Kain Locke
"He wasn’t supposed to be back today," Bella muttered, blinking like that would sohow change what we’d just heard. Her skin was already turning paper white. "This is not good," she whispered. "It’s too early. He only cos back early when... when he suspects sothing."
The words sent a jolt through .
That must’ve triggered sothing in her mind too because her eyes suddenly darted to , wide with panic.
Whatever, I have to get back to the base first then I’ll co back to her when this all went down and that man was out.
So I turned to the door,
"Kain... I need to tell you sothing else."
There’s still more she’s hiding?
My fingers were curling around the door handle, every instinct screaming to move, to get out of this place before that devil spotted either of us missing from assembly. Maybe , after all he wouldn’t hurt her would he?
But her voice trembled behind , stopping from taking another step.
"When I said I was working for him .. the truth is, I wasn’t just working for him," she said, her words rushed, tangled with guilt. "I... got tired of it all. The spying. The control and doing things that I knew would hurt the people around . I want to be free, I just want that freedom so bad that I don’t mind whichever way it ca from .. so I thought—maybe I could sabotage him. Just a little. Just enough to slow him down... and maybe buy my freedom if I have sothing to blackmail him with."
" So?" I turned halfway toward her with my brows furrowed. "What does that have to do with what’s happening now? Or with ?"
Her eyes flickered to the door, like soone would be busting in, or kicking the door open in the gery next second.
"I know you must hate now. I deserve every last drop of it," she said quickly, "You have every reason to. And I know you want to get back to the base because if Caspian sees we’re not at the assembly, he won’t let us off easy. But now it’s different because the mont I walk into that courtyard, his bullet will be going straight into my head." She concluded in a trembling voice.
I shouldn’t wait to listen to her, I an whatever it was should be between them, all I had to do is to get to the assembly on ti, but eith the way she was trembling, the way she looked as though sothing was on her life made want to sosre her a few more seconds.
Maybe it was because she wasn’t wrong. Besides, the first ti I saw that man, drenched in my parents’ blood, I had thought the red on his coat was ketchup. I was only a kid then so I thought the tattoo around his neck was sothing cool, like a cartoon design.
And I didn’t know the truth until a few years later.
But there was nothing I could do.
You might ask why people stayed. Why didn’t they just run? Why did they keep following a monster like him?
Simple.
No one who ran ever lived long enough to tell the story.
I knew that before I escaped.
I knew that before I returned.
And yet, here I was, back in the belly of the very beast I ran away from.
Six months. That’s what Kael told before he brought back here. Just six months, and I’ll be free. Because I’m just so tired of this all.
But what kind of battle was he preparing for?
What battle did he bring here for? And how would I be able to help him with whatever it is he wants my help with, when the one with myself is unsolved?
And if sohow the six months ets here alive, would I ever really be free?
I was still lost in thought when Bella announced suddenly.
"He ca here because... I stole sothing,"
That made my heart skip a loud beat.
"You what?"
She looked at like the words had burned her throat a great deal before coming out.
"I fucking stole sothing from him," she frighteningly mumble incoherently "That’s why he’s is here."
"What did you steal?" I couldn’t help asking.
Bella’s lips pressed into a tight line. She hesitated, long enough to piss off, but I could see her fear wasn’t for . So I pressed the desire to lashed out at her down my stomach.
She gulped... Her hand was trembling by her side as she looked at again, "A docunt that contains files, a governnt like one." she said, barely above a whisper. "I only saw a bit, but... it had nas, maybe so kind of company, maybe a large group. I couldn’t smuggle it out when I was in his ho."
My eyes narrowed. "When the hell were you in his ho?"
Bella’s lips pressed tight. "Last night."
That stopped . Sothing cold slithered down my spine.
She looked up at . Her eyes were wide with sothing close to fear, guilt, maybe both. "...Kain."
"Don’t you call ..." i trailed off everything in is still. My breathing, my heartbeat. Even the anger buzzing in my chest quieted for just a second.
"Where is it?" I asked tightly in a low voice, still having a hard ti wrapping my head around the whole drama.
She hesitated for a heartbeat too long. Before she started to explain... "I was scared. I knew the base might get searched. I panicked, okay? So I... I planted it in that very estate of his. The southern one. His main house. Behind the locked cellar. I swear—no one’s been there in weeks. He never goes there unless—"
"You’re insane," I muttered angrily, due to being pissed by the fact that despite knowing the implications, she still went ahead and stole sothing as outrageous as that! "You should’ve never touched it in the first place!" I snapped, turning to leave, whatever the issue is, and what the implications and the outco of it was going to be should be on her.
However, she hurriedly grabbed my wrist before I could move. "Wait—Kain, please ... listen to . You have to..."
I glared at her, yanking my hand back. "Why the hell would I stay? Or even help you now? After everything?"
"Because..." her voice cracked. "It contains sothing about you, too."
My stomach clenched imdiately and I pulled back the strength I was using to separate myself from her.
"What?"
"It contains sothing about you too. Although I didn’t see the whole thing clearly," she said quickly. "But I swear your photo was in there. I know what I saw—it was on the top corner of a docunt. A red-stamped file. I think... I think it had sothing to do with you."
"What kind of file? What else do you find?" I asked impatiently.
"It’s in a docunt," she said, voice barely audible. "It looked old. Not base-made. The na on it... " She stopped talking.
"Say it," I demanded, already running out of patient.
But before she could answer, another voice crackled from the sa speaker above us.
"All personnel not present at the courtyard in two minutes will be considered deserters. I repeat two minutes."
Bella flinched while I stood frozen for half a second, every nerve in my body screaming a different command.
Being a deserter was no different from running away from the base which would an death for a deserter.
I don’t want to be a deserter... At least not now..
"I don’t want to die.." Bella looked at , breathing unevenly. She looked like she hadn’t slept in weeks, and I could tell it wasn’t just the guilt eating at her.
"Please help .. please, I... " She was scared. Really scared...
For him to co for sothing like that... Then the docunt must not have been anything trivial..
Whatever that docunt contains must’ve been more important than she thought. Who knows? It might even be an answer or that one thing that is going to save us all and maybe get and the rest like out of here?
"Let’s go get it," I said finally, heaving a deep breath afterwards.
Bella blinked like she didn’t believe it. "You an it?"
I nodded once, "the docunt was kept in his ho right? And since he’s right here in the base, so isn’t now the best mont for retrieving it?
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