The new arrivals moved away from her as she came onto the loft. Even Matt looked away. Charlotte gritted her teeth. Ian smiled when he saw her, offering her all the encouragement he had, but she knew encouragement wouldn't work. She felt horrible. Guilt had manifested itself inside her, eating the rest of what wasn't already riddled with grief. Her insides pained her. Knots of anxiety and guilt plagued her.
The loft seemed cramped now. She had learned their names along the way. Wallace Lynn, Ronnie Aldridge, Patrick Callahan and Nathan Dolowitz. Mary Abbott and Harris were there too. Ian and Carrie sat on a dust covered sofa. Ethan watched her with a contented smile. She hadn't expected that.
Nathan stole suspicious glances at her, his bright green eyes darting back and forth as if he feared another attack. Callahan's bald head glistened with sweat as soon as she appeared. Ronnie looked anywhere but at her. Wallace pointedly continued her conversation with Matt. Matt was rubbing his jaw back and forth, back and forth.
Charlotte strolled across the loft to Ethan and leaned against the desk beside him. If these intruders were here to help she would listen to them. If not... well she already knew she was stronger than them.
"So I think it's time you told us why you're here," Ethan said.
Wallace stopped talking to Matt and tilted her head at Ethan. "To help".
"How?" Ethan asked.
"Why?" Ian scoffed, flickering from his position on the sofa and reappearing beside Charlotte.
"We're here because we have some idea what you are facing".
"And that is?" Ian pressed. Charlotte folded her arms, glaring at the new girl.
"The other altered," she shrugged. "The ones that went through Kingston and believed in what it was doing. They don't see themselves as children who had their lives stolen, they see themselves as soldiers, born to serve. Now they have nobody to serve. They only have themselves and they have started to see the world in a different light. They think they are... gods among men. They believe their alterations give them the right to rule".
Ethan glanced at Charlotte. She felt her skin prickle with fear. She sensed it in the others. She tried to appear unperturbed but something told her Wallace saw through everything she did.
"They were left behind when you brought their world crashing down. Surprisingly not everyone wanted an end to the rule of the patrons, to Kingston. It left them at a loose-end. They were angry, disenchanted. They set their sights on revenge, destroying the people who upset their world. And instating a new order, their order".
Wallace spoke in a disinterested way. She didn't seem too worried about her own words, though for Charlotte they spelt nothing but danger.
"So they framed the others?" Ethan asked, piecing the story together.
"Yes, and now they even managed to frame you".
She pointed a long finger at Charlotte, acknowledging her for the first time.
"The humans think you are the real demon of the story, freeing those dangerous students they had already captured. And from St Othman's too. You must be terrible".
Charlotte gritted her teeth at Wallace's mocking tone.
"St. Othman's?" Ian frowned.
"A high security facility - it was the best the humans could do, and it was pretty god damn good," Wallace shrugged. "But whatever you're facing now made little of it".
"What are we facing now?" Harris exhaled, looking from Wallace to Charlotte.
"You are facing an experienced army of altered who are willing to work together to tear this world apart". Wallace neer looked from Charlotte as she spoke.
YOU ARE READING
Feared
Science Fiction'Play the game, she thought, remembering the only three words that had helped her to survive at Kingston. Only back then she had known the game, she had known what they wanted her to be, what they had wanted her to do - this man was different. She d...
