I blink a few times as if that will magically bring back the light.
It doesn’t.
The whole place is black.
It’s so dark that I can see nothing. Absolute nada.
I instinctively inch further into Sebastian’s side and only release a breath when I feel the warmth of his body against my thigh and my arm.
Our simultaneous breathing echoes through the air. Mine is harsh and fractured. His is deep and unsteady, probably due to the amount of pain he must be in.
He really needs to get some help and at this rate, Ren doesn’t seem like he has that in his plans.
I carefully press against his hand that’s on his wound. No blood has come out for some time, but it doesn’t hurt to prevent it.
“That was foolish.” Ren’s voice pierces through the dark silence. “Not only will you remain without food, but you’ll also stay in the darkness for…let’s see… Hmm. Hours? Days? Who knows? The sky is the limit. Sorry, I mean, the ceiling of the cell is.”
My throat closes. Sebastian probably can’t survive hours in this condition, let alone days. Besides, the lack of food won’t only weaken us, it’ll also be lethal.
“I’ll do it,” I blurt. “I’ll remove my bra.”
“No,” Sebastian growls deep in his throat. The sound is equally aggressive and pained.
Considering how possessive he can be, I’m well aware of how much he hates the idea of me being nude in front of other people. I hate it, too, but if it will keep us safe, I don’t care.
A low tsking sound comes from Ren. “Your chance has passed. You lost, and per the rules, you’ll pay. You might be able to survive for a few days, Naomi. Quarterback, though…”
The static of the speaker disappears and I jolt up. “No… Come back! You said there are many rounds. We can play the next… Come back! Ren!”
“It’s useless.” Sebastian releases a long breath that I feel with the long rise and broken fall of his chest. “He’s gone.”
“No. He could be there somewhere. He must be watching us.”
“I don’t think so. The cameras stopped blinking.”
I look around, and sure enough, the red dots have disappeared. Even though that should be a relief, it actually isn’t.
They really left us in the dark now.
Maybe we’ll be here until we die.
Maybe no one will find our corpses.
“Help!” I scream at the top of my lungs, my voice turning hysterical as the worst-case scenarios flash in my head. “Someone help us! We’re trapped!”
“Don’t waste your energy, Nao.”
“Maybe someone will hear us… Maybe they’ll get us out of here.”
“You don’t really believe that.”
I don’t. But I choose to hold on to the illusion that there’s something more to the hand we’ve been dealt.
“Let me try to get to the door,” I suggest. Maybe I’ll be able to open it.”
“You saw the door. It’s metal.”
“Then do you suggest we do nothing? You’ve been shot!”
“I know. But the best thing we can do under the circumstances is to save our energy. We only have so much water left and once that’s gone, it’ll only get worse.”
I sniffle, then wipe my tears with the back of my hand. I hate being weak, which is why I don’t cry in public or show anyone just how soft I am inside.
But that’s not the reason I want to stop crying. It’s because of what Sebastian said earlier—when he mentioned that seeing me in pain hurts more than his wound.
Besides, crying won’t help us solve this situation.
If Sebastian wasn’t injured, he could probably break down the door or something. But right now, he’s weaker than me.
His godlike body is heavy on the ground and sweat covers his skin, even though it’s cold in here.
“I just don’t understand why they’re doing this. They’re my father’s people. They shouldn’t want to hurt me. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Do you think he’s taking revenge against my mom? She said she gave him fake DNA tests so he wouldn’t know I’m his daughter. Maybe he took that to heart and is now doing this to torment her.”
“Why would he hurt you to torment her?”
“Because I’m all she has. She left her family and old friends in Japan and has only had me since she came here.”
At the thought of my mom, fresh tears spring to my eyes. I’m supposed to be spending more time with her now that she’s in the late stages of cancer. We’re supposed to be planning our trip to Japan and spending mother-daughter time together.
“Are you crying, baby?”
“She must be so worried.” My voice breaks. “We rarely spend nights apart, even with her busy schedule. I never went on school trips or anything of the sort, because she was always obsessed with my safety. I think I know why now. She said my father is a dangerous man and I didn’t believe her. Look where that got me.”
“You…didn’t know.”
“Maybe this is my punishment for being so engrossed in finding my father while neglecting my existing parent. She has cancer, you know. It’s late-stage and there’s nothing they can do. She only has a few weeks left at best, and I can’t even spend that time with her.”
“You will.” His voice gains a softer edge. “We’ll get out of here.”
“What if we don’t? What if they forget about us and we die and end up on missing person reports? What if they find our remains a few years from now and we’re unrecognizable and then they make a true crime show about us?”
A low chuckle escapes him but turns into a wince as it dies out. “That’s your overactive imagination coming out to play.”
“It could happen.”
“It won’t. They brought us here for a reason and they haven’t accomplished it yet.”
I sigh, carefully leaning closer to him. “I’m sorry you’re caught up in all this because of me.”
“It could be the other way around.”
“What?”
“I believe we’re both here because they plotted this all along for a specific purpose. It might have to do with my parents or my grandparents.”
“Were your parents really killed?”
“I believe so. There was someone who came to collect the painting from the accident site. It was a family treasure Mom bought not long before the accident and insisted on taking with us. Then I think I heard them in the hospital talking about the painting and Mom. There’s no way all of that could’ve been a coincidence.”
My heart aches for him, at the horrors he’s suffered ever since he was a child. No one should be marked so brutally that way.
“Who do you think killed them?”
He throws his head back against the wall with a grunt. “I don’t know. It could have been these people. Or maybe my grandparents had something to do with it.”
“Why would your grandparents hurt your father?”
“Because he disobeyed them by choosing Mom.”
“Oh.” I snuggle into his side, needing to feel his warmth, but when he winces, I pull back.
“It’s fine. You don’t have to keep holding the shirt.”
“But you’re bleeding.”
“It stopped a while ago. It just hurts like a motherfucker now.”
“I’ll hold it just in case.”
“You really don’t have to.”
“Just in case…”
“Are you worried about me?” I don’t miss the amused edge in his tone. He’s always playful, even in dire situations.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I thought you hated me with how you insisted that everything ends between us, Tsundere.”
“I do hate you for playing with my heart and making a bet to destroy my naive feelings. I hate you for making all my fantasies come true just to shove them down the cliff of harsh reality. But I’ll never hate you enough to wish you harm. That’s just not me.”
I suck in a sharp, fractured breath, surprised at the hot tenor of my words. Maybe that’s all I’ve wanted to say ever since I found out he’d made a fool out of me but never had the right frame of mind to form the words.
Now that they’re out, I feel both relieved and stuffed. I want to cry again because of how much it hurt. How much I missed him.
How much I’ve hated myself for missing him.
“It was never a bet, baby.” His voice is quiet, despite the pain interlacing it.
“I was there and clearly heard that it was a bet.”
“Technically. In reality, however, I never meant it as such.”
“Are you telling me you didn’t accept Reina’s dare?”
“I did, but not for the reasons you think.”
“Then what were your reasons?”
“If I didn’t go with it, Reina would’ve had Josh do it.”
“Gee, thanks. I’m honored it was you and not the creeper Josh.”
“You’re being sarcastic, which means you’re on the defensive.”
“Am I not allowed to be?”
“Not when you haven’t given me a chance to explain my reasons.”
“There are many of them?”
“It’s one reason, actually. You.”
“Me?”
“Yes, you. If it were up to me, things wouldn’t have started with a bet. But maybe they had to.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“I couldn’t let Josh have you. My reaction was irrational, but I couldn’t just allow it to happen.”
“You didn’t even know I existed before we bumped into each other that time.”
“Of course I did.”
I frown, staring in his general direction despite the darkness. “No, you didn’t.”
“Then how do you think I figured out all those tidbits about you? Such as your love for metal music or your sarcastic tendencies?”
“I figured Reina or one of the cheerleaders gave you pointers.”
“They didn’t need to. I was already watching you.”
“You were what?” I nearly choke on my own words.
“I watched you, baby. For three years.”
