𝐀 𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑 | 𝐊𝐓𝐇 🌪

36. Friend or Foe?

Acid rushes up my throat and a second later my hand is holding the damp brick wall for support as the lunch I've never had comes churning out.

There's static in my ears. My head grows lighter and lighter with every passing second. My fingers feel tingly and the body begins sweating profusely. And I give up, letting my body float in the space that seems to have no gravity as I prepare myself for the painful impact with the solid ground.

It never comes.

A pair of hands grip my arms, desperately trying to hold my pliant body up. Even though all I want is to fall, to feel the desired luxury of being weightless even if it's just for a moment, my holder doesn't allow me to.

"Sheet!" My supporter curses and I vaguely recognize the voice that seems far away as my vision tunnels and my heart starts palpitating, hard. "Oh, barnacles! Stand on your own!" she chides, smacking my face and trying to keep me coherent. "You aren't exactly weightless!"

"I trusted you," I whisper while trying to steady myself. And when I drag my weary glare to her face, I see the sheer disappointment slowly pooling in my eyes as she dry-heaves.

"You came in, didn't you?" Nicole asks, her words heavy with concern as her hands slowly let go of me.

I'm not buying it.

I take a step back, watching how she blows out another heavy puff of air. "You can hate me all you want later, now we need to get somewhere safe. There are things you need to know before jumping to conclusions."

"If you think I'm coming with you," I spit out, feeling how my senses slowly come back to normal functioning. "Then you're fucking delusional."

"Y/N, I need to talk to you-"

"Then talk."

"It's not safe here-"

"I said I'm not coming anywhere!"

"He'll get both of us killed if we get caught," She hisses, doing a very poor job in hiding her Russian accent that leaks through her panicked words. Nicole steps forward in an attempt to reach for me. She's scared, that much I can tell. Doesn't necessarily mean I should care.

"I don't give a fuck!" The furious words burst out of my mouth and land on her face like a hard slap. She halts on her tracks.

Nicole looks around like a frightened child and when she's sure we aren't being eavesdropped she turns to me. The profound sadness and disappointment hidden beneath my words mirror in her black irises as she yet one more time steps closer to me.

"Just liste-"

"I don't fucking care if the Reaper decides to take me over the bridge right now and right here," I whisper. "I've had enough. I've seen enough. The argument of being killed won't work for me. Come up with something else, Nicolia."

"You have absolutely no right to speak about death like that."

The echoey whisper of a masculine voice rings like a bell to my ears, making my body go stiff and solid. What the...

"Do you even listen to yourself?" Nicole asks, her words colored with heavy disbelief. But her question shoots in one ear and directly out from the other as my full attention stays focused on the continual pumping of my heart and the annoying voice that I can't seem to push away.

"You're not living only for yourself." Like a silk ribbon, his whisper hangs behind the tip of my ear.

"Yes," the word is quiet, yet I'm sure Nicole hears it perfectly. Her worried eyes scrutinize me as if to make certain I won't try anything stupid.