𝐙𝐚𝐫𝐚|𝟏| [𝟏𝟖+] ✔

Chapter 14

"No..." I whisper, blinking quickly. "...tell me what you know."

I feel my heart thudding harshly against my chest, seconds from bursting out. Theo cannot be one of them, no.

"We managed to capture one of the guards from their main building not far away from here, about a year ago," she said, smoothing over her hair and blows another puff of smoke.

"We interrogated him, kept him locked up until he gave us information." She shrugged. "He gave us the names of the new recruits."

"Theo was one of them?" I can hear the thudding in my ears now, speeding up. I closed my eyes when she nods, placing my head in my hands and fighting to stop the tears from falling.

"So he joined a year ago?" My heart is breaking.

"The recruitment process takes a while. He would have joined well before then. You had no idea?" She asks, her hand placed on my knee.

I shook my head, still buried in my hands. Gritting my teeth hard to try to battle against my heartbreak slowly growing into rage.

I fell in love with a fucking asshole.

Is that why he always snuck away?

"The stages are pretty brutal, practically torturing them. The program was designed to create machines. Theo was the top recruit Zara; you had the biggest monster sleeping in your bed this whole time."

Fuck. I am going to fucking kill him.

I didn't say anything. I kicked myself away from the table and marched towards our tent, Adrianna shouting after me, telling me she can't leave Cole and to get back.

Claire tried to stop me too, grabbing my arm and pulling me back, stopping when I tell her to back the fuck off.

It's night, the small campfires littered around the groups huddled around helps me find my way back, the smell of burning wood everywhere. I do feel the coldness, but the flames blowing around me has me fully focused on removing all of Theo's things from my tent.

Then it clicks, bringing me to a halt at the entrance. "No," I say to myself.

He was responsible for Cole's accident. That mother fucker.

"Fucking wanker," I say to myself, unzipping the entrance and freezing.

"Who's a wanker?" Theo asks, sitting on the camp chair and peeling an orange.

"Get out," I say softly, staring at the plastic window above his head and pointing to the way out.

He drops his feet from the table, standing up and throwing his orange aside. "What?"

"Leave, before I lose it," I warn him, still not making eye contact, controlling my breathing.

I should be scared of him, running, screaming, anything.