Hunted || Wesari

Chapter Fourteen: Suprise

"I don't know," Wes replied truthfully.

Mari tilted her head, but didn't say a word. They stared at each other for awhile, before Wes tore his eyes away. The last thing he wanted to do right now was deal with her.

"Are you just going to leave me here?" She asked. "I don't quite see the point in that. Or the point in keeping me alive, really."

"Are you complaining?" Wes asked.

"A little," Mari replied, a smile spreading across her lips. "Idiocracy insults me, in a way. And keeping me alive is one of the most idiotic actions you could possibly perform. It's an insult to my intelligence."

There it was; that tart-tongued response that Wes had been waiting for. He had expected nothing less from the purple-haired beauty, who was staring at him with playful eyes. Sure, he might not know the most about Mari, but she was far from the type of person who would just take being tied up; he was sure of that.

"I don't have the energy to deal with this." He muttered, looking away from her once again and making his way back upstairs. It was a mistake coming down; he should've just stayed in bed. Sure, finding her awake in the morning would've been a nasty shock, but it would be no worse than what he was experiencing now. At least, then, he would've spent less time near the woman.

"Do you remember Joven?" She shouted, making him stop in his tracks at the top of the stairs. "Do you want to know what happened to him?"

Against his better judgment, Wes turned to face her, not saying a word. Of course he remembered Joven, the man who had saved his life. He had been hoping that Ian had never figured out what the black-haired man had done, but if Mari knew, then that hope was abolished.

"It wasn't too hard to figure out what he'd done," Mari explained, a smile tugging at her lips. "People saw him exiting the prison room, looking guilty. Combine that with the fact that we all knew about his poor wife, Katherine; a woman who had suffered the fate you were supposed to at the hands of another group, and it wasn't too hard to figure out what had happened. And when Ian found your cell empty, it didn't take him very long to find the culprit."

Mari's eyes were gleaming. "He strung Joven up in front of everyone, all three hundred of us, and skinned that poor bastard alive. He regretted it, kept begging for mercy. And boy, did he scream. It was truly a sight to behold."

Wes will admit; Mari was very, very talented at manipulating people. He wanted nothing more than to go and beat the life out of her; and he would've, if he hadn't already known that was what she wanted him to do, and had the heart to hurt her. And he'd be damned if he gave her the satisfaction. 

He angrily stormed into his room, trying not to think about the interaction he'd just had. He had no doubt that she'd told him the truth; what reason could she have to lie?

Joven had died for him. Just like Courtney and Olivia had, and Keith, and David. The list was just getting longer and longer, and Wes couldn't help but wonder who would be next. Would it be wasting those people's lives if he ended it all right now, or would he be saving future acquaintances?

He quickly shook the thought from his mind. Suicide wasn't the answer. It never was. He had learned that from his brother, Trenton. If only his parents had believed him when he told them about his depression, and did something when the bullying got worse; something that Wes still blamed himself for. That wound still stung.

He couldn't succumb to his demons. He couldn't allow himself to. Wes was a fighter, and he was going to fight until his last breath. No matter how much the girl tied to the railway downstairs drove him mad.