White Rabbit

Chapter 62: Salvation's Silhouette

JACE

Clattonia, Juniper, Katsuro, and I have been fighting our way through White Rabbit HQ for several hours now, dodging bullets, swords, and anything imaginable as the place itself lies in ruins inside, pieces of debris flying everywhere and lying all scattered around the floors. Multiple tables and desks have been knocked over and many of the control panels were wiped out. Many of the White Rabbit workers looked at me with a mixture of emotions -- anger, betrayal, sorrow, pity, sympathy, confusion, hatred -- pretty much anything you can think of. But I don't care. I don't care anymore. I just want to be myself. I want to be free. I want to do what I want to do. I want to love the people who I want to love. And nobody's gonna stop me.

Beside me, Katsuro twirls through the air, his shield held against his chest as he kicks his feet into a White Rabbit member and sends them flying into a nearby wall before landing in a lunge position. Meanwhile, Clattonia is holding a member by their shirt and shaking them as they watch her with fear in their eyes, and Juniper elegantly twirls around and slashes her spearstaff through a control panel before running around and healing the injured before binding them in vines and keeping them in place.

My eyes lock on the elevator doors to see Misery rush through them and hurriedly close the elevator doors. Her eyes lock on mine as the doors close and the elevator goes up. I hear multiple pairs of footsteps hurriedly rushing up behind us and I glance over my shoulder, my hand tightening on my scythe, but I realize that it's just Reece, Essence, Cassidy, and Antillies coming to help us. Reece's eyes flicker over to Clattonia and he seems somewhat amused by her shaking the member down for answers, quite literally.

"Who's that?" Reece nods towards the person she's throttling around.

"That's the head worker for the weapons research department," Cassidy explains, "she's typically in the back room, but she sometimes comes out to share plans or hand them to the receptionist's desk."

"And I take it that's the receptionist?" Reece nods towards a young man with dark green hair and wide, blue eyes as he cowers in fear, his hands gripping at the countertop of the receptionist's desk that he's hiding behind.

"Yeah," I nod, "and Misery just went through the elevator."

"Well, why the hell are you just standing here then?" Reece raises a brow, "come on!"

Reece tugs on my arm and my eyes widen in surprise as he takes off in a sprint, dragging me towards the elevator with Essence, Cassidy, and Antillies following us. Clattonia glances in our direction before dropping the worker and joining us, along with Juniper and Katsuro.

We pile into the elevator and stare at the panel of buttons, wondering which one Misery pressed.

"Where would she most likely go?" Reece asks.

"Probably the restricted floor with Jace's father," Cassidy says.

Katsuro nods and presses the button to the restricted section of White Rabbit, a ding going off as the button is pressed and the elevator doors slide shut. The elevator goes down several floors before opening to the restricted floor, where we all run out of the elevator in search of Misery. Multiple workers at White Rabbit watch us as sirens continue to go off, signaling intruders in the building.

"Why aren't they attacking us?" Clattonia asks as we run down the hall.

"Restricted workers typically aren't permitted weapons," I explain, "only a few carry down here."

Upon entering one of the restricted rooms, we find Misery holding a blade to a brunette man's throat and standing in front of my father in a threatening manner.