Chapter Twenty Eight

*Ariya*


I couldn’t help myself. I busted out laughing, “You honestly believe that I’m that stupid. You honestly believe I would tell you the entirety of my plan? What happened to ‘we’ll see who the true master of strategy is’?”
Boss punched me square in the jaw. My head jerked to the side as I spit out blood. I turned back to him intrigued. Boss had been mad before, but at this moment, he lost control of his composure. He thought he was going to be victorious at this moment. He didn’t know who he was messing with.
“Don’t forget who you’re messing with, Ariya! I have your little doggy, Link, and Mya, and something even more precious to you! You can’t lie to me, Ariya! I’ll know when you do! Don’t forget the rules of our conversation. If you refuse to answer a question your little doggy gets tortured and you’re the one that has to do it!”
I glared at Boss. “Oh I’m not refusing to answer your question so you can forget about torturing Caleb.”
“Answer the question. What is the entirety of your plan?” Boss said through gritted teeth.
“You better listen closely. It’s a good one.” I smirked, “I. Don’t. Know. The. Plan.”
Boss narrowed his eyes at me, “WHAT?!” He shouted enraged.
I laughed again. Boss punched me in the gut, making me lose my breath, silencing me. I giggled as I tried catching my breath. “I don’t know the plan. And you know I’m not lying. I’m not refusing to answer the question. I genuinely don’t know the plan.”
“How is that possible?” Boss glared at me.
“You. You made it possible when you sent me back home that night after you guys found us. We didn’t have time after I turned to fill Drake in on the entirety of the plan. We had to get back to an area to make it believable that we had found Drake but also almost died. Everything happened so fast there wasn’t time to go through it all. But when you debriefed us briefly and then sent us home to get rest, YOU opened up the door for us to solidify everything. You only have yourself to blame. That was your first mistake. If we were playing chess, you just lost your horse.” I said mocking Boss.
“What did you do?!” Boss shouted.
“I had Drake lock it all away. We broke down every part of the plan to him. I do remember that much. That we talked. But he locked it away after that. Just like other parts of my memories that I’m sure I’ll eventually get back. Drake locked the entirety of the plan away. And the key on that, I don’t even know what it is, but I’m sure it has something to do with Drake since he’s the only one who you can’t seem to not only find, but capture.” I laughed again.
A massive amount of gravity pressure was forced onto me. I cried out in pain as my body was being forced down but my arms couldn’t come with. As they were about to be ripped out of the socket, Boss stopped the pressure.
“You forget I can get it out of your little doggy.”
“No you can’t. Because even if Caleb actually was here, he doesn’t know the plan either. Drake locked away both of our memories. The only way we’ll know what the next part of the plan is, is right before it’s supposed to happen. I planned for everything to happen. Every possible twist and wrinkle. Even things we weren’t sure about. I planned for all of it. I’ll only learn what the next step is as things happen. Just face it, you’ve lost this round. You might think you’re the better strategist but you’re sadly mistaken. If you think this is going to be easy, you’re going to lose before you’ve even taken a few steps. We’re in a minefield and I’m running through it without fear. Meanwhile you’re just standing there, scared to move.”
Boss’s eyes narrowed at me. I could see him trying to figure things out. Even though he was angry, he didn’t miss my words. “What do you mean ‘even if Caleb was actually here’?”
“Isn’t it technically my turn to ask a question? I should have like 3 or 4 now right?”
“NO MORE GAMES!” Boss roared.
I laughed, “Whatever, have it your way, after all, I’m currently at your mercy. You couldn’t possibly have Caleb because Caleb is with Drake. They left after I came back here. Even if you did manage to track them down, you honestly believe that I would believe that you somehow managed to get one over on Drake? You’ve never managed to capture Drake, much less get within 100 feet of him. You’ve been trying for 18 years and he’s always been 10 steps ahead of you. Even if you managed to capture Drake, why keep us alive? You would automatically win if you got Drake and me. You know how to kill us, so why risk us escaping? You’re not stupid. So stop acting like it.”
Boss was contemplating my words. He knew he’d lost this round. I decided to push a little bit more, “Oh and besides all that, even if you did manage to get Drake, you don’t think I would realize half the staff suddenly disappearing? You know Drake could kill half of them within a blink of an eye. How’s it feel, Boss, to know you’re being beaten at your own game by a child?”
That was enough to send him over the edge. Boss lost all control of his emotions and let loose, using me as his personal punching bag. As I took each hit he threw at me it clicked in my mind. This was also part of the plan. Even though we could heal ourselves and our body automatically did it, it didn’t mean that we didn’t feel the pain. The pain was a hard thing to overcome. To be able to continue moving forward and to be able to move through the pain took years of mastery. It still hurt like crazy, but being able to know that the pain was temporary and persevere regardless. That was a skill that Drake had learned, just as he learned to control the fear that came with the pain. I’m sure he had taught Keo over the last 14 years. Drake had told me when we went through this part that fear was a choice. That the only person in control of your emotions was you. Regardless of what you end up telling yourself, you make the decision each day. If you work on the thoughts you tell yourself, you can control your emotions. The choice is yours. To become a master of your own mind was a powerful skill. So I just had to tell myself the other side of what was happening. That Boss was just hardening my body by doing what he was doing. The pain wouldn’t last and without realizing it, Boss was making me stronger. Which also meant he was making his opponent that much harder to take down.
I knew that Boss would want to have the last word for today. As much as I thought I’d prepared for everything. I wasn’t actually prepared for the next words that came out of his mouth.
“You know, Ariya. I was going to be nice about all of this. If you’d only just behaved. But you messed up. So I guess now you’ll never know where your Mother is.”