Page 21 of Oblivion
“As if that ever worked out for me.” I laughed at him. “Didn’t they tell you that I had the lowest score for following orders?”
“Dammit, Ekaterina!”
I looked at the plaque on the wall between the stairs, showing the sign for the first floor. Leaning over the handrail, I could see the exit door, close, so fucking close, but I could also hear him advancing on me.
I sprinted down, going as fast as I could, with him on my heels, praying to whichever force there was that the door was already unlocked.
Just a few more steps.
A few more stairs.
“Oh no, you’re not getting away this time!” he shouted behind me. That’s when I saw it, the door opening, illuminating the darkness we were chasing through, and Cillian standing right there with a gun pointed high up—at me.
“Kill, what the—”
“Get down!” he yelled out, and I ducked down at the last second as the gun went off.
The silencer he'd put on quieted the sound, but the body falling down behind me was a clear indication of what had just happened.
“Seriously?” I huffed, looking behind at the collapsed body not too far away from me. “I thought you were coming in to shoot me!”
“Come on, now!” Cillian came closer to me and picked me up from the stairs. “You’re the only person insane enough to hang out with me. Why would I want to kill you?”
“Wow!” I exclaimed. “That gives me so much, what’s the word? Reassurance? And here I thought we were friends.”
“Aye, Ophelia.” He threw his arm around my neck, pulling me closer to him. “You are most probably my only friend.”
“That’s sad, Kill.” I squeezed his hand, trailing over the scars on his knuckles.
I hated the fact that we didn’t have time to talk about him, what with all my shit going on, and we needed to. He was destroying himself right in front of my eyes, and I was too selfish to stop him and ask if he was doing okay.
“Kill—”
“Let’s not do this now.” He looked down at me as we walked toward the exit and out of the building. “I can hear it in your voice and I don’t want to talk about it now.”
The pain, the shame, the anger, shining in his brilliant eyes was enough to shut me up. “I mean, I wanted to get some burgers.” I changed the topic immediately. “But if you’re not hungry—”
“I could eat.” He nodded. “But you’re paying.”
6
OPHELIA
We pulledup in front of a cabin I hadn’t seen before, right on the outskirts of Los Angeles, far away from other people and their pretty vacation homes. Far enough so that no one would hear Vincent screaming tonight. Cillian often mentioned it was a safe house, but we didn’t get a chance for me to visit this place, what with all the craziness going around.
This past month, my time was split between sleeping in the hospital, chasing the leads Cillian and Tristan threw my way, and trying not to lose my mind every time Storm kept his eyes closed no matter what we did.
My half-eaten fries were still in my hand, and Cillian ended up paying for both our meals when we went to Burger Jack on our way here—I had to fight him on that. But while he practically inhaled his food, I liked to take my time, especially with fries. When they become crunchy and you really needed to—
“Are you going to keep staring at that fry or are you going to eat it?” Cillian asked from my left, pulling me back from my thoughts.
“I’m thinking now of stabbing you with it, but I would be wasting a perfectly good fry,” I answered and bit down on the fry I was holding in my hand. “What is this place anyway? I didn’t know we were about to start filmingWrong Turn: Ophelia’s Revenge. I mean, I knew you had a cabin, but man.” I huffed, looking at the place. “Did you buy it from Leatherface?”
“You’re such a comedian.” He huffed and pushed the door open. “Come on. You need to take a shower.”
I gasped. “Are you saying I stink?” I asked as I pushed the door open, still holding my fries. “For the record, I have been running around for the last two days, and I didn’t have time for a long-ass bath like you did.”
“I’m just joking, Phee, but you should get some sleep. That fake smile you’ve been carrying around isn’t fooling anybody, least of all me.”
