𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐎𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐓𝐘- a labyrinth sequel

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘-𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄

𝐀𝐔𝐑𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐀 𝐒𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐃. Blood. There was so much blood everywhere. She felt it covering her hands, she noticed the way it stained the floor. She was going to throw up, and then she was going to die here. She felt a pair of strong arms gripping her shoulder, squeezing gently in attempt to calm her down, but she could not pull her eyes away from the blood and the body that lie in it. 

"You're going to be alright," that voice whispered in her ear. She didn't believe him. "I know you don't have any reason to, but I need you to trust me." If this were any other time, Aurelia would have scoffed. Trust. What a funny concept. How naive she had been this whole time. She heard the sound of the gun cocking again, and Aurelia glanced at the barrel like a deer in the headlights. The person gripping her shoulders moved to stand in front of her, putting himself between her and the bullet. 

"Leave her out of this," he stated, not even so much as flinching. Despite how devastated she was, all she could think was how badly she wished that he wouldn't pull that trigger. In her head, she silently begged, hoping someone would listen and put an end to this before someone else got hurt. "This is between you and I and you know it."

"Move out of the way," he warned. "This was always supposed to happen. She was never going to walk out of here alive."

Fool. Aurelia had been a damn fool. This whole time, she'd thought she was smart. She thought she'd had the upper hand. Lia thought she'd outsmarted them all, that she was the most important piece of this game they'd been playing. How stupid she had been. This entire time, she had been a pawn. A piece on the board that was easily sacrificed for the greater good. In other words, she was meaningless. Useless. And now she would pay for her impotence. 

There was a groan from somewhere beside her, and when Aurelia subtly glanced over, she noticed his finger pointing over at something on the floor. Despite the fact that he was currently bleeding out, he nodded slowly, as if letting Aurelia know that they were on the same page. She eyed the distance, wondering if she'd make it there in time, or if she'd join the boy on the floor, and die here along with him. She eyed the men in front of her, still trapped in a stalemate with each other. 

And in that moment, Aurelia declared herself a pawn no longer. 

She dove for the gun, saying a silent prayer as her pointer finger immediately went to the trigger. 

And then all hell broke loose. 

✄┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈«

𝟒𝟖 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒 𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐑

𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐘 𝐇𝐀𝐃 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐃 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐄 𝐀 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐍. The last week had consisted of Lia and Donnelly dancing around the fact that in a mere two days, they'd be walking into uncharted territory. Since it was winter break, Donnelly had been able to come and see her whenever his father was away on business. Neither one of them wanted to address the elephant in the room. All he wanted to do was hold her, after weeks of not being able to. They didn't know what they would be walking into. 

"We need to find a way to-"

Donnelly cut her off by kissing her. 

"There's no cell phones allowed, so we'll need to-"

Kiss. 

"This is serious," Aurelia sighed, bracing a hand on his chest to push him off of her. "We can't just walk in there blindly."

"I'm sorry," Nicolas drawled, but Aurelia knew he wasn't really sorry at all. He drew lazy circles on her kneecap, that stupid grin on his face as he looked at her. "Go ahead and continue." Aurelia narrowed her eyes and moved further away from him. "I'll sit here and you sit there," she stated. "And neither one of us moves until we figure out how we're going to get out of this thing."