Rory tried bending her neck. Nothing happened, so she tried moving her arms or legs. Nothing worked. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t move any of her limbs and she couldn’t see or hear anything clearly. Panic set in as she realized she might not make it out of the room she currently inhabited alive.

Loud voices boomed on the other side of the wooden door. Rory’s head snapped up, her ears straining as she tried to find some way to move or hear them clearly.

“She’s…worth…done…no,”

The speech was broken and she couldn’t understand. She couldn’t hear the answering response. A minute or two passed before the door opened.

The light on the other side of the door was brilliantly bright. Rory shut her eyes tightly, her only defense against the light, opening them when her skin stopped burning from the heat. She could make out heavy footsteps but didn’t dare open her eyes.

“I know you’re not asleep,” his voice was close to her ear.

Rory jumped slightly, her eyes popping open as the man chuckled. He held a sadistic air around him; one that made even strong-willed Rory Davis scared. She wanted to know who this man was and why was she in this cold room, unable to move.

The man read her questions in her grey eyes, standing slowly as he let her curiosity and fear eat away her insides.

Rory disliked him every bit. Not because he held her captive, but because he wouldn’t answer her questions. She hated being left in the dark. She wanted to know who he was and why did he have her there. She wanted to know where she was and how she could get way. Subconsciously, Rory wanted these things, but in reality; she had trouble remembering how to breathe properly.

“I suppose you wouldn’t recognize me,” the man shrugged, “you don’t run with people outside of your circle.”

Rory didn’t know what he meant, but used whatever energy she had left to urge him on.

“You were supposed to pay, but you didn’t. I don’t like doing this, but I have no choice,” he picked up a needle and a bottle of clear liquid.

Rory couldn’t talk, but she could plead with her eyes.

“You remember the little deal you made? Remember the warnings you received?” The man probed.

***


Rory pulled on her knee high, black boots. She was excited about tonight. It would be the night she participated in her first gathering. She checked the rest of her appearance, satisfied that she would blend in with the night. Her older brother came into her room, wondering if she was ready. Rory assured him she was and they both left.


It was a different world from the one known today. Rory’s family was one of the lucky families to move up in the social scale when the government collapsed. Now, families of spies and assassins were free to roam, with no threat of being captured hanging over their heads.


Rory was the best of her class. She excelled at everything she tried. There was nothing that could get by her. Except her first gathering.


Gatherings, something Rory was only told about until now, included all of the top families coming together. They discussed targets and plans for future world domination.


Rory wandered around, dipping into many different conversations as she made her way towards the gardens. She enjoyed the silence, mixing all of the information in her head with the knowledge she already had possessed.


It was her destiny to run this operation and she knew it. She had to have the power.


“Who’s there?” She called out, straining to hear the ragged breathing on the other side of the rose bushes.


“The name’s Salvatore.”
***


Rory remembered. She remembered meeting him and the strange feeling she had. He knew what she wanted and promised her that she would have it if she did something for him. Confident, Rory agreed. But she failed to complete her side of the agreement.


“I was young!” She wanted to scream but couldn’t.


Hot tears poured out of her eyes as Salvatore took slow steps towards her. She watched as her dreams and hopes slipped away into the darkness of the room, never to return again.


“It wasn’t hard to keep up your part of the bargain,” he sighed.


She wanted to tell him she was going to but that would have been a lie. Rory relaxed, knowing that she shouldn’t have agreed to his proposal. She should have went her own way, becoming the leader without any help. She could have, but she choose the easy way.


Salvatore slipped the needle into her skin, catching her vein the first time. He watched as the life drained out of her. He wanted to take it back, letting her live, but a promise is a promise.


He stood, watching her limp body struggle in its last moments of life. He slipped his hand into his pocket, feeling the smoothness of the velvet box on his fingertips.


She only had to marry him and he would make her dreams come true. He’d always wanted her to be his bride but it seemed that she wasn’t willing.


“Well,” Salvatore cracked his knuckles, “if she didn’t want me, she didn’t want anyone.”


He walked out of the room and into the next, nodding towards his associates to gather her body. He walked out of the abandoned warehouse and into the warm summer night. He set off down the street for a new wife, hoping that she would be the faithful woman he’s been after for so long.