[This story is complete and being edited.]
Armed racing is Atropellado's deadliest and most profitable sport. And wherever there is profit in Atro, there is crime.
Gervassio Blaze has left his most prized possession - ownership of the armed racing f...
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"Rose!"
She could hear her father's voice again as if she had traversed through time in the obscurity. Her ears rung from the uproar of prisoners and authorities in panic. As if the absence of her own heart beat wasn't worrisome enough, it was only seconds after she'd stopped breathing that she heard the most frightening sound of all.
Silence. In reality, it must've only been seconds, but to her, it felt like a small eternity. The sound of cell doors whined open due to the power outage.
"Father!" Rose squeaked. The halls pulsed with lights in random directions, and the ear puncturing sound of rolling shells were distinct as her father's guards vibrated with their rattling machine guns.
She hiccuped. "F-father?"
This time, she tried to scream, but her small voice was drowned out by Silva's most wanted stampeding out of their cells. Like an infestation of rats, she could feel their presence crawling up her legs as they rushed past her. When cool air hit her face, she knew her fortress of protectors had crumbled.
"Father! Where are you?"
"Rose! Sweetheart! I'm-"
Her father's voice was minced in the sea of pandemonium before it was drowned out completely. Unseen forces pushed and pulled, tugging her every which way as the inmates rioted. Just as she was taught, the little girl hunched down to shield from the gunshots, praying none of them would ricochet.
Desperate to reach out for something — anything — that would steady her in the waves of confusion, she patted at her surroundings in the darkness until something hostile seized her. It yanked her so hard upright, little Rose had no time to yelp in pain. Her back was strapped against ice, cold, steel bars stabbing into her spine as a pair of arms squeezed at her.
"Fath-"
"Shut up, Gloxi brat or I'll filet your neck."
Her voice knotted painfully inside her throat as she kicked and wriggled helplessly. The ragged teeth of a rusted blade dug into her chest. When her father's voice finally boomed through the chaos, she felt heat bloom from over where her heart was. The heat rolled down to her stomach.
"Rose!"
"Let go of me! I'll kill you!"
"Rose," the stern whisper was directly in her ear as a pair of strong arms tightened around her. "Breath with me," he said. "In. And out."
When she felt his chest rise against her shoulder blades, she finally snapped back to reality. That smokey cedar — she knew that smell.
"Lancet?"
"Follow my shift in weight. Keep breathing."
Rose was still reeling after being unexpectedly sucked into the undesirable memory from when she was six. If her nails digging into Lancet's forearms hurt, he didn't complain. Rose didn't realize she was shaking until they'd stopped somewhere in the darkness, and Lancet's large hands rubbed warmth up and down her goose bumped arms.
"What the- can't see a damn thi— am I?"
Am I crying? Gods, yes, I am. I can't believe this is what years of therapy have amounted to! Why do I pay that hack! Isaac is going to kill me... If someone else doesn't do it first.
"Listen to me, Rose. This is an assassination attempt on your life, and unless you don't cherish said life of yours, you need to calm down." Lancet's low and steady voice breathed into her sticky hair. His breathing was deep and deliberate, an attempt to get her in sync with him.
The heiress clung to his arm with both of hers as if his limb were a lifeline in the middle of an ocean. Soon enough, his arms around her felt less like a straightjacket and more like two thick pieces of lumber. Strength. Protection. Comfort. Once Rose's breathing became less erratic, she felt Lancet's lips press against her shoulder.
"Are you good now, Gloxi Boss?"
Lancet's taunt was likely intentional, and even knowing this, Rose still let him bait her. Unbridled rage seeped out of her as her panic abated.
"Damn right I am. I'll show you," she hissed. She tried to keep her voice just as low to avoid attracting unwanted attention, but he sure made it difficult.
"I'm sure you will, but first-"
"We need to get out of here."
"Yes."
"How do you know it's an assassination attempt, and that I'm the target?"
"Because it was your arrival that triggered the chaos. I've been here over twenty four hours, and there were plenty of opportunities to take my head. And as for how I know it's a coordinated attack, I know by the sound. Listen."
And so she did. Unlike her brief traumatic reverie, the halls weren't as loud as she expected. The voices were, but there were less gunshots, less footsteps.
"Not all the cells have been released. If this were a normal failure in the system, all of them should have been released. If only specific cells have been unlocked instead-"
"Then someone has a personal agenda."
"Exactly. And whoever they are, they would need extensive knowledge on the security systems in order to bypass them. This is Butcheree Cliffs. The technology here isn't so forgiving that just anyone could shut parts of it down."
"Which means this is an inside job."
"Precisely. And whoever has pulled this off knew that we would be in this part of the penitentiary at this very moment."
Rose's eyes widened, but they did no good to enhance her vision.
"Funny. That sounds a lot like you, Lancet. Are you sure this isn't your ploy to finally remove the Gloxi presence from your precious city now that you already have your sister?"
She felt his smirk against the shell of her ear. "If that was my intention, then I've just missed the perfect opportunity when you were at your most vulnerable. Not a very smart move for the Blaze Boss to make, don't you think?"
He's right. As soon as I had a panic attack, he could've easily put me out of my misery if that was his aim.
"Fine. It sounds like our alliance still stands, and we'll need it to escape."
