Chapter 240: Chapter 239: I Want to Take This Opportunity to Kill Erin Whittaker...
"Don’t be afraid. I’ll get you out of here," I whispered, trying to calm Madeline Quinn.
"Let’s go." Zeke Shaw picked up Madeline Quinn in a panic and stumbled forward.
"Follow me..." I took the lead, feeling my way through the dark, telling Zeke Shaw to stay close behind me.
"Claire Lawson? Are you okay?" Felix Foster called out, crouching down to check on her.
"She’s hurt!" Lucas Grant said frantically. "She’s been stabbed in the abdomen."
After checking Claire Lawson’s condition in the dark, Lucas Grant had Felix Foster carry the barely breathing woman on his back.
"Tim Zane! We can’t forget Tim Zane." He was still back where we left him.
They felt their way back to Tim Zane and slowly moved forward, carrying his stretcher.
"Save me..." Suddenly, a faint voice came from below, and a hand gripped my ankle tightly.
It was Erin Whittaker.
I froze for a moment, then spoke in a low voice. "Without Julian Fletcher... who do you think would save you without a second thought? You’ve been coasting on his goodwill for years. It’s time for that to end."
Erin Whittaker’s fingers trembled, but her will to live made her clutch me tighter. "You think... he fought so hard to get me out of that elevator just to save me? Silvia Lynch, you’re too naive... He did it for ’Cecilia Caldwell’! How can the living ever compete with the dead? That’s what makes Cecilia Caldwell so terrifying!"
Erin Whittaker endured the pain, her voice raw and desperate. "I’m still useful! I know Victor Quinn’s secrets! Julian was afraid you wouldn’t find anything, so even if it meant dying himself, he had to push me out—the only one who knows anything!"
I frowned and kicked her hand away. "I have no obligation to save you. If you want to live, get up yourself."
Erin Whittaker cried out in despair, but her survival instinct drove her to clutch her wound and stagger to her feet. She latched onto the corner of Madeline Quinn’s clothes, trying to get Zeke Shaw to take her with them.
"Asher..."
We headed toward the sound.
Suddenly, the voice cut off, replaced by the sounds of a struggle.
I knew there was someone else in here. They were going after Asher.
"Asher!" I shouted his name in a panic, moving toward the sound.
THUD! The sound of something heavy falling from above.
"Asher!" I called out his name, my breathing ragged, as I fumbled my way forward in a panic.
Asher didn’t answer. My heart was in my throat. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ
’This is what it feels like to be worried and scared. My heart is beating so fast...’
"I’m here." Just as I was feeling helpless and terrified, a hand pulled me into a tight embrace.
My breathing slowly calmed as I hugged Asher tightly. "I can’t... lose you."
In that moment, that was my truest feeling.
I couldn’t lose him.
"I’ll always be with you, always..." Asher whispered, his voice hoarse, clearly injured.
I frantically patted him down, breathing a sigh of relief only when I confirmed he had no serious external injuries.
"Everyone, come here. Let’s hold hands," Asher said. He knew they couldn’t stay here long, so he had the people behind us link hands one by one.
"Stay against the wall and move down slowly." Asher leaned against the wall, took the stretcher from Felix Foster, and told him to carry Claire Lawson and head down first.
CRACK! CRACK! A noise came from below in the emergency stairwell, followed by the flicker of firelight.
"Hey! Can you hear me?" In the empty, unfinished building, a shout echoed up from the first floor. It was Julian Fletcher.
"Are you all okay?" Julian Fletcher called out.
Erin Whittaker, excited, tried to rush down, but she missed a step and tumbled down the stairs, crying out in pain. "Julian..."
I glanced down. By the light of his fire, I could vaguely make out that the emergency stairwell on this level led straight to the first floor.
"Where did you get a fire?" I shouted down.
"The elevator car slid down and caught fire. I just picked up some construction debris off the ground and lit it." Julian Fletcher wasn’t a complete idiot; he knew how dangerous it was without light, so he’d made a torch from the debris.
"If I’d known, I would’ve just stayed in the elevator and slid down with it," Lucas Grant muttered under his breath.
"But survival instinct would still have made us get out. We couldn’t be sure we wouldn’t all be smashed to death inside the elevator," I said, heading down. With the light from the first floor, my eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness.
"When faced with an unknown danger, people will always choose the option that seems safest." I glanced back at Asher, and he smiled at me.
His smile always had a way of putting me at ease.
"After going through something like this, everyone should cherish their lives. Live well, don’t do anything illegal, be kind to others, don’t do bad things, don’t bully or torment people. Just be a good person, don’t look for trouble, but don’t be afraid of it either," Zeke Shaw said in a low voice, holding Madeline Quinn.
Behind this series of tragedies and this killing game was a plot orchestrated by one victim after another, all banded together.
Whether in an orphanage or on a school campus, bullies enjoy their moment of fun, thoughtlessly harming the weak and defenseless.
When the bullied turn the tables and treat them with even greater cruelty, I wonder if they ever regret their past actions.
By the time we made it from the seventh floor down to the fourth, Julian Fletcher had climbed up to meet us. "The person who fell was also from The Genetics Organization, wearing a mask."
Julian Fletcher looked at me nervously. "Are you hurt?"
Asher was not pleased. "Why do you care if my wife is hurt?"
Julian Fletcher ignored Asher and looked me up and down, only relaxing when he confirmed I was unharmed.
He was just about to say something when Erin Whittaker threw herself into his arms, sobbing. "Julian, I’m hurt... They used the chaos to try and kill me..."
Having finally found her pillar of support, Erin Whittaker sobbed in Julian Fletcher’s embrace, clutching the knife wound in her stomach and glaring at me with hatred. "It must have been Silvia Lynch! There was no one else near me, and she’s the only one who isn’t hurt! She wants to kill me because I know her secret—that she isn’t Cecilia Caldwell!"
I rolled my eyes. ’This is human nature at its worst. It doesn’t matter if you save someone like her; she’ll still bite the hand that feeds her. A classic case of the farmer and the snake.’
"Why don’t you just go die in a corner..." Madeline Quinn, though weak and leaning in Zeke Shaw’s arms, didn’t forget to curse at Erin Whittaker.
Erin Whittaker clung tightly to Julian Fletcher. "Julian... save me."
Julian Fletcher looked at Erin Whittaker’s wound, then picked her up. He looked at me nervously. "Cece... she can’t die yet. She knows things... We need to get downstairs as fast as possible."
"Don’t go yet." I put out a hand to stop Julian Fletcher and told the others to go downstairs first.
Asher glanced at me. As he started downstairs carrying Jason Zane, he still found a moment to ruffle my hair.
He always knows what I’m about to do.
Once everyone else was gone, Erin Whittaker looked at me in terror, then back at Julian Fletcher. "Julian, she’s going to kill me... She’s going to kill me! Get me out of here, please, I’m begging you..."
She screamed uncontrollably, crying and begging Julian Fletcher to take her away.
Julian Fletcher watched, his gaze deep, but he didn’t move.
I gave a cold laugh. "You guessed right. I’m going to take this opportunity to end your life..."
I took out a dagger and pressed it to Erin Whittaker’s throat. I carefully inspected her hands, confirming there were no scratch marks on the back of them.
"Did you really think I’d let you get out of here alive?" I yanked her out of Julian Fletcher’s arms and kicked her down the stairs.
Erin Whittaker curled into a ball, in too much pain to even scream.
"Cece..." Julian Fletcher took a deep breath and instinctively grabbed my hand.
He was afraid I would actually kill Erin Whittaker.