The shaking stopped. We heard footsteps retreating. We were silent for a minute. Then two. Five. Ten. Fifteen minutes later, I grabbed one of the pistols my dad had attached to the wall and opened the hatch.
No one was there. I hoisted myself out of the hole.
Something grabbed the pistol from my hand. I yelped and slammed the hatch again.
"Bastet! Bastet, come on! We need help! Code B!"
Static, then a garbled response.
"Kath...there...minutes...your mother...else..."
Blix started rattling the hatch again.
"Isaac, get me the UH6K7."
Isaac didn't respond.
"Isaac!"
He pointed into the corner. There was a crumpled mattress in the corner.
"Isaac, give me the gun! Get me the damn gun!"
I looked closer at the mattress.
"Is that-"
The mattress wasn't a mattress at all. It was a body.
"Lenny!"
The front door opened, and Blix stopped rattling the trapdoor. I could hear him talking.
"Damn Knights. Are you really still trying to take us out after we killed your leader?"
Whoever had opened the front door said something I couldn't understand, and Blix responded with, "So I assume you want one of those 'Honorable Duels' you're so fond of."
I heard what the Knight said then. Bastet.
"Screw honor."
A gunshot. Then another. Then another. Something crashed onto the floor. I unlocked the hatch.
Bastet opened it, "You have one hour to pack your stuff. It isn't safe here."
I noticed that Blix's forehead was staining the white shag carpet. After we talked for a minute, Bastet sent Isaac and I up to my room to gather our stuff. I grabbed my two biggest suitcases, stuffed one full of clothes, and the other with my BloxKing system, a few premade Molotovs, a rifle I'd been tinkering with, and my dad's brass knuckles. I sat next to Isaac on my bed.
"How are we gonna tell Lenny's parents?"
"I'm still waiting for you to explain all this."
"I can't. But...well, I can't stay here. Go back to your parents. Forget I ever existed."
"I'll tell Lenny's parents. I'll say he...uh...went down to Mirage, and...didn't come back."
I sighed, "I'm sorry for leaving you without an explanation, but..."
I trailed off. A bird landed on the feeder outside my window.
End of Part One
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Gravity ~~~ Book Three | Blix's Bond
Science FictionKatherine Umbrik's father was killed in front of her eight years ago by Vincent Blix, and nobody has seen him since. Her mother, formerly Stacy Umbrik, now Stacy Jones, has become an investigator, and is given the task of finding Blix before he kill...
