Subject #013 | ✓

Chapter 34

"You sure this is the place?" The dark streets are uninviting, and the eerie emptiness of them sends shivers down my spine. Had Alix not been with me, I probably would have gotten scared and given up immediately. I prefer to watch adventures, not endure them, but I'm not giving up on Alix now. Something about his proposition of me being his partner in crime seemed strangely...intimate. In what way, I still have yet to figure out, but either way, I'm not leaving him. 

"I don't know." Alix shrugs. The dim lights from the streets cast a ghostly glow on his face, outlining his features in a ring of gold, from the tips of his messed up hair to the pointy edges of his jacket. I've never seen him this relaxed, and a part of me is glad I get to see this side of him.

"What do you mean you don't know? Don't you plan things out before you waltz right into them?" Explaining our whereabouts to Liz was more of a rocky climb that I imagined. Alix tried lying to her and told her that he was taking me to a movie. Oh, really? She had said. Tell me, what movie would you see at midnight on a Sunday? Seeing no other option, I straight up told her. She hadn't put up as much of a fight as either of us expected her to. Rather, she just stared at us and told us to knock ourselves out. But, I think deep inside, she knew that some things you can't prevent yourself from doing. But right before we left, she held eye contact with me, shooting me a look of wariness and confusion, as if it was so weird that someone like me would be doing something like this with someone like Alix. I guess she's right in a way.

"Not when I don't know what I'm stealing." Alix looks over at me, his eyes wide. "You really don't think that low of me do you?"

"Think what of you?" My arms are wrapped so tight around my body that I can imagine my fingers are digging half-moons into my forearms through my jacket. I really misjudged the temperature. Then again, I always do. Pretty soon, this maroon sweatshirt of mine won't do the job for me anymore.

"I hope you don't think that I'm so low as to steal things just to steal them. Thieves normally have a reason—well, I have reason."

"Mhmm, and what was your reasoning behind stealing that useless water glass from the café?" I ask, biting my lip to focus on something other than the cold night air.

"Well, you never know when you're going for a late night stroll and need a drink, but you don't have enough money to buy one. You know, businesses only charge you for the plastic cup, and not the actual drink—"

"Ugh, spare me." I groan, passing a hand over my face.

"You wanted to know." Despite being slightly annoyed that I interrupted, he's still grinning. It seems to me that Alix really enjoys his career as a thief, no matter how incredibly immature it makes him. Those slender fingers of his have been put to use, like they had been his whole life and at this point in time, I couldn't care less about his past. There is only the here and now.

"Alix." I spit out his name like poison. "I have something to tell you."

He turns, an eyebrow raised in question. I almost make up something on the spot, but it would be way too obvious and he has trained himself in this sort of thing. I would get nowhere. Before I can regret it, I tell him about what Austin said to me at the dance, about seeing the black vehicle drive out of the forest, no one believing him, and the street it went down. Alix's face changes as I speak, from his look of excitement, to one of confusion, before settling on a frown. My breath clouds in front of me as I speak, causing the street lights' illumination to blur into a circular orange blob in the center of my vision. He doesn't say anything when I finish.

"Say something." I almost get down on my knees and beg him. "Please say something, Alix. You're impossible to read. I don't know whether you're angry at me for not telling you sooner or—"