33. Harley
THIRTY-THREE
“Ithink he’s onto us,” I say, pacing the living room while everyone else remains seated on the couch. He has to be onto us. He never calls unless it’s after I’ve sent the pictures over to him. It’s not the end of the week yet, why would he be randomly calling me asking where she is? Is he stalking us? Is he going to appear busting down our door at any minute now?
“If he’s already in Willow Creek, then he probably is,” Weston speaks up.
“But why not just come and get me then? Why stay hidden? It doesn’t make sense to me.” Winver crosses her legs, biting her nails.
“We need to speed this process up. Tomorrow, me and Motley will both do training. Right now there isn’t much we can do besides keep all of us hidden. He doesn’t know where we live and if he happens to break into this place, he’d never be able to find our door.”
“What about the roof? It leads right to Weston’s room,” Winver questions.
“He wouldn’t be able to climb up,” Motley answers.
“So if he knows that y’all have now turned on him, where does that lead this whole plan now?” Winver asks.
“I don’t know, but I’ll think of something. Lord knows we’ve switched plans how many times now?” I scoff, rubbing my temples.
“And y’all aren’t actually going to turn me in?” Winver asks cautiously.
“No…” I breathe out.
“Look, it’s best if we all just swiped off everything from the table and started fresh. Harley and Motley, grow the fuck up and get past this whole hatred towards her and start putting it all towards Axel. She’s just as sucked in as we are. Everybody kiss, or hug, or whatever the hell y’all need to do. But please, just grow the fuck up,” Weston urges. I look up at him, seeing his eyes straight at me. Looking over at Motley, he shrugs while Winver crosses her arms.
“I can get past everything. I’ll forgive and forget, but I’ll only forgive with a decent apology,” Winver spits out.
Silence fills the room and with everything flooding through my mind. Thinking about it from the moment I saw her, captured her, into believing she was the enemy behind it all, when in reality, she’s always been just like us. I let all my hate I had built up with him. For these days I’ve had her in my grasp, it’s been taken out all on her. I’ve hated her because of him and I”ve been going in circles because of it.
How could she forgive me? I wouldn’t be able to forgive. But that’s where we’re different. She’s a strong woman who has gone through the wringer and back, not letting it suck her in again. Whereas I have gone through the wringer, only to be brought back changed in the worst way. I’ve been calling her angel this whole time, wanting to strip her of her halo, only to have it made out of an unbreakable hold.
“Angel, I don’t know how you do it, but everyday you’ve shown me your strongest side even at your most vulnerable times. For six months I’ve watched you from afar, trying to figure you all out with nothing but resentment and hate.” I step closer to her. “I’ve projected my hate of him onto you, giving you nothing to work with while you’ve been working through it all.” I catch her gaze, now bending down to her, surrendering myself to her.
The woman I see is a woman who is no longer an object, but a woman with the same shared humanities as us. As me. “I was wrong about you, angel. And I am so, very sorry for putting you through every question that I refused to answer.” My words hanging in the air, burdened with the realization that previous thoughts and emotions towards her were guided with misconceptions.
She sits there, looking at me with those brown eyes that I refused to give color to. I don’t expect her to say anything–
“Wow…” she mumbles. “You’ve surprised me once again. But, I accept your apology,” she softly smiles.
“Finally,” Weston huffs, making Winver chuckle. “Alright, Motley, you”re up next, my guy.”
We all look at Motley who now looks around the room, ignoring our gaze. He lets out a sigh, rubbing his hand down his face before speaking up.
“I don’t think I can top that. But then again, I’ve never been able to top Harley,” he smirks.
“Motley,” Weston grows serious.
“Alright, alright.” He fans his arms down for Weston to relax. “I’m sorry. For everything. Cuts and all. You”re a powerful woman and if that makes me weak for admitting that, then I gladly wave my white flag in surrender.”
“Thanks, Motley. Apology also accepted.”
Weston bites his bottom lip, smiling at us. I raise a brow in question.
“What about your apology, Weston?” I muse.
“He’s already apologized. He made it very clear when we were taking a shower earlier,” Winver says suggestively.
Weston raises his eyebrows, giving me the look of ‘I told you so’.
Winver gets up, stretching her arms out. “Look, I hate to be this person, but we all need to rest for the night. My body and mind are exhausted and thinking about Axel is just going to drain us even more. If we”re needing a full day of training tomorrow, we need to be alert. I need to be alert.” She starts walking off towards the hallway where our rooms lead. “And I’m not sleeping on that couch again,” she calls out, shutting whichever bedroom of ours she just went into.
“I think that all went surprisingly well,” Weston says, now getting up along with Motley who follows his lead.
“We’ll get through this, we’ve made it this far. I can practically taste his blood. My tomahawk ax has been waiting for a day like this to come,” Motley says, smirking.
We all adopted different skills so if he were to show up unexpectedly after all this time, we’d be prepared and ready to fight back.
And our skills are about to be put to good use.