Tia's POV

The security guard took me the long way, and I sigh, muttering under my breath that he could of taken me the secret way, but he ignores me, instead opting to go up what seemed like millions of sets of stairs. I had already counted thirty seconds, and we weren't even at his office yet.

But finally, a grand, golden door awaited us at the end of a long, slim corridor. Taking another deep breath (I was breathing heavily a lot lately, I should do yoga), I head towards it, the guard letting me go past before stomping off to his original post which, by now, meant everyone had managed to get in.

Rapping on the door with my knuckles, I shut my eyes. Calm down, Tia, act natural...

"Come in..." a smooth voice on the other side calls out, and I take hold of the handle, pushing it down and entering.

His office was as grand as always, his large dark wood desk set in the middle, the small black leather sofa on the side with the oak wood coffee table, a small waste paper basket near his desk, some potted plants near the window, shelves, cupboards and drawers around the room in various places...I had seen this place too many times before.

"I thought you said you weren't going to visit me today..." he muses, a smug look on his face. I shrug, pretending to be interested in the room's architecture instead of glancing at the clock. One minute had passed. I threw myself onto the sofa, relaxing on the soft material, stretching out as if I was tired.

"Well, I got bored back at home. Besides, you have good coffee" I admit. Truthfully. Seriously, his coffee was the best.

"You know you're welcome to stay here as long as you want" he reminds me. I nod in acknowledement of his offer, gently tapping the side of pot that usually contained hot water-it was luke warm, to my disappointment.

"Yeah I know" I sigh.

"Do you? You barely come here. I get lonely when you're away..." he purrs, tapping the desk with his hand. 

"You sure?" I say tightly, "I'm sure you've got lots of other things to do in the meantime, like torturing people."

He narrows his eyes, but does not respond. Leaning forward, I tug a clean cup forward onto a mat.

"Help yourself" he mutters, pretending to glare at me.

"It's the social convention that guests in a home are offered beverages to quench their thirst" I say innocently, glancing at the luke warm pot expectantly as if it was going to warm itself up just by my gaze.

Wow, I thought, that was a lot of long words.

"Indeed" he murmurs, and I hear him rise from his chair, stalking over to the table, before placing a hand on the pot gently. Almost immediately, steam begins to rise from the spout, and I smile in thanks, already spooning a teaspoon of coffee into the cup and two sugars. He withdraws his hand, and seats himself next to me on the sofa, letting his arms stretch out and relax on the top of the sofa, regarding me curiously as I pour out the water.

At least he wasn't near the window. He wouldn't see them running away now.

"You should come visit more" he says eagerly, smiling at me. 

"I should visit less. It's creepy how much you know about me" I sigh.

"Creepy? Or fascinating?" he asks.

"Both" I half-smile.

"Why did you come?" he questions me, tracing my arm with his finger as I reach for the milk.

"For a tea party" I smirk.

"That isn't the reason you came, though. It isn't about what happened before, it's something else. Something you want" he finally says after a while of silence as I pour the creamy white milk out, small bubbles on the surface. Stirring it absentmindedly, I glance around the room in disinterest, looking at the clock again. Three minutes had gone by. Two more minutes.

"You're very observant" I note, taking a sip of the coffee. It was creamy, sweet and somewhat tangy, which was strange. 

"I am. I've also noticed you keep looking at the clock and the window. Somethings going to happen at a certain time" he smiles and I pause for a moment, the cup tilted against my lips. 

Choosing to stay silent, I gulp a good mouthful of coffee down, choosing to focus on swallowing than talking. If he found out why I was really here, I wanted to enjoy a good coffee first before I die.

"So...there's something you want. That, and something is going to happen. Soon, by the look of impatience in your eyes." he continues, leaning forward, clasping his hands in front of his legs, his eyes studying me warily.

"Yes" I confirm. He didn't know what yet. I just had to keep him talking for another minute or so...

"You're distracting me from something" he concludes, his smile faltering as his eyes narrow suspiciously.

He reminded me of Sherlock-deducing everything, even though you aren't giving away any clues.

"Yes" I repeat, taking one last gulp of coffee, before setting the cup down. Glancing at the clock, I try not to relax when I see that the five minutes are up.

"It's already happened" he snaps, standing up abruptly.

If there is a god, I think quickly, please forgive all my sins and please install a good coffee machine ready for me. If I go to hell, please have good coffee there as well.

He goes to the window, his arms pushing it open roughly. He snarls something I didn't hear, and I stand quietly, peering outside of the window. The prisoners were running, everyone was running for their lives. None of them looked back.

RUN.

My survival instincts kicked in, telling my brain to shut the hell up and run. I sprint for the door, thanking whatever gods were listening that it was still open. Throwing it even further open, I run down all of the stairs, calling out one word over and over.

"Zoey! Zoey!" 

The red headed girl, who I hadn't seen for years, comes down the corridor, confusion and shock in her blue eyes.

"What-" she starts, but I grab her arm, sprinting away with her.

"Just run!" I gasp, running faster than I had ever ran before.

The one thing that spurred me on, was the banging of the door upstairs and the fast feet running down the stairs as he came after me. 

Then I felt it.

My vision became blurry, my legs turned to jelly, and I shook hard and faltered, tripping over my own feet as a shockwave of numbness ran up my body, leaving me senseless. Zoey stops, but I shout "Run!" and she carries on, making it out of the door and finally running to her freedom.

Ominous foot steps thump slowly down the hall as I clutch my head painfully.

The coffee, I realized too late, the tangy taste. It must have been-

My vision began to turn black, but before I became unconscious, I felt a hand on my back as he pulled me up by the scruff of my clothes and crouched down, looked me in the eye with such anger I could feel it in my bones, and whispered.

"I'm going to have a lot of fun breaking you."

 Rythian's POV

As soon as Tia disappeared inside, we waited thirty seconds in silence, timing it on our watches. When thirty seconds exactly had gone by, we quickly moved onto the grounds, silent as cats.

We met a few guards on the way, but we quickly shoved our hands over their mouths and took care of them quickly. Splitting up, some of us went on patrol, namely the Team Crafted gang, and we hear the muffled shouts of guards as they are quickly taken out.

Sjin leads the way-he was the only assassin here, since Tia was with Ridge right now, and he was the sneakiest of us all, staying in the shadows. More guards saw us, but before they could react, Sjin burst from the shadows, slitting their throats before they could shout a warning.

Going up the stairs quietly, we find the white door Tia told us about. Glancing at each other, Sips stares at me expectantly. "Come on you big babby, what are you waiting for? Open the god damned door!" he snaps in his Canadian tone, gesturing wildly at the door.

Narrowing my eyes at the business man, I take a deep breath and place both hands on the white door.

The magic on it was strong, but not too strong. I broke through with little difficulty and the door clicked open.

Inside, the smell was horrendous, a putrid smell of corpses and dead bodies. People in the cages, who didn't look alive at all, turned slowly and agonizingly towards us, life erased from their dead, motionless eyes. For a moment, we all just stood there, gazing at them in horrid fascination and shock-we knew Ridgedog was bad, but not...this bad.

"Come on, let's free them" Sjin says quietly-even the hardest and toughest of us couldn't stomach the sight of these poor people, locked up and chained from reality for god knows how long. In all my years of being a detective, I had dealt with serial killers, psychopaths and even cannibals. But none of them turned my stomach more than the sight layed out in front of me.

We moved quickly and quietly, splitting up into small groups as we quickly broke the doors down and severed the chains off the prisoners, who stood up shakily, some of them collapsing. Some of them couldn't even stand, and most of them were beyond help-Sjin and Simon took care of those, snapping their necks to end their pain-it was either that, or spend a lifetime in a mental hospital with wounds that would condemn them to never walking, seeing, talking and other everyday actions again. 

The most horrible cell I found was one with a child in, barely ten years old. He was shaking, peering at me as if I was a devil.

"Who are you?" I ask quietly, bending down.

"I...I don't know" he whispers, and I quickly break his chains.

He'd been here for so long he'd forgotten his own name.

"Come on" I smile sadly, a shocked feeling in the pit of my stomach.

"Why are you here?" I ask him, and he clutches my hand as he tries to walk.

"I...I was with my friends. We were playing football, and my friend kicked the ball through his window by accident. They all ran off but I was too young to run fast and he caught me" he answers hoarsely.

"How long have you been here?" I ask, picking the boy up-he could barely walk.

"4 years sir" he whispers.

Swallowing to hold back the outburst of emotions building up in my heart, I leave this damned dungeon behind, following the mass of prisoners quietly escaping into the night with their freedom.

Note: Someone threw an egg at my window when I wrote "I'm going to have a lot of fun breaking you" -SCARED THE HELL OUT OF ME I ACTUALLY THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO- *cough* nevermind :(

Anywho, this book hit 1000 reads! YAY PARTEH. 

And, as promised, O.C CONTEST WOOP WOOP. Now this is gonna be a different kind of O.C contest because your characters will have to be different from Teencast, werewolf stuff etc. I mean you as a teen wolf as a criminal may seem like a good idea at the time...but now we see what Ridge does to kids...yeah...might wanna rethink that.

I will pick, a grand total of....2 WINNERS.

yaaaaay :P

You have to enter by NEXT TUESDAY or else RIDGEDOG will HUNT YOU DOWN AND BREAK YOU.

:O

Here is the character profile sheet and THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR 1000 READS LOVE YOU ALL <3 Much love, Valleycat <3 (Yeah I'm gonna start calling myself that now, 'cause why not :D)

Name of your character:

Age:

Gender:

Hair colour/style/length:

Eye colour:

Speciality: E.G Assassin? Drug dealer? Business man like Sips?

History: For example, how did you become what you are? In Tia's case, her parents liked having a boy more and ignored her and didn't like her so she became violent and was eventually kicked out and picked up by Simon, Lewis, Duncan :D

Friends: Are you allies with anyone? Who do you work with, if you want to work with someone? Are you independent? Do you just have friends, but go solo?

Enemies: Who do you hate? Who do you want to kill? Why do you hate them? 

Weapon: E.g, Knives, guns, your mind, money etc.

Anything else you want to include:

GOOD LUCK! Remember, only two can remain...by next Tuesday... :3