Underground Legends: The Hunt (BWWM)

Chapter 37 - Abella

Abella Sterling (Female P.O.V)

October 28, 2074

A second after the lights shut off, the emergency lights turned on. The tell-tale neon green glow of the bracelet never faded, alerting me the game was still far from over. This must be a temporary outage, or worse, another sick twist to this cruel game. Whatever the case, I needed to keep moving.

I sharply inhaled as four thin metallic legs appeared under the railing on the step above me. My fingers tightened around the pipe, waiting for the spiders to reveal themselves fully. And as soon as the first one did, I knocked it back through the opening. Then the other.

Before more could appear, I sprinted up the remaining stairs to the steel door at the top of the landing. I tried to open it, but it didn't budge. So I continued onward up the stairs. I was halfway to the top when the door burst open behind me.

For some inexplicable reason, I stopped and looked over my shoulder even though every fiber of my being was screaming at me to run. My breath stilled as someone crossed the threshold and looked over the railing. All I could see was their side profile, but it was enough to know it belonged to the same man that starred in my dreams over the last few weeks.

"Saint," I breathed out as tears welled in my eyes.

His head whipped toward me, and when his eyes met mine, we both took off running toward each other.

When we met near the bottom of the stairs, I didn't think. I moved on pure instinct as I threw my arms around his neck and pressed my lips against his.

At first, his lips didn't move, shocked by my actions. But once it passed, he returned my kiss with as much vigor, if not more than mine.

With every stroke of my tongue, I bared a piece of my soul and brandished them upon his lips. My fears. My regrets. My insecurities. My love. While hoping he would accept each one.

A throat loudly clearing made us pull slightly apart. We looked over at Quinton, standing halfway in the doorway with his gun drawn.

"You two should save all that for later. Preferably when we are no longer in danger." He said with the tiniest of smiles resting on his lips while keeping an eye out on the hallway.

"He's right." Saint's voice came out low and sultry, still affected by the kiss, as he brushed away my tears before reluctantly taking a step back. "We need to find the others and g-"

"We're here! We're here!" Tinman shouted in between panting as he and RoniReigns jogged up the stairs.

"Are you three..." Saint swallowed before continuing, "All that's left?"

"No, we're still here too." Exterminator X said as he and ShadowKnight joined us.

"Good, good." Saint clapped him on the shoulder. "Now, let's go find your friends and family!"

"How are we going to do that?" RoniReigns softly asked, unknowingly voicing the question in all of our minds. "We haven't seen them since the first round."

"Cromwell is going to lead us straight to them."

My brow scrunched up. "Cromwell? What does he have to do with this?"

Saint's eyes shifted from each of us twice before he released a deep breath. "He's the one that abducted you guys."

None of us said anything. We just stared at him, in equal parts bewilderment and shock at the news. But Tinman was the first to recover.

"What?! Why would he do this?" He asked.

"You can ask him that when you see him in a few minutes." Saint started for the door and called over his shoulder. "Now, let's get moving. We've already wasted enough time."