country. He had let her in and taken her advice on a lot of different issues, sticking his neck out on things that she thought needed changing. How many laws had she convinced him to change or drop altogether because she’d been planning this betrayal? How many times had she thought to herself how stupid he was for loving her as much as he did?

How many times had he himself betrayed his friends and Bat Country as a whole for her? Though he knew anything he’d done was nothing in comparison to this, it didn’t matter. He had betrayed Bat Country by association, and he hated himself for it. How had he let himself get into something like this?

“You had a child with someone you’ve claimed to hate for years!” Brian heard Zack yell at Michelle in the Solitary room, causing his head to shoot up as he tried to hear the rest of what was being said. He couldn’t hear anything else, but it didn’t matter, either.

He hadn’t gone to see Michelle in the two days since they’d been separated. He couldn’t stomach seeing her face except for in the photograph in his hands. They looked so happy in that picture; she looked so genuine in his feelings for him. Her arms were wrapped around his neck and they were standing on the Huntington Beach Pier outside of Ruby’s, the ocean against their backs. Brian had asked some random passerby to take the picture and he gladly had, a smile on his face as he watched the two of them. Brian remembered the day as though it had been only yesterday, though in actuality it had happened eleven years before.

“Bri?” Eliza’s voice asked quietly. He looked up and saw Zack’s girlfriend walking over to him and looked down at the feet, sadness in his eyes. He knew that Eliza was a good person; she was feisty as hell, but she was good for Zack. She sure as hell wasn’t a traitor like Michelle.

“Leave me alone, Eliza.” Was all he said to her. She sighed and kneeled in front of him, looking at him with a frown on her face. Her eyes didn’t show sympathy, but rather a deep sadness.

“I hate seeing you like this, Bri. What happened to the happy-go-lucky guy who was going to shoot me that night a few months ago? Huh?” She asked him with a sad smile on her face as she remembered that night. Though it had been scary then, she thought of it fondly now. Her life had changed for the better, and Brian had played a major part in that. Had he not been pointing a gun at her head, she probably would have put up more of a fight than she had.

“It’s different now.” He told her. “Just…Go away.”

“There’s something they don’t want you to know.” She said in a hushed whisper, grabbing his hand in hers in a friendly gesture. “But I think you have a right to know. Brian, Michelle…She had a kid with him.”

Brian’s head shot up and he watched Eliza’s face, searching for any sign of joking or deceit. There was none. She was one-hundred percent serious. “Are you sure?” He asked her, unable to comprehend it. He’d heard Zack right, it seemed.

Eliza nodded, and that was all the more confirmation Brian needed. He stood up, looking down at Eliza before giving her a quick hug. “Thank you for telling me.” He whispered when she hugged him back. She nodded, and then watched as he walked away.

There was something he needed to do, and no one was going to be happy with him about it. He was going to confront Michelle about this. He was going to find out everything that she’d lied to him about. And then, he’d do to her what she had done to him.