Breaking Free

Chapter Thirteen

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"I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me."

-Unknown 

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Thea

I slowly drop down from the roof and land softly onto the marble floor. Zeke lands behind me and pulls down the cord. It is exactly midnight and Black has left his mansion a few hours ago for a meeting. Based off of his daily routine he will be back around two, so we have a good solid two hours. Zeke takes the lead and I follow behind him quietly. My heart is pounding against my chest and I feel like it is echoing across the mansion. I start sweating and my breathing becomes heavy as we walk through the grand empty hallways.

The mansion reminds me of a haunted house from a horror movie from how dark and eerie the place looks. It seems like not a single soul lives in the house besides the two of us which makes it even creepier.

Zeke stops in his tracks and slowly opens a huge door to his right. The room has shelves overflowing with books. The one light source that illuminated the whole room is the fire in the chimney. Zeke's silver eyes meet mine and he gives me a reassuring smile like he seems to sense my distress. Slowly he moves his hand and wraps his warm hand around my hand sending warmth to my body.

Friends will turn into enemies.

As much as I want to trust Zeke my mother's words still ring through my head. I can't trust anyone anymore, it isn't safe. I can't let another Mike into my life. He gently squeezes my hand and pulls me towards the library.

"I don't see any magic walls shorty," he grumbles.

I roll my eyes and continue to look through the room. My hands glide on top of the books that are gathering dust. Minutes pass by and then an hour and we still haven't found any secret room.

"This is stupid. I knew it was a long shot," Zeke groans.

I turn my back to him and continue looking as he starts to whine.

"I mean it's not like I can just pull a book and then the walls will-"

I never hear him finish his sentence and I look back but he isn't there.

Where did he go?

"Zeke?" I whisper. "Where the hell are you?"

I look around the whole library but still see no Zeke. I walk back to where he was standing before and notice that a book is sticking half way out the shelf. The book has no title nor author on it which makes me curious, I pull the book out to inspect it but I felt the ground move. Before I can understand what's happening I am in a tunnel.

"Took you long enough shorty."

My heart nearly stops from the sudden voice that boomed beside me making me jump from surprise. Turning around I see a smug looking Zeke with his arms crossed behind his back.

"You jerk! You fucking gave me a heart attack."

He smirks at me and turns around the other direction to continue walking through the dark creepy tunnels. With no other option but to follow him I start running to catch up to him. Zeke seems very confident in where he is walking while I have no clue where he is leading us. The tunnels seem to get creepier and darker as we walk deeper into them. Getting the chills I walk closer to Zeke and try to stay away from the walls that are closing in on us.

"Zeke," I whisper.

He turns his head and looks at me with his beautiful silver eyes.

"Yes Shorty," he says back in the same soft voice.

"Do you know where we are going?"

"That depends," he says thinking. "Do you trust me?"

I want to.

That's what I want to say but my mouth wants to say something different.

I snort. "No."

He gave me a full out smile. "I guess you are smart Shorty."

What the hell does that mean?

He lightly chuckles at me. "To answer your question, yes I do know where we are going."

"How?"

"Before the house was built there used to a military camp here. In the 1500s the German armies would use these tunnels as a secret pathway to enemy camps. Deep inside these tunnels is a room that the German army would store all their loots."

"That doesn't answer my question."

"Well if you didn't interrupt then I would have."

I raise my hands in surrender. "Please continue."

He rolled his eyes. "As I was saying the German army would store their loot here but over the years no one knew where the tunnel or room was. Years ago I pinpointed the location of the tunnel around here but I lost hope and stopped looking, but when you told me about the secret room it got me thinking. Of course, I thought it was a long shot but many people have been looking for this room for many years that I decided to give it a shot."

I stop walking a stare at his back with a deadly glare. I reach towards the waist of my jeans and grab my gun.

"Think how rich I could be with just that one room," Zeke continues on as I point my gun at him.

Finally he notices me not following him and turns back to look at me. Instead of freaking out he just smirks at me.

"Come on Shorty I thought you were better than this," he says raising his hands in mock surrender. "I didn't think killing your partner to get all the loot is your style."

"It isn't," I grit. "But it might be yours."

"I thought you aren't a murder."

"I am not Archer but sometimes you got to keep assholes like you in place," I spit out. "All this time all you wanted was the damn money. You used me to get into the mansion didn't you?"

"Look Shorty I don't know what you are talking about but-"

I fire the gun and the bullet lands a few inches away from his head. "I am tired of people using me. Everything ends here do you hear me, get out and leave me before I really do put that bullet where it's supposed to be."

"You need me," he says getting serious. "I know where the plans are, if you let me finish my damn story I would have told you that Black probably keeps the Plans there. It's the safest place since no one knows about it."

I still don't let go of my gun. "How do I know you won't take the Plans and leave?"

He takes a step closer and looks straight dead in my eyes. "I already told you Shorty, I steal but I don't mess with people's lives."

I slowly lower my gun but still keep my guard up. "Look I don't even want the loot I was just simply pointing out the obvious. Plus I will be rich anyways once the world finds out that I have been trying to save the world."

I roll my eyes and we continue walking instead of correcting him. Even though I won't admit it out loud I might have overreacted a tiny bit but Zeke's a thief and I still don't trust him yet.

I might not be a killer but I am no saint. 

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