Why is he smirking like that? What does the key mean? I wonder. Steven looks like he just pulled the greatest prank on his worst enemy. I scrunch up my face in disgust, not understanding his sadistic smirk.  All the while Marcus' face fashions a neutral look.  

"You need to fix your face," Steven comments.

"You need to fix your life and get your priorities straight." I spit back at his stupid remark.

"That fire in you won't last forever," Marcus decides to add his two cents to a dollar conversation, forcing the privacy of two into a group chat. "I wouldn't bet my salary on it if I were you. Seems like you really need it," I respond. Since these two want to play games with me, abuse me, torture me, I guess I'll just have to do what I do best with people who get under my skin. Spit flames.

It's rather odd. The very first day of arriving here, the fear that struck me at the sight of these two giants was so intense I even ended up calling one of the girls crazy for speaking back to Marcus. Yet, here I am doing the very same thing. I guess I've too gone crazy.

Marcus opens his mouth to say something as anger flashes in his eyes, but it soon fades as something clicks in his head. He lets out a low chuckle while shaking his head, then picks the key up and hands it over to Steven, "Since she's your responsibility, you take her. I have other matters to attend to".

"Where you off to?" Steven questions.

"Highway."

"To hell," I mutter, finishing his sentence since he only wants to give one-word replies. Marcus glares in my direction and I take the wild guess that he has finally had enough of me. Steven accepts the key and Marcus leaves the room, but not before shooting me one last sinister glare. "Time to go hell cat," Steven announces as he walks around the table and grabs my painful arms. Ouch. 

Go where? I wonder as we make our way to the door.

A silence threatens to take over and I think of a way to best kill it before things become awkward. "Were you born there?" I question.

"Where?"

"The highway," I replied as nonchalantly as I possibly can.

"Why?" Steven asks, his curiously peeking.

"Cause that's where most accidents happen." I say as I shrug my shoulders, looking off to the distance.

I hold back a smirk of my own as I notice how tense he suddenly becomes. I can tell that he's angry. "If you thought the water was bad. You're in for a big surprise." As soon as he says that, my mind starts racing for all possible outcomes of this situation.

Sadly my drawing board remains a blank canvas as I cannot seem to think what could possibly be a worst punishment than the water. I mean, I nearly drowned, twice. What's worst than a near death experience?

-₹៛₹៛¤៛₹៛₹-

*3 days later*

Peggy's POV:

It's been three whole days now since they found Vivian and brought her back. Yet, I haven't seen her once. My best guess is that she chose the key, but why keep her there for so long? Any longer and she'll most certainly die. That is if she's not dead already.

I saw her physical state the day Steven found her and Marcus dragged her through the building and my heart pinched at the sight. Covered in bruises, dried scabs, and dirt in those short, revealing clothing that she's forced to wear, it took everything in me not to remove her from Marcus' possession. I've pleaded with him, every day since Vivian's return, to let her out.

On the second day, he revealed that the choice is Steven's to allow her out of there. Naturally, I assumed this made things easier, but I was dead wrong. He was annoyingly stubborn and completely blanked me out the entire time. No matter the number of times I approached him, he simply ignored me. Vivian cannot stay there for another day. I have to get her out.

"Please. Can't you just talk to him?" I ask for the hundredth time already.

"No," he replies once again.

"It's been three days and if she stays in there for another, her body will literally start to digest itself... that's if it hasn't already... Frank come on, please!" I beg, following him while he escorts a girl to an evaluation room.

I notice her body shiver under his hold at what I just said. She doesn't know what's going on, but I'm sure the news sounds terrifying. "Fine! If I talk to him will it make you shut up!?" He snaps at me as he turns around and I almost bump into his chest. I quickly nod my head and take a step back.

Frank sighs before turning back around and continues walking. I walk a distance behind him as we're both heading in the same direction. "I know you want me Peggy, but that doesn't mean you have to follow me around like a lap dog," he announces and I can feel the smug smirk playing on his lips.

I roll my eyes at his statement politely respond, "Please get your ego under control".

"If I could rearrange the alphabet, I'd put 'U' and 'I' together." He smugly comments without stopping or turning around.

"I wouldn't change anything. 'N' and 'O' are exactly where they should be." I say as I push pass him to walk through the door.

It's needed to prepare the evaluation room for Vivian for when she comes out. Heaven alone knows what her state will be, but it's best to get all the supplies ready and prepare for the worse. I tried to explain to Steven a day ago about her health conditions and how we wouldn't be able to get her a buyer if her symptoms become irreversible. Yet for some or other reason, that news only motivated him to keep her there further.

Just because he had a tough childhood and a horrible family, doesn't mean everyone he comes across deserves to suffer. If it wasn't for his parents, he wouldn't have such an aggressive, agitated, short-tempered personality.

Steven's heart had always been cold, but never completely frozen. It was in his teenage years that his heart turned into a solid stone. It was in his teenage years that his world ended and his dying corpse kept living.

He gave up, not only on humanity, but himself too. He sees nothing wrong with the work he does or how he does it. He doesn't care about others' pain or suffering, because no one cared about his.

Steven could have been a great man if only life treated him well in the beginning. I'm afraid that he'll never be able to love again.

-₹៛₹៛¤៛₹៛₹-

Steven's POV:

Finally some fucking peace. Three days of peace to be exact.

No snobbish bitch throwing comebacks and smart remarks. I'll admit at times it was fun, ticking her off like that. I could tell I was getting under her skin. I haven't had a challenge like her in all five years of working here. But all fun has to come to an end right? And her time came to shut down. Marcus wouldn't in a million years allow such a big mouth to continue yapping about.

The day I found her was simply by luck. I had no idea where the girl was. Marcus was the one who told me to look at the station. He already prepared the paperwork using a copy of the paperwork of his cousin just in case. Surprisingly that's exactly where she was and the paperwork actually came in handy. I had to get her back all by myself because Frank was being an asswipe over a snake bite. So what that it actually turned out to be poisonous. We had work to get done.

The funniest thing about hell cat is that she can't fight to save her life. When she tried to get away from me while I put her in the vehicle, I questioned her survival skills. Even when she tried to get away from Marcus as he dragged her throughout the building. The poor thing.

Her best attempt at fighting me off was when I dragged her to the place she's currently still stuck in. One look inside and she lost her mind. From yelling to screaming, crying and begging, swearing to behave and obey.

I didn't buy that shit so I threw her in.

She has to learn one way or another. This is the real world. A world of pain. A world that isn't fair. Life isn't princess parties and unicorn fairy dusted cupcakes or whatever that shit was at my sister's birthday party.

Life strips you of your happiness, it throws you in the deep end to fend for yourself. It masquerades this picture perfect image when you're young, but as you grow older you find that dreams belong in your head and a heartless asshole belongs on the outside. So far, so good. I've been coping on my own for a long time now, so I know what I'm talking about.

Peggy has been a constant nag on my head regarding hell cat's release, informing me of health conditions and whatever other doctor bullshit she could come up with. Honestly, most of what she has been saying is probably just to get me to let her out early.

Screw that.

Last time I let Vivian out of a punishment too soon, it only made her bitching worse. I'm not going to make that mistake again. Peggy can wait. It's not like the child is going to die. It's only been three days.

"Steven!... Hello?... Hey, are you home?... Steven!" Frank bangs on my front door.

What the fuck happened now again?

 I get up from my seat, unlock the door and move to the side allowing him to enter. As soon as he enters I throw the door shut and turn to face him. 

"Listen, it's been three days. Don't you think that's long enough? Let the girl out. I'm sure she has learned her lesson by now." he starts speaking and I know that he didn't come here out of his own.

"Peggy sent you, didn't she?" I question him.

"No, I- yeah..." he says while scratching the back of his neck. Even though Frank is six years older than me, lying is not one of his best traits. For a womanizer, dishonesty is one thing that doesn't seem to come easily to him. He fails every time. 

"Well go back and tell her that I'm not going to let her out until I feel that she's had enough!"

"Dude, okay I get it. You have some personal shit against the chick. Damn relax."

"I don't-"

"Did you at least check on her in these three days? You know, to see if she's still breathing and all?" He quickly questions. "No. I don't need to, because she's not dead!" 

How many times do I have to get it in their heads?

"Tell you what. Just go and check today. If the child still breathes, you leave her in for however long you want to and I'll tell Peggy to back off. Deal?" I take a second to think about it and realize that it doesn't sound all that bad. "Fine. Let's go." I say as I grab my jacket off my counter and head to the door. Once we're out, I lock up and we get in Frank's car before driving back to base. Having the town's Sheriff as your neighbor has its perks, but leaving your house unlocked is plain stupidity.

On arrival, I head inside and see Peggy frantically running back and forth organizing the evaluation room. Not wanting to question her or have her question me, I quickly make my way to through the doors and head straight to the basement. As I arrive at the door at the far end, I take the key out my jean pocket, unlock the door and slowly push it open. I peek inside to try and spot her. Fucking idiot. The light is off! I internally yell at myself. I flicker the dim light on and scan around.

Where the fu-... I wonder.

"Shit." I breathe out as my eyes finally land on her body in the far corner.

Peggy won't be impressed.