Episode 2: The Cheater

Episode 2

"The Cheater"

(Jeff)

Damn it was cold in here. I was handcuffed to a pipe in the basement of Lockwood, also known as Charlie's secret torture chamber. God this guy is disgusting. I hate him more than anything. After I was forced to kill Mark, Charlie took Samantha away to who knows where, and I haven't seen Bay or Kayla since the attack on the mansion. After Mark was shot, guards came down and dragged his body away. All that was left was a blood stain on the floor. Then they turned the lights out on me, and I was left here in this cold, dark, basement. I don't know why I'm still alive, but I have a feeling Charlie is going to kill me soon. Like the demented person he is, he probably wants me to suffer a little more before I died. He better not touch a hair on Samantha's head, but I know he probably already has. There is nothing I can do about it, and it infuriates me. Samantha is here somewhere and that sick piece of shit has her all to himself. I'm just left down here to die. I haven't had food or water in a long time either, maybe Charlie is just letting me rot down here so I eventually die of dehydration. That would be a horrible death.

I started dozing off again, because there was nothing else to do in here. That's when the lights turned on, blinding me for a few seconds. I squinted to get used to the light, and I saw a man in a suit walking down the stairs. My eyes got used to the light a little bit more and I realized it was a navy blue suit, it was Charlie. He had a cane though, he was using it to support himself down the stairs. He pulled up a box in front of me and sat on it, facing me. He grabbed me by my hair and forced me to look at him. I still had a hand that was free, they only handcuffed one hand to the pipe. I was tempted to punch him across the face, but he said something that stopped me.

"Before we start Jeffry, don't bother hitting me with your other hand. If you do I will torture Samantha just a little bit worse than I already am."

"You better not touch her." I snapped.

"Oops too late. I touched her a lot last night." He started laughing.

I clenched my fist, I've never wanted to punch someone more in my entire life. He was going to hurt Samantha no matter what, why don't I just hit him once? I held myself back because I know Charlie, and he's a dangerous man. He would probably do something really messed up if I hit him.

"Don't mind the cane, I only use it sometimes. Getting shot in the back really disorientates you. Anyways old pal, how did you sleep last night? I made sure to give you the most comfortable room I could." He smiled at me.

"Fuck off." I snapped.

"Come on Jeff that's no way to talk to your leader."

"You're not my leader. You never will be. You're no leader at all."

He punched me across the face, I got a little dizzy, but I regained myself, he forced me to look at him again.

"If you keep talking back to me, I'm going to go a lot rougher on Samantha. Be careful what you say. You're lucky you're even alive." Charlie sneered.

"Why am I still alive? Why bother keeping me alive? So you can watch me suffer?"

"Well that's part of it," he laughed, "the other reason is because you're the distraction. You see, after you infected a bunch of my soldiers, they infected the entire fourth floor. A lot of innocent people died. The people that survived, I had killed anyways. You know why? Because I can. That's why. I am in complete control here Jeff, this is my palace and I am free to do whatever I want. As long as the people of Lockwood have an enemy, which is you, I can do whatever I want. People won't notice. You see Jeff, humans aren't very intelligent. If you keep them distracted with something, they won't notice the other things."

I looked at Charlie in disgust. This guy was more messed up than I thought he was. I had to take a few moments to gather my thoughts.

"So what you're telling me," I started, "is that as long as you paint me as the bad guy, you can do whatever you want because the people of Lockwood will be too busy hating me to care what you're doing?"

"Yes that's correct," he cackled, "but you got one thing wrong. I'm not painting you as a bad guy. You are a bad guy Jeff. I don't need to paint anything. Don't you see it? A good guy wouldn't be responsible for infecting a whole floor of a building and getting innocent people killed. I don't think we're much different Jeff, but I'm not ignorant to the fact that I've done bad. You need to realize that too."

"I'm nothing like you, scum!" I yelled.

I was punched across the face again by Charlie. I looked back at him, and he punched me again. I was about to pass out, I was too weak to fight back. I needed water and food.

"Oh, I almost forgot. I don't want my distraction dying on me." Charlie pulled out a water bottle from his jacket and tossed it on the ground by my feet.

"See you later Jeffry." he smiled at me.

With that, Charlie left. He started walking up the stairs, and the lights went out. It went pitch black again.

(Brad)

I opened my eyes to see that I was still alive. I never felt the cold knife on my neck, nothing. But when I did open my eyes, I saw a lot of people, dead. Everyone in the room was dead. The poor, innocent people on the fourth floor were all slaughtered like animals. Why was I still alive? I felt a hand on my shoulder and I jumped back in fear.

"Whoa it's okay Brad. We spared you." Said a soldier.

"What? Why?" I asked.

"We know what Charlie is trying to do. Him ordering the execution of the innocent lives on the fourth floor, and then lying about it to the rest of the residents in Lockwood, is just disgusting and evil. You are a good person Brad, and you were a good manager. All of us see that. We respect you, and we're not going to kill you."

"Well why didn't you spare everyone else?" I shouted in frustration, "they didn't deserve to die either!"

"I know, it hurt us to kill these people. We had to do it though, Charlie would have us killed if he knew we weren't following his orders. We need to act like we're still on his side while we work on a way to break out of here." A soldier said.

"Wait," I said, "you guys are breaking out?"

"Yes, we're sick and tired of Charlie's corrupt government. You're not alone Brad, you aren't the only one who sees the corruption and evil. We see it too."

Hearing that took a lot off of my chest. I truly felt like I was alone all the time, I thought I was the only one who knew how awful Charlie really was.

"My name is Jack, it's a pleasure to meet you Brad. Although I wish we could have met on much better terms," said the soldier, he shook my hand, "you stay here while we work out a plan. It's the safest way. We don't need you getting caught now."

"But it's cold, and I'm surrounded by all these dead people. It's kind of unsettling." I said.

"I promise Brad we'll come by later tonight with a bunch of guards to escort you to a safer room. It's just too risky right now."

"Wait so there are more of you that want to break out?" I asked.

"There are a ton of us Brad." Jack said.

"Alright, well I guess I'll just wait here, but don't take too long. It's freezing in here."

"Sure thing Brad, we'll bring a few soldiers by later. It was nice meeting you." Jack said, turning away and heading to the door with the other soldiers.

"And Jack," I said, "thank you."

He smiled and nodded at me, then left the room.

(Charlie)

I set my cane down by the door when I entered my room. I walked over to the kitchen and turned on the coffee maker. It started boiling water and I sat down on the white leather couches to relax. I yawned and look out of the big window, overlooking Kingston.

"Damn I have it hard sometimes," I said to myself, "wouldn't you think so Samantha?" I looked over to the other side of my living room, where Samantha was tied to a chair, her mouth duct taped shut.

She was crying, the makeup I had put on her was running down her cheeks. I had her dressed in a pink dress, and I had her hair done up all pretty. She was my princess. I stood up and walked over to her. I stroked her hair as she shuddered in my presence.

"I wish you weren't so scared of me all of the time," I said, "I give you all of these things. I give you clothes, food, and shelter. What do you give me in return? Nothing! You just cry and ruin the nice makeup I put on you. Why are you so selfish?"

There was a knock at the door. I quickly grabbed the chair Samantha was in and moved her to my closet, and shut it. I walked over to the door and answered it. It was a Lockwood soldier.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"I have information I'm supposed to deliver," the soldier said, he had a sad look on his face, "it is done. All of the residents on the fourth floor were killed."

"Don't be sad buddy," I chuckled, "this was for the greater good. Those people would have surely been infected. They were like parasites. We exterminated them."

"Y-yes sir." The soldier said, still looking upset.

I closed the door and smiled, slowly laughing. Brad was dead, finally. Now I don't have to worry about him anymore. I kept laughing and laughing. I couldn't contain myself, it was so wonderful!

I walked over to the closet and dragged Samantha out on the chair, all while still laughing. I looked at her smiling, and said,

"Brad is dead, isn't that great? The parasite is gone! He was too dangerous to keep around you know. Maybe Jeff will be next."

Samantha started crying some more, and it felt so good. Everything was in my control now.