When my eyes opened, it was still the same dull gray walls and fluorescent lights that it had been since I woke up who knows how long ago.

Our best guess was a few weeks, but without knowledge of how long we were initially out, we couldn't make anything concrete.

My head still throbbed, though not as bad as when we first arrived. Probably the pressure from where we are so I guessed either underground or underwater.

Nothing concrete.

"Rise and shine! Smell the roses!"

There were groans and scoffs, even a few curses but when I fully woke up, I glared at our captor.

He was tall, bulky, and had a few scars in various places. The biggest one was on his face. Almost like whiskers, they started from his cheekbone and stretched thinly down his face. Shrapnel in the military maybe, but he never told us.

They never told us anything.

"Who's up today?"

"Go to hell," I spat as everyone slowly sat up from the stone ground. The only sounds around us were dripping water and our chains clinking together.

He smirked. His teeth were pearl white, and to most, they would be a perfect smile if it weren't for the evil twist of his lips and the single gold tooth on his bottom row.

"Guess it's you, tough guy."

The guards stationed across from our cell moved inside, unlocking my wrists from the chains but keeping them behind my back.

Seeing as this was now a familiar routine, I didn't try to fight and walked down the halls. Left, right, right. The door to the right.

They put me in the interrogation chair once again, strapping my wrists and ankles to it, as well as my stomach. It was made of steel and uncomfortable, making my backside numb.

The constant restraint on my wrists left them red and raw between this leather and the iron used in the cell.

"Let's get this started, shall we?"

"Yeah, let's get this over with."

The man laughed for a quick second as if he found my response amusing. He's told us constantly not to talk unless we're spoken to or asked a question. And to watch our tongues.

Not that I listen, although I have been backhanded for it. Hence the bruise on my jaw.

Aphmau would probably scold me for being reckless and say she doesn't want me getting hurt. That I promised her no more fighting unless someone else attacked me first.

His face went serious again as the interrogator began. He was short, with a balding head of white and silver hair. "What do you know about the ocean?"

I rolled my eyes. "Same thing I've told you every time you ask. Saltwater. Plant and marine life, and all that." I replied, listing the essentials as always. Aphmau knew more about the ocean than any of us seeing as it's her college major.

He ignored me, moving on. "What about the accident offshore from Phoenix Drop, in August 2002?"

I answered routinely. "Some kind of marine fish-counting gone wrong. Shark attack, from what I can remember."

"What about estuaries? Know anything about them?"

Clockwork. They always ask the same questions and I swear this guy just liked hearing himself talk.

"An estuary is where a tide from a large river meets a stream. Learned about them in earth science, freshman year of college and high school. Are we done now?" I asked getting more annoyed.

Again, clockwork. Just as much as it was to me, it was to him. My annoyance is always there.

"Ok, let's try something else." He turned away and I bit back a groan as I stared at the ceiling.

"Do you know this woman?"

I puffed air through my mouth, blowing my unkempt hair slightly as I looked back to him.

The picture made me freeze.

It was Aphmau.

Aaron!

"Aaron!" She laughed, keeping my hands away.  I was trying to tickle her as we laid in her backyard.

The pool was behind me, and we were on the grass to the right of the house. The pool wasn't something she wanted when she was buying around for houses, but she adored this house for everything but that one flaw.

For reasons she hadn't yet told me, she was scared of water. She rarely went to the beach with us and refused my attempts at helping her learn to swim.

She got the house anyway, and it was decorated for everyone else's use with pool chairs and tables with umbrellas.

Below us was a picnic blanket and a tray of lemonade was nearby. We were alone without any of our friends - a weekend we planned ahead by telling everyone we were out of town.

I continued to try and tickle her, all the while she laughed and tried to stop me.

"Aaron quit it!" She tried to say, but giggles erupted in every word.

I stopped momentarily. "But I love hearing you laugh."

She laughed lightly, catching her breath and smiling up at me. In the struggle, she had ended up falling back from where we originally sat, and I ended up on top of her trying to get the best angle to trap her but not hurt or scare her.

She had been trying to kick me to make me stop, but only succeeded in putting one leg by my waist and allowing me to grab the other to mirror it.

Now, I was on top of her with her legs around my waist and my hands by her stomach.

"What?" She asked with a tilt of her head.

I shook my head with a smile, breaking my gaze from her face where I had been staring. "Nothing. You're just so beautiful," I breathed quietly.

She smiled back, a blush dusting her cheeks.

I chuckled. "Okay, no that's it. You're blushing and I'm finally taking a picture," I overreacted with my voice, acting like it was a struggle to reach for my phone, and opened the camera without moving her.

She laughed, covering her face jokingly. "No! I look so bad!"

"Don't worry, I'll add one of those filters so you look like an alien."

"No!" She laughed again, and I snapped the picture.

The interrogator held that familiar picture up to my face, and my eyes widened.

He knew the answer to this question because the only place that picture had ever been was my phone.

I began struggling in my restraints again.

The scar-faced man laughed at me, fiddling with the picture after the interrogator handed it to him. "I'd take that as a yes, doc."

"What did you do to her! Where is she! I swear to god if you hurt her-"

"You'll do what?" He stood up fast, staring me dead in the eye. He was trying to intimidate me, but he didn't. What did, was my helplessness in the situation which is why I looked away without replying.

He nodded with satisfaction. "Take him back to the cell, and bring the next."

They locked my wrist cuffs back to the chains on the wall and I sat back into the stone, staring straight ahead.

"You're next, blondie."

Garroth left in routine just as I did and once the guards were out of shot (and the next two stepped to take their place) I spoke my thoughts aloud.

"They know Aphmau."

Everyone left looked at me in shock at the mention of our missing friend. Or are we missing?

"He showed me a picture of her and asked if I knew her."

"Is she -"

"I don't know."

It went silent as they processed this, and I leaned my head back against the wall.

After a minute, I spoke without thinking. I just couldn't keep it in. "God, I miss her."

"We all do," Katelyn replied in distress.

I sighed slightly. "Yeah."

"What's with you?"

Opening my eyes, I tilted my head slightly and saw it was Laurance who spoke. "What do you mean?"

"Why do you miss her so much?" I know he didn't mean it as if I weren't allowed to or as if he didn't, but it stung slightly with how blunt he was.

"Laurance, she's my best friend. She was my first friend and until she introduced all of us, she was my only friend."

"No, it's more than that. You. . . You love her don't you?"

I looked into his eyes, completely serious. "Yes. I do."

He scoffed. "I knew it. Y'know she won't fall for you, right? She never fell for me or Garroth and it's not likely we'll see her anytime soon."

Kawaii~Chan jumped in. "Are you sure, Laurance~Kun? You don't think they'll let us go when they see we don't know anything?"

He laughed without humor. "Kawaii~Chan we don't know anything and that's the point! Surely they've figured that out by now, and yet here we are. Still trapped."

"It's a standard military tactic. Starve and torture your way into the enemy's mind until they break and tell you what they know."

"And how would you know that?" He gave me a look.

I gave a diminutive laugh. "Everyone knows that. Besides, I was in the F.C. Military Academy from first grade until eleventh. Senior year in high school was my first public school."

Laurance rolled his eyes. "Still. What makes you think she'll fall for you?"

"Nothing. I don't understand what she saw in me, I'm just grateful she did. Maybe there's something in me that's worth that love," I commented and stared at the ground.

Kim looked at me funny and jumped in as Kawaii~Chan had. "Wait. You say that like she already loves you, Aaron."

Staring at the ground wasn't enough, and I dipped my head.

Laurance scoffed. "Are you imagining it, huh? Imagining what it would be like if she loved you—"

"No."

"Well then- then what the hell do you mean? She hasn't shown interest in any of us -"

"Laurance, don't start this."

"Why not! Huh? Scared you'll lose!" Laurance gets up as much as he can, standing on his knees but unable to get closer to me.

"Hey!" One of the guards hit the bars and Laurance fell back onto his feet, sitting on his legs.

"Break it up, before we come in there and break it up for you."

"Tch," He complied, sitting back normally and looked at the cell across from ours. The guards were lined against the bars, but that cell had confused me from the moment we got here.

We were held in iron cuffs with chains bolted to the walls or melted securely to the iron bars, like Katelyn's who was across from me.

However, that cell had a single large cuff bolted to the floor in the center of the area. Nearby was one enough for a single hand.

After Laurance calmed down, the conversation ended.

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