I nearly rolled my eyes, remembering that was all he’d ever said to me before he left. Maybe he’d been right all along. I’d nearly been killed twice since. “This happened yesterday. Obviously I couldn’t get on the train.”
“Then why did Thrax say you did?” he muttered, more to himself than to me.
Another surprise hit me. “You spoke to Thrax?”
“He told me to ‘fuck off’ and slammed the door in my face. But when I got home and saw the car and money, I confirmed that you’d actually gone.”
The fact that I’d been the first person on his mind when he arrived wasn’t lost on me. He didn’t even reach his house but came to mine first.
By the time my wrists finally fell free, I let out a painful sigh. My arms dangled uselessly beside me, weightless yet aching as though fire burned through my bones. I thought I knew pain before, but this was agony. My eyes squeezed shut as Weeny Man massaged my shoulders briefly before hauling me up to my feet.
My legs buckled immediately, blood rushing to them in violent waves. Ache lanced up into my bones, my whole body convulsing from the sudden rush. But he didn’t give me time to recover. He dragged me towards the exit.
“We have to leave. Now. Before they come back.”
“How do you know them? When did you return? How did you even leave this place?”
He pulled me outside, hurrying us towards a car parked close by. He yanked the passenger door open. “Questions later. In the car. Those twins are dangerous, and they’ll be back any moment.”
I glanced around. The air outside was sour with rot, the neighbourhood a graveyard of abandoned houses—they scattered around us, old and crumbling, walls cracked and roofs sagging. A perfect hideout.
I slid into the seat, and he slammed the door shut before circling to the driver’s side, speeding out of the decayed street as the engine roared to life.
We were lucky we didn’t cross paths with Amelia or Merton on our way out of the neighbourhood.
It wasn’t until we merged onto normal streets filled with people and family houses that Weeny Man finally let out a long, heavy sigh,his shoulders sagging as if a great weight had been lifted. Relief softened his hardened face, if only slightly.
But I had more questions for him, so I knew that relief was short-lived.
“How did you leave Nimorran,” I started.
“Not by the train, of course.” He glanced at me with a soft chuckle, but I was not in any situation to find anything funny or pretend to. “Fine. There is another road that leads out of here. Will never recommend it, and don’t ask me what it’s like. I don’t want to relive it.”
I knew what it was like already. Thrax had told me, and he also told me the survival chances were slim. Seeing Weeny Man alive and well, but only roughened up a little bit, had me questioning if I knew even a fraction of who he really was. Because I had more pressing questions to ask, I laid that one to rest.
“You must be thirsty.” With one hand, he reached behind and pulled out a bottle of water from a food bag, handing it to me.
Muttering an appreciation, I took it from him and gulped almost everything.
“How did you know where I was?” I asked as he cut around a corner, and I realised with a sudden drop in my gut that he wasn’t taking me to Thrax.
“I was buying breakfast when they came in to get some for themselves. But before they left, the twin girl asked her brother what he thinks Sanora might want to eat.” He glanced at me. “I thought they weren’t talking about your Sanora until the girl ordered a lot of meat and whispered to her brother, ‘getting locked up in a warehouse without energy might affect her response to our questions. Let’s not make the girl cranky, the Soulless Man must have taught her how to bite.’ I didn’t react to that. I just walked out and drove straight to that place because it was the only environment with a warehouse where one could hide someone without fear of being caught.”
Whoa…
The image of Amelia and Merton returning to find me gone flickered across my mind. A sick part of me wanted to laugh at that. But my chest hurt too much to try.
“And how do you know the twins? You spoke of them like you know who they really are.”
He sighed, leaning back on the seat. “Not everyone does. They were not born here, but they grew up here. Partly. And watching them grow up, I’ve seen some things about them that are just not normal. They are too smart, too dangerous, too reckless, too bold, and don’t understand or tolerate anyone but themselves. And somehow, everything they do seems to align with Nimorran—”
“Including kidnapping? That’s not even a ‘bad’ thing. That’s abadthing,” I cut in, my voice sharper than my strength could manage. My vision tilted for a moment, spots flaring at the edges. I forced my eyes wide open, clinging to the rhythm of my breath. “And I can’t even report them because this town doesn’t have a fucking police station.”
“We don’t need them.”
“We sure as fuck need them for people like Amelia and her brother since they don’t get punished for things they do.”
“Or maybe Nimorran wants you dead in the first place and doesn’t mind anyone doing it for her.”
