The walk down to the cells took longer than Jared had expected, what with the stares and whispered that followed him and Tai every step of the way. The curiosity didn't worry him, he'd become used to that at a young age, but the sheer number of curious people here today did. The corridors were choked with them. Some maintenance, some IT, but most were security.

Jared tried not to let his unease show as they passed guard after guard, gun after gun.

"Have you upped your security?" Jared asked, glancing back at Brenton.

The three of them were walking in single file. Tai first, his hands held securely in Jared's grip, and Brenton last.

"Yes," Brenton said. "After you disappeared, everyone became worried. Particularly about Leah."

"Right," Jared said, his eyes flickering around as they walked, counting every person they passed.

They reached the door down to the cells and Jared jerked Tai to a halt. He shifted past and pulled the door open. The fluorescent lights that lit the stairs down to the cells flickered on and began to hum overhead.

Jared stared down the passage for a moment, his mind flooding with memories, with all the people they'd held down there. It made his prayers that Leah's voice would crackle down the line and tell him it was time to go grow louder, almost deafening.

Her voice didn't come though, and eventually he stepped back, nodding at Tai to start descending.

For a moment, Tai hesitated, his expression full of conflict.

"Go on," Jared snapped, as annoyed with Tai's hesitation as he was with his own. "Stalling isn't going to help you."

Tai stared at him for a moment longer, but then he shouldered his way past and thumped down the stairs.

Jared watched him go, noticing distractedly that a fly was hovering above the stairs, bashing itself repeatedly against one of the lights.

"He's not very talkative, is he?"

Brenton had moved to Jared's side, watching Tai go with a blank expression.

"No, not overly," Jared said.

Brenton nodded, his expression thoughtful.

"I'm sure he will be. They usually are when it counts. I'll see what I can get out of him now and I'll let you know if I want you to take over."

Jared shifted. Brenton's words made him want to scream, to cry, to smash and destroy everything in this house. They were just another justification that what he was going to do was the right thing, and it made him furious.

"Don't worry," Jared said, giving Brenton a rough pat on the back, "I'll have a go at him first. It'd be nice to get a bit of payback after they kept me locked up for two weeks."

He thumped down a few stairs and then turned to look back up at his father, hating himself even as he offered the suggestion he knew Brenton was waiting for; the suggestion that would give Leah more than a couple minutes to do what she needed to; the suggestion that would end with a bullet through Brenton's brain.

"You can come and watch if you want?"

Brenton smiled and then moved into the corridor, shutting the door as he went.

Jared turned and clattered down further, hating himself more and more the deeper he went. When he reached the bottom, he glanced around for Tai and found him standing in the corner of one of the cells, back against the wall and chin jutted out defiantly.

His eyes flickered between Jared and Brenton, a note of resignation crossing his face as he realised what was about to happen.

Do whatever is necessary to keep Brenton occupied if it gives Leah more time. Whatever is necessary.

Brenton came to the bottom of the stairs and Jared glanced back at him, letting a familiar cold indifference plaster itself onto his face, the one he knew Brenton would expect to see there. He kinked an eyebrow in question and Brenton nodded.

Jared turned back to Tai, his heart pounding.

"I'm sure you know how this is going to go," Jared said, moving forward slowly, his movements calculated. "How much I have to hurt you is really your call."

Tai just stared at him, chin jutted out defiantly.

"I'm not telling you anything," Tai growled.

Jared stopped. "That's a bad start."

And then his fist swung forward, crashing into Tai's gut, his face, his chest. Tai doubled over, letting out a harsh breath, but his mouth stayed shut.

Jared towered over him, trying to ignore the pain in Tai's eyes.

"Feeling talkative yet?" Jared asked.

Tai just glared at him and Jared punched him again.

He could feel Brenton's eyes on them like a heat laser, burning into his back, and he forced himself not to hold back too much, not to let the blood that was beginning to splatter against the walls bother him.

Every time his fists collided with Tai he sent another prayer up to the heavens, another plea that this would be over soon.

It was only when Tai collapsed against the ground, his breath coming in gasps and wheezes that Jared stopped and stepped back, his breath coming heavy enough to match.

"Do you feel like talking yet?"

Tai's face was pressed against the floor and Jared waited, expecting Tai to come up with some fake intel, to give him a reason to lay off, even just for a bit, but instead, Tai just shook his head, his cheek scraping against the floor.

Jared blinked at him for a moment, disbelief colouring his expression.

"Really?"

"Chain him to the wall."

Brenton's voice made Jared turn around.

"What?"

"Chain him to the wall," Brenton repeated. "It'll hold him up."

There was something in Brenton's face that had changed, something that made Jared's caution rear its head. Brenton's posture had become rigid, his eyes hard.

Jared swallowed, his mind racing with ways to disagree without saying why, without admitting that he didn't want to chain Tai up because Tai wasn't meant to actually be restrained.

"I don't think –"

"Do it, Jared."

Brenton's words were a command, and almost without any conscious thought, Jared found himself following Brenton's orders, hauling Tai up by his armpits and connecting his handcuffs to the brackets on the wall.

"There," Jared said. "Why do you –"

"Jared!"

Tai's shout of warning came at the same time as the bullet did. Jared felt it rip through his spine, tearing through muscle and bone and embedding itself somewhere deep in his lungs.

He collapsed instantly, a muffled scream tearing its way up his throat, gurgled with blood. He could see Tai beginning to jerk above him, trying to wrench his handcuffs off the very real holster Jared had just hooked them up to, but then Jared's vision was shifting, his body being rolled over.

Jared let out a groan, his vision becoming hazy as Brenton's face appeared above him, his expression thunderous with hurt and rage.

Jared tried to scramble away, to do something, anything, but his body wasn't obeying his commands. The bullet had ripped through something critical, he could feel it, could feel the numbness crawling up his legs.

"You know I really wanted to believe you, Jared," Brenton said softly. "I really did. But even I can't believe that it's a coincidence that you pulled me away from my study moments before my heat sensers picked up an intruder in there."

Jared's mind flared with panic and he tried to move away, to lift himself up, but Brenton pressed down on his shoulders, forcing him back to the ground. Tai was still jerking above them, shrieks of metal on metal accompanying his every attempt to get free.

"When did you get heat sensers?" Jared gasped.

Brenton smiled down at him. "About the same time you disappeared. And you!" Brenton directed his gaze back to Tai, his gaze furious. "Stop making that racket otherwise you'll both be dead by the end of the day."

"You... you can't kill me," Jared ground out. "I can't die."

Jared only got a second of warning, the smallest shift in Brenton's expression, before his head was being wrenched up and then smashed back down against the ground.

Jared let out a low groan, his head spinning, the back of his skull becoming warm and wet. The sensation tickled, spreading down to his neck.

"That's where you're wrong, Jared," Brenton said. "Everyone can die."

Jared's vision was hazy, his mind spinning, but as Brenton spoke, Jared could've sworn he saw his father reach into his pocket and pull out a knife, one with a blade of swirling, faceted glass. One that was instantly, terribly familiar. One that was meant to be in Brenton's study right now for Leah to find.

Brenton grabbed the back of Jared's head, cradling it almost gently as he held the blade up, hovering it above Jared's heart.

"Even you," Brenton said softly. "Even if that means I have to keep killing you over and over again."

"Wait," Jared said, his words slurring. "Wait, you..."

"I'm sorry."

Jared's vision was nearly black, the corner of his eyes crawling with darkness, but he still saw Brenton raise the knife higher. And he still saw it come arching back down. 

...

:O :O

Next chapter out in 2 weeks ;P 

- Skylar xx