Chapter 550: Traitor
Amira and Brittany chuckled to themselves. But while Amira stopped soon after, Brittany’s laughing turned to gentle and quiet sobs. She kept calling the name of her former lover, Via, with mumblings of all sorts.
The girls were still knocked out, so Amira went to go check on them while Brittany stood a quiet yet sobbing guard over the knocked out chosen of Robert’s group.
Laz quickly returned with rope, road flares and an evil look on his face. He didn’t know why he was going to enjoy this, but he was. Half way into it though, he ended up stopping and sighing.
’This isn’t me... even if this guy was a prick of the highest caliber. He’s dead and there is no bringing him back. Maybe it’s not the closure that the families would have wanted, but at least it’s something.’
Instead of stripping Robert, he just tied him up to the pillar and lit the flares.
’Well. I didn’t grab all this shit for nothing anyway,’ Laz said, enjoying a little bit of his own evil side before turning away.
Laz came up to Amira and just asked,
"So?"
"We shouldn’t kill them. They were nothing but victims here, of this whole thing," she said with a sigh.
"Victims who could talk and possibly spell trouble for you and Brittany?"
"I’m not so far gone that I would sell my soul for something like safety," Amira admitted with a grin.
"Your choice. And I will respect it," Laz said, taking out his phone and sending a quick text.
"What’s that for?" She asked.
"Getting them out of here. A car will arrive soon to pick them up, clean them up and get them back home or where ever will be safe for them. If things go right, hopefully their presence will be forgotten about entirely," Laz said with a smile. He wasn’t sure it would be so simple considering who Robert’s dad is, but it was worth a shot.
"Thank you," Amira responded with a smile of her own.
They both walked back to Brittany who had just kicked on of the chosen in the stomach. He started coughing and tried to roll over, but pain shot through his body and he cried out. Brittany kicked him again in the head, this time knocking him out.
"Soooo?" He turned and looked at the no longer crying woman. Seeing the makeup run down her face though gave her both an enchanting yet terrifying look.
"He was pretending to be out. I just gave him a wake up call. Of course I didn’t want to hear his pathetic voice so I sent him back to sleep," she responded with a cold voice.
"Riiiigggghhhhtttt...." Laz said, using his spiritual sense to check them over. Two of the five were still awake, but were smarter than the first one and said nothing.
"Ok. So unless you want this questionably abusive women to help you into dreamland without a lullaby, I would suggest those of you awake open your eyes, ok?" Laz said, looking at the five men.
When no one responded, Laz pointed Brittany to the first one playing dead. Right before the boot landed on his crotch, he opened his eyes and started flapping his arms.
"Wait wait. Please. Don’t..." He started to beg.
"Wrong response," Laz sighed before Brittany went to work.
"Alright. Yeah. Uh... so... who wants to act like they are still sleeping? Would you raise your hand please?" Laz said in a somewhat sing song way.
"Alright. What do you want?" Said the other one pretending to be out of it.
"Ah good. A volunteer. So I want to know everything you know about this cult, temple thingy. Hopefully you have a lot of good info for us, yes?"
"Yeah. Uh... Yes. I know everything the rest of them know and a bit more..." he said, his voice weak and pathetic sounding.
Laz turned to look at Brittany.
"Yeah. If there was a smart one of this group of assholes, it would be him," she said in disgust.
’Excellent. Well lucky for you, you just saved your life," Laz said with a smile, holding up his hand, palm up.
The black flame sprang to life, slowly at first and nothing but a small wisp of fire. Then, fueled by Laz’s energy, it started to roar and jumped out of Laz’s hand. Like a small, freed animal, it dashed from body to body, igniting each of them in turn.
As the passed out men felt the burning of there flesh, their bodies natural instincts woke them up from whatever blacked out dreams they were having, only to arrive into a nightmare.
Their screams tore at the air for almost ten seconds before silence again dominated the parking garage.
Half a minute later, the bodies were gone, reduced to nothing but smoldering puddles on the concrete.
"How... could... you...." The man muttered as he watched his friends die.
"Please remember something very important right now. The only reason you are not a puddle along with these wastes of flesh is because you have information I need. As for you and your friends... You should have known this was coming...."
"YOU... YOU..." As Brittany was standing up next to Laz, the trembling man again was reminded of who she was.
"You betrayed us..." He said finally, not really paying attention to the situation he was in.
"Betrayed you? Don’t make me laugh. I was never one of you sick fucks. I’ve spent the last few months gathering everything, every little dirty thing that’s been hidden about Robert and them and you Ted. I’ve got everything that was buried. And once we are out of here, it’s all coming out. With Robert and the rest of them gone, how much of the backlash do you think you will be able to handle? I mean... fuck.... she was your little sister you sick fucking prick. I have no idea how they even buried that from your parents... but fuck... If you didn’t have a bit of value left to you, I would kill you myself. But I guess... after this... I probably won’t have to. Just some of the things you did to others will be enough for them to come after you and your value isn’t near high enough to protect you like Robert’s was. So in the end, it all comes down to who gets to you first, doesn’t it?" Brittany said with a sarcastic laugh.
"You.. DO YOU REALLY THINK I CAN’T DO ANYTHING? WHEN I FIND OUT WHO YOU ARE..." Ted said, focusing his attention on Laz who he clearly saw as the biggest treat. After all, they already knew that Brittany’s parents were nigh untouchable, but since he didn’t know who Laz was, he felt his best strategy was to focus on him. As for Brittany, he would have his turn with her eventually since she broke ranks and the code by turning on Robert and them.
And as far as Amira goes, the lighting in the parking garage wasn’t even enough to see if there was another person, much less to see her hoodie covered head.
"Oh? Is that right? Well then, let’s let you in on a little secret, shall we?" Laz said, pulling off his mask.
Ted pissed himself once he saw the face staring back at him.
"NO... you.... NO....."
"Yeah. It’s me. So happy to be here and meet you Ted," Laz said, extending out a hand as though to shake his.
Ted’s eyes went wide with the gesture, thinking back to the black flame that had just burned the others to puddles and dust.
There was no way he could take Laz’s hand.
"Now then. Let’s head what you have to say. It might just keep you alive," Laz said with a smirk.
And Ted spoke... and spoke... telling everything he knew, guessing on what he thought... he even went so far as to include other’s who he had seen in the temple. Brittany took the liberty of recording the whole conversation as Ted spilled his guts. Seeing this, Laz had to admit she was a pretty perfect partner for something like this. While his mind had grown incredibly sharp since he had gotten to this realm, that didn’t mean he would remember every little detail that came his way. And what was more, while some of these names meant nothing to him, Brittany would have a much better understanding of everyone being discussed.
One of the most problematic parts came about when Rick’s name was brought up as being a member of the temple’s order.
"Rick? The lawyer currently employed by the Hearn Group?" Laz asked, wanting to be certain.
"Yes... Yes... He... Well... from what we know, he is planning on making a big move by selling his girl into the temple. The amount of lust bucks he will get from that will be incredible. Even Robert once said that the man dreamed big. But if he could actually get the branch manager as a sale... it would be pretty huge..."
Laz dropped his head for a moment, thinking of many things. Apparently Rick had been a member for a few months now and had interacted with Robert’s group a couple of times. He had mentioned how successful his current girlfriend was which caused them to give him the idea of setting her up at the temple, against her will even, and the amount he could get for doing so. While Rick appeared to be a normal human since he was able to hide his awakened status thanks to items provided by the group, Robert had liked his ruthlessness and his connections, all the things rich kids like Robert enjoyed making use of.
Strangely, Ted had no knowledge of the Hearn branch being a cover for infected so it seemed like Ted hadn’t mention anything like that to them. While Laz found it strange, it also made sense. If the branch fell due to the discovery of it’s origins, Ted’s worth would go way down. So while it might seem like a twisted loyalty, it was anything but.
As Ted continued to speak, a car pulled up and Brittany went to help load the girls up. Once they were clear and Ted was done with his story, Laz got back to his feet, called over Amira and began walking away between the two girls.
"You’re just letting me go?" Ted asked, confused.
"Yep. You’re free to leave. And I truly wish you the best of luck. You’re going to need it," Laz said, laughing outside but still in a rush to head back to the branch office.
It seemed like there was a traitor to catch.
