Page 32 of Fragile Facade

Pretty sure I’ve already given myself away to Lock, so I up-nod Ransom. “I’ll do it, too. Only him, though, and he has to give us something in return. Trust goes both ways.”

“I’ll do it if he’s sworn to secrecy. And threatened,” Glitch says. “It’s an act of trust, but it has to be respected as one.”

Everyone nods to agree. Everyone except Monster, who shakes his head and leaves the room. Ransom twitches to go after him, but he forces himself to stay put, looking at Director.

“What’s next?”

“Next, we find Yates, clean up our town, call a town-wide meeting to inform them of what’s going on, and start fortifying for Reaper Corp’s next attack. This won’t be the only one.” Director looks behind him at Axel. “And we let the doctor experiment on these three to see what he can pull from their minds. We need all the intel we can get.”

Ransom leaves to follow Monster, and everyone else lingers for a bit, chatting and checking in. I’m not in the mood for people anymore, so I step into the hall to wait on my own, letting my facades simmer without having to try so hard to keep them in place. I zone out, go blank, because when I have nothing to exploit, I have nothing to do.

This area of the asylum is old and mostly vacant. It isn’t modern or updated, and the halls are echoey and dark. Pretty sure my brother hunted Remi through these halls, and when he walks out of the lab room, he looks down the corridor, his eyes darkening.

“Fond memories?” I ask with a smirk.

“Something like that,” Krypt says, nodding down the hall. I follow. “Before Remiel ever admitted he likes being afraid.”

I wonder if Ghost has that in common with his brother. I don’t think so. Remi might get a hard dick over being scared, but Ghost seems more like the type to get a stiff cock over being dangerous… or in danger.

“You find what you were looking for at the house the other day?” I ask him.

He lights a joint right in the hallway, inhaling long and hard. “Yeah. Remiel wanted to see all my files from the doctorstheyhad me tested by.”

“The fuck? Why?”

Krypt scoffs. “He thinks he’s a hero. He wants to defy all those diagnoses and show me I’m perfect or something.”

I laugh, taking the joint. “Perfectly fucking tainted.”

He grins, which is rare for him. “Remiel says that.” By the time I hand him back the joint, the grin is gone, and a serious expression takes over. “You fucking Ghost?”

I exhale the weed in my lungs. “What makes you ask that?”

“What’d I walk in on in Misfit Hall?”

I crack all my knuckles and look back towards the lab, wondering if Ghost is still in there or if he snuck out undetected. “Tension. A blood high.”

“You’re my brother,” he says, not finishing the sentence. “But he’s Remiel’s brother.”

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll keep the bitch alive. Doesn’t mean I can’t have some fun with him while I do.”

12

GHOST OF THE TUNNELS

GHOST

No partof me gives a single fuck about being injured. I’ve come closer to death in my sleep, so a few stab wounds and a night in the medical wing aren’t going to be what slows me down. I hurt, but I won’t admit it. Riot is the only one looking close enough to see through my cracks and witness the pain festering within me anyway, but fuck him.

At this point, I don’t even know if it’s physical pain or mental pain. Emotional pain? It doesn’t matter because I refuse to grant it the ability to rise to my exterior. My facade always stays in place, no matter how fragile it is.

Remi’s fussing over me like a little nurse, trying to force me to focus on changing my bandages and cleaning my wounds. They’re mostly stitched up, and thankfully, nothing serious got damaged.

Stronger than the pain is pride. Because I fought that Reaper Corp prick and won. He tried to tempt me into the afterlife with him by granting me a few seconds’ glimpse into that hanging moment between life and death, but I was stronger than him. I was stronger than them all. I killed at least ten men, took down the final one, kept Misfit Hall from falling into the clutches of Reaper Corp, and helped prove what a useless coward Yates is. Because of me, Lockan Tate gets to have his crew back, and I know he’ll be a better leader than anyone else there.

Everyone should be fucking bowing to me.

“Stop,” Remi says, smacking my hand away so he can apply the final strip of medical tape to the bandage on my thigh.