Deviants

Chapter 79

Jesse

It seems to take hours to explain everything to Johnny. But while I explain it to him, it helps my own head to wrap around it. I never knew a night could pass by so slowly and yet it seemed so fast. Was it really just last night that Raevon and I made love? I clench my jaw, angry at myself for referring it as that. What Raevon had was not love. It was just a way to ease her own guilty conscience.

I let Johnny in on everything. I first start with Raevon, hoping I can just get the subject of her over with and out of my mind. I don't mention the passion we shared, but instead I make it seem like we were just talking before she had confessed everything to me. I then fill him in with what type of agency I.O.E. is but he interrupts me when I begin.

"Yeah, I know," he says. His face is pale with the new knowledge of Raevon, but he hasn't yet cursed her name like I want to. Maybe because he wasn't betrayed like I was.

"How do you know?" I ask him.

"I... actually happened to stay up all night too," he says, but I know what he means. It's obvious by the dark circles under his eyes that he stayed up all night, but I begin to get extremely curious as to what he went through before I.O.E. caught him. But I don't get a chance to ask for details. "I'll tell you everything, but first tell me what else you know," he says.

"Raevon isn't sure of all captives in there, only that the ones she brought in are on level OC, according to her," I say.

"You don't believe her?" He asks. I sigh, frustrated, and stand, turning away from him.

"I don't know. She showed me every way to get out of this apartment if we were attacked, and while we waited for you to arrive in Stonegate she had my fingerprint input in the weaponry... but I don't think I can ever fully believe her again," I say. I hear him stand.

"Jesse, how come I get the feeling you're not telling me something?" He asks. I sigh, thinking of Raevon, and then of Amee and Kate. I turn to him.

"Whatever happened between Raevon and I is irrelevant. But... I did know about I.O.E. way before Raevon said anything to me," I say. He frowns, puzzled. He then shakes his head and changes the subject. Sort of.

"You said that an entire group of Deviants were turned in," he starts.

"She turned them in, yes," I confirm. I see him swallow hard, his face going even more pale and I know what he is going to ask.

"Did... Was..." He can't get himself to. But now it's my part to tell him the truth about Amee and Kate.

"Yes," I say, my throat dry, "she betrayed Kate, too. Kate's in there." He lets out the breath that he was holding and turns way from me, running his hands through his hair. I hear him quietly curse. He spins back to me.

"So, she plans on saving them, right? Like you two saved me?" He asks. I swallow hard.

"Johnny, there's something else that I need to tell you," I say.

"What?" He asks, frowning. I take a deep breath before speaking.

"I knew about Kate's ability long before you did," I say. His frown deepens out of extreme confusion.

"What? How?" I see a pained look cross his face and I recall what Kate told us about what happened between them.

"She didn't tell me. Not willingly, at least," I say, and I was right in my assumption. He does look slightly relieved that Kate never told me. "I had seen her ability out of control," I say. He chuckles, just barely.

"It's the same thing with me," he says. It's quiet for a moment. "So... how..." he looks at the ground, as if trying to pull himself together "So, what exactly do these people do to Deviants? What is she going through?" He asks.

"I'm not even all the way sure... but..." I think of the way Amee looks when she talks about them. The way she fiddles with that rock necklace of hers and the way her gray-gold eyes feel with the desire for revenge. My heart aches to have her at my side, just to know that she's alright. But I already know that if she isn't dead, then she's alright. "It isn't anything pleasant." I look at Johnny, watching his eyes dart with worry and fear.

"Kate knew about I.O.E. as well," I say. He scoffs, turning away from me, pacing the living room.

"Why am I not surprised? I guess it's just another thing she was hiding from me," he says.

"Mate-" I start.

"She didn't act surprised at all about when I told her that it wasn't any normal mugging in that alley way," he says. A pained look crosses his face as he seems to recall the memory. "She didn't seem surprised at all when I told her about Carson."

"Mate, that's because she already knew. Cassidy- Carson was in Stonegate weeks before you had found out about her," I say. Then I hesitate before deciding to voice my opinion. "And... I can't really blame her about being pissed at you for looking into her past."

"Neither can I, but I can blame her for not planning on telling me about her ability," he says. I'm about to speak up, that maybe she just wasn't comfortable enough yet, but I stop myself. Knowing Kate... yeah, she probably thought she'd be able to hide her ability from him forever.

"You didn't tell her about your ability either," I say, at least.

"That's not even relevant because I wasn't planning on trying to hide it from her for as long as we were together," he says.

"But this is aside from what I was trying to say," I say. He looks at me. "Kate, Amee, and I were working to expose I.O.E. for the past month. Kate actually didn't agree to help us fully until the twenty-first of October."

"What do you mean by expose?" He asks.

"What Raevon and I did with the vehicle that had you earlier?" I say.

"Yeah..."

"We've been doing that with multiple I.O.E. vehicles." His eyes widened and I quickly add "Amee's been doing it for a lot longer than Kate and I."

"Are you guys insane?" He says, bewildered. "Those people are... Those people are murders, kidnappers, torturers. They had..." he trails off, probably too dumbfounded to continue.

"Yeah... we knew, mate," I say.

"Expose-" he starts but I urgently hush him. I listen for the faint sound that I thought I heard before silently making my way to the south wall that block the bedroom from view, stopping at the edge of the wall. Her bedroom is just as dull colored as the living room and kitchen, a dark gray bedding, cherry wood dressers and bedside tables and the dark gray wardrobe that hides the hidden door to the office. The bathroom door is left ajar and Raevon lies in the bed, her back facing us, the blankets over most of her body. Her hair is let loose and flows behind her, slightly wavy. From here, she seems to breath heavily with sleep, but I don't know what to believe with her anymore. How much could she have heard?

"What's her ability?" Johnny whispers. I motion to the kitchen with my head, and we silently walk away from her.

"It's teleportation," I whisper.

"You two have the same ability?" He whispers back. I shake my head.

"I can borrow other Deviant's abilities, so to speak," I say.

"How can we trust her not to teleport somewhere we can't follow?" He asks. I clench my jaw, irritated that I have no choice. That we have no choice.

"We have to," I say. "But I didn't tell her about Amee, Kate, and I attacking I.O.E. vehicles yet and I want to keep it that way. I don't want her to know exactly how much information I know or where Amee has a hide-out set up," I say. He nods his head.

"I can turn invisible, by the way," he says. I chuckle. It's quiet before he speaks again. "What are we going to do?" He asks. I shake my head.

"I want to save them as soon as possible too, but... I know exactly how dangerous this is and I'm pretty sure Amee would kill me if I ended up getting one of us caught," I say. "We have to be careful."

A/N:

So what do you all think? Was this chapter a drag? It's kind of hard because you all already know this but Johnny didn't  😕