Page 52 of Dark Knight

He opened it, clearly expecting to find the key he needed waiting inside, and yet it was empty.

"Looking for these?" Hudson's voice echoed through the garage.

I turned toward it, like that same flower reaching for the sun, and I saw him and Theo standing next to one another. I thought Theo was going with Dylan to the club to get the security footage, so I was surprised to see him here at all if I was being honest. I wasn't sure if they would be able to save me without also risking Dylan’s life, and I wouldn't blame them if they chose Dylan over me. After all, he was their boss and longtime friend. I had only known them a few weeks.

"Just let me take what's mine," Sean snarled.

Hud shook his head. "She's a human being. She's not yours."

"She is mine, and I'm going to rightfully restore her to the place where she should be, where she can fulfill her destiny." Sean was so angry that I could see spittle forming at the corners of his lips.

"The fuck do you think this is, boy? Some fantasy novel?"

I felt a sharp sensation against the base of my throat, and I realized that Sean had moved behind me and was pressing the knife that he carried into my skin. This was not the turn of events that I had been hoping for.

The steel pressed further and further in, until I winced at the pain. Surely, he had to be breaking skin by now. A fact that was confirmed by the absolutely feral look that crossed Hud's face. Even Theo shot a concerned glance Hud's way.

Sean wasn't exactly unpredictable, but I didn't know how to get myself out of this situation without accidentally making myself bleed out. I had to trust Hud and Theo, trust that they'd do everything they could to prevent me from being taken. I just hoped that my trust wasn't misplaced.

27

Evie

"Just let her go. You can't win against us." Hudson's voice was calm and deadly. The killer in him had come out to play. Yet I was still more scared of Sean than I was of Hud.

"I can if I have your boss tied up. I have somebody with a knife on his throat, so either you let me go and let me take Brittany with me, or your boss dies. Your choice."

"I assume that's the same bluff that you used on Evie?" Hud asked, stressing my name. "You had to tell her something to get her to follow you and comply with the orders you're giving her. I know she wouldn't be willingly standing there, otherwise.

“The problem is that your lie won't work on me because I just talked to my boss. I know that he's safe, and I know that there isn’t a knife pressed to his throat. Even if there was, he's talented enough to get away by himself. You let Evie go, and I'll toss you the keys to whatever car you want in this place. You can drive out of here unharmed, but you'll be going without Evie…unless she is voluntarily going with you."

Hud looked at me at the end of his rant, and I shook my head, skin biting into the blade as I did so.

"The fact that you've touched her at all is disgusting. I won't let you keep her. She has a bigger destiny. She will be the Light Mother and bring a new generation of the Children of Radiance into being." Sean spat the words at Hud, making me flinch.

"Do you even hear yourself, man? You're fucking crazy." Hudson sounded as though Sean was trying to convince him that aliens were real. To Sean, continuing with the metaphor, they were.

I was real. I was supposed to be the Light Mother as decreed by the Light Father.

In his world, I was going to have lots of babies by the Light Father and be used up. I wouldn't be a human being. I never had been in Sean's eyes.

Theo had slowly been edging forward, getting closer. Sean realized it but didn't seem to care–I knew that he was aware of it because every time Theo took a step, Sean flinched as though he was waiting for one of them to draw a gun on him and shoot him or something.

"You know if you don't let her go, we're going to put you in the ground, right?" Hudson said softly. In some ways, it almost sounded like he was talking to a good friend, but this voice was more terrifying than if he’d been yelling. Because I knew whatever he said in this voice, he truly meant.

"Teddy, you know I'm right. You know she belongs to us." Sean's voice sounded from behind my shoulder.

Teddy? Sean turned slightly toward Theo when he said the name. When I looked too, I saw that Theo's cheeks were bright red.

A vague memory surfaced–the scandal when one of the boys ran away a few years ago. His parents had grieved because he was so smart and had such a promising future, one that would be corrupted by modern society. Suddenly, I realized that I knew this man, or I was at least aware of him before I ever met Dylan and Hudson.

"Hudson's right. If you want to live, you have to let her go." Theo's voice was different, more formal–it sounded like the same way that a lot of the younger members of the Children of Radiance spoke to older ones. "Elder Brother, please. The Light Father can pick a new Light Mother, he just needs to make it official. Brittany clearly does not wish to be the Light Mother, so you should let her go." My stomach turned at his words.

Sean wouldn't hear it, though. "This is just a trial we're being put through. She has to be tested to prove that she will bear strong enough children to continue the Children of Radiance."

Theo, or Teddy, shook his head. When he ran a hand through his hair, pulling it back and letting me clearly see his face for the first time, my suspicions were confirmed. I really had known him as Teddy. As Theodore. "You don't stand a chance of getting out of here, Sean. Just let her go, and then we'll let you go. You at least live that way."

Part of me expected some big brawl, for a fight to break out between the three of them. I expected to be injured in the process. Hudson and Theo were trying their best to talk him down, though, which I hadn't expected. Plus, they were agreeing to let him go, which I also hadn't expected.

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