I could hear Lyra saying something behind me but I didn’t have any intention of stopping. I moved quickly around the building looking for a basement entrance. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was walking and I tripped on something. I grabbed at thin air as I began to fall but something stopped my descent. I turned around and saw Lyra, she was out of breath and had an angry look on her face. She must have ran to catch me. I turned back around, embarrassed and irritated with myself.

Lyra sighed as she said, “why are you being so difficult? You can’t just take off by yourself.” Just as I started to apologize I spotted light glowing from what appeared to be a stairwell to the basement. I tried to take off running and was quickly grabbed by Lyra.

She pulled me close and whispered, “I will knock you out and carry you to the car if you do that again.” I swallowed hard as I had no doubt that she would do exactly that.

I nodded and she said, “I will take the lead and you stay close behind me.” When we finally arrived at the stairwell she turned around, gave me a threatening look, and said, “I want you to stay here while I check it out.”

I tried to protest as she started down the steps alone only to silence myself when I saw the basement door open. Lyra quickly ran back up the few steps she had descended but not before we heard Creso’s voice. As Lyra reached the top step I looked over her shoulder and could see Creso. Our eyes met and he smiled at me with a sick grin. I felt acid rise in my throat. Lyra was right, we should have left. Creso had Dr. Nemeroff in one hand and a gun pointed at his head in the other.

Creso said, “Oh good. You have saved me the trouble of finding you, Jax.”

I stood at the top of the stairwell, frozen, unable to move. Lyra grabbed my wrist and pulled me away from the stairs, stepping between Creso and I. Her gun was raised defensively at Creso and she looked down at him and said, “there is nothing to talk about! We are leaving.”

Creso continued to ascend the steps and Lyra pushed us farther away. Several men emerged from the basement, their guns pointed at Lyra and I.

I heard movement, footsteps. It sounded like more than one person on my left. I couldn’t see anything in the dark and it was maddening. Lyra squeezed my wrist, returning my attention to what was going on in front of me. An eerie amber glow surrounded us, and the shadows and light moved across Creso making him look like the monster that he is.

Creso was laughing as he reached the top of the steps and said, “what did I tell you would happen if you misbehaved, Jax?”

Creso forced Dr. Nemeroff forward to his knees. He moved the gun to the back of the doctor's head.

Dr. Nemeroff’s wrists were bound and he looked weak. Despite his poor vision and the darkness he appeared to be looking right at me. He smiled and mouthed something at me but I couldn’t tell what it was.

Creso said, “Jax, you are causing me a lot of problems. If you try to leave here I will kill Dr. Nemeroff and I will find and kill everyone who you care about.”

I panicked as I tried to pull away from Lyra and she held my wrist tighter. I could hear her whisper, “Jax, calm down”.

I heard more footsteps, but this time they were on my right side. This time I looked up and could see movement in the shadows of the night. We were surrounded and there was no way out. I pulled harder but Lyra’s nails dug deeper. She again whispered to me, “Jax, stop.”

This time I whispered back, “just let me go. He is going to kill everyone if I don’t go back.”

Lyra raised her voice a little and said, “no”.

I looked up at Creso as I heard his revolver cock. He looked at me and said, “what will you do, Jax?”

Quick movement diverted my attention as Dr. Nemeroff pushed off the ground, his arms circled around and caught Creso in the face. He screamed, “run Jax!”

My heart was pounding as I heard gunfire. Lyra grabbed me and we dove into the darkness. I heard a whooshing sound as smoke filled the amber lit area where Creso and his men stood. More gunfire. I looked up to see Dr. Nemeroff. His back was towards me and he had several gunshot wounds to the chest. He fell silently to the ground. I clawed at the ground trying to get to him. Dammit this is all my fault. Another whooshing sound went over my head and more smoke filled the air around us. Someone grabbed me. I turned around and met the stare of a glowing blue eye. I screamed and tried to get away. The arms squeezed tightly around me and the voice above me said, “Jax, it’s me. It’s me, Bren.”

I shook my head, afraid that I couldn’t believe my eyes. I said, “no…let me go! I don’t believe you.” The person pulled me closer and I tried hard to push them away. Not again, it can’t be.

I screamed, “let me go!”

The person again spoke, “Jax please stop, we have to get out of here.”

I was too weak to fight anymore, I just wanted this to be over. I stopped fighting and the person above me looked down at me, one unfamiliar inhuman eye pulsated glowing blue. I shifted my vision across their face to their other eye. A familiar green eye looked back at me. I felt so tired. I mumbled, “Bren?”

I closed my eyes and could hear another familiar voice, “don’t give me that look Bren. He is in shock and we have to hurry.”

I mumbled, “Fuchsia.”

I wanted to open my eyes and see my friends again. I felt someone brush their hand over my cheek as they said, “just sleep, hun”

A warmth filled me and washed away my worries as I fell asleep.