• This chapter is dedicated to samanthacassidy92 Your stories pull me in, your kind words drive me insane and your beautiful heart is the final blow to my weakened form •

"You're a long way from your kitchen Zeke. What brings you down here?" Althea's lilting voice reached Zeke's ears across the darkness.

He couldn't see her in the dimmed light but her voice resounded through him loud and clear, making him gulp. This had indeed been a bad idea.

Zeke widened the doorway further, trying not to avert his eyes to the light glinting off of that throwing knife stuck in the wood of the door. He could now clearly see into the dark room and he stopped short of words for a second.

The lack of light made it hard for him to make out the walls decorated with different weapons lined after another but they were a proof to what this room obviously was. An armoury.

There also was a big metal desk on the further left side of the room. The top of it was covered in tools and knives, welding equipment and so much more. Everything you needed to clean a weapon and make one from scratch if you wanted to.

On the chair beside the table sat a figure, their backs to the door, hunched over by the shoulders. Squinting his eyes, Zeke could easily recognise those long locks of raven black hair that was tied up in a ponytail, effortlessly blending into the darkness of the room.

He took a couple more cautious steps into the room, careful to look out for anymore projectiles that might come his way.

"I asked you a question pretty face. What are you doing here?" Althea spoke up again without turning around. Her voice was a little raspy, Zeke noticed. Like she hadn't used it to form words for quite a while. Or hadn't drank anything.

Her hands kept moving over the desk and Zeke took one more step closer to be able to see over her shoulder. The large button up shirt she was wearing had been rolled up to her elbows and her hands and forearms were dirtied in black smudges. Similar to ones a mechanic would get after working under a car. But hers was from working on weapons.

In her hands, there was a throwing knife almost identical to the one she had thrown at Zeke. A whetstone in her hand and holding the knife at a tilted angle, Althea was sharpening the weapon.

Every time she dragged down the knife across the stone, a screeching sound that was somewhere between nails dragging across a chalkboard and metal clacking against each other was being heard.

The normally quiet noise was amplified from being the only real sound in the quietness of the dark room.

Zeke didn't know how to reply to Althea's question. He hadn't been a double agent for more than a day and he had already been caught sneaking where he shouldn't. Maybe if he acted like it wasn't a big deal and made it seem like this was all part of his stupid, curious personality (which partially was), then he could get a way with it.

It was a far far shot but making up a dumb excuse would only get him more deep in shit with Althea. Even Zeke knew that.

"I was looking for you." Zeke simply said. He was proud that his voice hadn't failed him. "You haven't been around for three days."

"So you're telling me that you're in the basement, which is off-limits, because you were looking for me?" Althea asked in a neutral tone without turning around to face Zeke. She kept on sliding the short knife across the stone. The repeated gesture calming her nerves.

"Yes." Zeke's voice spoke up behind her.

Althea closed her eyes for a second. The sliding of the knife stopping mid-way.

Time. It's not the right time yet. Give him time. She would let this one go.

Setting the stone and the knife down, Althea twisted around in the chair. Her eyes caught Zeke's, who was standing a couple steps away, and her chest constricted a little.

She hadn't noticed until Zeke had told her but it had indeed been three days since she'd been stuck in this dark basement. Locked herself in the basement was more accurate.

Althea was used to retreating away and cutting ties off with everyone above ground. Getting off the grid was a coping mechanism. Just as crafting these weapons were. Losing track of time was just a side effect of it.

There were no windows in the basement and no clocks to mark the passing time. No way to know if the world still continued to tick away or stopped short for sometime, just for her to get her shit together.

But every time she pulled herself together and went out again, Althea would see that world is the same shitty place she had left. And it had continued rotating without her.

Her chest thumped as it tried to tell her something. This time her retreat had been different because she hadn't seen Zeke for the past three days because of it. This time when she was going back out, there would be Zeke waiting above.

"So this is your hobby? Making weapons?" Zeke asked on a lighter tone. Casual conversation was definitely not his forte.

Althea smirked as she picked up a AK-47's magazine from the table. "This is the only magazine you'll see me holding in my hands." She said as she held it up for Zeke to see.

He started laughing loudly in response to Althea's funny remark, probably because she didn't make many of those.

"That is the closest thing you have said to a joke since I met you." Zeke said still beaming like a piece of sunshine ray. "I like it."

"Well don't get used to it." Athea said giving a grin of her own in response. It was hard to keep her mouth in its usual grim position when Zeke was standing there releasing a contagious laugh.

Zeke shook his head and averted his eyes. Turning his head to look around the room, Althea watched his face as he took in the weapons that lined the wall.

She tried to see from Zeke's eyes. A kitchen bound chef, seeing more weapons than he would probably ever expect to see in a dark basement. He was taking it in very well when she thought about it. This mafia house and all these deadly people in it. But maybe that's because Zeke had been exposed to some degree of this life before.

"You were cooped up in here for the last three days?" Zeke asked in a low voice. Althea averted her eyes as his focused back on her face.

Something about his tone didn't sit well with Althea. His gentle tone irked her in a wrong way, almost like he felt sorry for her.

"I had business." She spat out in a harsh tone. Zeke took a step back like he was slapped right in the face. He didn't reply.

The silence stretching between them was annoying Althea and she released a breath. Just because she wasn't used to people taking a gentler approach to her didn't mean she should lash out to them. She really didn't have much to present in the means of manners.

Althea looked down and at her hands and picked up a dirtied cloth to wipe the black smudges from her hands. It caused more mess than actually cleaning but the gesture kept her busy.

"I come down here when I need to gather my thoughts. When everything up there becomes too much." Althea said and tipped her head back to look up to the dark ceiling of the basement.

Then her eyes found Zeke's and saw that he was listening to her with undivided attention. "Call it a bad habit but this is how I relax."

She saw Zeke's eyes glint in the dim light as he received immense satisfaction from gathering another small personal information about her.

Althea would probably never understand why Zeke was this stuck on getting to know her. Anyone else would've ran the other way, had ran away.

"How did you develop this habit?" Zeke asked cautiously, testing the waters.

And he was still digging. Even after Althea had given more details about her past to him than anyone she had before.

"Are you sure you want to know the answer for that question?" Althea asked. If he wanted to know, then she would give it to him. And then watch him scurry as far away from her and the problems she had as he can. It was a matter of time anyway.

Althea watched as Zeke stood up straighter, more confident as he held his ground.

"I'm sure."

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I am writing the plot as I go along. Don't know if you noticed this but I hope my unorganised mess in story making isn't killing this tale.

The next chapter is going to contain disturbing themes and this is a mature book so you have been warned people.

The song is called 'Turn It Around' by The Pale White.

Love,
Blake 💙