Ivy

My head's swimming. I think I'm dreaming. Yes, I'm definitely dreaming. I feel disoriented. My body feels heavy. I can't open my eyes. They feel heavy as the rest of my body. There are voices around me. Distant, strange and disconnected from the rest of the world. That or I'm definitely high. The voices are getting louder. I guess that means I'm slowly regaining my consciousness.

"I haven't seen you in a while. Though I have to say I'm surprised you came to me." An unfamiliar female voice with a rich Irish accent says.

"I'm choosing to trust you, Rhonda. That's the only reason I'm here." Replied a voice that was all too familiar.

I'm wide awake now but I keep pretending to be unconscious.

"Even after what happened?" Rhonda asks.

I can't see her face , obviously, but I can hear the regret in her voice.

Oh Lord I'm going to be sick. Was she an ex girlfriend? Did that son of a bitch abduct me and bring me to his ex girlfriend's house? Maybe she wasn't an ex. Maybe she was his current girlfriend. At least more current than me.

"It wasn't your fault. Maze played us both for fools." He says to her. "I know you always thought of him as a son."

"I suppose I can't ask you to let my people handle him?" She asks.

"No. You can't." He says with an icy voice that sends chills down my spine. " But that's not why I'm here."

There's silence for a minute. It was the longest minute of my life.

"That's it then, Beta-X?" She asks calmly. "However did you get a hold of it. My people have been trying to retrieve its formula for months. We didn't know he'd managed to get it into production."

"He hasn't.  Not yet. He's been - testing it. If you can call it that." He replies.

"Oh, I'm sorry." She says sadly.

"It's effects have worn off. This is the longest I've gone without them giving me another dosage to keep its effects in place." He says.

I have no idea what they are talking about now but it seems serious.

"They haven't noticed yet but I can only delay the inevitable for so long. That's why I brought her here." He continues.

I know immediately he's talking about me.

"I see. So she's your assignment." She says matter of factly. "But why me? Don't you have your agent friends?"

"I know how their minds work. I know all their weaknesses." He says. "You, on the other hand, are still a mystery to me."

"So I'm your wild card?" She asks with a chuckle. "Smart move. Then again, I expect nothing less from you, Fox."

Fox? WHAT the heck did that mean?

"So what do I tell her? She is going to ask many questions. Like, for starters who I am and how she got here." She continues.

There's silence, which is annoying because I have no idea what they are doing.

"Aren't you going to say goodbye then?" She asks after a long while.

"That probably isn't a good idea right now." He responds.

"If you insist. There is, however something I would like to give you," she says. "Come with me."

I immediately hear the sound of footsteps resounding against the floor as the sound slowly fades into the distant rooms of the building. Great, they are gone.

I open my eyes. Sitting up, I take in my surrounding. I am on a four poster bed with a canopy. The kind you only saw in this epic movies that showed the lifestyle of Kings. The sheets are pure, clean Egyptian cotton.

Slowly, I get off the bed. My head's no longer spinning so that's a good thing. I move to the door and twist the handle. It opens without a sound.

I make my way down the corridor, intent on following them. I see no one as I walk past the long isolated corridor of this intimidating stone mansion.

I walk into what I presume is the dinning room. It has one of those ridiculously large stone tables set in the middle with elegant chairs set about it. Strange. It kind of looks like that stone table at dragon stone in the game of thrones series. It even has a freaking world map carved into it.

Creepy. I'd like to wake up from this nightmare now.

"Every woman has to indulge herself from time to time." A voice says from behind me. "That's why I had this ridiculously large stone table made."

Startled, I jump back.

"My apologies. I didn't mean to startle you." She says.

She's a lot prettier than I imagined but from the way she carries herself, I know she's probably in her forties.

"Who are you and what do you want from me?" I demand.

Pathetic really seeing as I had no weapon with me.

"Me? I want nothing from you." She responds with an amused smile. "But there are some people, some very bad people who want something in your possession. Some documents, I assume."

"Are you with them then? Are you Al Jeera?" I ask.

"You have nothing to fear, Miss Summers. I am not with any terror group. Right now I'm your friend. I want to help you. To protect you." She replies, putting her hands up.

"Why should I believe you? You people --- you abducted me and brought me here." I say. "Where the hell is here, anyways?"

She sighed loudly.

"It's going to take a lot to convince you that I'm not the enemy, isn't it?" She says. "Let's start over, shall we? My name name is Rhonda Beuchamp and right now you are at the headquarters of my... agency. It's a secret location that only a select few know about."

I watch as she takes a seat on one of the chairs by the stone table and faces me.

"My agency has no desire to see you hurt, Miss Summers. Quite the contrary." She continues. "We help others like you although I must admit we had no idea about your situation until now. Someone else has alerted us about it and he's the one who brought you here."

"Against my will, you mean." I point out. "Why did he bring me here?"

"He has charged me with your protection." She replied simply.

At this, I burst out laughing.

"Protect me? Please, don't kid me. He has been trying to kill me!" I snap at her.

"Evelyn, he didn't do that intentionally." She says.

"Yeah, right. It didn't look to me as if someone was holding a gun to his head and forcing him to come at me all terminator." I say, the bitterness within me choking me like poison in my system.

"It wasn't a gun. More like something else." She says with a smirk.

"What do you mean by that?" I ask her.

She gestures at the seat across her.

"Please, take a seat. You and I have much to discuss." She says