39 Traitor
1641 Words
Trae ran after Charlie who had just stormed out of the room at that exact moment.
“Max, what’s going on?!” Jules asked in a panicked voice.
Max was too busy focusing on the voice that was speaking at this moment desperately looking for clues as to the situation. He already knew what was going on. Ivan had mistaken Lina for Jules, as both of them had red hair. On Jules’ end, it was pure luck that Ivan didn’t pick her at that moment. However, I don’t think Lina thought of herself as lucky in that situation. Max tried to tune everything out just listening to the voice.
“Max?! What’s happening?!”
He couldn’t hear her at the moment. He was too zoned in.
“Come on Ivan… tell me something, damn it!” Max said in frustration.
It was then that Ivan talked again.
“Sir I thought I was free! Why do you want to meet me again?”
“Payment? I don’t want any payment! I just want to be free!”
“Alright, sir… If you promise to leave me alone after all of it, then fine. I’ll meet you there.”
“You’ll pick me up from… the front of Brooklyn station… 11 pm… Saturday… Ok, I’ll be there.”
“There it is!” Max said as he shot up.
“Max! Please give me some answers! What’s going on?!”
“Jules! I gotta go after them! Stay here!”
He began to get up but she grabbed him by the wrist. He spun his head around and looked at Jules who stood there seething.
“Max! I told you! I told you I’m not just gonna be some maiden. You’re going to tell me what’s going on right now! Or you’re going to take me with you!”
“But Jules!”
“Max, please!”
Max looked back at Jules whose determination and anger were written all over her face. He knew that he couldn’t go against her. Not when everything that was happening was due to the fact that it was her that was being targeted. He knew what that would do to her. So he conceded.
“I’ll tell you everything once we find the others! For now, let’s go! Right now!!”
“Fine! You’d better tell me, Max!”
The two ran out of their room, looking for the fountain that Ivan was referring to in his conversation with the head of the Wolfpack. They could only think of one fountain that Ivan could have been referring to. There was a fountain close to the other edge of the school in the Social Sciences school. There was a small gate there which was normally heavily guarded, but due to the fact that it was close to the evening, the guards were significantly laxer and tended to stay away from there. The two immediately headed toward that fountain at full sprint.
The two plowed past several crowds of students, trying to be able to make it past them in order to get there to catch up to their comrades. After all of their running, they finally reached the fountain. There was a small crowd starting to gather at the commotion that was happening. Two of the guards were trying to separate both Ivan and Charlie from each other. Once they reached the crowd, they could hear exactly what was happening.
“What the f**k have you done, Ivan! Look at what you did!”
Charlie screamed this at the top of his lungs as both Trae and another guard were desperately trying to contain him.
“Now she is gone and it’s all your fault!”
Ivan could feel the guilt stab him in the heart as he burst into tears.
“I just wanted to be free! I was scared, Charlie! You would’ve done the same if you were in my shoes!”
“No, I wouldn’t have! I’d have f*****g died before I let someone die for me, asshole!”
Charlie had flown off the rails completely. It was as if everything was in complete chaos. Charlie was completely furious and off the rails. Trae was having a hard time containing a comrade who was completely beside himself. Jules was crying at the thought of all of this happening because of her. And Max was at a loss, for the first time in a long time.
“Lina got kidnapped ‘cos of you! And you can’t take that s**t back!”
Finally, Charlie got tired and collapsed, barely being held up by the two people who were restraining him. Max finally had the courage to walk up to him, hoping to help Trae prop up Charlie, so that the guard could focus on dissipating the crowd. Within moments, the crowd had dispersed and returned to their rooms. Almost immediately though, they were replaced with police officers who came to take a statement. Charlie and Trae were questioned by the police, along with Ivan who was sitting separately from the others.
“Max… you told me you would tell me exactly what happened… I think I figured it out.”
Max said nothing in reply to that. He knew that if he said anything it would only break her heart further.
“Lina… They mixed her up for me, didn’t they?”
Max hung his head and said nothing. This was enough confirmation on her end. She knew it to be true. Tears started to stream down her face again, not so much out of sorrow, but out of pure frustration at the situation that she was in, as well as the one that Lina was in right now. She couldn’t help but feel that everything that was going one was her fault. She pressed her face into her knees and let out a loud cry of anguish that rang through the area. Max tried to wrap his arms around her, but she pushed him away.
“It’s my fault! It’s my fault isn’t it, Max?!”
“No one could have known, Jules!”
“I should have! I should have known! I should have taken more precautions with my guards. I should have made it so that none of my friends would be in danger because of me!”
Max looked at her as his heart began to break in his chest. Although, he knew that Jules’ heart must have been in a much more dire situation.
“I should have been stronger, Max… I should have been more decisive with what I wanted to do with regard to the responsibility I carry, like the one being targeted by all of these people!”
Suddenly, she calmed down considerably almost as if she was despondent as if no one in the world could fix the hurt that she was feeling. She turned around and began to walk back to the dorms.
“I gotta think for a while, Max. Please leave me alone until I come back to you?”
Max knew that there was no changing her mind.
“Ok, Jules. Go ahead.”
“Thanks… I’m sorry. See you later.”
She walked off into the darkness, barely lit by the lamp posts that littered the walkway back to their dorms. Just as she left, Trae and Charlie were able to make it back to the bench that Max found himself sitting on. They all watched as a frantic and sobbing Ivan was dragged into a police cruiser. They would most probably try him for being an accomplice. However, Max knew that if he was associated with the Wolfpack, it wouldn’t be long before he would be let back out. Nevertheless, there was definitely no more room for him within their ranks.
Just as he was thinking about this however, Charlie walked right up to him and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.
“Why didn’t you follow me, Max?” he said, as he anger was starting to build in his voice.
“Ivan… I had to stay behind to listen for clues-”
“I don’t give a f**k about any clues!”
Max looked at Charlie, initially in anger. But as he looked closer at Charlie’s face, he saw that his eyes were puffy and his nose was red. Clearly, this was not the time to retaliate. Not after what had happened.
“What do you want me to say, Charlie?”
“I want to know why you didn’t run after her!”
“I told you-”
“Do you know what she was saying as they took her away?!”
Max looked, listening for what he was going to say. Within moments, Charlie told him exactly what it was that made him so upset with what he had done.
“I was able to catch a glimpse of her, being forced into the side of a black van… I saw her. And I ran as hard as I could. She was being muffled by the hands of the people that took her but she was only able to shout one word. Do you know what that word was?”
Max didn’t say anything, knowing that Charlie would continue anyway. His eyes widened as he heard what Charlie said.
“She called out your name, Max… She f*****g called out your name. She wanted you to come and save her, and where were you?”
“Charlie… I-”
“You nothing! You didn’t do anything! You were the one she wanted to see the most, and you weren’t there! I was barely able to catch a glimpse of her, but I don’t think she even saw me at all! Even if I wanted to save her, she only wanted you, Max!”
His voice cracked as he started to break down. The tears rushed down and pooled into small puddles on the pavement. Charlie let go of Max’s collar and took a few steps backward.
“I don’t care what you do, Max. But I’m going to look for her. I don’t care how long it takes! And even if you care about her the tiniest bit, you should do the same. But honestly, I don’t care. Whether it’s me or you that ends up saving her… All that matters is that she gets saved.”
With that, Charlie turns around and walks in the opposite direction. For the first time in a long time, it was only Max and Trae left behind.
- Writer
