His black veins protruded from his skin, he was pale, and his nose was completely missing. He stared deeply at us with his red irritated eyes, the dark circles underneath were very obvious. Now that he was closer, I could smell where the stench of death was coming from. I still couldn't look away from the two dark holes in his face where is nose should have been. That explained the mumbling of 'Rose stole my nose', though, I was curious about who Rose was.
The side of his face and neck was breaking, bubbling up with blisters and black from his thick veins. His lips didn't have a color, they were as pale as the rest of his body. I still couldn't figure out how he hadn't gone past the gone yet, but then I thought about the IV. That's when it hit me that it was the Bliss, the liquid made from the Immune children to slow the virus. That's how he's been living, but I wondered how a guy like Lawrence had gotten his hands on some when WICKED guarded it with their life.
It was quite obvious what the man was, but that wasn't the answer he was looking for and Thomas knew it. For once, the boy stood silently, not being his usual impulsive self, which was weird to witness. Lawrence got up in the brunette's face, Thomas's nose only inches away from the Crank.
"I'm a business man." Lawrence whispered in his ear. "Which means I don't take unnecessary risks."
I found my mouth moving before I could even stop myself.
"Then you'll accept our offer." I said, knowing all to well that we didn't have an offer for him, but I was good at making things up on the spot. I watched the Crank slowly turn his head to face me, his broken eyes staring into my own.
"(Y/n), what are you doing?" I could hear my dad whisper harshly to me, but I ignored him.
"Did you need me to repeat myself?" I asked and Lawrence turned his head slightly to the side like a puppy. A really ugly puppy.
"And who are you?" He asked and I could feel Gally staring at me along with everyone else in the room.
"I'm the daughter of a businessman, so I know how this works." I told him and he scoffed and smiled with his rotten teeth.
"Come closer girl." He said and I did as told, finding myself next to Thomas. "Now, tell me, how does this work?"
"You won't help us unless we have something to benefit you in return, am I right?" I asked and the man listened intently.
"Indeed it does, but I doubt that any of you will have what I need."
"I wouldn't say that." I responded. "Here's the thing, that IV bag is an hour glass, and your on your last grain."
"(Y/n)!" Gally said harshly and the Crank quickly turned to him.
"Gally, let her speak." He said, turning back to me. "It seems as though you are right, but you've neglected to inform me how this is relevant."
"You see Lawrence, you and I, we both want the same thing, we both want inside the city. You get us inside their walls, we get you inside their security systems. We can also supply you with enough Bliss to last you a lifetime." This made the man scoff. "Don't doubt our abilities."
This made the man stop and look at me seriously, I know he wanted me to look away to show that I was weak, but I didn't. As much as looking into the eyes of a Crank made me feel uncomfortable, I couldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing that I was afraid of him. After a few seconds, the man smiled widely, patting me on the shoulder.
"Your father taught you well I see." Lawrence responded as he stood down and I realized I had been holding my breath. "I'll tell you what, two can go for now, the rest stay down here with me. Just insurance to make sure you find your way back; as the daughter of a businessman, you should understand."
"Of course." I said in return and I looked down to see Lawrence extending his blistered hand out for me to shake.
"We have a deal." He said and I didn't hesitate to take it, hoping I wasn't clutching it too tightly from the fear inside of me being held back.
"I suppose we do." I said in return and I noticed him staring down at my hand as it began shaking again with pain. I pulled back almost immediately and then backed up with the others. Lawrence then turned his head to look at Gally who was a little shocked.
"Gally, show em the way." Lawrence told him and Gally nodded, turning on his heels and leading us back up the stairs. Before I left, I looked over at the man as he went back to his garden.
"You have attitude girl." He told me without looking and I nodded.
"I get that from my father as well." I responded but the man chuckled to himself.
"That's not what I meant." He said and before I could ask, I heard Gally call for me to follow so I turned and walked up the stairs. I looked down to the man again but he wasn't looking anymore.
If that wasn't what he meant, then what did he mean?
"Hey," Gally said, grabbing my arm so that I turned to him. "Don't do that again, he could have killed you for speaking to him like that."
"Yeah, well I'm not dead am I?" I said and Gally looked at me annoyed.
"It doesn't matter how badass it was, don't do it again." Gally said and I didn't say anything in return. Eventually, he looked away and lead me over to where the others were which was a small room a couple of doors down from where we just were. Everyone was grouped together and were staring as we walked inside.
"What?" I asked but they all looked away immediately, all except Fry whom of which had been constantly staring at me all day anyway. It was seriously irritating me, which seemed kind of childish.
Gally ignored it and walked over to a grate in the floor, lifting it up and throwing it to the side with a big bang. I winced as the sound echoed loudly in my ears, even though it was only me that seemed to be bothered by it. Gally then stood, walking over to a big metal ladder and carrying it over to the giant hole in the floor. The ladder went down, clanging against the rocky walls of the tunnel below. Once he finished, Gally looked at all of us, then me specifically.
"Your not coming." He said flatly and I felt the irritation inside me build.
"You don't tell me what to do." I said harshly when I didn't really want to speak at all, it just kinda fell out.
"(Y/n), relax, me and Newt'll go." Thomas said, placing a hand on my shoulder to calm me down. After a second I nodded, watching as the brunette made his way over to the ladder.
"Be careful Thomas." Jorge warned him and Thomas nodded, watching as Gally descended first into the dark tunnel. Before he was out of sight, Fry tapped the boy on the shoulder.
"Gally, take care of these two." He said and Gally looked down.
"Yeah." Was all he said as he climbed down so no one could see him. Thomas followed shortly after the boy and Newt was about to go, but he stopped and looked at me.
"You okay?"
"Why does everyone keep asking?" I asked irritated but hoping he didn't notice.
"Never mind it." Newt said. "We'll be back soon so just hang tight." He said and I nodded.
"Don't die out there." I told him, feeling bad for being harsh, and the boy smiled back at me. "That would be a real shame."
"See you soon, don't have too much fun without us." Newt joked as he began descending down the tunnel.
Everyone watched as the three were completely gone from sight. However, we could still hear Newt's muffled disgusted voice for whatever was down there. Everyone stood there awkwardly and from behind I saw Lawrence standing at the entrance, staring at all of us. It made me uncomfortable.
"So do we wait?" Fry asked but Brenda shrugged.
"Nothing else for us to do." She said in return and I was about to say something, but instead I felt a sharp pain in my arm once again. This time it didn't go away after a second, it just continued to feel like a dagger was being sliced down my arm.
I looked at the others who seemed to not be paying attention so I took the opportunity to slip out the empty doorway. I didn't know where Lawrence went but I didn't care, as long as he wasn't in my way. I walked into the open hallway, finding a dark ally between two walls and walking in so that I was alone.
The pain made my eyes water and I clenched my teeth together as it came in waves. It was like a burning sensation that I hadn't felt since the Solar Flares. Instead of just my arm shaking, my whole body was trembling and it scared me.
I reached down for the zipper of my sleeve on the leather jacket, but every time I grabbed it, the zip slipped from my shaking hands. Eventually though, I was able to tightly grab the zipper, pulling up on it harder then I meant to. I bit my tongue so hard that I could taste the blood building up in my mouth and the tears streamed down my cheeks. I didn't think it could get worse, that was, until I saw what was wrong with me.
I looked away almost immediately, feeling my earlier meal coming up my throat. I leaned over to the side, throwing up the contents in my stomach so that there was nothing left. I felt this stinging pain but it wasn't from my arm, it was from my fear. As much as I didn't want to, slowly, I looked back down to my arm.
There was no real mark, just my bulging black veins that extended up the skin of my, normally tan but now pale, arm. Just looking at it made me want to fall to my knees, but I stood tall like my father taught me. I clutched my arm tightly, the pain now ceasing as if it was never there in the first place. I bit my tongue again, not knowing what to think. What was I supposed to do?
After a minute of thinking though, I raised my head so that I was looking at the concrete wall in front of me. There was nothing to think about, there was nothing to even consider, I already knew what I was going to do. I grabbed the zipper, pulling it down on the leather jacket so that my arm was hidden from view. No one could know about this, I knew that if they did they'd start making a big deal out of it. This wasn't about me, this was about Minho and I would be damned if I let it go any differently. I knew what this meant, it meant death, but I wasn't going to let that get in the way of rescuing Minho.
I wiped my tears and spit out the blood from my mouth. I didn't want there to be any signs of me crying, I shoved it all down, never to be brought up again.
"(Y/n)?" I heard someone call my name and I looked over as if I were guilty of something, which I was. I saw Fry walk over to me, resting his hand on my shoulder and pull me out of the dark ally. "What are you doing in there?"
"When you gotta go you gotta go." I lied and Fry shook his head with a slight smile.
"I guess your right. Anyway, everyones looking for you cause you just disappeared."
"Okay, then let's go." I said as I followed Fry back to the room, twiddling the zipper around in my fingers as I aggressively gripped my arm.
"Are you sure your arms okay?" Fry asked and I swallowed heavily, my lies rushing out like a waterfall.
"Just checked on it." I told him. "Just a cut I got from the Right Arm camp that reopened, it's all good." I said and he seemed to buy my fake smile.
"Okay, good. I was worried." He said. "Now let's go, I don't trust anything here."
As we walked by, I saw Lawrence standing there in the corner, staring. I know I saw him smirking. He knew, of course he knew, this was what he was talking about earlier. He knew...
He knew that I had the Flare.