Masterminds - h.s

CH 17

Blaze Edith

June 30th, 2014.
4:52am

I pushed him.

Pushed him too far just like I did with the triplets and Vienna—I pushed them.

The files are here, Rye is closer, freedom is a few minutes away. Vienna is brainwashed so Matt lost the one woman he loved, Nick quit working with me in and out of the station, Chris has become so fixated on Rye he is becoming me, Harry won't speak.

All of those events have one thing in common; Blaze Edith.

This is my doing, all of it.

Sandwiches won't fix a thing, but I make them anyway. I make a sandwich for every person I have fucked over, Spread the butter, slice the cheese and cut the tomatoes. I wash the lettuce and pick the best pieces I can find. I make apologies in form of well done sandwiches.

Even if they don't know it, I do, and I am sorry.

Once they are all finished I begin giving them out, Harry was on the couch with Artie so I place the food down on the old wooden coffee table "For you." I say before walking back into the kitchen.

I take the remaining three, holding two in one hand and one on the other — My foot kicks my bedroom door open and I smile at the three boys who murmur amongst each other.

"Made sandwiches, since Marshall is out signing Artie's adoption papers and I know it's not as good as his food but—"

"I'm starving, I'll eat it." Chris cuts me off.

"Thanks." Matt says without looking at me.

Nick is the one who smiles back at me, "I miss this Blaze, you should let her take control more often. Olympia wannabe Blaze has to go." He speaks quietly as he takes two of the plates from me and hands them out to his brothers before taking his own and exiting the room.

He shuts the door behind me, My stomach twists in guilt.

I inhale sharply, "Any updates, children?"

The two boys look up at me, "Are you serious? Not this again."

I laugh, "What? It was my first ever way of referring to you three. My children hold a special place in my cold empty heart." I refer to Matthew's comment when he first met me.

Matt saw me as a cold and empty person, that was when I decided to prove them wrong, when I let them in.

That was when the destruction began.

"The letter is a code." Matt speaks, "The capital letters make a whole different sentence."

The paper I cut my fingertips open in order to take back was a letter Rye addressed to 'Keddie' which we thought was someone in the shelter, but there is no Keddie, there never was one.

"What's the code?" I ask.

Matt's eyes meet mine, "Three words." He pauses, "Parlour Nine, Seven."

My brows furrow, he hands it out to me.

Matt circled all the capital letters scattered across the paragraphs in red,

"Please,
At,
Risk,
Love,
Other,
Use,
Run,

No,
I,
Never,
Except,

Since,
Ever,
Vienna,
Exit,
Need."

Parlour Nine, Seven.

"Good work, Tru-" I catch myself, clear my throat, "Matt." A smile, "Good work, Matt."

"Average sandwich, Blaze." He shoots back.

I shake my head at his sarcasm as I hand the letter back to him, "We just need to find out what it means, go from there."

"Parlour Nine is a restaurant, Seven is probably the time they met at." Chris speaks between bites, "I located it, it's not too far from the shelter, she was smart."

"Great, we'll go there tonight."

They shake their heads in unison, "Place closed five months ago." Matt says.

I furrow, "Why?"

"Owner passed and the family decided to shut the place."

I nod, "Alright, fine. We'll find the staff, search about the restaurant, try the reviews, if you need any further information let me know, I'll take it from the station—How is the computer by the way? Good enough?"

"Yeah, thanks for that." Chris responds.

"Of course, I hated Jeremy anyway so stealing his computer was the highlight of my day. You should've seen his face when he found out."

"Yeah, yeah. We need to work on it, you go fix Harry." Matt waves me off.

"Matthew-"

"Fix it. I want him back."

_________

Vienna.

"We have worked hard to get where we are, haven't we ladies?"

"Yes, ma'am." We echo around the shelter, our voices colliding and becoming one.

"We won't give up now, will we ladies?" She paces, we follow her with our gazes. Afraid to look away.

"No, ma'am." We shout.

She smiles, wide. Just how she did as she returned my phone this morning while watching my heart being ripped off my body the further I scrolled through the harsh words she made Truth read. The words he believes I said.

Truth is alone now, vulnerable to the one person I promised I would protect from, the one who ruined everything.

Blaze.

The person who claims to be looking for Rye when she is the only one who could possibly know where she is. Blaze took my sister from me, claimed to be on my side, took me in, held ice packs to my bruises and smiled softly through her lies.

She left, with them.

They all left and I stand here, with my hands behind my back, picking at my nails hoping Olympia will not focus too hard at just how exhausted I am. behind my locked bedroom door is a wall filled with attempts on how to find Rye before Blaze does. The papers nailed to the wall that hold my forever ongoing messages I will never send Truth, the emotions he can never find out about—Fighting for him is only going to backtrack me. We do not fight for men, we fight against them.

I want to scream, so loud I will shatter the windows of this place.

"Are we ready for war, ladies?" She shouts.

They are all gone.

Gone.

Gone.

Gone...

"Are we ready for war?"

"Yes, ma'am." My lungs burn.

Gone.