Trapped in a Tangled Web

A scowl was perminantly attached to my lips as I worked on the first lock. Subje- fuck it. These guys somehow maanaged to become more than just a subject number to me. A curse slipped past my lips as I realized, even if I didn't save them, I wouldn't be able to just go back home and accept their fate as if they were the animals they were.

Brian was really getting on my fucking nerves. He was rambling on under his breath, asking me a million and three questions to which I answered none. Yet he didn't seem to let my silence bother his littany of "what,why,where's." Nor did he seem to realize who I was. Thank god.

The one that didn't have a name as of yet was trying to calm another guy down. A guy that I missed on first glance. He was in cage eleven, all the way across the room from where we were. Apparently he wasn't importaint enough to beat answers out of.

But none of this was what my focus was really on. Mostly I was focused on the guy right in front of me. He was laying on the floor, eyes almost closed, yet still staring at me. He never said a word while I worked on the lock to his door. Never moved a muscle or made a sound about anything.

It impressed me, to tell the truth. A guy that knew how to be quiet when the situation needed it. Demanded it.

"Don't open the door once you get the lock open," he finally whispered after eight minutes of silence. At my questioning look he added on to his sentence. "An alarm goes off when the door opens. All of us need to open our doors at the same time if we want to get out of here in one piece."

"Well, as much of a whole as we're in now," the nameless brother muttered.

I nodded my head in understanding, not saying anything to any of the men in the room. In reality I wanted to be asking a million questions to all of them. How were they caught? Who else was here besides them? What were their names? Why aren't there any girl in cages with them? Is everyone alive yet that came in with them? Can I jump your bones?

Okay, so maybe that was one question that I wouldn't ask out loud. But it was still a question that I really wanted an answer to.

A small pang of relief flooded through me as I felt the lock click open in the door. Putting pressure on the door with one hand, I used the other to pull my pick out. I slowely removed my hand, praying the door would stay shut by itself so I could go open the others.

"I'll hold it," the guy, Gage, said. He placed his hand almost on top of mine, his fingers brushing the edge of my hand before he wrapped them around one of the bars. "They don't stay shut by themselves. It's a protective thing that he came up with. If one escapes, the alarm would go off if they tried to help anyone else."

I bit my lip and shrugged, letting the door go and walking over to the next most silent guy in the bunch. Brother no-name.

Just like Gage, he pretty much remained silent while I worked slowely on the lock. Very carefully, just in case I hit a hidden trigger within the lock itself. This one popped open much easier than the first door.

Without needing to be told, he gripped the door when I was ready to let it go, wincing while he stretched to reach it. I was impressed when he didn't make a single sound while he was in obvious pain.

"What's your name?" he whispered softly as I turned to walk away.

I gave him a sad smile and shook my head no before walking to Brian, the rambling man's, cage door. My mind wsa almost splitting by the time I got his door unlocked. I lost count of how many fucking stupid questions he rattled off while I worked on his door.

Right as I went to leave the door go, he jerked his hand back, making me slam my entire body against his door to keep it shut.

"If you even fucking think of opening this door before I'm ready, I'll kill you," I whispered harshly, reaching one hand inside of the cage and holding the sharp pick against the pulse in his throat. "Your starting to bug me, Bryan. Stay quiet from now until I'm gone and you'll have all you limbs."

I watched in satisfaction as he gulped and nodded, gripping the door with renewed strength as I let it go. A brief flicker of farmiliararity passed his face before it disappeaered, shaking his head to clear away whatever he was thinking.

Thank god for small favors. Maybe I would actually be able to get away still unknown after this. I scowled at Bryan, as I used to call him, before walking over to another cage.

The last nameless guy stared at me in horror as I worked on his cage. "Your going to kill me, aren't you?" he whispered.

I arched my brow and stopped what I was doing to really look at his eyes. "Why would I free you, just so I could kill you?"

He gulped, eyes shinning with tears while he replied. "I lied to him so he would leave me alone. I didn't know anything so I said that one of them did instead."

He made a whimpering, pitiful noise low in his throat as shock crossed my face. "You betrayed another shifter to avoid getting hurt?!" I whispered harshly.

I cast a glance back to the three I already unlocked, watching as every one of them just nodded solemnly.

"We can't leave him here," Gage whispered. "He came with us, and he's leaving with us. Please," he added after a few seconds. "He's not strong enough even in animal form to take that much of a beating. We agreed it was alright for him to do."

Against my better judgement, I started working on his lock again. "What's your name, coward?"

He whimpered again. "Jason."

The lock clicked open under my hand while I held the door shut. "Well Jasson, here's how this works. I just free'd all your sorry asses, so now all of you owe me. Big time. If I ever need your help, no matter what it's for, you WILL come and help. If you ever betray me, I'll skin you alive. Got it?"

"G-got it!" he yelped.

I nodded and let him hold his door shut while I walked back over to Shaggy hair. "Is there anyone else here that I can't sense?"

"No," Gage replied, shaking his head. "We had another with us, but he..he kil.."

"Killed him," his brother finished softly. "We didn't know him well enough to have anything to save him with."

I nodded my understandment, hoping atleast my face showed sympathy, if nothing else. "Alright. Can all of you manage to get up there on your own? We'll have about fourty seconds before anyone gets in here."

All four men came up to the balls of their feet, ready to spring out of their cages in a moments notice. "If we don't make it, then we deserve to stay here," Jason said, his voice a hard determination for the first time all the time I'd been here.

"Right," I mumbled. "Let me go open it for us, then I'll say when. Be ready."

I conscentraited on becoming transparent, my skin taking on the exact coloring as everything around me. Once I was sure all four of them couldn't see me, I shifted into a small bird, flying up to the window before going back to my human-invisible appearance.

It took every single ounce of energy I had to push that window straight up. "Now!"

Four cage doors slammed open and an impossibly loud alarm began shrieking throughout the building. Gage was the first one up to me. Instead of going right through and onto the roof, he took the other side of the window and added his strength to hold it up. My shoulder no longer felt like it would pop out of it's joint from the weight.

"Go, get out," he whispered. "I'll hold it."

I shook my head and scowled at him right as Brian made his way up to us, crawling through the window with a rabbit in his arms.

"Whoa! I never said to rescue lab anima-"

Gage shook his head quickly. "It's Jason. He can't jump this distance in either form. Prey, not predator."

A scowl appeared on my lips, but I remained silent as the last one managed to crawl his way up. Millions of cuts were open on his arms, legs, and mostly his back. His bright red blood trailing behind him as he slank through the window and fell onto the tar top.

"Drop it and go," I hollered, letting the window go.

Gage dropped it the same time I did, but he didn't go anywhere. Both of us grabbed an arm of his brothers and lifted him to his feet.

I'm going to get caught, tortured, and killed because of these people, I thought miserably. But I knew now that no matter what, I couldn't leave them on their own. They wouldn't survive by themselves yet.

Taking a deep breath, I stopped every one of them once we got to the ledge. "Here's the deal gentlemen. I just saved your asses, so now you all owe me. I'll consider the favor payed if none of you ever repeat your knowledge that I'm alive. Just go on with your lives and forget everything about me. Deal?"

All four nodded as the nameless brother took his arm off of my shoulder and put more of his weight against his brother. "Do we atleast get a name so we can thank you?"

That made me smile because I knew he was just fishing for my name. "What's your name?"

He managed a weak smile. "Kyrian."

I nodded. "Flame. Now forget that you know me. Go."

I made to jump off the rooftop right as Gage grabbed my arm and pulled me back against his chest. His arm circled my stomach as he held my back pressed against him, brushing his lips against my cheek gently.

"Thank you for saving my family, Flame. I'll still owe you. Anything, just find me and I'll do it. Alright?"

I was too stunned to do anything but blink and agree. He smirked and kissed my cheek again. "And you owe me an explination," he whispered flush against my ear. "I won't even tell them, I swear. But I really want to know how you can be a chameleon, and shift into a bird."

Before I even had a chance to ask how the hell he saw what I was, all three men..well, technically three men and a rabbit, jumped off of the roof.

Yep. Definantly should have killed them.