somewhere only we know || grayson hawthorne x oc

chapter sixteen (izzy)

Izzy jumped down the hatch in the floor absentmindedly. As she put her hand on the scanner, she heard multiple cogs and bolts moving around (instead of the single bolts she imagined had been thrown for the others). The 'wall' opened to reveal-

She turned around before she could see what lay at the end of the game. She wouldn't do it, wouldn't satisfy the old man in his grave. She couldn't afford to drop her guard for one moment, to allow herself just a bit of curiosity. It wouldn't end well.

It never did.

"Where are you going?" She didn't need to turn around to see who had said the words. She could hear the slight deflation in Xander's voice, the hope that she might stay, gone.

"To hell, eventually. Until then, who knows?"

"So you don't want answers?" Izzy was surprised to hear Avery speaking to her. They hadn't exactly been on the best of terms after their last conversation, if you could even call it that.

She sighed. "I don't know what's behind that door, Avery, but I do know that whatever it is, the old man laid this trap for me."

"For you? That why it took all four brothers' hands and my face to get here?" Impatience was seeping its way into Avery's voice now. She didn't understand. She never could. She didn't know the old man.

Not like Izzy did.

Izzy decided to take a different tactic. She turned around and faced Avery head on. "Can I tell you a story, Avery?" She didn't wait for an answer. "Once upon a time, there were four brothers. These four brothers were taught to be great. Their grandfather trained them, moulded them into perfect men. Even though it didn't seem like it, he loved them. They were his own flesh and blood, and he was proud.

"Well, there was also a girl. This girl grew up with the brothers, one of them. But she was always an outsider. One day, she decided to leave. And she ran away. She ran away the night that another girl died. She never wanted to come back, but unfortunately for her, fate had other plans."

Izzy's face was traced with a fake smile, her tone perfectly pleasant, but her words anything but. Even though too much was missing, it was more than she had originally wanted to tell Avery. But desperate times called for desperate measures, and Avery just didn't seem to know when to quit.

And sometimes, all it takes is a bit of the truth to shut someone up. To no surprise, it worked.

Izzy walked the rest of the distance to the hatch in the ceiling, preparing to pull herself up. Everyone had fallen into a tense silence. Avery's voice came once again, but this time much more timid than before. Good.

"So that's what this is about? You leaving out of grief for Emily?"

Izzy sighed again, as she often did nowadays whenever people couldn't or wouldn't understand her, which was a lot. She turned her head back to usher her final words, before pulling herself up and walking away, her heels receding down the tunnel.

"Oh no, darling. You misunderstand. I killed her."