what're you in for, love? (closed, o/o with @Dances_with_Shadows)

Tessa was on the porch of the dilapidated house that was used as an entry to the lab, leaning against the wall and picking at her nails. She had on a simple cropped leather jacket and skinny jeans, as well as knee-high boots that hid two different daggers. She had an earbud in one ear with the music set on a semi-low volume. As Nik approached, she flicked her eyes up to look at him. "Hey."

Tessa shrugged, a ghost of a smile on her lips. "Honestly, I'd rather stall as long as possible. But the sooner I get over myself, the sooner that bastard will be six feet under." She jerked her chin towards the door. "Lab's downstairs. I would say basement, but it's too big to be a normal basement. Ready?"

She smiled grimly and pushed off of the wall, heading over to the door and giving it a shove. It didn't budge. Not wasting the effort with lockpicks, she just stood back, then kicked the door down. It gave easily, too old to hold up against her strength. "I've always wanted to do that," she muttered, then beckoned for Nik as she stepped inside.

The house itself was empty—solely acting as a way to hide the lab from prying eyes. It was downstairs that had the most disturbing scenes.

Tessa pressed a hand against the concrete wall as she hit the tiled floor of the lab, nails digging into the wall as she took in a deep breath and fought against the shaking threatening to overtake her body. Right in front of them was a dark room filled with metal cages. Dried blood splatters peppered the cages. There was no lamp or light available. A little girl's doll sat abandoned in one cage, the ends frayed and some stuffing poking out of her belly. Discarded needles sat on the floor, desperate attempts to ease the agonizing withdrawal.

She glanced over at him, then down at his hand, and wordlessly grabbed it and forced herself to leave the wall. They needed evidence of his wrongdoings, and this place was the jackpot. She wanted to ruin him before killing him—make him suffer for a bit.

Tessa finally found her tongue and said, "Get what you need to rip apart his reputation. The actual lab is through that door." She jerked her chin to the left.

"Yeah." She took a shaky breath, then let go of his hand to stride over to one of the cages. She crouched down and reached in, grabbing what looked to be a notebook. There was a very faint smile on her face as she flipped through it. "This was Connor's. He and I were pretty much double trouble for the scientists, always trying to escape and create some sort of rebellion." Latching onto that memory helped to distract her from the bad ones. Well, the worst ones.

Her lips twisted in a grim half-smile. "He was 15 while I was 13, but we were both the oldest. I had just gotten out of the hospital, too, and out of rehab from the other labs. There goes my sobriety." She sucked in a breath and glanced over at Nik, spotting the doll. "That was Lucy's. She was 6."

Tess nodded in answer to his realization. Lucy was one of the ones that didn't last long, the drug too strong for her system to handle. "Yeah. They injected the drugs into us," she acted like she was pushing a needle into her arm, "and they were usually so addictive we needed more just to keep the withdrawal away. Sometimes they just used us as lab rats so much we got hooked. It wasn't their intention, but that's what happened."

"No, that's not the main reason," Tessa said, then stood up, taking the notebook with her, and came over to Nik. "There's the lab, and then the room I spent most of my time in when I wasn't being used as a lab rat."

There wasn't only blood and grime in the lab. There was also a metal table in the middle of the room with rusted chains sitting on top of it, some more blood on the inside of the cuffs from where skin had been rubbed raw from all the thrashing the kids must've done. They were likely the cause of the scars around Tess's wrists, or at least a contributor.

Behind the lab was a room that looked to be a torture room, big enough for an audience while someone was either whipped or beaten half to death. This was where the kids were taken if they tried to fight back of escape.

Tessa was crouched down yet again, examining one of the syringes that were still half-filled. She pinched her lips together and tossed it to the side, standing up and heading over to Nik. "Yeah, we're done." Coming down here was grating on her nerves, and the longer she stayed underground, the more she wanted to hunker down and cower.

She hesitated for a bit, the independent part of her demanding that she didn't need help, but reached out and grabbed his hand before she could talk herself out of it. The music on her one ear helped to keep her grounded, but at the moment, Nik was the most helpful to her.

"Like curling up into a ball and dying in a hole," she said, reluctantly letting go of his hand and stepping away from him.

"Ah, damn, there goes my first pick," she attempted to joke, fingers tapping on the cover of the old notebook, following the rhythm of the song playing in her earbud. "I'm in the mood for Italian, if only because I might find some friendly faces—or not, it's always an entertaining gamble."

((Yeah))

Tessa had tucked the notebook inside her jacket, so her hands were free as she led Nik through the restaurant. Luckily, the people there knew here and gave them both a VIP discount.

Tess found an empty booth and slid into a seat, gesturing to Nik to do the same. "I go here a lot. Cheap but good."