Demons in the Mirror - Chapter 115

Valerian equipped his brown trench coat and a brown hat. He also wore coffee-coloured gloves and the mask that Kiaran had offered to him that day—the day when they had to work together to save Axel and Aster. It was funny how now Valerian would once again break someone out of prison.

The pale white walls with a single bed in the middle adorned his bedroom. He reloaded his gun and pocketed it. He had borrowed the mercenary’s rope gun and knives that he stole earlier.

“This is insane. I’ve gone mad.” The blond muttered as he stared at his own reflection in the mirror. He stood straight in his bedroom, facing his own shadow with a sigh.

“Couldn’t agree more.” A voice almost startled him as he quickly snapped his head over to Aster who was leaning on the door.

Aster was wearing a yellow jacket with simple jeans. One of his hands was inside the jacket’s front pocket, resting there. The boy did his hair quite neatly if you had seen his previous state before.

“This was your idea.” Valerian returned his little brother’s tired gaze with a brooding look that was intended toward Aster rather than himself.

“Don’t bring me into this.” Aster threw a brown hat at Valerian, and the latter easily caught it.

“I’m just saying, if you don’t want to know what depression is, save that mercenary’s ass.” The boy ended his sentence with a shrug.

“Now, if you excuse me, I’m late to my therapy.” Aster wore his hood and quickly left Valerian’s room, walking away from the lieutenant who was about to save his sworn enemy.

The moon once again watched while stealing the sun’s light so that it could reflect its dim brightness for the city. The night muffled Livedam in silence as people slowly returned to the city after their mass evacuation.

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“Lieutenant! You’re back. Do you have a night shift?” A woman with a police uniform smiled at Valerian.

“Oh, I just left something. I’m going to take him real quick. It’s quite annoying, actually.” Valerian stated and nodded at the woman. He wore a black trench coat and hid his hands inside his pockets. His hair swayed a little from the cold wind of the night, causing it to cascade down his face.

“That is really annoying indeed, sir.” The woman agreed and watched Valerian quietly walk into the prison.

“Though I think he is too tired that he changed an it into him.” She muttered and chuckled a little. “‘Take him real quick.’ That sounded like he was about to snatch a person away.” She shook her head and went back to her work.

She was right, of course. As soon as Valerian got in, he tried to behave as normal as possible, glancing one or two times at the CCTV around. When he arrived in the security room hallway, he quickly walked under the camera, pretending to see his phone when someone went past him.

He took out a knife with his gloved hand and threw it into the camera, making it twitch for a moment and finally shut down.

When he made sure the camera had already turned off, and no one was around, the blond silently went inside the empty security room. He knew that the one who watched the security cameras had taken a break at this hour. He had planned this thoroughly.

Valerian quickly took off his trench coat and turned it around, revealing the brown colour that he had worn backwards. He quickly took out his mask and hat, covering his hair and half of his face.

He meddled with the security monitors and turned them off just in a minute. Before he quickly shut them all off, he looked toward Kiaran’s monitor.

The teen was sitting on a hard bed, facing the wall without moving an inch. Valerian reached his hand to turn off Kiaran’s camera too and almost stopped when the mercenary suddenly stared at the camera.

His stares were too cold and uninviting. Just wait until he knew that Valerian was saving him, he should be thankful.

He silently opened the high-level lock on Kiaran’s cell door and quickly turned off the last camera. Valerian lowered his hat to cover his eyes and left the room.

He sped walk to Kiaran’s cell who was put with the best security in prison. It was on the furthest side of the basement.

Valerian walked in the hallway, facing two guards who were guarding Kiaran’s cell. The two guards’ bodies hunched forward with their hands ghosting over their weapons.

“Stop right th-”

Valerian shot his tranquillizer gun to the two in a swift movement, not letting them finish their sentence. He crouched down on them and searched for the extra key that was locking Kiaran’s cell.

“Sorry, boys. I don’t know what’s gotten into me either, but I need to make sure I’m not going to regret anything.” Valerian found the key and quickly snatched it, bringing it over to the cell’s door.

“Though I feel like I’m starting to regret this already.” He muttered mild hauntedly when he shoved the key to the door and turned it clockwise.

He opened the door to see a completely white room with a single bed and toilet. The teen that he had to save sat on the bed, staring at him with the same look as he had when he stared at the camera.

“What are you doing here, lieutenant Valerian?” Kiaran flatly muttered. There was no tone in his voice like he usually did. It was out of character.

Or maybe this was his real self.

“Don’t call me like that. It sounds creepy coming from you.” Valerian shivered for a moment before walking over and standing in front of the mercenary. “And I’m here to save your ass, by the way.”

“Don’t bother,” Kiaran answered, still gazing at his green eyes with his dull blue ones.

“Too bad. You know how stubborn I am, right?” Valerian stated while looking down at Kiaran’s hands. “Ah. I forgot about the handcuff’s key.”

“Come on, we’ll think about that later. Let’s get out of here.” He continued and quickly walked to the door, scanning the surroundings cautiously.

When it was deemed that no one was around, Valerian looked back at Kiaran again, expecting the man to be already close to him.

So when Kiaran still sat on the same spot, the blond’s eyes twitched a little. “Why aren’t you standing?”

The person in question did not answer. He did not even try to look in Valerian’s way and stared at the wall again.

“Mercenary, you-” A sign of irritation filled the room as Valerian tried to control his rage. He trembled, calming himself from shouting and cursing the life out of his sworn enemy.

“We don’t have time for this shit. Let’s go.”

“I said I don’t want to.” Kiaran stubbornly answered while completely ignoring the lieutenant’s effort in trying to bail him out. And boy, how Valerian hoped that he had killed Kiaran right now instead of trying to save his ass.

“Why are you so stubborn? Are you fucking suicidal?!” He made his way to Kiaran and shook his body with his hands gripping on the shoulders.

“I don’t see why not.” The black-haired answered, unfazed.

The two had a staring contest for a while with their own form of determination. One had a raging fire in his eyes, and the other had a blizzard in his gaze.

Valerian gritted his teeth behind his mask. “This bastard-”

“Put your hands in the air! You are under arrest!” There were ten police officers outside the cell, aiming their guns at Valerian. The blond lowered his hat and followed the instruction, he had to think of a way to get out of this.

Wait.

They weren’t aiming at him. They were aiming at Kiaran!

They probably thought Kiaran was more dangerous than him at the moment, knowing how they all pointed their guns at the mercenary. But the thing was, the mercenary himself did not give a fuck whether he died or not.

This guy needed some therapy. No, he needed therapy since the beginning.

Valerian warily looked over the police officers with a sweat that started to form on his forehead. ‘Damn it. I can’t fight them while trying to protect Kiaran. Can’t he protect himself? At least have some will to live!’

There was no other way. He just had to face them all. If they were caught, not only would he fail to save the mercenary, but he would probably follow him to the afterlife for this treason.

Valerian side-eyed Kiaran who was still fucking staring at the wall. The blond sighed. Sweats had already danced around his palm.

He silently took out the knife hidden in his sleeve, planning to throw it to one of the officer’s legs to buy some time.

“Wait for me.” He whispered to Kiaran, belatedly noticing the suddenly widened eyes and dark emotions blooming on the mercenary’s face.

Before Valerian managed to take out the whole knife and went into action, Kiaran had moved first.

The black-haired easily broke off the handcuff with one snap of a finger and swiftly snatched the gun inside Valerian’s pocket in a blink of an eye. Before anyone could react, Kiaran had mercilessly shot all the police officers in their hands, nailing every single shot coldly.

All the weapons quickly dropped from all the officers’ hold, some of them let out a cry while the others tried to bear with the pain.

“Don’t say those words to me,” Kiaran stated, glaring at Valerian with eyes filled with darkness and rage.

The blond was caught off-guard by the sudden movement. He froze while staring bewilderedly at Kiaran.

“If you say that again, I’m going to fucking kill you.”