Red Lights (1)

Salem Iverine, the young prodigy, and heir to a prestigious family, was currently being restrained by Kai and Sung.

What were the chances of him being kidnapped as well? Though he can't say he is pleased with the situation.

Their family specialized in business, though he did hear they suffered a huge scandal when he was young. He wasn't close to the Iverines, personally. In fact, he doesn't even know Salem Iverine all that well. The only thing he would possibly tie his family relations to his- would be that his family had once collaborated with the Iverines.

Although they were in the same social circle, he never interacted with Salem.

He had met with him in his youth once or twice, though those could already be called encounters. He had only nodded or passed by him when following his father to his meetings.

That was hardly of any significance for him to always have it on his mind. Though he did recall all the adults talking about Salem being an upright and well-mannered person.

Atlas spared the restrained Salem another look.

People change, Atlas supposed.

Salem laughed, "Yes…that's right! You have at least half the mind to remember. I wonder what else you can remember, well- do you? Do you remember what you and your family did to mine? What had they done to me?"

Truthfully, Atlas didn't remember much about the Iverines or about what happened to them. He was more concerned for his blossoming bruises at the moment if he was being honest.

However, since this guy in front of him was extremely pissed, then he or his family must have done something. There was no reason for a proper and well-mannered son of a good family to come, charge him, and start throwing punches.

'Or he could have gone crazy,' Atlas reminded himself again.

Salem kept staring at him, waiting for his answer.

He shrugged, indifferent to the Iverines' fate and his family's actions. After all, he wasn't close with his family and hadn't personally wronged Salem.

He felt more irritated when he jumped him out of nowhere.

His disinterest however only seemed to intensify Salem's fury, "When we die, I'll drag you down, Atlas Silverthorne. I'll make sure you have the cruelest of deaths."

The crowd around them flinched and looked uneasy.

Noticing their reactions, Salem rolled his eyes, seemingly having lost it. "The officials haven't found us for days; why would they locate us now? What can we do, huh?"

Kane tried to reassure him: "Listen, dude, nothing's happened to us so far, so who knows? We might-"

Salem cut him off: "Might what? Get saved? Tch." He glared back at Atlas. "You and your family will get what's coming to you."

'How ominous,' Atlas couldn't help but remark to himself.

His family had probably done a lot of shady stuff behind the curtains, though he doubted they did anything that was considered way out of line. They had an image to uphold, after all.

Atlas sighed and walked towards Salem, his footsteps echoing through the room as he passed Kane who seemed worried. He held both his hands up to signal that he wasn't going to do anything reckless.

He could feel eyes following his every move, to see what he would do next. Kai seems to want to say something but kept it shut for now.

He stopped a few feet away from Salem- just for good measure. Though he doubted anyone here could get out of Kai's grip.

It went on for quite a while, blue eyes clashing with magenta before Atlas opened his mouth and spoke:

"Listen, I don't know what you're going on about, but is this really the time?"

Salem retorted, "Time? Do you think I'll care about that when we're all-"

"Right. Okay, yes- when we're all going to die…Well, I don't have a clue about what you've been rambling on about. What did the Silverthornes ever do to-"

Atlas didn't get to continue what he was saying, and he never got to.

It was at that moment when alarms started blaring through the room, if it was a little louder, Atlas swore his eardrums would have ruptured. It was already healing since the explosion at the stadium; he didn't need it to happen again.

He'd rather not go deaf.

It was that moment when the room had been painted red as if blood had dripped down the walls. From somewhere and somehow the area around them seems to be covered in a bright red light, masking the room in dark tones.

The sudden changes in the atmosphere caused many of them to lose their composure.

Sung recoiled in surprise as Kai released Salem. He looked around, scanning the room for the source of the alarm.

Kane scratched his head and wore a confused expression while everyone else started wearing panicked or worried expressions.

'What's going on?'

As Atlas looked around the room a robotic voice came from all sides, just as the alarms did.

[Intruders Alert. Protocol Red activated.]

"They're here!" one person shouted.

"We're getting saved!" exclaimed another.

'Intruders…'

Atlas realized that it must be the officials who were labeled as 'intruders' and who had finally found them.

He lowered his hands, bringing them back down to his sides. 'Took them long enough,' he thought, 'I've had enough of this place.'

Rolling his shoulders, he envisioned what he would do after this whole scenario. He could finally take a nice hot shower and relax with some quality food.

He always craved this shop that sold the best ice cream; he had come across it early in his childhood. It was the place he would always go to reward himself.

Sadly, it had been abandoned during the evacuations early into the war, making him miss it terribly. But the war hasn't happened yet, so he could visit as many times as he wanted before that happens.

He made a mental note to pry the recipe from them.

Ultimately, his hopes were short-lived. At that moment the door slammed open, revealing Mr. Davian, not alone, but accompanied by many armed people wearing white cloth that covered their eyes.

Each of them had white cloaks that covered their black uniform. They quickly filed into the red room and started lining the walls, seemingly ready to attack them at command.

"Wha- what's going on?" Sung asked as she looked around.

"Follow and listen to our instructions, stay where you are, and do not move," commanded the guard who stood next to Mr. Davian.

Everyone stilled, freezing in their spots as they looked around. Some were shaking while others seemed on guard. Atlas noticed Kane give Kai a look, but Kai shook his head, signaling some sort of denial.

The blaring in the background seemed to intensify while the red lights grew darker, it felt as if the room had its own steady pulse.

Atlas glanced up at Mr. Davian, who drowned in the red glow. Atlas must admit, he looked worse for wear. His hair was messy, and his glasses were crooked at an angle.

"Haha…sorry my friends, but we'll have to cut your stay here short."

'Short? Is he killing us right here and now?'

Before anyone could ask what, he meant by that he had already bid them a quick farewell, "See you later."

As soon as Mr. Davian had uttered those words, the guards acted, before Atlas had the time to react, he felt a swift pressure on the back of his neck.

The world became unsteady as his eyes became out of focus.

'Not again!'

The last thing he saw was Mr. Davian's apologetic bow in his white coat before everything turned black. He doesn't even remember hitting the floor.