City of Lies

Chapter 25 - Our Jacuzzi

I wake up in a unfamiliar bed and unfamiliar place. The walls are blood red with no decorations on it and the bed is black with black sheets. My head is pounding.

"I'm glad to see your awake," Chase's voice. He comes out of a corner and sits on the edge of the bed. "How are you feeling?"

I rub my head and sit up shaking the blankets off a bit. I'm still in the clothes I was before we came to this place. "I'm fine," I tell a small white lie. I don't want him to worry. "Um where are we?"

He cracks a small smile. "Well that cave Lacey was talking about turned out to be a home for this 'Old Prince.'"

"Old Prince?" I look around this plain, dark room.

"Yeah. His name is Larkin and he has a seven year old daughter names Josie," he explains. "Lacey found the entry door and knocked because we were being chased by too many trolls."

My eyes widen a bit. "Dang. So then was I just dragged here?" I laugh a bit.

Chase laughs too. "No Bree, I carried you," he looks proud. "So yeah your welcome," he jokes and laughs.

I laugh too. "Where is everyone? And how long have we been here?"

"Don't worry, we've only stayed for a night," he stands up and stretches out his arms. I can see his muscles flex during the process of it. "And they're downstairs about to eat lunch," he grabs an intex out of his jacket pocket and hands it to me.

"Thanks. I'll be down in a second."

He nods then heads out. I wish there was a mirror in here. Today the intex gave me a red skirt with black leggings and a white shirt and brown boots.

As I walk out the room the hall ways don't look much different. The walls are still blood red except there's a couple paintings on it. Most of them are animals in the moonlight. This place kind of gives me the creeps.

The simple hallway leaves me to the stair case. It's one of those stair cases where it has the twirl to go down. The Old Prince, Larkin, barely has any hair, and the hair he does have is gray, and white eyes. His daughter has curly red hair and white eyes. Are they blind?

Everyone is gathered around the table already eating. Claire is sitting across from Chase. Claire! I completely forgot about her. Oh no! I need to tell Chase the truth about her. Maybe he already knows? Whatever, I still need to tell him.

"Oh hey Bree," surprise surprise it was Jane that greeted me.

I smile at Jane avoiding eyes with Claire. Even though she works with Lilith, she's absolutely gorgeous. If she weren't with Lilith, I bet she would be the kind of girl all the guys chase. Ugh.

"You must be Bree, am I right?" Larkin says opening a seat at the table for me. It's in between Jane and Chase.

I nod. "Nice to meet you," I sit down.

"Nice to meet you too!" Larkin says cheerfully. I think I can trust him. "This is my daughter, Josie Sheridan," he points to Josie.

I smile and wave at her. "But you can just call me Josie," Josie smiles and giggles before talking a seat next to Larkin.

I take a quick glance at Claire and she has already been starring at me. I dart my eyes quickly away. Instantly my heart rate picks up because I get easily nervous.

Back in Colina I was never considered the "cool" or "popular" or "pretty" kid. I guess I just sort of existed and I was the person everyone would stare at and pick on. To be honest, I don't even know what I did to anyone to make people dislike me. Everyone would either pay no attention toward me, or all their attention toward me, there was literally no I between. However, most the attention I got was mean, bullish attention.

After we all finish lunch we go out separate ways. I try my best to avoid Nathan and Claire, I really don't want to run into them. When I spot Larkin I make a quick bee line toward him. "Hey, I just want to thank you for letting us stay," I smile up at the old man.

He smiles a friendly and warm smile. "Of course. What's a prince if they don't help a couple of young teens in need of help?" He laughs out loud hysterically. I laugh too before walking away.

I just see Jane and Lacey sitting on the couch talking. To be honest I don't feel like talking to either one of them right now. My head still aches. I decide to wander these plain empty red halls.

A lot of these pictures hanging on the walls remind me of the first war. The paintings are huge landscape with tiny little people below it. I wonder how old Larking actually is? I drag my hand against the walls and it feels smooth, like a rug.

The hallways lead me to a small little indoor jacuzzi. I can actually see the steam from the hot water rising up. The water is super clear and on the floor of the jacuzzi has some strange symbols or writing. I'm sure that they're in Latin. I go closer to the edge where the ground opens up to the jacuzzi.

"You want to hop in don't you?" Chase comes from a door behind me I didn't even realize was there before.

I smile and blush. "Yeah kinda," then I remember Claire. My eyes widen and I rush toward him. "I need to tell you something."

He grabs me be the shoulder to steady me and then smiles. "You bounce a lot," he chuckles. "But anyway what is it."

I look around real quick to double check Claire or Nathan isn't around. "Okay," I lower my voice to a whisper. "Claire is working with Lilith," I pause for a second. "I had a vision of her in Hell standing by Lilith's side before I passed out the other day."

His emerald eyes widen a bit. "Damn. Lilith has her own personal stalkers to stalk you now."

"Should we tell the others?" I ask in a more serious tone than Chase's tone.

He shrugs. "I guess we can later when Nathan and Claire aren't around," he pulls out two intex showers and looks at the jacuzzi. "Want to?"

I grab it and our hands lightly brush. "I'd love too," and we both press the intex to our chest.

Abs. Oh my gosh. I catch myself starring at Chase before quickly looking away. I sit across from Chase. Since the pool isn't that big it's not that far of a distance.

The jacuzzi's jets feel good on my sore muscles. For the past three weeks all I've been doing all day is walking and running. I sink back allowing myself to relax. Chase does the same.

"Hey, just letting you know we won't be with Claire and Nathan for long," Chase speaks just loud enough for me to hear.

"Good," I pause. "Wait, how do you know?"

He smirks. "I can tell the future, remember?"

"Oh yeah," I giggle and Chase laughs.

After about ten minutes of relaxing we hear a loud bang! It sounds like maybe the door was broken down. Then we hear a scream. It sounds like a child's, maybe Josie's? A couple seconds later we hear another scream that sounds like Jane.