The Stolen

Chapter 18

Olympia sits down next to me. "Nico... It can't be. They can't be back already. I thought they didn't know we were alive. I thought..."

"Well apparently we thought wrong." Nico interrupts her. "She's here, so that means they are all here. And we can't just stay in the HQ, arms crossed, waiting for them to come. We have to do something about it."

"Wait." Olympia says, turning to face me. "What if she's a spy for them? She could be here to steal information for Inés!" 

I open my eyes widely. "Wha... what?"

Nico stares at me. "We'll have to make sure you don't leave the Headquarters. Is that okay with you, Christine?" 

"Um... yes." I say. "Better here than out there, alone."

"I just have a question for you." Nico says, folding his arms. "Why did you lie about your name? Were you trying to hide your true identity from us?"

"No, I just like to be called Chrix." I say, shrugging.

"That was a lie." Nico says. "Clearly Inés doesn't know we can find out who people are this easily. Now tell me all you know about Inés' plan, Christine."

"Look, I have no idea what to tell you because I have no idea of who this Inés guy is."

"Inés is a girl's name." Olympia says. 

"She's your sister," I guess.

Nico smiles triumphantly. "I told you, Olympia. She's a spy. If she weren't, she wouldn't know about my sister."

"Don't be so sure." I say. "I overheard your friends saying something about your sister, and you said something about her coming back, so I connected the dots. I'm smarter than I look."

"You better be. Because if you are not, you're completely stupid."

I shrug. He can't hurt me with those words. I don't care about him, so he can say whatever he wants about me. 

"Just leave me alone, Nico." I say. "I don't know what's going on, I'm worried for my friends, I don't know where I am. I don't need another problem."

"Let's go, Chrix. We already know who you are, we can leave." Olympia says, changing the subject.

"Uh, you can't leave yet." Nico says. "We still have a lot of work ahead of us. We only know her name and her Betrayer number. Sit down again, Christine."

Is he going to call me Christine all the time? Because I don't think I will be able to handle it if he does. "By the way, what is a 'Betrayer'?" I ask.

"You are," Nico says. "You are a Betrayer. You know perfectly what a Betrayer is."

"I have no idea, seriously."

"A Betrayer is a person who betrayed the Stolen Rebellion and was selfish enough to leave everything he or she cared about behind." Olympia says. It sounds like she knows the definition by heart.

"I don't even know what the Stolen Rebellion is! Why would I betray it?" 

Nico narrows his eyes. "How old were you when the ship left the Earth?"

"Nine." I answer, not understanding what that has to deal with anything.

He smirks and turns to Olympia. "Bad case of amnesia here, my friend. I know everything I need to know. Lock her somewhere, I'll deal with her later."

Olympia looks at me, surprised. I blush. I forgot about my "amnesia". "Security Department," she says into her watch, "I'm gonna need two of you."

"What?" I say, stunned. What are they going to do to me?

"We don't know how dangerous you can be," Olympia says. "We have to keep you prisoner until we find who you really are."

"But..." 

"You lied, Chrix. If Christine's even your real name. Maybe Inés has figured out a way to trick our Classification system. You never know with her. We can't trust a word you say."

I look at the ground. I don't know why I could be dangerous to them. I'm sixteen, and they don't even know of my abilities.

"Sit," Nico says.

"I thought we were done with Classification," I answer.

"We are. But you have to wait here until the Security Department gets here. Now sit."

I hesitate. I look around me and I see that there are two doors I can escape through.

I don't think, I just act. I run like my life depends on it towards the nearest door, as I hear Nico shouting at me and the sound of footsteps running behind me.

I run as fast as I can, but I'm not as fast as Nico. He grabs me by the wrist and stops me.

"You are in so much trouble," he hisses. "I don't want to do this, but I have to. You're going to our prison."

"You can't make me," I answer, getting closer to his face, and trying to get my wrist out of his hand.

"Don't try to escape again," he says, tightens the grip on my wrist and pulls.

I try to resist, he looks at my wrist and his eyes open widely in recognition. 

"Why is there a clover tattoo on your hand?" He gulps.

A/N: Sorry for the long wait everyone! I hoped you enjoyed the chapter, though it was like 900 words only. 

I made a banner for the girls of The Stolen and completed the cast. Also I ordered a new cover and it should be up soon. 

By the way, when The Stolen hits 2K, I'm making a Tumblr blog for the book as a reward. You'll have a lot of extras and you'll be able to vote for actors for the cast!

The clover tattoo will start being really important for the story in the next chapter! I'll try to update as soon as I can because I don't like to keep you waiting.

PM or comment your thoughts, vote and follow!

Serenity.

Update: The cover's already up, and it was made by the amazing @busychasingthesun!