13

Four Days Later...

I rolled down my window as we drove through New York City. We've been driving for four days, most of the roads were blocked by abandoned cars, forcing us to take detours or clean roads.

But look, we're finally here. In New York City. I'm one step closer to finding my dad, one step closer to taking revenge on Serene and her gang of thieves. And it's all thanks to Ronan. 

"Get down, Hailey-Jade." Ronan suddenly told me in a warning tone. My eyes caught a glimpse of ten gunmen lined up in the middle of the highway. 

"Stop the vehicle!" They yelled but Ronan kept driving. I ducked and got down, doing as Ronan told me and tried my best not to panic. 

"Stop the vehicle!" The same voice rang through my ears again. I squeezed my eyes shut as loud shots started going off all around us. 

"Find a weapon." Ronan instructed so I grabbed the closest weapon I could get. A pocket knife. I slipped it into one of the many pockets on my cargo pants before covering my head with my arms again. 

The car came to an abrupt stop so I wildly looked over at Ronan. My eyes widened when I found that he had been shot in the chest. 

"Ronan?" I called him in panic and he placed a hand to the aching wound on his chest. 

"Take her," I heard someone saying, and before I could register what was going on the door opened from beside me. Someone roughly pulled me out of the car and I yelled at them to let me go. 

I called for Ronan, called his name until the words started tasting bitter on my tongue. 

"Leave him. The rotters will take care of him." I heard a man yelling at someone from behind me. I started screaming louder, reaching for Ronan with everything inside of me but he didn't respond to any of my cries. 

"Let me go!" I angrily yelled at the man who was carrying me. I kicked and punched him in the abdomen, as hard as I could but he didn't seem to feel any of the blows I sent his way. 

I finally gave up once my muscles started growing tired. And all I could do was watch, as they carried me into a dark building. 

It seemed like an empty office building. There was blood everywhere. On the marbled floors, the glass walls, even the staircase we took upstairs was dripping with blood. The smell of decay burned my nostrils.

We stopped in front of a white door and the man carrying me, knocked three times. The door was pulled open for him from the inside and he meticulously moved forward, and the white door softly closed behind us. 

"Tiny?" I heard a male voice addressing the man, holding me and I almost laughed at the irony. Who the hell would call a giant, Tiny?

"We found her on the highway, Boss. She was with a guy but we left him for the rotters." Tiny uttered in a monstrously thick voice. 

"Put her on the couch." His boss demanded and Tiny gently placed me down on the couch. "You may leave us." He blankly stated and I reached for the pocket knife in my waistband while the 'boss' wasn't watching me. He turned around to look at me and I strategically went back to the position I was lying in before. Frozen, hoping he hadn't noticed what I was trying to do. 

"Such a pretty little thing." He uttered before sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch. He leaned in closer to my face before lifting a strand of my hair into his hand and a cold shiver ran down my spine. He placed my hair in front of his nose before inhaling deeply.

I took the opportunity to reach for the knife, safely tucked away in my waistband, again. I opened the knife and aimed for his neck. My hand was caught in the air, he squeezed my wrist in his hand and the knife dropped out of my hand. 

I gasped out in pain and he angrily let go of my arm again. 

"That's not very nice, little thing. And here I thought we were getting along." He told me. 

"I don't get along with perverts." I angrily spat at him before scratching him across the face. He stumbled back from me while holding a hand to his cheek. 

"I'm Marco and you're fiesty." He laughed before coming over to me again and I reached for my knife again.

"Stay back!" I angrily yelled at him. 

"Wanna know something crazy about me, Fiesty?" He asked me and I stared at him in fear. "I'm half man, half rotter-" He uttered before lifting his shirt all the way up to his shoulder. 

The knife dropped from my hand when I saw a healed bite mark on his arm. 

"-and I have this theory that you could be too." He smiled a sick smile at me and I backed away from him in horror. 

"Bring him in." Marco uttered and the door opened behind me and in barged a rotter, his head twitching to the side. The rotter aggressively stormed at me and my eyes widened in shock. I tried to push the rotter off of me but it pushed me into a wall instead. 

My back ached at the impact and my grip loosened on its shirt. The rotter took the opportunity and bit into the flesh on my forearm. 

A horrified scream left my mouth as the rotter pulled back from me, his mouth covered in blood as he hungrily glared at me.

"Take him away, now! Get him off her!" Marco yelled at his men and they quickly entered the room and removed the rotter from his office. My eyes slowly fluttered shut as I laid on the ground. Bleeding out. The last sound I heard was Marco- laughing at me...