7 Cat and Mouse
I love putting pieces together. I love taking them apart. Nothing is more satisfying than ripping pieces apart, reassembling, reordering, sometimes creating new configurations to make machines.
Humans are just like machines. Complex, with emotions, but machines nonetheless. I can break humans. Tear them apart. Render them useless. Then put them back together. Recreate them. Perfect them. And so I do.
It really is a shame that I have to break Sampson and Adonis. They would have made fine workers for me, Odin thought. I stalked down the hallway, my muted green trench coat whirling into a tempest behind me. The posted guards saluted me.
“May I have the key to enter?” I phrased it like a question, but said it like a statement.
“Yes sir!” they responded. The one on the right immediately produced the keys out of his uniform pocket. One for this basement door, one for the closet, the other for the second half of the basement, and a final one for the wine cellar. I fit the correct one into the burnished keyhole and slid it over. The deadbolt slowly slid out of its place. Use suspension to your advantage,I reminded myself. A bit of swagger in my step, I walked into the room, staring down the agents from my strip of light.
“Hello Sam. Hello Adonis,” I said smiling. They sat gaping, open-mouthed for all of ten seconds before confusion and comprehension took over their features.
“Jeff?!” they yelled in surprise.
I chuckled. “Hello.”
“What are you doing here Jeff? Are you crazy? Go get help!” Adonis pleaded from his kneeling position on the floor.
“Hm. I don’t believe you know my full name. I am Jefferson Odin II. Welcome to my home.”
Adonis paled in realization. Sam sat silent, not moving, barely breathing. To Adonis, the room spun. The air was too thick. I can’t breathe……I need…air… he slumped fully to the floor. His legs sprawled out, and he turned onto his side as he struggled to suck air.
“TRAITOR! TRAITOR! YOU NEARLY KILLED US!” Sam screamed suddenly, hysteria creeping into his voice. “WE THOUGHT YOU WERE OUR FRIEND! AND IN EXCHANGE FOR OUR FRIENDSHIP, YOU NEARLY KILL US! YOU BASTARD!” All of Sam’s anger from being cut off from vacation and his family, electrocuted, captured, beaten and left in a dank, pitch-black room for who knows how long boiled over. He finally had the figure to focus his rage on. And it was someone he trusted. A man who he thought had protected his life by deactivating electric fences, who had helped nurse him back to health. And here he stood, not ten feet away, smiling smugly while looking upon him and Adonis with distaste after he had tricked and abused them within an inch of their lives. COWARD! Adonis was still curled on the floor, gasping, wheezing, fighting for air. He already has anxiety and trouble breathing when he’s anxious. This sure as hell isn’t helping him.
“Got nothing to say, Jeff? You just want to revel in our struggle?” Sam challenged him. “Or maybe you’re too much of a spineless, spiteful rat to even untie our hands when we’re at your mercy. Scared of us? Typical. Typical Jeff. Can’t even face his coworkers,” Sam continued to taunt him, regardless of the punishments that were sure to follow. He could not care less. It felt fantastic to attack this…..this traitor who nearly killed him and his best friend after exchanging niceties that past morning. Sam’s deep brown eyes seemed to glow red. He cursed his hands that were tightly tied behind him, that they were not free to attack Jeff. Instead, he uncoiled his clenched jaw and spat at Jeff’s feet. Jeff merely side stepped it.
“Are you done now?” Jefferson sighed, tired of the display of emotions. “I know, it’s so shocking. Perhaps we need an inhaler for the smaller one-”
“Adonis. His name is Adonis. You know that. You know us!” Sam growled, shaking with rage.
“Shut up! I am in control right now, and you are going to listen to me!” Jeff glared at Sam, willing him to silence. “Now! I do so dearly need representatives endorsing me! I also need somebody to inform the dear agency that their two spies are being careful, but are finding no threat here;” he said it so smoothly, it was almost like Jeff had been eagerly awaiting for the demise of Sampson Woodlark and Adonis Mirkwood.
“What are you planning? I am almost one million percent sure this isn’t a bomb threat.”
“Correct, o wise one. Would you like me to take you on a tour and explain everything?”
“I would very much enjoy that.”
“Fantastic. Guards, pick up the short one and we shall be on our way,” Jeff carelessly waved his hand to gesture towards Adonis.
C’mon, Adonis. You got this, Sam hoped, peeked at Adonis as he struggled to rise without help from his hands. Adonis stumbled and barely managed to trudge into the hallway, but seemed alright overall. For the first few minutes of walking, the only sounds echoing in the long hallway were Jeff’s jangling keys and the groups’ discordant footsteps.
Then Sam piped up and asked,“Jeff, if you were going to betray us anyway, why did you disable your own fences and guards? And why not make it easier for yourself and just let us be captured?”
“Is it not obvious? I didn’t know your true intentions for coming here, and I needed your trust to find out. Plus, it was funny to outmaneuver and test my own defences. It was actually harder than I thought it would be.”
“Alright, but why not just let your guards capture us? You already knew why we’re here by then, and it would have made it so much quicker for you.” Jeff thought for a moment before he answered.
“I actually did not expect you to escape. The gap in the guard shift and fence disabling were true acts, but I had planned for a guard to overlap you right as you tried to leave. And even then, I still did not expect you to get out with you injured,” he paused at the top of the spiraling staircase they had been climbing to get out of the basement. As soon as they left the oppressive concrete room, Sam glanced out the massive arched windows and was surprised to see it was midday. As they climbed and floors passed by, he counted five levels on top of the basement. Adonis was still climbing the stairs with help from the pair of guards, but it seemed like his panic attack was passing. “I suppose I underestimated you. Rest assured that will not happen again.”
The conversation lulled again. At the top of the staircase, a hallway opened up in both directions. Sam wished Adonis was more aware of his surroundings, as he nearly had a photographic memory, while Sam certainly did not. Looking left, the hallway ended about twenty feet down with two doors on the west side. The east had windows overlooking the backyard. A bright spot amongst the green trees in the manicured backyard caught Sam’s attention, and he tried to look closer but was jerked back by the guard.
“Move on. Odin wants to show you his office; you better listen, buddy,” the guard jeered. Sam scowled at him, but turned and followed Jeff. Every few feet down the hallway, there was another door on the western side, and another window on the eastern side. Along with the doors, there were large potted floral arrangements in between every other door. After walking a hundred feet down the black and white flecked marble floors, the hallway opened up on one side to a massive atrium. The atrium was open all the way to the first floor, displaying all five floors with balconies at each level. Looking down, Sam saw two colossal stained-glass doors set in the middle on the first floor. Those must be the front doors. His eyes traveled up, following the ribbed white pillars on either side of the doors all the way up to the ceiling, where they met with three others to form a star. In between each gap in the pillars, five gigantic skylights stretched the distance across each point. In the center, a crystal hung three stories down. At each pillar, tall, skinny palm trees reached their fronds to the bright ceiling. The foyer and front doors also faced west, and the walls were set with grand arched windows that poured in natural light. Sam’s mind reeled at the absolutely gigantic mansion in front of him. Everything, from the marble tiles to the gargantuan pillars glistened and screamed opulence. He could not process the astronomical amount of money Jeff had. Before he could guess, he and Adonis were ushered into two dark oak doors behind them. The doors were in the same placement as the front doors, only deeper set and five floors higher.
This must be Jeff’s office, Sam thought. The doors opened into a dark room, the only light coming from a partially covered arched window and a weak flame flickering in the brick fireplace. The walls had tall bookshelves and a silver sword sat over the fireplace mantle. More plants were in the far corners of the room and along the book wall. Adonis and Sam sat uncomfortably, with their hands still bound, in front of a large oak desk in the center-back of the room. Jeff sat across from them, and the guards backed out of the room to stand next to the entrance.
“So. Welcome to my house. I am going to tell you my plans, and only because I am confident that there is no possible way you could foil them. You have no allies. You have no connections with the outside world. You are weaponless prisoners,” Jeff said plainly, leaning into his black, overstuffed leather chair. “My plan is simple: have a world where all people are treated equally, and where all feel smart, special, and have a bright future ahead of them. See, that’s not so bad, is it?”
“…no, that doesn’t sound bad at all,” Sam said cautiously. “So what’s the catch?”
“In order to raise children that are all equal, and reorder the adults to think as such, I need total control of them, don’t I?” Jeff asked innocently. Again, silence reigned.
Adonis coughed, breaking the tension. “You’re psychotic,” his first words in nearly twenty minutes. “The amount of totalitarian governments that corrupted, over-controlled and sacrificed its own citizens for personal profit is too many to count. And yet you have the audacity to think, with no political face or supporters, you’re able to pull this off? How?”
“Thank the heavens. You can speak again,” Jeff drawled, turning his attention to Adonis and glaring at him through his clear glasses. “And here you are, tied, wounded, at my mercy; yet you have the audacity to question my authority. I think this has been quite enough fresh air for the both of you. It is high time I show you to your new, separate, chambers. Guards!” The guards stepped in and saluted Jeff. “Take them to floor three, rooms on either side of the office. And make sure none of our special friends see them.”
The guards, who could not have been older than twenty years, saluted again and grasped Adonis’ and Sam’s ropes. Leading them by their hands so they were forced to walk backwards, they stumbled through the halls back to the spiraling staircase. The guards walked slower here, only so the agents would not trip while going down the stairs and fall on them. Two stories down, they left the stairs again and entered a hall that perfectly twinned the one they had just walked down on the fifth floor. Adonis, who was fully aware of himself again, observed the hall with sharp eyes. The guards separated, and Adonis was led to the far door while Sam’s guard fumbled with the keys to unlock the closer door.
“Is there a bathroom in this fine facility? Or shall I have to soil the sheets?” Sam inquired.
“Shut up! You two are worse than the childre-” the guard cut himself off, and glanced over to the other guard who stared at him blankly.
He’s said something we aren’t supposed to know! Sam realized. “What do you mean children? Of course there are children in the families Jeff wants to take over.”
“Just-would you just shut up! Go in your room!” the guard said gruffly, roughly shoving Sam into the room and yanking the door closed behind him. Sam cackled, pleased that he had managed to distress the guard. He glanced up to what he could see of the young guards’ flustered face in the small crevice of space before the door shut fully. His cackling was cut short as he saw true, raw terror coursing through the guard’s face.
Is there anything sharp in here? Adonis wondered to himself. He had already spent the last hour wandering around his room, inspecting every corner, every cabinet, every window to see if there was an easy way out. His search revealed nothing too useful. Decorated in a minimalist style, everything was painted shades of white, with light-stained wood floors and two large windows. A large white canopied bed was centered on a large grey fur rug. On the left side, a bedside table sat with a gold lamp. On the right, a large potted fern partially dampened the light streaming in from the windows. A white dresser stood against the wall opposite of the bed with a seemingly remote-less television anchored above it. Looking out the windows, the closest ledge was a floor down, too far and too narrow to jump onto. Assuming Sam’s room is identical to mine, he doesn’t have an easy way out either. He had moved on from the main room and was now checking out the bathroom, surprised that he even had one. Why would Jeff give us such big rooms? Maybe he’s trying to bribe us in some way, he reasoned.
The bathroom was also minimalistic, with a small succulent on the double sink being the only decor. The sink trough was a dark grey cut granite, with a gold faucet. A back lit mirror hovered above it, the edges rimmed in gold. To the left, there was a small standing shower, a toilet, and a single fluffy towel. Crap. There’s nothing I could use to get these ropes off. They’re starting to hurt, plus I really need to pee, so I better think of something. He frantically glanced over the bathroom again, then dashed back to the main room and looked it over, in case he somehow missed something useful before. Just before he decided to give up, someone tapped softly on his door.
“Hey, I’m gonna come in if that’s alright,” a soft voice said. Adonis could barely hear them through the thick wood, but it wasn’t Jeff’s condescending tone.
Deciding nothing bad could come out of it, he said, “Sure. Come on in.” He was surprised when the door swung in and he saw a delicate-looking woman standing in what looked like a very expensive dress holding a knife.
“Hi. I’m Aspen-Fauna,” she said in her soft voice, walking in and turning around to close them in the chamber. She hoisted her knife and said, “I’m gonna cut your ropes.”
“Aren’t you going to get in trouble for that?” Adonis asked in a concerned voice. He bent his knees slightly to be at her eye level.
“Don’t you worry about me. I’m too important to get hurt too badly. Now turn around, yes just there. Now hold steady. I couldn’t find any scissors, so I stole this big knife from the kitchen,” she explained. After a few seconds of sawing, she said victoriously, “There! You’re free now!”
She grinned while watching Adonis stretch his hands above his head, rubbing his inflamed wrists to get rid of the feeling from the coarse ropes. “Thanks. Those were really starting to hurt. I’d love to chat, but I have to use the restroom. Can you wait a second?” She nodded, and went to sit on the edge of his bed to wait for him.
Adonis reemerged a couple minutes later, still rubbing his wrists and forearms. “Sorry about that. I’m Adonis, by the way. Now who are you exactly?” he asked while sitting himself on the rug. He sat in a loose position, his legs slightly crossed, thankful he could comfortably lean on his arms again.
“It’s fine. I figured you wouldn’t want to sit in your own filth after you regained consciousness, so you’ve probably been waiting for that for a while,” she giggled. She stood and started walking back to the entrance. “I’m Odin’s wife, Aspen-Fauna. I’m not really supposed to be here, but he’s occupied for the moment, so I wanted to check on you guys. I know he isn’t always the nicest,” she glanced downwards, and a great, heavy sadness overtook her delicate features. Adonis used her small lapse to look her over, trying to understand this brave waif. His heart skipped as he spotted small red speckles on her arms and neck, and he wondered what they were. He let his confusion melt away as she recovered a second later, smiled and bade Adonis farewell.
“Oh! And one more thing before I go,” she reached outside into the hallway momentarily, then tossed Adonis a pair of handcuffs. “Those are fake, but they look real enough. If anyone ever barges into your room, slip those on real quick. I’m going to check on your friend now.”
“Hold up! Why are you being so nice? I mean, it’s greatly appreciated, but aren’t you supposed to be on Odin’s side? Or are you here against your will as well?” Adonis quickly stood and caught her forearm as she tried to leave. She flinched at the contact and he immediately dropped her wrist, not wanting to make her uncomfortable.
“I’m afraid I can’t answer that right now,” she jerked her chin up and met his eyesight; the intensity in her teal eyes shocked the breath from Adonis’ chest. “But, I do want to help you two. Also, it would probably be better if you didn’t mention this, this meeting, to anyone.”
“Thanks again. Bye, Fauna,” he said, giving her a wave goodbye. Why did she flinch at my touch? Is she ok? I probably shouldn’t ask. I don’t want to bother her; it’s probably too personal. Or maybe it means nothing at all? Maybe she just wasn’t expecting ‘the prisoner’ to grab her. And what were those specks on her arms and neck? Cuts? No, no, I’m sure they were just freckles. She probably just has some light, strawberry freckles. Adonis tried to convince himself that Aspen-Fauna was safe, but the longer he thought about it, the more certain he became that she was, in fact, not safe at all.
Aspen slipped out of Adonis’ room and pattered over to Sam’s. I’m not going to be able to spend as much time with him as I did Adonis. The guards I sent are sure to come back at any moment. Aspen had sent the guards on a wild goose chase, seeking out the source of an imaginary sound she supposedly heard.
Hurrying over to the other room, she tapped on the doorframe and asked, “Sampson? You in there?”
“Who’s asking? If it’s Jeff, Sam is currently out,” was his muffled reply.
“No, not Jeff,” she giggled and let herself into his room. Standing in the entrance, she told him, “I’m Aspen. I came to cut your restraints and give you fake ones. And now that I have proven that I am not Jeff, I think you can get out of your fighter stance.”
“Alright then,” Sam said slowly. He relaxed his body from the taut position he was in that allowed him to bolt at any second. Even though he was not able to use his hands, his plan was to barrel into whoever was standing in the threshold then attempt to escape. I should at least let her cut my ropes. Then, if she seems threatening after I’m free, I could tackle and tie her down and then get out with full use of my hands. He turned around so she could reach his wrists.
“Actually could you crouch a little for me? You’re pretty tall,” she asked, feeling slightly embarrassed by her shortness.
“Of course. Thanks for helping me. Are you also helping Adonis?” he queried while she sliced through his ties.
“I already did. And you’re free now,” she smiled as he turned around. They both stood rooted in their positions for long seconds until Aspen asked, “Sorry to be forward, but don’t you have to go to the bathroom? Adonis did, and you both were together for a while.”
Sam stared at her for a moment, caught off guard by her question. Then his laughter boomed out, and he explained between bouts that he already had gone to the restroom.
Blushing profusely, Aspen defended herself saying, “It’s not a silly question! And how did you do that with-” she cut herself off and caved into his guffaws. “Actually, I don’t think I wanna know!” Together, they laughed so hard Sam bent in half and Aspen rolled on the floor in her exquisite dress, the serrated knife cast to the side.
“Ah-oh no! I have to go now! But thanks for the-haha!-good laugh!” Aspen quickly stood and rushed to the exit. They had been laughing so long, she didn’t know how long she had left before the guards came back to their posts. Still bursting with fits of laughter, she handed Sam the fake cuffs and instructed him what to do with them. “I promise I’ll return as soon as I can! I don’t know how long I have until your guards return. Goodbye!”
“Adiós, Aspen!” Sam called, wiping the tears of merriment from his eyes.
She quickly pulled the doors after her, twisting the lock. As soon as she backed away from the archway, she heard boots clacking on the polished floor, and very closely. Aspen immediately crouched to the floor, yanked out an earring and threw it underneath the trestle table that rested between the boys’ rooms.
The guards rounded the corner, saw her low to the ground and cried, “Aspen! Are you alright?”
“Oh, hey! Yeah, I’m perfectly fine. I just seemed to have dropped my earring here when I was telling you about that noise I heard. Would you mind helping me look for it? Odin gave them to me, and I’m sure it’ll only take a second,” she said in an anxious voice, throwing them a fearful look over her shoulder.
Thoroughly convinced by her performance, the guards rushed over, one trying to ease her distress and the other searching frantically for the lost earring. Still chuckling from her encounter with Sam, she turned her shaky laughing into panicky tremors racking her body, her gasping breaths into husky panting. She felt slightly bad for tricking the guards; they were good, honest people who she was taking advantage of. However, she comforted herself with the knowledge that her performance was bringing her one step closer to helping Sam and Adonis.
“Found it!” the second guard called from the table. Still on all fours, he crawled back to Aspen and his cohort and passed her the earring. Thanking both of them, she rose up with assistance from each of their forearms and wished them a good afternoon. As the guards assumed their formal posts, neither of them suspected that Aspen had done anything beyond lose an earring, nor that one of their hostages was now inadvertently armed.