Whispers

In all of her self-defense classes, Rae had never learned how to escape being tied to a share. She also hadn’t known how to defend herself from chloroform to the mouth. Which is exactly how she had ended up tied to a chair looking around for a way out as Finn vanished at the sound of a knock on the door.

Pictures of Rae surrounded herself. She tried not to look at the glossy pages that held her face, knowing it would make it worse if she didn’t. She hadn’t gotten more than a few words out before Finn had smacked her full on with a chloroform rag and tied her to a chair while she was knocked out.

Bound and annoyed, Rae had woken up to see Finn staring at her. The redhead had opened her mouth to say something before someone knocked on the door and she left Rae alone, struggling against the bounds which were just bandanas tied to a kitchen chair. She obviously had no intention of keeping Rae there originally.

Working her wrists back and forth, she grit her teeth. She had no idea what Finn meant by revenge, but she assumed that it could only have something to do with Leon. Leon was the only person in the world that Rae could think of that hated her that much. And the only one sneaky enough to install someone next door to her in her group of friends.

A thought occurred to Rae then. Her feet weren’t tied to the chair, just her hands. They were bound very tightly, but she could still use her feet. She began to tilt forward to stand with the chair tied to her back when she heard the front door opened. Almost thirty minutes had gone by.

Leaning back, Rae sat stoically as the door opened. She stared at Finn who gave her a wry smile as she shut the door behind her, leaning against it. Finn looked so normal. Her hair was in place, her face was clear of any blemishes and her eyes were glittering with a normal sheen. Finn seemed like a completely normal person, nothing out of place. It unsettled Rae. Dangerous knives weren’t always the ones that looked the biggest. They were the ones that looked the prettiest.

Finn jut her thumb towards the door. “Niall is a good friend. His flipping his bloody lid out there trying to figure out where you are. I’m sure he doesn’t want to call Harry, though."

“He’s a better friend than most.”

Finn shrugged a shoulder. Her smile was beatific. “You used the wrong door, Rae. I obviously had no intention of subduing you.”

“Oh, so chloroform is just a household item?”

“I use it in the garden.”

“Naturally.” Rae inspected her. She kept trying to find something that was out of place. She hated to admit that she hadn’t seen something wrong before hand. “So what relation are you to Leon? Drug mule? Concubine?”

She narrowed her eyes. “I’ve been dating Leon for three years. A lot longer than you and your petty lover boy who thinks that he’s better than everyone just because he changed life courses.” Her eyes were very dark then. Rae could see the crazy then. Leon was the trigger. “Sure, my sister is the druggie of the family. Sean’s fault, really. I guess every family has one, don’t they? Except you. You’ve got the perfect little family. No mum, obviously. But you have the perfect little life.”

“My life is far from perfect.”

“Which is what we’ve crafted it to be.” Finn moved away from the door. She walked over to the washer and hopped up on it, sitting down like she was in the long haul for it. “You literally ruined everything for Leon, do have the slightest idea what you did to him?”

“You know, everyone keeps spinning this that I’ve done something wrong. Leon threatened me and threatened Harry all because of a court date. This has nothing to do with something I’ve done. It isn’t about me sending him to jail. It’s about Leon’s pride being hurt."

“It doesn’t matter, does it? The point is that you’ve annoyingly sped up the process of your sort of downfall. See Leon had this whole idea planned out of really just bothering you for a really long time before deciding to ruin your life, but then you walked into the wrong room.”

Rae glared. “Who’s fault is that?”

“I should’ve locked the door, I guess.”

“So what?” Rae sighed. She shifted her wait. “You’re going to kill me?”

“Do I look like a murderer?” Rae gave her a look. “Right, I see why you would think that. No, I’m not going to kill you. Leon wasn’t going to either, actually. He was going more for the human trafficking route."

Every vein in Rae’s body froze. She felt the blood cracking over as if ice were running through them, freezing every blood cell in her body. Her hands twisted tightly in the bonds as she heard the words in her head. She knew her face must have gone ghost white because Finn’s smile was colder than she felt.

The thought of Leon somehow shoving Rae into human trafficking suddenly made everything seem fifty times worse. She had been sitting here thinking that he had a murderous vendetta against her. Instead he had been planning to put her into something worse than death.

It no longer seemed like a soap opera to Rae. She realized that her life had turned into a legitimately dangerous situation. That something she had thought was just a dramatic situation was something more than that. It became real. Leon was a real life psychopath and there was nothing funny about it.

“Did you think this was child’s play? You really only took this mildly, didn’t you? You thought that what, you could get a restraining order, maybe it would all go away? You have no idea who Harry really is, do you? Or what he was involved with? Leon didn’t involve him in everything, but Harry knew how big his underground empire was.”

“I don’t care.”

Finn pointed at Rae. “Oh but you do care. You hate to think that he could have ever been involved in something like that. I bet it kills you inside to know that whoever you love is inherently bad. That he was actually involved in something dark, a place you’ve never been."

Rae shook her head. “Harry is who he is. I don’t care who he is or what he’s done. I care about who he is now.”

“Poetic. I don’t believe that though.” She hopped off the drier. "Regardless I doubt that's how Trystan is going to feel."

"Trystan?"

"Lovely hostess, of course. I wonder if they'll miss her." Rae's heart began beating in her chest. She felt like she was going to double over, every molecule in her body vibrating with rage and terror all at once. The dam was cracking and the water was leaking through. "Sean should be by there within the hour. While we wait, I guess I'll take a-"

Finn didn't finish. Rae picked up her foot and slammed the heel of it into Finn's toe. She leaned forward in pain, Rae throwing herself forward, slamming foreheads with Finn. The redhead tumbled backwards to the floor, hitting her head hard on the tile. Rae's mind spun with the force of the hit but adrenaline drove her forward as she leaned forward and lifted the chair with her, careful not to fall. Jumping as high as she could and throwing her weight down, she fell hard on the chair, the wooden limbs cracking to pieces. Her hands came lose as she grabbed a broken limb, spinning with her hands free and cracking it across Finn's temple as she began to stand.

Rae felt like she was about to pass out. She stared at Finn who hit the ground and remained still, completely unconscious. Rae tried to take a step forward but the room was spinning. She was sure she had a concussion. She stumbled as she reached for a phone, dialing Niall's number.

"Finn?" Niall answered. "Have you heard from her."

"Niall it's me," Rae said. Her vision was pulsing and she felt sick. "Finn. Help me. Niall."

Rae fell down, phone slipping from her fingers.