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“I’m sorry! I’ll make it up to you, I promise. We’ll get this collar off of you and get the hell out of here.” He grabbed a piece of scribbled paper with a few pictures printed on it and a map from the pile of other documents and handed it over. “See, I planned the whole thing out. We would have been on our way here by the time Davi and the others figured out what we had done.”
The paper wrinkled with alcohol spoke of a place in the African desert where humans and titans live away from the sanctuary cities—a safe small town called Sahara.
“Sahara? Humans and titans are living together?”
“We can say fuck all of this and get the hell out of here, get a boat and go there and live our lives in peace together if you don’t wanna fight.”
“In peace?”
“Some resistance members don’t want to fight the titans; they just don’t want to be subjugated and live in filth. They eventually quit it all and go here. They say outcast Titans go there too, and there are no rules. I might not like them but, if they stay out of my way then that’s fine by me.” He took another swig, and I noticed his hands shaking. I wanted to ask when was his last hit of drugs but left it alone. “Everything will be okay, you’ll see. We’ll remove this fucking thing and lie low until we can get the fuck out of here.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
KAL
The door opened, and Davi arrived again, this time alone. I didn’t like this at all. A chill stung me giving me goosebumps. I wasn’t ready to hear any more bullshit; I’ve made my peace with why he sold me, but I was not going to be the trusting fool next time. I didn’t know how much I wanted to believe Jaxon and this fairytale town of happy humans cohabiting with happy titans. Still, I stuffed the papers in my pocket just in case. It certainly sounded promising. I know I all but promised to return home with Thorsten, and I meant it. If he wanted me to go, then I would. But perhaps, if this search fails then this place could be the alternative we needed.
The old woman’s words crept into my head again, along with her story of the titan and his human lover opting for suicide in the end. Are we too, destined for tragedy? Thorsten certainly thought so, and now I was believing it more and more as well.
Jaxon didn’t seem all that pleased to be interrupted by the man; he stood between us as if the two were ready for a showdown.
“Ya foolish, Jaxon.” He now spoke in that Jötun accent, the one they seem to use for each other but not for outsiders. I no longer cared. What I did care about was his hands tucked into the front pouch of a black hooded sweater he was wearing. Did he have a gun on him? “You’re not one of us anymore, but we gave you the benefit of the doubt that you wouldn’t run the city spillin’ secrets.”
“I ain’t runnin’ the city. I’m talkin’ to my man.”
“‘Bout that stupid fuckin’ desert colony you don’t know exists. We know bandits create little pamphlets like that to entice scavengers to bring the goods to’em.”
“I’m sure bandits also kidnapped the titans and forced them to give photo ops too.” Jaxon replied sarcastically.
“I’m just tryin’ to be a good friend to you even when you don’t give me much of a reason to be.” Davi said, deflated.
“Fuck you, Davi. You want to protect your secrets that bad? Even against someone who has more of a reason to hate the titans than you?”
“Have you ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome?” He looked at me and back to Jaxon. Like the wind, his accent vanished; I wondered if they did that subconsciously. “It’s when a captive sympathizes with their captor. They become the ally of the person who should be their enemy.”
“And yet, he is here.”
“How did he get here? Care to explain?”
Coming here was a mistake; something told me that if Davi didn’t like my answer, I would see what he was hiding in his pouch. Aborting this entire mission was for the best. The sooner I returned to Thorsten, the better. “I ran off. And you have somenerve to question me. The only person who is a proven liar is you.”
“You’re too much of a liability. You think your master won’t come around here to hunt you down?”
“He doesn’t give a damn about me.” I winced when I spoke those words.
“What is this about a collar?” He gestured to the band around my neck, and now Jaxon stepped aside, and I took it to mean that he was no longer a threat to me. I hoped.
“The collar would kill me. It uses voice activation. I need to disable that.”
“We got some skilled hackers on our side. We can see about disabling it in exchange for something.”
“I just need to find my dad.”
“You want a guy dying in a hospital to hack your collar?”
“C’mon!” Jaxon exclaimed in anger.
“We need this.” Davi spat back. “He’s been on the inside longer than any of us. If he wants our help with his dad or that collar, then he has to give us something.”
