As the doors closed shut, Dylan let out a loud laugh. He slapped his thigh as he looked at different people’s facial expressions. Some held fear, some had already come to the conclusion of accepting their imminent death, some anger and some trying to appear nonchalant through it all. Alarick was one of those who gave Dylan a stoic look when their eyes met, but compared to the others who only tried to fake bravery, Alarick was calm and level headed, ready to take on Dylan. The assigned men of the alpha team that were locked inside the building with Alarick and the others assembled and began to move towards Dylan with their weapons drawn but hidden as Alarick walked through the crowd and towards the stage. Dylan who was oblivious to their stealthy movement at first finally picked it up and raised his hands which contained a small remote. He shook his head. "Tsk, tsk. You brought a lot of men in here you sneaky bastard. I'll give you points for that but if any of your men take another

"Did you miss me?"Grace’s words stuck with Alarick as his feet stayed rooted to the ground. His face contorted in disbelief, stupefied at the fact that the person he once thought was dead, stood before him with an evil smirk on her face. The air was tense and everyone could feel it, especially Alarick.No. This was just a bad joke, a bad dream even. It couldn't be real. Alarick shook his head, willing the image of Grace holding a weapon to Charlotte's head to disappear but it didn't work as his negative thoughts were reinforced by Grace's voice once more."Come on Alarick. Not even a welcome home? I thought you missed me. I thought you would be glad to see me okay. Or was your concern for me and your grief all a lie?""Grace. How? How is this even possible? How are you here?" Alarick asked because that was all his brain was fixated on right now.Grace strengthened her stance and held on to Charlotte."It's called acting and turns out that I'm pretty good at it. I planned my death, Al

It was too late. They weren’t fast enough. Behind them, there was an explosion as the countdown got to zero. But nothing happened to any of them, nor did the building collapse or go up in flames. Just the loud sound of something exploding but no effects. Alarick, still in the cover of his men, opened his eyes when he noticed that he felt no pain. His hands touched parts of his body to make sure that he was actually alright and not just in shock. Once he was sure that he was fine, he looked around. All his men and Maurice were alive and looking around the room wondering why they didn’t die from the large explosion that they heard.“What the hell just happened?” Maurice said.Alarick looked forward and walked towards the bomb fragments that he saw on the floor a way back. He bent down and picked up something that he didn’t expect to see from a bomb. Confetti. Alarick scrunched his nose at the revelation. The bomb had blown up like it was supposed to but instead of actually killing every

Alarick had woken up the next day with a bad mood and a text message on his phone. It wasn’t an unknown number this time. The name connected to the number clearly showed Grace. He sighed before taking up his phone and checking the message. I’LL MEET YOU AT THE COMPANY FOR THE SIGNING AT NOON. DON’T TRY ANYTHING FUNNY, REMEMBER THAT I STILL HAVE CHARLOTTE. I’LL SEE YOU SOON ALARICK. Alarick frowned. She wanted to do the signing at the company? Why? He had thought she would insist on meeting elsewhere for the signing and only come to the company after signing the documents to make the company hers officially. What was she going to gain by doing this instead? He couldn’t wrap his head around what Grace was planning but right now he didn’t have any time. He had to get to the company and place some things in order. It all had to be done before Grace arrived. He hadn’t expected her to do this so he would have to restructure some things that had already been set up. Alarick got up from his

Alarick’s car pulled up to the location that was on the phone that Grace had handed over to him. It was an old decrepit building and by the looks of it no one could tell what it actually was unless they had been in it. Alarick got down from his car and eyed the building. It looked like there had been some homeless people living there at some time due to the sheer number of abandoned tents and mattresses that he saw laying outside on the asphalt. Alarick paid no mind to the rubbish that laid on the ground. He went in through the front door and instantly the musty smell of the room hit him. He wrinkled his nose and covered his mouth. “Ugh. What is that?”Alarick glanced over to the side of the door and saw several dead rats around what he could only assume to be food laced with rat poison. He gagged and turned away from it. With the amount of machinery that littered the room, Alarick could tell that the building was probably a warehouse for large construction machinery of some sort.