None of Karen's attempts to struggle lead to anything but pain, as the resistance in her mind continued to feel like solid rock.
Each push against it caused her to feel another surge of pain, like no migraine did before.
Until the solid presence grabbed and shook her, which startled and returned her back to reality.
The Demon had dragged Karen towards the wall furthest from the door, and held her in place with one arm around her shoulder and the hand on her throat.
She could feel something cold and sharp pressured against her neck, what she assumed to be a makeshift weapon.
An unexpected feeling of empathy came towards her from the presence in her head before the voice returned.
'Stop that. It will only hurt more if you continue to fight me.'
Karen felt a surge of new fighting spirit, and if only to spite the creature, who applied more of that chemical liquid onto the wall.
"Tsk… I don't want this anymore than you do. Just hold still, this will be sooner over if you don't resist. Besides, that's just acid."
The fumes from the melting wall caused Karen's eyes to tear up, but her attention turned towards the door when the Demon turned around with concern.
There was a heavy knocking to hear, and then the door bulged under the weight of someone throwing themselves against it.
She felt hope that Sebastian might come in at any moment, while looking at the door in anticipation.
A similar notion hit her from the presence she could still feel, as the Demon turned its head to look at the progress of its escape route.
"Could you stop calling me 'it'? I have a name. And who's this Sebastian, you are expecting to save you?"
Karen felt herself speechless at the realization that the creature… ugh… Mrs Sorokin, was still listening in on every one of her thoughts and she tried to distract herself to prevent giving any other information away.
Which became quite easy as the temperature began dropping severely, while a layer of ice spread from the door to the surrounding area.
A sight that caused her kidnapper to feel deeply distressed.
"Come on. You can't be serious. At least tell me what kind of magic he uses. Don't think I'd just let you get away if he turns me into an icicle!"
Well, maybe she should have shown more interest in Sebastian's past or his abilities, but the fear she always felt when she saw Stephanie use her magic kept her from ever risking to develop a similar fear of him.
Her captor increased the pressure slightly, disappointed by that answer, and she could see how memories from her daily life repeated before her eyes.
Never felt she so helpless. Not even a single muscle moved as she wanted. Even her own mind wasn't safe from this constant assault of questions that her desperate kidnapper wanted to get answered.
The escape attempt didn't seem to progress either, which only made the search more rash, at least until her captor stumbled upon a simple memory of Sebastian's face.
"Are you fucking kidding me? Can this day get any worse? Damn Vorn! Melt you stupid wall!"
Karen's field of view fell back to the slightly melted, steel reinforced containment wall that the acid failed to melt.
"Steel? Well, good to know now… thanks for the late info. No wonder it takes ages…"
With obvious frustration applied her captor another load of acid to the wall, while inspecting it thoroughly up close, which irritated Karen's eyes again.
Although she had accidentally given away information, she was still glad for her position as the door exploded into thousands of little sharp and ice cold pieces which flew through the entire room.
The next moment hurried Sebastian and two more armed soldiers into the room, weapons aimed right at her kidnapper, who had turned around as well and now held the sharp weapon at her throat.
"One more step and your girlfriend is shish kebab! Now, take your weapons down!"
Neither Sebastian nor the two at his side took their assault rifles down as the suspension increased further. She noticed a slight heat shimmer that seemed to extrude from his bare skin.
"No! You take your weapon down and let her go, or we cover you with holes!"
Karen felt not only her own fear at the increasingly escalating situation, but also from her captor, as well as a sudden intention to lie.
"I swear by the seven, if you don't take those damn fucking guns down, I'll fill the entire building with hydrogen cyanide! I don't care if it traps me here, if that means I get rid of the Ripper!"
A few hesitant looks got exchanged before Sebastian gave the signal to lower the weapons.
All attention of her captor was now on him, which left Karen no doubt that the unflattering nickname was for Sebastian.
Albeit the situation didn't seem in favor of herself, it was not her own panic she felt and the once solid presence lost more of its composure with each second.
"I want a helicopter… no! A car to get away from here. None that you prepared, a taxi, and no one follows us or she's done for!"
Sebastian backed off towards the door, but that only caused another surge of distress.
"No one leaves! Especially not you Ripper. I want you there, where I see what you're doing! Call with a phone… no! One of your comrades, kick your phone over here!"
The guy right beside him looked at Sebastian for confirmation before following the order and her captor kneeled down just enough so that Karen could grasp the device with her puppeteer'd hands.
With the phone barely in her grasp began her fingers already tipping a message, yet Karen's eyes fixated on Sebastian and she could not see the text.
He looked calm and confident, like he had been in such a situation already a thousand times before, yet his shaking hands betrayed his concern for her.
"There's no escape, Tatjana. The entire building is filled with agents. Just lay down your weapon and cooperate, this doesn't need to end with anyone hurt."
His words somehow infuriated her cornered captor, and Karen felt herself holding the phone like for recording something.
"Pah! No one needs to get hurt? You mean just like in Barcelona, where you slaughtered nine of my brethren that had already surrendered? I bet you also want to paint this room with my insides, as soon as I have no hostage you actually care for, you fucking monster!"
Karen didn't understand what this was about, but she knew the Demon must have been mistaken. There was no way the man she loved could have possibly done anything li…
A barrage of excruciating memories entered her mind, one more detailed and gruesome than the last, with Sebastian right in the middle of it and the first thing she saw after they left was his guilt-ridden face right before her.
"I know I have no right to ask for forgiveness. What I did fifteen years ago is unredeemable."
She struggled to grasp the reality that unfolded before her, now only holding onto a small glimmer of hope that these events were all an illusion from her captor.
The guilt in his face left, replaced by pure determination.
"Just tell us what you know about the source of these containers and I promise, by the Nameless One, I will let you leave unharmed."
Karen could feel the disgust that the Demon had when Sebastian took an oath of her own people, as if he was mocking her, yet there was also a sudden security in her captor.
"Hah! Funny how you swear on the only one of our gods whose influence reaches to this hillbilly piece of rock. Well… fine. Then it's not even a secret if I tell you that it was he who gave it to us. Not that I could tell you more. You know the standard procedure, Ripper."
She didn't know why, but the Demon was absolutely sure that she could now leave with no resistance and backed away towards the part of the wall that she had prepared earlier.
Desperate regarding her kidnapping, returned Karen's attention to Sebastian, who looked relieved, but nodded slowly towards her.
"Yes, I know… erase all evidence if captured, even the memories inside your head."
With a sudden crack disappeared the presence from her mind and she fell limb to the ground, with the body of the Demon on top of her.
Before she could wonder what happened helped her Sebastian to stand up, his skin burning hot but a welcome support.
Her captor lied like dead on the floor, the head turned in the opposite of the normal direction, and on the other side of the now fully opened hole in the wall sat Stephanie in her wheelchair.
"Chain her up before she regains consciousness, and this time with chains that can actually hold a high ranking Demon. I don't want any further escape attempts."
Karen could barely enjoy the regained control of her limbs, as she felt frozen by the icy gaze Stephanie threw at her.
"I do not know how you got into this situation, Karen. But I can't wait to get your report later and a psychological evaluation on top. I expect both until five pm, or you're doing overtime until I have it in my hands. So forget your first day of training and get to work."
She swallowed, thrown into another stressful situation right after surviving the last one. Her eyes drifting to the ground as soon as her boss changed to Sebastian as the next target.
"And Taylor, you will make sure she does it right now. We can't risk any mind-control orders that Demon left in her."
Well, at least that meant all of this could still have been an illusion. Maybe that would be better. This day was already way too much, even without all those new questions she had now.