The Annihilation

I curl my body into a ball under this soft blanket and feel incredibly lonely. My head is racing with the thoughts of my parents. Are they okay? Why hasn't Aiden visited me yet? Is Liam really going to kill his own brother? I still don't believe that Lucas is dangerous like how they described him to me.

I've spent months with him, and he never hurts me...intentionally.

Were they really talking about the same Lucas that I know? What am I going to tell him after I get back? Oh, I still have the list Peter gave me! I get up from the bed and walk across the room to my jacket where I left the crumpled note. I unfold the paper and see scribbled handwriting all over it.

- draw a map from the stream to the entrance of the camp

- find out about the attack of the Monarch; time and place (starting point)

- how many Fighters does Lucas have

- find Lucas's weaknesses

How am I supposed to find all of this information? Sierra was right; this is a suicide mission!

Someone knocks on the door, and I quickly fold back the paper and shove it back inside my jacket.

"Come in," I say cautiously.

A second later, the door swings open, and Liam appears with something in his hand. "I thought you were asleep," he comes into the room before closing the door behind him.

"Why would you knock if you thought I was asleep then?"

He shrugs carelessly, "I don't know. Courtesy?"

I snort at him. "And you know that keeping me hostage contradicts what you just said. What do you want?" I say while putting my hands on my hips.

Liam chuckles, "you still haven't changed at all. Always bossy and annoying."

I roll my eyes at him.

"I need to tend your wounds and change the bandage. Come sit here with me!" He leads me back to my bed, and I oblige to his command.

He takes out an antibiotic ointment for the bruises and a clean, fresh bandage from the brown paper in his hand. He removes the bandages on my forehead and winces when he looks at the lacerated wound.

"How did you get this cut?" he says while applying a cold ointment on the wound before putting on a new bandage.

"I don't even remember how I got it. There were too many punches aimed at me yesterday." Probably it happened when James dropped me to the ground after I kicked his chest.

Liam's face is only inches away from me. His warm breath brushes my cheeks, and I bet my cheeks have turned into a cherry. He spreads another layer of cold ointment into the bruises on the side of my head. He moves his face even closer to me so that he can get a better look. My hands are twitching on my lap, demanding to push him away. He's too close! But my head eagerly tells me to pull him closer and kiss him, then slap his face hard.

"Why are you suddenly quiet?" Liam asks after he's done tending my wounds.

I just shrug in response. What am I supposed to say? Tell him that I'm nervous whenever he gets too close to me?! And I'm thinking of kissing him after he left me hanging for seven years? Pfft...

He quirks up his lip, and it forms into a sweet smile.

"So," he says. He puts the brown paper bag on the nightstand behind him and rests his back on the pillow. "Do you want to tell me what's happened to you for the past 7 years?"

I narrow my eyes at him. "Do you really want to know?"

"Yeah," he motions for me to sit on the empty bed beside him. "We have three days to catch up for the missing years of our lives."

I chuckle and move closer to him. "Well, then we have to cut our stories short."

Liam takes my hand, and I rest my head on his shoulder. "I'm sorry for leaving you when you were hurt," he rubs my palm with his thumb to comfort me. That would have worked 7 years ago.

"So it was you," I finally breathe out the word of self-assurance I've denied for the past 7 years.

Liam's shoulder heaves up and down as he breathes. "What do you mean?"

I lift my head from his shoulder and look at him. "I heard you that night before you left me. You told me not to go after you or try to find you." I avert my sight from his captivating green eyes. I'm scared I will get trapped there and will never be able to get out again. "Since then, I have always heard your voice in my dreams."

"Those must have been beautiful dreams then," he smirks at me mischievously.

I roll my eyes even though he probably can't see. "Honestly, those were the worst nightmares I've ever endured."

His laugh echoes through the whole room. My heart flutters at the sound of it, and it makes me smile. I missed him so much.

"Why did you leave, Liam?"

He hesitates for a while, but then he squeezes my hand, stopping his thumb from rubbing my skin. He might leave a hole in my hand if he keeps rubbing it.

"After Lucas was gone, the councils of the Monarch started questioning my father. But they turned to me when they didn't get anything from him. They thought I was still in contact with Lucas, and they trailed on every turn I took, every move I made. Then one day after school, they captured me and questioned me. When I told them I had no idea about my brother's whereabouts, they released me just to capture me again the following week."

"Why?" I cut him off. A force of habit.

"To introduce me to Peter," his face shows composure I never thought I would see in him after what he's been through. "Apparently, they already had Peter to find Lucas and other missing Rebels from Suburbia. Did you know 300 Rebels strangely went missing in just a few years?"

I shake my head, pretending that I don't know. Those are the people who reside in the Camp of Fighters. I don't know why I'm faking my nescience even though he had figured out where I came from.

"Peter has already been working on that case for the Monarch," he says matter-of-factly. "The councils found what they were looking for and had already made plans that concluded into one solution. Me."

"What? But why?" I furrow my brows into a frown.

"They wanted me to work with Peter to build an army to fight Lucas's Fighters, of course."

"And you said yes?"

His lips are formed into a thin line before he licks them. Why do I find it sexy when he does that? "I didn't have any choice. They threatened to take my parents," he pauses, and he becomes hesitant suddenly.

"Their ultimatum defeated me. So, I said yes. After four months working with them, I learned about the Monarch's final plan for the Rebels and Anarals." He suddenly stops. His eyes are filled with fear and horror that I wish I never saw.

"What is it?"

"They plan for an annihilation."

I freeze in my seat. My body suddenly becomes cold and lifeless as my soul has already fled its shell. No, that can't happen! What have the Rebels and the Anarals ever done to the Monarch?

"Wait, hold on, I don't understand! Why would the Rebels in the council agree to that idea?"

Liam shakes his head. "They don't even know about the plan! The Royalist council members have planned this behind everyone's back. Every Riotist and Alloyist bloodline in Suburbia will be killed, Ava!"

I am finally scared for my life after 7 years of giving up fighting for it. "Doesn't that mean you're also working for the same plan, to kill everyone? To kill me?" After my realization, I crawl out of bed and move away from him.

Liam quickly comes after me, but I shove him away. "No, you know I would never do that!"

I have no idea what's happening to my body, but it suddenly becomes heavy. When Liam approaches me, I crumble to the floor.

"I eavesdropped when they were having a meeting about it! That's why I ran away after I gathered enough information to try to find Lucas and to warn him." He reaches me before he can say anything else. He continues when he pulls me up and leads me back to bed. "And I'm sorry I couldn't tell Lucas. I thought I was dead that night when I drowned. But I woke up here, and Peter wouldn't let me out since I was here. I wish they never rescued me and left me to die that night."

His last words feel like a punch in the stomach. I cup his face with my shaky hands. "Don't say that, Liam!"

He catches my eye, and I can see how he suffers deep inside. "But I really wish I was," he puts his hands over mine and presses them tighter to his face.

"You don't know what it feels like to be in this situation. I really don't know what to do, Ava! They have my parents, want me to kill my brother, and want me to be a part of this...massacre! I don't know why they need me to be a part of this bullshit if they already have an army. Wouldn't it be better if I just died?"

"Then why are you still here? Why waste 7 years to figure that out?" I let my hands slip off of his face.

He shakes his head weakly. "The only thing that keeps me here is that I need to save my parents. I thought I was trying to save you too... I didn't know you were one of the Fighters! I thought you wouldn't be a part of what I needed to worry about while I planned my escape to find Lucas. But when I found you falling down that gorge, and when I saw your blood..." he pauses and closes his eyes.

"You are the only thing I must worry about. Because after the annihilation, my parents and I will still be safe. Aiden and your parents will be too. I-I thought y-you..." he stutters. "I don't know what happened to you, but when I saw you lifeless, I was shocked because you were not you. That night I realized that my plans had changed."

What will happen to Lucas and me? Are we even Rebels? I can still feel the Obel's blood in my veins. When Lucas cut himself and bled through the water, I witness the Obel's blood that still runs through his body. I can still see the reflection of pain in his eyes when he fights during the training. It's only him as a full Rebel when he gets angry or lets Rebel's adrenaline overpowers his Obel's blood. But would that still make us Rebels? Would the Monarch still wipe us out of this world?

I must stop the Monarch from killing all the Riotist and Alloyist bloodlines! Even if I have to walk through the fire to do it, I would gladly burn myself. But is there really a way out of this mess now?