nik landed smoothly off of the ladder, picking up the bag laying right beside it. everything was inside. knife, chloroform, lockpick, gloves, journal, camera. he figured he wouldn't bring the recording camera (a.k.a his pride and joy) but instead brought a cheap little thing from when he first started out. he might have to get pictures of cian.
he picked the knife from the bag and slid it into the sheath in his boot.
well, i'm mildly unprepared if the lab still contains people, and overprepared if not. a happy medium. let's go.
he worked through the city at a steady pace. it wasn't too far from his hideout, so he arrived relatively quickly.
Tessa was on the porch of the dilapidated house that was used as an entry to the lab, leaning against the wall and picking at her nails. She had on a simple cropped leather jacket and skinny jeans, as well as knee-high boots that hid two different daggers. She had an earbud in one ear with the music set on a semi-low volume. As Nik approached, she flicked her eyes up to look at him. "Hey."
"howdy." he had changed into something more convenient for the mission, black cargo pants and a grey hoodie with the sleeves cut off. he kept the hat, though. hidden in the many pockets were different things he had come across and deemed useful. (lighters, a shitty pocketknife, a clean scrap of cloth.)
"unfortunately, i was held up by my wonderful cousin on the way here. hope it didn't cause too much delay, but he attached himself to my leg."
Tessa shrugged, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "Honestly, I'd rather stall as long as possible. But the sooner I get over myself, the sooner that bastard will be six feet under." She jerked her chin towards the door. "Lab's downstairs. I would say basement, but it's too big to be a normal basement. Ready?"
"probably not, but let's go anyway." he popped his knuckles and shook out his hands, mentally preparing himself to enter the old house.
She smiled grimly and pushed off of the wall, heading over to the door and giving it a shove. It didn't budge. Not wasting the effort with lockpicks, she just stood back, then kicked the door down. It gave easily, too old to hold up against her strength. "I've always wanted to do that," she muttered, then beckoned for Nik as she stepped inside.
a shadow of a smile crossed his face as he followed her inside, but quickly melted as he looked around.
The house itself was empty—solely acting as a way to hide the lab from prying eyes. It was downstairs that had the most disturbing scenes.
Tessa pressed a hand against the concrete wall as she hit the tiled floor of the lab, nails digging into the wall as she took in a deep breath and fought against the shaking threatening to overtake her body. Right in front of them was a dark room filled with metal cages. Dried blood splatters peppered the cages. There was no lamp or light available. A little girl's doll sat abandoned in one cage, the ends frayed and some stuffing poking out of her belly. Discarded needles sat on the floor, desperate attempts to ease the agonizing withdrawal.
nik looked silently around, alarmed and horrified, but still offered his hand to tessa. he knew she'd reject it, but he wanted her to know that touching him was available.
She glanced over at him, then down at his hand, and wordlessly grabbed it and forced herself to leave the wall. They needed evidence of his wrongdoings, and this place was the jackpot. She wanted to ruin him before killing him—make him suffer for a bit.
Tessa finally found her tongue and said, "Get what you need to rip apart his reputation. The actual lab is through that door." She jerked her chin to the left.
"aye." he used his free hand to rifle in his bag, grabbing the camera and leaning to snap pictures of the cages, and zoom in on the bloodstains.
"i'd like to get some closeups, and i'll look around the lab afterwards. do you want to come with?" he turned to her, shadows of the dim basement obscuring his expression.
"Yeah." She took a shaky breath, then let go of his hand to stride over to one of the cages. She crouched down and reached in, grabbing what looked to be a notebook. There was a very faint smile on her face as she flipped through it. "This was Connor's. He and I were pretty much double trouble for the scientists, always trying to escape and create some sort of rebellion." Latching onto that memory helped to distract her from the bad ones. Well, the worst ones.
"connor? cute name." he crouched next to the doll, fumbling for the lighter with one hand to create light. it gave off a creepy effect, and the picture came out unsettling. perfect. he moved over to the needles while waiting for her to keep talking.
Her lips twisted in a grim half-smile. "He was 15 while I was 13, but we were both the oldest. I had just gotten out of the hospital, too, and out of rehab from the other labs. There goes my sobriety." She sucked in a breath and glanced over at Nik, spotting the doll. "That was Lucy's. She was 6."
"was 6." it wasn't quite a question, just more of a realization that tess probably didn't mean 'was 6' as in she grew up.
"so, they got you hooked on these?" he yanked a glove from his bag, fitting his left hand into it and picking the camera back up with his right. nik carefully picked up a syringe and flipped it around. no labels. maybe he'll find the names in the lab.
Tess nodded in answer to his realization. Lucy was one of the ones that didn't last long, the drug too strong for her system to handle. "Yeah. They injected the drugs into us," she acted like she was pushing a needle into her arm, "and they were usually so addictive we needed more just to keep the withdrawal away. Sometimes they just used us as lab rats so much we got hooked. It wasn't their intention, but that's what happened."
"kinda backfired on them, then. would be mildly amusing, but the fact that the backfire took out most of the population of street rats…" he dropped the needle, tucking the camera and glove back away.
"is the reason we're going to kill kilroy, if i'm correct. to the lab?"
"No, that's not the main reason," Tessa said, then stood up, taking the notebook with her, and came over to Nik. "There's the lab, and then the room I spent most of my time in when I wasn't being used as a lab rat."
"thanks." he briefly tapped her hand in what was supposed to be a comforting 'i'll be back', and entered the lab, only to cringe as soon as he got a look at it.
well, at least cian kilroy will be ruined for this. even if he wasn't destroyed for the experimenting, he'd be scrutinized by the public for the condition this place was in. leaving blood on the walls, grime on the floor. at the very least, they'd be mad about the working conditions for the people under him.
There wasn't only blood and grime in the lab. There was also a metal table in the middle of the room with rusted chains sitting on top of it, some more blood on the inside of the cuffs from where skin had been rubbed raw from all the thrashing the kids must've done. They were likely the cause of the scars around Tess's wrists, or at least a contributor.
Behind the lab was a room that looked to be a torture room, big enough for an audience while someone was either whipped or beaten half to death. This was where the kids were taken if they tried to fight back of escape.
nik touched his own wrist at the sight of those cuffs, shuddering. he slowly looked around the room. this might take a while.
after a while of picking his way through, getting pictures of practices that stood out and a few of the whole rooms, he let out a long breath. probably the worst thing he'd ever have to tear apart. sayonara, torture facility.
nik emerged from the room, one hand on his opposite wrist and camera back in his bag.
"i got a bunch of stuff. are we done here?"
Tessa was crouched down yet again, examining one of the syringes that were still half-filled. She pinched her lips together and tossed it to the side, standing up and heading over to Nik. "Yeah, we're done." Coming down here was grating on her nerves, and the longer she stayed underground, the more she wanted to hunker down and cower.
"let's go." he offered a hand again, a practiced gentle expression displayed.
She hesitated for a bit, the independent part of her demanding that she didn't need help, but reached out and grabbed his hand before she could talk herself out of it. The music on her one ear helped to keep her grounded, but at the moment, Nik was the most helpful to her.
when they exited the building, nik let out a long sigh. he rubbed across his face with his free hand,
"what about that? we made it through, how are you feelin?"
"Like curling up into a ball and dying in a hole," she said, reluctantly letting go of his hand and stepping away from him.
"yeah, sounds pretty accurate." he pulled his phone from somewhere in his bag. "the public's gonna tear this apart, though. they're like sharks. it's entertaining to watch, honestly." he pulled up the notes app, and "jotted down" the placeholder title and a few notes to remember before dropping it back in the bag.
"hey, you hungry?" he turned to tess, raising an eyebrow at her. "food's on me, you can pick a place. i've got some cash left over, so as long as it's not high class dining it won't break the bank."
"Ah, damn, there goes my first pick," she attempted to joke, fingers tapping on the cover of the old notebook, following the rhythm of the song playing in her earbud. "I'm in the mood for Italian, if only because I might find some friendly faces—or not, it's always an entertaining gamble."
"sounds like fun. lead the way."
((timeskip to the restaurant?))
((Yeah))
Tessa had tucked the notebook inside her jacket, so her hands were free as she led Nik through the restaurant. Luckily, the people there knew here and gave them both a VIP discount.
Tess found an empty booth and slid into a seat, gesturing to Nik to do the same. "I go here a lot. Cheap but good."
