Page 14 of Fated

“All personal artifacts will be returned to you upon your release.”

The officer’s voice cut through the silence as she glanced at me, clearly noting my hesitation.

She emptied the bracelets into another, smaller plastic bag, alongside my phone; I must have still been clutching it when they’d arrested me.

I followed her down the cold, unforgiving, concrete corridor as she led me back to my cell.

“Another officer will come to finish booking you,” she said, then the door to the cell clanged shut behind me. I bolted for the metal bench, curling up on it, wrapping my arms tightly around my abdomen again. My mind threatened to unravel, so I closed my eyes, forcing my focus on the faint hum of the light overhead. I had no grasp on how much time passed—minutes or hours—before a door creaked open, followed by the sound of footsteps approaching.

“Excuse me, sir. You cannot be back here,” the female guard’s voice said, echoing down the hallway. Yet the footsteps grew louder, closer, joined by the noise of the guard trailing behind.

I opened my eyes, straining my neck to get a look at who the officer had been yelling at.

The moment my eyes landed on him, my blood ran cold, and my stomach dropped. Standing just outside my cell was the dark-haired man from the arcade. I turned pale with cold fear, frantically looking to the officer. She had just reached him, about to open her mouth, but he spoke first, his voice unnervingly calm.

“You will release Areya Bennett and her belongings to me, then you will forget I’m here.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, she unlocked the door to my cell. Then she left, only to return a minute later with the bags containing all my belongings, holding them out to the man.

He eyed the bag of soiled clothes, his face wrinkling in disgust. “Burn them,” he said, taking the smaller bag, and tucking it into his pocket.

The guard quickly turned and walked away as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening.

Thenhestepped into my cell.

Tremors wracked my body as I stared at him, his dark, cold eyes boring into mine, his presence filling the space with an unnatural stillness. I willed my body to stand on legs that were shaking so violently, I had to brace myself against the cell wall.

“You—I have been trying to find for a very long time.”

There wasn’t a hint of amusement in his voice.

He reached behind him and pulled something from his pocket, handing me a pair of black leather gloves. “Put them on, and don’t remove them.”

Without even making a conscious decision to do as the man said, I watched in horror as my hands took hold of the gloves and slid them on obediently, one by one. A whimper escaped as Idesperately glanced around, hoping to see the female guard—to find someone, anyone who could help me. But there was no one else, only him now.

“You’re afraid of me.” I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be a question.

“Shouldn’t I be?” I managed to whisper.

He tilted his head, eyes gleaming with something unreadable. “Interesting.”

Without another word, he slid his hands inside his pockets, then turned and strode from the cell. I didn’t move, my feet rooted to the spot.

But he glanced back over his shoulder, saying, “Come now, Areya.” His voice was soft but commanding, and against every instinct screaming inside of me, my legs betrayed me, and I found myself following him. This could not be happening.

We passed through the door and into the front of the police station.

There, not one officer so much as glanced our way, even as the voice of a news reporter played on a small TV.

“Breaking news out of Huddleton tonight. Areya Bennett, a local young female,has been arrested for the suspected murder of her mother.”

The words hit me way too hard, knocking all the breath from my lungs.

The man turned, his eyes locking on mine.

“Areya Bennett, you are going to want to stay very close to me.”

As he walked out of the police station, I felt it, a pull deep within me, as though every fiber of my being demanded my feet to follow him.

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