𝕺𝖇𝖊𝖉𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖈𝖊 | 𝕸𝖆𝖗𝖈𝖚𝖘 𝕬𝖗𝖌𝖚𝖊𝖑𝖑𝖔

Chapter twelve

-Defective detachment-

***

"Did they truth serum you?"

"No."

"Plain old cruciatus, then."

"I wasn't tortured. Jesus, what are those references?"

Petra pushes her way in between the two of us as we stroll through the halls. "Don't mind him. Billy hasn't had sex in a while."

"You should take one for the team." suggests Lex. "End his suffering."

"I would rather respect myself." Petra shoots him a smile before returning to me. Her voice is low with expectation. Until an hour ago, Saya's room was not only unimaginable, but it was rumored to not exist. "What is it like in there?"

"Does she sleep standing up, or does she have a rechargeable battery or some shit?" Billy has his eyes wide, trying to absorb every piece of information he can.

"There wasn't much of anything." I think and say simultaneously.

I didn't have much time to appreciate that I had just been granted passage to, essentially, forbidden territory. As soon as they -by 'they', I mean Saya's right hands that I have never seen speak- greeted me by the door, I was made to stand at the very center of the room. Saya's questions came shortly after that.

They were all about efficiency.

At that moment, Saya was not Saya, I noticed then. She was the leader, the one responsible for who actually knows what. And the head of the Syndicate, as one would expect, demanded attention. No, her posture, the way her feet were grounded so resolutely, earned attention.

I physically couldn't look away from her. It felt wrong.

But in the seconds it took them to move me from the door to the place where I would face Saya properly, I got to see empty walls, no bed, no wardrobe. The only indication of living inside that room was the desk and chair beside large paper boxes by the corner.

"It wasn't her bedroom." I tell them. Of course it wouldn't be. Again, she wasn't Saya, my friend, she was Saya, intimidating, solid force. "I think she just studies there."

"And the rest of us have to share rooms because of what? Racism?" Lex is annoyed. "Do I have to be Lin's slave to get anything in this place, or just East Asian?"

Petra ignores him. "What did they want to know?"

"The exact same thing the other Legacies did." About the roof, about Jun. "And I told them what I knew."

Petra is clearly taken aback by this. "Which is?"

"Her deeds are finally catching up to her."

She pauses. "That's it?"

I nod.

She looks at me for a second. Nothing written on her face, she just observes me.

She nods back, coming to an acceptance with herself.

Petra quickens her pace and leaves us behind without another word.

I look between Lex and Billy to search for enlightenment in them that I cannot fathom for myself. They do the same.

"Is she...?" Billy does not have the courage to finish.

"She wouldn't." I dismiss him.

"Are you sure?" Lex raises a brow. "I think she would."

My stomach drops and my whole body feels too cold for the season. "Shit."

The three of us run in the direction she disappeared into, knowing exactly where she went.

***

Jun's POV

They finally come to check in on my neck. My heartbeat thumps against my skin. It's badly infected, and I don't have to see it to know it looks as healthy skin should not.

Three men: one cleans my wound, the other prepares my tetanus shot and the third blocks my cell's door.

I feel wet cotton meet my neck. It dabs around an area ten times the size of the small hole it used to be. If I had waited any longer, the thin passageway to my bloodstream Saya's blowpipe dart left would have closed and healed by itself. Fortunately, someone hasn't been keeping up with this dungeon's maintenance, and there are several rusty metal surfaces to choose from.

Doctor number one turns his back to get a new cotton. I could've escaped right then and there, but I don't actually want an infection.

So I allow them to do their job.

I heard her before I saw her. Shoes are, again, their flaw.

She took hurried steps, as opposed to Maria's doubtful ones. Both girls walked with purpose, but Petra was desperate.

I hid behind a stone column and watched the process of identifying the situation and understanding what she was seeing unfold.

Petra froze by the bottom of the stairs, mouth hanging open, eyes fixed on the three men laying on the floor. They were in the ten-by-ten space she knew I was supposed to be in. But the cell's door was open, because there was no reason to have it locked.

All three men were knocked out cold.

Petra does not belong here. Not necessarily in this dungeon, but in a place where I would be.

I wait for her to investigate further, to move away from my only exit point, when other steps echo down the stairs. Just as hurried and desperate as hers, but there are three this time.

"What the fuck-" Marcus Arguello begins, seemingly angry at Petra until his eyes catch a glimpse of a fallen needle, then the fallen first-aid case, then the fallen men. "The fuck happened here?"

The girl struggles to organize a sentence. "I found this like that. She left."

Billy sees Lex step forward. "Are they dead?"

The group follows the spiky-haired boy as he enters the cell and crouches down next to Doctor number three. The doctor is splayed on the concrete ledge -a bed during my stay- half on it, half slipping into the ground. Lex presses two fingers against his neck, and the rest of them mimic his actions on the other two.

"So, not dead." Billy concludes.

"Not dead." Petra agrees. "You?" she asks Lex.

"Not sleeping either." He says.

"Fuck, how did Lin allow this?" Petra looks up at Marcus.

The boy has his arms crossed, looking down at the broken bits of glass. He leans on the poles of the entrance. He blocks it like Doctor number three used to.

Marcus stays quiet.

"Is he even here? I haven't seen him since the dead boy." Billy tells. The group looks at him, for what he said is true. Saya has been running the school for the last two days.

Master Lin might not be around but there are still people to warn about my escape. That is why, as they have their heads turned the other way, I push Marcus in and close the cell's door with all of them inside.

It happens so fast, they have no time to react as I lock it.

"Sorry, it is nothing personal." I say. "You shouldn't have come."