Captivity (AU, R, Aviaris)

Taisiya loved the rain, normally. It washed the city streets, cleared away the grime and the stink. She'd stay up all night listening to the thunder and the rain, watching the lightning. The air of a storm, it was like her own natural drug. It made everything sharper, and she'd suddenly have the energy to take on the world.
That was all if tonight had been a normal night. But her friend Allyson had just turned 21 and since she'd only become of age a couple of months ago herself, she'd of course joined in on the traditional bar crawl. She'd lost count of the number of shots they'd taken, or the number of drinks. The bars all played either rap or other crappy college town bar music. But with the help of the last two Long Islands and the cajoling of her friends, she'd gotten onto the dance floor and gyrated a bit with the others there, letting herself get lost in the crowd and the thrumming of the bass against her sternum.

A frat boy sidled over and started dancing with her. She liked the way his t-shirt molded to his chest and shoulders, so she smiled and kept dancing. Her face was flush, cheeks getting that odd almost-numb tingle when she was truly drunk. It didn't seem like she could stop smiling. Why hadn't anyone told her how much fun it could be to actually go out and have a life? Really, they must've all described it wrong because this was awesome.

She didn't realize she'd been thinking aloud until her partner bent down and put his hand behind his ear dramatically, trying to get her to speak up over the music. Taisiya felt her face grow warmer before she spotted her friends leaving the dance floor and heading back to their table. The frat boy followed and Allyson snuck her a thumb's up. They conversed, Taisiya's mind far too buzzed to take much notice except that they seemed to be able to make each other laugh, and she liked that. Too soon, it was time to head to the next bar. Taisiya took a long pull of her Cherry Bomb, finishing it off.

She stumbled at the exit, saved from an epic faceplant by the frat boy catching her and then steering her out by the elbow. Taisiya blinked. Her mind felt foggy, her limbs heavy and for the first time in her life, clumsy. Had she really gotten this drunk. Wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Warnings were going off in her head, like the peal of a bell. Her vision cleared a little and she saw she was walking away from the bars, the frat boy's hand still on her elbow.

She froze.

"Come on, it's alright, your friends were headed this way," he gave a charming smile.

"No, no. We were going the other way. North. We'd already been to these bars."

"Sweetie, we are going north."

"I always know...always know my direction," she'd felt this way before. "When, though? The car accident. The IV..." Eyes wide, she stared up at the man beside her. "Drugs. You drugged me."

"Don't be ridiculous. You're just drunk. My place is just down the road, you can just rest on the couch, I promise." But his smile had grown an edge that a carefree partying, frat boy could never have.

Taisiya's grass green eyes flashed white and she stood rigid, her purple hair starting to float about her. "You don't live down the street. You haven't had a real home in years. You can't keep to one place, you grow restless, you get the itch to move. That's why this job is so good for you."

"Look, bitch, come with me right now," the frat boy mask had fallen away, confronted with the truth.
Her white-eyed gaze fixed on the college crest on his shirt. "You've never been in a fraternity, let alone a college. Who would admit you, with your record? All you are is a pretty face."

She didn't come to until she was on the ground. The sting across her cheek and jaw said he must've slapped her. But it'd cleared her head some. She palmed her pocket knife and slashed his hand as he pretended to help her up.

Taisiya ran, soon finding that the slap hadn't cleared her head nearly enough. She could barely keep from sliding down the wet streets in her boots. And as it was, kept slipping. But she knew downtown. She took alleyways and and sidestreets, making her way home. She cursed herself when she realized she must have had another of her episodes. The cold November rain drowned scents, muffled hearing as it gushed down on the hood of her jacket. For the first time in her life, she cursed the rain, too.

Then there was an arm about her chest and upper arms. Her hood was pulled back and she shuddered as she felt the cool metallic bite of a needle slip under her skin.

She was conscious sporadically. There was cloth over her face, and she was jostled about as if laying in a moving van. Her wrists were cuffed, and it felt like her feet were similarly trapped. There was no sense of time or place, as she kept only half-waking in the beginnings of a nightmare.

Finally, they were stopped. She was still only partially conscious as she felt hands gripping her arms, dragging her out, making her stumble and walk when she couldn't see.

They kept making her walk and walk. Then stand for a time. Her head kept lolling down. The bag was removed from her head and the lights were suddenly far too bright, making her eyes stream. The clamp of cold iron about her neck made her gasp as she was unceremoniously dumped in a small barred room. Taisiya was lucky they'd uncuffed her hands--she used her arms to break her fall and avoid smashing her face on the concrete floor.

"You can sleep it off in here," Not-A-Frat-Boy's voice said before the heavy thunk of a door shutting behind her. She wasn't sure how long she was on the floor, again streaming in and out of consciousness. When she could finally lift her head, she found a prison cell setting. And a female figure in the cell beside hers. "And I fucking forgot my ruby slippers," she slurred. " 'Come out and party, Taisiya' 'It'll be fun, Taisiya' Yup, yup, right until prince frat boy turns into GI Kidnapper." She was forcing herself up, forcing herself to keep talking to stay awake. Finally, she stood, swayed, and caught herself on the bars.

"I may look drunk," she addressed the figure in the other cell. Her vision was still fuzzy. And doing strange loops she was trying to ignore. "And that's cause I was. Or I am. I don't know. It's really that lovely cocktail that got shot in my neck...and the bastards slipped something into my drink before that. I'll never be able to enjoy a Cherry Bomb the same way again. Ruining my fun. Tha's what they're doing. Out to foil--" The room had started spinning. She held up a finger. "Es tut mir leid!" She managed to dash to the cell's toilet before getting sick. She was especially proud that she was able to gather all of her hair out the way, too. Small things. They were important.