The sack over my head definitely not the highlight of my day, but at least there weren't needles in my arms or gut for once. After the captor left the needle in my gut, another man came in; masked and cloaked in a hood like a man who Reynahit with a crowbar. They uttered something about my deputy-kidnapper getting too comfortable with their "own agenda." They patched me back up and fed me some food and drinks before leaving me alone completely. Right now, I'm being transported to the spring Carnival. But why, you may ask? 

Today, my old captor told me something odd before we left, while we were still in the containment building. "Alright, Makee Canoe. Ask away." 

"What?" I had asked. I surveyed him – yellow shirt, cargo shorts, flip flops. "Going somewhere?"

 "Only the same place as you," he assured. 

 "Where?"

 "Spring Carnival." 

Was he lying? Why was he doing this? Why wasn't I asking these questions out loud? 

"Is that where I'm going to die?" I asked, trembling. 

 "It was...but not anymore. You're welcome for that." The man stood and twirled his knife – tossing it in the air and making aggressive attacks at the air. 

 "You helped me?

Suddenly, he was in my face, knife tip pointed at my throat but not touching it. "I spared you," he quickly corrected. 

"Is someone else going to die, then?" I questioned, wondering why I had been saved and what changed his mind. 

 "At least one person will. I managed to make a deal to not have you killed. That doesn't mean you won't be hurting," he warned. Why was he warning me? Me, the person who he's been torturing for almost a week? "And it doesn't mean they'll not try to kill you anyways..."

"Why are you telling me this?"

A brief second of uncompromising wrath flashed across his face and burned in his yellowy eyes. "Because they're making me cross the line." 

 "Why pick today to let me ask all these questions?"

"Because this, my friend," he fiddled with a gun in his holster and took out his deputy badge, half of his mouth smiling in a twisted way. "Is the day they set you free, or make me help set you free."

"What did they do to make you switch sides?" I asked.

"I'm not switching sides, Makai. I'm just showing a few people what happens when they cross me. As for what happened...we can just say that there are some people I'd rather hurt in other ways that my employer doesn't approve of." 

"So let me get this straight..." I had clarified. "You're helping me escape all this, after torturing me for almost a week, because your employer is making you do something you don't want to?

The man smirked at me and his phone went off. Then he looked at it and he smiled an actual smile.

 "Who's that?" I asked. 

The man looked up at me with defensive anger. "Do you really want me to answer that?"

Reyna. 

I thought about all the things that could go wrong...really, there was only one way anything could go right today. "This whole retaliation thing doesn't gain your redemption with me," I tell him. 

He scoffed. "I don't care about redemption from people like you."

 "Your idea doesn't sound totally full-proof, either..." 

"If I were you," the man said, sliding his phone in the pocket with his badge, "I wouldn't be bitching. This is your one shot. Try not to make me blow it."