I laid there trying to hold together the last shreds of my dignity. Part of me wanted to weep in happiness that my eyesight had recovered. I'd been pretending everything was alright. Roy and Daniel had told me the plight would be over in a few days so I held off panicking until the time frame passed. Vision had just snapped together. Complete, whole, as easy as breathing.

When they shoved me into another car, I could see it happen. When they forced Mrs. Richards and her son into a second car, I could see it happen. When Roy looked at me with a barely apologetic expression, I could see it happen. That part was fantastic. The remaining events weren’t as enjoyable.

Roy wasn't driving the car. He seemed uncomfortable about it. Someone else had the wheel. *A silence twitch female who wasn’t a wolf. Not an elf either, though she almost had that rail thin build. She could be an anorexic human for all I knew. I'd seen recovering drug addicts who were much the same.

She drove like our lives depended on it. A second similar car peeled off in another direction. I saw Cliff and his mother in the back looking fearful.

My jaw was firmly busted so talking was impossible. It didn't stop me from trying. More than a few failures later I finally kicked at the back of Roy's chair. He turned back, and calmly slapped me across the face with the butt of his pistol. I stayed quiet and contemplated the fresh wound.

We ended up at a warehouse. I wasn't sure where. Seeing things was disorienting. My busted face wasn't healing anywhere near the speed I'd hoped for. Before, a cracked rib had healed in minutes. This went nowhere. Roy didn't even offer me a towel to mop my face up with. The car we were driving in was probably stolen then. No one in their right mind would want this kind of mess. Was I becoming expendable?

Was this the final resort for what I was? I'd spoken to Daniel. Daniel had sent out Roy and his family. Maybe they decided that killing me was safer than letting anyone else get their hands on me. No one could reset the world if the button didn’t work.

I was yanked out of the car. Roy had more power in his limbs than I did in my entire body. He didn't even let me stand up. The world jumbled around as I flopped onto the ground. More kicks followed, herding me into position.

"Clean him up." Female words were fuzzy from ringing in my ears. "I want to see his face." Boss Wylde was here. What the hell?

"Runt, towel." Roy's words were strained. He was angry at me. Or maybe he was just in intimidation mode.

A third person shoved the towel in my face then dragged it across. No kindness showed itself anywhere in the gesture. Everything hurt even more. Someone's calloused hand at the back of my neck prevented me from recoiling in fresh pain.

It was easier to see after they cleaned my face off. It didn't last long and fresh blood trickled down from the damage, grimy in some places. Any healing I had was probably spent on keeping my bullet wounds closed.

"Well, John." Boss Wylde said.

I couldn't bring myself to smile back.

"Seems we're at an impasse." She tilted her head to one side and a spiral of hair bobbed.

One eyebrow lifted upwards. We were just now at an impasse, really?

"Our lovely Western Sector contact tells me I need to dispose of you. That you've outlived your usefulness as a decoy."

"What?" I tried to say. Someone held my head in place so I couldn't even jerk around to demand an answer.

"See, you've done something stupid. You've tried to lead some of them- “ She spit the word out like a curse. “-into our little home. When a decoy returns home they're no longer useful are they?" Boss Wylde and her damned heels were clicking around on the asphalt. Roy and his family member, bouncer number six or whoever, just stood there.

Had I really done something wrong?

"Roy, make sure he's paying attention." The redhead snapped fingers at me.

I realized what that meant about a split second before being kicked forward. They didn't even let me right myself. Instead, the chief of Bottom Pit's security lifted me up by my head. One meaty hand reaching fingers around my skull with a grip that made me feel like a fragile egg.

"You paying attention, John?" She asked while leaning in.

"Yes." I hastily slurred the word and tried not to look down her dress. Something about Boss Wylde was attractive and I couldn’t tell for sure what that might be.

"Good. We're not heartless animals. We're going to wipe your mind again. Put you back in the pathetic little life we found you in."

"Huh?" Was my witty response.

"Jesus. Muni, this guy doesn't even understand what's going on." Boss Wylde stood back up and sighed.

Muni practically faded into view. She looked upset and withdrawn at the same time. Her clothes were indistinct, hair jet black, ribbons and feathers twined together. Where Muni was concerned, memory was untrustworthy. She'd probably been standing there the entire time and my brain refused to register her right.

"He doesn't have much left," Muni said with a hesitant chirp. The black haired woman didn’t seem to like Boss Wylde anymore than she liked me.

"Then wipe him and let's be done with it. A ruse discovered will only hurt us now. We need to get rid of some of the players."

"I understand." Muni almost hopped forward. Every movement careful, one of her eyes looking at my face for the slightest aggressive move.

Roy was holding me with those giant hands. There was no way I could to do anything. Even thinking about it hurt. I wanted to demand answers from her, from Roy, from Boss Wylde, and lips refused to form more than a single syllable.

I struggled to speak anyway. My throat swallowed and Muni paused in her approach.

"Found Cliff." I got the words out. She deserved to know that much at least. “They wanted you.”

She slowly nodded but didn’t smile.

"Muni, what's the chance this won't work?" Boss Wylde asked while watching our exchange. There was a frown on her lips that felt out of place.

The former waitress and her jet black hair turned around to Boss Wylde. Then she shrugged and said something I couldn't quite remember. They were words that became lost in the moment. Chances were Muni's abusive memory abilities were already coming into play.

"Then let me say a few things in case he does something stupid." Boss Wylde’s heels clicked over again. Roy and the other man lifted me up higher and held my arms in a lock. There was no way I could manage to struggle out of this even if I wanted to.

All that my brain could process was the idea that I was a decoy. With Muni right here, and her ability to screw with memories, it was entirely possible that everything going on was false. My entire life had no center anymore. Without Julianne, without Kahina, and now, being told that Daniel had somehow turned me in was like salt in the wound.

"Are you listening, John?" The redheaded boss of Bottom Pit was right in my face demanding an answer.

Shrugging got me backhanded which made ears ring. My face stung even more than it already did. Things were getting blurry again. It wasn't my eyesight going out this time, it was just hard to see through tears and blood.

"A man I respect taught me very important lessons prior to passing. I'm going to share one if you'll listen." She said.

My eye was swollen and jaw probably broken. I felt certain there was fresh liquid trickling down my chin from a split lip. This situation meant any words uttered would be pointless. I knew it, and she knew it. I nodded anyway.

"When you threaten someone there are rules to follow. You don't warn them." She stepped around the room with that slick dress.

Boss Wylde and Kahina were alike in that. All business was conducted in professional clothing. Recreation was something different. I could almost picture the redhead naked and it didn’t help me process this situation at all.

"You make it hurt." Her hand twisted together in a pantomime of snapping someone's head off. "You wound something precious. A near miss if you will."

Boss Wylde turned to stare at me. Eyesight had recovered enough that I could actually look her in the eye. The expression was one that didn't make sense. A mix of anger and frustration. Not targeted at me, though. Then again in her mind, I was just a decoy.

"Do those sound like fair guidelines?" She asked.

"Sure." My words didn't sound right. The busted lip wasn't helping.

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"Am I threatening you?"

"Don't know." I wanted to shrug. Laying there was about as far as I got.

"Rest assured that if I ever threaten you, you'll know. That's the last part of the lesson. You make sure they understand the message."

"Nothing left." I tried to explain how there were very few things left to take away from me. Roy and his family were betraying me. My brief reintroduction to some sort of group was a sham. Boss Wylde was telling me that my entire life was a lie. Even if it wasn't, Kahina was sleeping with another man. Daniel wasn't here and had sold me out.

"For now," She said. "If you do warrant a threat, rest assured I'll find something." Her heels clicked around again.

"Sounds wrong," I mumbled as a stray thought occurred to me. My wrist itched like mad as I tried to figure out what could possibly be bothering me besides the obvious. Roy almost, but not quite, chuckled behind me.

"Oh? Do tell me about my man’s wisdom, seeing as how you're such a brilliant specimen and know everything." Mockery laced her words. "What do you, in this startling bout of insight, think the lesson was? A man you've never met?"

I waited for a moment. Not because my mind didn't have an answer. There was one, it had unfurled in the back of my brain. Offered by the same source that handled tracking. In the same manner, other memories were unearthed.

"Warranted vengeance is swift, silent, and clearly understood," I said the words slowly, focusing on each chunk of the saying as it came out. It felt like words from a long dead man echoing from my mouth. Memories dredged from the same place as my words during Roy’s trial for the three runts.

There was silence. Boss Wylde was agitated. Not only agitated, something about what I'd said bothered her immensely. It bothered me too. I could almost feel the gears working at high speeds in her head. Her entire stance radiated frustration with me and everything else.

"There was another lesson." She got closer.

I tensed. There was no way getting into a fight with her could be healthy for me. The way she walked, the way she moved, without fear, without a doubt of superiority, in a place like this. She earned that walk and I knew it.

"When you lie, lie so well that those closest never suspect." She paused and held her breath very carefully. "Are you lying to me, John?"

"Don't know." That wasn't the important aspect. It wasn't the message she was trying to get across. In her eyes, in her expression, there was this hint. That something wasn't what it felt like.

"Then I'll tell you a truth. Muni's mind wipe will remove everything you've experienced as John." She paused and considered her next words. "There'd better never be a whisper that you remember any of this. Or rest assured you'll know when the threat comes. If a normal life away from this Hell means anything then you need to keep your goddamned mouth shut."

Boss Wylde’s attitude reminded me of a furnace aflame. Her words and that thick red hair ringed around a freckled face might have been cute under any other circumstance. Now, though, it was disturbing. I heard her words and nodded as seriously as I could manage. Finally, Boss Wylde turned away, either satisfied with my answer or upset. The way she stood could have easily been either emotion.

"Fantastic. Muni, finish wiping this little puppet's mind and send him somewhere useless." The redhead said with a wave. "You two." Boss Wylde pointed to someone nearby. "Torch the car and clean up this floor. We were never here."

She and those jabbing heels clicked off into the distance. Roy went with her. They left me behind bound and helpless. Some family. Some fucking failure of a family.

Muni stepped between me and the sight of that arrogant woman's backside. I'd been practicing my laser death beam glare, but the liquid pooling over my eyes was stopping the full effect. That, plus being on the ground without even enough strength to stand. Nothing was healing fast enough. I had abused my abilities to the breaking point. And now Muni was swooping in to mess up my mind even more. Like it wasn't riddled with holes already.

"No." I tried to protest and scoot myself backward. Roy's brat had left me alone, he was busy pouring gasoline on the car. I could smell the fuel.

My glare at Muni caused hesitation. Then she stepped in again. I pulled back a lip and growled but couldn't actually swipe at the female. Finally, braving the distance, she hopped in. Three feet away from my face and she started fiddling around.

"No. They're mine." I had to fight this and couldn’t lose.

Her eyes told me that she didn't like what was about to happen. Once Muni had told me that trying to mess with my memories was like comparing a hurricane to a rainstorm. Maybe. If I had strength.

"Stop," I said.

She plucked at ribbons in her hair. Yanked them out and wove the bands together. Not once did an utterance pass her lips. Her body shifted, twisted around as fingers laced the strands of string around and over and through. I tried to kick myself away. She'd done this in front of me once before.

"Don't want to lose anymore." My pathetic words spilled out. Half mumbles Full desperation. "Not again."

When Muni removed memories it was much different. Liquid marbles would pour out of a person's head. Almost like miniature grapes bubbling to the surface. It was disturbing. This sort of knotting, weaving, the bands, it was to mess with my memory. Not remove it.

They were putting another layer over me. They'd broken me, left me half beaten and in pain, taken away from everything. They were going to remove me even further. No one would go to this kind of trouble for a simple decoy. It was all subterfuge for someone. A plan.

"Not again..." I whimpered.

Muni slid another bracelet around my wrist, next to the first one, and the world dimmed. I felt like a man in a mansion with endless rooms. In those rooms were chapters of my life, items won, people's faces, names, friends, and enemies. Things I'd done, places I'd been. Each room had a light suspended above the various collections, some fixtures were powered on, others off.

Muni's trinket slowly powered down room after room. Entire swaths of personal history glazed over as sections went dark. My more recent adventures were the hardest hit. A room containing Julianne's bar blurred from distinct moments in history to a location that seemed the same as every other drunken dive I had ever been in.

Bottom Pit became another place in the background. It was an easy room to lose, with so many things still unprocessed. Barnie and Ted, Roy, Boss Wylde, the waitresses. Each fixture in these rooms of memory collapsed. The real three dimensional moments turned to meaningless cardboard cutouts.

"Please no." I was begging as the changes continued.

Kahina, the driving force in my life. Her room became empty, save for a life-sized still image. I could almost see it moving, almost see the memory smile, flash into motion. With a simple blink, her face had transformed from a smile to this cold passionless expression. Her body lost those vibrant lifelike colors and shifted to an empty pastel painting. Now she was just another vague person from the past.

"Can't take anymore..." I didn't even know why I was arguing. It had grown impossible to remember.

"Remember your promise, Lord. My brother. Even if this breaks you will be incomplete. I hold your memories ransom." Muni cawed partially tangible words at me.

One eye was open and barely functional as changes reformatted my mind. Just enough strength to make out Muni's face. The feathers weren't just in her hair. They came from her skin, from everywhere. Those jet black tresses were a simple camouflage for what she really was. Featherhead. She hated me, was afraid of me, yet needed my assistance.

There was a room for that too. One with me and her talking hung on the wall like a picture frame. I had made her a promise to find someone. That memory was lost vanishing as everything continued to shut down.

"Mine. Mine." Something was wrong. "All gone." My face hurt and I had no idea why. Cold concrete against my side was forgotten as soon as I noticed it. Even my new memories were being buried.

I was crying, and couldn't remember why.

After an eternity of confusion, other lights switched on, other memories surfaced, and things shifted around. Among all the changes swam a very clear thought.

This wasn't betrayal.

I closed my eyes and let oblivion take me away.