DARKNESS

DARKNESS | Chapter 24

"Trusting you was my decision. Proving me right is your choice."
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CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

"What does it say?" Kale asks softly. I pass him the note expressionlessly, noting Blake peering over his shoulder.

My fingers are numb from the cold rain, hair still dripping and clothes thoroughly drenched. With the torch clasped in my hand, I begin to make my way up the ladder once more and unlock the hatch.

"Where are you going?" Blake demands to know. Already, I can feel myself rapidly getting pissed off with him.

"Stay here," I respond quietly, levelly, not looking back over my shoulder. "Don't move. Don't touch anything. I'll be back."

"You aren't supposed to meet Brayden until tomorrow," Blake points out.

"Do you think I'm stupid? I can read," I snap. "Just shut the hell up for once in your life and stop trying to control everyone and everything around you. Got it? Stay put."

I poke my head out of the hatch, surveying my room with the keen eyes of a hawk. Upon finding it empty, I let the hatch fall open and remove my satchel of arrows from my back, dropping them down into the room to remain with my bow. I pull my blade from it's sheathe, ready to stab anything that moves if need be. Anything that isn't Brayden, that is, because I don't think I could bring myself to kill him. It would be so wrong to kill the guy that saved me, especially considering I haven't had the chance to make it up to him yet.

The old floorboards threaten to creak under my weight, however after having lived in this house for eighteen years I know my way around. I step over every squeaky floorboard, slipping through the house as silently as I can manage. There are shouts outside and ducking low, I make my way over to a nearby window. A smaller number of Rebels stand than there were at the beginning of the battle. They centre around Brayden, who is shaking his head and seeming to gesture for them to follow him away from the house.

Why is he doing this for us?

Something tells me my questions will be answered tomorrow at dusk, in the old tree house.

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"What were you doing?" Blake wants to know the moment I open the hatch. I sit down on my bedroom floor, legs hanging in the Secret Room as I set about lighting some candles. I pass them down to Kale, who sticks them around the ever-brightening room.

"Your hands are freezing," he comments quietly as I hand him the last candle and our fingers brush. I instantly pull my hands away and tuck them inside a different black jumper I'm now wearing.

"To answer your question, Blake, I went to get changed. We also needed light, food and water. I gathered whatever information was on those papers in the vault as well."

"What happened out there, Harper? What caused the fight? Where were you?"

"I was spying on your Shadow guards. Their leader, Frederick, wanted to send Bart to reveal our location because they had us trapped in."

"And then the Rebels showed up and attacked, yeah?" Blake assumes.

"That was after."

"After what?"

"After I shot Bart with a single arrow." My face is impassive as I try to draw my mind away from what I have done. I focus on the food I gathered to satisfy my grumbling stomach. The thought makes me climb down into the hatch, pulling my bedroom mat over the top before locking it with the key once more. The room is smaller than I remember, but I put that down to there being three people inside.