A Red Rose and A Silver Sin

6. Dallas

I was late, too late.

After getting the shit knocked out of me by five other foot-soldiers, it had taken me a long while to break free of the infirmary to go find them. It was a sort of calling, a guilt that made me need their presence. I needed to know my mistakes hadn't caused them all their lives.

Freya probably hated me by now, and found my mistakes irredeemable. But that didn't matter. All that mattered was seeing them alive and beginning a case to keep them that way. Me pleading for their lives would insure a bullet in their brains by noon. Maybe, if I pulled enough strings, I could get one of my old friends to do it. I could get them to claim uses for the three girls beyond target practice.

It wouldn't be easy. Then again, when have things ever been easy for me?

I had run as fast as my broken body allowed towards where they were being held, where all kidnap victims were held. Harlowe had recognized me, lunging and clawing with her one good arm. Behind her, I could see a second girl curled up and clutching her damaged arm. Neither was Freya, neither was what I sought. If she had been in there, Freya would have been clawing at my face right along with Harlowe.

Pushing her back as gently as I could, I closed the door behind me. My orders meant nothing to the guards, but I still gave them.

"Don't let anyone take them until I get back," I said, trying to find some shred of familiarity in any of their faces. It was all gone.

Of course. I leave for four measly weeks, and all the sudden everything is different. Everybody has forgotten me unless they wanted me dead. That thought was what led me to my next suspect.

His door had been left unlocked, an easy path inside. While the guards wouldn't listen to me, they wouldn't stop me either. Not while I entered my own brother's room.

He had always been a bit much, to say the least. The huge room filled with walls of weapons and a gigantic connected closet, it had all seemed extravagant no matter our wealth. It was such an obvious statement - look at how rich I am.

The second I walked into the room, my blood chilled. I could hear him muttering something under his breath. My eyes flew towards the noise, meeting with the closed bathroom door. From here, I could see a little white light flickering out from under the crack in the door.

I heard him talking, someone in there with him as he continued on. It was low enough to hide the speech, low enough to remain secret. Whispering was pointless in a room with only one other person, and he couldn't have known that I would enter.

Could he?

By the time I was at the door, he was done talking. He wasn't doing much of anything from the looks of it. As I flung the door open on its hinges, I felt a little piece of me break.

It wasn't even the fact that he kissed her. It wasn't even the fact that he had so easily taken away the nicest, prettiest girl I had ever met. It was the look on her face as she did it.

Freya looked halfway between throwing up and crying. She looked miserable, desperate, and he stood over her, smirking like he couldn't give less of a damn.

His fingers curled around her chin as he muttered, "Good girl, you see, that wasn't so hard."

She shook under his gaze, eyes watering as he held her. And then her eyes turned to me. Wide as a baby deer, she gazed at me. There was an innocence under her stare, a plea for help that I couldn't remedy. It was such a rare look to find around here, and I could already see it fading. Soon enough she'd be as heartless as the rest of the people that lived down here, Leo would make sure of that.