"you know, i'm being a lot friendlier than the other men. who knows what tessa looks like by now…" the figure said with practiced absence, having taken nik's place on the metal chair while he lay bleeding.
nik just huffed. the plan was originally to fake internal injury and then spring when their back was turned, but he wasn't so sure. sure fuckin felt like internal injury to him, so he guessed he'd just play dumb. this isn't terrible. this will not end in death.
he gave a guttural laugh in response. "i love your tactic of psychological torment. where'd you learn it from, good ol' ma?"
they growled. "don't make me break your spine, fischer."
Tessa could feel the man's smirk at her locked up body. At her reaction to his threat. "That's right. I did it once before–and I failed. It won't happen again," he growled, releasing her. She fell to the floor, her palms and elbows stinging from the impact. Definitely broke the skin. "Tighten the chains," he called to someone.
She felt the chains around her wrists tightening, forcing her up in the air and on her knees. She struggled, to no avail. She didn't have a chance to brace herself as a fist slammed into her gut. Twice. Thrice. Four times.
She wheezed and bowed over, attempting to catch her breath. He slapped her across the face again, and she spat more blood out. This was nothing. There were worse things that he could do to her. She just hoped he didn't resort to them.
The man grunted by her lack of a response. She heard him walk out, then slam the door shut.
Nathaniel spoke into the radio. "It's Williamson. I would request you bring the boy into the observation unit. See if we can get him to talk by making him watch his beloved get… questioned."
there was a murmured response, along the lines of "i hit him too hard…" and "think he might be dying". nik just smiled from the floor, rolling to shoot a wink up at them.
"you underestimate me, dear."
with that, he flung himself up, launching straight for their throat. he managed to knock them back in the chair, and oh thank GOD they hadn't taken his knife, pressed it to their throat. harder than necessary.
"hey, man. move even one inch to shoot me and before i die, i'll kill you too. this knife looks humble, but it's rather deadly when it's pinning you to the floor by your fucking trachea. got it?"
he smiled sweetly.
"now tell me, where are they keeping tessa?'
and that's how he ended up walking silently, stolen gun in hand and knife at his belt, towards the 'interrogation' room. he listened at the door. he heard a hit landed, a wheeze, and deemed it time. the door was opened quietly, and he took a deep breath before aiming at the one who had just hit tess, and shooting.
Tessa heard a gunshot and thrashed against her chains–though it did no good. Memories flooded her mind of the last person that had gotten killed because of her. She couldn't go through it again.
Not Nik.
Not him too.
She couldn't bear it.
She couldn't see anything through the blindfold, and could only rely on her hearing. Whathappenedwhathappenedwhathappened. The thoughts ran rampant through her mind, the gunshot echoing in her ears.
there were more after, gunshots drowning out and grunting and crashes. there was a presence around tessa occasionally, seemingly protecting her from the fight.
the chains were let loose, blindfold ripped from her face, and she was ushered by a familiar presence back into the tunnels. there was a dingy side entrance, a dirt hallway, and they were back in a vaguely familiar place. nik's home.
only then did he stop, taking a breather before immediately turning to pat her down and frantically ask if she was okay.
"tessa! tess, are you okay? what did they do?"
The rush of immense relief she felt when she saw that Nik was alive was so overwhelming, she couldn't answer him right away. Then she snapped out of her stupor and swallowed the lump in her throat. "I–I'm—I'll be okay," she croaked, an arm clutching her stomach while a hand rubbed at her jaw and neck.
he rested his hands on her shoulders.
"tessa… what did they do?" he didn't notice his own shirt, red and wet with his own blood. "did they hurt you too badly?"
Her eyes flicked over him, not answering. They could have done worse if she was being honest. She could take quite a few hits without a problem. It was the mental trauma that had affected her the most. Being underground, bound in chains in a cold, locked room with no escape, getting beat again and again…
She shivered slightly and gestured to him. "You're bleeding." Blood still dribbled from the corner of her mouth and slowly dripped down the cut across her throat. Her stomach and the bottom half of her rib cage hurt like hell too, and her wrists were rubbed raw from all of her thrashing against freezing cold metal cuffs.
he gently reached up to wipe the blood from her face, not looking down at himself.
"i probably am, but i'm not concerned about that right now. i would offer a hug but that'd be a little messy, yeah? stay here, i have something for your throat." he disappeared up into the curtained room, coming back out with a first aid kit.
"What about you? I–He… He threatened to kill you and then I heard gunshots and I couldn't see anything…" She looked at him. "I thought you died."
"i assure you, i'm very alive. i stole a gun from the guy in my room, thats where the shots were coming from." he said matter-of-factly, taking out a disinfecting wipe. "careful, this will hurt."
"That's my middle name," she weakly joked, still a little shaken up. He had been the one to kill Tori. The man that had killed the love of her life right in front of her eyes before turning the gun on her.
he gave a small smile, lightly dragging the wipe across her throat. he cleaned the blood off, pressing some gauze to the cut and securing it in place with a bandage.
"there, how's that feel?"
"Better. Thanks." She rubbed the bandage slightly, her gaze once again jumping around him with worry and relief.
only after she answered did he look down.
"ah. well, his boots did have spikes on them. yikes." without thinking, he yanked all of his layering off to reveal just the tank top, and rolled it up. nik gingerly touched one of the puncture wounds, grimacing.
"that oughta be fun to fix."
"What about that doctor of yours? Rose, I think?" she asked softly, brows twitching together with concern. That doesn't look too good. Her ribs burned, but she didn't think about it right now.
"yeah, i should call her up. hopefully she's got time. hey, does anything else hurt on you?" he dropped his shirt, obviously ignoring the injuries. "any internal stuff going on?"
"You're the one that got kicked with a spiked boot, and you're asking about me?" She felt her bottom ribs, and she felt some things that were slightly off. A few might be cracked or bruised. It did hurt to breathe…
"i'm tactfully ignoring my injuries in favor of yours. what's going on?" he adjusted his shirt, peeling it away from his torso.
"Call Rose and I'll tell you," she argued. She was more concerned with the one who was bleeding over her own wellbeing.
"alright, alright. only if she can have a look at you as well?" he searched for his phone, eventually finding it in one of the discarded layers.
"Yeah yeah yeah…" She coughed, covering her mouth as she winced at the stabbing pain the action caused. She slightly pulled her hand back. Splatters of blood.
Great.
The hell kind of steroids was that guy taking?
he only raised an eyebrow and clicked on the contact.
"hey, zan. no, i'm sorry to bother. i don't have rose's contact, so… yes, i got hurt. so did tess. yes. not the watch, no. it's a really long story but i got kicked with spiked boots and tessa has a broken rib so please ask her to come over. same place as last time. thanks, friend."
he hung up with another grimace. "pain's starting to kick in now. hopefully she gets here soon."
"Oh, now you're concerned about yourself," she huffed, wiping her hand off on her pants. She was slightly bummed out that they had her gear, but she could always ask Rawling for replacements. She bit her lip as she asked quietly, "What did they want?"
"not even sure, really. probably just to show us that having relationships is detrimental." he shrugged, glancing at the porthole entrance.
Tessa pinched her lips together. "The man that was dealing with me… I know him. He had a personal vendetta against me and wanted to finish what he started. He also wanted to know everything I knew about their secret, illegal organization and to revoke everything we revealed. Say it was all a hoax."
"pfft, like we would do that. like we even could do that. it's everywhere, everyone knows. even if we did tell them it was a hoax, it wouldn't get to everybody. people would still know."
he leaned on the wall, arms crossed low on his torso,
She looked away from him, shifting on her feet slightly. "I–" She didn't like the words that were to come out of her mouth, but they had to be spoken. She couldn't do this again. Wouldn't. She had lost someone she loved thanks to this life. She wouldn't lose another. And if that meant losing him on her own terms… Well, it was better than him being dead. "I think… I think we should go our separate ways…" she said quietly.
he looked at her for only a moment, taking a second to process her words. he looked conflicted for a split second, almost undetectable, before smiling sadly.
"it'd be best, yeah? rose will be here soon. stay until then, and if you want to spend one last night together we can. or not. whichever you prefer, love." he winced after he said the nickname, but tried to keep the brave face on for her.
"it'd be best for the both if us."
((do you want to like,, after rose comes do you want to timeskip to when they're older and both either moving/considering moving to the other district and they meet again?))
((Oooo, what if they are moving into an apartment because they don't really have that much money for a full blown house, and they end up as roommates or neighbors or something? But yeah, I like the timeskip idea))
She nodded and wrapped her arms around herself, swallowing back her tears. She wouldn't cry. She had made a promise to herself she wouldn't cry for someone. "It's better if we just… rip off the bandaid." Her voice cracked, but she chose to ignore it. "I'll stay until Rose does her thing, but then…" she trailed off.
