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The Pawn

[Chapter One]

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Nyctophobia - Fear of the dark

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"Someday my Prince will come, some...thing, something something something, and away to his castle we'll go, to be something, something, something, once more...uh...Someday, when all my dreams come TRUUUEEEE!" I warbled the last word, slapping the wet rag on the table as I scrubbed furiously.

Some previous family with mutant kids had spilled soda and ketchup all over the table, creating a sticky mess for me to clean up. I was in charge of closing 'Lindi's' tonight-which meant scrubbing the tables, washing the floor and locking all the doors. Usually it took me about an hour or two to completely close-up and I'd be home by one, one-thirty if I was lucky. Tonight, other than the monster table, the restaurant looked fairly clean, so I figured that I would get home a little earlier than usual. That equaled more sleep for me, something I held sacred.

I finished the tables and floors and did one last visual sweep around the restaurant as I locked all the doors. Satisfied with the way things looked, I exited out of the employee's entrance, testing the handle to see if it was locked. My job done for the night, I glanced at my Mickey Mouse watch and smiled when I saw it was only 12:40 a.m. Pleased about the extra minutes of sleep, I started humming 'Someday My Prince Will Come' as I walked home. It's not like I believed in the song or anything, it was just a catchy tune. There was no Prince Charming in my life, nor did I expect one to come ridding in upon his white steed. That just wasn't a possible scenario in my life. Sure, I'd like to be 'rescued' but I had long ago given up on that happening. Now, I was simply resigned to my fate and content to make the best of it.

I wasn't even ten steps from the door when a large body turned the corner, blocking my way. The dim streetlamp was enough to let me see who was standing in the way. It was a tall guy, around 6'2" or 6'3" with electric blue hair, dark eyes and a wicked scar on his face. I couldn't make out the shape of it; I could only see that it was near his left eye. He looked dangerous-not the type of person to mess with-which was kind of a turn on. I'm twisted, I know.

"Ainsley Hartford?" he said in a dark chocolaty voice that sent shivers down my spine. Mmm, I could just eat him up-ignoring the fact that he was a stranger who had cornered me in the middle of the night...and knew my name.

"Prince Charming, I assume?" I responded cheekily, grinning at his confused look.

"Are you or are you not Ainsley Hartford?" he repeated slowly.

"What's it to you, sugar?" I drawled while cocking my hip. A muscle twitched in his jaw as he glared at me. I figured he couldn't be too dangerous or he would have grabbed me by now. My instincts were telling me to run, while my curious mind wanted me to stay and explore this god-like creature before me.

He made some frustrated noise and took a step towards me, but I backed up, sensing the predator on his prowl. "Answer the question," he growled.

"Ooh," I shuddered mockingly, "I'm so scared." I pursed my lips, tapping my finger against the bottom one as I watched him. "My spidey senses are telling me to say...no."

His eyes sparked in irritation and...arrogance as he regarded me confidently. "Funny," he said casually, "the picture I have looks remarkably like you." He pulled out a photo from his pocket, revealing a picture of me at work. I sucked in a breath, wondering where he had gotten that picture.

"Where did you get that?" I asked defensively. This random stranger had a picture of me in his pocket. His pocket! That meant someone had been watching me for the past couple of days or longer. I hadn't even felt a pinprick of awareness and that scared me more than anything. I couldn't let my guard down. Never.

"That's not important," he dismissed. "What's important is that I've found you. Now, if you'll come quietly with me, it will make things so much easier."

"For you," I snorted. Yah, fat chance I was going to come along easily, buster. Who the hell did he think he was? More importantly: who the hell was he working for? I smelled my sister all over this, but I couldn't pinpoint her exact connection to my current problem. Although, truth be told, I could never pinpoint her involvement in something until it was already over. She seemed to get a thrill out of making me suffer again and again. Sighing, I realized this was probably another one of her ploys to freak me out and make my life miserable again. It had been, what, a month or two, since she had last bothered me? Yah, it was about time I got a dose of reality. I had been living in my happy bubble for too long.

"You have two choices," I heard him say. "Either you come willingly or I force you. Trust me when I say you don't want me to force you."

"Once again your pathetic attempts at intimidating me have no effect," I sighed, loving the way he got so easily irritated with me. "I think I'm going to go through Door C and head home. I'm knackered." With that, I blew him a kiss with my middle finger and started walking away. Before I could even get a couple feet, my stomach was pressed against the nearest brick wall with a large, warm body at my back. Good Lord he felt amazing.

"There is no Door C," he hissed.

Furious that he had effectively trapped me against the wall, placing me in a helpless position, I tried to buck against him, hoping to dislodge him, but all it did was press our bodies closer. "You can't force me to do anything," I said desperately, trying to ignore the fear that was creeping in. Clithrophobia: fear of being enclosed.

"Can't I?" he whispered as I felt a sharp prick in my neck.

Darkness closed in as heaviness settled throughout my body. "You...bastard," I managed to rasp out before everything went black.

I woke up livid and on the defense, only to discover that I was in a dark, dank cell. Alone. Fear, the consistent enemy and teasing hell, crept in and began to suffocate me. I had never gotten over my fear of the darkness, there were too many bad memories associated with it. It was the same with the color red-too much pain and suffering clouted my mind.

The darkness threatened to consume me and make me a permanent prisoner, never to be free. I scrambled to the front of the cell, trying to find the least dark area and tried to calm myself by listing off the capitals of the world. When that didn't work, I spoke out loud, counting in German. I quickly abandoned this idea when my voice echoed eerily in the empty space. Hearing nothing but my voice made me aware of how alone I was. I didn't want to fill the silence with just my voice. Then I wouldn't be able to hear anything else. In the silence and dark my senses were heightened. A few cells down I heard the quiet scurrying feet of two mice and the sharp clicking of a family of beetles. By accepting the silence and listening for any sign of life I was distracting myself from the pain and fear that would overflow and absorb me.

I don't know how long I sat there in silence before I heard the faint whisper of footsteps. Had I not been sitting in silence and darkness I never would have heard them. However, with my heightened awareness, I stared patiently at the doorway, waiting for my Savior to appear. Finally someone would be here to relieve me of the darkness and silence. A tall man appeared in the doorway and paused, seeming to question something before turning to the left and flipping the lights on.

Momentarily blinded, it took me a couple seconds to readjust to my new settings. When my eyes had finally adjusted I saw the man standing in front of me and realized it was my kidnapper. He had the same expressionless face and dead eyes contrasted by electric blue hair. Strangely enough it seemed to work for him. The blue hair, I mean. What caught my interest though was the scar around his left eye. It was...horrifically beautiful. I stared at the ragged heart in awe and horror.

He was eyeing my hands distastefully and I realized that at some point I had wrapped by hands around the bars in a death grip. My knuckles were white from the strain and I could have sworn I heard my bones creaking when I unclenched them. "Who are you?" I rasped, my voice sounding odd to my ears.

Ignoring my question he thrust a bottle of water at me and tossed an apple through the bars. My reflexes were off and both fell to the dirty floor. I glared disdainfully and dusted off the items. I would never admit it, but I was starving and a dirty, disease-ridden apple was better than no apple. He seemed unaffected by my feelings and waited patiently for me to finish eating and drinking.

I wanted to save the water for later; past experience had taught me that I should hoard what I can. I never knew when my next meal would be. However, he didn't seem to favor this idea and motioned for me to finish the water. Reluctantly I swallowed the last drop and handed the bottle back over. It wasn't like I was going to use it as a weapon; I didn't even know how to go about doing that. I suppose I could chuck it at him, as much damage as that would do.

"Who are you?" I asked again, hoping he would respond this time. When he didn't, I decided to irritate him into answering a question. "Where am I? Why am I here? Why did you kidnap me? Are you going to kill me? Did I do something to piss you off or am I a part of some bigger plan? Why is your hair blue? How come I'm stuck in a cell? You know it's really dark down here? When was the last time you cleaned this place? Am I your only prisoner or do all the other prisoners get better treatment? Are you a bad guy? Is there-?"

"Enough," he said sharply. I held in a grin when I noticed the spark of irritation in his eyes. Thank goodness he broke when he did, I was running out of questions to ask.

"Are you going to answer any of my questions?" He gave me a speaking look and turned away. Guess not. "You know, if you don't tell me your name I'm going to have to make something up," I paused dramatically and tapped my chin, "I'm thinking Smurf." He barely flinched, but I noticed it anyways and felt another wave of triumph. Maybe I could irritate my way to freedom. I laughed inwardly at that, wouldn't that be a tale to tell?

He turned back around and glared resentfully at me. I got the impression that he was holding in most of his anger and only letting me seeing a thin vein of it, but it was enough to scare me shitless. I did not want to be on the receiving end of his rage. "You're here because of your sister," he bit out coldly.

I recoiled and eyed him warily. So this was all Lisa's fault? I wouldn't put it past her to land me in this situation. In fact, it was probably another one of her tricks to taunt me. "My sister?" I laughed hollowly, "What does she have to do with this?" I hoped I could get some answers out of him, but I should have known better.

He turned away again, heading for the doorway. I didn't want him to leave, regardless of the fact that he was an enemy, I would take him over the silence any day. "I will be back later to question you," he said, in no way responding to any of my questions.

"I look forward to it, Smurfie," I cooed. His hands clenched minutely before he stormed out of the room...with the lights left on. Success.

I wanted to spend some time just sitting there and analyzing my captor, but I had no idea how much time I had before he returned to question me. About what, I also had no idea. Since irritating him seemed to be the only way to get a response out of him, I devised a plan to make him break. I figured if I didn't have a voice, he couldn't question me.

So I took a deep breath and started singing at the top of my lungs, "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight, AHWEEE-OOO-WEE-OOO-AHWEE-OOO-bum bah way. In the village the peaceful village the lion sleeps tonight, AHWEEE-OOO-WEE-OOO-AHWEE-OOO-bum bah way." I trailed off as I realized I didn't really know the words. Another song quickly popped in my head though.

"Listen baby, ain't no mountain high, ain't no valley low, ain't no river wide enough baby. If you need me call me no matter where you are, no matter how far, don't worry baby. Just call my name, I'll be there in a hurry you don't have to worry, 'cause baby AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH, AIN'T NO VALLEY LOW ENOUGH, AIN'T NO RIVER WIDE ENOUGH TO KEEP ME FROM GETTING TO YOU BABY!" I continued to sing that song at the top of my lungs. When I finished I started on another one. I figured that eventually Smurfie would get annoyed enough to come down here, providing the necessary entertainment. I sang through "It's a Small World", "Meow Mix Jingle", "I'm a Barbie Girl" and "I Love You, You Love Me" before using my last resort.

"99 Bottles of Beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer! You take one down and pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall!" I made it to seventy-six bottles of beer on the wall when I heard him come storming back down the stairs to enter the chamber. He looked like he had the beginnings of a headache as indicated by the vein pulsing in his forehead.

I grinned toothily and opened my mouth to sing the next verse but he pinned me with a glare. "Shut up," he growled chillingly and shut off the lights. I was once again engulfed in the darkness. I heard him leave the room again and shut another door, no doubt at the top of the stairs.

That's when I started coughing.

My throat was already raw from screaming, so coughing hurt like a bitch. But I continued to cough, blocking out the need for water, blocking out the darkness and blocking out the pain, because I had endured worse before.

He returned about two hours later, I think. I wasn't completely sure because I had no way to tell what time it was. Dirty bastard took my Mickey Mouse watch when he nabbed me and I wanted it back. It was the only piece of my dad I had left.

The lights flickered on, temporarily blinding me again. Smurfie had his arms crossed over his chest menacingly and he still had that hard look in his eyes. I grinned and wiggled a couple fingers at him, enjoying the muscle that ticked under his eye.

He walked towards my cell purposefully, stopping just outside of my reach if I decided to lunge for him. I swear his look made me feel ten degrees colder like some walking freezer of dead emotions. I resisted the urge to rub the goosebumps on my arms away and instead looked at him calmly, ready to piss him the hell off.

"I have a series of questions for you that you are going to answer truthfully," he informed me flatly. I smiled innocently at him and cocked my head, motioning for him to question away. His eyes narrowed suspiciously at my complacent behavior, probably wondering why I was so acting so agreeable. I wanted to rub my hands together and chuckle evilly; he would find out soon enough.

"Where is your sister?"

I hid my surprise when he mentioned my sister again. I was going to kill her when I got out of here. If I could find her. When I opened my mouth to answer, all the came out was an atrocious croaking noise. I had to resist the urge to clap my hands with glee. Smurfie's face tightened when he realized what I had been doing all day. "Where is your sister?" he ground out, "I know you're just messing around with me. Answer the damn question."

I pointed to my throat and tried to speak again. All we heard was more croaking. Damn it hurt to speak. He cursed under his breath and ran a hand through his hair, giving me a dirty glare. I smiled innocently again and waited to see what he would do.

Growling he walked away from the cell and back up the stairs, leaving me alone again. A couple minutes later he returned with a piece of paper and a pencil and thrust them at me. "Write," he barked, pointing at the paper angrily.

I gave him a blank look, pretending to not remember the question. He snarled, but kept his temper in check. "Where is your sister?" I scrunched my nose as I pretended to think about it. Grabbing the pencil in my right hand, I set the paper on the floor and started slowly writing out my answer. When I finished I handed him the paper smugly.

He glanced at it in confusion, trying to decipher the letters. "What the hell is this?" he asked, pointing at the chicken scratch.

I gave him an offended look and motioned for him to hand me back the paper. He did grudgingly and I quickly rewrote my answer with my right hand. What he didn't know was that I was left handed, so my writing was atrocious. Smurfie tried to read what I had written again, but to no avail. "Do you seriously expect me to be able to read this? What the hell is wrong with you?" he snarled, no doubt cursing my existence.

I bit my bottom lip and gave him a puppy dog look, willing tears to well in my eyes. It seemed my talent to cry on command was finally coming in handy. His eyes softened for a moment when he saw my tears, but he quickly squashed that emotion and backed away slowly. "Don't cry," he growled, "Christ." He was starting to get uncomfortable at the sight of tears. Typical male. I sniffled pathetically and let the tears stream down my face. "Ah shit," he muttered. "I'll be right back."

I watched him leave for the third time and quickly wiped my tears away. Irritating him was entirely too much fun. It was fun to see how far I could push him before he lost his temper.

Soft footsteps echoed down the stairwell only minutes after Smurfie had left. I listened carefully, wondering whom it could be. There was no way it was a male's steps, they were too light and careful. Moments later a small woman with auburn hair came into view. Her hazel eyes were filled with warmth when she spotted me and smiled.

"Hello," she said in a melodious voice, "I'm Dayna. What's your name?" I opened my mouth to reply, but remembered at the last minute that I didn't have a voice. She frowned prettily when I pointed at my throat and shook my head. "You don't have a voice?" she asked. I nodded and smiled slowly. There was something about her that I automatically liked. I didn't know her at all, but her presence was calming and refreshingly honest. "Well that's rather unfortunate."

I nodded in agreement and smiled nervously. Maybe she could shed some light on my situation. I motioned around my cell and then at the stairs and shrugged, looking at her for answers. She seemed to understand me well enough because she laughed at my motions and nodded.

"You're in a cell beneath NANO headquarters, you might be told more about that later. It's not my place to inform you. Basically, you're here to be questioned about your sister, Lisa. That's as much information as I know."

There was that mention of my sister again. Gods I was going to murder her. I drew a heart around my eye and then crossed my arms and scowled, imitating Smurfie.

Dayna chuckled lightly. "I take it you're referring to Jay?" Jay, I mused, the name worked for him. I nodded emphatically and waited for her to tell me about him. "He's an agent here, like my boyfriend, Kyle." Her eyes turned warm at the mention of her boyfriend. "Jay is in charge of this case, but that's all I can tell you, I'm sorry. He is the one that has the authority to give you information."

I scowled unhappily. It seemed I would have to find a way to get Jay to tell me just what exactly what was going