Off With Their Heads | FOUR | 6 Underground

CHAPTER 5: Skills

Lilah step foot in the mansion and, she found that Ollie and his parents were no longer there. She lifted herself to her room and crashed in the bed. Flashbacks of the event that night invaded her head. She felt exhausted, and a little bad that she had to take someone's life, but then again she saved someone. Two innocent people, children that they did bad, and that was the thought she held onto. 

~~~

 It had been a week since the incident happened, Ollie had yet to come back and she hasn't been seeing her parents around the house, so she would often be with Mila and Mason. She liked taking care of them, as if she was redeeming herself for everything that her family has done to them. They looked a lot better, healthier. They got enough sleep and their clothes aren't torn. They looked happy. But Lilah knew that she couldn't keep them there forever. 

As she approached the small building, her heart stopped as she saw that the front door was wide open. It never was in fear that someone would find out. She disregarded the food she had brought and rushed inside, already anticipating the worst. She looked around to see that nothing seemed to be disturbed, but that wasn't really the main reason of her worry. She rushed into her lab to get a weapon, a gun she had fashioned herself. She kept it to her side trying to be more stealthy about the situation. 

She felt her heart quicken to see that Mila and mason were huddled in one corner instead of on the bed. She raised the gun ready to shoot at anyone. She looked to Mila her eyes asking if she was hurt, she was answered with a finger pointing behind her. She quickly turned around to see a man. He wasn't even fazed by the gun pointed at his chest, he just looked at the small girl threatening his life. 

" Who are you!? How the hell did you even get here! Answer me! Or I shoot!" 

 Lilah was scared, that was obvious, well maybe just to the man. She had that look in her eyes that just screamed the fear, but what astonished the man the most was that the fear wasn't for her own well-being but for the two behind her. One smiled, there was power in that. He even noticed how she was slowly taking steps backward to be closer to the children behind. 

" Look, you can put the gun down. I don't mean to harm you?"

" Oh really? Breaking and entering along with the trespassing doesn't seem to be the right thing to do to get that message across."

One let out a slight chuckle at her remark. He had been observing her for a few months now. He knew what this girl was capable of, he even knew what had transpired the night she had stumbled upon the young mother and her son. He needed him as one of the ghosts, and this was the reason why. 

" Look Lilah, I know, not a good idea. But I'm here to make you a proposition."

" What do you mean? How did you even know my name? Who are you?!"

" I'm One. And I think that you would make a perfect Zero for my team." 

The gun fell limply at her side as she realized that he wasn't really a threat. He went to explain the cause that he wanted her to join. Something about eliminating some evil people from the world. It intrigued her. It was finally a way out of her personal hell.

" I can't. What about them, huh? I can't just leave them here. They need me."

" You can't keep them here forever. They need to get out of here before your parents even find out. You of all people should know how bad it is to be trapped. You know how many people suffer at the hands of your parents, how many more are suffering at the hands of other?" 

 Lilah could feel her eyes water, His words sent stabs to her heart because they were true. She wanted to help not only the ones who her parent displaced from the world but those, who suffer simply because life is unfair. She looked at the man, in front of her and tried to gauge what he was saying. It was true. Mila and Mason could not stay in that home forever, her parents were already ready to marry her off for Pete's sake. 

" Get them out of here and set for life, then we talk business." One smirked, and went to the hallway and proceeded to the room that wasn't occupied. Lilah felt confused as the man began to open the door. It was filled with screens, tables with paper scattered everywhere. The floor had marks from the tools that scratched on it, dents from the times that the tools would fall from a height. 

" How did you...?"

" Oh, yes. Well I've been observing you for some time now. Picking your brain, and what you do." He went to the wall and felt around until he felt the little bump. He pressed lightly and the wall opened up a compartment filled with weapons. Guns, knives, explosives, darts, even vials of poison. " And you, my dear girl, do, well, make the most fucked up shit and I am impressed." One glided his hands on the lethal paraphernalia, his hand lingering on one thing in particular, a small object. It was as small as a button, but he knew better. He picked it up and Lilah felt her heart beat fast. It was a prototype, but she was sure that the thing could wipe out the entirety of the small building, maybe even some of the nearby trees. She was supposed to fix it, make it a little more silent, but like she said. It wasn't done, and if it were to be set off, anyone in that property could hear it go boom.

" You create all these things, you can shoot and fight, you can hack into any server with ease, and most of all, you want revenge." He continued to play with the object and he could see the green-eyed girl fidget and flinch as he did. 

" Put that down dude! You're gonna kill us all!"

" Precisely!"