Death Riders

Chapter 29. I should learn self-control

It took a rainstorm to wake me up in the dead of the night into a real-life dream. I was drowning in water yet floating in the sky. My body felt numb and weak but I was able to lift myself off the bed rather easily. I rubbed the sleepiness from my eyes and regained stability on my feet. I looked around and realized I was in Rita's room with Rita nowhere to be found. She must've dressed me in a nightgown and one of her cotton coat that covered everything from my neck down to my feet

Reaching out for the glass of water on the bedside table, I was shot with pain. My dominant hand was wrapped in layers of bandages and restrained so that I didn't forget to keep it still. The bandages trailed up to my shoulder where the pain was concentrated.

Guess now I'll have to use my left hand for everything.

Sighing, I lifted the glass and chugged it down. As a substance hit the acid in my stomach, it growled viciously, signaling its emptiness.

They better have a piece of bread.

I carefully walked out of the cozy room and into a dark hallway. I had been here once, I remembered the locations of this minimalistic family home. Of course I didn't forget about my neighbours and directly beside the room I was comfortably accommodated in was Deckard's.

And what a coincidence that he was entering his room the same moment I left mine.

With the eyes of an eagle, he must've seen my heart thump out of my chest. It has a habit of doing that out of a reason I have yet to discover.

I had thought he was going to ignore me when he continued to push the door to his room open. But miraculously, he paused and spoke without practicing eye contact. "Could I talk to you?"

I was certain I was the only one who got shot but something dire must've happened to him; he waited for my answer without assuming I followed his order.

"A man inviting a lady to his room doesn't seem proper, don't you think?" A sly grin played at the corner of my lips.

Without hesitating, he replied, "Around here, you are a man."

I brushed my long disheveled hair with my fingers. "Then I'm glad times are changing, huh?"

He released a small sigh. "Please." He turned to me and looked me straight in the eyes but I didn't recognize who it was standing in front of me. For once, his shirt was not in perfect condition. It looked like he hurriedly undid the button on his shirt down to his sternum as a few buttons were missing. His hair was almost as messy as mine, in contrast to his usual neatly styled hair. I'm starting to believe he had a switch in the back of his eyes to change how he looked at people because they were looking at Vivienne, not Emma.

As if in a trance, I nodded silently and he opened the door for me to enter before closing it with a soft thud. It must've been the 'please' or the way he said it.

He threw his vest on the floor swiftly and took a seat on his bed. I stood on the corner awkwardly and in the moments of silence, I scanned the room.

It was rather bland with only white walls and a brown carpet as its foundations. A large bed for his large self was placed just in front of an open glass window, allowing the cruel cold to enter the room. A desk piled with books and papers rested next to the wall. Finally a dresser on the opposite end of the bed where I rested my back on completes the interior of his room.

"They all had blanks." His calm voice striked a certain feeling of uneasiness inside my heart. "I made sure they took the blanks in the warehouse."

Then my mind went back to a dreaded day when they raided the docks with the help of Mr. Zhang. "Did you give them the blanks from our inventory?"