The Lanes

"You?"

Skye stared at Earl in shock. He was seated on a chair before her with Theo standing beside him. In a way, she expected the lanes to have something to do with the attack and her kidnapping but facing them at that moment made all her worst nightmares come to play.

She was looking straight into the eyes of her parent's kidnappers and it was sickening to the core.

"What do you want with me?!" She spat at them.

Hearing the anger in her voice, Earl burst out laughing. It was the first time Skye saw him with a viscous look on his face, he was always calm and gentle around her. He was finally revealing his true colors.

"I heard you've been threatening my son about the incident with that car accident." Earl started.

"It's not a threat if it's true-" 

Skye was interrupted by a sting on her face. She was so focused on Earl that she didn't notice when Theo crossed the distance between them to slap her.

"Is that all you can do? Slapping me? That's it? You do the same thing over and over again and I'm beginning to think you're just too weak to assert your control by other means." She taunted him with a smirk on her face despite the burning sensation on her cheeks.

"What did you say?!" Theo yelled. Without giving her a second to react, he landed slap upon slap on both sides of her face.

Skye's face was tossed from side to side in the palm of Theo's hands like a hot potato. Her face felt hot and swollen and she could tell that it was red all over. The pain nearly made her shed tears but she steeled herself as Theo continued his attack. She would not show any signs of weakness before them.

NEVER!

"Let's see if your new savior will want anything to do with you if I ruin your face right now, after all, no one wants an ugly bitch... especially THE Ash Walter," Theo smirked, not holding back with the force he applied on the slaps.

"Enough." Earl's voice came out as calm as a summer sea said as if his son did not just continuously slap a girl for minutes in his presence. He was simply unaffected by the situation but rather seemed to be enjoying his sons' rabid behavior.

At his father's words, Theo stepped away from a now-dazed Skye and walked back to his position, pulling up his shirt sleeve as if nothing had happened.

Skye could barely raise her head to look at them. Her body was weak from not eating or drinking water for six days and the fact that she even survived for that long was a miracle on its own but now that Theo attacked her, she was even weaker.

"After everything I did for you, this is how you want to repay me?" Earl finally spoke up.

Skye forced herself to look up and stare at him with disgust. "You did nothing for me! Your family caused me so much pain and suffering while you sat in the backseat letting them assault me despite your good guy facade. You're a monster Earl, both you and your son!"

Regardless of her anger, Skye was careful with her words. She decided not to say anything about her suspicions of Earl's involvement in her parent's death in case he would try to cover up his tracks and ruin their plan. 

Her unreasonable side however was itching to confront him about the ordeal and pry the truth out of him.

"I'll make sure you rot in here. No one will find out about your whereabouts and soon you'll be forgotten." Earl continued.

"Do you really think you can get away with this?" 

"I've gotten away with so much already and it's been going on for years."

Although he said it indirectly, Skye could tell that the thing Earl was talking about getting away with was her parents' murder and it made her sick.

"Not even Ash can save you from here, besides, why would someone like him even search for a nobody like you-"

"Quiet, boy." Earl cut Theo off. "You should know I hate when people interrupt my conversation." His voice was sharp, emotionless, and cold. It was hard to tell he was talking to his own son.

"Yes, Father." Theo lowered his head out of fear for what his father would do to him.

Skye laughed at the situation. "As expected, you're nothing more than daddy's pet. For someone who talks a big game, it must be embarrassing to know you'll always be under your father's thumb and never in control. Despite her weak state, Skye still had enough strength to taunt Theo. She refused to let them make her miserable without putting up a fight.

This time it was Earl who slapped Skye. Maybe it was because he was older or stronger than Theo but the force of his slap was more intense, so intense that she ended up tumbling backward in her chair, hitting her head so hard it felt like her skull would crap open.

"I don't remember permitting you to speak!" He towered menacingly over her. "Take her away."

Two masked men came out of the shadows and dragged her out of the room. She was still tied up to the chair and her body was dragged on the cold cemented floor like she was a mop.

They threw her back into the room, or rather her cell, and untied her body.

"Here." One of the masked men threw her a water bottle. "Take it unless you want to die of starvation and dehydration in here."

The men walked out of the room and Skye started at the bottle. Although she hated to admit it, she knew the man was right, she didn't want to die in an unknown location because she refused to eat or drink anything.

Skye decided she'd rather swallow her pride and survive so she could find a way out of that place.

She weakly crawled to the other corner of the room where the food was and without wasting time, she ate the bread slices and drank the milk. It tasted spoilt and disgusting but nonetheless, her body was happy to finally eat something.

She drank half of the water in the bottle and saved the rest for later and her burning tongue felt more cooled and relaxed after just a sip of water.

The stress, pain in her body, and sleepiness which she had numbed herself to hit her at once after she ate something and soon enough she fell asleep on the cold hard floor, having a strange dream.