Chapter Twenty Five
Zoi stopped on his track. He shook his head as his hands flew to it, pressing in his temples and he knelt in obvious pain. Dad was probably trying to gain control again but Zoi was fighting back. He screamed in pain as he dropped to the floor.
“Zoi! Fight it. Don’t let him control you. You’re better than him.” I continue to speak to support him but I knew that only Zoi would be able to fight the control. Then, I whispered, “You’re even better than me,”
“Aaaauuurrgghhh!” Zoi screamed in pain and his voice echoed on the closed room.
Suddenly, he turned quiet and unmoving. I took a tentative step forward. But before I could close the distance, he stirred awake. I stopped in my tracks and held my breath. He slowly stood up, limping from the injuries I managed to caused him. He turned towards me and I took care not to look at him in the eyes.
“Katra,” he breath.
Laughing with joy, I jumped towards him and hugged him with all my strength. He held on to me tighter. Like I was his savior. He ran a hand down my hair and continued to hold me like there was no tomorrow. He kept on whispering his sorry for attacking me. But I knew it wasn’t him. I assured him that I knew.
“What happened to you?” he asked with a laugh. “I miss your red hair but I love your new look. Fierce, huh?”
I laughed at him. Leave it to Zoi to talk about my hair at the moment. He pulled back and tried to look at me in the eyes but I closed it. I could feel his questioning stare at me. He raised his hands to touch my cheeks and he caressed me with his thumb.
“Open them,” he gently pleaded.
I shook my head. I don’t want him to see the monster in my eyes. I don’t want him to suffer as Saori was suffering just because she made the mistake of looking into my eyes. I don’t want to cause him anymore pain.
“Open them,” he repeated. “Please,”
But before I could, the door of the room opened and I heard someone entered. With the way Zoi stiffened, it was no brainer that it was my dad who did. Zoi pushed me gently behind him and raised his hand protectively over me. I opened my eyes and saw dad standing in front of the door calmly with his hands behind him and he smiled at me.
From my peripheral vision, I saw Zoi stole a glance at me; probably to see how I was doing. But then he noticed my eyes and his grew in shock. As suddenly as it did, he returned to normal and gave me a smirk before he shrugged it off like it was no big deal.
“I’m very, very disappointed at you Katra,” he clicked his tongue once as he slowly shook his head. “I told you to kill him,”
“As if I would,” I answered with gritted teeth. “But then again, you must be disappointed at yourself because he managed to win against your so-called control,”
He laughed and I felt something wrong with the set-up we were in. “Did you really think that he would be able to break free if I didn’t have allowed it?” he then clicked a button in his bracelet again and I was attacked with electricity.
I fell to my knees and I clawed at my own neck to try to remove the metal but all it did was wound me. Zoi dropped in front of me and tried to pry the equipment off but it didn’t do anything. I was finding it harder to breath by the second and my breaths came in wheezes.
Zoi stood up and growled at my dad before he sprung to attack. He landed atop of him and both of them rolled to the ground. He kept on reaching for dad’s bracelet as dad tried to kick him off of him. But the rest of the scene was a blur to me as my heart slowed its beating and the world spun around.
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I woke up in a the dark. I felt a piece of cloth covering my eyes, again. And I was probably tied to the walls again with the way my wrists pierced with pain. I groaned at my position. My whole body felt stiffed. I tried to move even just a little to relax my body but all it did was send more pain.
I felt something scrapped by my right and I cocked my head towards it a little bit. I could faintly hear the sound of breathing.
“Katra,” Zoi called. He was in the cell with me? “Are you okay?”
I gave him a bitter laugh, “as okay as I could be,”
I heard him shook his head, “yeah, it was a thoughtless question.”
I wanted to comfort him. But there was no comfort to be found in our current position. “How are you tied?”
I heard the clinking of metal. “Chained. But in the floor,”
“At least one of us get to sit,” I answered with a laugh. A real laugh.
“Why do they blindfold you?” he asked.
This time, I gave him as grim look and blew a breath audibly. “Because I’m a monster,”
“No, you’re not,” he contradicted. “you’re the opposite of a monster,”
“Wait ‘til you see Saori and see if you can still tell me I’m not,”
“I know you’re not,” he pressed. “I believe in you. Just like the rest of the family,”
I scoffed at the idea, “yeah, well right now, I have no family.”
“That can’t be true. You have me,” he answered.
And I felt a sharp pain in my heart. I missed the rest of the group. They were everything I had and I lost them. I lost the one family I ever really had. I wondered how they were right at the moment. Did they found a safe place? Were they eating right? Were they still together?
Did they looked for me?
But I knew the answer. They wouldn’t. They would not look for a monster.
Suddenly, a part of the cell wall exploded inward. A metal scrap scraped my cheeks causing it to start bleeding. The wound sting at the smallest move and at the gentlest wind. I stayed still to listen at other sounds and I could hear gun shots outside the cell. Then, I heard the sound of feet running inside.
“Zoi! Katra!” Tash’s voice called in relief.
Then, I heard the breaking of chains and I fell to my feet. But my knees buckled and I almost fell face first but Tash had managed to caught me before I embarrassed myself. She removed a strand of hair away from my face and I knew she was smiling at me.
“Tash?” I asked, bewildered as I looked up at her and stopped her when she tried to remove my blindfold.
She laughed at me, “did you really think we’ll let you save Zoi and avenge Carlos by yourself? We’re family. We support each other. Just let me remove this first,”
“No, don’t. Leave it be,” I said and I could just imagine her confusion but she didn’t had the chance to ask.
“Hurry! Reinforcements are coming! And they are not on our side!” Jake shouted to us.
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