"DAD?"

Shay stared at Nick, open-mouthed. The blood drained from Will's face as he stumbled, placing his hand on the wall for support. Nick, who seemed to hear Will's faint voice, straightened up and frowned. He looked around, and all of them ducked. Nick placed a hand over his heart, "No. He's safe at home, sleeping. Both of them are. All of them are." Nick had muttered to himself, but his voice was carried to them because of the wind. Shay stared at Nick, first with disbelief, then with shock, then with cold rage.

Shay's heart clenched tightly, she felt as if she were witnessing everything from a distance or like she was watching a movie. She had encountered too many shocks in a span of less time, and she felt numb and distant now instead of feeling horrified or shocked.

"Dad?" Will called out again in disbelief, his voice cracking with emotion. Nick froze again, shaking his head. "I'm imagining it, I miss him. He likes adrenaline rushes, adventure, and crime stuff, but I doubt he likes them that much to wind up here," He spat the last word, half muttering to himself.

Nick looked at the building carefully, scanning every bit of it, then steps out.

He looks around and his eyes widen in shock as they fell upon them, "Or not," He muttered, not taking his eyes off all of them. Nick stopped in his tracks, looking at them as if his worst nightmare came true. He paled remarkably as he looked at his son for a long time. His gaze then moved from Will to Shay, then to the others.

Nick staggered back with disbelief as he stared at them, his lips forming their names but no sound coming out of them. Will strode towards his father with a straight face, and Shay made a move to follow him. She looked back at others whose faces have gone white and nodded.

As Shay took a step towards Will, searing hot pain climbed up her ankle like fire. Gritting her teeth, she ignored the pain as she walked. Her ankle had swollen up, and looking at it worsened the pain somehow.

Nick and Will stared at each other in the darkness and among the trees. They joined them reluctantly, worried that they might invade their privacy, but privacy was a luxury none of them could afford now. Besides, Nick owed them an explanation.

They stood among the shadows, away from prying eyes. "What are you doing here, dad?" Will finally asked in a cold voice. Nick's eyes widened at Will's tone as he answered, "I might ask you the same, Will. Do you even know what this place is? How dangerous this is? Where is Rose? Please don't tell me you guys split up."

Will looked straight into his dad's eyes, green meeting green, "Did you lie about what your boss said? About him threatening to fire you both. What else have you lied about?" He asked in a whisper, his voice laced with barely contained anger and betrayal. Shay doesn't blame him for his anger. If Nick was there, her mom might be there too. And she doesn't know how to feel about that, it feels like she was watching herself in a dream, distant and numb with too many emotions.

"What? Why would I lie about that, Will? All of you look so... detached. You especially look really bad, what's going on here? Why did you come here?" Nick asked, taken aback by Will's question. His voice was gradually morphing from disbelief and shock to confusion and anger.

Shay looked at Will, his clothes stuck to his body like black paint, his cheeks had a reddish flush and his face is pale. He looked like he might pass out any second. But he had a determined look on his face, not letting his emotions take over control and desperate to find out why his father was here.

Before any of them could answer, they heard someone approaching. Shay recognized those footsteps, confirming her worst fear. Jessica Anderson stopped mid-sentence when she realized someone was there, her breath hitching in her throat when she saw who they were.

Her mother stood by one of the trees, meaning to come inside but froze with shock as she saw them. Her blue eyes met Shay's and a sob came out of her mouth. Her eyes then raked over each of them anxiously, then she realized Rose wasn't there. Her eyes whipped past them, into the darkness, looking for the non-existent figure of a slender, red-haired girl.

"Shay," She said finally, looking at her for answers. Both Shay's mom and Nick looked equally shocked and terrified. Why were they terrified? Are they scared for us?

"Shay," her mom said again as she walked towards her and took her hand. Shay stared down at their interlinked hands, Shay's small with squared-off tips and hers with long fingers, the hands of an artist. A ring gleamed on her finger and Shay immediately looked away.

After a long silence, which consisted of taking in the fact that her mother and Nick are in Vyper's headquarters, which meant they were somehow involved in these happening just as Shay and others were. Jessica, who seemed to process and accept that they were here, squeezed Shay's hand. "Why do all of you look so scared? Scared of us?" She specified. When others realized that Shay and Will couldn't open their mouth to answer, Jade answered. "We didn't expect you and Nick to be here, Jessica, that's it. We are not scared of you, we are just scared of the reason you both are here," Jade said slowly.

"Where's Rose?" Shay's mother asked gently and Shay flinched. Jessica touched Shay's cheek with her free hand and brushed her finger across her cheek gently, "Shay, I don't know how much you know about the truth of what's happening in our city but seeing that you are here, I think you know enough. But you don't need to be scared of me and Nick. I know that finding both of us here isn't a good sign but we do have a good reason. And I'm not angry at you if that's what you are scared about. I'm just shocked that you guys are here." She said patting her cheek.

"Oh, mom," Shay said as she hugged her mother tightly, tears streaming down her face. Shay couldn't handle all those emotions, and she held onto her mother. She was the only thing keeping her tethered to the world right now, and felt so safe in her mother's arms, her voice calming Shay down.

+++

They told Jessica and Nick how they ended up there, starting from Anthony till what happened with Rose. Both Shay and Will had apologized for looking through the folders which belonged to the company they were working for, and Jessica and Nick reassured them that they weren't mad. Both of them looked sick with worry now, after Jade had told about Rose's kidnapping and what happened with Will. Their faces turned paler as the story slowly approached its end, and when they reached the part of Rose's kidnapping and what happened with Will, both of them had their heads in their hands.

Jessica and Nick looked at the building with a tremendous amount of hate and intense loathing, their eyes shining. The intense amount of emotion in their eyes shocked Shay. What had Vyper done? Nick clasped Will's hand tightly as he started their version of the story, his eyes held a faraway look. Afraid of what we might hear next, Shay inched closer to her mom who put an arm around her shoulder.

"You know that our company has teams regarding the nature of the things that happen right? Separate teams for writing articles about the incidents, for interviewing others, for looking closely into things. Our team— me, Marina, Ty, and Jessica, was to look closely into things, investigate. Investigative journalism, where you investigate deeply into a single topic like crimes, wrongdoings, political corruption." Nick took a deep breath, his voice cracking when they told them about their team.

"As we delved deeper into all these things happening in other Isles, we realized something. All the major incidents were somehow related to each other. Our company just wanted us to give them reports, not to get involved with them. So we started looking into these things separately, not on the behalf of our company. During the day, we would work with our company which gave us information about what is happening in the city too, and after our working hours, we would look closely into these matters."

Jessica continued angrily, "Vyper was involved with everything," She spat, "Drug trafficking, kidnapping, sometimes for selling them, sometimes to experiment on them. But they did these things in other Isles, not intensely but slightly, so their activities weren't detected and Blackwood didn't investigate because it was other Isles' problems. But we had the photographs, evidence, and made the foolish mistake of approaching the police. One of Vyper's spies was there. He was the one who spoke with us and didn't let the information reach the higher officials. He took our information and assured us that this issue would be taken care of."

Her voice was lifeless as she continued, "Every member of Vyper is against the government, you know. That way, no one would leak information about their company to anyone else, they were loyal and mad for revenge. It was because one of their family members was arrested due to false accusations, or maybe because their job application was rejected, or because the government turned a blind eye to their suffering. The founder of Vyper, James Johnson, saved all of them. Providing them employment, helping them out of their problems which made them utterly loyal to James and against the government. They would target the people related to the government only, at least that was how it started. The mayor and other higher officials didn't quite believe that all these things were related, so they didn't have special investigative teams regarding the issues as back then weren't so severe and happened rarely. You know that the major Isles are quite big, and there have always been protests against something or the other."

"Three days passed, nothing happened. We assumed that the information we gave was being checked thoroughly. The next day, each of us got a threatening message from untrackable numbers. There was nothing specified, you know. What we were getting threatened for wasn't specified. Journalists usually get them, so we didn't think it was anything related to the recent findings about Vyper. Then, your gra—" Jessica broke off and took a deep, rattling breath. "Grandparents died." Jessica clutched Shay's hand as tears fell onto her hand from Jessica's face. "Mom," Shay started and hugged her. She rubbed her mother's back, but she pulled away from Shay. Will approached Jessica mom and hugged her, setting her hand on his hair. She gave a little laugh while crying and ruffled his hair.

Since his childhood, Will never let anyone touch his hair. Never. The privilege only went to his own mother and her mother. Marina and Shay's mom, obviously feeling so happy that they were the only ones allowed, would piss him off by ruffling his hair more often. But he never pushed them away or protested, would just stand still.

"Your grandparents died in an accident. Of course, we didn't suspect anything. Why would we? According to the police, a drunk truck driver drove the truck right into our tiny car, and when he realized it, he drove away. After two months, the grief still fresh, the pain still raw, we returned to work. Our senior officials granted us leave for two months. As we started to work again, drowning ourselves in work, we realized that kidnappings were still going on. We still had copies of evidence, you know. Just when we were planning about what to do with them, I got a call. When I answered it, a robotic voice said, 'What happened wasn't enough to stop you, was it? How much more blood should be spilled, huh? Don't stick your nose where it doesn't belong.' The line then went dead. We were shocked and needed some time to think about all of it. So, just like normal days, we decided to go to a restaurant for dinner. You guys remember that day? Both of you refused to come to dinner because all of you had something planned, so in the end, we went there by ourselves." Shay nodded as she faintly remembered what happened that day.

"We sat down and ordered our food. The restaurant was oddly deserted that day, only the table next to ours was occupied. Afterwards, I knew why. A man approached us. All of us recognized him immediately, of course. The CEO and founder of Vyper was approaching us with a cunning smile on his face as plopped himself onto the chair and started speaking with us as if we were old friends. With that stupid smile on his face, he warned us that if we try to run away or play some tricks, his people were sitting at the table next to us. With weapons, he told as he laughed out loud. First, he praised us that we were doing an excellent job of investigating. Then he started threatening us. He showed us a video clip taken from a car that was swerving wildly and collided with another car. My parents' car." Her voice wavered as she took a deep breath to compose herself.

"He told with pride that the video clip was recorded to prove that he was the one who ordered the driver to crash into my parent's car which would lead to their death and wouldn't hesitate to do that to others. He threatened us and all of you. 'Good day to you,' he said as he left the restaurant, his workers following him. We were pretty shaken when we left the restaurant that day. Days passed by and we didn't do anything. We thought of giving those papers to trusted senior officials after a few weeks. We assumed they would stop keeping a watch on us after a few uneventful days. We were wrong. Vyper is always watching. We gave the papers containing the proof against Vyper and the next day, Vyper killed both the person we gave the papers to, and then Ty and Marina were kill—" She broke off and sobbed, went towards her best friend and hugged him.

Shay gasped. It didn't take much time for her to connect the dots. "Does that— does that mean—d—d—" Shay broke off, unable to form any more sentences. One step away from them. Two steps. A wave of nausea flooded in as she stepped back blindly and turned away, bending down to retch. But nothing came. She didn't eat anything, and whatever she ate, she had already puked in George's garden. Her grandparents were killed. Murdered. Her dad and Marina were killed. Cold-blooded murders. Oh my god. Shay's shoulders shook with silent sobs as she clutched her hair in her hands, tugging it hard. As Shay pulled it tighter, pain emerges from the tips of her hair and she gladly welcomed it.

+++

"Fine," Nick said as he scowled, finally agreeing with them. "I'm so getting silent treatment after I die. My wife and my best friend will murder me after I die because I agreed to this, and I will end up dead again. Well, dead-er." He muttered under his breath. Finally, her mom and Nick had agreed reluctantly to accompany them into the building to rescue Rose.

Jessica and Nick told them that after Vyper killed Shay's dad and Marina, just as they did to George, both of them were scared to get involved with all that stuff again. They didn't want to lose them too and stayed silent. I know. We are selfish, Shay's mom had said. But you are my world now, all that I have left. You don't understand, how a parent loves a child. There's nothing stronger than that. The only thing that kept me from destroying myself was you.

Shay might've been angry at her mother if she knew it before. If she knew that her mother and Nick had the evidence with them but didn't report it, but Shay kind of understood their feelings now. They had done the same thing with Rose. When they thought they had the evidence, they were willing to sacrifice the proof for Rose. They were selfish too. Being selfish made them human, with flaws.

They told them that after several months when they returned to work, they noticed that all those mysterious happenings stopped abruptly. They assumed that Vyper stopped doing all of that. After the suicides started, Jessica and Nick didn't suspect anything. But as more people ended up dead, they knew that somebody was behind all of this. When they started their own research, they found out that it was Vyper behind all of this, again. But this time, they were careful, very careful not to leave their tracks in the open for Vyper to suspect them.

So here they were, in Vyper's Headquarters. Five days earlier, they sneaked in here and put cameras all over the place carefully, and no one caught them. We were very careful, Jessica assured them. But yesterday, they realized while looking at the footage that the workers were packing things up into very big boxes. Signs of moving out. So they came back to retrieve those cameras before anyone found them and traced them back to Jessica and Nick.

Shay had frowned and asked, "Then what about everything going on with Royale Pharma? They seem very suspicious." Nick shook his head, "That's what Vyper does. James is very clever. Even though he had spies all over the place to divert if someone came closer to finding out it was Vyper, he made it seem like Royale Pharma did it."

"But why?" Will had asked. "Did they kill them just to raise suspicions?" Jessica had shaken her head, "I don't think so. They wouldn't go that far just for that. It seemed like James was trying to scare Sam. Doing something like that, it's quite a risk because it would attract people. I think it was for revenge. Vengeance makes people do bad things."

After all the "What?", "No way, you are not coming in with us.", "Go back home this instant!" and their protests with the primary point that Rose was their best friend, not Jessica's and Nick's, they finally gave in.

"You don't understand how dangerous this is. We might lose our lives, and there is no way I want to risk losing you guys too. This is a game of survival. And the funny thing about this game is that you aren't the one playing, but you are being controlled like a puppet, the threads in the hands of Vyper. Anticipating your every move and molding the situation accordingly. The fates of the people of our entire city are stacked up like cards in front of James, and he gets to pick which card to throw into the fire and which card to put aside. And once you go in there," Nick pointed to the spotless white building, "you might never come back. Die."

"And you think we want to lose you? You don't want to lose us, but we can lose you? How is this fair, dad? Please let us come with you," Will said and that was when Nick finally agreed. Jessica knelt to examine Shay's ankle, and Shay winced before she even touched it. Jessica stood up abruptly and looked away, her eyes shining. Shay knew what she was thinking: She was thinking about Marina, her best friend who was gentle, caring, and kind. Who mended other people's wounds for free and loved animals. Shay could almost see Marina standing below a tree, trying to repair the hurt wing of a young robin that could not fly, and her talking with it.

Her eyes immediately went to Will who was staring at the screen of his phone, shaking his head as if he was disappointed with whatever he saw. Before Shay could ask him if something was wrong, Jessica spoke.

"Let's go," She said, her voice wavering, and stepped outside. Shay shifted the weight of my leg to my unwounded one but stopped short. She frowned. There was a weird odour in the air, and Nick yelled, "Don't smell it! Don't smell anything!"

His voice came muffled from his shirt. Shay immediately covered her nose and mouth, careful not to breathe anything. A young man appeared out of nowhere, with his hands in his pockets. Shay knew who he was even before she heard Nick's sudden intake of breath and her mom's gasp. She recognized him from pictures.

He wore a mask, but his voice was clear when he spoke, "My, my. It's been an awfully long time since we met, hasn't it? Nick? Jessica? Are you not going to introduce me to your lovely children and their companions?"

He paused, "Well then, I'll introduce myself." Even though they couldn't see his mouth, Shay could sense that he was grinning, "I'm the baaad guy," He sang.

The edges of Shay's vision blurred, and she realized that whatever they had smelled briefly before closing their noses was strong enough to do whatever it would do. "Duh," She heard James say but there was a buzzing in her ears. Shay's eyelids drooped down like a curtain falling to indicate the end of a play.

Her world turned black.

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