PLEASE VOTE!!! :3

Chapter not edited FYI. Seriously.  It’s 3am and I’m writing this when I should be sleeping.

You have no idea how many WTF’s I’ve been getting since I posted the lasted chapter of WLAH.

I know a sea of you are confused as hell, and just a handful of you are correct.  Shall all your questions be answered. 

Patience, Grasshopper.

...

I’ve always wanted to say that.

Feels so damn cool…

Cool as a cucumber.

Cool as my refrigerator.

Cool as a fucking Kool Aid.

Yeah. I’m the cool kid at the lunch table who stills drinks Kool Aids and Animal crackers.  Losers of the world: Untie!

+++

I woke up to the sound of glass filling. 

Beside laid a transparent coffee table, a bottle of whisky was being poured into a glass cup.  My eyes shot to the golden rings attached to those fingers.

Shit me a stick and suck me sideways.

“Afternoon, Sleeping Beauty,” his icy voice drawled.  Immediately I grabbed the closest thing that could inflict damage and thrust it towards his chest.

His arms locked to his head, amusement sparking across his features.  “Put down the lamp, wildcat.” 

I gave a dumbfounded stare at the crystal object but quickly shook it off, dangerously pointing at him.  “Stay away from me!” I screamed.

“That’s no way to treat your hero,” he chuckled gently, redirecting the lamp. 

I poked his torso and darkened my gaze.  “You’re not my hero.” 

He waved his drink.  “Let me explain how you’re wrong.”  He circled the lamp.  “Now if you put that down—”

“There’s no way in hell I’m putting it down.”

Not even a second passed before he threw his drink up, disarmed the lamp from my hands, reversed positions so he had it aimed to my chest and swiftly caught his drink.  “Thank you for cooperating,” he curtsied.  He did it so quick…processing how it happened was impossible.  He gestured to the couch.  “You may sit.” 

Shame cut any words in my throat and I obeyed. As I sunk in the white furred couch, my anger began to steam. 

A grin spread on Romane and he positioned himself on the opposite couch, drink in hand and the other setting down the jingling lamp.  “I’m surprised Levi hasn’t tamed you yet,” he smirked. I let out a growl and threw a coaster, his hand catching it.  Then he winked.  “Of course, I always knew you were a wild one.”

On the edge of insane fury, I hid the desire to wrap my claws around his neck the best I could.  It was bloody hard.  “Are you going to enlighten me on why I’m here?” I coldly asked. 

He simply flattened his lips.  “No.”  His fingers danced in direction to my mind.  “That’s for you to remember.”

Remember. 

The sight of the black gun.  My heart choking me, then shaking uncontrollably before exploding into a thousand shards.  The ground escaping under me.  Wood chips of the bridge flying.  Landing in arms.  Gun. 

I looked up at Romane.  “Levi tried to kill you didn’t he?  That’s why he had the loaded gun.  He saw you coming on the boat, approaching under the bridge.” 

He just smiled like the cocky bastard he was.  “He wouldn’t have tried to kill me.”  I was his wonderful.  “He saw you.  But you planted the bombs under the bridge already so I could fall right through.  He wanted to kill you.  Not me.” 

Ice cubes clinked as he lifted to his feet.  “Sleep on that, wildcat.  You have a big day ahead of you.”

Shot down by his words, I kept paralyzed, replaying the moment.  Would he?  After everything we shared.  But what had we shared?  Nothing more than laughs, stories and untold secrets.  Wasn’t that what friendship was all about.  Although how would I know.  I was just an inexperienced girl with only one friend.  No history of lovers.  I didn’t know anything.  I still didn’t know anything in the long term. 

I might have changed as a person—body wise, but my mind was the same. 

It occurred to me Romane had an effect on me.  His words seemed to provoke me, freeze me, turn my brain into a block of ice, make my words too heavy to move past the lips.  He makes me think; think for myself only. 

Hearing the soft click of the door lock, and a stretching silence, I decided to huddle in a ball on the couch, laying on my side.  I clutched my fists to my chest, knees bent scavenging for comfort.  Pondering of Levi made my insides ache. I made a silent prayer to whoever was up there not to make Levi the bad one here. 

Then I slept. 

+++

A bell chime entered my ears.  My body jerked up and I snapped onto my feet, hands ready. 

Grey doe eyes stared back.  Realizing she was merely a little girl, I took in the two blonde braids that dangled across her chest, and tints of red on her cute pasty cheeks.  I smiled. 

She returned the kind gesture and skipped away, the tiny bell in hand.  Frowning, I slipped off the couch and followed after, staying close. 

The girl’s white hospital gown flapped in the wind as she entered the patio.  I hugged my waist and approached the railing with a gasp.  Life seemed so small, the quick taxi cabs and rushed citizens tinier than a pea.  Preoccupied by their priorities to notice they were all peas squished in a pod; behind boxes we called offices and cubicles; thinking they’re free while the entire time, they’re not.  Deceived to think the life they have was freedom when it was really containment from the higher authority; the government.   

Like your situation, right Jess? 

This voice.  It floated in my head.  I was unaware where it came from all of a sudden.  It contradicted or responded to my thoughts and reactions.  Perhaps my conscious? 

“If you stand there any longer I’ll push you off myself.”

I turned to see Romane dressed down in clean white pants with a matching button down and expensive sunglasses.  Legs crossed, he lent back in a chair, a huge breakfast for more than one before his eyes.  I accompanied him at the table, it hard to take in the amount of steaming dishes and fresh food.  The petite pale beauty stood beside him and whispered something to him.  He nodded and she snatched an apple as if he allowed her to commit a crime.  She scurried away in seconds. 

I should be afraid of him.  I should fear this man.  He was a killer.  A monster.  And I felt it.  The ball of nerves churning in the pit of my stomach.  I was going to be sick.  Quickly, I shoved it away. 

“How was your sleep?” he asked.  I hated how he wore sunglasses, unsure what his emotions were.  Then again, it wasn’t like I ever knew what mood he was in.  He was as expressive as a rock. 

“Where are my answers,” I spoke instead.  I wasn’t sure how that popped up but I didn’t dare take it back.  “You said you have answers.”

He rolled a grape along the pad of his thumb.  “I said how was your sleep?” 

“It was fine,” I snapped.  “Now give me answers.”

He paused, considering it and clasped a wine glass in his hand.  “Well what would you like to know?”

This was the second time where I was overwhelmed. Scratch that.  Hundredth.  I blurted the first thought, “Why did you bring me to Eagle’s Eye headquarters?” 

He released a booming laugh and tossed the grape in his jaws, swallowing before answering, “This isn’t my headquarters.  Trust me, you’ll know when I take you there.  This is my retreat spot where I come to relax.  What you average folks call a…beach house.  A cottage.” 

“You consider a skyscraper a cottage?”

“When you’re a billionaire, why not try to reach for the stars?” 

“Clearly you took that phrase literally.” 

I drummed my fingers along the table, nails clicking as I lined up the next question.  “Back in the club, you asked if I wanted to either stay with Snipers or join Eagle’s Eye.  Why do that when your plan was to bring me to Eagles?  I had a choice remember.” 

Delight swirled in his gleaming blue eyes.  “Oh wildcat, did you really think you had a choice?”

“You said I did!”

 His obnoxious snort made my fists contract.  “God, will you ever learn?  You’re not with the Snipers anymore.  At Snipers they let you have a choice.  When you’re in Eagle territory, you don’t have a choice.  You do as I say.  And that’s final.”

The anger from yesterday renewed and I slammed my hand on the table.  “I’m not your slave!  And you’re not the boss of me.  You even said if I was even a part of Eagles I would be free.  I could be anyone I wanted to be!” 

He threatened his fork at me and said, “You are free.  I just released you from the devil for Pete’s Sake!  And I know what you want to be.  I want you to be that.  I will make you be that if you listen to me.” 

I sliced my hands over my chest.  “Woah, woah.  Hold up.  Released me from the devil?  Last time I checked, you’re the devil.  And you have no idea what I want!”

He ate away the nicely arranged fruits on his plate.  Before munching on a pineapple slice, he replied, “How do you know I’m the devil?  What have you heard?  Stories, right?  Haven’t your parents ever told you gossip was full of shit?  And what has your precious Levi told you?  He was manipulating you, wildcat.  He raised you as a Sniper to think I was the bad one while really, he was the one destroying you.  What proof do you have that I’m the villain?”  He composed himself throughout his response, infuriating me even more.

I hated how at ease he was.  I hated how calm he was.  I hated how he was serene and collected and absolutely nice.  I wanted to see him mad.  I wanted to see him flip tables and scream.  I wanted to see him as the devil I knew he was to prove he was spitting lies.  I feared he was right. 

Desperately, I tried to produce a reason but once again, his words stilled me.  “My parents told me stories,” was what I could muster. 

He scoffed, disgusted.  “Your parents?  Are you serious?  The two people you lied to all your life?  And you’re relying on their information.  Good choice.  Real good choice.”

“I trust them more than you!”

His brow went up.  “Has it ever occurred to you that your parents told you those gang stories when you were little?  How the fact I’m only a few years older than you, making it impossible that those stories were about me since I would have only been thirteen?  Ever thought of that?” 

I hated it how he brought me thunderstruck.  I hated him. 

“That was my father Romane.  The leader of Eagle’s Eye before me.  He was the monster your parents chattered of.  Stories about the leader of the Snipers?  Levi’s dad.  They were stories from the previous generation; where my dad was the darkness and Levi’s dad was the light.  Things have changed, wildcat.  But sadly the world doesn’t understand that, and I’m forced to be seen and known as the devil because society builds its beliefs off of rumours or what their family or friends tells them.” 

I hated him so much.  “What—what about how after haja sangue when I passed out on the top of the Langdam skyscraper?  There were gunshots—you were there.”

“You mean the first time I saved your ass?” he questioned with a smirk. 

“You didn’t save me!  You were shooting at my people!” I shouted. 

“The Snipers were going to kill you on that roof top, wildcat.  After the Council realized how your inhumane abilities were showcased among the public and how the existence of the drug was exposed, they were going to eliminate you.  I was shooting at one of the Snipers who the Council ordered to murder you once you returned from haja sangue.  I persuaded them not to—Levi and the rest of the Snipers who were there, telling them you were an important asset for anyone’s game.” 

“Levi comforted me,” I attacked. 

“It was an act.” 

“An act of kindness.”

“Bullshitt.” 

A hot confused mess, I gave him a hard glare, hopping to penetrate those tinted shades and prove there was uncontrollable anger underneath.  “How do you expect me to believe all this?!” 

He dug his knife in grilled chicken and added rice.  Chewing, he gave an agreeing nod and added, “The negative side effects of drug like the rashes and how you failed the Seducer test were the last straws.  Three strikes and you were out.  Levi had no choice but to kill you yesterday.”

I shook my head furiously, fast enough for it to fall right off.  “Nonono.  I refuse to believe your lies!”

Romane’s cold eyes locked on mine.  Food was pushed to the side.  “Don’t you remember his words?  I quote from Levi, your fellow puppeteer: ‘They always told me blood before anything else.’  Anything else.  Including his so called wonderfuls.” 

Then I crashed.  A switch flipped in my body and I absolutely lost it.  Rage clawed my chest open, forcing the strong emotions I bottled up to collapse.  My attempts of calmness faltered and dissolved into mad hysterics.  I seized my stomach and fell off the chair, my laughter clenching my core in painful contractions.  I was blabbering between gasps; the truth that I prayed was nonsense, “A second lie!  What do you fucking know?!  Another lie!  My parents lied to me for sixteen years, telling me I was normal while really I was a mutant!  Then the first guy I actually ever liked lies to me too!”  I gave Romane an enormous smile that tore my cheeks.  “He was going to shoot me!  The guy I liked was going to put a bullet through my head!  All he told me was lies!”  I had gone mad.  Officially mad.  “Everyone—everyone I love lies to me.  Isn’t that fucking hilarious?!  I found out I’ve been living on a lie—again!”

The sky was spinning.  Coldness swept my body into erratic shivers and then I burst into extreme tears.  My hands caught my face.  I tried to shake off the tears running miles down my cheeks but they wouldn’t come off.  My heart was drowning in the salty substance that lathered my lips.  Wait, I wasn’t drowning.  I was going blind.  I couldn’t see.  So much water.  So many tears.  “It hurts, it hurts,” I whispered repeatedly.  I bit on my lip and shook violently.  My ribs tightened, sadness and insanity slowly breaking me down.  “It hurts, it hurts.” 

I heard a dim voice.  “Wildcat.”

I shook my head harder.  Dizzy.   Oh so dizzy. 

“Wildcat.” 

I pinched my eyes closed, forbidding them to view the ending world.  “It hurts.”  My wet hair clung to my neck, my jaw.  Sticky.  Salty.  I thrashed on the floor, wanting it to go away.   The pain.  Life.  It was unbearable.  Crazy sobs were prayers to my mouth.  “Everyone I love lies to me.  Everyone.” 

Warmth enveloped my body.  My arms flung aggressively, hitting solid surfaces. 

“Not me, wildcat.  Not me.” 

I slumped in the embrace.  I allowed the rivers to flow, the tsunami to take control, the earth to shift for I couldn’t stop it.  I couldn’t stop the lies.  No matter how much control I had. 

I hated this.  I hated it all.  I hated my parents.  I hated Levi.  I hated the Council.  I hated the Snipers.  I hated Romane.  I hated how he knew about the rashes, things that went on in the Sniper’s base—

There was a mole.  There was a mole in Snipers who was working for Eagle’s.  Of course.  Who?  Casper?  The whip man who escaped?  Vamp?  Cray?  Levi? 

Too much.  Too fucking much. 

“It hurts,” I whimpered, burrowing my face in the warmth. 

“I know.  I know, wildcat.  I know.”

The warmth was strange.  Unknown.  I didn’t question, analyze, I did nothing.  The hot, raging blood drained and left me dry.  I was lifeless.  I was bones.

Snipers were trained to kill unseen, and I was a target all along.  It was official.  I was never a Sniper.  For I could have never seen this coming. 

+++

I’m so stoked for the third and final instalment of the DeLor series. I have so many kickass ideas and just...GOD. You feel me? It’s just…GOD. 

Seriously. I know. “WTF, FOCKER. You’re not even done this book, why are you stoked about the next one?”

Because it’ll be focking awesome.

As focking awesome as that focking cucumber.

Even more awesome than that Kool Aid in my lunch bag. It’ll be notorious. 

Okay, before the wtf train takes off, Jess’s ugly breakdown was the effects from the weeks of isolation.  It’s impossible for anyone to not be affected when isolated and treated at inhumane and more animalistic levels.  Human behaviour changes when cut off from socialization over long periods of time. 

Scientifically proven people.  Google it.

Tell meh what you think.  Yeah. Enter PLOT TWIST #TWO.

Think about it.  This whole time—you’ve been reading a lie.

Or have you?

GOAL

200K reads as a whole book?

250 comments?

300 votes?

xoFresh

Who do you think the mole is in Snipers?

PLEASE VOTE :3