Chapter 6 – Blood Beneath the Shadows
Rain hammered the pavement as Jenna and the stranger sprinted through the narrow backstreets, water splashing beneath their feet. Her lungs burned, legs trembling, but adrenaline pushed her forward. The message replayed in her mind like a siren:
Safehouse compromised. Leave immediately.
Whoever sent it had known their location—someone close, someone watching. The walls were closing in.
They reached an abandoned train tunnel, the darkness swallowing them whole. The stranger finally slowed, breathing hard as he pressed his back against a concrete pillar.
"Here," he whispered. "We're safe for now."
Jenna leaned against the cold stone, forcing her breath to steady. The shadows wrapped around them, thick and suffocating. She turned to him, voice low and brittle.
"You never told me your name."
He hesitated. A flicker of pain crossed his face, something raw and unspoken.
"My name… doesn't matter right now."
Jenna's jaw tightened. "It matters to me."
Silence. Broken only by the distant rumble of a train passing above them.
Finally, he lifted his gaze to hers—eyes dark, haunted, familiar in a way that punched the air from her lungs.
"I didn't want you to remember like this," he murmured. "Not while running for your life."
He stepped closer, lowering his hood fully. The dim light caught his face—sharper now, older, worn by scars and time, but still carved from the same memories she had buried.
Her breath stopped.
"No," she whispered, voice cracking. "You're dead."
His eyes softened, full of sorrow.
"I was supposed to be."
Jenna stumbled back, her mind spinning. Images flashed—an explosion, smoke, flames, a funeral with no body. Years of grief she had stitched over just to keep breathing.
He reached out, cautious, as if she might shatter.
"Jenna… it's me."
Her voice broke into a whisper. "Aaron?"
He nodded once.
A sound escaped her—half sob, half gasp—as she collapsed into him. His arms circled her, strong, hesitant, as if afraid she might vanish. For a moment, time held still, wrapped in loss and disbelief.
But the moment shattered as footsteps echoed in the tunnel.
Aaron pulled away sharply, eyes turning steel. "We have to move. Vale's men aren't far."
Jenna wiped her tears, jaw set, but her voice trembled.
"Why didn't you tell me you were alive?"
His expression hardened. "Because I wasn't supposed to be. My death… was part of the mission."
Jenna reeled. "What mission?"
Aaron hesitated, glancing toward the tunnel entrance. Shadows shifted—danger closing in.
"I'll explain everything. But there's something you need to know first."
He leaned close, voice barely above a whisper.
"You weren't just caught in the crossfire of this conspiracy, Jenna. You were the reason it started."
Her stomach dropped. "What?"
Before he could answer, gunfire exploded from the tunnel entrance. Light swept through the darkness. Voices shouted orders.
"Target is confirmed! Take them both alive!"
Aaron grabbed Jenna's wrist and yanked her into motion.
"Run!"
They bolted into the deeper tunnels, bullets sparking against concrete behind them. Water splashed underfoot, echoes bouncing like thunder.
Jenna's heart tore between fear and rage.
Why had everyone lied to her?
Why was she the reason this nightmare began?
Who had she been before this?
As they vanished deeper into the underground, she realized one thing with chilling clarity—
The truth wasn't just dangerous.
It was personal.
And Aaron wasn't the only person who had risen from her past.
This was only the beginning.