“I’ve been fighting off deamons longer than you’ve been breathing! You have no idea what I’ve been through, what I’ve seen, what I’ve done, and if you think you can scare me off with a couple of thugs and a knife, you’re sorely mistaken!” I screamed, squaring my shoulders, and staring right back into those silver-grey eyes that were colder than my own.

The man, who stood at least a foot and a half taller than me just stood there, not showing any sort of emotion from my outburst, but I could tell that I had caught him off guard.

He hadn’t expected this sort of defiance out of a ‘little girl’ but he also didn’t know me. He had just picked me up at the battle…and though I was standing there, hands tied behind my back, feet shackled to the stone floor, there was no way in hell I was ever going to give him what he wanted.

“Think you’re smart, eh?” Still, no emotion, just frankness that seemed almost unnatural, but not unnatural enough to get me nervous; I’d seen worse than him, much worse.

“No.” I said, still looking straight into those eyes that reflected nothing. “Just saying what I know, and I know that you’re not getting the truth from me. You’re not getting-” He smacked me across the face, hard enough that my inside cheek started bleeding from the impact with my teeth.

“I’ll ask you again, where is the rebel base?”

“You’re standing in it.” I told him, low and menacing.

He smacked me again, only this time with his fist, and in the stomach, sending me sprawling to the floor, gasping for breath.

I glared up at him with all that I had, knowing that this defiance would be my last, but if I was going to go out, I was going to go out fighting! Too many had fought and bled for me to betray them now! If I had to die to keep the rest safe, to keep the hope alive, then so be it. I wasn’t afraid of death, I was afraid of betrayal more.

He stepped forward, trying to be…menacing. If I had been anyone else, it might have worked. “Where is it?” He was quickly losing patience with me.

“I told you.” I growled.

He nodded, motioned for one of his men at the side of the room to come forward, and he did, brandishing a syringe. “Then you’ve given me no choice.”

The man came forward, I knew what that stuff was…it was a drug, meant to hurt you so bad you’d give up your own mother for a moment of relief.

I struggled with the guy, simply cause I wasn’t going to give up, though I knew I wouldn’t win, and eventually he got it in me…I could feel it, in my veins, tearing through me…

The pain…it flooded me like…well, I’d say like nothing I’ve ever known, but it seems they haven’t found a way to liquidize the pain of loss and death yet.

I heard myself scream as I collapsed to the ground again, sobbing from the pain…with the only real thought I could feel still left in me was the one of loyalty…it was all I had left…all I had…

I woke up, staring into those same silver-grey eyes. “You’re stronger than we thought.”

“Fuck you.” I would have flipped him off instead, if it weren’t for the fact that I was still tied up and lying on that stone floor.

He just gave me this sort of half smile, the first sign of…well…anything…that I had seen from anyone in quite some time. “Do you want to die?”

“Does it matter?”

“You seemed rather…determined…to not betray your people.”

“What’s your point? Have you run out of ways to torture me?!” I scoffed. I thought they were supposed to be better than that, these secret policemen.

He chuckled. “We’ve yet to find out. The answer lies in you. Do you even know what you’re fighting for?” He took a file from one of his men, rifled through it for dramatics. “Eliza Ruby Eleanor McCaffery. Daughter of Harold and Suzan McCaffery, Harold, died ten years ago of…” He smiled at me. “What? You think the people who disappear are all sitting around in a cell somewhere?” He laughed. I inwardly cursed myself for showing the kind of surprise that he could actually pick it up. “Mother Suzan is…one of our officers.”

“Liar!” I screamed, despite myself.

He just kept giving me that haughty smile that just made me want to punch him. “Am I?” He asked, picking up and showing me a picture…my mother…complete in that black uniform of the secret police…the ones who…

I looked away, disgusted. “What has this got to do with me?”

“You’re going to lead us to that base one way or the other…willing or unwillingly. Personally I’d rather give you the damn truth serum and be done with it…but my...superiors…want your brain intact once this little…endeavor…is through. Your mother is a powerful woman, Eliza.”

I spat on the man. “She’s no mother of mine!”

He chuckled as he wiped the spit off his face. “Finally, some emotion! I didn’t think you had it in you! So these…deamons…you speak of? You’ve been fighting your brothers off you since you started breathing, haven’t you?” He got in close, grabbed my hair, yanked back until I had no choice but to continue to stare into those near-dead eyes. “You’ve been fighting for a place in the ranks of those rebels, they don’t trust you, they don’t even respect you, yet you help them anyway, why? You don’t like them, they don’t like you…you’re a good soldier…that’s it…and what? All because you had a…minor psychotic episode… Oh, I’m sorry…you had deamons chasing you. My bad.

Tell me, do they like to keep you up at night? Scream into your ears about all the failures in your life? Eh? Do they still follow you around…still screaming to be heard?” He just kept giving me that half smile. “Do you want them to go away? We can make them go away, you know…we can do things your precious rebels can’t…we have things…know things that you can’t even dream of.”

“Fuck you.” I whispered, finding that he had broken my spirit…my will…but I was still determined to…

“And just so you know, we’re not going to kill you. At least, not for a long, long time. We’ll just lock you up with those deamons you’re so fond of fighting off, and after a while we’ll see if you want to talk then.” He turned and walked off, the two men following, and they slammed and locked the door.

That was when they returned…more numerous and bigger than ever…the deamons…half real, half not. Normally they only came about at dawn and twilight, but here they were…worse than ever.

“So Ruby, you been a good girl?” The closest one hissed to me, using the name everyone who ever knew me did, circling me in his lion-like slithery movements.

I didn’t say anything, like I never said anything. I closed my eyes, willing them away, but this time…this time it didn’t work. I could feel their breathing on me now…like they were real. “Oh, I think she’s been bad, very bad!” The one with the high-pitched voice giggled menacingly and entirely without humor, but full of anticipation.

“Then I think it’s about time that we gave her some punishment, eh?”

“Yes!” The rest chorused…and I could feel them as they descended upon me, completely unable to fight back. But this time they didn’t just take my metaphorical insides out…they didn’t inflict the internal damage like they typically did, no; this time I could feel their claws descend upon me, tearing me apart.

I growled, even as the pain from their claws started to overcome me. That was it…I wasn’t just going to take this…real or not, I was not going to let them tear me apart, and take me at their will, like everyone else had ever done!

I growled again, and opened my eyes as I felt my ropes weaken from the slashes to my arms. And as the leader descended upon me, I grabbed him for all I was worth, grabbed him and threw him as hard as I could against the far wall, turning to the others, who saw their leader lying there against the wall, prone and bleeding, and quickly fled.

I panted, hard, letting my breath come back to me as I looked down at my bleeding body. I was still trapped in this cell, even if my hands weren’t tied up anymore, and my feet were still chained to the floor, which was definitely something I couldn’t do anything about.

The man walked back over to the cell, opened the panel in the door, and peered in at me. “Had enough of your imaginary playmates?”

I didn’t say anything, just pointed to the wall where the deamon was laying, dead as a doornail. He couldn’t see it from the hole, so he unlocked it and came in, flanked once more by his men.

He just stared at the creature lying there in the din, and it was my turn to give him that coy, half smirk he’d given me. “It’s like I said before, I’ve been fighting deamons longer than you’ve been alive, and I’m not going to let you, or anything else, stand in my way. So kill me if you must, or let me go, but either way, you’re getting NOTHING from me!” I yelled.

He turned and stared at me, and I knew I had won, even if he killed me, I had won, and I knew the deamons wouldn’t bug me again.

He turned, and walked out. The men locked the door after them, leaving me alone again in the cell.

My smile got bigger the longer I stood there. I had won…finally…I had won against my adversary…I had…

The cell door unlocked and opened again, this time revealing the figure that was…that had once been…my mother.

My smile froze on my face.

She didn’t say anything, just walked over, slapped me, then walked back to the door. “I was trying to save you.” She growled. “You just condemned yourself!”

I smiled the first real smile I’d smiled in a long, long, time. “Actually, I didn’t. I saved myself from you.”

She just shook her head and left the room. Two men walked in then, one with what I knew to be the truth serum. The other approached me first, to probably hold me still. But just as he got right out of my reach, I heard the words: “Stop!” Ring out from somewhere behind them.

The figures all turned to see the head of the police himself walk in. “That will do no good. She has seen and fought things beyond comprehension and won; I highly doubt some man-made substance will do much of anything to her.” He turned to me, almost looking at me, pleadingly. “If I let you go, will you do two things for me?”

“Depends.” I told him, wearily.

“Don’t kill anyone on your way out, and, and help my daughter fight her deamons!”

I stared at him. “I thought they weren’t real.”

“Only idiots say that.” And from the look in those eyes, I knew that he meant what he said, and had meant it for some time.

“Only if you promise one thing.”

He inclined his head.

“Make peace.”

He stared at me.

“Give in to the rebel demands…do whatever you have to in order to make peace, for only then will the deamons ever really leave us alone.”

“She speaks madness!” One of the men said.

“No, I speak truth. You wonder where they come from? Seriously.” I scoffed. “You can’t hold them off forever, and even if I got rid of the ones around your daughter, they’d just come back because they’re not afraid of her. Make peace and they won’t have as many reasons to stick around.”

“I can’t do that.” His voice was hard and…scared?

“Then it’s her funeral.” I said.

He seemed to break down a little inside. “I’ll see what I can do.”

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So I thought I'd upload this a little early this week, to make up for updating late last week. Tell me what you think! I like getting different opinions!

And yes, I spelled deamons deamons instead of demons for a reason...it's not just bad spelling on my part :)

Sorry for not updating anything else this week, but I wrote this earlier this week while procrastinating on finals, or more like, I had just gotten done with a 20 minute presentation and didn't want to do anything. :) It's interesting what pops out of my brain sometimes...but hey, when the inspiration hits, it hits. :)

Mya