Slater
My head throbbed with a dull, persistent ache. I opened my eyes slowly, wincing at even the dim light filtering through cracks in whatever space I was in.
Everything ca back in fragnts. The festival. Riley’s terrified face. Bane Castor standing in the shadows, watching us. walking toward the parking lot, pulling out my phone to call for help.
Then... nothing. Just darkness and the sensation of falling.
They’d drugged . Tranquillised , probably like an animal.
As my eyes adjusted, I realised I was in a tal container. Shipping container, maybe? The walls were corrugated steel, the floor cold and hard beneath . There were no windows, just a few thin gaps where the door didn’t seal, letting in slivers of light and air.
My hands were zip-tied in front of . My phone was gone. So was my wallet.
But I wasn’t alone.
Across from , maybe six feet away, soone else was lying against the opposite wall. Even in the dim light, I recognised her imdiately.
Riley.
My sister.
Despite everything, despite being kidnapped, drugged, tied up, and trapped in a tal box, I felt a strange surge of happiness. She was here. Right in front of . After months of separation, months of wondering if she was okay, she was here.
She looked different from how I rembered. Older, obviously. More tired. Her face had lines I didn’t recognise. Her short hair was ssy, and a recent cut above her eyebrow was visible. She wore casual clothes—jeans and a t-shirt—, but they were dirty and torn in places.
She looked like she’d been through hell.
But she was still my sister—still Riley.
I watched her sleep for what felt like hours, but was probably only minutes. My whole body ached from whatever position I’d been in while unconscious. My mouth was dry. My head still pounded.
Then Riley groaned. It was a soft sound of pain, and my heart clenched.
"Riley?" I said quietly.
She didn’t respond. Her eyes opened slowly, squinting against even the minimal light. She looked around, taking in our surroundings with the expression of soone who’d been in this situation before.
Then her eyes landed on .
She sighed deeply and rolled her eyes, turning her face away from .
"Riley," I said again. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
She didn’t say anything. She just stared at the wall, completely ignoring .
"Riley, please. Talk to ."
Still nothing.
"I know you’re mad at for showing up at the school. I know I shouldn’t have co without warning. But I was worried about you. I just wanted to see if you were okay."
Silence.
"Riley, we need to figure out where we are. We need to work together to get out of here."
She still wouldn’t look at . She wouldn’t acknowledge I’d even spoken.
I was getting more and more frustrated by the second. "Are you seriously going to ignore right now? We’re kidnapped, Riley. Tied up in a container. This is serious."
Still, no word.
"Fine," I said, my voice taking on a colder tone. "Be stubborn. But at least please tell if you’re hurt. I saw that cut on your head. Do you need dical attention?"
She shifted slightly but didn’t turn toward .
I tried a different approach. "I’ve missed you. All these months. I’ve missed you every single day."
Her jaw clenched. I saw it even in profile. But she still didn’t speak.
"Mom and Dad miss you, too. They never say it out loud, but I can see it. The way Dad gets quiet on your birthday. The way Mom cooks your favourite foods even though you’re not there to eat them."
Riley’s hands, also zip-tied, clenched into fists. But her lips stayed pressed together.
"I know I ssed up," I continued. "Coming to find you. But I’m your brother. I couldn’t just sit at Ravenshore knowing you were out here sowhere, wondering if you were safe. Especially after—"
I stopped. I’d almost said "after I discovered the Collectors were operating near your town." But sothing made hold back.
"Please," I said quietly. "Just say sothing. Anything."
For a long mont, nothing. Then Riley took a deep breath and let it out slowly.
But she still didn’t speak to .
I leaned my head back against the tal wall, feeling defeated. Months of separation, months of hoping we’d reconnect soday. And now that we were in the sa room, she wouldn’t even acknowledge .
We sat in silence. I could hear sounds from outside our container—voices, movent, the rumble of what might be traffic. We were being transported sowhere. But where?
Suddenly, there was a loud thud. The entire container jolted violently. I was thrown sideways, my shoulder slamming into the wall. Riley rolled forward, barely catching herself before her head hit the floor.
When the movent stopped, we both lay still for a mont, breathing hard.
Then Riley turned toward .
"You shouldn’t have co here," she said.
"Riley—"
"You shouldn’t have co," she repeated, and there was anger in her voice now. "You’ve only made things worse."
"Made things worse?" I pushed myself back into a sitting position. "Riley, I was trying to rescue you. I was trying to help."
"I don’t need rescuing!" Her voice rose. "I had everything under control. I had a plan. And you showing up—you ruined everything!"
"What plan? What are you talking about?"
She laughed bitterly. "You think you can just walk back into my life? After I spent years building sothing new? After I finally got away from all the supernatural bullshit?"
"You’re my sister—"
"I was your sister," she interrupted. "Past tense. I left that life behind. I left you behind. And I was fine with that."
"You don’t an that."
"Don’t I?" She stared at , and there was pain in her eyes beneath the anger. "I left for a reason, Slater. To get away from the pack, from the expectations, from all of it. And now you’ve dragged right back in."
"I didn’t drag you into anything. You were missing Riley. Everyone thought you were dead, and the academy didn’t give us satisfactory answers. And the person in the shadows was Bane Castor, right? Do you know he was declared dead, too? Alongside other people. Why was he at the festival, and why was he watching you?"
Riley’s face went pale. "You saw him?"
"Yes. And he saw . That’s why we’re here. If you’re alive and Bane is alive too, it ans there’s a possibility that all those missing students are still alive too."
She closed her eyes. "You idiot. You, complete idiot."
"What’s going on, Riley? What is the connection between you and Bane Castor?"
"It doesn’t matter."
"It does matter! We’ve been kidnapped!"
"And whose fault is that?" She glared at . "I could have kept things the way they were. I could have maintained the balance. But you showing up—this changes everything."
We heard footsteps above us, and I froze, listening. Riley did the sa.
The footsteps paused directly above our container, then moved on. Both of us let out quiet breaths.
"Riley," I whispered. "I know about everything."
She looked at sharply. "What?"
"The experint at Ebonvale. I know about it. I know what they did to you."
Her face went completely white. "How...?"
"I have sources—friends who’ve been investigating. I know about the experintation on wolves. I know they were trying to—"
"You don’t know anything," Riley hissed, cutting off. "You think you know, but you don’t know half of what it really is."
"Then tell ."
"I can’t. And even if I could, you wouldn’t believe ."
"Try ."
She shook her head. "They only show you things you want to see. Feed you information that fits a narrative. But the truth?" She laughed again, that sa bitter sound. "The truth is so much worse than whatever you think you know."
"Riley—"
"Stop." She held up her bound hands. "Just stop. You can’t help . You can’t fix this. You being here has only put both of us in more danger."
"Then let try to get us out—"
"There is no getting out," she said flatly.
The finality in her voice scared more than anything else had.
We heard more movent above. This ti closer. Soone was fumbling with sothing, a lock, maybe.
Riley’s eyes went wide. She leaned forward urgently.
"Listen to ," she whispered. "If you want to survive this, you need to pretend you don’t know ."
"What?"
"When that door opens, act like we’re strangers. Don’t call your sister. Please don’t say we’re related. Don’t even acknowledge that you know who I am."
"Riley, I’m not going to—"
"Please." Her voice broke. "Please, Slater. This is the only way. If they think we’re connected, they’ll use against you. Or use you against . Either way, we’re both dead."
The tallic scraping got louder. Soone was definitely working on the lock.
"Promise ," Riley insisted. "Promise you’ll pretend we just t. That you don’t know anything about ."
I wanted to argue and tell her that hiding our relationship wouldn’t change anything. But sothing in her eyes made hesitate.
"Okay," I said finally. "Okay, I promise."
She nodded and turned away from , putting distance between us as much as she could in the confined space.
The lock clicked.
Light flooded into the container, so bright after the darkness that I had to squeeze my eyes shut. I heard the sound of tal doors being pulled open and felt the rush of fresh air.
When I finally managed to open my eyes, squinting against the brightness, I saw a silhouette standing in the doorway.
As my vision adjusted, the silhouette beca clear.
Bane Castor.
Reviews
All reviews (0)