“...”

“...”

“Got those tickets Ben brought?”

“Yes.”

“...”

“...”

“I’d reckon you want to leave this place behind.”

“Yes.”

“The sooner we can forget about each other the better off you’ll b-”

“Yes.”

His father stared at him for another second, deciding whether he was shocked at the quick response or angry at being cut off, but came to the conclusion that there was no use getting angry any more. With any luck his life with children was over and he could finally be socially accepted again.

Arriving at the train station, Luke got out and reached for his bag, which was being held by Ted.

“Boy.”

“Yes?”

“Good luck.”

Luke blinked, it wasn’t something he expected from the man that treated him like he didn’t exist for nearly the past two decades. It seemed that Ted saw Luke’s confusion and decided to clarify.

“The better you do in the city the less chance you’ll come crawling back here and annoy the shit out of me, right? So yeah. Good luck.”

Accelerating, the car door shut, and the last he saw of his father was a hand out the driver’s seat window, clenched in a victory fist. Luke was glad to be free.

Suddenly, Luke opened his eyes. Had he fallen asleep?! So that was a dream? It made sense but wasting time wasn’t something he was keen on at the moment. Peeking out the closet door, Luke noticed that Cain and the woman were asleep on the bed, completely passed out. As such, Luke finally felt free to move, and looked through the pockets of the robe for the disgusting man’s coin. Unable to find it, Luke slithered out to the bedside.

“Shh!”

Terrified, Luke looked up to see the woman, wide awake, looking him in the eyes. She put a finger to her lips and pointed to the dresser’s second drawer. Quietly opening it, he gave a sigh of relief. The coin was on top, covering a small booklet. Taking it out, he crept into the next room. Opening the map, Luke saw the location of the warehouse, thankfully, and was so giddy he almost yelped with joy. However, that was something he could do at a later date. As Luke was about to go back into the bedroom and put the coin back, he thought of Dan’s words.

“We’d better get some rest even though we’ll be down here for the next week and a half until the raid.”

They weren’t going to be let out of the facility anytime soon. With a captain’s coin he could get out tonight if he wanted to… He had to steal it. How long before Cain realized that his coin had been replaced with a dud like Luke’s? He had no idea, but it was the only chance he had so he went back into the bedroom and placed his coin on the booklet, face down. Winking at the woman, he left the apartment and snuck through the mess hall, donning his full robes again as he went. Once he was out, he was free to do as he pleased. The one thing that every Beiorg had in common was the robes. The only way you could identify people by rank was the coin, so all he had to do was flash it to the guards if they stopped him. Luckily the guards didn’t even do that, and when Luke reached the large guard at the front door, he was let through without any further trouble. Once he was back outside, he went back to the place with his clothes and changed out of the robes.