Detective Caleb:
The mf is caught. I've got him tied up in this secluded cabin. Come quick. Sending you the address in 5.

My heart beat quickened as I reread Caleb's messages again and again until the weight of it squashed down onto my shoulders.

I would have just stood there like a mannequin if it weren't for another disturbing ping from my cell phone. Distractedly, I opened yet another message from Caleb. It was the address. With shaky hands, I pocketed my phone and glanced around anxiously.

"Miss… are you okay?" A middle aged woman with a walkie talkie in her hand asked me with concern etched on her features.

I could feel my brain sort of slowing down because for almost a second, I couldn't decipher the meaning of her question. "What?" I sputtered.

"What's wrong?" She asked, coming closer to me.

Instinctively, I held out my arm to stop her and she did. "I am good. Just… just going through the aftermath of my performance," I lied and moved past her. I felt a drop on my lips and that's when it hit me. I was crying and that was what had caught that lady's attention.

My feet harshly pelted against the ground with a magnifying force as they took me in the direction of the parking lot. It was like one second, my brain had almost stopped functioning but right now, it knew its course very well.

I heard someone shouting from behind me. Someone familiar. I stopped abruptly and looked over my shoulder to see Chang breathing heavily while leaning his hands on his knees. I don't even know how he followed me but I didn't have the time to chit chat with him. I needed to make a move.

"Where are you going?" He asked me breathlessly.

"I have to go." Was the only thing I said and with that, I shook my head. Not caring about anything, I began running again. I could distinctly hear him yelling behind me but I completely ignored him.

Inside the parking lot, I searched around for my car deliriously. When I spotted it, I wasted no time and sprinted toward it.

Once inside the car, I put in the direction in my GPS and took a sharp breath to slow down my shaky hands. Without giving it another thought, I started the engine and skidded outside the Coachella valley.

My phone couldn't stop buzzing but I didn't pay any heed to it. There was only one thing going on in my mind. One mission to accomplish. To meet the man behind it all. Behind my misery. Behind my sleepless nights. Behind my ugly nightmares. Behind my changed personality.

My vision was getting blurry and I quickly wiped my eyes before I would end up meeting with an accident.

After what felt like eternity, I was in front of a wooden cabin away from the scrutinizing eyes. It was situated some few kilometres outside the Coachella valley and took me about twenty minutes to reach the address.

I had purposely kept my speed at a normal pace because for one, my state could be qualified as "drunk" and two, I was mulling over everything before seeing him. More specifically, I was trying to hold myself together and not crumble.

Getting out of my car slowly, I clutched the hem of my skirt with one hand while the other one held onto my phone like a crowned jewel. All of a sudden, it started blaring and I saw Chang's contact flashing across my screen but I cut the call.

"Ms. Lewinski?"

I looked up to see a short man who seemed to be in his thirties, approaching me. "Yeah?"

"I am detective Kevin Olsen. Follow me, please," he told me before turning around toward the main door.

Nodding to myself, I followed behind him with hesitant steps. "Stay strong," I whispered to myself.

I think detective Kevin might have heard me because he gave me a reassuring smile. "Don't worry about him. He's completely tied up. And Caleb gave us strict instructions that whatever you do to him in there will not be written in the records. You're free to do anything except for killing him." He laughed to lighten up my mood.

My tight muscles relaxed a great deal and I smiled at him. "I'll keep that in mind. Where's Caleb though?"

"Oh, he's in there. Just directing the team about some stuff," he replied as he opened the door and motioned for me to move in first.

Inhaling a deep breath, I walked in with clenched fists and maybe a heart of steel. I wanted it to be steel so that I didn't have to have mercy on that masked man.

I saw Caleb talking to a few guys who had formed a semicircle around him. He must have heard me coming in because he stopped short and glanced over his shoulder to look at me.

"Guard the perimeters, boys. Go!" He ordered them and they nodded their heads respectfully before scurrying out of the door with stone faces. Even Kevin Olsen had left the cabin. "Young Lewinski," he spoke, his voice lacking his usual enthusiasm.

"Where's he?" I asked him, without beating around the bush.

"He's in the room. Come on." He spun on his heels, waving for me to follow him.

By now, I felt calm and safe. I knew that he was cuffed to even touch me and that there were men surrounding this whole place. Plus the familiarity of Caleb gave me tons of security.

Caleb led me to a small door just round the corner and wrapped his hand around the door knob. Giving me a concerned look, he asked me, "Are you ready?"

"To show that arsehole the importance of consent? Heck yeah!" I said through clenched teeth and he just nodded his head.

"I am coming in with you," he told me with conviction which left no space for any argument.

"Not gonna protest with you on that anyway," I joked and he gave me a half smile.

"I'll just give you his background deets," Caleb started somberly. "His name is Craig Damison. Frankly speaking, it was damn hard to get a hold of him but it seems like our guy was falling short of money, according to one of my sources. And so we got in to throw a bait of millions of dollars and like predicted, our target was trapped. I am not gonna bore you with any in-depth stuff but that's all you need to know for now."

I nodded my head at his words.

He gave me a moment to prepare myself before opening the door slowly. Rolling my eyes impatiently, I kicked it open with a renewed fervor burning in my bones. 'Let's get this over with.'

Even Caleb was surprised but there was also pride shining in his eyes at my actions.

I peered inside the room with a hard glare. There he sat in front of me, gagged and tied to a chair like a piece of trash. I had expected him to look angry, frustrated or even better like a monster but his lips were quirked up in… amusement? Or was that an evil smirk?

I stomped toward him with a scowl and pulled out his gag roughly. The moment I did that, his annoying cackles rang throughout the room. I knew what he was trying to do there. He was trying to gain back the power, an upper hand by seeming and acting all cool and nonchalant. As if the idea of prison didn't scare him.

As he was laughing like a maniac, I took a proper look at him. His black eyes were reflecting the darkness of his soul. His slightly crooked nose made him look that much more evil. His thin lips were curved up in a distasteful smile. The blonde mop of hair on his head looked so tempting that I wanted to pull it off his scalp permanently.

"Hello, darlin'," he repeated those same triggering words as he ran his tongue over his teeth. "I hope you do know who I am. You cannot put me behind the bars. You don't have the power to."

Caleb's hard voice boomed from behind me. "Maybe not but you forget that nothing's more powerful than a packet full of poisonous evidence. All pointing against you. Hard proof, Craig Damison. Especially when it talks about you smuggling drugs, human trafficking and… selling classified information to the country's enemies. I don't think even your government connections could shield you now. You wanna talk about it? Because I have all the time in this whole world, Damison."

All the color drained from his disgusting face and his jaw clenched in what I could only assume was a fake dignity.

"You're literally powerless, baby," Caleb said, sounding really happy.

I moved to the back of his chair and leaned closer to his ear but making sure to not even let my skin come in contact with his. "Craig Damison. How does it feel to be powerless?"

"You fuckin' bit-"

Before he could complete his sentence, I punched him to the side of his face from behind. "Wrong answer, Craig. I am enjoying it though. To see you all vulnerable and helpless. When power's the only thing you have and all of a sudden, you're deprived of it, voila, you've got nothing. You know, it's easier to break someone with one superior strength and no backups. Take that away from you…" This time, I circled back to face him and looked him in the eyes. "And you're basically a non living thing since you never had a heart anyway."

He was scowling darkly but then it vanished and was soon replaced by a smirk forming on his lips. "You know, you've grown stronger, fiercer and… more beautiful."

I don't know what he was expecting but a smile was not one of them because his smirk dropped immediately. "You're right. I've grown stronger," I began and punched him square in the jaw to prove my point. "Fiercer." A merciless kick in his groin and the whole room shook with his loud wails. "And more beautiful." This time, I did a roundhouse kick, sending his chair flying on the other side of the room.

I stalked toward him as he was doubling over in pain and continued kicking him without another thought.

"Do you know what consent is, Craig?" I dug the heel of my boot on his cheek with a force as he screamed. "No, you don't." By now, tears were streaming down his face. His lips and cheek were bleeding as he was sputtering something incoherent. "Huh? I don't understand. Be clear, Craig."

"P-please s-st-stop. Ple-please," he stuttered, trying to take deep breaths as his body was in a crumpled heap.

"Did you when I had asked the same from you? No, right?" I glared at the side of his head.

"I-I-I am so-sorry. P-please fo-forgive me," he apologized, stuttering so bad that this time it was my turn to mimic his harsh cackle.

"Forgive you? Nah. Not even if it's the last thing I have to do." With that said, I gave him one last strong punch and a kick. "Have fun in the prison to reflect on your nasty mistakes, Craig. Hope you enjoy the rest of your pathetic, miserable life."

I realized that I was crying as Caleb pulled me into a comforting hug and a soft sob wrecked through my throat. "I'll take care of him, Young Lewinski. You go now, hmm?" He kissed me on my forehead and it felt like all that weight from my shoulders was slowly being lifted off.

It was like that dark cloud hovering above my head was vanquished and a rainbow had taken its place.

"There's always been a rainbow hangin' over your head." Chang's dedicated song line swirled through my head and I smiled instantly. There was a newfound light in my vision and I could finally see the colors in everything.

"I just got a message that your friends are waiting for you outside and they seem especially worried for you. Go on, now."

I ran off outside the cabin with a wide grin and tears flowing down my cheeks even before he completed his sentence. As soon as my friends saw me, they literally pushed each other aside to pull me in a hug. In the end, we were all squished together in a group hug.

"Are you okay?"

"Can I beat him up? It's my dream!"

"You hurt? Did he hurt you?"

"Damn, I wanted to join you."

"Why are you crying?"

"Why are your knuckles red?"

"I hope you punched and kicked him like Hulk." It was Chang.

These were the concerned questions tossed at me and I giggled slightly to put their minds at ease.

Even though Blake, Jordan, Brandon and Derek didn't know my story, they knew something had happened to me and it was caused because of a man. I didn't know these four guys very well but over the course of time, we started caring for each other like good friends. They never questioned nor judged me for my reasons to be like who I am.

"I am fine, guys but Craig Damison isn't." I smirked and the uproar began again. They all started talking at once and I couldn't understand a single thing.

Finding the opportunity, Chang wrapped his arms around me. "How do you feel?" He whispered in my ear calmly.

"Like a rainbow hangin' over my head just like you'd said," I mumbled against his chest.

His body rumbled as he chuckled and kissed on my head lovingly. "Glad you realized that, Serenity Lewinski."

"Glad that you made me realize that, Su Chang Lee." I beamed up at him.

"Ay, lemme hug my best friend too!" Destiny yelled as she snatched me away from Chang to hug me tightly. 

Just like that everyone around me took turns to hug me and I was filled to the brim with happiness. It was all getting better and there's nothing more I could ask for.

~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~♡☆~

Word count: 2379
Total count: 29,538