Chapter 129
Clementine:
I yawned and started getting up. The rain had stopped a long time ago, and they were no longer painting the houses with blood either. Maybe they’d continue in the morning.
“You didn’t sleep?” I asked Ian. He turned to me and shrugged.
“Somebody has to stay awake, remember?” he said, reminding me he was on watch duty.
“Why didn’t you wake someone else? What if Medusa tries to control your mind by appearing as one of your loved ones?” I asked.
“She cannot, Clementine. If she knows us through and through, she’ll know I’m not the emotional type, not someone deeply connected to people. I see logic in things. And I know when to prioritize my own safety. So no, I won’t open the door, no matter who she claims to be.” He spoke casually, continuing his walk without stopping.
I sighed and turned back to the wall, resting my hands on the low edge. Looking down, I couldn’t see the other squad members on the rooftop. Maybe they were asleep too. The brown houses were empty as well. I wondered what happened to Xenia.
Then my eyes wandered farther, to one of the distant walls. A few streetlights glowed in the distance. Like my squadmates said, people used to live there. They still did. Messed up as it was, they still had their homes.
As I stared at the curve in the road, I noticed shadows forming on one of the walls. And through them, I saw her. A woman appeared, but only in shadow. Her hair looked like thick strands—too thick to be called hair. They moved, waving around as if alive.
She walked toward the curve, stepping out from behind the wall. I couldn’t look away. First I noticed her clothes, they were red. Then my eyes rose to her face as she emerged fully. Suddenly, a hand covered my eyes and another wrapped around my stomach, yanking me back from the wall.
“Do you have a death wish, or what?” Ian whispered beside me, making me gasp. His hand still covered my eyes, but I was too numb to respond.
“One look at her face, and you would have welcomed death,” he murmured in my ear.
As the trance faded, I realized how close he was. His grip was too strong for me to pull away. But we had to break apart, because someone was waiting on the other side of the door this time.
“Finally, my daughter. Help me. Your father, your father is here. He’s going to punish me more now p>
It was my mother’s voice, crying for help from the other side of the door.
As I turned toward the door, my eyes met Ian’s gray ones. Instead of looking at the door, he was watching me. When I took a step away from him, he stretched out his arm to stop me from moving closer.
“Clementine, it shouldn’t be that easy for anyone to manipulate you. I know you’re better than others,” Ian said with confidence, reminding me that even if the others got confused, I shouldn’t.
I placed a hand over my mouth, my fingers trembling. “But that’s my mother,” I whispered. “And my father is here too. We sent him here, remember?” My eyes burned with tears.
“Was your mother in the north too?” he asked.
That’s when I realized he was right. My mother wasn’t in the north. I shook my head as a tear slid down my helpless face. There was no way she could speak to me anymore. No way I could hear her voice again. This was an imposter.
I broke free from the trance, but I understood why the others were so lost. It wasn’t just that they were convinced. Something in the voice itself clouded their thoughts, keeping them from thinking straight.
“Your father is coming to get me,” she cried, and then I heard my father’s grunting voice.
“Oh, so you’re hiding here? I’ll rip you apart before I get my hands on that bitch of a daughter who didn’t defend me when everyone was punishing me p>
It was my father’s voice, but I knew it was a lie. I clenched my fists and closed my eyes. Then I felt a gentle nudge under my chin. I opened my eyes to see Ian standing before me, his fingers lifting my chin.
It was bizarre. For Ian to even show concern for someone meant something strange was in the air. He quickly pulled his hand back and shoved it into his pocket.
“Isn’t Medusa just playing all the characters out there? I almost want to see how she’s acting. Must be intriguing like a twisted form of entertainment,” Ian said, an odd, genuine curiosity on his face.
After a brief silence in the distance, I laughed at his words.
“No, I’m serious. Imagine her in costumes, dressing up as our loved ones. Wouldn’t that be freaky?” he added, walking over to the door.
“Oh, The gray-eyed alpha p>
The voice shifted again, this time into something deeply unsettling, nothing like my mother, Yorick’s friend, Haiden’s sister, or anyone Medusa had ever impersonated before.
Which meant, this might have been her real voice.
It was such a low, whispering undertone that goosebumps covered my whole body. I turned to Ian, who was staring at the door with a bored, exhausted look.
“She sounds so creepy,” I whispered, almost mouthing the words, his eyes still fixed on the door.
He finally turned his head toward me, then followed my gaze. With the same bored expression, he muttered, “She’s trying to impersonate my ex-girlfriend from back home p>
I instantly bit my tongue. So she was now trying to manipulate him next. But– what did he mean by ex-girlfriend? I thought he was dating her. Did they break things off after he went back, because he could no longer be with her?
But why wasn’t he even slightly affected by her voice?
“So you’re done with me?” she asked Ian.
He only shrugged, his face completely emotionless. That was when I knew he had been telling the truth, there was no way she could shake him, not even a little.
And it made me wonder, was he the strongest crusader among us? Because he had more control over his emotions and mind than anyone else, even Medusa couldn’t distract, phase, or daze him for a second.