Who They Are

~59~

*Trigger warning

Alyx's POV

The headache I wake up with is excruciating. I could almost fall back asleep if whatever I'm lying against wasn't so uncomfortable. Wait... I lift my eyelids, though the light makes my head throb more. After blinking a few times, I try to take in my surroundings. Where am I? The building is huge with tall ceilings, similar to a factory. Or maybe a warehouse of some sort, considering all the wooden pallets stacked on each other.

What even happened? How did I end up here? All I remember is going home from work, ready to see Amaya. Oh my god. Amaya. The laundry room. Grayson being in my home. And... Finn. He's really... This whole time I've been friends with Grayson's son. What the actual fuck?! I look around more to see if Amaya's with me, but I don't spot her anywhere.

"Amaya!" My voice echoes a few times, bouncing off every wall. Silence is the only thing I hear. I try to stand to go look for her, but my shoulders and wrists ache when I tug on them. I glance behind me to see my wrists are bound behind me to a steel pole. How long have I been like this? And where the hell is Amaya? "Where are you?!"

"Shut up," I hear the familiar voice of the betrayer behind me, making me strain my neck to look at him. His usual happy aura is gone, his face is blank, and his eyes won't meet mine. He looks like a completely different person than the Finn I know.

"W-Where is she?"

"It doesn't matter. You're not going to see her again." His voice doesn't even sound the same.

''Why?" my voice cracks with the question. I can't stop the tears from beading up in my eyes. "Why would you do this? I just got her back." A sob rips up my throat. "I went so long without her. We barely- Please tell me she's okay." When he doesn't answer right away, another cry comes from me. "He killed her, didn't he? Fuck! He did, didn't he?" If she's gone...

"Alyx-"

"Tell me she's okay! Please!"

"She's fine!" he yells back, meeting my eyes for the first time. I want to feel relieved, but I don't trust his word. At all.

"Let me see her."

He lets a sigh out. "No. I couldn't anyway. Just believe me that she's okay."

I let a scoff out through the tears. "I'm not stupid. I'm not going to trust anything you say after doing this to me. God, maybe I am stupid. I believed you were actually my friend when you've been lying this whole time."

"I wasn't! I didn't know it was you until you brought her here! So this is your fault." That knowledge makes a pain fill my chest. He's right. This is my fault. I was supposed to keep to myself, not make friends. God damn it! Why did he have to be him? "I mean... It's partly mine, but you should've never let her come here. You were both safer before."

"You really didn't know it was me from the beginning?"

"I had my suspicions but no. She confirmed it."

I need to talk him into letting me go. We were close before, so maybe I can convince him.

"You don't have to do this for him, Finn."

"Shut up. I don't want to hear any cliché bullshit. I have my reasons. And honestly, you'd probably want me to do this, too."

"He's threatening you, isn't he? That's why you're helping him?"

"I said shut up!" His tone catches me off guard at the loudness, but it doesn't stop me from asking my next questions.

"He's really your dad?"