Page 135 of Fractured Allegiance
It’s just begun.
The moment I close the loft door behind me, I lock it.
The failsafe screen is still glowing where I left it. I ignore it.
I'm halfway to the kitchen, reaching for the light switch, when I see it.
Something on the floor, near the threshold, tucked away just enough that it makes me look twice. Still, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t there when I walked in. The cream color of the envelope, an external replica of the first, is in stark contrast against my dark floor.
For what feels like an eternity, I can’t move a single limb.
Like someone has hit pause on a remote control. Just as swiftly, when that higher power I don’t believe in presses Play: I cross the room with haste to pick it up.
Inside it, there is a single photo.
And this time, it punches the air out of my lungs.
In grainy motion capture, there we are: Silas and I. Someone used a long lens it looks like. The angle is tight, but Irecognize the window framing in the corner. It's from outside. From above, I suspect. What, from the rooftop opposite?
All this time, I’d thought it was Silas watching. But he is in the photo. Has it been someone else the entire time? Have I been building him up in my head?
I can’t seem to exhale.
The image plagues me.
Silas has one hand on my waist. My shirt is off one shoulder. His mouth is half an inch from mine. His body is pressing me back into the wall.
And the line scrawled beneath the image—just six words:
He won’t save you.
He’ll burn with you.
I drop the photo onto the counter like it bit me.
My fingers are numb. My knees feel weak.
I grab the burner and dial his number.
It doesn’t ring.
Just—nothing.
Straight to dead air.
I try again.
And again.
Same result.
I throw the phone onto the couch. It bounces off and hits the floor with a dull thud.
I press my palms against the counter and fight the scream climbing up my throat.
I stare at the photograph for another full minute before I pick it up and tear it clean down the middle. Then again. And again. Until it’s a shredded mess of paper that looks like proof of how stupid I was to let anyone get that close.
I don’t even throw the pieces away.
