The Dark Hour

--------Lalna--------

Seto was sleeping so I didn't have to worry about him following me. I waited until five minutes after Ridge left to follow him. I followed Ridge all the way to the park just outside of town and just watched him as he stuck something in a tree then quietly went and sat down on a park bench a few yards away. What was he doing? I waited awhile then I saw Ridge get up and I was going to follow him when I saw a hooded figure go over to the tree and grab the thing Ridge put in it. I looked at Ridge and I lost him. Where did he go?

I watch the figure walk out of the park and I decided to follow them. They went into town and down towards the city hall. I made sure they wouldn't see me so I hid in the crowds and mostly behind anything I could, but I stayed close. I was about to go around a corner when I ran into someone. I fell on my butt and I quickly tried to get up but I froze.

"Lalna? What are you doing here?" Ridge asked confused.

"Wha-What are you doing here?" I shot back.

"I- get down." He quickly pulled me up and pressed me against the wall. I watched as the hooded person walked past us and they went down an alleyway. Ridge sighed. "Come on, and please stay quiet." I nodded and followed Ridge down the alleyway. We hid behind a dumpster and watched as the hooded person met another person.

"Did you get it?" The new person asked.

"Yeah."

"Did you even check the bag?"

"Trust me it's there."

"I trust you, I don't trust the kid you work with."

"Just freaking take the stuff you big baby." The guy grabbed the bag and opened it.

"The fuck is this!?" He pulled a fist full of gum out of the bag and the hooded guy started freaking out.

"Someone must have switched the bags! Desmond wouldn't do this."

"Then who the fuck has it!? The bastard is offering a million for the information on a couple of brats."

"Why does he want to know this shit anyways?"

"It'll help him overthrow the government or some shit. All I was told was these kids have to be captured or else this plan all goes to shit."

"Come on," Ridge whispered. He pulled me out of the alleyway and we ran down the street and went into a Starbucks.

"What was that!?" I asked a bit mad.

"Ok I know this seems really really bad but I can explain this," Ridge said calmly.

"Explain what? What you were doing in the park or what you were doing following suspicious looking people?"

"Both ok, just please listen." I sighed.

"Ok fine." He sighed.

"I got a call from my older cousin the other day about my uncle being in jail. He yelled at me about how it was my fault that his dad was even in jail and when he said he was going to bail him out I panicked. I begged him not to do that and he made this deal with me. He wouldn't bail him out if I got him out of this debt he got into with this gang. It was fine at first but I found out about the leader of the gang my cousin was caught up in and how he was getting a million dollar deal off of someone. So I thought I could use that to get my cousin out of debt but when I found out how he was getting the deal I freaked out and I had to switch out the bags cause I told my cousin about this and he was going to go through with it. Which was why I was at the park and I needed to make sure they didn't know it was me so I followed them to see if my cousin told them about me. He didn't, so everythings fine now but I'm not completely sure." I blinked then shook my head.

"Wait wait, what was the deal for?" I asked curiously. Ridge sighed.

"He wanted information about some people so he could sell it to this other guy who really wanted to find these people and my cousin's a computer geek so he found the information out pretty quickly. If the deal would have went through my cousin would be out of debt but it..." Ridge shook his head. "It doesn't matter. It's done and it can't be undone."

"Ridge, there's something you're not telling me."

"It doesn't really matter right now. Let's just get back to the house, it's getting late."

"Ridge please-"

"Lalna, I know you have questions but can you please just drop them? They really don't matter now." I sighed.

"Ok."

"Let's just get home." Ridge took my hand and we quietly started walking back to Axel's house. Halfway there it started to rain and by the time we got to the house it was pouring and both of us were soaking wet. Ridge unlocked the door and we quietly went in, but Astrid was in the living room waiting for us.

"Where were you two!?" She said angrily.

"In town," Ridge answered quickly. "We were just walking around town." She sighed.

"You're not lying to me now are you? Cause I swear if I find out that you're lying I'm not going to be nice about it. Only reason why I am is cause I can't get rid of this headache."

"No, we really did walk around town," Ridge sighed.

"Okay well sorry for snapping I was worried. Especially with everything that's going on." I was shivering. I was trying to stop but I couldn't. "Lalna are you okay?" I was going to say something but I sneezed. "I'm going to get the cold medicine." Astrid said walking in the kitchen. I sniffled then a towel was thrown over my head.

"Jesus you two are soaked," Skyla groaned. I wrapped the towel around me and Skyla sighed. "Lalna why don't you take a warm shower?" I nodded then quickly went to the bathroom. I didn't know what to do. Do I tell Astrid or let Ridge handle this? I trusted Ridge, but I didn't want him to get into something he can't handle. I sighed and sniffled. I didn't know what to do.