"He will kill you if you move an inch further."
Lilou instantly froze and then retracted her hand in panic. She narrowed her eyes at Klaus cautiously, clutching her wrist closer to her chest.
"Is that true?" she asked Klaus, which the latter found stupid. Of course, he would shake his head profusely and deny it. He wasn't crazy like Fabian, who wouldn't deny his evil intentions.
Lilou didn't buy it, though.
Keeping her eyes narrowed, she raised her eyes at the person who interrupted her. She cocked her head, seeing a man under a thick cloak stop several steps away from her. The hood over the man's head covered almost half of his face, and all she could see were his untrimd beards and his narrow nose.
"Who...?" she muttered, knitting her brows and tilting her head to the side.
Claude, who was unlike her, could see her innocence in her eyes. His eyes softened as his breathing turned heavy, moving his gaze from her out of guilt.
"He will bite you until your wrist breaks if you let him go. Can't you see he is looking at you like a mad dog?" he continued, watching Klaus glare daggers at him.
Lilou frowned as her eyes fell on Klaus again. "Are you really planning to dupe ?" she asked, and as expected, Klaus shook his head without a second hesitation.
"But he said..." she sighed, scanning the dirt clinging onto Klaus's body, face, and hair. The food storage wasn't kept clean and so foods here were already rotting. That was why she would have to go to the market to buy a week's worth of food ever since living in this mansion.
Lilou noticed the red marks around Klaus' wrist and felt bad for him. Just what did this man do to deserve to be bound in here? She wondered. A part of her brain wanted to free the man, not because she pitied him blindly, but because she felt like this man was actually more like a victim. But the other logical part of her brain was telling her she shouldn't because Klaus was bound here for a 'hopefully' relevant reason.
"You should at least let him speak or yell." She glanced at Claude, who found a spot on the corner not far away and sat down on the crate. "No one will hear him anyway... or would it be dangerous for that?"
"Not really," answered Claude languidly. "But it's better to keep him silent."
Lilou frowned and pursed her lips into a thin line, nodding in understanding. Seeing this, Claude bit his tongue and studied her squatting figure a few feet from his uncle. She looked at Klaus with conflict in her eyes and, knowing Lilou was actually very fond of Klaus before the regression of ti, Claude understood her inner dilemma.
"Fine." He huffed in surrender, dragging himself up to Klaus. He glanced at Lilou, who was looking at him with eyebrows raised and bafflent, he shook his head and squatted beside Klaus.
Without a word, Claude untied the ropes behind Klaus' head. As soon as Klaus spat out the cloth in his mouth, he glared at Claude, followed by a series of profanities. Lilou imdiately covered her ears until Klaus was panting and out of breath.
"You're extre," she mumbled, flinching when Klaus shifted his glares at her.
"Extre?!" Klaus ground his teeth, in disbelief that was he being told as being the extre one here. "How am I extre when I'm abducted by my brother? Keeping bound for no damn fucking reason?!"
Lilou drew away cautiously. He was furious, but did he say he was bound here for no reason?
"Uncle --"
"Scram!" Klaus harrumphed at Claude. "If I ever get out of here, you, Hell, and that damn Fabian will die a miserable death."
"This is why they don't want to free you from your restraints."
"Fuck!" Klaus grumbled on and on like a broken record since it was the only way to vent his frustration about this humiliation. While he harrumphed in anger, Lilou stayed silent whilst listening to him.
"Let's free him," ca out a quiet voice, but sohow, sounded clearer despite Klaus' echoing rumblings. Klaus and Claude looked at her while she shrugged under their gaze.
"I think he shouldn't be treated this way," she explained, almost bringing tears to Klaus' eyes. She looked at Claude and asked, "Was he lying? About being abducted for no reason?"
Lilou patiently waited for Claude's response, and when a minute had passed in silence, a shallow breath slipped past her nostrils. For so reason, although Klaus scared her a bit, she sympathized with him. Moreover, she didn't feel like Klaus would kill her. Even if he planned to, the other man seed reliable and would protect her.
"Let's free him," she repeated with a smile.
"What will you do if he strikes you?" asked Claude, assuming this was all a part of Lilou's emphatic nature that could lead her to a dangerous situation.
Lilou cast Claude a look. She might've not seen his eyes or the entirety of his face, but she knew he had been staring at her. She could feel his gaze penetrating through that hood.
"You're here," she replied with a kinder smile. "I don't think you will let fall in danger. You looked reliable."
Her words were akin to a knife slicing through his heart. Reliable? Claude lowered his eyes. Her trust left this bitter taste in his mouth. She was only saying that because she didn't know what he had done. Lilou was only smiling at him because she had no idea why she was in such a state or the reason they were here in the first place.
He wasn't reliable, but rather, he was nothing but an arrogant prick, who fell into an enemy's trap and dragged everyone into this ss. That was what he believed ever since Penny's death.
While Claude was having a mont to recompose himself, Lilou shifted her attention to Klaus. Her lips curled up into a warm smile, seeing that the man was almost on the verge of tears.
"Don't cause trouble, alright?" she reminded him with a brighter smile. "I know what they did to you is unreasonable, but we still have a problem at hand. You can wait for later and settle scores."
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