UNLEASHED: THE HIDDEN CURSE

Chapter 9: The Only Choices Left

I eased out from behind the bins and crept toward the neighbor’s fence line. The wooden boards were old, weathered, and loose with age. I pushed gently at a gap between two planks until it gave way, and slipped through into the adjoining yard. The grass underfoot was soft, thick with dew, and bitingly cold against my skin.

Suddenly, the neighbor’s porch light flickered on automatically, flooding the yard with a warm, golden glow. I threw myself down behind a dense hedge just in time, pressing flat against the earth to avoid being seen from the street or the house. My breath came in short, visible puffs in the cold air.

Okay, Daniel. Think.

Where could I possibly go?

The police? No. If these men were connected to whatever conspiracy had taken my mother, they likely had influence or watchers there too. Walking into a station would be walking into a trap.

A friend’s house? No. I couldn’t bring this kind of danger to anyone I cared about. I couldn’t be responsible for anyone else getting hurt or killed because of me.

Run into the woods? Hide until morning? It was possible, but the box in my arms seemed to hum in protest at the idea. It spoke of something far larger than just running or hiding. It spoke of purpose.

My mother’s handwriting flashed vividly in my mind, from the letter I had read earlier: If you’re reading this, it means the truth is finally bigger than the fear.

I could not run away from the very thing she had spent her whole life protecting me from. I could not bury this secret again.

I needed answers. I needed safety. And somehow, I needed to find a way to get both at once.

My thoughts shattered abruptly when a voice whispered directly behind me, low and close.

“Daniel.”

I spun around, nearly dropping the box in shock, my heart leaping into my throat.

A shadow uncurled itself from the darkness deep within the hedge, rising up from where it had been concealed.

Not a threat. Not an attacker.

Someone familiar. But not the person I had hoped for.

Elias.

He pressed a finger firmly to his lips, eyes hard and serious.

“Quiet,” he murmured. “We don’t have long before they sweep this area too.”

Relief was not the first emotion to hit me. Instead, it was sharp, burning suspicion. I stepped back quickly, putting distance between us, clutching the blue box against my chest as if it were a shield.

“Where is Leah?” I demanded, my voice tight.

A flicker of genuine pain crossed his face—the first real emotion I had ever seen from him, cracking through his usual stoic mask.

“She fought them,” he said quietly, his voice rough. “She held them off as long as she could. But there were too many. They… they overwhelmed her.”

My stomach twisted sharply, sick and heavy. “Is she—”

“Alive,” he said quickly, reading the question in my face. “For now. But not for long if they regroup and secure the area.”

My knees nearly buckled under the sudden mix of overwhelming relief and cold terror. She was alive. But she was trapped, and hurt, and in the hands of men who had already proven they had no mercy.

Elias stepped closer, urgent and intense.

“Daniel, listen to me. I know you don’t trust me. You have every reason not to. But understand this: if you stay here, you die. If you run alone, they will hunt you down, and you die. If you give them this box… you still die. And everything your mother sacrificed dies with you.”

“I die,” I finished flatly. It wasn’t a question.

He nodded once, grim and certain.

“So what do I do?” I whispered, my voice shaking.

Elias scanned the yard, his eyes sharp, calculating, mapping every exit and shadow.

“Your mother prepared for this. She left instructions. She trusted someone with her life, and with yours—someone she knew would protect you when we couldn’t.”

“We?” I echoed, catching the plural.

He ignored the question and kept going, focused and fast.

“There is a safe place outside of town. Remote. Hidden. Protected in ways you wouldn’t believe. If we can get there, you’ll have time to understand what is inside that box, who you really are, and why all of this is happening.”

My breath caught, shaky and uncertain. “And if I refuse to go with you?”

He met my gaze directly, unblinking, no longer hiding the harsh reality.

“Then they will find you in minutes. And they will get to you first.”

A chill rippled through me, settling deep in my bones.

“What about Leah?” I asked, the question barely audible.

His jaw tightened visibly. “We save her… if we can. But if we fail to get you to safety first, if we lose what you carry… then none of it matters. She knows that. She stayed behind so you could survive.”

I stared at him—this strange, guarded man I barely knew, who had stood in my attic only an hour ago as a stranger, and who now claimed to be my only hope. I didn’t want to trust him. I didn’t know if I should. Every instinct screamed at me to run the other way.

But the truth was painfully simple.

I had no one else. I had nowhere else to go. And staying here meant certain death.

I swallowed hard, nodded once, and exhaled a long, shaky breath.

“Fine,” I said, the word heavy and final. “Where do we go?”

Elias extended a hand toward the darkness beyond the fence, his expression shifting from urgency to action.

“We run.”

He didn’t wait for my mind to process the word. “Run” was not a suggestion—it was a command, sharpened by the urgency of someone who had survived situations far worse than this, and knew exactly how thin the line between life and death had become.

My legs reacted before my thoughts could catch up. Adrenaline took over, driving my body forward as Elias turned and slipped silently into the shadows, leading the way into the night.