Chapter 24 - Bait

[["What are you doing?" 

"We are leaving."]]

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Jian Yu lurched forward and sunk into his knees. 

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[["The power is out and the sensors aren't working. This is our only chance."]]

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His hands gripped the toilet bowl, knuckles white. His stomach contracted wildly as he retched, like someone had shoved their hands inside his intestines, grabbed at them, pulling and twisting.  

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[["There is a backup system, it might still be intact! It could come at any second and they are going to kill us this time!"

"We have to take the chance. It's going to be alright, everything's going to be fine."]] 

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Another one violent contraction, the red wine congealed inside of his stomach emerged as nothing was digested since the evening before. He heaved and retched, red liquid spilled out of his mouth, hitting the water contained in the toilet bowl with loud splashes. 

His stomach kept on twisting and contracting violently, forcing everything up and out, clogging up his throat. His face was white and dripping bile, sweat, and tears.

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[["Which one of you boys did it? Answer me."]]

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[["Don't! Stop it! I will kill you! I swear, I will kill all of you! Don't touch--"]]

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He retched and retched until only clear liquid was coming up. His throat felt sore from the constant heaving and his eyes blurred from the hot tears that had gathered. 

He gripped the porcelain toilet bowl to steady himself and flushed the toilet. The last of it had dribbled past his lips as he leaned forward. 

Jian Yu wiped at his mouth, acidic residue forming a shiny wet patch on his cuffs. He blinked away his tears, slumping down as his ċhėst heaved heavily from the previous actions. 

He sat on the marble tiles of the bathroom. 'What was that?' 

Fragments of memories flashed in his mind and it sent a sharp sting across his head, making him see white for a second. Squeezing his eyes shut, he waited for the pain to disappear.  

He blinked a few more times and the world shifted back again. 

What the hell was that flashback? 

He slipped his hands in his hair and gripped it tight, pulling at it. 

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[["Get your hands off me! Get off!"]]

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Jian Yu suċkėd in a breath. It felt so real, he could feel hands rubbing all over his body. 

He felt cornered. 

Vulnerable. 

Dirty. 

Tears that had gathered in the corner of his eyes now fell freely down his cheeks. His body started to shake. 

Unable to hold back his tears, he started sobbing. 

'What is this? His lost memories?! Was he… Was he-- Oh my god!'

Stop! 

No! He didn't want to know! He never wanted to know! Please stop giving him flashbacks! What had triggered it anyway! 

Go away, Stop! Stop stop stop!

He pulled his knees to his ċhėst and curled into himself. Sniffing, his tears trailed down the corner of his eyes, drenching his cheeks wet and dripped down his chin. 

He curled into himself more, making himself smaller and wrapped his arms over his knees. He stayed in that position until he cried himself to sleep. 

XXX

"Speak."

Zeke was standing, leaning against a wall with arms crossed as he stared at the two other occupants in the room with displeasure.

"So, what was this all about?" he initiated, seeing as how the two others didn't seem to be speaking anytime soon.

Derek sighed, fingers massaging his own temple.

"You are not doing something illegal, are you?" 

Gasping loudly, which earned raised eyebrows from both Zeke and Lynn, Derek looked absolutely scandalous. 

"How could you say that to your father? I would never!" 

"Then?" Zeke thinned his lips. "If it isn't illegal, it must have something to do with these triquetra symbols, am I correct or am I not wrong?" 

"Son, you are asking the same thing--" 

"So it has to do with these symbols," Zeke stalked up in front of his father's desk and whipped out a file of documents. 

"Don't cut into my words--"

"Someone suspicious broke into that office of yours and was in the process of burning these documents. Thanks to me, who managed to come in time, the man ended up panicking and burned your whole office instead," Zeke waved the documents in front of Derek's face. 

Derek splurted and proceeded to snatch the documents from his hands. "Y-- You, son, do you even know how many precious treasures were burned down?" 

He opened the side drawer of his huge desk and slipped the documents inside before slamming it close. "What have I done to receive this kind of treatment from you?" 

"You knew who killed mom." 

"How many times do I have to repeat myself? Your mom died from a fire explosion in the laboratory he worked at." 

"Lies," Zeke gritted his teeth. "I have done my own research, mom was definitely murdered. And I believe you have investigated it yourself and that investigation is still ongoing until now." 

"I don't know what you're talking about," Derek gave Zeke a pointed look, the cheery air he carried around himself vanished in the matter of seconds. 

Seeing as how his father still had his mouth shut, Zeke scoffed and turned towards Lynn. "How did your younger brother die?" 

"He died in a fire explosion," Lynn answered him monotonously. 

"Both of you…" Zeke squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath, trying to contain the growl that almost seeped past his lips. 

When he calmed down, he ran a hand through his dark hair and huffed. "At least now I know why I must be married into that… That… Those…." 

He shuddered heavily in disgust.  

However, no one had yet to say a word and Zeke eyed them critically. 

Fine, he was going to pull this trump card anyway. 

He pulled out the lollipop he received from Jian Yu before and raised it high enough for his father and Lynn to see. 

"Don't you want to know where I got this?" 

He purposely flashed the brand of the lollipop in their faces and was satisfied at the reaction. Both sets of eyes had widened a fraction. 

"I am also familiar with Doctor Liam, he is… a friend, a pretty close one, enough for me to bug him whenever I want…" He dragged his words, hoping his father bit the bait he laid out. 

"I saw his pictures secretly taken, tugged in between the documents…" Zeke slowly backed up and walked towards the door. "It's not hard to put two and two together, Doctor Liam… The head of Zero…"

He suddenly turned back to face his father. He widened his eyes and smacked his fist on his palm, looking as if he figured something out. "He even worked for the Zero family…" 

"What… A coincidence…" He continued slowly, before spinning on his heels and reached for the door. 

'Take it, take it,' Zeke muttered like a mantra under his breath, finger crossed. 

By the time his hand clasped around the handle, a gruff voice stopped him. 

"Wait." 

He paused and his lips instantly curled up in a smirk. 

'Gotcha.'