Jamie's POV
When I come to, I find it hard to stay conscious, and immediately just want to black out again.
"Jamie," I try to see past the spots blurring my vision, the fluorescent lighting stinging my green eyes till they water up. "Jamie." I make out Riley's voice, the urgency in his strained tone catching my disoriented attention.
"Riley?" I try, not recognizing my hoarse voice. It's as if I'm trying to talk through a mouthful of cotton balls. How unbearably dry my mouth is doesn't help at all. I'm parched. The inside my mouth feels like a drought.
"Jamie. Jamie. Jamie. Jamie!" Following the sound of his voice, I find Riley strapped down to a tattoo chair, straining to pull free from his restraints.
"Jamie, are you okay?!" Riley demands, reaching for me despite being tied down at the wrists, his fingers stretch out towards me helplessly at his side.
"Are..." My head starts to pound with a fierce headache as I try to make sense of things. I try to sit up, but like Riley, I'm strapped down into a tattoo chair by the wrists and ankles. "Are we in a tattoo parlor?"
"Nate, that bastard," Riley spits, thrashing against his ropes. "I swear to god, if whatever that goon from the restaurant put in our drinks was addictive, I'm gonna put him in the nearest hospital."
I tug at the ropes, getting nowhere. I'm completely numb, as if every limb was injected with a heavy dosage of novocaine. I feel like a heavy, useless rock against the chair.
"Is Ginger finally awake?" Nate's voice comes from above me. Fingers digging into my scalp, while a bulky ring presses hard against the top of my cranium. Forcing my red head around, Nate comes into focus. The dirty blonde looms over me, his flared nostrils caked in a white substance.
"Morning, sunshine." Nate dips low, his unnaturally pale tongue darting out like a slithering snake is the last thing I see. The tip of his nose piercing feels icy against my skin, as he runs the length of his tongue from my chin to my forehead. His sticky salvia leaves a trail across my skin, though it's nothing compared to Nate's moggy, humid breath fuming against me like the worst day of summer. I try to make myself small against the chair, the flesh under Nate's touch feeling as if it's getting scorched.
"Nate!" Riley lets out an aggravated yell as he thrashes twice as hard against the ropes, that the chair under him rattles. "Let us out of here!"
With an annoyed gleam in his dilated green eyes, Nate wordlessly goes over to Riley's chair. Without warning, Nate's ring cladded rings hammers down against Riley's nose with a god awful crack.
"Fuck," Riley spits out the blood gushing down from his broken nose. "you!"
"You've never had the balls to say that to me before. I'm not sure whether I'm impressed, or angry." Nate scoffs, grabbing a fistful of Riley's matted dark hair. "But since you're my best friend - since we're all such good friends - I'll let it go." I don't like the excited look on Nate's face. The numbness starts to fade away, a sore ache all over my body takes its place as I start to regain motion.
"Nate." I tense up under the rope. "Why are we tied down?" I don't know how I manage my voice to come out so steady, but I just hope I can keep this tone.
"That's easy. It's for your safety." Unable to move from the neck down, I have to settle for following Nate move around the tattoo parlor with my eyes. "People squirm too much when it comes to needles. This is too make sure none of you hurt yourselves." Nate explains with a smug smirk that makes my blood run cold.
"Let us go, right fucking now!" Riley booms, a vain in his neck threatening to pop. He fights against the ropes again so hard I swear he'll break his ankles and wrists.
"He's just scared, like the pansy he is." Nate waves off, mindlessly smoothing down my knotty red hair. Nate's tattoo hands slither down, coming a down my nose. The cold metal of Nate's rings are heavy against the bridge of my nose. Nate's inked fingers pinch so hard on my freckle nose, I swear he'll break my nose off like a statue. "Don't talk to me like that again, or I'll break Ginger's nose next."
Riley falls quiet with a panicked look in his brown eyes. Riley fights even harder against the restraints, sending the blood oozing down his face all over his sweatshirt. When Nate's lets go, it's as if a million ton weight is lifted.
"That's what I thought. Now, how about a nice I love mom tattoo?" Nate jokes, his Australian accent making my heart slam against my rip cage with anxiety. "We're gonna remember this night for the rest of our lives." A mechanical buzzing noise tears through my ears. Trembling in the chair, I struggle against the restraints, the ropes digging into my skin. Locking eyes with Riley across from me, makes me fight harder against the ropes.
"How about a matching set for four? Perhaps an abbreviated BFF behind each of our ears. Or something else unoriginal." Nate taunts, the buzzing approaching.
"Nate! Stop!" Riley booms, pulling at his restraints till the ropes nearly give. I find myself breathless when I notice Riley's irradiated, chafed up skin going a violent red under the ropes, threatening to bleed any minute. More desperate than ever, I fight the bonds with all the strength I can muster up. Searching the parlor for anything-I'm exactly sure what, probably a miracle- I finally notice Robin.
"Robin's out cold. Tsk tsk, this is why they warn you not to mix your liquor with heavy medication." Looming over an unconscious Robin with a buzzing tattoo gun in one hand, Nate tightens the ropes capturing her into the chair with his other. Robin's sprawled out in the chair, laying so still her chest is barely falling and rising. Her dark locks hang over the edge in a tangled mess, while the fluorescent lighting gives her skin a pale, yellowish hue. I'd give anything for Robin to wake up, and somehow get pull a stunt only she can do to get us out of here. Robin doesn't even stir when Nate rips a hole through her black stockings at her knee. Every hair on my freckled body stands on end as Nate runs a swap dosed in disinfect across Robin's exposed skin.
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" With a strength I didn't know I had, I fiercely jerk against the ropes. "Please. Not Robin. Leave her alone." I mange in between ragged breaths.
"Don't you fucking touch her!" Riley roars. Thrashing in his chair again.
"Doesn't she sleep like an angel?" My entire body breaks out in a cold sweat when the needle makes contact with Robin's exposed skin. I don't recognize the pain filled cry that rips pass my throat. Robin wakes up from the pain. Immediately screaming out vulgar words at the top of her lungs so loud, I barely hear Nate's deafening, off key rendition of "My Girl".
"Hold still. You're fucking it up." Nate grunts, twisting Robin's writhing leg at a sickening angle. Tears pooling in her blue eyes, Robin tries to kick Nate off but to avail.
"You bastard!" Robin screams, fighting back tears.
"You sick fuck! When I get out of here, I'm going to beat you till you can't move!"
"Let her go! Let her go!" I have never screamed so much in my life. I've never been a yeller, but it's as if I have to be heard over the sheer chaos. Needing to be louder than the blood pounding against my ear drums, louder then Nate's pitchy singing or his tattoo gun, louder than Robin's agonized cries and Riley's hostly, I scream till my throat gets sore.
