The Four Mafia Men and Their Prize

The Four Mafia Men and Their Prize

21 – Capture The Flag

Aurora POV

“Wakey Wakey!” I hear a loud booming voice filling my ears before my whole body feels submerged in a bath of ice crystals. I awake with a gust of air trying to expand my aching lungs, my body still feels the sharp sting of the freezing cold water that was thrown upon me.

I notice I am no longer in the chair and in restraints, rather just lying on the cold hard cement floor. My head feels foggy and tight like a balloon is trying to escape my skull.

Kai and Charlie are standing in the center of the room, with empty buckets in their hands. A few guards, all dressed in black, are standing behind them with their big buff steroid arms folding in front of their equally steroid buff chests,

I take a moment to look around the room and finally my eyes land on Brianna, who is also lying on the floor and is now trying to prop herself up. Her clothes are also drenched, and her breathing is labored.

I quickly get on my hands and knees and crawl over to her weak form. I reach out to her only for her to recoil.

“Bri, it’s me” I try to sooth her. When she looks up at me, she exhales a shakey breath and begins to sob. I don’t hesitate to inch closer to her and wrap her in my arms, being as careful as I can not to touch her open crusted wounds

I look up and glare at the men standing silently a few feet away from us, their expressions emotionless like their black hearts.

Before I find my courage to spout all sorts of profanities, Charlie speaks up: “You both are coming with us. You will get a chance to eat, change and someone will help tend to your wounds before the game begins.” He turns around and leaves with Kai up the stairs.

I am stunned speechless and yet have so many questions I want to ask. Why is Brianna being hurt so much? What do you want from us? What game are you talking about? What are we doing here? The list is becoming maddening in my

little brain.

The extra muscles by the stairs are now making their way over to Brianna and I. Neither one of us struggle as we are pulled by two men each to our feet and escorted up the stairs, through a metal door which has another guard, down a dark hallway, up two more flights of stairs before we are practically tossed in a small clean and very minimal bedroom.

One of the guards shows us the attached bathroom, tells us to shower and to wear the black workout attire that was placed on the table next to the simple fruit and yogurt bowls. There were also two bottles of water. He said there is a first aid kit in the bathroom. We were instructed to be quick before he slammed the door, and a few locks were heard. clicking in place.

I immediately went to Brianna and helped her get up. I took her to the bathroom and helped get her out of the rags. It proved to be quite difficult since the coarse fabric was stuck from the dry blood, sadly re– opening many of her flesh wounds.

There was only a standing shower, no privacy curtain that was almost on top of the toilet and a small basin sink without a mirror. There was a small wooden cabinet on the side which had towels and first aid. There were also some hotel size bottles of body wash, soap, and shampoo.

21 Capture The Flag

I turned the water on, and luckily warm water came through the pipes at a decent stream. I got to work washing Brianna since she could barely hold herself up. As I washed away the dirt and blood, I could see various cut marks of different lengths and depths littered her body, almost no space left untouched. She had major purple bruising around her whole body, especially on her sides and the carving Kai made was very prominent and large. I couldn’t stop the silent tears as she continued to cry in pain and anguish.

After she was cleaned to the best of my ability, I went to work to dry her as softly as possible and took her back to the bed. I tended to her wounds with creams and antiseptic ointment. There were no bandages, so we managed with what we had. I helped her dress and propped her on the bed before giving her the food.

The outfit was black spandex pants and a black sports bra. There were black tennis shoes and ankle socks. I found a few hair ties in the bathroom so we could at least put our hair up. Clearly whatever we are about to do is going to be physical.

I managed to bathe and dress myself in record time after that, not wanting to leave Bri alone for long. I treated my raw wrists and ankles with cream and sat at the edge of the bed quietly eating my fruit. I feel nauseous but I have that feeling that if I don’t eat, it will be dangerous.

Not long after we both finished our breakfast; we heard the locks on the door click and four guards enter the room. We are again picked up by our arms and dragged out and down a few dark hallways, and down at least 6 flights of stairs, passing metal doors that all have keypad access points.

The drag us into a large open area, the steel rafters above barely visible under the football stadium lighting. There is at large concrete wall at least 20 feet tall in front of us, spanning the entire length of

the building.

There are 12 guards all dressed in black cargo pants, black muscle shirts and combat boots. All four of the Mafia Dons are also there and dressed similarly. One thing I notice immediately is that half of the men are wearing red bands on their arms and the other half are wearing blue. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

We are thrown down on the ground at the feet of the Dons. When I move to help Brianna, Jason gives me a warning

glare that has me freezing in my place.

He smiles and opens his arms, addressing us with a bright mischievous smile: “Welcome to The Maze! Today, my love we are going to play a little game since you love playing games with us.” He crouches down in front of me, making sure I maintain eye contact with him while he continues.

“We are going to play a fun little game we like to call capture the flag! With a twist, of course!” He was getting excited like a kid in the candy store. “You and your little friend here, are the flags. You will wear Blue and Brianna here will wear Red. You both will be given a 5–minute head start to make your way through the maze. Your goal is to make it to other side of the maze before you are caught by the opposite team. So my love, you will try to avoid the Red team and Brianna needs to avoid the Blue team.

If you are caught by a member of your color team, they get 15 seconds to punish you any way they see fit. After 15 seconds, we will give you say 30 seconds to get away from us and carry on your way. The punishments are all purely physical of course. We aren’t monsters.” The guys all chuckled as the know he was joking.

“If you are caught by a member of the opposing team, it’s game over for you, and well, let’s just say that yesterday was an appetizer. If you can make it through the maze without being caught by the

opposing team, you are safe and you will be given a very nice reward. Any questions?” Jason finishes, while he is petting my hair like I’m a damn cat.

21 Capture The Flag

“Actually yes,” I hear Brianna choke out. Jason looks at her and waits for her to speak again. “What do you mean by caught?”

“Ah, good question my dear Brianna, Let’s say, they have to physically get a hold of you be considered caught. You can try to outrun them or light them, but if they get their hands on you, well…” He finishes, leaving our minds to our imagination.

He stands up and claps his hands. We are brought to our feet and a guard comes over with a cup in his hand and takes a paintbrush and begins to paint strips of blue paint on my exposed skin. My arms, chest, face, torso, back. Brianna is painted the same, paint covering many of her injuries.

Once we are done, we hear Jason giving orders to his team. I notice him and Ben are wearing Blue and Charlie and Kai are wearing Red. They are huddled on each side and the guards push me and Brianna towards two separate entry ways. 1 give her a weary look and mouth ‘it’s going to be okay‘ and she just nods,

We hear Jason behind us, loud and clear, “On your mark…get set… RUN!”

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