Omega Phoenix: Hunted

Chapter 3

3

Liam

Fury is coursing through my body. I’m fighting all my instincts to stay in control of myself, to not start throwing things. I’m not like Zack, I don’t take my emotions out on the furniture, I can keep myself under control, though it’s not easy right now. Not with what just happened.

After I got the notification that there was an article which mentioned us and a potential ‘Alpha hideaway at the coast’, I called someone who I’ve worked with before, a reporter, to get more information. Azure is an Alpha harpy who works for a company that writes articles for newspapers, websites and magazines.

I created a notification system for her a few years back, it’s similar to what I’m using right now to track mentions of us in the media. She needed it so she could get updates about specific obscure subjects. For research, she said and I found it easier to just not question it.

But with all the s**t going on with us right now, I thought it a good idea to get back in touch with her. Especially if she could get me information before it would show up on some website or news channel, give us a head’s up about things. Maybe then we could control the flow of information before it hit the big channels, or at least prepare for it.

While I was on the phone with Azure, I saw more notifications flood in, one of them was from a TV channel. So I turned the TV on to check it out, and saw this s**t. How the hell did they find that house?

Not that I’m really surprised that they did, I’m mostly just annoyed. Annoyed that we’d let our guard down, that we didn’t think to make sure to cover our tracks extra carefully, that we were found out so quickly. We must have messed up somewhere.

Since we still don’t have a real plan of what we’re going to do next, how we’re going to try to get out of this situation, how we’re going to make sure that they won’t take Cyra from us, it’ll be bad if they track us to this house. We can’t be found, not now, not ever.

The others stare at the TV, until Cyra shakes her head in anger and turns it off. “It’s no use to keep watching. We’re not going to learn anything new. We know exactly what that place looks like. We were there just two days ago. We need to stop. Stop and think. We can’t keep fleeing from them. We can’t keep fleeing from reporters, my family, the law.”

She turns to me. “Is there a way to get our story out to the media so that their version isn’t the only one people hear? A way for us to counter their claims, to show that there’s a lot more going on than my parents are willing to admit?”

I shrug. “Sure. But what do you want to say? What’s your message going to be? Just saying that they’re lying isn’t going to change things, that will be just your word against theirs.” Because who is going to listen to her, or us, after all the lies her parents have been spreading?

People will think that we’re holding a grudge or that we’re trying to make her parents look bad, simply because we’re telling the truth. Because, right now, the truth doesn’t matter, not if the world around us already believe the lies.

Cyra thinks for a moment. “I want to make people see that the story my parents are spinning isn’t based on facts. I want to make people doubt them. To challenge what my parents are saying with facts instead of their pretty stories.”

She looks to Zack and Spence, determination in her eyes. “Where are the boxes that came from my apartment? I could show people the lease to my apartment. Or the work permits they signed for me. Those would prove that my parents knew where I was, that them claiming I was missing is a lie. That might be a way to make people doubt the other things my parents are saying too.” Though, as she keeps talking, she becomes less and less sure of her words.

“Sounds like a plan?” But the way Max says it, he doesn’t seem convinced. “You said you lived in the apartment for years. What if your parents spin it to say that you went missing after the dates on those documents?”

Cyra pulls a face, her shoulders sagging. “We’ll deal with that when they do. It will still show that some of the things they’ve been saying are lies, or, at least, that there’s more to their story than they’re telling right now.” She sighs. “We need to do something. We need to start countering the lies, or we’ll never get out of this. Us hiding out in remote places the whole time and not saying anything to anyone isn’t helping us, that’s obvious. It makes it seem like we’re agreeing with what they’re saying, just because we’re not refuting their lies.”

Zack nods, his eyes calculating. “I’ll see about the files. I’ll go look through the boxes. It might help. Get something out there, something to counter their narrative.” He walks off and Spence frowns, thinking.

“I know that some of us have skirted close to the law before, but we’ve never gotten into real trouble. That has to account for something, right? That has to make it easier for people to believe us, right?” He looks to each of us, but it’s Cyra who answers him.

“What do you think people are more interested in, some silly gossip or the boring truth? My parents are able to get away with this because it’s got all the elements of juicy drama. Something out of a movie or a TV show, too ridiculous to be real, but deliciously dramatic. Great for gossip and speculation. People like that a lot more than whatever truth we’ve got to offer them.” She sighs, glancing at the TV, even though it’s off, her eyes far away. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t fight back. We have to. Because if we don’t, then we’ll never get out of this. We’ll never be able to have a normal life. At least as normal as people in our situation can have.”

“What do you want to do?” I step closer to her, reaching out, trailing my fingers over her arm. “This is your call. You tell us what you want. This needs to come from you.”

She looks at me, her amber eyes filled with heat as she makes a decision. “Do you have someone you could contact to get our story out there? Someone you trust, at least enough to do this and not f**k us over?”

I nod slowly. “I’ve got someone, but she will go wherever the story takes her. She’ll probably write something in our favour, but we might not be able to control the whole conversation.”

“That’s okay. What we’ve got is juicy enough for at least one article from our perspective.” Cyra nods, her voice stronger now. “We just need to give her enough to make it clear that my parents are telling bullshit stories. What happens after that will happen, we can’t control it all.”

“Okay. I’ll call Azure. See what she thinks of it.”

Azure had already been following our story anyway, and when I called her earlier, she seemed really curious. But I didn’t want to give her any info unless Cyra agreed to it, and now Cyra actually wants to publish her side of the story. It’ll probably make Azure very happy, this story could be big, especially now she’s got a source on the inside of the story...

But I don’t like the idea of sharing everything we know with the world. It’s bad enough that Cyra’s parents are using the media this way, but I don’t like it. I don’t like it at all.

“Are you sure you want me to share this?” Azure’s voice sounds incredulous over the video call. “Your address is on it, and so is your parents’, and of the places that you work at. It would expose a lot of your past to the whole world. I can’t control what happens when people get this information.”

Cyra looks more sure now than she did earlier, her eyes grim. “They’ll find the cafe soon enough. And the princess company doesn’t really have an office and they could use the extra business. They can’t really do much ‘damage’ there.”

“And your and your parents’ address?” Azure presses.

“I don’t care. Not anymore.” Cyra’s voice is rough. “My parents have already taken away any chance I had of ever going back to the apartment. And their address... That’s not a secret anyway. Everyone knows where my parents live, they’ve always had paparazzi parked in front of the house.”

Zack makes a sound as he moves. “Paparazzi are following her parents around right now. Her parents have already visited Cyra’s apartment multiple times, so it’s not really a secret anymore where she used to live.” Cyra spins in his direction, her eyes wide and Zack shrugs. “I asked my guy to keep an eye on your place. See if your parents would show up and what they’d do. They’ve only stayed outside for now. They keep returning, like they somehow hope you’ll open the door for them or something.”

Cyra narrows her eyes. “But why? Why would they visit if they know it will out their lies? It will show that they know where I live.”

“Hell.” Azure sighs, not sounding surprised in the least. “They play the game well. I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve actually got a PR person behind their every move, at least since Sunday morning. Your parents are visiting your apartment, and aren’t going inside even if they could, because they want someone to ‘accidentally’ find them there. They want someone to see how you’re ‘ignoring’ them, even when they’re supposedly trying to contact you. When they’ve ‘finally’ found the place you’ve been staying at all that time, you won’t give them the time of day.”

“But I’m not even there. They know that, everyone knows that by now. How can they get anything from it if I’m not even there?” Cyra frowns, shaking her head.

“It shows that they can’t get in.” I growl, understanding what Azure means with all of this being planned. “They’re locked out. So they obviously don’t have a key and nobody is feeling sorry enough for them to let them. Poor them. Poor mistreated parents, nobody is willing to help them.”

The play is so obvious. Why are people still falling for it? Then I think back to what Cyra said, the drama her parents are spinning is so interesting that people don’t really care about the truth, just the tragedy. This whole drama will spawn dozens of book series, TV shows, movies. Which is appropriate, because it’s all fiction anyway, a pretty story Cyra’s parents are spinning.

“Of course.” Cyra nods, letting out a short laugh that has no joy in it. “That makes sense. And fits right in with what they’ve been doing these last days. They don’t have to explain how they knew about my apartment or my jobs before it was revealed in the media, they can just say some investigator or ‘someone in my circles who felt bad for them’ told them. Makes it even juicier too.”

Azure nods, thinking. “So, you’re really okay with sharing this information? Even if it will implicate the places where you worked? Even if they might get crap for it?” She is looking at Cyra closely, and Cyra nods.

“Yes.” Cyra’s voice is firm. “I can make it up with the cafe or the princess company if I need to, but my parents’ lies need to be exposed. This is one way that we can do that. We’ve got the proof, we just need to use it.”

“Okay. I’ll see what I can do. I can’t promise anything, you know that, right? I might not be able to find a big enough media outlet to run it.”

“I don’t need a big place immediately.” Cyra smiles slightly. “I just need it out there that this information is available. Small publications to begin with, and then grow them as other places pick up the story. It looks more believable that way. It looks more like ‘someone did groundwork’, which makes it easier for other people to believe it.”

Azure makes a few notes. “And do you want them to know that you provided these documents? That they’re coming from you? To show their validity?”

Cyra thinks. “Not yet. It might become useful later, but for now, I don’t need my name attached to it. It might be better if people think this is coming from some obscure source and not from me directly.”

Azure nods. “Okay. I’ll get back in touch with you in a little while. For now, please, stay safe. This media circus is insane and very dangerous. And Liam...” She waits for me to look her way. “If this blows up in my face, you owe me another one of your little programs.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I try to smile, but it feels fake, and then Azure disconnects the call.

Oh, hell. How is this going to work out? We’re now giving up control over our own story. We’re giving up a lot of the control we’ve not even used until this point, and that’s scary. That’s f*****g scary.

But it does feel like this is the only way to fight Cyra’s parents a little... Just a little...