Chapter 6
Andilyn
I’m jolted from sleep, confused as to what woke me in the first place.
It takes me a second to get my bearings, but then I hear it.
As intended, the faint humming sound is only loud enough to alert the Houses.
Tobias storms into the room, his eyes wide and crazed.
The indignant pursing of his mouth is rather comical, but he had to know this was always a possibility, even without my intervention.
It was only a matter of time before his crimes caught up with him.
“We have to go,” he snaps, gripping my wrist and yanking me from the bed.
“Go where?” I stumble after him, my bare feet scraping along the planks of the breezeway as we exit our section of the home. “Where’s Hudson?”
Tobias swears beneath his breath, coming to a sudden stop.
He weighs his options, debating for far too long if an innocent little boy is worth the extra seconds it’ll take to retrieve him, but thankfully doubles back in the direction we’ve just come from.
He tugs me along, but his manhandling hardly fazes me.
I’m downright giddy, knowing his just-desserts are only moments away.
He shoves the door to the spare room open, revealing a sleepy-eyed Hudson.
I scoop him up, hugging him against me as Tobias continues his vain pursuit of escape.
The sun has barely risen, and dew coats the ground, but it’s a beautiful day to watch this place crumble.
Across the compound, Elders are in a frenzy, herding Tainted to The Atrium, as if a ramshackle building with a glass-paned ceiling is a suitable hiding spot.
We join the crush, forcing a path to open up.
When everyone is accounted for, the doors are shut, trapping us inside.
Briefly, I contemplate the likelihood of this being a suicide mission, but Veritas is far too arrogant to think that death would be their only way out.
As the other Tainted are directed to kneel amongst the pews, Tobias steers me to the dais.
Dread fills my stomach when his intent becomes clear.
The stone coffin they use as a means of extinguishing a Tainted who’s been declared unredeemable looms before us ominously.
“Tobias…” I croak through a rapidly closing throat, trying my best to shuffle backward, but it’s no use. He grips me tighter, causing me to hiss in pain.
“If I have to beat you into compliance, I will,” he spits viciously, the coldness in his eyes making me shiver.
As a group of men works to slide the top of the sarcophagus open, I glance at the door, contemplating my chances of making a run for it.
If I didn’t have Hudson to think about, I’d risk it.
Before I can beg Tobias to reconsider, I’m lifted from my feet and forced inside.
A choked sob wracks my body as the light above me begins to fade.
Seconds later, we’re surrounded by darkness, causing Hudson to whimper.
I stroke his back, doing everything I can to keep my panic at bay.
I should’ve known that Tobias would have a plan in place.
For all his many faults, no one could ever say the man isn't brilliantly calculated. He’ll leave us here to rot before he caves to any questioning he’s subjected to.
We’ve got five to six hours, at best, before we’ll run out of air.
Even less if Hudson starts to cry. It could easily take them a full day to search the entirety of the compound, but with any luck they’ll clear the buildings first. I focus on taking slow, measured breaths, refusing to entertain an outcome that doesn’t result in us walking out of here, uninjured and free of the chains they’ve bound us with.
I’ve been so afraid to hope for this day, that residual fear that Veritas has ingrained in each of us overshadowing the possibility of it becoming a reality.
But I don’t want to become another name in their long list of casualties.
I want a life. I want the option of choices and to find my way in a world that seems to have forgotten I exist. I want to hug the three men whose support has never wavered, and thank them profusely for shouldering my baggage when it threatened to crush me beneath its weight.
And to do any of that, I need out of this fucking box!
A rage-filled scream claws its way up my throat, but I force it back, knowing what little oxygen we have is too precious to waste.
So I lie there, at the mercy of the officers who should be canvassing the compound by now, and will our clock not to expire before someone finds us.
It feels like hours have passed when I finally blink my eyes back open.
It’s unbearably hot, and I’m growing worried that Hudson isn’t sleeping because he’s tired.
I shift him off of me, brushing his sweat-slicked hair from his face.
Our combined body heat is only making the situation worse.
I hate to think of all the insects who’ve decided to make a home here, so I redirect my thoughts to something more productive than feeding my panic.
The slight sound of my shuffling almost obscures it, but a faint noise catches my attention.
I strain to listen, and after several agonizing seconds, I’m certain it’s the steady cadence of voices.
They’re distant, and there’s no way for me to know if they’re friend or foe, but I seize the opportunity, knowing it might be our only way out of here.
“Hello?” I choke out, struggling to clear my throat and try again.
“Is someone there?!” Hudson stirs, but even my raised voice isn’t enough to wake him fully.
Using every ounce of strength I possess, I flatten my hands and push against the top of the sarcophagus as hard as I can.
It refuses to budge, but I try again. And again.
Tears stain my face, but I’ll be damned if I leave this world without a fight.
“Help! Please, we’re in here!” My ears begin to ring, my throat growing raw, and still I scream.
For myself, but more importantly, for the child beside me, who’s yet to experience life or even learn to tie his shoes.
My hands throb from banging them against the unforgiving surface, but hope fills me when it creaks in protest. A second later, light filters in, illuminating the stunned faces of several police officers.
Their jaws are slack with shock, but my relieved cry sends them scrambling into motion.
“Let’s take it nice and slow.” The soothing voice of the woman attempting to help us does little to calm me, but I grasp her offered hand like a lifeline, my stiff limbs groaning in protest as I force myself into motion.
A second officer begins tending to Hudson, but the moment he becomes aware of his surroundings, he starts to flail, his arms outstretched as he struggles to reach me.
He settles once I have him, and only then do I fully process what's happening all around us. There’s an influx of officers coming and going from The Atrium, and I rapidly scan their faces in hopes of finding Raiden.
My hands start to shake when I realize he’s nowhere to be found, so I fist them in the back of Hudson’s shirt to keep the trembling at bay.
“Ma’am, we have paramedics on site. They’ll need to check you both.” I scan the woman in front of me, eyeing her lack of uniform.
Sensing how reluctant I am, she pulls a badge from her back pocket, casually producing the piece of evidence I was searching for.
She smiles in understanding but keeps her distance as she leads us outside.
When the bright rays of early morning sunlight heat my face, it causes me to squint, briefly shading the chaos unfolding across the compound.
My steps slow, and with my head tilted back, I close my eyes and commit this moment to memory.
In fifty years, I’ll still remember the way I feel right now.
Vindicated.
Powerful.
Free.
Shaking off my reverie, I nod to the woman waiting patiently, matching my steps with hers as we traverse through the maze of detainments taking place.
It feeds my vengeance-starved heart to see so many Elders on their knees, hands bound behind their backs as they’re forced to witness the decimation of their precious little cult.
If their Divine exists, he’s forsaken them.
Their comeuppance is long overdue, and one can only hope this is just the beginning.
I straighten my stance, leeching back the power they never had a right to, determined to prove they haven’t broken me beyond repair.
After being escorted to an ambulance stationed inside the front gate, we patiently wait for our turn to be seen.
Hudson is restless, pressing his face against my chest to escape the cacophony of sounds assaulting him.
He’s endured far too much in such a short time, but it won’t be long until he’s reunited with his father, and that tiny hope of something good awaiting us helps to bolster my strength.
As a paramedic waves us over, an officer approaches and intercepts before he can begin his assessment.
His gaze is fixated on Hudson as he rapidly fires off a slew of questions, and once he’s officially confirmed his identity, he quickly rings his boss to pass along the news.
“Can you tell me if Detective Cortés is here?” I politely ask, but the second the words leave my mouth, a scuffle breaks out on the opposite side of the gate.
“Where the hell are they?!”
My body thrums to life at the sound of that achingly familiar voice.
Yelling ensues, but the officer I’d been speaking with steps away to assist, leaving me unattended.
I follow behind him, ignoring the paramedic’s request for me to stay put until I’ve been cleared by medical.
The moment my feet breach the threshold of the compound, the invisible tether tying me to a life I never asked for snaps free.
I glance at the ground, baffled by the difference a few inches can make.
My toes flex, pressing against the dirt that doesn’t belong to anyone, least of all Veritas.
Looking up, the first thing I see is Detective Cortés.
He’s frazzled, pacing back and forth as he scrubs a hand through his hair.
An older male attempts to speak with him, but his agitation bleeds over, causing a string of expletives to fly from his mouth.
A watery smile quirks my lips at the inventive phrases he’s hurling at no one in particular.
He hangs his head, but then his gaze shifts to the side, our eyes connecting, as if a force greater than either of us has alerted him to my presence.
“Raiden?” My voice is barely audible over the melee, but the shift in his demeanor is instantaneous.
It took me weeks before I’d call him by his first name, preferring to keep our relationship strictly professional.
This day was never guaranteed, and attaching myself to someone I might never see again wouldn’t have been healthy for my emotional state.
Regardless of best-laid plans, I shared things with him I’ve never uttered to another living person.
He listened without complaint, but furthermore, he believed every implausible story I confided in him.
So right now, I need the comfort of the man who’s made the last seven months somewhat bearable.
I need him to hold my pieces together while I fall apart, just for a moment, and then I’ll steel my spine and don the mask I’ve gotten so good at wearing.
But for a few blessed seconds, I desperately need the sense of safety that being held tightly in his arms will afford me.