Tares City

97. Is This How We End?

ARROW BERLIN

Arrow sits in the car with Dean, Nicholas, and the two Lycans, Clayton, driving them to the location Jackson gave. Everyone was silent and exhausted. Her body ached from the encounter, but her mind was still amazed at what had transpired.

From the moment she learned of what her uncle had done to her father, she wanted him dead by her hands. She'd thought of it many times, thinking about what she'd say to him and what his response would be. She expected to feel a greater sense of satisfaction and vengeance after she killed Elmaan. Instead, she felt oddly confused, not satisfied at all.

It was because it wasn't personal; she realized. And her uncle wasn't human. It was nothing close to what she imagined it would be, and she didn't even know if he understood her last words to him. It felt like killing a monster for being a monster and not avenging her father's wrongful death by his brother's hand. She'd waited for the moment, only for it to be underwhelming.

The Lycans had lost two of their own. Jackson was gone, but Arrow suspected he died content, having done significant damage to Elmaan, giving them the opening they needed. Their friend Dalton also died, and Arrow watched Yara cry for him. She had complicated feelings toward him, as Dalton was the one who oversaw her torture when they held her and Nicholas captive.

She didn't miss the uninterested gaze Nicholas had shot at them when Yara held her friend's body on the floor.

~

The car slows to a stop. Arrow looks out to see them stop in front of a large compound. "We're here," Clayton growls, exiting the vehicle and slamming the door shut.

To her side, Dean opens the door, getting out as well and extending his hand to her. "

This is it." Arrow sighs out anxiously, Dean smiling at her. "This is it." He nods, the two of them turning to follow everyone else into the compound. By the looks of it, the structure seemed to be a school building that was either destroyed or never completed. They enter through a large hole in the wall, Clayton stepping in first. Before he could take more than two steps further, a man came out of a side room, lunging at him. Clayton reacts fast, disarming the man and knocking him unconscious. Arrow and the others pull out their guns, ready to fight whoever else may be there.

"Wait!" A voice calls through the building, causing an echo. "Boss says to let them through."

A man walks into sight, holding a rifle in his hands, two other men behind him. "Reynolds...Arrow Berlin." The man says, looking at her and Clayton. "Mr. Rockwell recognized you, and you all may enter. You're lucky he told us to stand down when he did. Our snipers were about to take you out." The man says to them.

"Take all your weapons and place them there."

"We aren't there to kill him. We went through hell just to find him!" Yara says to the man.

"Those are the rules if you want to see him. We can't be too cautious."

"He's here then?" Arrow sighs, relief washing over her.

"Yes. How did you find this place?"

"My brother." Clayton supplies.

"Right through there." The man states, nodding to the room as he took up position outside the door. The other two doing the same.

Entering the room, Arrow finds herself stumbling to a stop. The room was bare for the most part, with only a couple of long tables scattered about the center. There, on one of the tables, lay the catalyst that started all this. Ezra Rockwell. He lay on the table unmoving, a cloth bandage covering the entirety of his stomach. His eyes fluttered open and shut, but they didn't seem to be awake.