Session 28

Quinn awoke hours later on the couch in the living room. The electric fireplace turned on across from her, and from the corner of her eye, she noticed moonlight pouring in from an uncovered window.

After Quinn was done investigating the upper half of the house, she had ventured downstairs to explore. She had cleaned the dishes from breakfast, made herself lunch, and she had sun bathed out on the front steps once the sun had positioned itself properly in the sky. It was a relatively slow, yet semi productive day. Even when being held hostage, Quinn managed to create work to busy herself with. 

Quinn yawned as she sat up on the couch. She stretched her arms over her head before rubbing her hands over her swollen eyelids. She had fallen asleep crying . In front of the couch was a large, glass coffee table. Comic books and magazines littered the table's surface while an array of remotes were arranged neatly along the furthest corner of the tabletop. Quinn reached for one.

She held the remote in her hand and pressed the power button. In an instant, the flat screen TV that was suspended from the wall above the fireplace, flickered on.

Nothing but static.

Quinn rolled her eyes as she let out an exasperated sigh.

"What kind of gentleman locks a girl up with no entertainment," she scoffed to herself as she used the remote to flick through endless channels of static. Quinn wasn't one to particularly enjoy television, but after being left on her lonesome for hours, she figured she might as well give it a shot.

Eventually, after changing channels for what felt like forever, Quinn was faced with a black screen. Her eyes widened as a channel menu came into view.

It was a music station, and as Quinn flipped through the music guide, a weak smile grew upon her face once she got to a station she liked. The music wasn't much entertainment, but it at least gave her a chance to avoid being alone with her thoughts. Despite her thoughts bringing her immense displeasure, they were her only source of familiarity, and Quinn much preferred displeasure over boredom.

On a regular day, her mind was filled with nothing but work. Today however, was much different. Now that she was on somewhat of a mindless vacation, in between hopeless fantasies of rescue, Quinn actually began thinking about herself for once. As she sat on the couch, devoid of all feeling, vivid memories of her youth taunted her emotional state. 

Even though it had been months since she had last seen her, Quinn missed Mack. More specifically, the Mack who used to be her bestfriend. Mack, alongside various other characters Quinn had met and eventually discarded along the way, shaped her youth, and lead her to become the person she was today. For that, Quinn was thankful. She saw Mack's constant jealously and sabotage as a way to learn. Quinn vowed to never let someone like that fool her again, yet there she was, trapped, afraid, and hopeless all because she trusted one man whom she had only known for a week. 

Quinn groaned. She didn't want to think about Spike anymore. She shook her head as her mind wandered elsewhere. Quinn suddenly recalled memories of her mother. She hadn't seen her since she had graduated university, and as far as Quinn was concerned, it was for the better.  Due to her mothers lack of selflessness and her fathers inability to function without alcohol, Quinn's teen years were almost unbearable. 

Her parents, although typically progressive, had a hard time accepting Quinn's unique personality, and Quinn was very aware of this. It pained her to know her parents would never accept her if she had married a woman, but ultimately, Quinn knew if they wouldn't accept that small factor of her life, they most likely weren't going to accept anything else about her. They weren't worth her time, but that wasn't something she was willing to fully accept just yet. m

All throughout her youth, Quinn tried to please her parents, but it never worked. Nothing ever seemed to make them happy, and the last time she saw genuine fondness on their faces was the day she moved out. 

Her childhood was far from perfect, and if it weren't for her younger brother, she most likely wouldn't have made it out alive. Her brother was the one glue holding her to her promises, and luckily she still kept in contact with him. It had been quite sometime since she had last seen him, and now, more than ever before, Quinn wanted him to be there with her. 

Her impending doom was slowly eating her alive, and the loneliness she had been feeling for months was quickly becoming too much to bear. Quinn didn't have much of a life outside of work, and when Spike came back, he was the first thing she had allowed into her life that wasn't business related. Even Sophie, being one of her closest friends, was only connected to her through work. 

Quinn felt as if a part of her was dying here, alone on this empty slab of land off the shore of God knows where. Her past was creeping up on her like an animal stalking its prey, and Quinn, being the prey, knew she didn't have much fight left in her. After all she had fought for growing up, dealing with Mack, running for her life, she didn't know what it was all for. 

She had barely any friends, no family, and the one person she loved had betrayed her all those months ago. She didn't want to go out like this, but she didn't really feel like she had a say in the matter. Quinn sighed as she ran a hand through her hair. The thoughts spinning through her mind were making her dizzy. She felt sick. 

Was her life really worth living? Yes, she had money, power, and a stable career ahead of her, but without the inclusion of social support, was her life really anything more than a job? She didn't know, and she began to wonder if anything she had was really worth working for. Had she known her life was going to end up like this, maybe she wouldn't have pushed herself so hard in university. Maybe she would have spent more time building a relationship with her mother, or maybe she would have taken the time to help her father.

Finding the strength to go on was going to be difficult, but Quinn had a feeling she could do it. The confidence she had was limited, but there was an ache in her heart that told her to keep on going. Quinn sighed once more before reaching for the remote on the table. She turned the music up louder in attempts to muffle her overactive mind. 

As music played loudly in the background, Quinn got up and made her way to the kitchen. The wood flooring was ice cold, and Quinn shivered as her feet  hit the ground. She tugged her blazer closer to her torso as she jogged out of the living room. The warmth of the fireplace didn't extend into the kitchen, so she hurriedly grabbed herself a glass of water, and sprinted back into the living space. 

As she set her glass down on the tabletop, a flash of light caught her eye. Quinn blinked in confusion as she took a seat on the couch. She kept her eyes open for a moment, but the flash disappeared as quickly as it came. She figured her eyes were just playing tricks on her, considering she was still groggy from her nap.

She shrugged and leaned back into the couch. 

The light flashed again.

Quinn hardly saw it, but she knew she wasn't going crazy. There indeed was a light flickering beneath the glass tabletop.

Quinn leaned forwards, placing her hands on the tables surface. Underneath the glass were two baskets filled with more magazines and comics. Quinn's eyes widened as she carefully examined both baskets.

The light flickered again.

Quinn's eyebrow raised as she recognized the lights tinted, blue hue.

"No way," she mumbled to herself as she pulled out one of the baskets. She began sifting through the magazines, throwing them out onto the floor and table with no care at all.

Was her mind playing tricks on her? Definitely not, she had seen the light flash, and she knew exactly where it was coming from. As she dug through the basket, a familiar, space grey, metal shell caught her eye. The blue light flickered again as Quinn retrieved the object from the basket.

It was her laptop. The blue flashing light was indicating that it was low battery. 

Quinn stared at it in disbelief as memories from the previous night began flooding into her mind. Vicious had clearly taken her things with him, and it looked like he had failed to dispose of the contents in her bag, though her bag was nowhere to be found. Quinn wondered if he had hidden it elsewhere, but that wasn't important at the moment. She finally had a means of communication with the outside world, and she wanted to utilize its features before its battery ran out. 

Quinn opened her laptop. The screen flickered on, but to her dismay, the glass touchscreen was completely shattered.  Quinn's smile quickly faded as dozens of notifications began flooding into her desktop. She couldn't answer them, or even read what they said. All she could hear was the taunting notification sound of messages bombarding her inaccessible inbox.

"Please don't do this," Quinn fret as she hopelessly ran her fingers over the damaged screen. The touch screen option wasn't working, and none of the keys were responding either.

"Come on, please do something," She panicked as she held her finger over the power button. To her surprise, the voice control activated. Quinn's breath caught in her throat as her jaw dropped to the floor. Voice control didn't work at the best of times so Quinn was delighted to hear the sound of the microphone turning on. 

"C-call Sophie," she stammered, her heart beating rapidly in her chest. 

Quinn listened impatiently as the call began to ring. 

Sophie, being an intense phone addict, should have been waiting on the other end. 

"Sophie come on, where are you," Quinn grumbled. The line had only been active for a few seconds, only long enough for the call to ring twice, and just as she thought Sophie had answered, the screen went black. Quinn gasped as the blue flashing light flickered one last time before slowly fading out.

"No, this can't be... Not like this!" Quinn shouted through grit teeth as she furiously pounded her finger against the power button.

"Please, turn on," Quinn sobbed, rage coursing through her veins.

Her attempts to reboot the device were futile. No matter how many times she pressed the power button, it wasn't going to turn on. Her laptop was now dead, and Sophie never had the chance to receive the call. 

Quinn was speechless. She slammed the screen shut and tossed the device to her side. 

"You've got to be kidding me," Quinn groaned as she buried her face in her hands. She had no tears left to cry, but the sensation was still there. Her face was hot with anger, and her hands were shaking with rage. She wanted nothing more but to destroy the bastard who had taken her here, but she knew that would get her no further.

With no means of escape and no hope of rescue, Quinn sat defeated with very little optimism in her heart. She had a chance to escape, but it was squandered by her unluckiness. She had gotten her hopes up when the voice control activated, maybe she had jinxed her chances. Whatever the reason was, Quinn was stuck in a hard place.   

Suddenly, the sound of a shuttle approaching overhead caught Quinn's ear. Quinn lifted her head from her palms as the shuttle got closer and closer to the house. 

"Shit," Quinn cursed as she began tossing the magazines back into the basket, making sure her laptop was buried inside as well. She listened as the shuttle landed outside. Quinn stood up and began retrieving the magazines she had tossed onto the floor. She was moving as fast as she could, and just as she slid the last magazine into the basket, the front door opened.

{A/N finals kicked my ass... passing with good grades, but MY MIND IS SPINNNNING. Getting this chapter out has been so freaking hard, but I AM STILL INVESTED. I plan on wrapping this story up pretty soon, if you have any requests/suggestions for my last couple chapters, PLEASE leave a comment! I want to be inspired! <3}