𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐘𝐀𝐑𝐃━︎━︎M. Hill ✓︎

𝐍𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐞𝐧

CHAPTER NINETEEN:
ROLE MODEL

     "I KNOW YOU AREN'T ASLEEP, Young!" Sage slammed her fist on the man's door, her jaw clenched as she clenched the paper Malia had shown her in her hand. "I will kick this damn door down in five seconds if you don't open it!"

     The door opened and there stood Blake, an annoyed look on his face. "Jesus Christ, Sage. What the hell do you want?"

     She pushed past the man, who watched her before rolling his eyes and sighing as he closed the door. He turned to look at Sage, crossing his arms over his chest and firmly planting his feet on the ground, waiting for what she needed. Sage slammed the paper into his chest, taking the man by surprise. "What the hell is that, Blake?"

     Blake looked at her for a moment before grabbing the paper and unfolding it before looking at the words written on the paper. He clenched his jaw as he looked towards the woman. "Where did you get this?"

     "Malia found it, gave it to me." Sage truthfully answered. "What were you thinking, Blake? That's your little sister. She shouldn't be finding stuff like this in your journal."

     "Well, she shouldn't have even been in my room in the first place!" Blake yelled. "I'm gonna kill her."

     "No. No you're going to keep your feet planted right there and tell me what the hell is going on." Sage snapped at him. "Tell me why Malia felt obligated to go through your things only to find this in your journal? If she's going through your shit because she doesn't think her own flesh and blood loves her, don't you think that there's something wrong there?"

     "What did she say to you?" Blake asked.

     "Does it matter?" Sage scoffed, looking at the man in disbelief. "All you need to know is that your sister doesn't feel loved. Why does it matter what else it was that Malia told me?"

     "For all we know she's just being a teenager."

     Sage opened her mouth and let out another scoff of disbelief. "What the fuck, Blake? That's your response to Malia being scared that you don't put her first? She's a teenager, yes, but she isn't like every other bratty and stuck up teenager. She's the sweetest kid I know, and now she's being crushed because she thinks her own brother cares more about living up to Beatrix's standards rather than living up to hers. Isn't there something in that small brain of yours that screams to do something different?"

     "It's one in the morning, Sage, can we talk about this when I actually care enough to talk about it?" Blake groaned, running a hand over his face.

     "And to think that for a split second that you cared about someone other than yourself." Sage snapped. "Wasn't there a point in your life where your only goal was to be the bigger brother that Malia could look up to? Not the emotionless soldier that did every goddamn thing that he was told to do? You're letting your sister grow up to be an assassin, and she isn't even fourteen yet. I won't let her become us. . . I won't let her become what you have."

     "And you think that you're any better than me?" Blake rose an eyebrow. "Sage, you can take a knife and throw it at someone's head and not blink twice when they fall dead to the ground. You're just as ruthless as I am, if not even more so. You think that that should be a role model that Malia looks up to? You're a killer Sage, we all are. And it's too late in the game to change that factor."

     "You know why I'm a killer? Why I'm so ruthless? Because I was the same age as Malia when I started killing people, and I was told not to think twice about it so I didn't. Malia is growing up with that same mind set, and you're just sitting by and letting it happen. I'm not going to let that happen anymore."

     "You can't protect her from everything, Sage." Blake told the woman. "She's gotta grow up and be a big girl some day."

     "And she will." Sage promised. "But she won't grow up to be a killer like Roxanne and I did. She's going to grow up, and experience what it truly means to be a teenager. She's going to gain friends, go to an actual school, hell maybe she'll even get a normal job as a lawyer or some shit. But I refuse to let her sleep in this hell for another week."

     "And what are you going to do about it, Sage?" Blake glared. "You cannot single handedly get her out of this place without both of you being shot down and killed before you even manage to make it all the way down the hall."

     Sage clenched her jaw for a moment as she looked at the man, the two having a staring contest for a moment before Sage was the one to speak up. "If it came down to it, would you rescue this place and Beatrix, or would you rescue your sister and help her escape?"

     Blake looked at the woman, trying to decipher what it was that she was going on about. But Sage had been the one person he never could read. She knew how to hide her emotions, how to make her face completely blank. That was something she had mastered once she hit the age of fifteen. His eyes searched hers for a moment before he finally answered, "Beatrix."

Sage scoffed and shook her head before shoving past him and out of his room. Now she knew who it was that was on her side and who it was that wasn't on her side. That conversation hadn't turned out how she wanted it to, and she had a feeling that there was something wrong with the situation, she just couldn't decipher what exactly that was.