In the Vile Valley.
Laurel stood by the door, hesitating for a couple of minutes before finally deciding to step inside. The door chid as it slid open.
In the center of the room, Susanne’s brother sat with his hands cuffed together with a table in front of him.
Laurel Swallowed, before walking to sit in front of him. "I’m so sorry for your loss... Mr. Stefan." She said, eting his gaze.
Stefan’s eyes had swollen from crying all this while. His expression was filled with pain, but underneath it was an accusing gaze.
"What do you want to say, Commander?" He said in a mocking tone. "It’s okay, your grace is imasurable?" He added.
Laurel let out a deep sigh. "I just wanted to make sure you are alright." Having an unstable awakened was the last trouble on her list.
"Alright? How could I be alright when I watched you chop off my sister’s head?" His voice rose higher, and his fists clenched tightly.
"I warned you before when I let you inside my fortress." It wasn’t exactly her, it was Ling Xuan, but she had no choice but to act like her. "I didn’t want to burden you with accusation and guilt because I am aware none of it was your fault, but you promised that there was nothing with either of you, because of my little act of grace, I lost four of my people, four of them.
And if I were you, I would keep those emotions at bay. I would have lost my life if I weren’t skilled in combat.
What?" Laurel’s hand clenched tightly against her thigh. "Do you expect to keep her and watch her destroy everything I had built?"
’Were my words not too harsh?... did I really need to say it like that? What is wrong with ?’
Stefan lowered his gaze, his chest tightened from guilt. It was true they were warned, and that their heads would be chopped off if they happened to be an infected. He closed his eyes, letting a drop of tears escape his eyes.
"I just don’t understand, she was perfectly fine before she gave birth, how could she suddenly turned to an infected after giving birth?" He frowned.
Laurel stood up from her chair, pacing around the room. "Do you know what your ability is?" She asked.
"Ability? What is that?" Stefan was stunned by the question.
"You think it was normal that you and your sister were able to walk through the red mist? I want you to think carefully, was there any ti that you were able to do sothing that only exists in movies?" Laurel said, walking back to her seat again.
She placed both her hands on the table, and her upper body leaned over the table a little. Her eyes burned with anticipation and hope that he would say yes, if not... they would have to put him down... worst case scenario.
Stefan blinked, looking away from her gaze. He fumbled with his hands.
Laurel noticed he was being avoidant.
"Tell if it has happened, else I won’t be able to help you... or your niece." She bit her inner cheeks, she hated the fact that she had to use his niece against him.
Stefan snapped his head back to her the mont he heard his niece being ntioned. He stared at Laurel for a second before letting out a deep sigh. "I noticed sothing..." He began, his voice barely audible.
Laurel nodded, gesturing for him to continue.
"When the teor shower began, my sister and I were together with her husband... urm...Her husband didn’t make it out of the disaster, I pulled her away from her husband’s corpse, she didn’t want to leave and we got into a fight...a very heated one." He paused swallowing, before lowering his head.
"A teor rock was heading directly towards us, left with no option to run, my hand tightened around her wrist and in the next second we felt the world tilted and before we knew it we were standing right outside the city.
I didn’t know if it was her who made it happen or if I was the one... until when the red mist ca, Susanne grew hungry so I left to get her so food, I only thought of the shopping mall close to her house, and in the next second I was standing inside the half destroyed mall, I grabbed so biscuit and fruit...though they were in bad conditions.
Before I could take more things, I saw people laughing hysterically stabbing themselves and ripping their arms off... one of them even cut open his stomach pulling his intestines out before dropping to his death..." He grimaced, "...and not only that..." Stefan paused, inhaling sharply before continuing.
"Then a strange creature appeared, it looked exactly like what Susanne turned into. The creature started killing people, I quickly thought of the outside where I left Susanne and I was there in the next second." He said.
Laurel slowly nodded her head. "Teleportation." She said in a deep thought. "Then why did you pretend as if you didn’t know what I was talking about?"
"Because I fear you might do sothing to ... the mont I stepped into this building my power stopped working," Stefan replied with a questioning gaze.
Laurel t his gaze but she didn’t reply to his unspoken question. The isolation center was specifically built for the awakened and the walls were built with thick lead-lined concrete and titanium-cobalt lattices, as long as they stepped inside the building their powers would be suppressed imdiately.
Laurel knew these materials could weaken the awakened from her past life, and knowing how difficult so of the awakened could be to handle, it was the perfect solution.
"Do you know if Susanne showed any sign of having ability?" Laurel asked, breaking the silence.
"I noticed when she had a cut in the woods, the wound healed imdiately," Stefan replied, pausing for a mont before speaking again. "What about my niece? Is she alright? And how long are you going to keep us here? Can I have Susanne’s body? I need to bury her."
Laurel rose to her feet. "I don’t know which of your questions to answer first... however, you and your niece will remain here for so ti to rule out any possibility of you becoming infected, as for Susanne’s body... I’m afraid it has to be cremated for safety reasons."
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