The Four - Book 1

Chapter 9

Lana

"Shit!"

I sat up so fast my vision was blurry for a bit. The surroundings were not familiar at all, except for Paytah, who's sitting across from me, his eyes wide. He looks...tired. Defeated.

"Just a bad dream." Is all I say, but it's true. I barely even remember it, I could never remember my dreams. Paytah nods and gets up, walking to the door. I look around the room myself, and see a large bed in the middle, with a few chairs, a bathroom, and a closet.

"Is this a hotel?"

"Think so." Paytah replies, glancing back at me.

"Where's Aira and Juris?

I didn't even realize Paytah opened the door. It wasn't even locked....

"Somewhere out here, probably." Paytah says, and I stand up and follow him out the door carefully. I look down left and right, seeing a ton of doors, a ton of rooms. Juris and Aira could be in any one.

"Maybe we should stay together. You know, because of last time," I say, and Paytah nods. He doesn't seem mad, just focused. We start to the right, opening the doors on both sides of the hallway.

"You knew Eve was lying. How?" I ask after opening a few doors. Paytah shrugs. "I just guessed."

"Like hell you just guessed. You knew. How did you know?"

"I just felt that it was wrong," Paytah says, opening another door and slamming it back shut. I nod to myself, still unsure if he's actually telling me everything.

"Well, thanks anyway. I would've gone with Eve, and we would've been punished."

"Being in a cell is the same as right now. Still trapped."

"They could've made the punishment worse. Who knows," I say, and Paytah nods. "True."

We continue opening and closes doors, still with no luck. I start to get irritated. There's so many rooms, where the hell are Juris and Aira?

I turn to Paytah, but he's about to open another door. I wait for him to see nothing, and close it again. But something else happens.

He opens the door, and a girl is standing right in front of him.

And before I have time to react, she grabs him and throws him into the room, slamming the door shut.

"Paytah!" I shout, heading to the door, but it's locked. "Paytah!" I yell again, banging my fists against the door. I hear a commotion on the other side, he's obviously fighting back. But that girl seemed abnormally strong.

"Lana!" I hear Paytah's faint voice on the other side.

"It's locked! Paytah!"

"Dammit Lana!" Paytah's struggling voice scares me senseless, and I kick the door. "Element!" I hear him spit out, and I feel like punching myself. I raise my palms at the door, and squirt it with water so hard, I see the door cracking. And soon enough, the door breaks down, and I find myself staring at the girl pinning Paytah to the ground, her hands about to wrap around his throat. I immediately spray water and she falls off Paytah. I see the burn marks on the girl, and parts of her skin are gone cause of how bad the burns are.

Paytah stands next to me, fire balled up in his hand. He lets out a huge fireball at her, and I scream at the horrific scene. The fire surrounds the girl, burning off her hair first, then parts of her skin. I act on impulse and spray water at her until the fires gone. Once I can finally see through the smoke, I feel like screaming again. All of her is charcoal black, with all her clothes burnt off her. But, something starts to spark in her body. She jerks as the sparks keep flying.

"She isn't-" I can't even finish the words.

"It's a robot." Paytah says quietly. We both watch as the girl, or girl robot, collapses, the body now all crumpled up. Tears spill from my eyes, and I back out of the room. Paytah shuts the door and looks at me sadly. "She's not a human, never was. It's okay." He says. I nod, but it looked so real. The girls facial expressions, her looks. Everything felt so real.

I let out a sob, not able to control it. I hate crying, but everything just it me now. Everything that has happened to me in this last few days, weeks, months, I don't even know. But it all comes crashing down, hitting me hard.

"I'm s-so scared." I stutter, more tears falling down my cheeks. Paytah slightly nods, and I quickly run up and hug him. I wrap my arms around him tight, feeling the heat radiating off his body. He's hesitant at first, but then I feel his muscular arms around me. I want to stay like this, for some reason I feel...safe, in his arms. No wonder why Aira always goes with his ideas, because Paytah seems to be the real leader here.

"You saved my life," Paytah says, letting go, but his orange-red eyes are focused on me. "Thanks."

I smile a little, but the tears continue to come. "Shit," I say, rubbing my eyes. "I don't know why I'm crying."

"Cause it's a natural reaction, you just saw a thing you thought was a human get burned alive-"

"Then why aren't you crying?" I blurt out.

Paytah shrugs. "I had more time to realize that thing wasn't real. I feel sick inside though."

"Because you burned that thing alive?"

"Because I can kill people. If she was real, I would've killed her." Paytah says.

"Well, it wasn't. We should keep looking for-"

"Us?"

I turn around, and see Juris and Aira standing a few feet away, unharmed. They both hold smiles on their faces, and I can only imagine the wide-eyed look Paytah and I are giving them right now.

"What did we miss?" Aira asks, and I see how innocent she looks. I bite my lip, how are we supposed to tell-

"Nothing." Paytah says.

I look back at Paytah and nod. "Yeah, nothing. Now, let's find a way out, losers."

••••••

Hello!!!

Sorry this was kinda short, I literally wrote this in like thirty-five minutes and knew I haven't published anything for a while. But hey it's a chapter!

THOUGHTS?? How do you like Paytah and Lana together?? Please comment and also vote!

Thanks❤️