Chapter 41

Ivy opened her eyes; the room was bright, meaning the sun was up. She was still weak, but she was able to sit up on her own.

“Quinn?” she quizzed to see if she could hear him.

“Yeah love, are you okay?” he questioned.

“I feel weird still but was I dreaming?” she said looking around.

“No, I don’t know what they have planned for you, but you need to get away from them as soon as you can. I will let Nick go, but you have to come back to me.”

“I still don’t trust you either,” Ivy said pushing the covers off of her. “I don’t know what anyone has planned for me.” She said shaking her head she felt like she was going to puke. “I feel dizzy.” She said looking at the door half expecting Samuel to come into the room as soon as she put her feet on the ground. She was a little nervous about today; she wondered what would happen today.

“You have to be careful they are going to keep you weak Ivy, keep your guards up, and don’t trust them.” He said before the door opened and Ivy had to shake her head.

“How are you feeling today?” Samuel said coming in with some hot tea.

“Weird.” She said with a frown. “I don’t feel like drinking hot tea.” She said looking at the drink he had in his hand.

“You have to; it will make you feel better.” He said setting it down in front of her. “Once you finish it, we are going downstairs, the Elders want to talk to you about everything and get you prepared to train against Quinn. We don’t have that long to prepare. They don’t think he is going to keep Nick alive long before he kills him.” He said with a serious looking on his face. “The longer we have to wait for you to be ready the more likely it is for Nick to die.”

“I don’t think Quinn is going to kill him,” Ivy said looking at him. “How about we go downstairs and talk to the Elders now.”

“No, please drink this.” He said picking up the tea. “It will take the dizziness away I promise you.” He said putting it near her hands.

“Look I am going straight to the point. You drugged me last night, you don’t want me running off on you, I get that, but keeping me drugged isn’t going to fair well with me.” She said looking at the tea. “I’m guessing this is drugged too.” She said knocking it out of his hand. It spilled all over the floor, the cup shattered.

Samuel grabbed her arm; “now why would you go and do something like that?” he growled pulling her up. “Now we have to go and explain to Elder John why you are fighting him on what he wants to do.” He said throwing her against the wall.

“So, Quinn was right, you are after the same thing he is. You just want the power over me; you don’t even want to ensure I am safe.” She said trying to get away from him, but he grabbed her again.

“How are you communicating Quinn?” he growled pushing her against the wall. “The drugs we’ve been giving you should be stopping the dark dweller magic.”

“So that confirms you are drugging me.” She growled. “You are not helping me,” she trying pushing him away from her, but she was too weak.

“We are going to help you, but we have to weaken his hold on you. We need you as weak as possible so our magic can overtake his.” He said touching her face. “We’re not trying to hurt you Ivy I need you to understand this.” His eyes softened. “I don’t mean to hurt you, I am sorry. Please forgive me.”

“I want to speak to Elder John, everything you are doing to me isn’t making sense, and this is just making me feel like you are lying to me. You guys haven’t even been honest with me. Had you told me you wanted to weaken the magic on me, I would have allowed it, but you’re giving me drugs without me knowing. How does this make you look?”

“I understand where you think this is going Ivy, we don’t expect you to understand, and you are new into our world. We’ve been dealing with Quinn for a long time.” He said grabbing her arm. “I guess it’s time to take you downstairs, Elder John is going to have to explain things to you and you will have to do what he says.”

“I don’t have to do anything anyone says, if I don’t like something I will walk away from here, you are not going to keep me, prisoner, here, I will not allow it.” She said trying to walk, but the room started to spin again.

“Well, I don’t see you getting very far.” He said grabbing onto her arm.

“All thanks to you.” She snapped. “Thanks for keeping me safe per your promise to my parents.” She said sarcastically. She wanted to walk all on her own, but she knew with the drugs that they were giving her, there was a chance in hell that she would be able to do anything by herself. Samuel was going to force her to take the drugs, or they were going to hold her down and make her take them. She was afraid for her life; she had to figure out how to get out of there alive. She was already afraid.

“Ivy when you realize that the threat to our people is a lot bigger than you know, you will understand why the Elders wanted you drugged the way you here.” He said helping her down the stairs and into another room. “Sit down and I will get Elder John.”

Ivy looked around the office; he was a plain room with nothing special about it. It felt like no one lived there, no one cared to make it special. She felt like she was going to be sick. If she wanted to puke she would make sure it ended up on the floor and not all over her. She thought about getting in touch with Quinn again, but she would wait until she was in her room again.

She would wait to tell him about their plans; she wasn’t sure if he was truly going to let Nick go, or if he was hurting him. She prayed Quinn would let him go and she would go with him willingly. She was still scared that he would go against everything, kill Nick, and force her into pregnancy after pregnancy.

“How are you feeling Ivy?” Elder John asked coming in the room with Samuel.

“I don’t know how am I supposed to feel? Seeing that you wanted me drugged to ensure I didn’t leave in the middle of the night?” she snapped.

“I told you?” Samuel said looking at him and then her. Samuel said leaning against the wall. He watched how Ivy was, she was pissed, and he liked when she was mad. He could tell she was powerful; she just didn’t know how to use her powers yet. If they would teach her, the dwellers would be a lot stronger, and Quinn would go down quickly.

“I am sorry we had to do that, I didn’t want to take a chance and having you running around in the dark and having Quinn take you.” He said sitting down at the desk. “But I know Samuel told you that we started to weaken his magic hold on you, we need to level the magic out before we change your energy to ours. We don’t want it to fail and things to go south here.” He said looking at Samuel. “I don’t want you to fight us Ivy that’s the last thing that should be happening here, and you of all people should be open to trying new things. Your parent sadly didn’t want you involved in any of this and that’s why they were killed.”

“All you have to do is be honest here.” She snapped. “I don’t have to be drugged at night because you’re afraid I am going to outsmart you and run.” She said leaning back in her chair. “If I wanted to leave I would have left.” She said glancing at Samuel. “You could make my stay here a little less guarded and a little more pleasant.”

“No Ivy you won’t be able to leave now.” He snapped. “Go ahead and try and see how far you can get.” Elder John mused. “I’ll give you one evening, and if you escape I’ll let you run, but if you get caught you do things our way.”

“Why do you have to play like Quinn, why does this whole thing have to be like a game to you dwellers?” Ivy growled rolling her eyes. “This all seems like a big fucking game.” She said getting to her feet, but she felt dizzy again and fell to her knees.

“Oh, I forgot to mention, those drugs we’ve given you.” Elder John came around and knelt. “If you don’t drink what you’re given will continue to make you feel like this, and soon you will,” he said grabbing her chin forcing her eyes to meet his. “Slip into a coma until I decide to wake you.” He said letting her go. “Get her the tea before she cannot stay awake, and get a guard with her at all times. Her time is short.” He said leaving the office.

“Here Ivy, drink this,” Marcie said leaning down next to her with a cup of tea. “It will help.

“I, I don’t understand,” Ivy said taking the tea and drinking it. “What the fuck are you guys doing to me?”

Ivy was pissed; she didn’t want to do what they said. She couldn’t believe

Marcie of all people was there watching this all unfold and didn’t do anything to stop it. Did they do this to Nick, and she just stood there and let it happen? Ivy wanted to throw the cup away from her and try and run from them. She wanted to get up and show them she was strong-willed and didn’t need their shitty medicine.

She wasn’t even sure this stuff was working, she figured this was all a big lie and soon she was going to be faced with the truth and she was going to be too weak to do anything, and soon she would see the world for the truth.

“Please Ivy just do what Elder John says,” Marcie whispered. “He will hurt you if you don’t do what he says, I don’t want to see you hurt.”

“I don’t want you near me. Did you just stand there when they did this to your own fucking son?” Ivy stumbled over the words.

“Nick, Nick was tortured.” She sobbed “for thirty days.”

“Good, then I know why he hates you!” Ivy growled. “Or why he should, I would hate you too.” She managed to say before Marcie slapped her.

“Thank you.” Ivy managed to say. “At least I am still alive.”

Ivy wanted to die right then and there, she knew saying that to Marcie was wrong, and she didn’t know Nick was tortured for being a white dweller. She felt bad for saying those things about him, she wanted to hug Marcie, but her head was spinning worse and worse. She knew this tea was crap and she wanted to throw it, but she was almost done with it.

Samuel stood in the corner and watched her struggle with it, he didn’t care that she couldn’t do this alone, he wanted to help her but he had to stay away from her because Elder John wanted to see her struggle. Elder John stood in the hallway watching curiously.