Chapter 4
CADE
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Red.
It saturates the screen like a seeping, scarlet wound that won’t close. A warning for a catastrophe already in progress. The hue lingers and then fades to black.
The video snaps back in focus.
Bella is half curled on her bed, screaming at the top of her lungs.
Her hands are pulling at the collar around her throat, manicured nails splintering at the ends as she claws into it.
Her body convulses, causing the chain around her leg to rattle and clank.
Every broken sound that comes out of her stabs straight through my soul.
I gasp, bringing my hand up to my mouth. “What’s happening to her?” I choke out.
“Knox,” Tex answers without taking his eyes off of the screen. “You were right. Looks like they changed it.”
“To what?” I ask frantically.
“Shit,” Knox mutters, leaning forward. His eyes are locked on Bella’s shaking body. “Electrical pulses of some kind.”
“Let’s hope that’s all he added,” Tex adds, wincing as Bella’s screeches increase.
“Let’s hope?!” Lex roars. “She’s getting fucking shocked!”
Knox cringes. “I know, but he’s right. If they modified the collar even a little then there’s no limit to what it could do to her. They could shock her and reroute the chemicals into her bloodstream. Or just blow it.”
A scorching rush tears through my chest, bleeding out until it reaches the tips of my fingers and the soles of my feet.
“We need Sabine,” Knox finishes quietly, cringing once more at the gruesome video. “Now!”
Bella’s screaming abruptly cuts off. She’s panting, sweating, and trembling, but the convulsions slow. For a second she’s just breathing.
Barely.
The door to her room creaks open. Her head snaps over at the sound and she freezes.
“Zeke?” she cries, her voice splintering into something that sounds too much like relief. “It’s true. Y-you’re alive?”
He stops just inside the room, keeping his back to the camera.
“Hey, sis.”
The casualness of it all makes my skin crawl.
“W-w-where is he?” Her breath stutters. “Where the hell is Jack?”
I glance at Lex. “He’s got Jack?”
Lex shrugs. “Explains why it keeps going straight to voicemail.”
Zeke strides toward her, the wooden floorboards groaning under his weight with each step. “Don’t worry about him right now, Bells.”
Bella’s eyes drop to his hand. “W-what is that?” she whispers.
“Holy shit,” Tex breathes. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Jesus Christ,” Nate mutters.
Tightly gripped in Zeke’s hand, is a thick and heavy metal rod. The end glowing a dull, molten orange as heat ripples the air around it.
“No!” she cries. “No, Zeke. Please.” She scoots back in bed, her spine smashing against the headboard. “Y-y-you don’t have to do this.”
Zeke doesn’t react to her pleas. He doesn’t hesitate. After over two years apart, I expect a flicker, a spark—something. But there’s not a single trace of emotion in him. Just a dull, soulless emptiness toward his sister.
“I don’t have a choice, Bells.” His body jolts, his fingers scratch at the black-and-white metal around his neck. “No. No, I’m sorry,” he whispers to himself, shaking his head frantically. “I-I mean, I don’t have a choice, Izzy.”
“Izzy?” Bella sobs. “Zeke, what are you talking about?”
He inches toward her, the burning hot metal shaking slightly in his grip. She tries to move away. Her leg thrashes at the chain, but the bed doesn’t budge.
“Stop! Please. Zeke,” she hopelessly pleads to her big brother. “P-p-pleeeease. Don’t!”
A ragged sound escapes from deep in Lex’s chest. I grab his arm as his body jerks forward in a violent, reflexive lunge at the screen.
“Lex, stop!” I wail, my own muscles straining to hold back his massive frame.
“I’m going to kill him,” Lex grits, fists colliding with the table. He wraps his arms around me in a grip that’s suffocatingly tight. “I’m going to fucking kill him.”
“I know.” I nod.
I hear a quiet and devastated cry escape from my sister’s lips when Zeke reaches out for Bella. Haley’s too. Bella yelps when her brother grabs her left wrist and pins her arm down with brutal efficiency.
“Zeke! NO!” She claws at his arm, drawing blood, but he’s too strong.
The iron lowers.
I look away and bury my head into Lex’s chest. His arms tighten around my back, heart thumping in his chest so hard I can feel it pounding against my cheek.
Bella wails as the metal sizzles into her skin. An unbearable, high-pitched, and shattering sound that will for sure give me nightmares for the rest of my life. Lex loses it completely. He’s shaking and shouting things in Russian. Words I can’t even catch through the roar in my head.
I turn back just in time to see Zeke lift the iron away, smoke curling up from her singed flesh. Seared into her forearm in cruel and elegant cursive, is the letter C.
“What the hell is a C for?” I whisper.
Bella sobs as her body violently shakes from the pain.
Zeke doesn’t look at it. He won’t even glance at her. The coward just turns around and walks out of the room like this was nothing. Like she is nothing.
The screen glitches again.
Static.
Black.
Gone.
DING.
@LucaWasHere
So terribly sorry, but this time Miami’s not the code.
You chose the wrong word and took the wrong road.
See what happens when you guess in the dark?
A single bad answer, now she carries my mark.
But don’t worry, boys. For I’m a fair-minded man.
I promised you hours and I’ll stick to the plan.
The rest of that time, I’ll leave in your hand.
Think hard, breathe slow, and follow what you understand.
Last chance, Lexie. No more saving grace.
No second guesses when you miss the right place.
Type it once more. Make it perfect and true.
Because next time she suffers… it’ll all be on you.
01:45:00
“Fuck!”
The word barely leaves Lex’s mouth before he grabs the jar of sand and hurls it across the room. It explodes against the wall. The sound of shattering glass echoes like a gunshot. Ellie and Haley gasp, both of them shrinking back into their seats. For a split second, no one breathes.
Sand sprays across the floor in a wide arc, grains scattering and catching the light as they spill under the table. Something solid skids across the floor, creating a small, dull clink as it comes to rest near the table leg.
My eyes lock onto it. It’s a black USB drive. Unmarked and completely out of place among the shards and sand.
Knox leans down and picks it up.
The timer continues to tick down.
“What is that?” I ask.
“We’re about to find out,” Knox answers as he clicks the USB into his laptop.