Chapter 5

It took a few seconds for me to consciously notice the knife that was now protruding out of my abdomen. It was very medieval-looking and I hadn't fully recognized the pain until now. The blood coming out of the wound was not its normal red color but was instead black. I realized that the blade must have been coated with poison because having me just bleed out was not enough. Liam's killer just watched as I crumpled to the ground. I hated him with every bone in my body and was about to pull the blade out of my side to stab him with it, but thought better of it when I realized that I would lose blood a lot faster if I did.

"As fate would have it you'll never live to see another day. How ironic that you have thought about killing me all these years and not once had you ever crossed my mind. Oh, what a shame."

Then he disappeared. He had come and gone without a trace while I was bleeding out in an alley. I waited a good five minutes before signaling to the boy that it was okay to come out of his hiding place. He was very cautious and slow with his movements as he came over to where I was laying. He seemed unfazed by the blood and quickly got to work. He eventually got the blood to stop and managed to pull out the blade without causing irreparable damage. It wasn't until now that we had to start worrying about the poison.

"I never caught your name," I said. The boy looked at me with bewilderment.

"It's Aiden," he whispered. He must have realized that it was good to keep me talking instead of dying on him so he started asking me questions.

"I overheard you say something about wanting to kill that guy, what was that all about."

It was so hard for me to put into words who Liam's Killer was to me. Especially since Aiden didn't have any clue what was going on at the compound. So I decided to be pretty vague about it whilst also letting him know that I wasn't planning on dying anytime soon.

"When I was about your age one of my friends was murdered. They never found the killer because no one bothered to look. The guy that stabbed me was the one responsible for my friend's death."

He didn't ask any more questions regarding Liam's killer and I was very grateful. Aiden then grabbed a t-shirt out of his bag and ripped it into strips. Once he had wrapped the wound however I notice that the veins along my abdomen were starting to turn black as well. I was hoping that I was going to last a little longer than this. I worried about Aiden and how I was going to get him to the compound without me.

The pain soon became unbearable. It felt like my skin was melting and sweat started to bead off in large droplets. It didn't take long for the headache to kick in. Aiden tried his best to keep the fever down as I laid there for another hour.

"You dumbass."

I turn to see Caleb and Lindsey standing in the alleyway entrance. Caleb and I were like brothers and this was going to piss him off. When he saw fully what was going on he shook his head in disappointment.

"I leave you alone for three hours and you somehow manage to almost get yourself killed. I really need to stop letting you go places by yourself."

Lindsey shot Caleb a pointed glare and he threw up his hands in defeat. Lindsey was one of the few people that I trusted with anything medical. She bent down and check over the wound, making sure the poisoning wasn't going to spread too much before we could get back to the compound. I knew I was going to get chewed out by both Jaz and Nikko because I decided to go on this mission alone.

Suddenly my blood flared and my vision was growing cloudy as everything started to come in and out of focus. I reached over and grabbed Aiden's hand I wanted to voice to the others how important it was to get him to the compound. Caleb gathered up Aiden's stuff that had been discarded in the frantic moments after Liam's killer had tried to kill me. Now knowing that Aiden was safe and well looked after by people I trusted, I closed my eyes and willingly let the darkness take over.