My heart hammered repulsively in my chest, the sound emitting throughout the silent air with ease. The pores in my palms seeped with perspiration as my fingers ran relentlessly along one another in a frenzy to free the anxiety that was distressing my veins. The temperature inside my body increased despite the sour air slicing my skin as I awaited any detectable movements from the other side of the crate.
The minutes passed by agonizingly slowly as the silence persisted to consume my ear drums. Following the final gunshot, all torch light had been cut off, leaving my eyes to uselessly ransack the limited area around me.
Rigidly clenching the cold, metal-plated handgun, I attempted to shift my body into a more defensible position, with any hope of Bennett returning being minimal. I was forced to swallow the heaving lump within my throat at the realisation of this, but I knew that it was a necessity if I were to have any chance of making it out of here alive- I needed to focus on anything but Bennett.
I heaved my hips across the concrete, increasing the distance from the end of the crate before deviating my weight onto my knees. My pistol was pulled in front of my chest, aiming it directly at the opening to the left of me. My index finger tapped relentlessly along the base of the gun as I attempted to pace the breaths fleeing my lung. My mind was unable to occupy itself with one mere thought, so instead fought between multiple, all of which forced my pulse to quicken with each minute that prolonged by.
My ears pricked up at the pulsation of a hushed sound, soon to be followed by a succession of what appeared to be footsteps alongside a pained grunt. I held my breath deeply within my chest as my ears detected the sound advancing in my direction, my finger tightening around the trigger of death gripped in my hands.
My eyes swung aimlessly around the murkiness shrouding me, catching sight of an obscured silhouette crouched at the opposing end of the crate, causing my body to instantly lurch backwards. I remained rigidly still, watching their movements and keeping my breathing hushed.
"Adds," my arms fell immediately at the sound of his voice, the pistol being draped softly over my lap as my head fell against the crate. I released a heavy breathe, hearing him shuffle his way over to me before enveloping me into his arms.
"You're okay," I breathed, nudging my face into his neck in a desperate search for any kind of warmth.
"You are too," Bennett replied, his voice slow and calm as he soothed his hands over my pain engulfed body. "I need to call your Dad, he needs to know that I've got you, okay?"
I nodded as he pulled his body away before returning to his full height. I fiddled with the safety clasp of the handgun in my lap, placing it down onto the concrete at the side of my knees to allow my right arm to clasp around my rib.
"Philip?" he requested, having moved a few meters away from me to carefully eye the opening of the path. "Look, I need to be brief-," he began, though was interjected by my father. This clearly agitated him as he desperately tried to inform my father of what he felt was necessary. "Philip!" he snapped exasperatedly before his voice grew quiet once more, "I've found her."
A silence followed on the other end of the line before I heard my father's muffled voice, but his words weren't sharp enough for me to obtain any details.
"The one on the main loading deck? West side?" Bennett requested. "I really doubt that's the safest option Boss, having more people only means that there's a higher chance of us being seen, not necessarily more safety. - Okay, but I need you to understand that she's struggling sir, she's obtained a gunshot wound and it isn't looking good."
Bennett turned his back to me, mumbling something incoherent to my father and hanging up shortly after. "We're meeting your father and his team so we need to get moving. Do you think that you'll be able to manage that Adds?"
"How far is it?"
"It's a building opposite the opening, a couple hundred yards is all," he informed, taking note of my movements before increasing his pace to help me up.
"I'll be fine," I urged. "Is there anyone out there? Do you mean it this time? I'd rather be able to prepare myself."
"Adds, from what I know, there isn't anyone out there. They're on a twenty minute cycle, so as long as no-one comes to check on the other teams again, we should be clear," he said, encouraging me to move forward. "Are we okay to go?"
I clutched my rib firmly as we began moving, making our way through the opening that we had rifled across not ten minutes earlier. The light was slightly brighter in this area, with the moon now high in the sky to reflect at least minimal vision into our eyes.
Noticing the evident shift in visibility, Bennett attempted to occupy my gaze, but his actions were too late for me to avoid seeing what he had wanted me to avert from- the massacre in which he had been the trigger.
Although unclear in the light, I knew for certain what I was looking at. Multiple heaps were lifelessly scattered around the concrete, all of which were consumed with pools of a deep red liquid, the weapons that had failed to provide them with protection littered meters away from them. Limbs hung over one another, merging individuals into a stomach-churning pile, highlighting the identity that had been thieved from them at the pull of a single trigger.
I had tried to feel remorse toward their deaths, but the pit in my stomach at the sight of them only lasted momentarily as I came to the realisation that they wouldn't have thought twice about putting me into the exact same position.
Granting Bennett's apparent wishes, I averted my eye line away from the death ridden scene, but not before catching sight of multiple faces all deranged by a single indent between their eyes.
Bennett continued to heave me along, keeping our movements hushed as he listened out for anyone else within the vicinity. Upon nearing a building, which appeared to be a warehouse, he swung one of his arms behind his back to obtain his handgun before raising it slightly ahead of us in anticipation.
We soon reached a steel-plated door, one that had been firmly shut, though the metal handle appeared to be crookedly hanging from its nail.
"Adds," Bennett said, stilling his movements. "Stay closely behind me yeah? It's going to be darker in there than out here."
Bennett pushed his shoulder against the door, heaving it open, though he managed to do so in a manner that avoided sounds emitting from the action. He'd been right in affirming that the light in there was minimal as I found myself unable to see anything aside from Bennett's silhouette, who was merely inches in front of me.
We continued to stride cautiously alongside the wall running from the door, continuing for a considerable length, which implied that the room we were in was extensive. It appeared to be empty, aside from a few boxes that we had to be considerate off when passing, and was no warmer than it had been outside.
Despite the fact that his sight would have been limited, Bennett kept his head scanning throughout the room as he continued to guide me along, shifting his hand from the small of my back to clasp my hand before squeezing it comfortingly. However, this action was only brief as he stilled his entire body, twisting it back toward the door that we had come through only minutes earlier.
He then gradually lowered himself to his knees, pulling my body gently along with his until we were crouched at the base of one of the few boxes within the room.
He kept his gaze away from my own, asserting it to the door, before squeezing my hand once again as if anticipating what was to follow. At his action, the warehouse door was slammed aggressively open, multiple people filing into the room to create a cacophony of footsteps.
I, at first, had assumed them to be my father and his men, but by the aggressive sounds emitting their throats and the immediate clenching of Bennett's hand, I knew it was the last person that we wanted to see.
"Legrenzi," Bennett cursed almost incoherently.
My eyes slammed violently open, instantly searching the area around me in a desperate attempt to free myself from the images of in my night terror. My body shuddered at the lack of warmth in my room as goose bumps accumulated along the skin of my arms, but at the same time I seemed to be in a deep sweat and resulted in throwing the blanket around me into a heap on the floor.
Flittering my eyes around my room, I took note of a section of light pouring in from the hallway, something that I had previously discarded in my haste to forget about my nightmare. I sighed, taking note of Luke leaning somewhat casually against the door frame with his face remaining placid as he observed me. He then shifted his arms, moving one to grip a hoodie that had been dangling over his forearm before he threw it my way.
"We're going for a walk. I'd put that on, it's cold out," he affirmed, motioning his head to the material within my hands before turning on his heal and stalking into his room.
Jumping down from my bed, I scrambled after him, "Luke it's like two in the morning?"
"Twenty to three," he corrected as I entered his room. He stood with his back to me as he riffled through his wardrobe, placing multiple items into his hands. "But all the same I guess."
"Why the hell are we going for a walk at this time?"
"Well would you rather sit and dwell on the nightmare you just had or go out and get some fresh air?" he questioned rhetorically before he threw another article of clothing my way. "Wear that one instead actually. It's mine so it'll be a bit big, but you like them when they're baggy."
I stood watching him perplexed as he continued oblivious to my confusion, shifting through his stuff. I took a moment to scan around his room. It was much like when we had first arrived, with his bed in the far corner, appearing to have only been used on the odd occasion and very minimal personal items were around the room which excluded pictures entirely. His curtains were open, allowing the moonlight to infect the room, casting a glow over his features until he moved out of its path to where I stood at the door.
He reached for my hand, pulling me toward the stairs and as we ventured in to the ground floor of the building, he handed me a thick coat which I immediately slung around my shoulders. Luke then gripped the unzipped fabric, tightening it around my stomach before tugging it to bring me closer toward him. "Are you okay by the way?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine," I admitted, smiling as he leaned forward, placing a chaste kiss to my mouth.
He pulled back, taking my hand again and leading me out through the back door. The crisp air was accompanied by an icy wind, tickly against my cheeks and causing a pale pink to flush my skin.
As we neared the lawn area of the garden the footing under my feet became solid, a thick frost visible above the grass being an indication toward the cold weather that would follow through to the daylight hours. Although the panorama was dark and my vision was obscured, I was still able to spot multiple guards stalking around the outskirts of the garden, many of which sent greetings to Luke as we passed by, not a single ounce of perplex evident on their faces despite the ungodly hour that we were strolling around at.
"We'll just head around the grounds for a while," Luke said as he slung his arm around my shoulder. "How are things with your memory?"
"Things are okay I guess. I just want to go home. All of this moving around doesn't help anything. I need the comfort and familiarity. Time to properly adjust to everything."
"The old Adelaide is coming back, you know? All of us can see her, but I might even go as far to say that I actually like this Adelaide a whole lot better."
I laughed at his words, finding comfort as they sunk deep in my mind. "As for what I can and can't remember, there isn't much too it. There are only the odd memories from back in my childhood, which all include my parents. I'm guessing that's because I spent a considerable amount of time with them while I was in hospital, so things do and will come back. I just need the right stimulus."
"God I wish I couldn't remember my parents," Luke mumbled, but soon retracted his words. "I'm sorry, that sounded really inconsiderate, I wouldn't know what it's really like. I shouldn't have said that-"
"Luke," I interjected, pausing my steps in an attempt to get him to listen to me. "It's okay, you know, to have feelings. I'm not going to stop you from expressing them."
"Yeah but you've actually been through that and-"
"But nothing," I assured. "If that's the way that you feel then I won't stop you from that."
Luke stayed quiet for a while, an internal battle being fought within his mind as we continued walking. "You've never mentioned your parents to me before," I noted politely after a few minutes, encouraging him to voice his thoughts.
"You really don't know a lot about me Adelaide," he admitted.
"I don't feel the need to know more than I do, not at this point in time anyway. I certainly won't be the one to force you to tell me anything. You'll tell me whatever you want me to know when you're ready or have a necessity to."
"God, you're too good for your own good sometimes Adelaide," he said with a muffled laugh before growing quiet once more. "I've never really had the best relationship with either of my parents. For starters, I wouldn't even be able to tell you what my mum looked like. She left when I was only little, but I can't blame her, I did the same as soon as I was eighteen. My dad, he just, he wasn't cut out to be a father, or a husband for that matter. I mean he was abusive for crying out loud, no wonder my mother left as soon as she had the chance to."
My heart swelled at his words, now understanding his apprehension, "Luke. I'm-"
"Don't say it," he warned, keeping his gaze straight ahead of us. He persisted to grip my hand firmly, running his thumb over the back of my hand comfortingly. "Don't you dare feel the need to apologise for the mistakes that he couldn't even see he was making. Fair enough people making a few wrong choices in their time, but my dad, he'd just make the same ones over and over again, and wouldn't think twice about hurting the people around him. He treated me as if I were working for him rather than his son and to put it lightly, he was selfish. He didn't care for anyone, not even his own god damn son, so I got the hell out of there."
"I don't blame you," I said quietly.
"That was when I started working with your father, after I'd fled from the state that my father was in. I didn't have anything, yet your dad still recruited me and got me training pretty much instantly. You guys might not be seeing eye to eye right now, but he really is a good man Adelaide. And although I may not show it all the time, he always has had my full respect and if anything I look up to him. Which is why I should probably get his daughter back into the warmth, with a nice mug of hot chocolate or something of the sort."