Red Notice (2021 Thurber) Oneshots

Truth Hurts Like Knives

Alternate ending for Trust in Truth if You Can.

What if the Bishops were a day late?

Nolan makes a different decision than before. He has no hope left.

•

The clock in his room was annoying. The loud ticking seemed to be bouncing through Nolan Booth's mind, driving him insane. The clock had another purpose, though, besides driving him crazy.

It stood for the ten minutes he had left of his three-day time his captor, Lia Schmitt, had given him to think on her proposal.

The proposal to be a part of something that would put his skills to effective use.

Honestly, he'd been ready to give his answer on day one after the voices of his partners and father had taunted him once more. The other voice, the one that was primarily filled with doubt, had grown in strength. It still haunted him to this very moment, though it had been quieter lately.

Nolan had painfully realized that his partners weren't coming to save him. They had used him, just as Lia said they would.

This reinforced everything negative that had ever spun in his mind: that he wasn't worth it. That he was nothing to anyone. He was just a waste of a beautiful name and person. It had taunted him until he snapped.

So, he figured, no more Mr. Nice Guy. No more of that vulnerability of being the second-best art thief in the world.

Tick, tick, tick. Tock.

Besides, he'd learned his lesson. Yes, for the first time in his life, he'd felt happy, wanted, but it had been snatched away in a matter of moments. Life seemed to enjoy torturing him these days.

He stood from the chair and stretched out, knowing he had limited time left in his captivity. He was good at escaping, right? This was his escape, giving in to what he had dreaded for months.

He had decided to accept the truth, and it may have hurt like knives, but it was reality.

He couldn't live in a fabrication- a lie- that he kept creating for himself. Nolan Booth was done with it.

Tick, tick, tock.

The bell chimed, showing that everything had ended, including his imprisonment.

Right on the dot, the titanium doors unlocked and spun open, revealing Lia Schmitt there, with two guards behind her.

"Mr. Booth," She said sweetly, striding toward him in her black dress, a charming, still insanely, feral cat-like smile on her face. "I trust you've come to a decision?"

Nolan inclined his head. "I made my decision on the first day I was in here. Nice touch. How'd you know I like red?"

Lia smirked, signaling the guards to grasp his arms lightly. "Don't try anything," she warned him. She turned around, leading them out of the room. "It was a hunch."

"Oh, of course," Booth muttered to himself.

As they walked down the dark halls, leading back to the office that Lia had taken him to three days ago, Nolan felt a peace in his mind. The voices had fled for this moment, and he planned to enjoy every second of it.

Shadows seemed to curl around the walls, inching into every nook and cranny around them as they went, barely any light around. He tried to keep his stride level with the guards who had secured his arms. He felt so much darkness around him, preying on his fear.

He loved it.

As they sat him down in the chair across from Lia's, they shackled him to it. Obviously. They weren't dumb, that's for sure. They didn't want to risk anything, which made absolute sense to him.