Miscreants: Next Generation (Badlands 8)

I couldn’t just blurt that out, though. Bella was suspicious enough. If she knew I was as out of the loop as she was, they’d butt heads. I kept my face neutral and pretended I knew what he was referring to.

“You’re sure you planned for it to be here?” I hoped my skepticism wasn’t obvious.

Samael gently turned my face back towards his. “You know I’ll always keep you safe.”

That was more than a statement coming from him. It was a promise he constantly reminded me of. His questionable constitution aside, I never doubted the sincerity of those words. But what did that have to do with what I’d asked him?

“…Yeah,” I replied slowly, all too aware of the way Bella was watching the two of us.

She’d become highly suspicious of our relationship.

I couldn’t blame her. She had no idea what he and I did when we were alone. No one did. Our first kiss was nearly three weeks ago, the day before he all but confessed to killing Francis and threatened Jonah. We’d gone much further since. I’d tried to be upset with him, but I couldn’t.

“That’s all that matters then,” he said.

He stepped away and took hold of my hand again, walking forward without giving us any further explanation.

I stared at his back, thrown off by the switch up. Bella muttered something beneath her breath, following us without protest. I spared a glance for Jesse and Makayla. They weren’t typically outspoken, but in this situation, I wondered if either of them would speak up.

Maybe they feared what would happen to them, too. I felt a little bad for allowing them to tag along. There was no way our parents would simply let this go.

These two had inevitably signed their own death certificates.

Why would they do that, though? Acolytes were willing to give their lives for us, but not over something this childish.

Bella and I shared a look between us. I knew she was only going along with this because of me. I wanted to tell her I had no idea what Sam had really been planning, but I wasn’t trying to be in the middle of an argument between the two of them.

I expelled a quiet breath as we went up a set of stairs and walked towards a pair of rusted doors. I didn’t know what he was up to, but I guessed we were about to find out.

We entered an atrium that split in three different levels at the far end of the hall. It smelled of dust and something that had gotten too wet. Garbage and speckles of peeled paint covered the linoleum.

“Where are you taking us?” Bella questioned.

“There.” He nodded towards a large door that said ‘Gymnasium’ above it.

There was a faint glow coming from beneath it. If I weren’t mistaken, I could hear the faint sound of voices. The feeling in the pit of my stomach magnified by tenfold. It was like a million little needles stabbing me in the gut.

“I don’t know about this,” Bella worried.

“We’ve come this far, we might as well see what he went through all this trouble to plan.” Jesse finally spoke up.

“What are you so afraid of all a sudden?” Samael goaded her.

That magical word was all Bella needed to hear to step up to a challenge.

“I’m not scared,” she snapped. “Come on, Lilith.”

“Bella....”

Feeling pressure, I looked down and saw Samael had threaded our fingers together.

I glanced up at him questioningly, but his whole focus was on the door ahead of us.

Bella was bold enough to walk through first, leaving Samael and me to follow. When we entered, I was surprised to see the gym was nothing more than that—a large, empty gym.

Bella stood in the center of the room, arms crossed over her chest. “Your big surprise is an abandoned gymnasium?”

“You mean you’re not enjoying this?”

Her eyes turned to slits, looking like two blue whirls, the flames directed at Samael’s head. “Is that a joke?”

“If you don’t like this, then I think you’ll love what’s coming next.” He released my hand and turned to speak to Jesse. “You’re up. Do exactly as we discussed.”

“Yes.” She bowed her upper body to him as if he were some type of freaking royalty, and then she hurried through the door we’d just come through.

“Where are you going?” Makayla called after her.

At least she looked as confused as I felt.

There was a noticeable squeak from the left side of the gym. It carried from between two sets of bleachers. If I weren’t mistaken, locker rooms were typically located there. Since only a few paper lanterns had been spread about, seeing in the darkest corners was near impossible.

Turned out we didn’t need to see them. We heard them first. The sound of footsteps brought with it masked figures pouring from the shadows. I had never seen anything like them before. Their headgear consisted of skinned stag heads.