Two Years Later (Part 3: Prison Break)

"If you try to escape I will not hesitate to end you." Harris threatened, pushing  his hostage down the halls of the prison.

Despite the warning, Thomas gave a small struggle, that he knew his captor wouldn't notice, at his restraints that kept his hands behind his back; unfortunately, it was in vain.

"You got that?" Harris ordered, after receiving no answer from Thomas.

The detective gave an eye roll, and muttered, "Yeah, yeah, I got it." Thomas kept the anxiousness out of his voice, but deep down he was terrified for both him and Reanna.

Harris pushed Thomas into one of the offices, and shut the door after entering behind him. The captor then proceeded to scan the room, and examine the different keys that were hanging on hooks on the wall.

"Which one unlocks Bella's cell?" Thomas scowled and gazed down at the cement floor, stubbornly refusing to answer.

However, his defiance came with consequences; without a warning of any kind, Harris snapped around and landed a solid punch to Thomas's jaw bone, causing him to collapse to the floor.

The detective dazedly glanced up, and through squinted eyelids, he could see Harris's hand reach down.

Before Thomas could process what was happening, he's lifted up back to his stiff legs by his collar.

Harris and Thomas stared at each other moment after moment until Harris' smile got wider. "If you keep refusing to obey my orders, Reanna will get even more hurt than I already suspect she's in." he told the detective, knowing that would break him, and make him cooperate.

Sure enough, Harris was right, and Thomas's defiant scowl melted into a meek expression. A chuckle escaped Harris's mouth as he pushed Thomas back in front and said, "Good, now tell me which key releases my niece."

The detective gestured to a silver key on the far right, and as Harris retrieved them from their hook, Thomas felt like he had just signed his death warrant.

_*_

Bella laid on her cot in the prison cell , listening to the sound of her own deep breaths. It was dark, cold, and absolutely boring; the only thing keeping her sane was the thought of getting revenge on Thomas.

"Bella?"

She immediately sat up in her cot at the sound of her name, and went to the bars of jail cell to have a look around the corridor.

Harris, with a large smile on his face, appeared from behind the wall; in response to this, Bella gave a smirk.

"Oh Uncle Harris. I should have known." she muttered, as Harris worked to unlock the cell.

The door slid open and the two embraced in a heart-warming hug. "My sister is safe?" Bella asked, after their hug.

Harris nodded, before he smirked, "I also have the detective boy with me if you would like to see him."

Bella smirked again, and chuckled, "Yes, I would love to see the man that put me in that rotten jail cell."

"Oh, I know you would. Follow me." Harris said, turning on his heels, and heading off in another direction, Bella striding right behind him.

_*_

Thomas groaned through clenched teeth as the pain from both a bruise forming on his jaw line, and the ropes cutting into his wrists, flooded his body.

He was on the floor, sitting on his knees, too weak to get up and get to the door; Harris must have known that, and left the door unlocked.

Despite the pain, though, Thomas kept struggling against his restraints.

However, he halted and stiffened when he saw the door knob twist, open, and Bella came strolling in with the biggest smile plastered on her face.

Like her Uncle, Bella gave no warning when she lifted Thomas off the floor and pinned him to the wall, causing him to gasp for air.

"How does it feel to be trapped, Detective boy?" she snarled, getting in his face.

Thomas attempted to turn his head away from her, but Bella forced it back by grabbing his jaw. Thomas groaned once more, as Bella's fingertips brushed over the bruise.

"Does it make you feel helpless?" she sneered, before driving her fist into Thomas's gut, causing him to gasp and cough.

Harris put his hand on Bella's shoulder, and exclaimed, "Now, Now, Bell, Jaxon wants Thomas intact."

Bella groaned a "Fine," under her breath, and let go of Thomas, watching him collapse back down to where he was originally sitting.

Harris patted Bella’s shoulder, and said, “You’ll get revenge on him, but first we need to get out of here before the police arrive for the day.” 

Bella nodded in agreement, and dragged Thomas out of the station and threw him into the trunk. 

-*-

The trip from the station to wherever they were taking him, gave Thomas a period of peace and ease from the pain that had taken over his body. That all ended, however, when the vehicle drove over a bump of some kind, which caused Thomas to hit his bruised jaw-line 

He clenched his jaw, and tilted his head so his jaw rested against his shoulder, trying to find some sort of way to ease the pain. However, after that moment, no peace came to him; only restlessness and anxiety. 

Harris’s threat carved it’s way into Thomas’s mind:  "If you keep refusing to obey my orders, Reanna will get even more hurt than I already suspect she's in." 

Did that mean Reanna was being tortured? Thomas’s eyes widened knowing that if Reanna was being hurt that could cause memories to come back to her. “Is that what these psycho’s are planning? To “cure” Reanna’s amnesia?” he asked himself. 

The thought of it made Thomas pull at the ropes even harder, but that only caused two things: warm blood to come trickling down his wrists, and more stinging pain. 

After a while, Thomas gave up; he placed his head onto the floor-board, and tried to relax a little; he needed his strength if was going to bring both him and Reanna out of this alive in one piece. 

_*_

Thomas must have fallen asleep, because he was woken up by a hard slap to the face, and Bella’s voice exclaiming, “Man, that felt good.” 

When she moved, the sun came blasting into Thomas’s face, causing him to flinch and squint away from the ball of light. 

“Did you get a good night’s rest?” Harris chuckled, grabbing Thomas’s sleeve and pulling him from the trunk. 

Thomas tried to keep himself stable, but his legs felt like noodles, and his head, due to all the smacks and punches it had taken, made him feel like the world was spinning around. 

Thomas blinked a few times to try to get his head and vision under control, but Harris and Bella decided he was taking too long, and started shoving him towards the building. 

The detective looked around, scanning his surroundings for any sign of recognition on where he might be; the building in front of him looked like a farm-house, and there was an averaged sized barn with a few penned up places scattered around the plot of land. 

“Great, if this is a farm, then I’m most likely 10 miles from the city.” Thomas calculated in his head, as he was continuously shoved down the path way and toward the cellar doors. 

The cellar doors shook open, and walking out was a young man, who looked about Reanna’s age; Thomas assumed that this was Jaxon. 

The detective desperately tried to look over Jaxon’s shoulder, trying to get some glimpse at Reanna; all he was a female’s shadowed figure in the cellar. 

Jaxon caught Thomas trying to spot Reanna, and gave out a mocking laugh. “Don’t worry, Thomas. Re re is all right.” 

Something about how Jaxon called Reanna “Re re”, and how he said “She’s all right,” didn’t sit well with Thomas’s instincts, and retaliated with, “I’ll be the judge of that. Let me see her now!” 

Bella was about to kick Thomas to the dirt for his retaliation, but was stopped by Jaxon. “It’s alright, cousin. He can see her.” he explained. 

Jaxon went down the stair-well and grabbed the female figure by the collar of her shirt, before proceeding to drag her back up the steps. 

Thomas, not being able to stand the sight of Reanna being hurt by that monster, tried to step forward, but was held back by Bella and Harris. Moments later, Jaxon was at the entrance of the cellar again, but this time with Reanna in his grasp. 

“Small warning: Reanna’s a little different.” he said grinning. After those words, he pushed the figure in front of him, but the shadows still covered her face. 

“C’mon Re Re, show everyone your new look.” Jaxon told her coldly into her ear. A whimper escaped the girl’s lips, but reluctantly she took those steps out from the shadows of the cellar, and into the shimmering sunlight. 

Thomas’s breath caught in his throat, and he felt his captors loosen their grip on his shoulders. 

The only words the detective could muster out of his mouth was the question, “What did they do to you?” 

To be continued...