Lacey.

At six a.m., the lights came back on the cells but it didn't matter, I hadn't slept at all. At six thirty a.m., Cameron returned to the cell and looked like he'd gone ten rounds with a meat pulverizer and lost. Ben and I both sat up in bed but didn't move to get off of it as the guards let him back in. Dread filled me as I looked at how absolutely broken Cameron's body looked. They had him for seven hours and it looked like they used every single minute to hurt him some way. The guards left after they locked the cell and Cameron hovered by the door. His body looked like it was going to collapse on him any second but his eyes were trained on Ben and I with such ferocity I couldn't look away.

"You look terrible," Ben pointed out as Cameron headed in our direction.

Cameron's eyes cut to him and he nodded.

Ben let go of my hand and got of the bed for Cameron, who practically fell down onto it. I moved to the end of the bed to give him more room.

"I mean, really terrible," Ben added.

Cameron shrugged and I could see his chest stuttering as he breathed in and out.

Ben and I gave each other pointed looks because Cameron was brushing this off like it was nothing.

"Who did this to you?" I asked.

Ben waved in my direction as if he could erase my words from the air. "How did they do this to you?"

Cameron, sitting on the edge of the bed with his feet on the floor, only leaned forward to put his hands on his knees. He looked at the ground and I scooted a little closer, not too confident that he wasn't going to fall forward and face plant into the ground. If he did, I could at least try to catch him beforehand.

"Did you even fight back?" Ben continued on.

This time, Cameron sort of answered by lifting one of his hand and wobbling it as if he was saying sort of. He sort of fought back.

"What?" I asked at the same time Ben said, "Why not?"

Cameron moved so that he was fully on the bed, pulling his feet up onto the mattress. He shuffled on his knees towards the white cinder block wall behind us. One hand reached into his pocket while the other pushed me rudely out of his way.

He brought a pencil would of his pocket and began drawing lines on the wall.

"Stay behind me," he said. "Don't make it obvious."

"What are you—" I began, propped behind him on the bed.

"Shh," he cut me off. I frowned.

After a few minutes he pulled away from the wall and sat with his back against it. The lines he'd constructed were next to his shoulder. I squinted at it, tilting my head to the side. There was a square with a star on it and from it came lines that split off in many different directions. Every now and then there was another square. He wrote 'video', 'interrogate', and 'travis' inside three different squares.

"Is this a map?" I asked, eyes stuck on Travis' name.

"This is all I know so far from where they took me," Cameron explained. "They took me to this room first to interrogate me but really just had a bunch of people waiting to jump me. I fought back a little but I didn't want to use up all of my energy fighting them for no reason. We don't know where the exit is yet and we don't know what's waiting for us when we get there."

I studied the map again, recalling earlier when Cameron had told me about the crap his father used to put him through. How he used to have to survive for a week by himself and make it back to the Casey house where his father or others would be waiting to try to beat him up. Cameron said he always had to make sure he had enough left in him to survive that last part.

"After they rearranged my face, they dropped me in the video room to be watched over while the thugs went to wash my blood of their hands. Grabbed the pencil from there, don't think they noticed. They have a camera in the cells and it feeds directly to televisions in that room. It's right there," Cameron pointed up to the top corner of the room near the cell door. There was a small black dot surrounded by concrete. It looked like they put the camera up and then plastered right around it. "I checked it out. You can't see on your beds because the camera is too high and the top bunk blocks a lot of the view. So this," he gestured to the map on the wall, "Is safe as long as the guards don't get close to it."

"And Travis?" Ben asked.

"I didn't see him, but they mentioned he was in there."

My heart sank, especially after seeing what they did to Cameron. I didn't want to imagine what Travis might look like right now.

Cameron tucked the pencil under the edge of the mattress and bed frame. "We'll keep adding to this until we have a way out."

Time ticked by at a snail's pace after that. Tom left at some point but the guards didn't say anything to him to clue me into what they needed him for. I asked Cameron and he shrugged from his spot on the lower bunk.

I paced around the cell again and again while Ben alternated between looking at the map, doing pull ups, or subtly standing near the camera to check it out.

Four guards came into the hallway and stopped outside of our cell door. I walked over to the door and felt Ben right next to me.

"You're not taking him anywhere," Ben said, ignoring the guns pointed at us.

"We're here for her," the guard with the keys said.

"I'm not going anywhere without Ben," I admitted. I didn't trust any of these men.

"We can just take you," one with a gun said.

"Try it," Ben dared him.

The guards looked between Ben and I, occasionally glancing at Cameron on the bed. The moved away from the cell and started conversing with each other. The only thing I caught was 'he can be Plan B.' I didn't think I wanted to know what Plan A involved. Turning back to us, they unlocked the door and came grabbed both Ben and I. We each had someone grab onto our arm while one person led and another followed behind us.

"Where are we going?" I asked when we excited the room with the cells.

No one answered me but I didn't expect them to. Instead, I focused on looking around and picturing the map Cameron had drawn.

When we stopped, my heart was in my throat. We were standing in the hallway I could clearly picture on the wall with a 'video' room on the left of where we were and a 'travis' room on the right. I glanced to both of my sides, half expecting to see nothing but walls but sure enough, there were doors there. I glanced at them as quickly as I could. There was no light spilling out from the bottom of the room Travis was supposedly in but I didn't want to seem too interested in it so put a bored expression on my face and looked elsewhere.

"You, in there," they said to Ben, pointing to the video room.

"I'm staying with him," I protested.

They opened the door and tried to pull Ben inside but he held his ground.

"You want to see Travis or not?" the one holding my arm asked.

My eyes found Ben's and I'm sure my eyes looked just as unsure as his.

"Why me?" I asked, because I hadn't hinted towards being his girlfriend. "Why can't Ben come?"

Someone sighed. "You want to see him or not? If he doesn't lose his damn mind, Ben can see him after."

Concern filled me and Ben gave me a small, barely there nod telling me to go. I didn't want to throw away a chance to see Travis and check on him just because I was afraid of being on my own. Ben let himself be pushed into the video room while I was tugged forward down the hall. If any one of these men tried to touch me, I would just have to make them regret it. Being afraid wouldn't help Travis at all. My nerves on the inside were unsteady but I tried to school my face to not show I was scared.

"Where are we going?" I repeated my question from earlier when we turned the corner and we're out of view from the video room. "Where's Travis?"

My questions went unanswered but this time, I wasn't okay with silence.

"Where has he been? Why can't he be with us?" I continued, causing the one holding onto my arm to tighten his grip.

"Where are the bathrooms? Showers? Is Travis in a cell?"

"Shut her up before I do," the one leading us snapped and the hold on my arm got tight enough that I was sure it was going to bruise. I kept quiet the rest of the walk, happy enough to see which one had the least amount of patience.

We went through one door that was nothing more than a cramped hallway leading to another door, which I thought was pointless and was about to make fun of the hallway to nowhere when they opened the door and loud, awful screaming smashed into my ears. I was shoved through the door by myself.

I covered my ears for a moment, glancing around and recognized the environment immediately. I was in a small, indoor shooting range. I'd been in ones like this plenty of times when I was training. Cardboard flew through the air after getting shot and my eyes locked on the shooter.

Travis turned towards me with his gun ready to fire and I had never been so worried that he was going to shoot first, ask questions later. My bones turned to ice and my joints locked on me. I couldn't move. The fact that he was still standing there with his gun on me and wasn't in front of me already told me something was wrong. I turned the handle to the door I'd come through but it was locked so I started banging on it.

"What did you do to him?" I screamed as loud as I could. "What's going on? I'm going to shove my foot down your throat if you don't tell me what the heck is going on right now!"

They either weren't on the other side of the door anymore or were ignoring me. I kicked the door, hoping to break it open but it was only hurting me. There was a voice in the back of my head that sounded a lot like Cameron, saying to not waste all my energy on this so I turned to Travis.

There was still a gun pointed at my head by the last person I would expect.

He looked like he was ready to pull the trigger and part of me feared that he might. I had to trust the small part of me that said he wouldn't. That no matter what was going on with Travis to make him stand there like he was seeing a ghost, that he wouldn't harm me.

I ran towards him cautiously and the closer I got to the gun, the higher the fear and anger rose in me.

Travis was not okay.

His face was bruised. He had a black eye and the side of his hairline looked like it had been bleeding recently. I was going to kill whoever did this to him.

"Travis!" I yelled but he didn't even react.

When I got close enough, he finally lowered his gun so I went in his space. My hands tentatively held his cheeks as I looked over him.

"Travis, what's wrong? Tell me what's wrong and I can help. Who did this to you?" I asked but he didn't respond. His eyes were on me but he looked miles away.

He had a bandage on his neck. White tape wrapped around his hands but his knuckles were bleeding through.

His eyes trailed over my face like he didn't recognize me and I realized he wasn't really here.

"Hey, look at me," I told him, gripping his face firmly and trying to direct his attention to me. "What did they give you? Tell me who. Talk to me."

There was a hole in his black pants and I could see a bandage on it, but the fabric all around the hole was darker than it should be. There was senseless screaming being blasted around the room but my heart was pounding in my ears.

Travis suddenly pushed away from me. He said something but I couldn't hear.

I ran closer to him as he dropped the gun and grabbed at his head.

"Wake up!" he yelled.

Did he think he was dreaming? Did he think I wasn't real?

I kicked the gun away from us because I trusted Travis with my life but I couldn't say the same about a Travis who thought I was a hallucination. The gun landed near the wall and there was a giant window on it. Vik and a few others were watching intently. I marched over and slammed my fists against the window.

"I'm going to gut you!" I screamed but I doubted they could hear me over the noise they were blasting, effectively disorienting my boyfriend. I needed to get a knife so I could deliver on that threat.

I felt like my body was going to burst with the amount of anger that was bubbling up and it only got worse when I looked back at Travis and he backed away. He backed away from me. I latched onto his arms, trying to stop from losing it.

"I swear to god, I'm going to make them all pay," I told him and the noise stopped.

"Get away from me," Travis said in a voice that sounded too far away from me.

"Travis," I said, trying to figure out a way to bring him back down to me, where he would be safe.

"I don't know who the hell you are but you're not Lacey," he said and it felt like he'd slapped me even though he didn't move.

I told myself it wasn't him, it was the drugs they were making him take. The problem was I didn't know how to bring back the Travis that I knew right now, which would be convenient. But he wasn't hurting me, or shooting me, so that had to count a little bit.

My hands shook him slightly. "It's me. I swear, Travis, it's me. What are they doing to you?"

I wanted to ask a dozen other questions. How much were they giving him, what were they giving him? Why was he hurt? Where else was he hurt? Why were they doing this to him? The door behind me opened, pausing my questions and Vik stood in the doorway.

All I could see was red and my fist was flying through the air towards him. I didn't need a knife to hurt him. He blocked me with his forearm and somewhere in the back of my mind I recognized that he was double my size but in that moment, all I could hear was Travis speaking and sounding like he was finally present in his own head.

"Lacey?"

Travis' voice filled me with even more anger because it was such a stark difference to what it was earlier that it hurt. Vik's goonies came in with him but I ignored them.

"What did you do to him?!" I screamed at Vik, trying to shove him with all of my effort but he went nowhere.

Instead, Vik grabbed one of my wrists that was pressed against him and squeezed. If he twisted my arm any, I was pretty sure he was going to break it.

"Do you want to join him?" Vik asked. "Ready to admit you're a little more to Casey than you let on? Ready to help us out?"

If he wanted to think that I was some enforcer for Cameron, then fine. I wasn't going to fight that. I drew my leg back and kicked him in the balls as hard as I could and he fell to the ground. Before I could kick him again while he was down, hands wrapped around me. I twisted and turned every way I could think of. My muscles strained at some point, still not healed from fighting the other day but I kept at it. The hands squeezed tighter around my chest, trying to keep me in one place and then Vik was up and slapped me across the face before I could even think to dodge it.

My cheek stung for a moment but then I tried to bury that feeling. I could focus on it later and I tried to kick the guy's legs that was holding me from behind. But before I made any progress there was another person grabbing at my legs. Suddenly, I was horizontal. A third person came and wrapped their arms around my torso, joining the first.

"Let me go!" I screamed as they took me out of the room.

We went through a few doors and my senses came back to me. I stopped thrashing so much and tried to pay attention to where they were taking me, what hallways they turned down and where the rooms were. My breathing was only slightly calmer by the time we got to the video room they'd dropped Ben off in. Someone opened the door and I saw Ben, Tom, and some other thugs sitting inside. As soon as Ben saw me, he shot up onto his feet but there was someone behind him, keeping a hand on his shoulder so he didn't move.

I was practically dropped onto the floor.

"We won't need Acker," one of them said. "Vik says he got what we wanted out of Miller seeing this one."

I sat on the ground and rubbed at my cheek, looking at the televisions on the wall. There was no sound coming out of any of them, which was probably why Cameron wasn't worried about talking in the cell.

"Lacey?" Ben asked.

"I'm fine," I told him, not willing to go into details until we were somewhere safe.

The men talked to each other and kept answering their phones. I didn't know what we were waiting for or what we were doing in here. Cameron said they dropped him off in here while they cleaned up but I didn't think anyone had gotten bloodied up. I glanced over Tom, who had a few bruises on his face.

"What happened to you?" I asked, pointing at his face. "Where do you keep running off to?"

The fact that I'd heard him mention Travis the first time that he was taken out of the cell set my insides screaming.

"You should really help them out. It'll make things easier for you," Tom told me. "Don't fight them and just help out. They want some dogs, so be a dog. You'll be happier in the long run."

"And what exactly are you helping them with, hmm?" I asked standing up.

"Well, for example," Tom said, walking over to stand near the guys. "Helped them out so they knew when the Casey house exploded, it was the sign to get the hell out. Have been helping them work out Travis' dosage to find out how much he can have in his system but still fight. And in exchange for that, I get actual good food, showers, a change of clothes, and should be getting a job with them soon."

Ben came up beside me and I could practically feel the energy rolling off of him.

"Oh?" I asked, noticing for the first time that he didn't have dirty clothes on.

A knock at the door caught our attention and more guards came in pointing more guns at my face because apparently, the one by my boyfriend earlier wasn't enough. They grabbed us and started escorting us out. There was a guard in front, one with Tom, Ben and I, and then some behind us. I looked back to see how many were with us because based off the noise, there were quite a few. I elbowed Ben immediately.

Behind the two with guns to our backs was a burly guard carrying an unconscious Travis. The guard had his arms under Travis' knees and shoulders and Travis' head was lolled back at an unnatural angle. The lighting in the hallway highlighted the array of bruises, in different shades and stages of healing on his face that I hadn't noticed before when I was only paying attention to the worst ones.

Ben pinched my arm and nodded with his head to look forward again. I obediently did so and kept my mouth shut. We already had the walk back to the cells drawn on the map so my eyes stayed glued to the back of Tom's head and I pictured all of the different ways I had learned to hurt someone. It was day after day sparring with Josh, who was the best person training in the academy. He was the best motivator to keep trying and push harder than I wanted to for the sole purpose of having the chance to beat him at something and wipe that smug look off his face. It was coffee after coffee as we fought until the early hours of the morning to get better. It was practicing how to disable a person but not kill them on dummies and experienced veterans for tests and evaluations. I might not have what it takes to best Cameron or Travis but Tom - he line of work dealt with the aftermath. He only handled bodies when they weren't breathing anymore. I grit my teeth and resisted every urge to tackle him to the ground on our walk while his words from early played on repeat in my head.

We arrived back at the cell and the guards holding us made us wait for the one holding Travis to walk ahead us of. He placed him on the ground of our cell and Cameron eyed them both from his position on the bottom bunk. Ben and I were escorted in next and they locked the door on us. I didn't move away from the bars but watched as most of the guards left, deeming Tom as not much of a threat. The one with the keys turned to start unlocking the cell that Tom was in.

"Tom," I said softly.

He looked at me with annoyance.

"I want to help if it helps this," I motioned to Travis on the ground.

Tom sauntered over towards me hesitantly but with a bit of sway in his walk like he thought he was the hottest shit right now. I fought to keep my face neutral.

"Yeah? Tell me what you know and I'll let you know if it'll help."

I eyed the guards who took a few steps near but Tom kept walking closer to the bars. He waved them off when he realized where my eyes were going.

"I got this," Tom said to them but then looked at me. "Do you want to start helping? We can get you a job."

A part of me wondered if the others in the room might be confused by the sudden turn of things. As far as I knew, only Ben and I had heard of Tom's little conniving. It was possible they thought I'd finally lost it but I didn't really give a shit about anyone else's opinions right then.

He came closer. One step, two, three steps.

I lunged for Tom, grabbing a fistful of his hair through the bars and pulling his head towards me.

"Shit," his voice was muffled as he had the audacity to be surprised.

I stuck my other arm through the cell and wrapped it around his throat, trapping him. He tugged, trying to push against me but the bars were trapping his face so he thrashed until I lost traction in his hair. He managed to turn his back to me instead but it only made it easier for me. I grabbed as much of his hair as I could and pulled harder against his throat with my other arm. His own hands had gone up to my arm and started to try to pry it off. He was stronger but I had the element of surprise on him and his hair trapped in my hands to guarantee he wouldn't escape.

"Get her off me!" he shrieked.

People were yelling all around me but I couldn't hear them over Tom. It was like I was zeroed in on him and everyone else was background noise. I saw people behind him but no one touched him and then there were hands on me. Multiple hands.

Someone grabbed at my waist but I tried to kick them off. I pulled tighter on Tom and his breaths were getting choppy.

It felt like they had a solid grip on my waist so I tried as hard as I could to latch onto Tom's neck like an octopus. I let go of his hair and instead just clasped both my arms together around his neck as the person behind me tried to pull me away from the bars, sandwiching Tom between my arms and the bars as a result.

"Stop yanking her!" Tom screeched out with what air he had.

"We're helping you, asshole," Ben said. "So she doesn't get caught on tape for murder."

Somewhere in the back of my head I thought he had a point but my arms still stayed locked.

"You're tugging her arm tighter, get her off me first!"

Hands pulled at mine through the bars and then I was no longer suction-cupped to Tom. I was in Cameron's arms as he carried me to the other side of the cell.

I caught a glimpse of Travis lying on his side on the concrete floor and my blood started to boil again. I tried to fight my way out of Cameron's grip but he just held me tighter. He had me pulled against his chest and suspended in the air so I couldn't even get traction on the ground to try to make a break for it.

My eyes darted out of the cell, seeking out Tom who was on the ground holding his chest and taking deep breaths. The guards were talking to themselves, something about having to talk with Lucky about Tom and if he had to be moved somewhere else. I could dig the grave if they'd let me. But they put him back in his usual cell and I watched his every move as he situated himself near the door and the others in his cell seemed curious about what was going on.

Ben swarmed my vision.

"Hey," he said calmly.

Cameron's vice-like grip got stronger.

I clenched my jaw and tried to look around Ben to see the traitor but he kept moving his head and hands so he was in my way.

"Let's sit for a moment," Ben suggested. "Let's calm down before anyone else comes down here or takes anyone out of here."

We stood like that for a few moments. I wasn't sure how long because we were in a freaking jail cell so my sense of time was a little off and if I looked at Ben's watch, I was likely to toss it across the room. But once they seemed sure that I wasn't going to murder Thomas, they made moves to sit us in the far corner of the cell with me.

Cameron put me on the ground but kept a tight, suffocating grip around my waist. Ben sat down next to me. I tried to even out my breathing but it was getting heavier the more I looked at Travis lying there, body limp.

I wanted to go to him. I put my hands on the ground and moved to push up but Cameron made that impossible.

"Let go of me," I said.

He just looked at me like I called him dumb.

"I want to make sure he's okay," I argued.

Ben got up and went to check on Travis, sitting next to him on the ground. I watched as he checked his breathing, pulse, and felt his head.

"He's alive," Ben said but he stayed next to Travis.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and spread my legs out in front of them, crossing them at the ankles. Movement sounded from the cell opposite ours now and then but this time, I didn't let my gaze waver from Travis. I waited, silently fuming for the guards to walk out of the room.

"Why did you make Travis your shooter?" I asked when the guards finally stepped away to talk to Lucky but I kept my voice low anyway. "Why not just let him get his revenge for Ben's parents' and then let them go? Why did you have to keep him?"

"A handful of reasons," Cameron answered. "How many do you want?"

"Give me one."

There was a long pause and I thought he wasn't going to answer me but now wasn't the time to keep me in the dark. Perhaps he knew, because he eventually sighed and said,"Because he has so much passion, his body only knows how to bleed it out."

My chest surged and anger rose inside of me again. I didn't ask for any other reasons, not sure I'd be able to handle them.

Time passed. My breathing eventually evened out. Travis tossed and turned before settling on his back. He was awake and standing last time I saw him and now he was motionless. I wondered if they punched him hard enough to knock him out or if they drugged him enough that he couldn't stay awake. I wasn't sure which option would make me fume less as I took note of every scrape and bruise and mark on him. I tried to count the minutes to distract my mind but then I lost count of how many minutes I had counted. Cameron's hand loosened on me but didn't leave. Ben remained next to Travis. I told myself to just get through this. Get through this and then it'll be over because there was a hollow point in my chest that gnawed at me while I looked at Travis. And I didn't think that anything could hurt worse than looking at him unconscious on the ground like that. And if I just got through all this, there would be nowhere to go but up from this point.

There was no worse-situation.

Everything else could only be better.

"Oh," echoed off the cell walls with a strangled laugh.

My heart caught in my throat and I froze.

Travis' head was facing Tom, who was still standing inside of his cell near the door and staring right back at Travis.

"She didn't kill you after all," Travis added, his voice slowly turning more into a whisper with each word.

He turned his head glancing once at Ben before he found Cameron and I in the corner. The corner of his lips twitched up in a small smile that I would've called lazy if I didn't know what little energy he probably had available based on what they did to him. And then his eyes closed and his smile was wiped from his face as he fell back into the dark world of his dreams.

"Travis," I whispered, finding my voice finally.

This time, when I pushed away from the ground, Cameron made no attempt to hold me back and Ben even moved out of my way as I rushed over to him. I knelt down in front of Travis and held his head in my hands, searching his face for any stirring but it was like he was knocked out cold.

"I love you, I love you," I whispered next to his ear before kissing the top of his forehead. The distant look in his eyes earlier when he didn't know who I was haunted me. I couldn't handle imagining him going to that place in his head again. "I'm going to fix this, I promise. I love you. Just stay with me, stay with us. Don't let them take you from us. I don't know what they've done to you but I promise we'll get through this. I love you."

I heard Ben filling Cameron in on what he heard from Tom and Cameron loudly announced Tom's asshole tendencies to the other cell. I heard the guards coming to grab Tom after one of his cellmates punched him in the face.

"Should we get her to draw on the wall before she forgets?" Ben asked quietly.

I was half lying on the ground, half lying over Travis, every once in awhile whispering to him. He still hadn't moved,

"No. She won't forget," Cameron said and they left me alone.

I brushed the hair of Travis' face as I pictured him pulling at it desperately earlier. "Wait for us to figure this out. Please come back. I love you." 

I hope you liked it! Ben, Lacey, and Cameron are slowly killing me with feels, just so you guys know. 

Let me know what you think, comment, vote, tell your friends, and have a great rest of your day!!!<3