A Hater's Gamble (BxB)

FORTY-FOUR

"But I set fire to the rain."

L I A M

As the light began to fade from the sky, the rain unleashed itself mercilessly on the world. My part of it, at least. I wasn't outside to smell the storm, I remained inside my home.

I returned my attention to my cellphone, which I hoped would light up with a certain boy's name. Perhaps, Grace had taken him on an undivided adventure, one that didn't require the use of a phone.

No. I wouldn't coat my doubts with pretty imaginations.

Pick up the damn phone, prince. Pick up.

My phone lit up, however, it wasn't with Miles' name. It was someone else. I tried not to breathe too hard.

"Coleman," Nathan spoke into the phone. "Where are you right now?"

"Why?," I answered, quickly.

There was a pause, then, "I think your boy is in Carl's possession. My spies reported seeing two teenagers in a cellar, just today."

Today was the day.

The day that Carl took his final lung-full.

"Grab me a gun," I said, before pulling my hood over my head. "I hope you're ready."

"I hope you are," was all Nathan said before he hung up the phone.

He had to live. He had too. I wouldn't let the alternative be a possibility.

••••••••••••••••••••••

I would take many lives and more just to reach Miles in one piece. There was a ravenous feeling located in the pit of my stomach. It roared at me and beckoned me to hurry.

He was dying. He was dying.

I looked to Nathan and his crew.

Alvin, Ally, Kyle, Red, and Alvin. Haley and Presley stayed at the facility to prepare the infirmary in the event that one of us needed to be healed. I hoped it wasn't Miles.

I knew Carl would push Miles far in his pain, just to show me that I wasn't invincible.

Coward.

A show of dominance was all it was, and I would win.

   M I L E S

I wasn't sure how I was still breathing. The room seemed incredibly small now. The amount of pain I was in felt unnatural, petrifying. I never thought that it could have gotten worse.

"Let me tell you something, little boy," Carl drawled, digging into his pocket. "You don't know real pain. Not yet."

I tried to clamber away from the blade that glinted in the dim light of the cellar, but he dragged me toward him. He unlocked my chains beforehand, knowing that I was much too weak to fight him.

He pinned me against the cold floor, despite my feeble struggle. Carl held the knife to my throat with a yellow grin. He had claimed himself a victor with that smile.

As I stared up at him, I took in his scrubby facial hair, the thinning hair on his head, his milky blue orbs. I shut my eyes, not wanting my last vision of life to be of this malicious man above me.

"Open your eyes, boy!," he bellowed, giving me a slap in the face. "I want you to see me as I carve your heart out."

The pain started at my collarbone, where Liam once kissed me so delicately. I screamed.