*Haelyn’s perspective*

My droopy eyes eyed the bottle of water thrown at me, which tugged me out of my sleep. As soon as I heard the door shut, I grabbed it and drank, emptying the whole bottle within seconds. I felt a slight burning sensation down my throat and ignored it.

It was my third day in that canned box of a room. The room was well lit, white everywhere, reflecting onto the metal-like walls. The red light of the little camera from above glared at me the whole day.

I kicked the bottle back to the door. I already felt the need to pee. The water calmed my stomach a bit but I wished they gave me food as well. During the past two days, someone brought me water only and guided me to the toilet only once a day. The toilet seemed the most ordinary place here, not that I’ve seen much of the place. I was thrown inside the solitary cell blindfolded the moment we arrived here.

I only did a journey to the toilet twice and there was no sight of any other person, not even my buttshit kidnapper. It wasn’t like I wanted to see her, but I wondered why I was being kept in a cell for such a long time. Deep inside, I felt grateful because her giving me attention would only mean something bad. I hoped she continued ignoring me until rescue came, which I hoped they did.

After a while of lying around, I glanced at the opening door. A man, who seemed to be in his forties, approaching me with handcuffs. I backed off against the wall and realised how useless my actions were. Where could I even escape? The man silently put the handcuffs around my wrists and dragged me up with them.

I followed along, with stiff legs, down the corridor. My eyes focused on the similar rooms aligned on both sides of the corridor. Were there people in those cells too?

The white, spacious room finally came into my sight. I made a grimace as I saw the devil herself, leaning against a table, with crossed hands. She was dressed more comfortably, in black shirt and pants. Her slick black hair was tied in a ponytail. She provided a great contrast to all the white I’ve been seeing around.

My curious gaze moved around the room, or should I say, the high tech laboratory. It was quiet and as cold as a morgue. I spotted some computers and flat screens decorating the right side of the lab. Flasks, cylinders, tubes, vials, microscopes and more flooded the front of the lab.

It seemed like those research labs in sci-fi movies, with a sinister feel to it. I was already expecting some sort of maniac scientist to enter and declare that I was now a testing subject of his.

Violetta glanced lazily over her shoulders when she heard us approaching. She gestured to the man to bring me closer, which the man did, by almost punching me forward.

I could not understand what look to give the devil. Should I act indifferent? Or should I show my anxious feelings? Or I could simply laugh my way out of this mess.

When I stood a foot away from her, my gaze went to my bare feet, avoiding her sadistic smile. Why did they have to take out my shoes when taking me again?

"Eager?" Her cold voice resounded as she clicked her fingers on the table.

I looked away, rolling my eyes, and looked back at her. "Eager to return home? Yes."

"Oh, don't look forward that much for this. I wouldn't want you having high expectations," she chuckled.

"Cut the crap. That's delusional of you to think you'll get away with all this. Why am I here?" I breathed sharply, the clinging of the handcuffs echoed, making me feel more annoyed.

"You clearly don't know who I am. You're here for me to show you what you dragged yourself into," she said, gesturing to the place with her hands.

"I'm pretty sure I was supposed to be home by yesterday. You dragged me here," I raised an eyebrow.

"Oh come on, don't act so innocent. You kept interfering with my business even back in your country. You wanted a game to play. Aren't you glad to have found the real player? I bet you'd be satisfied to solve the puzzle, Haelyn. Maybe at the cost of your life…," Violetta trailed, walking around the table as her fingers laid on the rows of small vials.

I felt my blood growing cold and shivered. I clenched my handcuffed wrists tightly.

"By dragging me into the game, you made me a puzzle piece instead, bitch. It's the IOF who are gathering the puzzle pieces, one by one. All different pieces are meant to come together and they'll get you eventually. Then you can bark your way into the jail," I sneered.

My bravour decreased a bit as Violetta paused, her fingers on one vial, as her cold emerald eyes paused on me. Then she released a sinister chuckle.

"Come in, Doctor," she said.

I frowned in confusion and turned around to see a man coming in. He must have been in his fifties, with little blond hair covering the back of his head. He was wearing a simple lab coat. My intuition told me that he was not Italian. My gaze fell behind him, on a young man who looked around my age. He followed the oldie silently, in a daze.

I took some steps back as the Doctor passed by me. He walked to Violetta, giving her a light kiss. A kiss! Was he the boyfriend? I looked at the ‘Doctor’ up and down. Maybe he was actually younger than I was thinking.

I looked at them in disgust and turned to the guy beside me. He was looking on the floor. I flashed my hands in front of him but he did not look at me. He looked like a zombie so I carefully stepped away from him as well.

Violetta and the Doctor were whispering about some things and were looking at me. I looked around, looking for an escape. I found the door shut behind me. I looked back at the microscope. What if I throw that at them? It must be hard enough to knock them out.

The old man walked to the corner and switched off the light. We were thrown in pitch darkness. I heard another click and a bright light shone on a table. The guy beside me walked over to the table and climbed on it like a robot, without even being asked. What did they do to that poor guy?

The Doctor took a small vial with transparent liquid and a syringe. The liquid went up the syringe. I held my breath amidst the deadly silence. I wish I could disappear in the dark. The syringe was inserted into the man's arm. I gaped at him in the darkness. He was not even reacting.

The Doctor made the man sit up after finishing. He looked at me, or rather behind me, at the man who had accompanied me here. The man walked to him. Violetta also approached, eyeing the other man with a maniac look. I stepped back little by little.

"Take this one away and let Luca in," she commanded. Luca seemed to be a familiar name around.

I felt hands grabbing me, pushing me forward as the two men left. I tried defending myself but I got pushed on the table. Being on full panic mode, I flung my free legs both sides, one leg hitting Violetta's side and the other one taking the Doctor by surprise, right into his plunging stomach.

If I was not in such a situation, I would have laughed at their expressions.

"Let's tie her legs," the Doctor hissed. Oh, he spoke English, definitely not Italian.

I tried sitting up but I was hit at my throat, making me fall back. My handcuffed hands were dragged at the back holding me in place.

"Stop! What the hell are you doing to me?" I screeched.

"We're just having some fun to make you comply better to future plans. Luca, come here," the sarcastic voice retorted. I froze at the appearance of the Luca that I knew. He did not look at me and maintained a stoic look, handing over something.

My surprise distracted me from the quick sting up my arm. My shock seemed to have amused Violetta.

"There, it wasn't that bad, was it?" She exclaimed, in a fake cheerful tone.

I stayed still for a few seconds. What did they inject into me? Was something going to happen to me soon?

"Luca, take her back," she said. Luca approached me, detaching my legs and hands from the table as he made me stand up, still not looking at my face. I could bet that the first thing he'd say would be 'sorry, I didn't know this would happen'.

"We'll see you again soon for another session," Violetta smirked as I walked away. If not for Luca's tight grip around me, I would have flung the microscope at her for real. I imagined her face getting flattened and crumbling in front of me. Phew, my own sadistic self was showing!

As soon as we were out of that lab, I shook off Luca’s hands violently from my shoulders and glared at him, huffing. I felt the need to scream my lungs out.

“Woah, chill,” he said, putting his hands up.

I took a deep breath to calm myself down. “Look at me, idiot. Am I in a state to chill?” I said in a dry tone.

“Let me take you back to your...room first,” Luca said, glancing around.

“With pleasure,” I said, rolling my eyes.

I hurried to the cell and entered. “You can go away now,” I snapped at Luca as I sat down on the floor. He closed the door and remained inside, instead of leaving.

“Look, I wanna say-”

“What? You’re sorry too?” I huffed.

“Uhm, well not exactly. I do apologise on behalf of both of my sisters though-”

“Wait, what sisters?” I asked, confused. Then my eyes slowly  widened in realisation.

“You mean…,” I drawled off, staring at Luca who nodded grimly at me. Everyone seemed to be related around here.

“Angelia informed the IOF though-”

“How does it matter? I’ll probably get drugged everyday and left to die here before they finally arrive. When they come, they’ll either see my corpse or my zombie-self like that guy earlier,” My lower lip quivered, and I tugged on my hair in frustration. I felt overwhelmed, with a strong need to cry.

“That’s why I’m here instead,” Luca said, trying to reassure me.

“Yeah, indeed. You’re helping in drugging me afterall. I am already feeling weird and heavy right now. Can you see my trembling hands? That shit is real!” I exclaimed.

“Do you want to know what drug it was?” he chuckled. Wow, he really had the guts to laugh at my situation.

“Does it even matter n-”

“Paracetamol.”

“Uh?”

Luca leaned against the door to make sure he was not seen by the camera above. He showed me the vial hidden in his pockets, with a quiet laugh. I gaped with wide eyes, very surprised. “I swapped the bottles at the last moment. Your struggling around and the darkness made it easy for me not to get noticed.”

I stared at him, trying to understand. I felt relief overcoming me slowly.

“What if they hear you?” I asked fearfully, looking up at the camera.

“I checked. It’s not auditory and all rooms are soundproof.”

Okay, but what are you going to do now? Can you help me escape?” I asked, hope returning.

“There is no chance of escaping. There are people everywhere around. The outside is more guarded too,” Luca sighed, shaking his head.

“Then...inform someone?”

“The IOF agents sent me as spy. The last two days, I hopped from place to place, trying to find where you could possibly be held. We are in Salerno right now, another port city. The shipments around here included lab equipment along with drugs so I decided to take control of the drugs sent here and got in.”

I felt like there was a ‘but’ to his sentence and waited for him to continue.

“But I am stuck here as well,” he sighed. “I didn’t know that for security purposes, whoever comes here is held up for at least a week working around here, to wait till the other group comes. I tried using my phone but there seems to be no connection here.”