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Leah POV
When we finally got back to Vlado's house, I immediately started packing my bags.
"Uh, Leah? What are you doing?" Mary asked as she watched me race around the room, taking whatever I could.
"What does it look like I'm doing? We're leaving. Come on, start packing."
"What, leaving? Why would we be leaving?"
Pausing for a moment, I looked at Mary. I forgot that she didn't know. Carefully, I took her hands and sat her down on the bed. "Sit, I need to tell you something important."
I sat beside her, taking a deep breath. "There's something you need to know. About Vlado and everyone here, including Clarke." Mary sat silently, waiting for me to continue.
"During the party, I was looking for Vlado, and I ended up going through that sketchy door. And I saw him and Romero...torturing someone."
As I waited for Mary to show some kind of reaction, to say something, the longer I waited, the more I realised why. Why she had nothing to say. And I found myself inching away from my best friend. Who once swore that she would never keep anything from me.
"You can't be serious..." I muttered, standing up and moving away from Mary.
"Please let me explain," she begged, but I didn't hear it. I couldn't hear anything she told me anymore and believe it.
"You knew? You knew and you didn't fucking tell me?" My voice was breaking by the end, and tears embedded on my eyes, but I continued to glare at her shamelessly.
"I'm sorry, they told me not to!" She pleaded, tears of her own sliding down her cheeks.
"Who?"
"I did," the door opened to reveal Clarke, a woman who I once thought was kind, but now, as deceiving. Her arm wound around Mary's waist, and Mary leaned into her. "Me and Vlado told her not to tell you."
"Why? Why did she know and not me?" I yelled, uncaring of the tears falling down my face at this point.
"You know what? No. I'm not doing this. I'm leaving."
"I'm sorry, Leah." A new, yet also sadly familiar voice sounded. Vlado walked through the door, Romero behind him. "But you aren't leaving."
I folded my arms, glaring at him. "You think I'm going to listen to you? You're a fucking murderer," I spat, "you all fucking are!"
I almost didn't notice the slight flinch from Vlado, but he composed himself quickly. "You can do whatever you want, but you cannot leave. It's not safe."
"Because being trapped in a house with you is safe? Are you fucking delusional?"
Romero tried to step in, but Vlado put a hand on his chest, still staring at me. He whispered something to him, to which Romero nodded and whispered to Clarke and Mary. Soon after, they were walking out the door, leaving me alone with a fucking murderer.
Vlado stepped towards me, but I quickly moved back, trapping myself against the wall.
"Please Leah, let me explain, you deserve an explanation." He said, his eyes pleading. I've barely seen Vlado loose his harsh, stoic composure, but this was not the time for me to see that. It made me want to listen, but I couldn't do that. He was just going to manipulate me.
"Why would I? You're just going to trick me and lie."
"I would never lie to you, Leah-"
"You already have! That's all you've done!"
"Please, Leah." He hesitated, and I squashed myself closer to the wall when he moved. But instead of moving towards me, he sat on his knees, staring up at me pleadingly. "I don't want you to hate me without knowing the truth."
I relaxed against the wall slightly at the sight of him. He was really going all out. But I wasn't that stupid.
"Do you have a gun?"
Vlado was shocked momentarily, but slowly reached for his side, pulling out a gun. He slid the gun towards me, and I shoved it to the corner of the room. Away from the both of us, but especially Vlado.
"You can speak now." I told him.
He was silent for a second, and he looked up at me. "I will, if you promise to tell me about Lucas."
"What makes you think I'd do that?"
"Because I want to know. I need to."
"But Mary told you everything. Why would you 'need' me to tell you?"
He sighed. "Because I want to hear it from you."
I hesitated. I didn't understand why Vlado would need to hear it all over again. If anything, it would sound worse coming from me.
"If you tell me everything I want to know, I might tell you about Lucas."
He nodded. "What do you want to know?"
I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath to calm my nerves. This was it, I'd finally know.
I opened my eyes, staring right into his green eyes. "Everything."
* * * * * * * *
"And I believe, that is everything." Vlado said, looking at me.
"What about Mary? Why did you tell her?"
He sighed, raking a hand through his dark hair. "We weren't going to, but she had found a gun and demanded to know everything."
I laughed a little. That sounded like Mary.
"Now, if it's alright," Vlado gazed up at me, "tell me about Lucas."
During his explanation, Vlado had been inching closer to me, trying to comfort me whenever he had told me something bad, or unsettling. I stopped him when he managed to be sitting in front of me.
"What about him?"
"I don't know, just something. I need to know so I can figure out how much I need to torture him before I kill him."
I stared at him, mouth dropped open. "Are you serious right now?"
"I'm sorry Leah, but he's going to pay for what he's done." Vlado said, although he didn't look very sorry. "He made you suffer, so I'm going to make him go through it as well."
He reached forward, his fingers grazing my cheek softly. "I know that I have been hardheaded towards things regarding you in the past, but I can't let Lucas get away with it. With any of it."
I unwillingly leaned into Vlado's touch. I should have been more scared of him, but he always managed to comfort me. Most of the time, at least.
"Do you remember anything he did? Or where he took you?"
My mind went back, and everything Lucas said and did. I tried to hold back the tears threatening to spill and opened my mouth to speak.
"Yes, I remember everything he did," I tried to sound normal, but my voice cracked at the end, and it didn't go unnoticed.
Vlado looked at me carefully. "Are you alright, Leah?"
And just like that, the dam broke loose. It didn't matter if it had happened before, I just broke down in front of him.
Vlado quickly pulled me into his arms, holding me tight against his chest. And I cried shamelessly into his shirt. But he didn't mind. He just rubbed his hand up and down my back and comforted me the entire time.
"Shh, it's alright, Leah," Vlado mumbled against my hair gently. "You're ok now."
And even though it felt right, I wanted to slap myself senseless. Because I believed him.