The Truth That Bleeds
858 Words
Nadia froze.
Her fingers were only inches from Adrian’s outstretched hand.
The elegant woman’s words echoed through the corridor.
“Adrian Cross is the man who killed your father.”
For a moment, everything else disappeared.
The alarms.
The smoke.
The shouting.
Only those seven words remained.
Nadia slowly turned toward Adrian.
His face, usually calm and unreadable, had changed.
There was guilt in his eyes.
Real guilt.
“Tell me she’s lying,” Nadia whispered.
Adrian didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, he looked down at the floor.
When he finally spoke, his voice was barely audible.
“I was there.”
Nadia’s heart sank.
“You… killed him?”
“No.”
“But I couldn’t save him.”
⸻
Before Nadia could demand another explanation, gunfire erupted at the far end of the hallway.
The elegant woman drew a pistol.
“They’ve breached the building!”
She looked at Nadia.
“If you want answers, come with me.”
Adrian stepped between them.
“If she stays, she’ll never leave this place alive.”
The woman shook her head.
“You still think you’re the hero.”
“I’m trying to stop another innocent person from dying.”
“You said the same thing twelve years ago.”
Adrian flinched.
Nadia noticed.
Whatever had happened to her father…
It had scarred Adrian just as deeply.
⸻
The building trembled again.
A second explosion blasted through the lower floors.
Sprinklers activated overhead, drenching the corridor.
Emergency lights flickered wildly.
Through the smoke emerged several armed men dressed entirely in black.
They weren’t police.
They weren’t soldiers.
Each wore a silver pin shaped like a serpent coiled around a key.
The same symbol Nadia had seen before.
One of them shouted,
“Retrieve the girl!”
Not “arrest.”
Not “protect.”
Retrieve.
As though Nadia were an object.
⸻
Adrian grabbed Nadia’s wrist.
“Run!”
They sprinted through the maze of corridors while bullets shattered glass behind them.
The elegant woman covered their escape, firing with remarkable precision.
Nadia couldn’t understand it.
A few minutes ago, these two had seemed like enemies.
Now they were fighting on the same side.
“Who are those people?” Nadia gasped.
Adrian didn’t slow down.
“They’re called The Custodians.”
“What do they want?”
“They’ve spent decades protecting one secret.”
“And what secret is worth killing for?”
Adrian looked at her.
“The truth about who Vivian Cole really is.”
⸻
They reached an underground parking garage.
Rows of black vehicles stood abandoned.
Adrian led Nadia toward an old silver sedan tucked into a corner.
Before they reached it—
Bang!
A bullet struck the concrete beside Nadia’s foot.
Another followed.
The armed men had caught up.
Adrian shoved Nadia behind a pillar.
“Stay down!”
He returned fire while the elegant woman appeared from another stairwell.
She tossed Adrian a small flash drive.
“You’ll need this.”
He caught it effortlessly.
“What is it?”
“Everything Vivian died trying to protect.”
Nadia stared at the tiny device.
A flash drive.
People had died over something small enough to fit in a pocket.
⸻
The elegant woman’s expression changed.
She looked past Adrian.
“No…”
A red laser sight appeared on her chest.
A sniper.
“Move!” Adrian shouted.
Too late.
A single shot echoed through the garage.
The woman collapsed.
Nadia screamed.
Adrian rushed to her side.
Blood spread across her white blouse.
With shaking hands, she grabbed Nadia’s arm.
“Listen carefully…”
Her breathing became ragged.
“Your father…”
She coughed violently.
“…wasn’t murdered because of who he was.”
She forced the flash drive into Nadia’s hand.
“He was murdered…”
Another cough.
“…because of you.”
Her hand went limp.
She was dead.
⸻
Silence.
Even the gunfire seemed distant.
Nadia stared at the woman’s lifeless face.
“My father… died because of me?”
Adrian gently pulled her away.
“We have to go.”
“No!”
“Nadia!”
“I need answers!”
“You’ll get them.”
“When?”
“When we survive tonight.”
He dragged her into the silver sedan.
The engine roared to life.
As they sped out of the underground garage, Nadia looked back one last time.
The mysterious woman lay motionless on the cold concrete.
She had died protecting a secret.
A secret connected to Nadia’s father.
And to Nadia herself.
⸻
Miles away, inside a luxurious mansion overlooking the sea, an elderly man watched the chaos unfold on a bank of security monitors.
He smiled.
“They’ve found the girl.”
A younger man standing beside him nodded.
“Should we eliminate her?”
The old man shook his head.
“No.”
He picked up an old photograph from his desk.
In it were three people:
A young Adrian Cross.
Vivian Cole.
And a little girl of about five years old.
The little girl’s face was unmistakable.
It was Nadia.
The old man smiled again.
“She still doesn’t remember.”
- Writer
