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Chapter 13

Not wanting to give her a chance to say no, I take advantage of her silence and cautiously unlock the cell door.

"... what do you think you're doing?" she asks, taking a step back.

"What does it look like?"

"It looks like you're about to get your ass kicked..." she answers.

That doesn't exactly fill me with confidence... but I can't just leave it like this.

We have to work this out.

I'm the only one who can understand her or at least... try to.

"You're bluffing,"

Keeping my eyes fixed on her, I open the door.

"Are you sure about that?" she asks coldly.

Her threatening demeanour gives me pause but I shrug it off.

She stays rooted to the spot, watching as I walk inside the cell and close the door behind me.

So far, so good.

She takes one step towards me as though she's about to do something but stops and sighs, seeming to think better of it.

"What is wrong with you? Why can't you just leave me alone?" she asks, looking at her feet.

"I can't do that, we're friends... I care ab-"

"Who are you kidding? We've done too much damage to each other to call ourselves friends," she says, cutting me off.

"True. We have both done terrible things but it's not like either of us wanted to do them, circumstances forced us to"

"Speak for yourself," she retorts.

"... what?"

"I did those things because I wanted to," she responds.

"You're lying..."

"You people are descendants of the devil, you're evil," she continues, undeterred.

I know what she's trying to do but it's still getting to me.

"Just stop. I know you don't really believe that"

"I was doing the world a favor, you all need to be eradicated" she says, coldly.

I can feel myself starting to get frustrated.

"Annie. Stop"

She pauses for a second and then...

"... every one of your friends I killed made this world a little safer," she says, utterly deadpan.

One step too far.

Every fibre of my being is burning with utter rage.

I practically lunge across the cell, grabbing Annie's shoulders and shaking her.

"JUST STOP!"

She doesn't even struggle.

Face tensed up and eyes closed, seemingly bracing herself for a hit.

Seeing this, I calm down.

I feel my face soften and I loosen my grip.

"... stop trying to push me away"

Slowly opening her eyes, she looks up at me.

I remove my hand from her shoulder and gently brush her hair away from her face.