A Dance With Death

|| Chapter 31 - Deception ||

                 

My entire self comes to a halt, my features frozen. There's an inner repulsion in me which doesn't want to believe Caius' words. There are things that I want to say, words that are on the tip of my tongue, but my voice fails to come out. My lips remain parted with confusion. Althea?

Seeing my puzzled state, he says, "Ah now that's something interesting, isn't it? In this situation of yours, this situation of life-and-death, you've grown to trust the only person that's been around. You've become inconsiderate of so many things. You trusted her as a friend, as the only one who could help you go through this. You could've never seen it coming; the person you trust, has a huge role to play in your life's misery."

"No, it can't . . ." My voice is faint, yet stern.

"Don't you act so confused, Zayn. I know you know that Althea and I have something to do with each other. Why else would other reapers hate her?"

All those times Ektor taunted her, all those times Griffith hinted on Althea's past, the way Althea reacted when her 'mistake' was mentioned . . . If she indeed had something to do with Niall's death, then everything would make sense.

It can't be. Althea's a good person. The repulsive part of me tries to fight again.

"Did she- did she kill Niall?" I ask, terrified of the answer.

His blue eyes hint his excitement. He pauses for a long moment, before saying, "If this were a movie, there would be suspenseful music playing. I really am enjoying this anxious air around us."

"Who killed Niall?!"

He grimaces at my loud yell. "Don't worry! Geez." He points his hands at himself. "It was me, alright. She didn't kill him, okay? I was just toying with you."

I try hard to fight my inner self, suppressing my urge to push him down the roof. He finds it so easy to play with my feelings. He's using every fact against my emotional strength. "You son of a bitch!"

"If I had a dollar for every time someone called me that." He shakes his head. "But I really didn't lie about her having something to do with Niall's death."

I stare at him, demanding an explanation, my nose flaring.

"Damn. Remind me not to piss you," he says. He shifts his body a bit, so that he could look down at the hospital garden. "Years before Niall's death, decades actually, there was a disruption in the Order. Well, it wasn't the first time that it happened. But it was the first time more than one unnatural soul was reaped. Surprisingly, the disruption wasn't caused by me."

"Althea?" I ask, finding it difficult to believe the possibility.

He nods. "Not saying that I had nothing to do with it." He smiles lightly. "Long ago, we knew each other pretty well. She was a non-follower of the Order and I, though I had the Order memorised, decided to be a non-follower as well. As you know, I'm not a person who wants to obey rules. Anyway, we were tired of the confinement. We wanted things other than following a damned list."

He gazes into a distance and sighs. "We needed more. So Althea, decided to go a bit extreme. Her anger was so much, that she did something no reaper would even dare to do." He faces me again. I haven't seen him more serious, his eyes having a softer look. "She killed people, innocent people. She disrupted the Order. The first reaper to do so intentionally."

"I find it hard to take in," I defend. "Althea would never do such a thing."

"Oh really?" He places his elbow on his thigh and his chin on his hand, pretending to be curious. "And how long have you known her exactly? Twenty four hours?"