Splintered

Chapter Twenty: Push Play, Stop Rewind

Leo's eyes widened for a moment before an exasperated huff escaped his lips. Striding to the door, he stiffly peered into the hallway before closing it and turning the deadbolt. With a nearly imperceptible sigh, he slid the brass chain above into place as well.

Pushing an errant strand of hair from his forehead, he seemed to resign himself to her peer pressure. "This doesn't mean I agree."

"Objection noted." Hazel held back a smile.

Despite his tone, curiosity was clearly getting the better of him. He murmured something under his breath as he returned to her side, a line burrowed deep between his eyebrows.

She bottled a triumphant look as he settled in beside her on the bed. His grey irises searched hers, almost pleading for reconsideration. "And the Senator?"

She frowned down at the contraption. It suddenly felt overly dense in her hold. The warning bells in her subconscious agreed, tolling like the shrill horn of a night train. Burying the sensations, she shook her head. He's the one who got me on this track to begin with. "He had his chance. More than one, actually."

Leo let out a soft yet frustrated breath, "So much for your eyes only."

Hazel eyed her worried-looking guard, finger still poised over a button. "Still time to back out."

He sighed again, but his body remained rigid as if he was bracing himself for the unknown. Yet he remained perched on the mattress without any indication he was going to leave.

"That's what I thought." Hazel couldn't restrain the twitch at the corner of her lips, "Since he refuses to show me, then I am going to find out myself."

Leo ran a hand over his neck, a line of faint perspiration condensed like translucent crystals in his hairline. A few even collected on the ridges of the puckered scar tissue along the side of his head. "So, is this bravery or recklessness?"

"Probably a bit of both." Popping open the player, she dropped the cassette inside. "Relax, what is the worst that could happen?"

Leo glanced at the row of backward-turned frames. "Weren't we just discussing corpses being dragged through the streets?"

Snapping the machine closed, a little puff of dust floated into the air.

"How old is that thing?" Leo questioned, swatting at the brown cloud.

"No idea, but Alder promised me it works." Hazel scanned the device; several silver buttons decorated its edge like a row of scales, but the symbols and words had been worn to the point of unreadability. Hazel pressed the first one, and the door re-opened. The tape dislodged with an annoying click. "Ok, so not that one."

Leo slid closer until the outsides of their knees pressed together. His voice was even, though she caught a faint note of relief in it. "Even that thing knows this is a bad idea."

She pressed her elbow into his arm with a light jab. "Better not think that is going to stop me, Drayton."

"Not for a second." His stare wavered to the locked door and then back.

Hazel jammed the cassette inside and pressed the next button; this time, the machine whirred to life. Inside, the cassette began to rotate properly. Meanwhile, the screen flickered to life with gray and white lines but no concrete images.

"Is it working?" Leo asked.

Hazel shook the contraption, but the state of the screen remained unchanged. She pressed the next button, and suddenly the monitor went completely dark. The tape's spinning also abruptly stopped.