Fortune Favors the Bold

21

"Kalani!" Assad's scream tore through the hall as he raced forward, his feet slipping with a speed that nearly toppled him over. Tamara gasped at the sight, hurrying after him toward the two girls beneath the glowing light. "No, no, no-," he dropped onto his knees, sliding the remainder of the way to stop at her side.

Tamara lowered herself beside him, her breath hitching at the sight of the unmoving girl. "What happened?" She asked the girl who'd been here before them.

Chidi shook her head. "I don't know. We were looking around and then she told me to run so I did. I think someone else was there. We were going to come down but the lights cut off and we lost each other. She was like this when I found her."

Assad cursed, carefully lifting the girl into her arms. He wiped back her uncut bangs from her eyes, noticing the forming bruise on her neck before the stretch of her shirt's collar.

"Why were you guys here, anyway?" Tamara asked.

"We were looking for Cas."

"By yourselves?" Chidi's attention drifted to the ground in response to the question. It wouldn't look good for her. Why would she enlist the help of the girl she hated to find the man who pinned them against one another? "You could have asked any one of us."

Assad lifted his hand to interrupt Tamara. "Wait," he whispered, his eyebrows knitting together in focus as he watched Kalani. All her features remained still... all except one. "She's breathing," he said. Both girls watched him place his palm on her clavicle to feel for a heartbeat. A light beat thumped against his skin. "She's alive."

Chidi grew confused. "How? The gunshot sounded when I found her. Doesn't that mean she died?" She asked.

Tamara narrowed her eyes at the girl before truly taking in what she meant. Her attention shifted before her eyes widened and she gasped. "Junfeng!" She gasped, quickly lifting herself off the ground and racing down the right hallway.

"Junfeng!" Tamara yanked the large handle back to open the door, but it didn't budge. She tried again, her arms meeting resistance every time the door was pulled until she stumbled and pushed it. Only then did it part from the thick frame to reveal a small portion of the inner chamber. Her body grew still but her heart raced as she slowly pushed it further until the entire room came into view.

Her breath hitched in her chest.

Tamara stumbled back in horror at the sight in front of her, her hand trembling as she lifted it to cover her mouth. Her eyes reflected the image that would be burned into her mind for the rest of her life. Even though her lips parted, no sound came out because some things are too terrifying to be met with a scream.

In front of her, his body was sprawled over the ground. His right hand seemed broken into an awfully unnatural angle.

Tamara took another step back, physically unable to turn her eyes away from his head. The way one side of his skull had been shattered with an object blunt enough to expose its graphic effect on his brain. What was worse was the fear frozen in the single eye left intact on the right side of his face.

The room was painted with splatters of his blood.

She stepped back again; her eyes set on the sight.

The killer was far more inhumane than they'd ever imagined. But Tamara would do what she had to return to her family.

"Tamara," Assad's footsteps sounded in the distance, but she didn't hear them. She didn't take notice of the boy until his eyes landed on the same sight and he quickly turned her away, forcing their eyes onto one another's before they were given any more chances to remember more of the details. "Are you okay?" He asked.