Alex's (POV)

Something hard slaps me in the face.

I jerk awake, my eyes snapping wide open.

Everything hurts, a fog of never ending pain swirling around inside me as I slowly raise my head to look around.

Dread fills me.

I'm back in that nasty cell room.

Taking stock of my situation, I notice my wrists are attached to chains that are dangling me from the ceiling, my bare cold feet just barely touching the ground. Like a dead pig getting ready to be butchered.

            It's not like I have the strength to hold myself up anyways.

So I just hang there. Tears gathering in my eyes as my shoulders burn like a red hot fire, my wrists raw and irritated from the metal restraints wrapped around them.

I look up as I hear a short throaty laugh.

Right in front of me is one of Razim's big goons, his minion-who I'm predicting was the one that slapped me awake.

"Aww, is the great Alex Rider crying?....Again." He starts cracking up like he just said the worlds funniest joke.

             I look back down at the grubby floor, the tears starting to roll down my dirty cheeks.

I hate crying in front of them. At first I did a good job to contain it, to keep it all inside. But as the days turned into weeks, I found myself slowly breaking.

            Now I find I'm crying almost all the time.

Stupid emotions.

"Rat! Quit that racket or I'll chop off your other ear." A menacing voice shouts from just outside the small room.

That immediately shuts Rat up.

Yes Rat, I have no idea why his henchmen are named Rat and Stick. But I have a hunch it has to do with Rat being fat/muscular and Stick being, well....stick thin.

            I hear his footsteps echo in from the hall, each one sending spikes of fear through my heart. Then the man himself walks in.

             Razim.

He immediately walks over to me, eyes examining my still body. Smirking, he roughly grabs my chin, forcing me to look him in the eye.

"So how is our dear Alex Rider today?" He smugly questions, his eyes looking deeply into mine as he looks for some unknown something. "Hmm, not so good I see." He answers his own question.

He lets go of me, my head falling back down to my chest.

At this point I'm trembling all over, my breathing coming out in painful gasps.

Out of the corner of my eye, I watch as Razim stalks over to his little table over in the corner. The table with all his "Tools"on it.

My heart beats so fast I don't know how it's still in my chest, tiny whimpers escaping my mouth.

I bite down on my tongue, trying to stop them.

But it's impossible.

Razim picks up a long thick whip. Then slowly begins to walk back towards me, a sinister smile on his lips, eyes alight with madness.

I scrunch up, trying to make myself as small as possible while stuck standing. My muscles tensing to the point it's painful as they prepare for the pain that's soon to come.

Razim raises his arm up with the whip, preparing to strike me. Only it never comes.

           There's a loud explosion that rocks the whole room, dust falling from the ceiling, everyone falling to the floor as it shifts from beneath them.

Except me, cause I'm chained up obviously.

Razim is the first to get up.

"What the bloody hell was that!?" He shouts, completely enraged.

  Someone suddenly comes running in, their breathing heavy.

Julius Grief: my fake twin.

"Razim! It's MI6, we're being bombed." Julius shouts, Frantically looking over at Razim.

MI6.

My heart stops at that one word. Something I'd given up on suddenly running through me at full speed.

Hope.

Razim storms over, smacking Julius square in the face.

"Well then fix it!!" Razim yells in fury.

Julius holds a hand up to his red cheek, a surprised expression on his face. "I-I can't, this place isn't made for combat. We'll have to evacuate." He tells him, eyes wide.

For a couple long agonizing seconds, Razim stares at Julius with bloodshot eyes that can only belong to a madman.

Then he turns his hateful gaze on me.

I flinch.

He walks over, each step echoing throughout the room.

"Well Alex, it looks like our little fun together will have to be cut short." He stops directly in front of me.

            "Indefinitely." He smirks, leaning a bit closer to me.

"Goodbye, Alex." The smirk disappears, a strange look filling his eyes for a split second.

  Then he swiftly turns on his heels, heading out the door. But not before saying one last thing that makes me freeze up in terror.

"Oh, and Julius. Take care of Alex for me." He disappears.

Julius slowly turns towards me, a smile making its way on his half red face.

He starts walking my way, his smile only growing. But suddenly the most horrendous thing I've ever heard happens, Julius stopping in his tracks.

Another ear splitting explosion shakes the room, much closer then the last. Immediately followed closely by another, and another, until you can't hear anything but the loud explosions melded by many other sounds. Complete chaos.

Glass breaking, walls falling, ground shaking.....and the worst.

People screaming out in terror.

The room I'm in is located underground a huge old abandoned laboratory, one of Scorpia's last remaining facilities.

            Which is now about to be a hole in the ground.

            I hear cracks high above my head from the ceiling breaking, the stone pillars in the room wobbling, dust falling everywhere, everything shaking.

My arms get jerked painfully around with each pulse of movement, the walls crumbling right before my eyes.

Julius is on the ground, attempting to crawl towards me. And in his hand; is a double edged dagger.

I awkwardly start pulling on my chains with what little strength I have left. Hoping that maybe, just maybe the boards the chains are attached to have loosened from all the explosions.

I give one last hard tug on the chains, only they don't budge.

            Julius suddenly lunges at me from five feet away, and I frantically kick out at him.

My foot connects with his stomach, knocking him down again. But not before I feel the cold slice of steel slice across my shin as his arm jabs out at me. The dagger leaving a single stinging bloody line.

I cry out, barely able to hear it from all the racket.

Julius gets unsteadily to his feet, a hand over his stomach.

My breathing comes out in dry heaves, the air too full of dust particles for any clean oxygen to circulate.

Just as Julius is about to jab out to stab me in the heart, the loudest of all the explosions so far, rings out.

I often wonder how I didn't black out.

          I wish I had.

There's a deafening BANG right above our heads. So loud my ears give a huge painful POP, then a searing hot flash fills the room.

Then the ceiling falls down with a mighty CRASH.

Dust floats around like a layer of snow, making it seem like there's been a sandstorm.

I look around through the haze, everything quiet now....Too quiet.

            I'm laying on the dust incrusted floor, piles of stone from the ceiling and the walls surrounding me all around.

With a trembling hand, I reach up to touch my right ear. Bringing my hand back to my face, I see there's blotches of blood on it.

A headache pounds away in the back of my skull.

I look up to examine how I'm not squished from the ceiling literally collapsing down on me, only to see that one of the stone pillars in the room had broken in half during the explosion, one falling on each side of me.

Protecting me like a teepee.

The dust finally clears enough for me to see, and I find Julius wasn't as lucky as me.

He's about three feet away from me, only his head and one twisted arm sticking out from a pile of rubble.

Is he...dead?

His bloodshot eyes suddenly snap open.

He stares over at me for a full minute, neither of us moving.

Not that he could of if he'd wanted to.

Then his throat moves rapidly, his mouth opening as he tries to formulate words.

He still doesn't speak, only able to create raspy whispers. But I read his lips loud and clear.

"Alex...you...might...get...out....but...you'll....never....truly....be...gone."

He gives me one last evil crooked smirk before coughing up blood, then he lays still.

        My hands continue to tremble, an uncomfortable warmth enveloping me, my mind on overload as I try to process everything that's happened.

         Is it finally over?

        Am I finally free of this nightmare?

Trying to calm myself down, I attempt to sit up.

A scream tears through my throat as a white-hot-flash of pain shoots from inside my stomach.

Silent to me, but if anyone was around I'm sure they would've heard it echoing down the many crumbled halls.

Gasping for breath, I look down at my stomach, and there sticking out of the side of my stomach with blood spilling out everywhere....

Is the knife Julius was holding.

I feel a stinging in my throat, and I retch. Pulses of pain now continuously emit from my stomach, a dizziness invading my head.

Not having anything to throw up, I wrap my arms around my inflamed stomach, curling myself into a ball. The dizziness turning to a lightheadedness.

The pain is horrendous, only diminishing when an odd numbness begins to surround it.

It's getting harder to breath, black spots dotting my eyesight.

When I can't move anymore, and when I'm only seconds away from passing out. I see movement over by the crumbled door.

             There's a sudden horrible popping noise in my ears that makes me want to cry out, pressure squeezing my brain.

I can't see anymore, and right before I'm fully unconscious, I surprisingly think I hear something that lifts my heart for the first time in a month.

"Cub!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I fling myself up into a sitting position so fast you would think you'd get whiplash.

One thought runs through me as I sit up in my bed.

I'm scared out of my mind.

I'm breathing really hard, my whole body trembling. I pull my legs up to my chest and start rocking, hot tears rolling down my face.

I can still hear all the loud explosions of the bombes, the screams. I reach with trembling hands up to my ears, pressing on them as hard as I can.

It's not helping.

I can still hear them.

            I start sobbing as I desperately try plugging my ears, my mind turning frantic and scrambled.

I can't take it anymore.

             I have to get out!

Falling out of my bed to the hardwood floor, I crawl to the door. Grabbing the handle while standing up, I open it, running down the stairs.

When I reach the door that leads to the backyard, I frantically try unlocking it with trembling hands.

Once it's open, I run outside, down the few deck steps and out into the yard. My eyes latching onto the giant oak tree with the tire-swing.

          Running over to it, I sit down beside the trunk. My still trembling arms automatically wrapping around my legs as I pull them up to my chest.

I sit there, only to suddenly realize I'm full out crying, hyperventilating, and every part of me is trembling.

But the noises are leaving, the tension washing away.

I look down at the watch on my wrist I wear all the time.

5:17 A.M.

Slowly, I feel myself start to relax as I watch the sunrise I have a perfect view of.

While I'm sitting with my legs up to my chest, and my head buried in between my knees. I hear the unmistakable sound of a screen door opening.

Someone's walking towards me.

I tense up.

The person stops about four feet away.

"So your an early person are ya, Alex?" The familiar voice questions.

I don't answer Don. Only tensing up more as I try to make myself look smaller.

"Lovely sunrise, mind if I join you?" He suddenly asks after a minute.

Why's he being so nice? Why isn't he asking any questions? I'm sure they heard all the ruckus I made earlier.

Maybe he's just being nice?

Deciding I wouldn't really mind some company, I shake my head no.

He sits down a couple feet to the right of me, spreading out his legs as he lets a satisfied sigh out. Then we just sit there in silence.

After about an hour when my tears are all dried up, and the shaking is down to just a slight tremble in my hands. Don stands, stretching out his limbs.

"What do you say we go get some breakfast? I'm famished."

I look up from the same position I've been sitting in for over an hour, seeing he's offering his hand down to me.

I feel something stir in my chest.

              Ignoring it, I grab his hand and hoist myself up.

Together we walk back inside.

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Edited: 5/15/17