Two Villains

Ch. 41- Howl's castle of Camden

"Be my brave girl," he cupped my face and told me. I almost teared up a bit.

"Are you scared?" I asked him, noticing the fear in his eyes that he could no longer conceal.

"A bit," he admitted.

I hugged him, resting my head on his shoulder. Not necessarily to calm either of us, but I needed to know something.

"You knew something like this was going to happen?" I whispered in his ear. Rhys released himself from my hug and looked at me with sheer terror, beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

"How did you know?" His voice trembled.

"You had a meeting with MI5 because of the potential security threat, not because of any Navy deal," I spoke in a low tone, sensing his unease. Rhys looked like he was about to break down.

"Look, I had no idea this would unfold on this scale," he mumbled, almost tearing up.

Then a realization hit me.

He was blaming himself for all the casualties that had happened in the tube. I had to release him from this trauma then and there, or he would drown in survivor's guilt.

"You did your duty..." I began to console him, but he abruptly stopped me.

"Kay, let me tell you something really, really important. Did you see all these terrorist attacks? You see all these deaths? Intelligence always has intel about almost every fucking thing. They knew exactly what was going to happen. They knew exactly when it would happen."

A chill ran down my spine. His words would haunt me forever.

"This is the fucking Planet of Anarchy, Kay. Nobody gives a shit about another human life here," Rhys continued, his voice filled with disgust.

"If I could show you how fucking ugly, disgusting, power-hungry, and money-hungry some people are—let me tell you—you will fucking hate yourself for being human," Rhys hissed at me, his chest heaving with every heavy breath.

A tear rolled down my cheek. Rhys again cupped my face with his palms and told me, "All I wanted was to protect you from all these monsters in human skins, nothing else. I fucking hate living on Earth..."

"You are powerful enough to make a change... then change this planet for something better," I whispered to him. But instead of comforting him, my words seemed to trigger something in him, and he burst into maniacal laughter.

Feeling a tinge of insult in my heart, 

 "Change? What the fuck are you talking about?" He hissed at me, I didn't respond.

"The change you want? Oh, it sounds wonderful in books, in movies... But in reality, I would need to annihilate at least a million people or dismantle the entire weapons industry to achieve the fucking change that you want," Rhys added, his tone erratic and filled with bitterness.

I was stunned. What did he just say? What did he mean by that?

Before I could process his words, John approached us and declared, "The hospital is all clear. She can go. I have talked with the director—four members of our elite forces will join her. They will work as her security and lend hands to the on ground EMTs, nurses, and paramedics. I will join them asap for Ms. Kay's security."

Rhys gave me a final look and calmly spoke, "Go. Don't worry. Anytime you feel your intuition telling you to step back, you come to me immediately. You are only safe with me. I hope you get that."

He left me alone with John, walking over to Randy. I turned back to John and gave him a look, silently asking him what the hell Rhys just told me. But his pale face only hinted at something more ominous brewing beneath the surface.