Chapter Six: The Girl They Never Stopped Hunting
772 Words
The masked figure climbed fully out of the tunnel.
Rainwater dripped from the black cloak covering their body.
The silenced pistol never wavered.
It stayed aimed at Lena.
Ethan stepped forward.
"If you want her..."
"...you go through me."
The figure tilted their head.
Then, in one swift motion, they removed the mask.
Lena gasped.
It was...
A woman.
She looked no older than thirty-five.
Long black hair.
Sharp green eyes.
And a thin scar running across her cheek.
But it wasn't her appearance that stunned Lena.
It was the necklace around the woman's neck.
A silver locket.
Exactly like the one Lena had worn since childhood.
Lena instinctively touched the necklace beneath her shirt.
The woman smiled sadly.
"You still have it."
Lena's voice trembled.
"Who... are you?"
The woman's eyes filled with tears.
"My name is Elena."
She took a slow step forward.
"I'm your mother."
Silence swallowed the room.
Lena laughed nervously.
"No."
"My mother is dead."
"That's what Victor wanted you to believe."
Lena shook her head again.
"No... no, you're lying."
Elena slowly opened her locket.
Inside was a faded photograph.
A baby wrapped in a pink blanket.
Around the baby's neck...
The same silver locket.
Lena felt the room spin.
She remembered flashes she'd buried for years.
A lullaby.
Warm arms.
A woman singing in the dark.
A silver necklace.
Tears streamed down her face.
"It can't be..."
Before Elena could say another word—
BOOM!
The front wall of the cabin exploded inward.
Smoke and splintered wood filled the air.
Black Serpent soldiers stormed inside.
"TAKE THEM ALIVE!"
Bullets tore through the cabin.
Ethan tackled Lena to the ground.
Gabriel rolled behind an overturned table and returned fire.
Elena drew two pistols from beneath her coat.
She moved like a ghost.
One shot.
Another.
Then another.
Three soldiers fell before they even realized she'd fired.
Lena stared in disbelief.
"Mom..."
Elena looked at her only briefly.
"We don't have time."
She grabbed Lena's hand.
"The tunnel!"
The four of them jumped into the hidden passage just as flames engulfed the cabin.
Behind them, Victor's men flooded into the burning building.
"Find the girl!"
The tunnel stretched beneath the forest.
Old brick walls.
Leaking pipes.
Stale air.
They ran in silence for what felt like forever.
Finally, they stopped beside a rusted steel door.
Ethan pushed it open.
Fresh air rushed in.
They had emerged on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea.
The moon reflected off the crashing waves below.
For the first time that night...
No gunfire.
No shouting.
Only the wind.
Lena turned to Elena.
"If you're really my mother..."
"Why didn't you come back for me?"
Elena's face crumbled.
"I tried."
"Victor took you before I could."
"He raised you close enough for me to see..."
"...but too far for me to touch."
Lena felt anger rising.
"You left me."
"I never stopped looking."
Before either of them could say more...
Gabriel suddenly collapsed.
Blood soaked through his shirt.
The bullet he'd taken earlier had been far worse than he'd admitted.
He looked at Ethan.
"There isn't much time."
Ethan knelt beside him.
"Don't."
Gabriel smiled weakly.
"I betrayed you once..."
"...I'm not dying a traitor."
He reached into his jacket and pulled out a small black flash drive.
"This..."
"...contains the names."
"The names of who?"
"Every Black Serpent."
"Every politician."
"Every judge."
"Every police chief."
Everyone Victor owns."
Lena took the flash drive with shaking hands.
Gabriel looked at Ethan.
"There was... one name I never wanted to believe."
Ethan frowned.
"What name?"
Gabriel whispered it into Ethan's ear.
Ethan froze.
"No..."
"It can't be."
"It is."
Gabriel's breathing slowed.
"You trusted..."
"...the wrong person."
His eyes closed.
He never opened them again.
Gabriel Reed was dead.
Miles away, inside a private command center, Victor Kane watched the flames consume the cabin on a dozen surveillance screens.
One of his men approached.
"Sir... they escaped."
Victor smiled.
"They always do."
The man looked confused.
"You wanted them to escape?"
Victor turned toward a large digital map.
Four blinking dots moved across it.
"Every piece is finally moving."
Then he pressed a button.
A hidden wall slid open.
Inside was a glass chamber.
A man sat chained to a chair.
Bruised.
Weak.
But alive.
Victor walked over and smiled.
"She met her mother tonight."
The prisoner looked up with tired eyes.
"If you touch Lena again..."
Victor laughed.
"I already have."
The prisoner struggled against his chains.
"She's my daughter!"
Victor leaned close.
"I know."
He whispered with a cruel smile:
"And soon..."
"...she'll kill you with her own hands."
- Writer
