What Lies Beneath

Chapter Sixty-Five: The Hour of Defeat

"You shouldn't make promises you can't keep." His voice lacked its usual inflections. He was losing hope. Hope in a better and brighter day tomorrow. Sophie stopped walking and gave his arm a harsh tug. Wyatt whipped around with worry in his eyes.

"Knock it off! You can't go into battle with a losing attitude, everyone knows that. You have a future Wyatt. One bigger and more amazing than even you yourself could dream of. Stop feeling sorry for yourself and dwelling in the past! If you die here tonight, I will never forgive you!" The words came exploding from Sophie's chest. She couldn't hold it back anymore. There was no way in hell she was going to watch someone she loved die because he was too depressed to fight back.

Wyatt's frown found itself turning into a slow smile. He loved seeing the fire burning bright within her eyes. "I love you." Three words not meant to be spoken in that moment came rushing out of his mouth. Three words that he meant with every fiber of his being. He loved her for everything that she was and everything she made him.

Sophie didn't hesitate in her response. It was a stolen fragment of time amidst a raging war. "I love you too." As if to seal it forever, Sophie pushed up on her tiptoes and pressed her lips against Wyatt's cheek. Warmth spread through his entire being. He would remember this for the rest of his life.

"I'm going to make you pay for what you did." Delphine ground out the words as she inched closer to Charlie. With each step forward, Delphine pulled the whip tighter around his neck.

Charlie tried to choke out a threatening response, but the cord choked away each effort. Deep in his head he made a vow to make her pay for this. He didn't care how long it would take, but he would tear her apart cell by cell. Time was on his side now after all.

Delphine arched around Charlie as he laid thrashing on the ground, his axe a few feet away from him. Discarded from her attack. It was in that instant of seeing the axe on the floor that she knew what needed to be done. With the whip tightly held in one hand, Delphine bent to the ground and snatched up Charlie's shadow axe. Black smoke billowed from every part of it leaving the tip of the blade the only exposed piece.

Everything in Delphine's body told her to go for it, to take her revenge, but there was something holding her back. No matter how many times she commanded her feet to carry her towards her murderer, they remained cemented in place. Two weapons in hand and yet no ounce of killer instinct. It wasn't like she didn't want to do it; she had every intent on slamming the axe into his body, but-. That was it, that's what was stopping her. There was always a, but. A small three letter word with no obvious answer. No immediate response. Yet, it was always enough to stop her every time.

Karen could hear Joe's footsteps as they trailed after her. She was leading the way, taking them to their destination. Problem was, she didn't know where that was. The dining room wasn't that big, but it felt as though she was wandering through an arena or something bigger. The smoke clouded over every inch of the space making it even more difficult to navigate. Somewhere in this mess was Delphine who was fighting Charlie.

"Do you know where you're going?" Joe voiced Karen's fear. It would have been easy to lie to him and say that she knew exactly where she was, but what good would that do?

Without hesitation, Karen turned to face Joe. "Not a clue." It was a simple answer, straight to the point in fact. The kind of answer she could get behind after a series of unanswered questions and a mess of riddles she couldn't solve.

All Karen wanted to do was throw up her hands and give up. She was tired and the unsure of what she should do. It seemed as though everyone was relying on someone, but Karen couldn't find a place for all her troubles and worries. Since the day she arrived, no, even before that, Karen had difficulties making friends. She could never truly confide or trust in anyone. This aspect of her personality translated into all of her interactions with the other guests. The one person she started to get close to was Charlie. She thought that he would be someone she could trust, but then he turned into a monster. How could she trust herself when those she deemed worthy of her friendship were masked killers?