Crimson Mists

27. Opinions (1)

I don't know how long I stared into space, but Hilda voice cut the silence in the room. "Henry, not now," she said as she sat me up and went to pick her trinket and bangle. "We need to get the others and she's looking unstable."

"What do you mean not now?" Henry turned to stared at Hilda in fury. A fury which evaporated when he met her gaze— a pair of cat eyes which spoke secrets I knew I wasn't privy to. I wondered whatever happened to them, what kind of history they'd experienced. They were twins right? ...dissimilar in body structure but still related. Did they ever grow up together, in a loving family where they could afford their meals, and where their mother didn't hide their real father from them?

Henry exhaled. "You know what, I think she should rest."

"Same here. But we can't have her strolling up there without Allen and his goon. They're going to suspect something's amiss."

"Alright then, what do you suggest?"

"She stays in here till we get them all out. Then she'll come with us."

"That seems like a plan."

Hilda made to get the rest of the keys from the fallen guard, and Henry watched till she'd gathered them all, along with a gun and a wacky-tacky. She then nodded at him and they both made to leave and at that moment, I seemed to have found my voice. My mouth uttering my fears and half my thoughts in just a sentence."They're going to hate me."

"What?! Who?" Henry paused in his steps and turned to look at me. "What did you say Harida?"

Hilda looked at us both with a cloud over her face. It wasn't almost like she wasn't even in the present.

"I went out of line in the warehouse and got shot, giving out our position and spoiling our plan. Your guys are going to hate me." Especially Mayo who didn't even want to interact with me at first.

Henry dragged me up from the floor till I was standing before him on wobbly legs. Then his hands left my shoulders and found comfort on both sides of my face. "One thing I know Harida," he said. "-is that our plan had casted before it was even implemented. Someone sold us out to Cynthia and that's the reason why we were captured."

"No one sold you guys to Cynthia," Hilda muttered. "I visited her before coming here. She was holding Bolaji and Adele captive. She had been monitoring them both and they were the ends she used in tracking you."

Henry raised his brow at that, meanwhile I considered her words and how it was possible. Who the hell uses their child as a bait? Cynthia obviously.  I didn't know her but I hated the way she moved.

"Trust me, Cynthia is demented. I know from first hand experience how cruel she can be," Hilda said, still studying her nails, or maybe chain of the trinket as it crossed her palm.

"Let's not delay. Allen's goons may barge in anytime now to know why he isn't responding," she said, showing us the message being displayed on the screen of Allen's phone.

Hilda didn't wait for our reply. She started approaching by the closest landing.

I looked to Henry, waiting for his directive. Was I to follow her or wait behind?

"Go." He tilted his head towards the stairs, and for the first time in my life, I obeyed an order without questions— both internal and external.

I refused to look at Allen'a body as I walked out. O
It would be a sad thing breaking the news of him to Urewoli. I wonder how she'd react knowing he was dead and he told me her little secret before his death. I refuse to belief that the dad I'd mourned as a toddler wasn't a father to me. He was everything Allen didn't have the guts to be. Even my step dad tried too.