Ch. 74
Selene leaned back on the couch, one arm resting lightly on the armrest. Then, suddenly, her phone vibrated.
Selene paused mid-motion. Her fork stopped just above the plate. Slowly, she set it down. Her gaze dropped to the screen.
Unknown number.
No name and no preview beyond a single line.
For a moment, Selene didn't react.
Her expression stayed neutral, almost blank, but her eyes sharpened slightly, like a lens adjusting focus.
She read it once again, still confused about who this person was.
How did they manage to get her personal number? This wasn't even the first time. It had happened a few times already. The last one she could recall was Raze also managing to get her number without her ever giving it.
Her thumb hovered for a second longer than necessary.
Prank? she thought, then shrugged and locked her phone screen.
Raze, sitting across the couch with several branded shopping bags stacked beside him, immediately noticed the shift.
He leaned slightly forward.
"Something wrong?"
Selene didn't answer immediately.
Her eyes stayed on the now-dark phone screen, as if expecting it to light up again.
It didn't.
A second passed.
Then another.
Still nothing.
So she placed the phone beside her with careful control, like she was setting down something unstable and choosing not to acknowledge it.
"Nothing," she said flatly.
But Jaxen noticed too.
From where he sat slightly angled across the table, his posture relaxed but his attention anything but, he saw it clearly.
The smallest pause in Selene's breathing. The micro-shift in her focus. The way her eyes stopped being idle.
He didn't speak, but his gaze sharpened, just slightly. That subtle change meant something. And Jaxen knew enough to recognize when Selene stopped treating something as irrelevant.
"AHHHHH!!!"
All three of them glanced outside the VIP lounge. It was a scream from a young girl.
People turned and panicked. Some froze, while others ran.
A display stand of designer handbags was knocked over in the rush, falling like dominoes. Glass perfume bottles shattered across the floor, sending sharp fragments skittering like ice. Shoes, bags, decorations, everything elegant became debris under panic.
"EVERYONE, GET BACK!!"
It was a man's voice, trembling with fear and rage.
"DON'T COME CLOSER! I SAID DON'T COME CLOSER OR I'LL DO IT!"
Jaxen was on his feet instantly. The calm mask he usually wore tightened into something sharper, more controlled.
"Security, NOW," he barked into his phone, voice low but absolute. "How did an armed individual enter the premises? I want answers immediately."
His jaw flexed once, controlled anger. The kind that didn't explode, but calculated consequences.
He looked calm with that expression, but slightly terrifying, Selene thought absentmindedly.
Selene watched him for a moment longer.
Even with the chaos unfolding outside the lounge, Jaxen didn't look rushed. He wasn't the type to panic in a situation like this, he never was. That much was obvious now.
Orders were already being carried out before he even finished speaking.
Security personnel were moving fast through the corridors. The mall's internal alerts escalated in controlled phases instead of descending into chaos. Even the way people were being redirected felt... structured.
Like someone was holding the entire situation together from behind the scenes.
And that someone was, him.
Selene's gaze followed Jaxen as he gave another short instruction into his phone, voice low and precise. No wasted words. No hesitation. Just clear directives that left no room for confusion.
Selene leaned slightly back on the couch, observing him like she was putting together a puzzle she hadn't been fully aware of before.
"So different..." she murmured under her breath, almost to herself.
Raze glanced at her. "Hm?"
She didn't look away from Jaxen.
"Nothing." she said calmly.
Raze followed her gaze toward Jaxen, who was now speaking to a mall manager on the other line, already coordinating lockdown procedures for affected zones.
"Tsk," Raze muttered, shaking his head slightly.
As if on cue, a loud crash echoed again from outside, followed by another shout.
Yet Jaxen didn't even flinch.
His expression remained unchanged as he ended one call and immediately started another.
"Seal that corridor. No civilians move through south wing. Get eyes on every exit," he ordered, voice firm.
Then, as if shifting gears instantly, he added colder:
"And I want whoever let him in identified. Now."
Then he ended the call.
"I'll need to check what's causing the ruckus. You guys stay here," Jaxen said, already turning away before waiting for their response.
"Don't listen to him. Let's go," Selene said to Raze, then immediately followed him out of the lounge.
"Status," Jaxen said sharply to the nearest security lead.
The man swallowed. "Sir, suspect is inside the jewelry wing. Elderly male. He's taken a hostage, a young girl. He's armed with a blade. We're trying to negotiate but—"
"Stop," Jaxen cut in immediately.
One word. Flat and final.
He exhaled once, eyes already scanning the corridor beyond the glass storefronts. Before he could give another order, movement caught his attention at his side.
Selene.
He noticed her following him without hesitation, already stepping out of the lounge despite what he had just said. Raze was right behind her, clearly dragged into it.
Jaxen clicked his tongue softly, almost inaudible.
"Tsk..."
His gaze shifted briefly toward Selene, and for a second, just a second there was a flicker of disbelief in his otherwise controlled expression.
"I knew it, she doesn't listen at all," he muttered under his breath.
He should've ordered her back. He knew that.
But instead... he didn't.
He only shook his head slightly, as if deciding it wasn't worth the argument right now.
"Stay behind me," he said again, this time louder, more firm but still not stopping her.
Selene didn't even respond, already focused ahead.
"...This woman," he muttered under his breath, shaking his head once as he moved forward.
Selene could see the movement inside the erratic and unstable pacing. And then she saw him.
Her steps slowed.
Her eyes sharpened.
"...No way," she murmured under her breath.
Raze noticed immediately. "You know him?"
Selene didn't answer right away because she was still processing it. Inside the store, holding a trembling young girl close with one arm while gripping a blade in the other, was an old man she immediately recognized.
The same man.
The one she and Ethan had helped on the road before. The one who had collapsed and looked disoriented— lost, confused and harmless.
Her brows furrowed slightly.
"Why is he here? In a mall? And why is he holding a knife and a hostage? Wasn't he supposed to be in that hospital?" Her voice lowered slightly.
Raze frowned slightly, glancing at her.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I've seen him before," she said. "I helped bring him back to the hospital with someone. We thought we had hit him at first, but it turned out he was already a patient there."
Raze's brows furrowed. "A patient?"
"They said he was mentally unstable. The staff even thanked us for returning him." Selene nodded slightly.
Her gaze sharpened as she watched the man's erratic movements.
"That's why this doesn't make sense... he shouldn't even be here."
Jaxen, who had been listening without interrupting, narrowed his eyes slightly. He didn't take his gaze off the store.
"Are you certain it's the same person?" he asked calmly.
Selene nodded once. "I'm sure."
A pause.
Then Jaxen lifted his hand slightly, signaling his security team to hold position.
"No one moves in blindly," he said coldly. "We don't escalate unless necessary."
The old man inside suddenly jerked, shouting something incoherent, pulling the girl closer. The child cried softly, frozen in fear.
Selene's fingers tightened slightly at her side.
Jaxen noticed.
The old man's voice suddenly cracked through the corridor again— louder this time, more unstable.
"IF I DIDN'T KILL HER, I'll be the one who dies!"
His grip tightened on the shaking girl, his arm trembling as he dragged her slightly forward.
"NO! MY DAUGHTER DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! IT WAS HER FAULT!"
His breathing grew uneven, ragged. His eyes were wide now unfocused, drowning in something no longer anchored to the present.
"I MUST REVENGE!"
Security tensed all at once. Someone gave a sharp warning shout. Civilians farther back started screaming again, panic rippling through the corridor like a wave.
Selene's gaze stayed locked on him.
"That's not coherent thinking," she muttered under her breath. "He's not even processing who he's holding—"
Then suddenly, his head snapped. His eyes locked onto a single point beyond the crowd.
"...Me?" Selene barely had time to register the shift.
Everything seemed to slow for half a second.
The old man's expression twisted sharply.
And then, he shoved the young girl away.
So hard that the child stumbled as security rushed to catch her. But the old man was already moving.
Straight toward Selene with its knife raised. The crowd erupted into gasps and shouts.
"SELENE—!" Raze's voice cut through the chaos.
But Selene had already moved. Her body reacted before her mind could fully catch up on one clean step back, shoulders turning and calculating distance.
But the blade still came in too close.
Too fast.
And—
A sharp movement cut across her line of sight.
Someone stepped in. Not from behind but from the side. A firm grip caught her wrist and pulled her backward in one motion, blocking her completely from the blade's path.
The metal flashed and it never reached her. The impact rang out instead against something else. Selene's breath caught for half a second as she realized there's a warm pressure at her back. And a steady presence in front of her.
She didn't even need to look up to know, who it was.
"J- Jaxen."
His arm was extended, having intercepted the strike with precise timing, his body angled in front of hers like a barrier that had already decided the outcome before the attack even landed.
His voice dropped low.
So cold, like an ice.
"Enough."