Twisted Deception

Winnie

“If you make a sound, I’ll slice you ear to ear,” a chilling voice whispered into my ears and I suddenly felt something sharp press against my throat.

With a whimper, I shifted my gaze slowly to the side where Trisha was kneeling some steps away with a glinting gun pressed to her temple.

“Winnie,” her voice trembled, tears running down her cheeks.

“Nobody has to get hurt today,” the masked man leaning over me said, “Get up.”

I slowly climbed out of the bottom level of my bunk bed, my hands held in the air while my heart pounded in my chest. Who the hell were these men? And how had they entered here?

“Good girl,” he nodded in approval, “Now the four of us are going to leave here as quietly as possible. If you do anything to alert anybody, we’ll kill you. Understood?”

I nodded immediately and Trisha did the same. The man who had his gun trained on her tucked the weapon back into his waist band and then grabbed her shoulder and roughly pulled her to her feet.

The four of us snuck out the door and down the dark hallway. At the end of the corridor, I saw one of the uniformed guards slouch on the floor. On closer inspection, I realized he was lying in a pool of his blood, bleeding profusely.

“Oh God,” Trish whimpered and my stomach revolted at the sound.

Who were these men who were so fearless enough to kill the law enforcement agents and break into a maximum prison to kidnap two inmates?

And most importantly, I wondered what they wanted to do with us.

“I hope you can swim,” the one right at my back said, whose dark mask had red stitching on one cheek.

“Are we going for a swim?” My blonde friend asked.

The other one chuckled, “I think so.”

With a grimace, red stitching bent and pushed open a hole in the ground covered by a metal lid. The smell that wafted up was rancid. I covered my nose instantly as my eyes watered.

“What’s in there?” Trish asked in a small, unsure voice.

“Get in,” one of the men growled afterwards, his voice reflecting that he was near.

She shot me a terrified glance before disappearing into the hole. I went down after her, dropping into the pungent dark. There were puddles of water right at my feet and the smell made me feel like I couldn’t breathe. I realized it was a sewer.

I flinched.

My arm was gripped as we were led down for several minutes until we came to the end of the dark tunnel. The man holding Trish kicked the grating away and we climbed out into a dark street.

We were tossed carelessly into the back of a van and shut in. A moment later, the vehicle zoomed off, maintaining a distance from us.

“Argh!” Trish cried, as she lurched with the movement of the van, crashing painfully into the metal side.

“Hey, it’s fine, we’re okay,” I comforted her, grabbing her hands tightly.

“Where are they taking us to?” She asked frantically.

“I don’t know,” I replied, “But, if they wanted us dead, we’d be dead.”

Since I had been thrown into The Saint’s federal maximum prison three years ago, I had shared a cell with Patricia and we were as close as sisters now. I had thought I was surely going to die in there, but it seemed someone had a different plan for me.

We just had to wait and find out.

We fell asleep hours into the drive and I finally woke up when the car pulled to a stop. I tapped Trish to wake her up just as the back of the van opened and we were hurled out and into a ramshackle building.

“Walk faster, bitch,” the one holding my friend snapped, pushing her so roughly that she almost face planted to the ground.

I gritted my teeth as fury washed through me.

The sky was now bright with the early rays of the sun and I wondered where we were.

“Bring them in,” I heard a woman’s hard voice order and we were pushed through a door into a bare room.

A woman in a black pantsuit was in the middle of the room, standing with her hands crossed over her chest. Her hair was a faded blonde tied into a severe bun and her light blue eyes were as cold as chips of ice as they settled on me.

“You must be Edwina Cornwell,” she began, her voice loud and clear. “My name is Lucrezia and I have a job for you.”

“I don’t remember applying for any job,” I raised a brow at her.

Who was this woman? How did she have the power and audacity to break into a federal prison? I kept wondering.

“Hilarious,” she commented, her eyebrows furrowed at me, “Unfortunately, I’m not in the market for a comedian.”

“How do you know my name?”

She rolled her eyes, “That’s not what’s important right now.”

“It sounds pretty important to me,” I retorted.

Her eyes hardened and I heard a gun cock behind me. I froze and Trisha’s fingers on my arm tightened, her nails digging into my flesh.

“I’m the one who’ll be asking the questions here, got it?” She snarled.

I swallowed nervously, “Of course. I got it.”

She approached me, towering over me in her high heels. Her gaze ran down my body, from the top of my hair to the grey prison uniform to my feet encased in ratty sneakers.

“You’ll do,” she nodded, “You’ll have to get a haircut, contact lenses and lose some weight. Some make up will be necessary. There’s no time for a surgical procedure so you’re just going to have to wing it.”

I gaped at her, “What are you talking about?”

“Didn’t I say I’ll be the one asking the questions around here?” Her hands lashed out and reached for my jaw, long nails pinching at my face, “You’ll need to get your ears pierced. And then do something about these horrible freckles.”

I staggered away from her touch and the cloying scent of her perfume.

She clapped her hands together, “Let’s begin. The wedding starts in a few hours and we can’t have the bride missing, can we?”