Coercion

Cellblock Earth: Chapter 8

MATROOSBERG MOUNTAINS, SOUTH AFRICA

Tory opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling above her.

It was rocky and unfinished, like the roof of a cave. She didn’t know where she was. Closing her eyelids, she tried to remember what had happened in the recent past and found her last cogent memory was of B’s perfect face, marred by an anger she had rarely seen on it before. After that, everything was fuzzy or blank, and she slowly began to realize she had been drugged.

Pulling herself up on the narrow cot she was laying on, she swung her legs over the side and groaned. Her eyes and mouth felt dry as sand and her head throbbed painfully. The ache in her stomach indicated she hadn’t eaten in a while either. However, as weak and disoriented as she was, thoughts of escape were already running through her mind.

Wayne was waiting to help her get out of the country and she had every intention of taking advantage of his offer. The need to slip out of B’s hold was even more urgent than ever. He had never resorted to such drastic measures as drugs in the past and it disturbed Tory greatly that he was willing to do so now. She had to skip before he had the chance to incapacitate her again.

“Okay,” she muttered to herself. “Let’s start with getting out of this room.”

Moving carefully, she set her feet flat on the floor and winced as her bare soles met cold stone. The unexpected shock woke her up more and she examined herself with deepening dismay. She had been bathed and her clothes changed to a soft white long-sleeved top and loose flannel pajama pants. Her hair was washed and brushed so that it hung in a silky curtain around her shoulders. No shoes had been left to her though, and she was sure that had been done on purpose.

“This isn’t creepy at all,” she said sarcastically, surveying her appearance distastefully.

She knew B’s little minions had performed the task of cleaning her up. He wouldn’t have done it himself, she was sure of that much. B was a lot of nasty things, but pervert wasn’t one of them. He had never acted in a way that indicated he thought of his “followers” as anything more than tools for his strange machinations.

Still, the idea that he had instructed them to handle her like a mindless zombie angered her. He simply had no right. She wished she had the ability to put a significant hurt on him. It would almost make up for all the indignities he had put her through.

Taking a deep breath, Tory pushed up to stand and then held it as she wobbled dangerously for a second. The room she was in was very small and looked like it had been hewn out of the side of a mountain. In addition to the ceiling, the walls were also rocky and rough with the floor being the only smooth element. A single tiny window sat high up in the wall behind her, and she assessed quickly that escape through it was extremely improbable. The only piece of furniture was the cot and it wasn’t nearly tall enough for her to use as a stepstool.

Sighing, Tory looked around and stopped abruptly when her eyes landed on the door across from her. It had been left propped halfway open. She frowned suspiciously. Knowing B’s meticulousness, she had a very hard time believing it could have been left open accidentally. She squared her shoulders and walked towards it. She may as well get on with his game. The sooner she did, the sooner she’d figure out how to get out of here.

The door opened onto a hallway, and Tory stepped into it cautiously after looking up and down and not seeing anyone. It continued the same cave motif as the room she had woken up in, with a low rocky ceiling and smooth polished stone floor. To the right, the hall extended beyond the range of her vision and appeared to be quite long. On the left side, it ended several hundred feet away with an open archway revealing bright sunlight. She rapidly decided to go to the left, towards the light.

When she reached the arch, she peeked around the corner very slowly and felt her growling stomach drop. B was seated alone at a dining table in the center of a large and otherwise empty room. An enormous three-paneled bay window on his right side was the source of the sun saturating the space. Tory’s dark-adjusted eyesight protested at the infusion of light, and she turned her face away from it, scrunching her lids shut.

“Come in, Victoria” Bastien said calmly, not looking in her direction. “You must be starving. There’s breakfast here for you.”

For a moment, Tory considered telling him to go do something very off-color with himself. But the platter of bacon and eggs in the center of the table was not to be ignored, and the stack of buttered toast next to it was hypnotizing her like she was a snake in a basket. Grumbling irritably, she emerged from the doorway and padded over to the table, choosing a seat as far away from B as possible. Picking up a plate, she dumped a mound of eggs on it, added four strips of bacon and grabbed three slices of toast. Bastien glanced at her discreetly as he read the paper spread out in front of him.

“Have some orange juice” he said, pointing at the glass pitcher filled with golden liquid a few inches from him.

Tory scoffed, biting into a piece of toast and following it up with a whole strip of bacon.

“I don’t think I want to drink anything you give me” she snapped, her eyes flashing angrily.

Bastien steepled his fingers together and sat back in his seat, gazing directly at her.

“Nothing here is drugged. I apologize for doing what I did, but it was necessary. You are… difficult to manage.”

She paused with a forkful of eggs almost to her lips and glared at him.

“Don’t do it then. Just let me go home.”

He dropped his hands and leaned forward to peruse the paper once more.

“I explained why that’s not going to happen. If you wish, I can reiterate.”

Tory picked up a glass and walked over to the pitcher, pouring juice into it. Practically stomping back to her seat, she drained it, not responding. Returning her attention to her food, she studiously ignored him. After a few minutes, Bastien closed the paper and rose from his seat, walking over to the window.

“I require your assistance with a very important task. As soon as you help me accomplish it, you are free to go wherever you want” he said.

Tory looked up at him, her expression closed and flat. Bastien continued.

“Before you tell me to have one of the others do it, I’ll remind you that you are not like them. You are uniquely capable of achieving my goals. I have waited far too long for such an opportunity to present itself and then be lost. So I’m afraid you don’t have a choice in this matter. As soon as you accept it, we can proceed and stop wasting time. Your cooperation benefits you just as much as me.”

Tory pushed her nearly empty plate away as emotion overcame her hunger.

“B, I’m going to say this for the last freakin’ time. I don’t give a hot damn about whatever you need accomplished. Meeting you has ruined my entire life. I’ll take responsibility for my part in that. But somehow I don’t think any of it would have happened if you hadn’t been in that stupid math class. So excuse me for wanting to get as far away from you and your insane ideas as possible.”

She stood and gripped the edge of the table, trying to hide the tremors rippling through her arms and legs.

“The only way you’re going to keep me here…” She gestured around the room with her free hand. “…wherever the hell this is, is by drugging me and keeping me locked up. And even that’s only going to work so long for you, ‘cause I swear to God, I will find a way out.”

Leaning forward, Tory stared at Bastien, her eyes blazing with fury in her pale, drawn face.

“There is absolutely no way you can force me to do anything for you, B. You can hurt me, threaten me, whatever you think you need to do. I promise you, none of it will work.”

Bastien listened, nodding as she finished. Coming back over to the table, he regarded her quietly and smiled.

“I won’t need to use force, Victoria. I understand the kind of incentive you need.”

Tory’s eyes widened, and she stumbled back from the table, almost falling to the floor.

“What… Oh, my God” she whispered, her voice trembling violently. “How…?”

Before her, in the spot where Bastien had been standing, was Jason.

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Chapters: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7