Tell My Father {COMPLETED}

Chapter Twelve: Only a Game

Chapter Twelve

Only a Game

Blood loss was no joke. As Jade stepped out of the bathroom, and back into the main hallway of the Tech Building, he felt light and weak. One thing was for sure, he decided. He wasn't about to go looking into every room of the building in search for people he didn't want to see anyway.

So, deciding he would text Amber to find out where she and the other Eclipse members were, he pulled out his phone.

I'm at Tech Building. Where r u?

He kept the message simple, then hit the send button and waited briefly as the little rotating circle beside the new message turned to a green check mark to mean the message had been sent. However, before he could blacken the screen of his phone, a small symbol appeared in the corner, symbolizing that Amber had seen his message and was writing back.

Seconds later, her text appeared on Jade's screen.

Downstairs, Puppy! Where the hell you been?

Jade sighed, the realization that he was already off to a bad start making cold sweat begin to drip down his neck. Nonetheless, he slipped his phone into his back pocket, then headed for the stairway that led down into the basement of the Tech Building.

All the lights were on in the stairway. Illuminated, the place looked quite different than it had when Jade had gone down to the basement in the dark. It was more overbearing, somehow. Jade felt too obvious in the empty stairway—vulnerable.

However, after hurriedly descending the stairs, Jade found he needed to go no further. The main room to which the stairway opened up to was crowded with people. But Jade had no trouble at all spotting Fentra Scale and Rudurhans in one corner—then Amber not far from the stairs.

Either she had been waiting for him, or Jade really did stand out as much as he felt he did—for the moment he stepped off the last stair, Amber turned and started towards him.

"There you are!" she exclaimed, annoyance sounding harshly in her voice. "What the hell took you so long?"

Jade chose not to sacrifice the effort necessary to answer her question. She didn't really want an answer, anyway. All she wanted was to scold him. So Jade took his eyes off her scornful features and glanced about the rest of the room. There were plenty of behind-the-scenes workers in the room. Some were working, some were merely talking. Rudurhans Kakaya and Fentra Scale were discussing something in a corner, and Jude Durrace was helping a worker untangle some cords. None of them appeared to have noticed Jade...yet...

"Oh, and now you're daydreaming?" Amber asked sharply, poising her hand on hip. Jade turned back to her. "Well, that's just great, Puppy," Amber said with a haughty shrug. "Perfect time for a nap, right?"

"No..." he said. His voice came out startlingly faded.

Amber gave him a long, scrutinizing stare. "Well," she snapped at last, "Then come on. Dad wants to talk to you," She beckoned him to follow with a single finger and then started over to where Rudurhans Kakaya stood.

As the two approached, the conversation between Rudurhans and Fentra fell silent. "Ah, Leeman, you finally came..." Rudurhans said. He sounded as if he was speaking to his date who had taken a long time to show up. His face was blank and his voice was void of emotion. Neither criticism nor acceptance was portrayed in his reaction to Jade's presence. It was always that way with the band leader of Eclipse. As far as first impressions went, it made him less intimidating. But Jade, who knew Rudurhans on a more personal level, found this trait quite intimidating. Jade had brought upon himself Rudurhans' "disapproval" several times before. The results were always disastrous. But the worst part of each of Jade's experiences with Rudurhans' temper was the fact that Jade could never tell when Rudurhans was angry or about to be. The consequences could come down in a blink of any eye with absolutely no warning.