I Believe We're The Enemy

Glory Girl’s P.O.V.

Drac voices jerk me out of a pleasantly dreamless sleep, and as I turn to look at their leering faces I realize that for some strange reason, I’m not in my usual spot, as far away from Ray as I can possibly be. The first of the dracs’ knives hits the wall next to my head, and behind me I hear Ray wake with a start. I’m suddenly aware that the soft pillow beneath my head is actually his arm, and rather than being sprawled out of the chilly stone floor, my bruised, tender body is laying across his lap. The hall lights have been dimmed, so I know that it’s nighttime, but luckily they haven’t taken Ray away from me yet.

As the dracs start pointing at me, one of them beginning to take aim with a wicked-looking dagger, Ray dumps me from his lap and pushes me behind him protectively, holding his arms out to keep me hidden. I huddle against his back and look down at the filthy, blood-soaked bandages on my arms. For the first time in years, I realize just how unhealthily skinny I am, and I make a mental note to thank Ray for taking care of me, because if he hadn’t I would be beyond dead by now. The dracs obviously don’t care whether they kill us in the torture chambers or not.

All of a sudden, a new voice thunders among those of the dracs, and when I peek around Ray nervously I spy the very head of BL/ind himself, Korse. He sneers at me venomously and I feel my fear threatening to overcome me, but Ray grabs my hand and holds it tightly, obviously understanding my need for compassion.

Korse quickly sends the dracs away, and I sneak out from behind Ray, knowing that they can’t hurt me now. However, i stay as close to him as possible, relying on his warmth to retain my sanity. Sometimes I think he’s the only person in this dreary place who’s actually still alive.

“I see you’ve met our lovebird,” Korse drones to me. I meet his cold gray eyes and give him my best possible death glare. “Reports say that we only caught him because he just had to avenge his little girlfriend, Letterbomb. Of course, she could’ve survived. You never know.”

Ray is shaking so hard that his hand nearly slips out of mine. “She’s okay?” he asks quietly.

Korse rolls his eyes, obviously disgusted by Ray. “Why does it matter to you, Jet-Star? What did that girl ever do for you?”

“Don’t encourage him,” I mumble to Korse. He laughs.

“Encourage him? You had a rant about love when you came here too, GLory Girl. ‘Don’t hurt my brothers,’ you always said. ‘Not Daryn, not Nate, especially not Bob.’” I freeze.

“B-Bob?”

He cackles again. “That first boy we brought in here. Tall, blond, a bit stocky? It occurred to us that you might’ve had a little crush on him,” he replies with a cruel glint in his eyes. “How did he die again? Oh, yes, 513 had the power on his staff turned up too high. Ah, I remember now; it was in this cell, and you were ripping up your own clothing to try and save him. Maybe if you had the sense to get him out of the way, he would still be here.”

I can’t breathe. Banishing Bob from my mind had been hard, but I thought I had accomplished it at long last. He had been my only true friend, and I loved him with all my heart, even as I stepped out of the way and let Draculoid #513 zap him. I hadn’t known that it would kill him.

Now I’m being blamed for his death. I feel Ray staring at me, shocked to learn that I didn’t even try to save Bob. Tears start to well at the edges of my eyes, but I refuse to let Korse see them. “Why the hell do you let your stupid minions walk around with those dumb poles anyway?” I shout, quickly losing my temper. “You’d get a lot more information out of your prisoners if you didn’t murder one every other day!”

Korse’s leering face strikes a whole new level of terror in my heart. “We don’t care about information, my dear,” he hisses, clutching the bars of our cell. Ray winces as I grip his hand as hard as I possibly can. “All we want is extermination.”

“THEN WHY DON’T YOU JUST KILL US ALREADY?” I scream.

Korse laughs. “It’s easy. The longer we keep our prisoners hostage, the more new prisoners they bring in. For example, if we keep Jet-Star here, we have a better chance of getting Letterbomb,” (Ray flinches) “Fun Ghoul, Kobra Kid, and Party Poison.” By the way he spits the last name, I can tell that Korse has quite the vendetta against Gerard. “And you, my friend,” he continues. “We love torturing our guests, but we found a whole new job for you.”

I suddenly realize just how purposeful the bloody deaths of my first eleven cellmates were. It was all just to break me down so that they’d have an easier time killing me. I’m too angry to even shriek at Korse now.

“Leave her alone,” Ray snarls, and our tormenter actually giggles.

“Okay, but it’s the dracs’ day off, so they’ll be back to mess with you soon. Have fun!” The moment he exits the room my tears come loose, flying at rocket speed down my face. Ray looks me in the eyes unwaveringly for the first time and I can tell that he understands my pain instantly. As he holds me in his arms, cooing gentle words of comfort, I give in. So much for avoiding love. I think I have a new best friend.

“Ray, I love you,” I blurt spontaneously. He chuckles.

“After all the times you’ve saved my life, not to mention saving me from myself, I have to say the feeling is mutual.”

“You’re my best friend.”

“You mean only friend?”

“Whatever,” I laugh, leaning my head on his chest.

Ray gently wipes the tears from my face as the dracs return, now loaded up with a vast and rather awe-inspiring collection of weaponry. As Korse had mentioned, the dracs have a day off, so while they don’t take Ray away, they do spend the entire day tormenting us. We watch each other’s backs, defending one another and avenging each other’s wounds ferociously. By the time the dracs leave, we’ve beyond exhausted and quite bloodied, but better off then we would’ve been on our own. As the light brighten to indicate morning, Ray practically passes out in his normal corner, and I start to cross the room to my usual spot, but then I change my min and curl up next to Ray, resting my head on his warm stomach. For the first time in seven years, I feel almost safe.

Mikey’s P.O.V.

“Gerard, please, we’re beyond ready. The longer we wait, the more likely Ray is to die,” Ginny begs, clutching Gerard’s shoulders and shaking him back and forth violently. Sometimes I really worry about the poor Animal; her rabies tends to cloud her thought processes.

“Ginny, babe, relax.” I roll my eyes, exasperated by Gerard’s newfound habit. I’m sure that Ray would be pissed if he found out that both Frank and Gerard have started calling Ginny ‘baby’, and I can tell that she doesn’t like it either. She does a pretty good job of remaining faithful to her contaminated.

Ginny lets out a low growl. “You’re not listening to me, Gee. He could be dead already. If you haven’t noticed by now, we’re one hell of a mess without him. We need him back!”

Gerard throws his hands up in surrender. “I know, Ginny. I know. We can’t just barge in there and get him out, though. We need a plan. Getting ourselves killed doesn’t do Ray any good.”

She sighs. “Just... Please don’t make me wait too long, okay? Those damn nightmares are driving me insane.” We all know what she’s talking about. Over the last few days, we’ve been sucked into our own versions of her dreams and forced to watch each other die again and again, with the constant undertone of Ray’s screaming. Even Gerard wakes up sobbing almost every night, usually shrieking something about Frank’s eyes. This, of course, makes sense to me only with the object of convincing me that my brother really is in love.

“We can go tomorrow,” Gerard replies, interrupting my thoughts. “There isn’t really that much to plan, since we don’t really know where we’re going. We’ll take the Trans Am but leave it maybe a quarter of a mile away so that we can sneak in. Then we’ll split up to search the cells and the places where they... poke people’s eyes out.” We all know that he means torture chambers. Ginny nods, satisfied, but I, on the other hand, and struck by terror. Ray might be my best friend, but I’m still hesitant to risk my life--as well as those of my brother, my other best friend, and the Beast--to rescue him when we don’t even know where we’re going or what we’re up against. However, Ginny remains completely adamant, and I know that once she’s gotten the OK from Gerard, nothing will stop her.

We go to sleep early that night in preparation for the day ahead. Despite our mutual fear of our horrendous nightmares, we know that what little sleep we’ll be able to get will be out most valuable weapon tomorrow. I give a small chuckle as I realize that Gerard and Frank’s hyperactivity will finally come in handy.

When I wake up the next morning, I realize that I slept through the entire night without waking up once. Frank must have suffered a different predicament, because I awaken to find him huddled against my chest, his face buried in my shoulder. I shake him awake gently, chuckling as he jerks away from me as if I’m venomous. Frank never adjusted to sleeping with me; most mornings I can tell that he’s using all of his limited self-control to avoid asking where Gerard is without even glancing at me first.

Gerard and Ginny are already awake and eating on the sofas across the room, and they both flash me affectionate grins as I sit down between them. Frank rises slowly and comes to sit on Ginny’s other side, staring into the table silently.

“Stop being sad, Frankie,” Ginny says softly. As I watch, she gently grabs the sides of Frank’s face and pulls him toward her, giving him a gentle kiss on the cheek. He blushes fire engine red. “I hate awkward people,” she continues, running her fingers lovingly down the side of Frank’s face before turning back to her breakfast.

“Ginny, you know you’re just torturing him, right?” I ask, looking over at Frank. He bites his lip, seemingly undecided over whether to move away from or toward Ginny. Surprisingly, she takes my words into account and her face softens even more as she hugs Frank, practically tumbling onto his lap. Emotions flow over his features, but he wraps his arms around her and pulls her close, leaning his head on hers. I know how sad Frank is about not having a little lovebird of his own, but in the end, he’ll be better of without one. Killjoys and love don’t mix.

After breakfast, we all pile into the car, taking our entire stash of weaponry just in case. Gerard drives with Ginny in shotgun, while Frank and I occupy the backseat. Two hours is all it takes to reach Battery City, but by that time everyone is so nervous that the silent tension in the car is enough to break bones and snap eardrums. We climb out of the Trans Am one by one and approach the familiar back doors of Battery City side by side.

“We do what we came to do and get out,” Gerard commands bluntly. “Don’t get hurt.” Ginny nods, so determined that all traces of fear have vanished from her face, but I notice that on the other side of her, Frank is reaching anxiously for Gerard’s hand. It’s going to take one mighty streak of luck to get us all out of here in one piece.