Chapter 04

13 years ago {2007}

"Stop! This isn't you Andros and you know it!" My mom yelled as both my brother and I rushed to our parent's room

"Shut up you bitch!" My father replied before he punched my mother causing her lips to bleed

"Mommy what's happening?" I asked as I rushed to her

"Go back to head baby-" She replied right before my father pushed me away from her causing my back to fall to the floor

"Sissy" My brother shouted as he helped me get back to my own little feet

"It hurts" I said as I spoke wiping off the tears in my eyes

"Stop crying! For fucks sake!" My father shouted causing both my brother and I to go back to our room as my mother was left all alone being treated as my father's punching bag

LIA {present}

——

I continued to punch the wall until it bled giving bruises on my knuckles and because we heard the wall crack.

My brain was a mess. A part of me wanted to make a whole hypothesis about what was happening while another part of me was just panicking. My brain was a scrambled egg at this point.

We heard my phone buzz causing both Ares and I to snap out of our trance. As I picked up the phone, I once again looked at the caller ID to only see once again the word 'unknown'.

{in-call}

Lia : Hello?

Caller : My dear daughter

Lia : Andros?!

Caller : It's father to you

???

——

"You're finally here Moreau" I spoke as I played with the weapons we stole from the institute

"Why am I even doing this?" He asked as he put down the files of students he stole from the academy as well

"Remember your Father's gang owes me" I replied as I smirked

"What's next? They're obviously suspicious of me now since I'm on their suspect's list"

"Knowing Kllian, he would probably get Kalliah to talk to you since you both have interacted already. They will all be on high alert with you making it easier to steal from the academy as the focus will all be on you" I said as I smirked once again realizing how convenient this was for us.

"Why are you even doing this to them"

"Because I want my children to pay for abandoning their father" I said as I threw the knife on the wall

LIA

——

{in-call}

Lia : why are you calling me? Last time I checked you didn't care less for your children in fact you even punch them

Caller : Now now, no need to be petty. I just called to say something

Lia : Well spit it out, unlike you I don't have all day

Caller : Surveille ton dos ma chère fille

And just like the call ended making my blood boil. Ares looked at my frustrated face confused as he didn't hear our conversation but he knew just by the look on my face it was about Andros.

What really caught my attention was his last sentence. Surveille ton dos ma chère fille. Watch your back my dear girl, what could it mean? Fuck was the only thing I could think about, I can't handle all these emotions at once.

I decided to punch the wall once again, not caring about how much my knuckles bled nor how numb I was. All I could think about was that selfish, idiotic, motherfucking idiot and I hate that I was even related to him.

My brother decided to track down the number as I tried to calm down. We still had classes which made my blood boil more but I had to try my best to calm myself as I remembered I still had a job to do.

After our classes had ended, I decided to go back to my room and calm myself down right before somebody grabbed my hand. For a split second I was shocked but I still composed myself knowing nobody, I mean nobody should be able to read me.

"Hey Kalliah" A guy with a husky voice said making me look into his familiar eyes

"Xander, what're you doing?" I asked still confused but once again I decided not to show any emotion on my face not allowing to risk blowing my cover

"I wanted to ask if you had something to do this Saturday?" He asked looking flustered as I scanned him

He was readable as heck. He was someone who was socially awkward not like how his masculine figure makes him out to be. I knew better than to trust what I can read off him since he was still at the suspect's list.

"No, I'm free" I replied as I faked a smile knowing this was a great opportunity to learn more about him

"Would you like to have dinner with me on Saturday night?" He asked almost whispering the last part as I chuckled

"Sure" I said as I gave him a piece of paper with numbers on it

"Call me" I responded of course putting the number of an old phone without any risk of me being hacked.

I quickly reported to Kllian as soon as I finished talking to Xander. It was set, I was going to have dinner with him as a 'date' as I casually asked him about certain questions.

The only thing that couldn't go my way was that a specific someone from the team had to escort me since Kllian wasn't convinced it was safe for me to go alone. He was going to pick someone tonight, the only ones who can't be my 'bodyguard' would of course be my brother, Heccariah, and AM. Being left with either Nerion or Lennox leaving me to only hope I'd get Nerion.

As I made my way back to my dorm room, I accidentally hit someone by the shoulder causing him or her to almost fall down as well as her documents getting messed up on the floor.

"I'm so sorry" I spoke as I helped her arrange her documents back to how it was before

"It's fine really" She replied as she helped at picking her own documents as well

The way she spoke was something familiar yet still had this unfamiliarity to it. It had the same sweet voice and gentle poise my mother possessed. There it was as she stared at me smiling, I saw her emerald green eyes and pale complexion of which both my brother and I inherited from her. Her elegant poise showing as she smiled and stood up while I continued to stare at her in awe.

She was alive and yet she never came back for us. Those were the only thoughts that formed and swirled inside my mind.

"Mom..." I spoke as I felt the tears that I tried to hold back begin to fall down my cheeks

She finally looked at me as she gasped finally realizing who I am

"Kalliah-" She spoke as I just left and ran to my room slamming the door on her face refusing to believe she left us starving and to fend for ourselves while she was having the greatest life she could ever ask for.

Once again, we had our secret class. I heard my alarm clock buzz as I woke up feeling the dried-up thick mascara that streamed down my face because of the incident earlier. I looked to my mirror only to see my eyes redder than usual because of all the unnecessary crying. I was never going to see her again and I was fine with that. I had been fine with it for the last 12 years.

We had training, more specifically group training as you call it. Apparently, we had to be able to find the hidden object while trying not to get shot by an opponent in this stimulation. It was like laser tag only with a hidden object and instead of lasers we use wax bullets.

"Start" Kllian shouted signaling the start of the 3-hour timer

Shit. I didn't know where to start. I started to scan the room as we ran to the other side of the stimulation. We were split into groups. Team A and Team B, Team A being my team with Lennox, and AM.

2 hours was left as Lennox, AM, and I decided to split to save some time. I kept on running until I realized I kept on running in circles around the stimulation. With only an hour left, I decided to follow my instinct on where I think is the object. I decided to run for it knowing that either my brother or I would be the one to find out the 'object'.

My earpiece rang as I pressed it while I continued to run.

"Where are you?" I heard AM ask as I kept on running

"I think I figured it out, go to the hospital and meet me outside the building" I replied as I bumped into a muscular figure

It was Nerion pointing a gun at me as I smirked. I slapped the gun out of his hands as I jumped on his shoulder making him unable to grab me as I grabbed my gun and shouted at his foot while I jumped down while I shot his knees as well.

I quickly ran to the hospital knowing we had 30 minutes left. Shit. I ran as quickly as I can while I looked at Lennox and AM trying to catch me. AM decided to guard the entrance as Lennox and I decided to check the interior of the hospital trying to find the 'object' right before we came across room 2015. We saw Heccariah all tied up as she sat on the bed.

"Watch my six?" I asked Lennox as I faced him

"What do you take me for Laurent?" He asked while I nodded as well while he guarded the door

I heard a gunshot outside the interior of the building as I looked at Lennox, they were here. I tried to get Heccariah quickly out of the ropes as I looked at my watch looking at the remaining minutes. 15, I had 15 minutes left to protect Heccariah before we can be considered as winners.

We heard footsteps making its way near the hallway of Heccariah's room. Lennox and I quickly got a hold of our guns preparing for the attack. We saw both my brother and Nerion getting ready to shoot us. I tried to protect Heccariah as long as I could while Lennox found a way to stall them. 2 more minutes was left before we could transport back to the training room.

"Shit" I heard Lennox say right before we were transported back to the Academy, he was shot by the wax bullet in his shoulder as he continued to whine

"Suck it up son, it's only a wax bullet get over it" Kllian said as he rolled his eyes

"Congrats Team A" He greeted as well

"How did you find out?" He asked curious if we found his clues which I did

"I simply followed the signed all around the stimulations, it had the word Rita Ora with the number 0518. It was her song Poison which led me to the people who specializes in poison. Since, AM was in my team I figured the only one who wasn't was Heccariah which is why she was the 'object'. I came to the conclusion it was the hospital since all the signs pointed to the direction of the Hospital though if you didn't notice the T in Rita Ora that was made into an arrow you would've missed it. Then that's where we found her room using the year the song was released, Room 2015." I replied as I explained my answer further

"Well congrats once again Team A" Kllian spoke as we continued to celebrate while Team B continued to sulk

"Hey, thank you for watching my back" I spoke to Lennox as he nodded and replied

"That's what teammates are for" He said as he sipped from the water bottle he was holding which smelled like Bourbon.

As we continued to celebrate, we heard the door creaked as it opened revealing an elegant yet familiar figure.

"Sorry I'm late" she spoke

Shit.