𝐋𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐕𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐲 | 𝟏𝟖+

LILY

049. SEE YOU LATER

"Time is ticking, everyone. Find Lily and her friends, and I promise the prize will be glorious," the voice cackled through the speakers. The voice had been repeating the message every 10 minutes. I could tell they were growing impatient.

I glared at the speaker. The taunting in their tone was annoying as hell. I pull Royces' gun from his hand and shoot it, silencing the voice. I hand him his gun back with a sarcastic grin. Celeste suddenly whistles lowly, pointing around a corner. "Two men with guns," she whispers.

I push myself against the wall, Royce follows, and we wait for them to turn the corner. Royce and Celeste start communicating with hand signals, and suddenly Celeste tosses a knife in the middle of the hallway.

I shot my gaze between them, confused because I had no idea what the fucking plan was. I soon realized she had attached the knife to a string. The heavy footsteps of the men came closer with every beating second before stopping before the knife.

"What the hell?" One says.

In a flash, Celeste pulls the string in a fast motion, slicing the man's hand and face. He shouted in pain and clutched his bleeding hand. The knife traveled, embedding itself into the other man's neck. With effort, Celeste tugs again and successfully kills the man. It was like makshift ninja chucks, but more lethal.

Royce jumps from the wall, whips out his gun, and shoots them both. The man with the injured hand remained bleeding out and gurgled on his blood, staring at Royce with frightened eyes. Royce stared him down maliciously with darkened eyes. "Where is she?"

The man grits his bloody teeth and spits at Royce. "I do not know who you speak of." Royce presses the gun against his bullet wound, and the man howels, pathetically crawling at his wrist. Royce whips his face, and I wince when a couple of his teeth fall out on the bloodied floor.

"I won't ask you again! Where. Is. She." Royce's lips curl in a sneer as he pushes his gun under the man's chin.

Celeste and I exchanged confused glances. Who's she? It's not Celeste for apparent reasons, so who else could he be referring to?

Suddenly the man started yelling in German, "I FOUND THEM! THEY'RE HERE-"

A gunshot rang, and I watched, desensitized by his brains being blown onto the wall behind him, staining it red. Royce towered over him, breathing heavily as he faced us. "This way."

I thanked myself for washing away the ridiculous amount of makeup from my skin earlier. I was growing tired, gasping as my lungs fought for equal air flow. And this dress was weighing me down. My hands were getting clammy with every ring of the blaring alarm, booming in my skull. Suddenly, Loud footsteps chanted behind us, and loud voices screamed and shouted curses.

"Da sind sie! Hol sie dir!"

Their excited shouts bounced off the walls like drums, and I pushed myself to go faster. The pounding of my heart and heavy steps of my feet felt like a ticking time bomb. Shots rang, and I covered my head, followed by Royce blocking my body from view.

"Almost there!" Royce shouts, unloading a clip on the people behind us. We take a sharp turn and continue down another hallway, temporarily losing the crowd.

I huffed, the sticky sensation of sweat building on my brow. I haven't ran this much since my sophomore year of high school.

A few steps ahead of me, without warning, Celeste tripped and fell next to a merging hallway with a grunt. I quickly grab her and pull her up. "Come on-"