Embrace Your Fears

Planning for heartbreak

"Bitch!" Anastasiya shouted. I mentally begged for Kaori to have been at the mansion when Anastasiya got there. She punched me and I fell to the ground. This wasn't looking good from my perspective. I spit out blood and tried standing up.

"Was she...w-was she not there?" I asked as I leaned against the wall and watched as Bethany and Gordon got ready to attack.

"Yes..." Expel said slowly. "She was there." I was in disbelief as I gave her a look of despair. "But when I found out that you really are still working with Glympse, you'll be dead on the spot."

"When?" I asked.

"Yes, when. I don't trust you anymore. I told you the things that no one knows about me, and then you go out and work with the enemy." She said to me with a bitter tone in her voice. "You're still our leader, but don't expect us to trust or follow you."

"Is that it?" I asked. "Is there any chance that I could redeem myself? Believe me, you guys' friendship means everything to me, and I fucked up big time by working with Glympse. I did. But the moment I heard that she was going to try and kill you guys, I left. Take that for what you will, but I just want you to trust me again."

"We'll see about that." She said dryly before walking away. Bethany and Gordon walked away as well. I tried to grab Bethany's arm, but she shook me off.

"Bethany..." I said as I grabbed her arm once more. She shook me off once more and pushed me back.

"Fuck off, why don't you?" She shouted and stormed off toward her usual spot. I approached the computer and smashed my hand down on the desk. It echoed throughout the cave and I felt as if I was being watched by thousands of people, but instead it was only one person watching me. Three people at most.

"I believe you." A familiar voice called out. "Not only do I believe you, but I have proof that you weren't committed to her." It was Azia. She walks up to me and reached behind me ear. I backed away, but she tried again and reassured me that she knew what she was doing.

I felt something peel off of the skin behind me ear, and she showed me some fake skin. I panicked and felt the skin behind me ear.

"I bugged you while you were a coma, in the hospital." She told me and I shook my head. She peeled the fake skin in two to reveal a small device with a USB attached to it.

"How the fuck?" I said quickly. "Why the fuck?"

"I was uncertain and nervous." She said to me, and I was confused as to why she was uncertain and nervous. "We all were."

"About what?"

"Everything. But it was mostly Expel who was paranoid. I slipped one on everyone." She plugged the USB into a slot in the computer console and clicked a few buttons on the screen.

"How?" I asked her. I was the screen as she pulled up a file and used a slider to navigate through some audio files.

"We do sleep here, you know that right?" She gave me a blank tone as she found the proper audio to play. She played it, and the tape revealed Glympse telling that she was planning on killing Ana, Azia and Gordon. "It won't restore their trust, but it'll show that you left when she mentioned killing them." Azia said to me and I nodded.

"Okay...okay." I said slowly, reminding myself about Dae, and where she was. She was either still at Maeda Industries or taking her time on getting to the cave. The former option was more likely, as it had been almost half an hour since I had told her that I was going home. "Dae..."

"What about her?"

"She's still working for Glympse. She's most likely still at Maeda Industries." I told her, and in that exact moment, I got an incredibly convenient call. "Speak of the devil." I said and answered my phone. "Dae, what is it?"