Leave, but come back at midnight to try to sneak back in.

You left feeling guilty for two things:

Leaving Scarlet in the basement like that and having Arabella deal with the bandit boss. You couldn’t bring yourself to return to the apartment and explain the situation to the twins, so you ducked down in the outskirts of the town and got comfortable in the wilderness until it was midnight.

The town was lively with illegal activity. A lot of the stores were looted and vandalized. Corpses of the owners and regular people littered the fronts as their attackers sang and shot at the building while they got drunk off of their fortunes. Hopefully, Mikko and Gwendolion were still a lot involved in all this.

No one noticed you, which was good because you ditched the mask so you could see clearly as you snuck back.

However, the precinct is filled with drunk bandits that are either drunk or high…or maybe both? Some of them see you but don’t try to open up any conversation with you. The smell of burning cannabis clouds your senses as you enter the main entrance. The naked women from earlier are gone, but that hardly means anything good happened.

The people lingering around where the women were are some of the younger members of the crew. They’re roughly 18, but they’re no less rough. There’s an intense game of cards being played there over a table. Even though you don’t stay and listen to what they’re saying, you quickly learn they are gambling over who gets who. You don’t hear Scarlet’s name being thrown around, so you assume they respect their anal virginity.

The blown basement door retaining Scarlet’s position is left unguarded, and the only people in this particular room are dosed off, shirtless, and with rubber around their arms. You briefly search for some clothes for Scarlet, but the best you can manage is a white button-up and some discarded shorts; you guess it’s better than nothing.

In the basement, Scarlet is asleep but still suspended from her arms. After scanning the room to ensure you’re alone, you gently approach her and lift her head. “Scarlet,” you whisper. She doesn’t respond. You check her pulse, finding it surprisingly strong, so you whisper her name again.

She mumbles, her head weakly straining against your light grip. She gently slaps her cheek and rubs her eyes, smudging her damp eyeliner. “Scarlet, I’m here to help you.”

Her eyes open slightly, her pupils the size of acorns. “I’m…”

“I’m here for you. I’m going to help you, alright?”

“I’m…” she says again.

“What?”

“I’m going to fucking kill you.”

“Wrong guy,” you say, darting your eyes up where the chain is connected to the ceiling, then to her wrists. “It’s Warren.”

“I know that name,” she says as she looks around. “Where the fuck am I?”

“You’re in the police station at Elko,” you tell her, tugging at her wrist locks. “And you were captured by the raider group we’ve been contracted to hit a few times. Hey, thanks for burning my papers, by the way.”

Scarlet moans, her eyes fixing on you. “Contractors have to stick together if they’re not tasked to kill each other,” she laughs louder than you’d like. She’s still high off of whatever they looped her with. “I got my whole family killed when I was a kid, you know?”

You rub a keyhole and grimace around. Where were the keys to her locks? You grab her head and make her look at you. “Scarlet. You’re not yourself right now, alright?” You shake her, and she blinks. “Look at me, Scarlet. You’re going to get seriously fucked up if you don’t snap out of it.”

She starts crying. “I got them all killed because I was being stupid back then, too. Warren, and now I’m going to get myself killed!”

You clamp a hand over your mouth. “Shut up, Scarlet! Listen to me! Shut up! You’re going to get us both killed if you don’t get your emotions under control!”

Scarlet tries to say something, but it’s more crying. “MM! Mmm-h-mmm!!!”

You let her cry for about 10 seconds, and by then, she calms down. When you retreat your hand, it’s covered in saliva and tears. You wipe them on your jeans and quickly scan the table. There’s only one key there. After grabbing it, you rush back and unlock her chains. She falls weightlessly on you and starts hugging you, primarily for support. She felt as fragile as a dainty faun.

If you had things your way, you might have let her relax for a few minutes, but you couldn’t linger long. You didn’t like your odds staying hidden under the current circumstances, so you prompted Scarlet to move. You grabbed some clothes for her and pressed against her. “You gotta get dressed,” you tell her. “And make it quick. I don’t know how much time we have before some prick finds us.”

Through a throat sob, she nods and then looks around. “I was talking to my dad for a few minutes. Is he upstairs?”

You shake your head. Scarlet’s worse than you thought. “Yes,” you tell her. “Put on your clothes. He’s got something for you, and you can’t be naked.”

Scarlet looks at you, her eyes wide with unfamiliarity, like she’s trying to process your words and all of her memories again. She looks at the clothes and smiles. “These are hideous,” she frowned. “And this button-up is much too big for me. Where did you get these?” Then she gasped. “Were we fooling around when Daddy came back?”

“What?”

She looked down. “Oh, Jesus. I’m all naked. How drunk did you get me?”

“Scarlet,” you snap at her. “Your dad is going to rip off my fucking head if he sees us down here with you naked. Get dressed, shut up, and follow me! Got it?”

“You’re an asshole,” she growls but starts to get dressed. “Where are we? A funhouse? This room won’t stop spinning.”