This Is Not The End.

Chapter 38

"How the hell are you alive?" she asked, sitting up straight in her chair. "Why the hell are you back!"

I blinked at her, trying to figure out whether she was real. It was like nothing had changed: same secretary skirt, same jet-black hair, same blood-red lips, same hopeful eyes, but not. Her eyes were different, sterner, and when I finally made her meet mine, I didn't recognise her.

I stepped towards her, and she moved back subtly in her chair. I frowned.

"You're not..." she tried, thinking of the words, "You haven't been bitten, or scratched, or...?"

"Not that I know of. Kai?"

"I'm practically perfect in every way,"

"Every word from your mouth is either a joy or one of my nightmares," I told him, "Take a wild guess about that one,"

"Fine, you're still you," Ariadne took her glasses and rubbed her eyes, "What, what happened out there?"

When she spoke, her eyes kept flicking to Beck, who was unintentionally hidden behind the door and Kai, with something like recognition behind them.

"It doesn't matter," I said after a moment, "C'mon, we've gotta go,"

"Where?" she asked, "Why?"

"Out of here," I shrugged, "Because this place is fucked,"

"What makes you think that I-" the alarm blared, and she jolted in her seat, "What the hell did you do!"

"What SWORD never could," I said. "Now, are you coming with us or what?"

"I-"

"-For the love of God," Beck pushed past me and pulled Ariadne to her feet, "We don't have time for this, lady."

I'd only ever heard the alarm one time before: A Flame had revolted and set fire to the med bay, which subsequentially spread and allowed for the facility to expand due to the small forest fire which happened. Small. Still, it didn't bring any good memories flooding back. It drilled into my skull and ricocheted around in my head, my brain throbbing with the springs.

We'd got one colour of nine out, we weren't quick enough.

"Where next?" I asked Kai.

"Stingers," he said, "They're closest, then we'll move on to Readers,"

Ariadne wrestled her arm out of Beck's grasp and walked alongside me, heels snapping on the white tiles. She pinned the one bit of hair which had fallen out of place and let out a huff, daring me to ask her what was wrong.

"You have no right to come bursting in here and ruining everything!" she snapped. Her once bright eyes had switched to black, and I frowned.

"It was you who told us SWORD were out to get us," I frowned, my forehead creasing into thick worry lines. "It was you who warned us what was really out there,"

"And that was a mistake," she spat at me, rubbing her arms subconsciously. "You are the disease here!"

I stared at her, studying her every movement and how she helf herself. She wasn't as put together anymore – her shirt wasn't tucked in all the way and her black tights had ladders all up her legs. Her glasses, askew on her face, looked as if she hadn't cleaned them since we left, and her makeup trailed around her eyes.

"What did they do to you?"

She snapped around to meet my eyes, her mouth upturned in a sneer. "I know the truth now. I know what has to be done, and I know the cost. You are the disease and we are here to eradicate it. The world is dead because of your kind,"

I didn't realise how much could change in a few weeks until we'd come back, and now I knew that I'd misjudged her. Clenching my jaw and balling my fists, I tried not to let it show, but I'd never been good at hiding my anger.

I'd trusted her, and I didn't trust anyone like that. She'd taken down my walls and promised a safe haven from the hell, which was the facility and the outside, and then pulled it out of my reach with a snap of her heel. I could tell she knew what I was thinking, and that she was just waiting for the right time to bite my head off – literally. I didn't know what she would do, she clearly didn't want to be with us, but I needed to be prepared.

I liked to think I was always prepared, but then again, that was just utter bullshit. There wasn't a lot of point in lying to myself anymore, I could handle the truth.

"Which way to the Stingers?" I asked her in a low voice, trying to figure out my next move without her catching on.

"I'm not taking you to the Stingers," she said, stopping in her tracks. "I'm not taking you anywhere, I have orders!"

"Oh yeah? By who?"

"Take a wild guess, Miss Jones," she scowled at me.

"You do not get to call me that," I snarled, "You've done nothing but lie and betray us, you don't-"

"– I let you out of this place! I saved your lives!"

"No," Kai said, glaring his sharpest daggers, "You opened a door, and when you opened that door you didn't expect us to get through the damn forest,"

"We believed in you," I snapped, "We thought you were different from the rest of them, but hey, why not just fuck us over like the rest of them?"

"Oh, like your father?"

Kai grabbed my arm before I went for her, and by God, would I have gone for her. Beck took a deadly step forward and Kai lunged for him too, pulling him back by a handful of his red tunic.

"Don't stoop to her level!" he hissed at us. What did he know? It wasn't personal for him.

"What do you want us to do?" Beck snapped at him; voice low enough so Ariadne couldn't hear. "If we let her go now, she's gonna find the orderlies, and then we're fucked,"

"Royally fucked," I corrected, "So, what? We take her prisoner?"

"Because that's gonna work for us," Kai raised his eyebrows. "Let's just cross the bridge when we get to it,"

"Because that's gonna work for us," I mimicked.

Beck shook his head, "We need to get to the Shifters and the Readers at least. Hopefully the alarm automatically releases doors, but what do I know? She comes with until we get back to Jack and Cara."

"Fine," I said, "But I'm not watching her,"

"I'll watch her," Beck shot her a dirty look, "Focus on where we're going,"

"On it," Kai promised, rolling his eyes to me when the other boy had gone to walk alongside Ariadne. When he saw me glare at her, he shook his head imperceptibly at me and I sighed. Sure, he didn't know how I felt, but he knew me, and he knew this mission – he was our best shot now Beck and I were emotionally compromised.

We argued over which corners to take and threatened Ariadne to give us the directions to no avail until we decided that we'd get there one way or another and took the next exit.

My heart pounded in my chest as I peered around a corner in hope of finding it empty. I could hardly focus on anything from my head throbbing with panic. In the air, I could feel that something was wrong: something had happened, someone was hurt, or worse – something was about to happen.

I beckoned the others to follow me down the safe hallway and tried to keep my steps silent against the tiles for fear of attracting an orderly. Once, Beck had to push Ariadne into an open records closet so she couldn't give us up as a group of Shifter anaesthesiologists came past us and interrogated us about why we were still in the building. As Kai froze up, I lied through my teeth and told them some story about how our exit was blocked up. Surprisingly, they believed me.

I didn't trust how lucky we were getting.

As soon as they disappeared around a corner, Beck pulled open the closet door and slammed it shut again, swearing as loud as he dared as he turned back to face us.

The penny dropped and I pulled at my hair as I listened to the three words which could cost us the entire operation:

"She got away,"