The vents

                                    

                                          
The air was cold and dry. Ugly LED lamps shone their light on the three of them. A woman, dressed in pink, her hair reflected the rays coming from the ceiling. The man, huge and rather fat than muscular, carrying another woman. This one was younger. She was laying still in his hands. 
The woman and the man walked down an empty corridor with sterile white walls. They stopped, when they reached a door. The woman opened the door for the man and they both entered the room. Here, the lights were damper than on the outside.
The room had the same sterile walls as the corridor. There were no windows. A young man, no more than 22, was tied to a thick metal pole. He was sitting down, bleeding through his shirt and when the two people brought the young woman in, he looked up with a worried face. 
The unconscious woman was tossed into the middle of the room, landing in front of the cuffed man's feet. She didn't move, she must have been knocked out with something. 
"What did you...", he began but he wasn't sure how to end the sentence. He knew what they've done to her and it made him angry. His blood started to boil.
"She's just fine, I promise. For now.", the bright haired woman said. She kneeled down to feel the girl's hair. 
"Don't fucking touch her!" 
She ignored the yelling man and scratched the girl's hair out of her face. She carefully tucked her locks behind her ears. The girl looked pale. She was bruised. Her eyes were closed. Maybe for the better. The tied up man wouldn't know how to look her in the eye after everything that's happened.
"You've caused us a great deal of trouble, Alex.", she said, still looking at the girl. Alex didn't say anything. For a while, no one did. 
"How did we torture you?", she asked, now meeting Alex' eyes. 
"What?" 
"Describe it. How did we hurt you?" 
Alex did not know where she was going with this and having to do what he was just about to do felt humiliating to him. 
"You waterboarded me. You cut me. You beat me. Did I miss something?", he was spitting out the words like they were poison.
"Was it painful?" 
"...Yes."
"Well everything we've done, we're going to do to her and we'll make you watch.", she smiled. 
Alex felt helpess. Helpless and angry. He won't be able to live with himself if they do any of those things to her. It was like he fell into a big stomach of anger and guilt and he was being eaten alive by it. He had to come up with a plan. He didn't say anything. His mind was racing and he couldn't even make a snarky comment. He was completely silent, his eyes pinned to the girl's face. 
He started imagining her going all through that pain, it made his throat tight and his stomach turned, nausea overcame him. 
"We'll be back soon, we've got to wait for her to wake up."
And then they left. 
A few moments after Abby heard the door close, she bolted up. She spit out a little piece of plastic she had found in the trunk of the car. She wasn't sure if she'd ever need it but she felt like it could be useful. 
She gave no time to explain herself to Alex, she went straight for his wounds. There was a big spot of red blood on his chest and upper stomach. She lifted his shirt up with bound hands to examine the wounds, which made Alex hiss. 
"You're awake.", Alex said and Abby could hear relief in his voice. 
"Excellent observation.", she responded, having picked up on Alex' way of always saying something sassy, when he was uncomfortable. 
"They don't need to be sewn but we should desinfect them as soon as possible.", she concluded.
Abby sat back to look at Alex' face. His hair was wet, a few strands stuck to his forehead and his cheeks and his lips were bruised. Nevertheless, his eyes eagerly followed Abby's every movement. 
They were both examining eachother to make sure the other one was okay.