NOVEL NEXT Chapter 343: Prison Escape (II)
The night deepened even further, and the chilly air started to bite against their skin. Inez had no idea how long the two of them had run; they ran until their calves started to burn and their throats started to choke due to the lack of water in their systems. She didn't even sweat this hard when she was training as an enforcer; though she never succeeded in becoming one, she did pass the tests with flying colours.
The two of them burst into the clearing of the forest that surrounded the dungeons, but just one step into the cold and biting forest, and Inez knew that there was something wrong. The forest was too thick and too dark, and there was a visible humming in the air. She caught Scarlet by her arm and pulled her behind a pillar just as the surveillance camera turned in their direction.
Scarlet was breathing hard. With her fingers digging into her arm, she whispered, "They will find out that we are missing very soon." Her voice was hoarse after running for so long. Her knuckles were white due to the force with which she was clenching her fingers. The restraints had brought her strength to that of a human, leaving her with barely any stamina to run for so long. Glaring at the shackles that were tied around her wrists, she snapped, "Fuck these bastards from the council. They didn't even investigate whether we were behind the murder or not. They just brought us here."
"That must be because they don't care who the murderer is," Inez rasped. With her back pressed against the wall, she tried to drink in as much air in her lungs as she could. Having spent her precious time with Dominic, Inez more or less understood the mentality of these people. They didn't care if they were killing innocents as long as they had someone to blame. No wonder Dominic and the people in the council were so chummy. They were two peas in a pod.
Her legs were trembling, and she didn't even have the strength to move, but when the surveillance camera changed direction, she still staggered up the slope to the east together with Scarlet. Her wrists were rubbed raw due to the restraints, her lungs were burning, and she really missed her shifter abilities at that moment. But something within her pushed her to move forward.
She couldn't die here. Not when she hadn't even found out about Cain. The name that was coiled around her heart like a curse.
"How long… how long do you think those prisoners will stay quiet?" Scarlet asked through gritted teeth, her pants turning harsher by each second. "Someone must have seen us escape, even if most of them were sleeping."
"Not long," Inez replied. Pushing away a branch that reached to claw her face, she marched forward. "Those prisoners will definitely let the cat out of the bag once they see a guard; we should continue running, or else we will be caught."
**
"I am Garfield Jones," the man introduced himself, with a bowler hat on top of his head. He looked around the office that belonged to the head guard. "The person in charge of investigating the case of Alpha Remy's mate. I need to speak to the two women who killed her."
Gilderoy shook hands with the man. "Welcome, Mister Jones. I am the head guard, Gilderoy Giddins."
"Lead me to the cell of the offenders," commanded Mister Jones after he was done shaking hands with the guard. "I need to question the two of them and hand over my report in the morning." Of course, this was more or less just a little formality that he was going to do, as for whether the two women were really the killers or not, it had little to do with Mister Jones; as long as he could torment them into confessing, who cared what happened to them?
"Sure." Gilderoy bobbed his head and then turned on his feet and led the man to the cell where the two women were locked up, but upon arriving, he realised that there was something wrong. He frowned and peered inside the cell; because of the darkness, he could only see a shiny pair of shoes and nothing else. Suddenly, Gilderoy felt a sense of foreboding, and he pushed open the door of the cell. His heart fell deep in the pit of his stomach when he saw that the door was already open.
He stepped inside the prison and sucked in a mouthful of cold air when he realised that the one lying inside was his own man.
He turned around and headed out of the cell, his gaze falling on the other prisoners sinisterly. "Where are the women?"
"They already escaped," a man hoarsely replied, his lips curled up in a mocking sneer. "They beat up your guard and escaped right from under your nose."
Gilderoy clenched his jaw in frustration as anger started to bubble in his veins. He commanded, "Bring me those two women immediately. The two of them just escaped, so they might not have gone too far, especially with the forest being enchanted. Inform all the guards; go and catch those women for me!"
"Yes!" The guards who followed him lowered their heads and responded solemnly before turning on their feet and running out of the corridor.
The councilman who came to investigate was not too pleased; he turned to look at Gilderoy and questioned him, "And what is going on here? How come the guards are inside the prison cell while the criminals are roaming freely? Is this how you manage your prisoners?"
Gilderoy bit his tongue. This was the first time something like this happened. All these years after he was done dealing with the criminals, they wouldn't dare to cause trouble. To think that the two women actually dared to escape even after he whipped one of them so hard that she couldn't even get back on her feet. Sure enough, those women must have been trained.