Chapter 36.5

"My, Katie … it has been a while," he said while she remained impassive. "You're more beautiful than ever."

Katelyn still didn't respond, her blue eyes were ice cold and she barely moved as Jason's guilty but pleased eyes roamed over her, studying the matured Katelyn carefully as though to memorize every detail of her.

She's grown so much, Jason thought even as he noticed her apathy towards him.

"You're still angry at me abandoning you," Jason said quietly. He broke eye contact with Katelyn and looked away, unable to maintain a gaze with her due to his guilt. "You hate me for that."

Jason was answered with silence and he nodded to himself before taking a step. He appeared right in front of Katelyn: his movement was so fast, he covered the distance of a dozen steps with only one single step. Katelyn tried jumping back but Jason grabbed her hands and placed a knife into it. He then thrust the knife to his chest, placing the blade right where his heart was.

"Then end me," Jason whispered like the devil. "Do it. If you hate me, want revenge so badly, then do it."

As he spoke, his hand which was wrapped around Katelyn's pushed the blade's end deeper. As the tip dug into his flesh, blood seeped through his wound but his eyes remained stoic while Katelyn's eyes widened. She saw the lack of hesitation in his eyes and realized that he was truly ready to die in her arms.

"Push it," Jason whispered, almost lovingly. "End it, right here and now. Prove you don't love me. Prove you want to kill me."

Katelyn's eyes were full of shock as he gently helped her push it deeper. Her hand underneath Jason's shook but she didn't pull away. She couldn't pull away.

"DO IT!" Jason shouted when he saw her struggling. "END ME!"

"NO!"

With a scream, Katelyn pulled back and the blade's tip that was lodged in Jason came out easily. Katelyn threw the blade away and glared at Jason.

"No!" Katelyn hissed. "No. I won't kill you."

"You can't kill me," Jason corrected in a hushed whisper. On his face was a bright smile and, despite bleeding, he was beyond pleased. "I knew you cared for me. That you still care for me. And that's the thing about love, Katie. It can turn into rage, maybe even hate, but it will never last. It will always have a hold on you and you will always, always, be held back by it."

"That didn't seem to stop you," Katelyn had both hands over her head as she tried calming herself down. Once she was steady, she coldly replied to Jason. Her eyes slowly regained their lifelessness and Jason watched her without interrupting. He was still pleased to find that Katelyn still cared about him, even if it was barely the size of a thimble.

"I want Alice back," Katelyn answered eventually. "I'm taking her away."

"You want her? Or the people behind you want her?" Jason asked slyly and Katelyn closed her mouth, refusing to say anything more but the look in her eyes revealed everything to Jason. "Who are you working for? Why work for them? And do you honestly believe Alice is safer with them?"

"I owe them more than I ever owed you," Katelyn answered with vehemence.

"Even more than you owe Allie?" Jason asked. "Considering that, for all those years, all those moments together … that you were always a spy? Sent by her father? Meant to monitor and manipulate her? Just as you manipulated me? I mean, tried to manipulate."

Jason corrected himself as Katelyn, for the first time, looked taken aback. She looked straight at Jason's darker than black eyes and discerned that she couldn't fathom the depths of his knowledge and that fact shook her to her very core.

"You … knew? All those years, you knew," Katelyn whispered as her eyes went wide with realization. "You knew the moment you tested me. The second day you arrived in the Sage's Mansion."

"Oh, yes," Jason nodded, his voice gruff while he let out a small bitter chuckle. "I knew. That's why I couldn't trust you near Alina after you betrayed us. After you betrayed me."

Jason took a step forward while Katelyn stepped back, maintaining her distance from him. Her breathing intensified as Jason spoke.

"I couldn't let you near her again because I wasn't sure if you'd try to manipulate her," Jason said. "I wasn't sure if you'd hurt her again."

Since the beginning, while Jason was teasing Katelyn, the latter was trying to seduce him. Both were playing with each other but at some point, somewhere along the line, it became real. However, this revelation did little to comfort Katelyn.

"And that's why you abandoned me? That's why you threw me away and doomed our child?!" Katelyn screamed as she lost control of her emotions.

"... What do you mean?" Jason asked with a heavy voice. A sense of foreboding overwhelmed him and prevented Jason from breathing. He had a vague feeling of what she meant, but he couldn't believe it, he refused to believe it.

"For all your bluster, you raged like a child that night," Katelyn said. Her eyes were full of hate and anger yet deep down, sadness and regret shone like a lighthouse. "You refused to even listen to me, even when I wanted to tell you … that I was pregnant."

An explosion went off on Jason's head and the world spun as he lost his balance, his body falling backward as he tried but failed to steady himself. Katelyn's voice kept on repeating in Jason's head and he almost blacked out as she continued talking harshly.

"I was pregnant with Alice. And I wanted to tell you," Katelyn said, her voice heavy with resentment. "But you abandoned me … left me to fend for myself and then … she ... it was a misca -"

Katelyn's voice broke and she took a deep breath before screaming. "SHE DIED BECAUSE OF YOU! I LOST HER! I LOST EVERYTHING BECAUSE OF YOU!"

Katelyn's scream pierced Jason's heart deeper than any knife could go. He sat down dumbfounded, barely registering anything. Everything clicked together at that moment and he stunningly realized the truth. Why was Katelyn so off those last few days, why she had wanted to know if he loved her, why she wanted to run away with him, why … she betrayed the Sages. And him.

"Then Alice …?" Jason asked hoarsely and desperately.

"I couldn't live with myself," Katelyn said bitterly. "Not without my child, the only thing I had left of - then, they came. They promised to bring her back, give her a second chance, but only if I joined them. So I did. And they did bring her back to me. And I don't regret it, not even for a second."

Katelyn looked down at Jason. She didn't continue her words but Jason understood what she meant.

"I'm taking Alice with me," Katelyn said before walking away. "Tomorrow. You - you don't deserve her."

"Wait!" Jason stood up and began chasing after her when a bullet was fired at him.

That hair rising feeling engulfed him and time appeared to slow down as he turned to face the direction of the shot. He could see the bullet barreling towards him and, almost instantaneously, he threw a knife at it, barely changing its trajectory. Regardless, it gave him enough time to react and he tried to dodge the bullet at the last second. Thanks to the knife throw, the bullet grazed his arm instead of his chest and he turned to look at where the shot originated from, only to see a figure on a rooftop packing their sniper rifle and fleeing.

He turned back to where Katelyn was running but found no trace of her, even when he tried using his Esper powers. "Katelyn …"

Jason's arm which was reaching out slowly fell back down and he lowered his head. Droplets of rain started falling, pouring and drenching Jason but he still remained standing in that position for a very long time. Finally, he looked up at the direction Katelyn had disappeared before leaving despondently.