Blood And Truths
1038 Words
LEO
I stared at the cloth until my vision blurred.
"Where did you get this?"
Juno didn't meet my eyes. "Someone left it in my locker two days ago. I didn't know what it meant until now."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because I didn't want you distracted before the race." She pushed the cloth closer. "But after what happened in that tunnel, you need to know. Rafe's been trying to reach you."
My hands shook as I picked up the fabric. The stitching was rough, done in haste, but the mark was unmistakable. Rafe used to burn this symbol into every piece of gear he owned before the exile.
"He's alive," I whispered.
"More than that." Juno pulled out her tablet and opened an encrypted message. "He's been organizing something. Something big."
The message was brief: *Omega Rebellion. Midnight. Warehouse Nine.*
"When?" I asked.
"Tonight."
I looked at the blood on my shoulder, then back at the note. Everything in me screamed this was a trap. But if there was even a chance Rafe was out there...
"I'm going."
"I figured you'd say that." Juno stood and grabbed her jacket. "I'm coming with you."
*************
Warehouse Nine sat at the edge of the industrial zone, surrounded by rusted fences and broken streetlights. The kind of place people went to disappear.
We parked two blocks away and walked in silence. My knife was strapped to my thigh, Juno had a taser in her pocket. Not much, but it was all we had.
The warehouse door was cracked open.
Inside, the space was massive and empty except for a single light hanging in the center. Shadows moved along the walls, figures I couldn't make out.
"Leo Reyes."
The voice came from behind me.
I spun, blade already in hand.
A man stepped into the light. Tall, scarred, with eyes that looked like they'd seen too much. He wasn't alone. At least a dozen others emerged from the darkness, all watching me with the same sharp intensity.
"Who are you?" I demanded.
"Someone who knew your brother." He tilted his head. "And someone who knows what you're trying to do."
"Where's Rafe?"
"Close. But he can't meet you yet. Not until you understand what you're really fighting."
I didn't lower the knife. "Then talk."
The man gestured to the others. "We're the Omega Rebellion. Wolves who were exiled, rejected, erased by the Council. We've been watching the Trials for years, watching them use racers as lab rats for their experiments."
"What experiments?"
"Genetic modification. Forced bonding. They're trying to create a new breed of Alpha, one that can be controlled. Your brother discovered it three years ago. That's why they exiled him."
My stomach twisted. "You're lying."
"Am I?" He pulled out a data chip. "This is footage from beneath the arena. The real reason racers don't come back isn't because they fail. It's because they're taken."
Juno grabbed the chip and plugged it into her tablet. The screen flickered to life.
What I saw made my blood run cold.
Rooms lined with cages. Wolves strapped to tables, sedated, their bodies hooked to machines. Injections. Screaming. And in the corner of one frame, a familiar face.
Rafe.
He was thinner, scarred, but alive. He was helping someone escape, pulling them from a cell before the footage cut out.
"This was recorded two months ago," the man said. "He's still down there. Still fighting."
I couldn't breathe. "Why didn't he come for me?"
"Because they're watching you. If he shows himself, they'll kill you both. But if you win the Trials, if you expose what's happening, you give us the opening we need."
"And if I lose?"
"Then you disappear like the rest of them."
Juno grabbed my arm. "Leo, this is insane. We need to go to the authorities."
The man laughed bitterly. "The authorities are the ones running it. Alpha Magnus, the Elders, they're all part of it. The only way to stop this is from the inside."
I looked at the screen again, at my brother's face. At the wolves trapped in those cages.
"What do you need me to do?"
"Win," he said simply. "Get to the final round. That's when they move the experiments to the main facility. Rafe and the others will create a distraction, but we need someone on the inside to expose it. Someone they can't silence."
"The Shade Wolf," I said quietly.
He nodded. "You're already a symbol. Now you need to become a weapon."
***
By the time we left the warehouse, my mind was spinning.
Juno drove in silence, her knuckles white on the wheel.
"You can't actually be considering this," she finally said.
"What choice do I have?"
"You could run. Disappear. Stay alive."
"And let them keep doing this?" I shook my head. "Rafe didn't run. He stayed and fought. I owe him that much."
"You don't owe him your life."
Maybe not. But I owed him the truth.
When we got back to the garage, Ash was waiting.
He stood by the door, arms crossed, expression unreadable.
"We need to talk," he said.
Juno tensed, but I waved her off. "Give us a minute."
She hesitated, then walked inside.
Ash stepped closer, his voice low. "I know what happened in the tunnel. I know they tried to kill you."
"And yet you walked away."
"Because I couldn't let them see me care." His jaw tightened. "My father's watching me, Leo. If he thinks I'm protecting you, he'll remove me from the equation. And then you'll have no one."
"I don't need protection."
"You need someone who knows how they think." He pulled something from his pocket. A drive. "This has the real layout for the next stage. The traps, the weak points, everything."
I stared at it. "Why are you helping me?"
"Because I don't want to be part of this anymore." His voice cracked. "And because I can't watch you die."
I took the drive, our fingers brushing.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then he stepped back. "Be careful, Leo. They're not just trying to stop you. They're trying to break you."
"Let them try."
He almost smiled. "That's what I'm afraid of.”
- Writer
