Chapter 20: Chapter 19: Incomprehensible Game

Edited by: Waning_Crescents

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The words of the other party unfortunately held some truth in them. No matter what scenario Sigal played out in his mind, he didn’t find a way to save them both. With his skills, he most likely would be able to escape by himself, maybe not unscathed, but he definitely would manage to get out one way or another. However, getting him and Cal out was a whole other problem because as soon as he would try something, Cal would face the consequences and according to Axis the punishment would be severe.

This threat tied Sigal down, his options as limited as they could be. Not even limited, that gave him no leeway at all. But if he couldn’t ensure both of their safety, then maybe he at least could pave a way for the one that mattered the most.

“I’m actually surprised you get so agitated over this.” Axis interrupted his train of thought. “I mean you basically just found out he lied to you. Aren’t you wondering what else he could have lied about?” He played with the leash in his hands while glancing briefly at Cal who sat unmoving on the ground. “You basically know nothing about him and yet you are getting all worked up over someone you barely know. Why? Don’t you think that’s quite unreasonable?”

“What is your endgame here?” Sigal fixed his gaze on him, ignoring anything the other said. “Why go through all the trouble and reveal so much? You are in fact so confident that you show me your face.” He narrowed his eyes. “Are you not afraid that if I get out of here alive that you will be hunted down?”

“Afraid?” Axis laughed out in amusement. “Afraid of who? You? The Conciliators? The police?” He licked his lips. “I would call that excitement.”

Sigal scrutinized the other’s face. There seemed to be no glimmer of fear or hesitation in Axis’s eyes, rather he appeared exhilarated, eager to participate in the hunt. Just, would he be the prey or the hunter?

“Aren’t you too confident?” Sigal pressed on. “Wouldn’t it be safer to take me instead of him?”

Cal’s eyes widened as he heard these words and wanted to protest, but right then Axis tugged on the leash, lifting him up a bit. The already tight collar dug mercilessly deeper into his throat, disrupting his breathing. Cal wheezed and instinctively grabbed after the leash.

“You want to sacrifice yourself for this useless piece of trash?“ Axis glanced from Cal to Sigal. “Look at him, all pathetic and helpless.” He sighed. “All he can do is make trouble for others. Wouldn’t I actually do you a favor if I take him away?” A grin appeared on his lips. “I mean after what you said, he must be quite the burden, right?”

“Stop!” Sigal roared, his eyes fixed at his partner.

Cal desperately gasped for breath. Saliva ran down at the corner of his mouth, his eyes becoming unfocused.

Axis chuckled, but then relaxed the leash, letting Cal drop down. He convulsed slightly, coughing vigorously.

Sigal’s eyebrows lowered, a mix of concern and fury flickered in his eyes. Then he shifted his gaze back to Axis. “Take me. Everything you need him for, use me.” He was determined to take the other’s place. As long as Cal could be free, that was enough, nothing else mattered.

“Amusing,” Axis remarked, “But I am sorry to disappoint, you are useless to me. The only reason you are here is for his punishment. You can’t replace him.” Then he motioned something to Chloe. “You are just a tool for him to realize that he causes nothing but sorrow and misfortune for others.”

That malicious smile appeared once again on Axis’s lips and his eyes sparkled. “I kinda want to hear you scream.”

 

While Cal tried to catch his breath, he still heard every word that had been spoken. Through teary eyes, from the excessive coughing, Cal caught a glimpse of Chloe drawing closer to Sigal, her intentions clearly visible.

No! Cal placed his palms on the ground and lifted himself up a bit, panting. “Wait!” His voice sounded hoarse. “Axis, I want to strike a bargain.”

Axis ordered Chloe to wait and then tilted his head. “A bargain?”

Cal nodded. “Yeah…”

His brother crossed his arms, kind of unusual cooperative. “I’m listening.”

“If you let him— No, if you stop involving outsiders into this, I…” Cal bit his lower lip; the wound Sigal tended to so carefully the night before reopened, and blood dripped down. “I will come with you voluntarily and…promise I won’t ever attempt to run away again.”

Sigal’s eyes widened in shock. “What the hell are you doing?” The whole time he thought of how to keep Cal safe, even sacrificing himself in that process. Never would he have imagined that Cal would resort to this.

“Interesting.” Axis stroked his own chin. “You think I won’t be able to contain you enough, so you won’t be able to flee?”

“Maybe you would, but...” Cal coughed lightly a few more times before he continued with a slight trembling voice. “Wouldn’t it be less troublesome if I am cooperative?”

“Indeed, indeed. That would take a huge burden off my shoulders, not needing to be on constant alert.” Axis agreed, but then he thought of something, and his expression changed. His eyes lit up and his mouth twitched in excitement. “Does that mean, you finally give in and seize your struggle? That you agree that you are mine alone and will do whatever I demand from you?”

Cal gritted his teeth, but then replied, “…Yes.”

“Excellent!” Axis clapped his hands together. “I accept your bargain. Took you long enough to come around. Now we will be together forever. I am thrilled!”

“Cal, you can’t do that! Don’t!” Sigal called out in an attempt to stop his partner from plunging himself into hell.

As Sigal’s shouts penetrated Cal’s ears, he wanted to say, ‘That’s the only way to keep you safe…’ But instead he shouted, “Shut up!”

Sigal’s eyelids twitched.

Every fiber in Cal’s body screamed to find a way for him to get away, to not get dragged back into that frightening place. The thought of it alone caused him nausea and dizziness, yet for Sigal he threw that all aside, only thinking about his safety.

In mere seconds, as if someone opened a sluice gate, all the memories he created with the Conciliators flooded in without restrain. Not all of them were pleasant, some were quite annoying, especially when Sigal was being a grumpy man all the time. But beneath his ill-tempered manner, there was something else: warmth, kindness and even sadness.

Something about Sigal always gave him the feeling of security, but he never realized that until now. Whenever he was around or Cal heard his words, he unconsciously relaxed a bit and even was able to calm down in situations usually impossible for him, like now. His mind was clear enough to assess the situation and make a decision.

This time I am going to protect you, Sigal.

“I won’t let you do that, Cal.” Sigal stared at him earnestly. “There is another way, don’t do this.”

Cal shook his head, but then gazed into Sigal’s eyes with a serious expression.

“Sigal, Axis was right when he said you don’t know anything about me. I did deceive you and hid information, not only from you but also from the Conciliators.”

I never meant to; I just had no choice…

Sigal narrowed his eyes.

“Everything I did was out of selfish reasons,” Cal continued, “You had every right to suspect me, it was the only logical conclusion. Who knows in what or who I am involved with?”

That’s a lie…

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“Besides, why bother with me? I mean, there was never a close relationship between us to begin with. All we did was bicker and argue.” He paused for a moment. His lips quivered, so he tried to stabilize his breathing before he added, “I never cared about you. The only reason I tried to reason with you was because I had to. You…mean nothing to me. So why should you trouble yourself?”

That’s not how I feel at all…

“So, give it a rest. At the very least you should be relieved. You always wanted to get rid of me, so here you get what you always wanted. You should be glad.”

I’m sorry…

Sigal listened to all he had to say without interrupting him, taking every detail in. Who are you trying to fool here? You are barely keeping it together and yet you take it that far?

“Are you done?” Sigal asked. “Do you really expect me to believe that?”

Cal struggled to his feet and almost tripped because of the cuffs around his ankles. “It doesn’t matter if you do, but on the other hand, can you be certain that none of that is true? The fact that you don’t trust me remains, believe what you want, I don’t care.”

Not waiting for Sigal’s reply, he glanced at Axis and said, “Let’s go.”

“I will be there in a second. I just have to make sure he won’t follow us, but rest assured I won’t harm him. That was the deal after all.” Axis handed the leash to Killian.

Cal hesitated for a moment, but a tug on his collar made him move. He only could take tiny steps, the chain between the cuffs was not long, so he had a quite hard time walking.

You idiot. Sigal gritted his teeth. “Cal! Don’t go! Don’t be stupid!”

Cal stopped in his tracks and yelled at the top of his lungs, “Forget about me!!”

Just forget and live, please…

As much as he tried to not shed tears, his eyes still dampened as he whipped his head around one last time. “This is goodbye.” A smile tugged on his lips as he soundlessly worded to him afterwards, ‘Thank you for everything.’ Just that this smile wasn’t quite a smile. It was full of sadness and despair as if he made peace with his fate, walking right into his death of his own accord.

He turned away and kept moving onward.

Cal’s expression, those hopeless eyes full of fear and sadness, froze Sigal in place. The cold evening breeze wafted by and in this instant everything around him disappeared, he just shut it out. Only Cal came into view, who turned and walked away and all he could do was watch, helplessly. There was nothing he could do to stop him, nothing he said reached him.

No, this is not goodbye. Sigal knitted his brows. “Cal! I won’t give up on you either!”

Cal’s eyes shot wide open. With this, the purpose of what he said lost all meaning. His attempts to keep him away failed, but deep in his heart rekindled a little flame; a feeling of relief washed over him as these words echoed through.

 

Axis clapped as he walked over to Sigal. “Wasn’t that quite a performance. I kind of liked it, although maybe a bit cheesy.” He smiled and crouched down to Sigal. “Say, how does it feel being unable to save him again? Aren’t you feeling quite useless?”

Again? Sigal frowned.

As Sigal remained silent, Axis continued to elaborate on the matter. “You know Lester got him real good too. I almost was afraid you wouldn’t make it in time. I almost swooped in myself.” He laughed amused. “Maybe at that time you actually wouldn’t have cared if I took him away.”

Sigal’s eyes darkened. “So, you were associated with that man?”

“Associated? It was my idea,” Axis remarked with a chilling tone in his voice.

Putting another piece together, then Asher was right about the Lester case at least. It all started from there and it was connected to Cal in some way. His brother instigated all this, but why? And how did it connect to the other case?

Axis sighed as he continued his rambling, “It was a pity that you killed him though. He was quite capable.”

Sigal had no time to spare to think too deeply about the connection between the cases for now as his concerns lay somewhere else. “What are you going to do with him?”

“Hm?” Axis glanced at him in silence for a moment as if unsure what the other meant by that. “Oh, right. Sorry I went off topic. Actually, you will find out soon enough.”

“What do you mean?”

“What my dear little brother doesn’t know is that I actually will hand him back to you when I am done.” He smiled satisfied. “I just don’t know in what condition he will be, but that makes everything more interesting, right?”

Uneasiness welled up inside of Sigal. He already guessed that anything that manic would do to Cal couldn’t be anything good, but these words left him worried even more.

Aside from that, Sigal wondered why Axis would go through all that trouble to just let Cal go in the end. This just didn’t make any sense. What was the purpose of all this then?

Sigal narrowed his eyes and asked, “What are you planning with all this?”

“All in time, Mr. Crawford, all in time.” Axis straightened up. “Just keep in mind that I am just lending him to you for the time being. I still have some preparations to see to. So, take good care of him until I collect my property.”

The word ‘property’ in connection with Cal angered Sigal beyond belief, “Say that one more time and I’ll add some more inhuman ideas of how to deal with you into my repertoire.”

Axis shrugged. “Anyway, when I am done, I will send his location to your phone. I will use his phone to do so.”

After Axis explained, a slight piercing pain shot through the side of Sigal’s neck. The man behind Sigal, who had his gun the whole time pressed against the back of the investigator’s head, had removed the muzzle a while ago. However, instead of a gun, he held a syringe in his hand, which he pulled out from under Sigal’s skin. He had been drugged!

It took only a few seconds for the narcotic to unfurl its effect. Sigal’s vision blurred, and his body grew heavier.

“When you wake up, all will be over.” Axis reassured him.

“I’ll kill you!” Sigal threatened as he swayed from one side to the other while he tried to stay awake, but to no avail. His whole body just gave in, losing all strength and his eyelids grew heavier by the second. In the end, only darkness engulfed his vision; he lost the battle.

“I’m looking forward to it, Mr. Crawford.”

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