Adrenaline

⌊Chapter 13⌉

Andy was still gone, but Rich wasn't going to let this opportunity slip from his grasp. As much as he liked Andy, he also knew that he would frown upon the idea of Rich making 'one final stand' against Blake - and, of course, make an attempt to jailbreak Alex. Andy's comment on Alex being dead still stood unmoving in his mind, but Rich often tried to be optimistic and tell himself the reasonable assumptions Andy made weren't true. Rich had a tendency to ignore things he didn't like anyway. Minor character flaw...

For the first time in a long time, Rich had managed to create a full plan on breaking into Black Tower and getting away with Alex. He had prepared himself to meet cruel fates and his confidence stood sky-high. He grabbed his jacket from the main area, glancing around. He paused and then grabbed his gun off of the counter, loading it with bullets that, upon meeting the warmth of a body, would release toxic chemicals. Rich normally would be against that sort of thing, but he wasn't going to let this kill him.

He rifled through the cabinets in the lab, managing to find and 'borrow' a steel butterfly knife and tear gas. Andy would probably notice stuff missing once he got back, but Rich would be too far for it to matter. Rich tucked the weapons into his belt and jacket holsters, keeping them hidden from sight. Andy would likely be pissed to come back to the lab and see Rich gone, but that didn't deter him. He rolled his shoulders back and cracked his knuckles before pushing open the door to the lab. The corridor was shrouded in cement shadows, getting no lighter or darker as Rich traversed through it.

As he walked, he felt as though his steps grew heavier and harder to walk with. Maybe it was just his nerves talking. He kept down the halls, twisting, turning, and eventually arriving at the exit. He carefully stepped out into the open air, closing the concrete plate on the ground. Not before looking around and determining how many people were about, Rich began his walk through the backstreets that would take him to Black Tower quickest. Something felt different tonight, but he couldn't exactly decide if it was a good 'different' or a bad 'different.' He narrowed his eyes, picking up his pace through the dark city streets. Adelmir was a fairly big city in size, but once one would memorise the whole city to a 't,' it was easy to get to places without taking too much time - and Rich didn't have time.

Rich pulled his hood over his head as he exited an alleyway which would no longer take him where he wanted to go. He jogged across the road, wet from rain and bright from the streetlights glaring down on it. He made it to the sidewalk as a black car sped by, disappearing in the foggy mist of the night.

There weren't many people out, which made Rich's job much easier. He didn't bother so much with peeking around corners to see if there was someone there who would want to turn him in for the grand amount Blake put on his head. It was downright cruel of Blake. All of this was. Yet, he was further in the trenches than Rich ever expected him to go. He had his warning signs as they went through school, but Rich didn't think that Blake would do something so sick like killing his own father - and, by extension, his brother as well. It was horrible how Blake looked over the city, expecting people to love him because his dad was a good person when he never was.

Blake had always been an interesting kid. Rich swore at himself for not noticing something was off earlier in their friendship. By the time he thought more about it, it was too late and Aaron and Harris were dead - and, of course, Blake was sovereign.

Rich couldn't be too sure why Blake did what he did. The easiest assumption to go off of was that Blake was power-hungry, but Rich couldn't connect the dots to that solution very well. Blake was very controlling, no doubt, but he was also so horribly socially anxious that Rich couldn't see him ever wanting to take Aaron's place. There were times where Blake himself expressed happiness that not he, but Harris, would be the next sovereign. Blake's awful act came along without much of a reason that Rich could see. Maybe he was sick of being the quiet, lonely kid. Still, he never had to be, because Rich and Alex were always trying to hang around with him and try to cheer him up. He was a gloomy kid to be sure, playing along with his last name of a dark colour which swallowed everything into a deep, cold abyss.