"We'll have him with this."
"Yeah, finally, I've waited too long for this."

"Mnhh!"

When Sebille came to she was still dazed, and could see nothing but odd shadows through the fabric that had been put over her eyes.

"You hear that?"
"I think the princess is finally waking up."

The voices she heard were somehow hollow.

All her senses seemed to be off, but she caught a faint smell of cigarette that almost made her stomach hurl.

She tried to get off whatever she was sitting on but metal caught her wrists and rattled against something.

She was cuffed to something that felt like pole of some sort. Great.

It wasn't exactly comfortable to lean on, either.

She felt a spot on her back where she'd leaned on said pole; it hurt.

How long had she been out and where was she?

"Welcome back, dearie. Sleep well?"
"Where am I and who the hell are you?" She directed her words in the direction she felt the voice had come from, though she wasn't entirely sure he was there. She was still confused.

"No need to be so alarmed, you're free to go as soon as we get what we want."
"From who? What do you want? And what if you don't get it?"

"Hey hey hey. Slow down with the questions, we're the ones with the key to those cuffs, you know. Better not get us angry."
"Yeah right." Sebille scoffed; "Why am I here?"
"Your good friend owes us some compensation for what we've had to go through. Nothing personal against you, sorry we had to do this."

A friend?

"That wolfy yellow eyed bastard, is going to pay for putting us in the joint for ten years. I bet he's bragged about it this whole time, too. We're just looking to get back what we lost."

Sebille stood up and all of a sudden she felt testy; "What!? You kidnapped me because you sold drugs and got what you deserved?"

Yes, Sebille knew now who they were, but not all that well since Fenrir had always felt awkward talking about it. He hadn't really had a choice with the situation back then.

"What kind of a twisted world do you live in?"
(Also, it probably wasn't the greatest idea to yell at the person who kidnapped you, Sebille awknowledged that, but she couldn't help her personality.)

"Quiet now dearie, we wouldn't want you to get hurt... yet."
And the man pushed her back down.


***


Sebille tried to think.

What would happen to her... and what would happen to Loupe? What did they want from him that they had to go through her to get? She didn't really get it.

Sebille also listened to the low muttering of the men who'd brought her there.

"So, you've decided on the hundred-thou?"
"Yeah, seems like a grand amount now."
 

She couldn't believe her ears; "Are you people nuts?"
(Yes, she knew she should just shut up, but again; her personality took over.)

They both turned to her, or Sebille assumed they did.
"Fenrir doesn't have that kind of money!"

"Good." Said a voice that hadn't spoken to her yet. The stench of cigarettes came closer, "Then we'll just kill you and he'll feel our pain."

How was that comparable?
"You're insane."

"But if he does pay, we get the money and see him suffer."
The fist man hissed to him; "Hey, she wasn't supposed to get hurt if we got the money."
"Shut up, I'm allowd to change my mind, aren't I."

"No. You people don't get it at all!"

Sebille stood up and leaned forward as far as she could;
"He'd pay you, he would, but that's just too much money for him!"
"Lookie, who thinks she's important."

"Listen to me! He doesn't have the money, so he'll go to someone who does--"
"And how's that bad, princess?"
"The only person he knows that has that kind of a money... He isn't a person you want to mess with."
"Riiight." The second man mocked.

"He'll kill you! Both of you. You'll be dead and I don't want to be put in the middle of a murder scene, I have nothing to do with this."

The cigarette man laughed.

His fingertips touched Sebille's chin and she flinched.

"Sorry honey, but you have everything to do with this now."

The stench of his breath was even worse than the cigarettes, and Sebille turned her face away trying to avoid inhaling the foulness.

"We're doing this. No use trying to scare us."
" ..."

"Hey, we've got a call to make."
"Yeah, I'm coming."

***

The men left the room. She could still hear their voices from another room but the words no longer made any sense to her.

She took this chance to maneuver the scarf off her face.

If nothing happened to Sebille, those men might escape this with their lifes. But if something happened to her... they wouldn't just die; they'd die horribly.

She felt that she'd become cold, because she really couldn't bring herself to care. Whatever happened to them wasn't her problem. The first guy seemed somewhat decent, but he was still a drug dealer; a criminal.

Had Null really changed her world-view that much?

And would she ever see him again?

She'd give anything to be back home with him right now...