“Where the fuck is she now and who did this to her?”, Zhackary constantly catches his breath as he spoke through the phone call while running along with Jaden and the twins to where Shino was.

“We brought her to the emergency room right after seeing her, she’s all black and blue”, Shino replied with an obviously tensed voice, his words quivered as he spoke.

And in the background, Gina and Czar’s voice was heard, yelling to each other about Keisha’s condition. Gina’s sharp voice punched through Zhackary’s ear as she said, “WE COULDN’T SEE WHAT WAS GOING ON BECAUSE YOU TURNED OFF THE CAMERAS INSTALLED IN THAT AREA!”

On the other hand, Czar who was now crying, pleaded that she did not turn everything off that specific time and that someone hacked into it. “I locked the security room last night, Gina. Why do you keep on blaming me when you couldn’t even help Zhackary to assign people to patrol in that area at night?”

“I’m really sorry about the commotion between the two, please hurry up and summon Rhianna from ward number seventeen to help me treat Keisha”, Shino apologized then hurriedly turned down the call.

By the time they got to the med department where Keisha was taken, they first got past the ward to tell Rhianna to follow as well. Her face was full of shock though it did not impress the protagonist’s younger brother; instead, he laughed at her and said, “Nice act, Rhianna.”

The woman tried keeping her composure and just glared at the lad immensely. Zhackary noticed the growing tension between the two executives and he began questioning them with a serious tone of approach as they walked through the halls towards the emergency ward. “Is there a problem between the two of you?”

Jaden’s eyes rolled, grinning from one side of his face as he breathed in another word to say, “If I hadn’t drained kuya Shino regarding my sister’s condition, I wouldn’t have known that that egocentric, mad scientist injected poison into my sister’s body. And now she’s bold enough to invade somebody else’s life just to treat her like a puppet. Is that right, Rhianna?”

Rhianna refused to answer but instead sped up her walking to avoid Zhackary’s possible response. She proceeded on with her teeth chattering and biting on to her long nail as if she’s being chased down by some lunatic trying to apprehend her, though we are aware enough that she’s frightened of Jaden’s capability to take away her close-to-successful creation ー her one and only, the Seditio Syndrome.

“Ah, so you’ve found out”, Zhackary casually responded to Jaden’s sudden sneers, his eyes fixated towards the jittery Rhianna’s direction where he could see her sweat dripping down on the back of her neck clearly because of her cleanly tied hair. They were about six rooms away from the emergency room where the rest of the executives were, it would only take them about ten to twelve steps to walk from one room to another.

“Can’t see the reason why you had the necessity to keep the information away from me as if I have the inability to comprehend things. In fact, I should have the right to know it first because I am her brother”, Jaden fired back with another savagery but didn’t affect Zhackary to react similarly as Rhianna, whose face was turning white as snow.

“So what if we told you about it?”, Zhackary said and they were only two rooms away from their final destination.

“Nikolai, do you think that a prodigy like me couldn’t save my sister from falling apart just because I’m younger than any of these people?”, after Jaden proudly asked the young lady, he snapped then awoke the dissociative one from her walking daydreams. Nikkoi, who was standing next to her, repeated the same question for her to comprehend.

Not a second longer, she answered, “Mister Zhack, I think most of you love underestimating those who are younger than you. Jaden had already won tons of awards because of his excellency in biotechnology. I think you must’ve forgotten the reason behind his leadership in the newly constructed department where you have assigned us to execute our tasks.”

Zhackary could not answer back after experiencing a blockage in his mind to lose the argument. So, he just made use of the opportunity to avoid it by the time they met Shino, waiting at the door of the hospital room, who was turning red in anger. His stiffness became unconcealed as if he and the others had found out something that would infuriate them all ー the proof that justifies the person behind the mayhem that happened earlier that midnight.

“What happened? How’s Keisha doing now?”, he questioned the tall lad standing in front of them.

Shino responded silently that he just let them inside to see for themselves. Keisha was sitting upright on her bed, with a lot of bruises and deep scars plastered on almost every part of her body. Although they were evidently healing slowly that made them guess that it was Seditio’s doing. Rhianna, instead of celebrating about it, she stayed silent.

Shino was mad at the fact that no one could even touch her and treat her wounds made by someone cruel enough to boldly do this to her. From across her bed was Czar, holding up an ice bag to her head and her left arm had scratches on it caused by someone who had long nails ー no wonder Shino was blazing because his girlfriend was hurt who was just trying to tend to her.

Zhackary suddenly felt a sharp and excruciating pain coming from the left side of his head when at the same time, Keisha’s eyes turned pitch black and blood began to stream down from them.

“ARGH! HE-ELP! IT HURTS!! ARRRGGHH!!”, he pleaded with his eyes turning the same as Keisha’s ー evidently being eaten by her inhumane and strong thoughts that he couldn’t control. Shino and Jeffery went up to him immediately as soon as he fell down on the cold floor out of the pain he’s experiencing.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

“If it weren’t for your control, I wouldn’t have been abused by this! They wouldn’t even dare ruin my brother’s food! THEY WOULDN’T EVEN DARE TAKING ALL THOSE IMPORTANT THINGS FROM ME! THEY TOOK EVERYTHING! THEY FUCKING TOOK EVERYTHING!”, Keisha began to swiftly dash towards his direction to strangle him. Her voice sounded like a demon given a chance to ascend in this cruel world where humans were the true source of evil. Her decent long nails started to pierce through his neck; blood dripping from them and eyes began to roll up. Zhackary’s time was almost running out because of Keisha’s incredible strength to overpower the man she’s strangling to death.

Her world turned upside down when she heard his brother say, “I’d call you a murderer for that”, whose voice was too arrogant that it was impossible for everyone to believe that he could say that against his only sibling. It caught her attention well enough that she once again let go of the person she’s ought to kill then quickly sprinted to her brother’s direction.

“You think THAT will scare me?”, Keisha, who was now apparently, beastly enough to not recognize her brother, told him as if Lucifer had been commanding her to act like one.

Jaden presented to her his careless outlook, appearing like a fearless action star in a horror movie, grinned from ear to ear then said, “I think not, but being treated as a nobody will do. Including the people you love and care about will leave you after you show everyone your true colors. NOBODY will like you anymore. And YOU won’t exist.”

The room began to be filled with her earripping shriek, similar to a pterodactyl’s, she dashed closer to her brother about to claw on him. But before she could successfully put harm on him, Jaden shouted, “NOW!”

All of a sudden, her vision turned darker and darker until she’s finally put into a deep slumber. The one who tranquilized her was none other than our silent boy, Nikkoi. Everyone was in shock when Keisha was put to sleep when they failed to tame her back at the minefield incident. Their faces were filled with, ‘how’ glued right on their expressions.

Non-hesitantly, Jaden explained, “It was a tranquilizer but was specialized for the symptoms of Seditio itself. This was the quickest project I’ve worked on ever since that incident. I, too, couldn’t believe my own eyes that it worked.”

Keisha, who was lying face down on the floor, was lifted back to the bed by Rocky. It was then followed by Jaden commanding them to, “tie her up”, left them no choice because he seemed to be far more superior than any of the faction executives existing to give enough help to Keisha to recover.

Not a little while, footsteps at an alarming pace grew louder through the halls and into the very door of the emergency room. It was followed by a thud from a collision between that person and the wooden door of the facility. Ruby, all exhausted, sweaty and worn-out ran all the way from Zhackary’s home to the department.

It was not said that Keisha decided to head back to her previous tent after feeling uncomfortable sleeping too close to Zhackary because of a dare but it happened after the games. After finishing her initial unpacking, she remembered her duty on making her brother’s meal. And so, afterwards, the ruthless event took over.

“I saw them! I SAW THEM BREAK INTO NINI’S TENT AND STOLE EVERYTHING!”

Everyone’s attention was caught by her exhausted yelling like a loud thunder piercing to each of their ears. Ruby now looked entirely different than what Jaden and the twins witnessed before. She wore a black tee and a pair of bleach-washed shorts and a pair of black boots just about five inches high on her legs. Others weren’t aware of the newcomer from the past week’s fieldwork from the biotech department so they just stared at the beauty who was constantly catching her breath, standing at the doorstep.

Nikolai gasped, “SHE CAN TALK?”

“I-It was the tall girl with highlighted hair. And there’s a man who was wearing a mask at the time! Then the rest of the people… beat her”, she ran towards Zhackary then hugged him full of tears in her eyes.

Zhackary hugged her back as if it was his child that he’s keeping with Keisha, he replied with a raspy voice after being choked almost to death, “You should sit down first and rest. Let’s talk it out right after.”

Gina handed her a decent cold glass of distilled water from the dispenser sitting near the vent on the east of the room. Ruby smiled at her sweetly that it flattered the iron girl as she accepted it. After drinking the sweet glass of water, she noticed Zhackary holding his neck that was almost bleeding from Keisha’s nails punched through his skin.

She did not hesitate to ask him in a real concerned way, already aware of the one who put harm on the one who was taking care of her, “Nini did this, didn’t she?”

He just nodded at her with weary eyes then switched his focus on Keisha who was now chained to the bed, in case she’d be put to outrage again. About ten minutes passed, Rocky sat down to a stool beside Gina then began to break the silence.

“May I ask the princess the thing that’s bothering her since she got here?”

Ruby knew what Rocky was talking about and by her eyes, she was eager enough to help everyone to solve Keisha’s black and blue case. Her hands were still wrapped around the glass of water that was now half full after she drank to it. It was sitting on her lap to keep it from spilling.

“I was about to head to Nini’s after Mister Zhack convinced me to sleep with her instead because we’re both girls. I agreed and told him that we’ll be back at his place at seven in the morning for breakfast”, she began stating her side and with her tone she swore that she was telling the truth. She took another sip from her glass before she could continue the other, she said, “So I walked west to where she’s heading when a group of people led by a tall girl with blond highlights on. They’ve beaten her up and destroyed the packed dinner for her brother.”

A loud slam on a desk startled them and it was Jaden who was now burning like a kettle in anger, “No wonder she didn’t go to my place that night and was odd because she wasn’t forgetful. And… that bitch.”

As suspected, everyone knew one of the culprits of the cruel event ーRegan, the insecure one who loves to put danger on to everyone she wished to destroy.

Shino cut in to also interrogate the witness of the unsolved case, he asked Ruby, “How about the other guy you’ve told us earlier? Have you seen any clues from him to help us investigate who he was?”

Ruby shook her head out of mere disappointment because she wasn’t aware of anyone in the faction yet except for Keisha, Zhackary, Rhianna, the twins and Jaden. Though she added, “All I could remember was that he was a bit fatter in size but not the exaggerated one. He’s wearing a moss green jacket and a mask. His hair was brushed up and I think… He has a scar on the right part of his forehead although I’m not sure if there’s really any or it’s just the light shining behind them.”

Rocky again pursued the conversation by telling his co-executives, “Remember the last meeting’s conclusion regarding the games? There might be a possibility that there are traitors inside that leaked our confidential matters.”

Everyone’s face lit up in enthusiasm with the fact that they were getting closer to the answers they were finding ever since their loss from the games initiated by the beast in Cipher.