Chapter 111 - Adreanna's Interlude : Part 1

The cracking skin that was slowly breaking the boy, the roots that hung him up in the air as a dark arrow went right into the boy's heart. Adreanna felt like the time stopped when that happened.

Axel suddenly stared at her, and it was as if only them were in there. His stares were judging, begging, withering. Adreanna choked on her own breath, and she could not breathe under her brother's overwhelming gaze.

"Adreanna, you promised..." Axel croaked, and suddenly, his mismatched eyes poured black tears and a red blinding light burst from his chest and-

Adreanna jerked up from the bed she was on with a shaggy breath. She quickly stepped down from the bed with the overwhelming leftover feeling from a nightmare. She only managed to stand for a moment before realizing that she had lost her balance.

Someone caught her from behind, and Adreanna saw a familiar brunette with his grey eyes staring down at her. The freckles on his skin were noticeable when she was this close to him.

"Don't move too much." Zack sighed as he led her to the bed slowly. "You almost died."

"...again."

Adreanna stared at the hacker with a frown. There were too many questions and overwhelming pressures within her right now, and she did not know what to do or how to react.

Zack gently put a blanket over her shoulders and sat beside her cautiously, eyeing if she was okay with him being here. "You were lying on top of the building with wounds all over your body. Your father is in worse shape than you."

He nodded with his head to another bed beside her. Cain was lying there with bandages all over his body.

"It seemed like the one who fought you did not want to hurt you too much." Zack pointed at her wounds and the plaster on her forehead. He hesitantly reached his hand to her head, carefully seeing her expression if he could touch her.

When Adreanna just stared at him without snapping his hand, Zack put her locks to the back of her ear and went to touch the plaster. His hand followed down to the fading wound under her eyes that she got when she fought in the first world burn.

"You know, I feel like a prince who saved you every time you're dying, you know?" Zack tried to joke while retreating his hand back from her gorgeous face.

"Last time, you fell into a coma." He uttered with a slight smile. "I thought you'd end up in a coma again."

"Adreanna, you..." Zack suddenly put both of his hands on Adreanna's shoulders, earning a tilted head from her. He lowered his head as he tightened his grip.

"...should really be careful, don't you think?" He quickly shot up to stare at her face. Their face was an inch away from each other, yet it was not sweet at all. Zack was trying to shove down the irritation feeling of seeing his woman get hurt way too often despite being the greatest assassin.

"I'm gonna lose my shit and have countless heart attacks because of you." He sighed again and quietly pulled back from her questioning gaze.

"We're mutual now. You've been saving me twice, and I'm saving you twice already." He got up from the bed and was about to make his way to the kitchen to make some tea for Adreanna.

But his wrist was suddenly grabbed by her. It was a desperate grip, causing Zack to turn at her again with a quizzical and worried look.

"Kiaran and Axel... where?" She whispered weakly, and Zack could see her body trembled slowly.

"Where are they?" Adreanna went back to stare at his grey eyes. The desperation was there, yet it was as if she also did not want to hear the answer. It was as if she was afraid of his answer.

"The funeral." Zack put his other hand on top of Adreanna's, trying to calm her down. "Both of them are at the funeral."

"Axel is getting buried today." He continued, and tears quickly fell down way too easy from her ocean eyes. The hollow gaze was aimed at nothing when the tears kept dropping from her eyes.

Zack quickly hugged her, letting her bury her head on his chest. He closed his eyes and held the back of Adreanna's head, trying to comfort her.

"I'm sorry, Adreanna."

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Adreanna had never cried before.

She did not cry when she was born to the point that the doctor thought she was mute.

She did not cry when she got hurt for the first time. She just stared at the big wound with her usual emotionless eyes.

She did not cry when her mother stared at her like she was a monster, looking at her with despise and fear that a mother shouldn't have shown for her daughter.

She did not cry when her mother died. She just stared at her in her death bed, counting the second when Cecilia finally lost her life.

She did not cry when her friend died. The lively black eyes that slowly went dim as she held her friend in her hand, she still did not cry. But she still felt a weird feeling in her heart when she could not see Maera anymore. She chose to ignore it.

She never cried.

Not being able to understand emotions made her the ultimate killing machine. She was used to being called an emotionless monster anyway.

So when emotions got the best of her, it became her weakness.

She watched people become weak because emotion got in the way and that was the reason why she never wanted to learn it.

Axel became weak because of emotion. That was the reason why the boy was always thrown aside and got used by the people around him.

So when she cried for the first time, she completely lost her balance on fighting. The bursting feeling within her inner self just exploded. She went to destroy the blindfolded man without a proper plan out of anger. Everything was blurry.

But the man dodged her with ease. It was as if her attack did not work at all to him. He did not even have to sweat when he darted around her.

She was taking the blindfolded man that arrived late at the scene, not the one who appeared first at the Livedam's central park. Adreanna gritted her teeth as she growled, tears flowing down her cheeks when she swung her knife all around.

"You look prettier with tears in your ocean eyes, my lady." The blindfolded man teased, smirking as he countered Adreanna's knife with his own knife.

His fingerless hand grazed Adreanna's braided hair, playing with how soft her long hair was. He quickly jumped back when she tried to throw the knife at him, causing the weapon to stick to the floor.

She ground her teeth while skidding to the side and took out her gun. She took some steps back with glowering eyes, got ready to attack.

Adreanna finally ran forward and took a high jump. The 19-year-old assassin shot the bullets swiftly and fast toward the man, aiming at his forehead that was covered by the hood.

In the blink of an eye, she flipped to her right and blasted another rain of bullets, hitting the first bullets that she shot half-second ago.

Her wet eyes widened when the man disappeared into a void. She hadn't noticed him vanishing because of the foggy eyes she had from the leftover tears.

"A lesson, my lady. Don't let emotions get in the way." He whispered onto Adreanna's left ear, making her belatedly react to the presence behind her and get thrown onto a wall.

"I'm not your lady." She finally replied to all his teasing and bit back at him. She put a hand on her stomach when she tried to stand up.

"Oh, I get it. That man is the only one who can call you that, right?" He smirked when Adreanna's eyes widened again.

"Will you cry too if he died? What was his name again? Zack?" He paused, flashing his mad smile at her before continuing. "I'd love to kill him if I can see your beautiful teary eyes once more."

Adreanna's gaze darkened, and she could feel the fire erupting within her heart, clawing back to her eyes and spreading all over her body.

She threw seven rows of knives at him as he effortlessly danced around them. He was about to mock her again when Adreanna suddenly disappeared from his sight.

The man acted too late when Adreanna appeared on his right, tilting her head dangerously at him with an overwhelming black fire aura. She punched the man's head with all her power and sent him flying backwards.

The man's hood fell from his hair as his blindfold followed right after and showed-

Adreanna believed that she saw the man's hair colour and face but yet, she could not remember. It was as if someone suddenly messed with her memory at the moment as the world turned into a void.

Her head throbbed, and she fell forward onto a rooftop. Her hands supported her, so she did not fall flat onto the ground. Adreanna could not grasp what was happening, everything within her head was aching. Had she teleported here?

Someone crouched in front of her as she watched the man's shadow on the ground. She looked up to see the man with no blindfold and cloak, but why-

Why couldn't she see him? It was as if her brain would not accept the memory of his face.

The man put his hand on her cheek gently. "My lady can not see my face yet. We'll meet again as fate has its ways for our story."

Then everything went back like a void once again.