Page 88 of Drop His Mask

“Ignore him. He is a buffoon, a coward, and a traitor.” Oleks tugged me into my new bedroom, the one I had taken from their other teammate.

And I allowed him to.

Being swapped from Jayce's team, I was angry, resentful, heartbroken, but I was beginning to understand it for the blessing it was. If they truly turned the teams against each other, and I was certain they would, being separated from Jayce is a better alternative.

Oleks was an interesting character. One that I had yet to get a read on, but he wasn’tbad. Well, I guess at least not what I would qualify as such. He was a subtle dose of poison that you didn’t even know you drank until it was affecting you in an inalterable way.

“Are you not a traitor, as well?” I asked genuinely curious.

Oleks turned to the dresser, opening a drawer and grabbing something from inside before he deemed to answer.

He scoffed, “No, if anything, I am theonlyinnocent in all of this. My one crime was driving a bleeding girl through a corrupt country trying to find a doctor.”

He’s talking about me.

“Thank you and…I’m sorry. It sounds like I am the reason you ended up in a prison, how you made your way here.”

“No, I would have been taken one way or another. A turn coat in our midst had already begun the process, it was only a matter of time.” Oleks shooed at me. “Now lift up your shirt.”

Desire took on a mind of its own as it shot out across my nerves, but then he lifted the bottle in his hand.

Antiseptic.

Embarrassment heated my cheeks. “You know, we didn’t really discuss what happened inthatgame.” I laid back on the bed, lifting up my shirt where the stitches were. They didn’t look as bad as before; I guessed the antibiotics Griffin had given me were already working their magic.

Oleks left without a word and I heard the sink turning on. When he returned, he held a towel and a few other supplies. “I am sorry for that. You are admittedly different from what I expected. And I know I am not the only person that has found solace in your heart. I didn’t dare request for you to hold space for me. I don’t deserve you.”

This conversation had taken a turn in a direction I didn’t expect. With Maverick and Enzo, they seemed content to simply have fun and use each other when needed, but Oleks…

“Have you…have you been with a woman before?” I wasn’t sure if the question was rude or acceptable. Social cues were something I had never been well educated on.

Oleks, again, didn’t answer for several minutes, instead choosing to diligently clean around my stitches, using light and steady hands to work as quickly as possible.

When he was done, he lowered my shirt back down, the icy tips of his fingers skirting across the sensitive skin of my stomach. “You used your body for your Faction?” His eyes met mine. They were glassy, foggy. As if he were not in the here and now but in a distant past.

“I did,” I confirmed. “It was easier to freely give it that way. It was the illusion of a choice.”

This time he found his way to my leg. To the spot that had been stung in the game earlier. He worked again to clean the area. An immediate relief to another pain I had ignored.

“I understand. If I were given a choice, I would have done the same. To answer you, yes I have been with women and men. But I had never wanted nor enjoyed the encounters. There was a man once that I thought I loved, that twisted my body and emotions up in a way I had never had happen before, but we never connected and eventually I realized he wasn’t who I thought he was.”

Oleks moved before I could register what was happening. Rolling so he hovered above me on the bed.

He angled his head down, examining me as if I were a scientific phenomenon. “But you? You came out of nowhere. A heat that unfurled too fast for me to grab hold of. You were the antidote I didn’t know I needed to a poison I drank long ago. It won’t be much longer, Raven. Now it is time for us all to rest. Griffin will remain outside your room and keep watch to ensure 194 does not try anything.”

“Will you stay with me?” I rolled my lips between my teeth before releasing them. “Please? I don’t want to admit it, because it makes it true, but I’m, I’m so fucking sca—”

Oleks’s lips met mine. They were soft, pliable, but with a cutting edge. Just as quickly as they were there, they were gone. He pulled back. “You don’t have to be strong in this room. I will carry your burden for you. I do not know how our story will go, but I want you to only remember the brightest parts. It is the only way to continue on. We must march forward into the jaws of a beast, I am afraid, but I promise at the end of it, we will be better for it.”

“Why do you care about me?”

Oleks shifted away, lying next to me on the bed, he stared upwards at the ceiling. “I’m not sure.”

He turned to meet my eyes, his were unfocused, but there was unmistakable agony in their depths. His cold fingers found my arm and began to trace along my skin alighting my nerves and leaving a trail of sensitive goosebumps in their wake.

“Some say that trauma at such a young age can cause all sorts of developmental issues. And I believe to an extent that is true, but for some reason, when I’m with you it’s as if I’m normal. As if I am not living in a nightmare of my own making. I’m not sure what that means, but I enjoy the feel of it, and I am going to stick around for as long as I can.” He paused, gauging my reaction, but I remained silent, offering him a reassuring smile and waiting for him to continue. “Perhaps we are two bonded broken creatures that need solace. Perhaps we are a woman and man whose bodies have not been their own for too long. Or perhaps you are simply a figment of my imagination in my final moments of death. Who knows, Raven. But no matter what it is, I will be here by your side through it all. I just hope you can accept me.”

“I do.” Just as I had when I first came into this, I allowed myself to fall apart. For my grief and sorrow to leave me. Instead of Jayce though, I was now here in this unfamiliar bed, with this practical stranger. The tears quickly turned to sobs shaking throughout me, vibrating out of my body.

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