Chapter 107: 107: Journey South
"What’s in the bag?"
Anna didn’t think the "you leave with nothing" decree by the council would be taken absolutely literally.
With a soft sigh, she set down the small bag she’d packed on the ground and opened it up. The guards, five of them and Royal guards by their uniforms, reached out to grab the bag but were stopped by Drax. Kai and Ray had left ahead to prepare the car for their travel.
"Behave yourselves," the snake beastman said coldly, his eyes flashing venom.
Immediately, the guards fell into order. Drax took the bag from Anna and took out its contents. It wasn’t much. Just a dozen batches of suppressants, enough to last three years.
"You’ll have to leave that behind," the head guard said, stepping back, his eyes warily cutting to Drax.
"You can’t be serious. I need these for my health," Anna said, her eyes widening. "They’re my suppressants."
"Order of his majesty, the King. You leave with nothing." The guards said in unison.
Anna looked between the three of them, her jaw slack with shock. She understood not leaving with clothes or anything else. But these suppressants were important. The lab equipment needed to make them, well she couldn’t leave with those either. And buying them when she had literally no money was impossible.
"Come on, can’t you make an exception?" She tried again, hoping her words would reach them.
But they were adamant.
Drax moved. He tossed the bag at their feet and took Anna’s wrist. "Let’s go, else we’ll be late." He said, dragging her away.
"Wait! I need those! The last time—"
Drax spun on her, his eyes sparking. "We have to leave now. Have you forgotten how to make them? The formula?"
"That’s not the point. I don’t have the equipment needed to—"
"That’s what you’re worried about right now?" He cut in sharply.
Anna, fed up with his animosity, grabbed her hand back from his grip. "Yes! Yes that’s what I’m worried about! Sue me for it! Is there anything wrong with worrying about shit?!"
Drax paused, staring at her coldly. "You truly are a low version copy of her."
Anna’s jaw hit the floor.
Her breath evaporated out of her lungs, and every single thought she had screeched to a halt.
"Excuse me?" She whispered, her heart rate picking up.
"You heard me." Drax stepped closer to her. Due to their height difference, she had to look up at him. Her heart skipped a beat, he looked so terrifying. Tall, with his long black hair billowing behind him, his dual colored eyes getting brighter and sharper. "You are a low version copy of her. You wear her face. You clearly have her memories. Yet you are nothing like her. It disgusts me, knowing that the body of my lover is being desecrated by you. If you know what’s good for you—"
Smack!
Anna didn’t even know when her hand moved.
The slap echoed in the air between them. It was so sudden and sharp that Drax’s head whipped to the side, a red handprint forming on the spot Anna had struck.
Hot tears pricked Anna’s eyes and her chest heaved.
"You have been nothing but a bitch yo me. Do you honestly think I would have left my life, however fucking shitty it was, to inhabit the body of a wicked and soulless woman?"
Drax whipped his head to her, his eyes both flowing a furious amber. His features got sharper and sharper, causing fear to cloud low in Anna’s belly.
"You," when he spoke, his voice was like that of a snake, low and hissing. "You will pay for your words."
Anna let her spores flow out of her in a thick, black mist. It hit Drax square in the face, causing him to leap back with the agility of a viper.
Anna turned her spores pink and in seconds, the black spores were all gone. Drax was coughing, waving the black mist away from his face.
"For whatever it’s worth," Anna said, her voice trembling. "I’m sorry your lover is dead. I didn’t kill her. One moment I was having a heart attack at my desk and then I was in this rotten world. The moment I have an opportunity to go back, I’m taking it."
Drax looked at her, furious, his chest heaving, his eyes spitting fire, and fangs poking out of his mouth.
Anna swallowed the tears lodged in the back of her throat. "I’m sorry." She said. "For everything." Then she turned and walked ahead.
She’d barely taken two steps before she head her name.
Anna
She paused, thinking Drax had called her, but when she glanced at him he was busy smoothening his robes.
She kept walking, but heard it again. Just like earlier when she’d gone to see Leon.
Anna. Don’t go please. Don’t leave me here.
She looked around her. There was no one. She stood still, waiting and hoping she’d get a pointer as to who was calling her. But nothing happened. She called the system, and it was still recalibrating.
That’s so weird. I must be running mad in this place. She conceded inside her, then continued walking.
Her steps faltered and her hands trembled. But she kept her eyes ahead and kept walking. Till she got outside of the palace gates.
Kai and Ray were waiting with the car. The first to notice Anna’s foul mood was Kai. His smile dropped and he rushed to her side, his eyes worried.
"What happened?" He asked.
Then he spotted Drax approaching, also in a foul mood. Drax walked past them and got into the driver’s seat without a word spoken.
"Let’s go," Anna said quietly.
Kai and Ray exchanged looks. Then both of them nodded.
*****
The journey to the South was to take four days and three nights.
Anna tried to ignore the tense atmosphere and focus on the road trip. She hadn’t gone on one before, and this would have been perfect if there was some music, even a radio, or maybe snacks and drinks and fun activities.
Instead, she stared out of the windows, resting her head on the glass and watching the world drift by in a blur of shapes and colors.
Kai and Ray didn’t know what to do.
For Kai, he could sense that something had happened between Drax and Anna, judging by how pointedly Drax kept his eyes on the road and how fast he was driving, it must have been bad. And Anna, who was normally very talkative and by now would have been going off about her plan to find a job, was silent. She hadn’t spoken a word and it was already an hour.
Ray however, knew what the problem was.
He’d read Anna’s mind a while ago, her thoughts were filled with anger and remorse and guilt. And then he’d read Drax’s, and he was able to piece it all together. His worst fear had come true. Drax knew that Anna wasn’t Orchid and he wasn’t taking it too well.
Ray knew that was to be expected. Drax loved Orchid. Theirs was a soulbound kind of love. Learning that someone else was in the body of his lover wasn’t going to sit well with Drax.
But it wasn’t Anna Carson’s fault. She was a victim too. Ripped out of her world and thrown into this place, no one would wish for that.
Ray wished he could tell Drax to be kinder to her, and maybe tell Anna too to stop beating herself up.
But he wasn’t ready to reveal his secret to Anna. He was only getting to know her better, and right now he was miles behind Kai. Letting his secret get known now may backfire in ways that Ray wasn’t ready to face.
Suddenly, Anna perked up. "We don’t even have food!" She exclaimed. "Or water, or medicated water. How are we going to survive?"
Ray exhaled a breath of relief. Then he took out a small bag and held it up. "I got this from Bella," he said.
"And we can make stops on the way, get some supplies and keep going." Kai added. "You finally decided to rejoin us, cutie."
"I was thinking on how we’ll survive," Anna said. Ray knew she was lying, but he didn’t say anything about it. She turned to him, her eyes solemn and edged with exhaustion. "Thank you, Ray. They wouldn’t even let me leave with my suppressants."
"Don’t worry about them. You’ll make more." Kai said, earning a scoff from Anna.
"Yeah. The machines required to make them cost all my internal organs put together and sold on the black market."
Kai burst out laughing. "You’re so funny, cutie. We’re going to the south. Trust me, they have every machine and equipment you’ll ever need."
"Yeah they do. But do I have the money to buy them?"
"Why do you always worry about money?" Ray asked quietly. Anna turned to him.
"Don’t you worry about money?"
Ray shook his head. There was never a time he’d ever worried about money. Never. "No."
Anna’s eyes widened. "What are you? A secret billionaire?"
