Chapter Fifty-Four

Skylar's POV:

The State Museum of Harrisburg was enormous. The only museum that seemed to intrigue me as I stood outside of it, along with the others.

I forced myself to look back at Caden as he spoke up, "Adrian, you'll be going inside. Find that specific statue, and get that disk." His voice was low but commanding at the same time. "And you two," He looked over at Shane and Jesse. "You'll keep an eye on the borders and around the museum for Blake or his men. I've made sure to back you up with few other guys."

I couldn't help but look over at the huge entrance once again. There were a lot of people here, crowding outside the museum. Who the hell loved going to a museum first thing in the morning?

"Well, I'll need some back up too." Adrian announced, sliding in two small, sharp knives in the back of his leather boots. "To help me with the code thing."

I wasn't really surprised that Adrian was chosen to fetch that metal disk. That guy was the only one who could act invisible whenever he wanted—I've been an eyewitness to that.

Caden looked around the group, a small furrow in between his brows. I couldn't help but notice him ignoring me on purpose.

"I'll go with him." I spoke up suddenly. Everyone's attention diverted towards me.

"You won't." Caden stated.

"And besides, he might just forget the code. Won't you, Adrian?" I asked Adrian, giving him a pointed look. His eyes widened a little as if realizing that I was indeed asking him to act along with me.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"I won't forget it. I'll help him out." I added with a casual shrug.

"Yeah." Adrian repeated.

Everyone seemed like they agreed, all except Caden. "You know how dangerous that is?" He looked at me, which was more like a glare.

"I know." I said. "But Jesse and Shane are looking out for Blake, right? They'd let us know if he comes."

Shane nodded in response as well, and I was glad that he did. "Yeah, she's right."

"She's got the gun too." Jesse added with a discreet smirk. "She can use it." He knew that I wasn't planning on using that thing. I had to refrain myself from glaring at him.

Caden looked highly unsure for a minute, and I couldn't really blame him. "All right."

I sighed in relief.

"We need to get going too." Seth looked over at Caden. "It'll be hard to escape pass the security if we don't leave now." I didn't know what he was talking about until I remembered Aden's words. Both Adrian and I would have to go inside the museum, get that disk, without being caught under the security alarms. That's exactly why they needed to disable the entire security panel—how, was what they didn't tell me.

They all nodded in agreement and went towards the back of the car to get their things out. Weapons probably.

"You really shouldn't be doing this." Caden spoke up, not going over with the others. And the look on his face told me that he was still unsure about this all.

"Oh, come on. Don't you trust me?" I asked.

"You could get hurt."

"I'll take care of myself."

He cupped my face and pressed his lips against mine. It took me by surprise like every single time, but I relaxed against him just as quick.

"Look, I'm not planning on losing you. At all." He pointed out, gazing right in my eyes. "Just keep that in your stupid head."

I smiled against his lips.

"Got it."

••••••

Once we were inside the museum, I realized that the crowd hadn't been this bad outside—and I wasn't even exaggerating. It took us almost half an hour to find an entirely different route instead of just using the front entrance. I'm sure we would've made a scene otherwise, with all the weapons Adrian had with him. But he was calm and collected, unlike me. I just had a gun and that thing felt heavy as fuck in my pocket.

"Why would people even waste their mornings to see a giant spider?" I wondered out loud as we both walked side by side along one long hallway.

Like I had said, the museum was huge. I didn't know how much floors it exactly had, but each one of it seemed to have an equally different atmosphere.

Adrian broke away from the museum map in his hands and followed my gaze towards the crowd gathered around the giant spider.

"Maybe because it glows in the dark?" He pointed out.

"Like a firefly?"

"Yeah."

Suddenly, I was a bit too enthusiastic to see that spider. Not up close, though. "Can I see it?"

"You can." He said. "But I can't let you out of my sight."

"Why is that?" I stood on my toes to catch a peek of it as we neared the elevator. It wasn't of much use, however, since the crowd was blocking the view.

"Caden threatened to kill me if you got hurt even in the slightest." He passed me a small grin before entering the elevator. "You don't want me dead, do you?"

I slowly grinned in response and followed him inside.

It took us few minutes before we finally reached the highest floor. The moment I stepped out of the elevator, I could easily make out a giant statue at one corner. Thankfully, there really weren't many people up here.

Guess they all were just too busy watching that spider.

And I couldn't even blame them. This floor and all the things that were being exhibited here, seemed plain and boring to me.

A perfect place to keep the last metal disco id safe and hidden.

"That must be the Penn dude." Adrian spoke up as he started walking over towards the statue. I followed behind him and he slowed down his stride just so that I wouldn't be left behind.

However, he stopped before we couldn't reached the statue. I realized why then.

"There are lots of security guards around." I noticed. "How are we supposed to go near it?" They had a plan to go unnoticed by the alarm system, but how were we supposed to escape the real human security?

"That's where my plan goes." He looked at me, his dark black eyes fixated on my face. "You stay here and I'll go behind the statue from over there." He pointed towards another way around the statue, a longer path. "Come up there as casually as you can. I'll lift up that specific slab and you type in the code, okay?"

I nodded slowly, trying to register everything that he had said. It all seemed too easy when he said it. But we both knew that it wouldn't really be that easy.

"How am I supposed to know that you reached there?" I asked.

He looked around before taking out a small, glass prism from his back pocket. "I'll drop this on the ground. The noise must get their attention." He pointed over to the security guards.

I nodded again and with one quick glance around our surroundings, Adrian walked away. I saw him weaving his way through the small crowd and disappearing from my sight just as quick. Inhaling deeply, I patted both of my pockets and felt the familiar bulge of the gun. It kind of reassured me in a way.

That's when I felt my phone buzz. Taking it out from my other pocket, I was taken back by surprise when I saw Alex's name on the screen. A text from Alex.

Disregarding the unease within me, I opened it up and read it, "Sky, you need to leave." I murmured under my breath, a frown forming on my face. Did he know that I was here right now?

If he knew, that meant Blake wasn't too far away either.

Another text popped up on the screen.

"Meet me in the cafeteria. Please." I read, and before I could decide on it, I heard a glass shattering sound from somewhere ahead of me.

I jerked up my head and looked over at the tall statue. I really couldn't see much but I knew that was all Adrian doing. Soon enough, not just me, but most of the guards left their places.

They were distracted.

Taking that as my cue, I stuffed my phone back inside my pocket and quickly went over towards the statue. There were still people lurking around as I neared towards it. It seemed even bigger now that I was right in front of it.

There was a dark blue ribbon bordering it, preventing the others from coming closer. I glanced over at the museum label in front of the statue.

Nobody actually tried to stop me when I stepped over the blue boundary. And before any one of those guards could see me, the lights went out. Literally, everything clouded over with darkness. And I was glad that it was morning right now.

Gasps and murmurs filling all around me, I stopped beside the stone structure and glanced over at Adrian silhouette right behind the statue. When he saw me, he motioned at me to crouch low. I did as he was saying and saw him trying to lift the loose marble slab right behind William Peen's feet.

I glanced over my shoulder and was a bit glad to see no one nearing us. The security was more interested in finding out how the power suddenly went out, rather than the both of us—two teenagers who were creeping up behind this huge-ass statue.

"Got it." Adrian let out a small grumble as he lifted off the slab. I leaned closer and saw only mud beneath it. It took some while to wipe it off until we saw a screen embedded somewhere beneath all that mud.

I pulled down my sleeves over my fists and quickly wiped off the mud from it, since Adrian still had the heavy slab in his hands. The screen glowed as if activated and I quickly pressed on the code that I had seen in that video.

5732.

The screen flashed red. And then green. It took mere seconds before it slid away, giving us access to the small compartment below it. And there it was, The last metal disco id.

Knowing how little time we had, I quickly picked up the cold, metal disk and Adrian placed the slab right over it, fixing back the obvious hole in the floor. It took him seconds to pull me up from the floor, grip onto my arm, and then we both were running away.

Somebody mustn't seen us doing what we just did since I could hear faint shouts of security guards behind us. I didn't really know where Adrian was taking me, but wherever it was, we were definitely escaping from that same security.

I saw the doors of the elevator nearing closer when Adrian stopped. I couldn't see the security guards. All I could see were people trying to somehow make their way outside from this museum. Even the elevators weren't working now.

Before I could’ve asked Adrian why he had stopped, he pulled out his phone which now that I saw, was ringing. He answered it quickly, his words coming out in a rush over the phone. It was when he ended the call that I noticed the alarm crossing over his features.

"We need to leave." He told me.

And I didn't even need to ask him what was going on. Because I knew.

Blake was here.

"Come on." He started heading off towards a narrower path, which was a bit too crowded with the others. And it made sense to squeeze in between the crowd if we both needed to remain unseen. "The others are coming up too, but we still need to be careful."

I followed behind him as we eased our way through the crowd, the metal disk still clutched in my hand. My heart was racing wildly within my chest, expecting the absolute worse. But I had to keep reminding myself that we had the metal disk now, and if we somehow make our way out of here, it'll be fine.

It will be fine.

All until I heard the sound of gunshots.

Everything happened a bit too fast after that. Or maybe it was just my head trying to cope up with the sudden chaos that started forming all around us. Right as the loud echoes of bullet-firing erupted around us, everyone started running towards the exit. And for few, horrible seconds, I lost sight of Adrian.

That's when I started panicking for real. Looking around in almost every direction, I tried to spot him. I was even about to shout out his name in hopes of finding him. But then I did spot him, and it was a bit too late.

It took me seconds to realize how Adrian had been surrounded by men, all clad in black, from every side. And I had a feeling that they were all on B lake's side, especially since most of them were just waiting to use their guns once again.

I froze at my spot, sudden horror filling me out of nowhere. I saw Adrian swiftly taking out his own gun, a quick glance in my direction; telling me to run away. Mainly because those men hadn't noticed me yet.

And I had the last metal disco id.

Turning around on my heels, I wasted no time in running away, not really sure where I was even going. All I knew was that there was a freaking deadly thing in my hand and I needed to escape the loud gunshots behind me.

I didn't know how many turns I took, the adrenaline pumping through my system and making it a bit hard to actually focus. When I started hearing footsteps behind me, which could just have been the other tourists, I shoved opened a nearby door and rushed inside.

I just knew that I had to keep this disk safe.

I was heavily panting when I saw the clearing in front of me and found myself on a totally different floor. All of a sudden, I felt a hand grip my arm. And then I screamed.

"Sky, it's me." I heard a familiar voice and turned around, realizing it was just Caden. And seeing him in front of me made me feel so much better.

"Are you all right?" He gripped both of my arms, his eyes edging with concern as they raked over my face. He looked just as disheveled as me.

"Y-Yeah." I stepped closer towards him, my eyes still wide. "But Adrian, he got—"

"I know, I know." He whispered before pulling me against him, wrapping both of his arms around me. "He'll be fine." I licked the dryness off my lips when I heard my heartbeat slowing down.

It's fine. It will be fine.

"Ah, what do we have here?" I heard another familiar voice, right behind Caden. On instinct, Caden turned around and I could clearly see Blake in front of him.

Seeing him right here made me realize how much I actually hated him.

"Never imagined I'd see you this close with a girl." His fake enthusiasm almost made me throw up. Or maybe it was the extra adrenaline rush. "But oh well, my blessings on you two."

He took a step towards us the same time Caden stood in front of me, blocking my view.

"I see you got the disk, Sky?" I heard the nonchalance in B lake's voice—the exact same thing that had always made me believe in his stupid, friendly act.

Looking down at my hand, I clutched the disk even more tightly. I wouldn't even be surprised if it broke away. Anything was better than giving this in B lake's hands.

"That just makes this all easier now." I found myself peeking over Aden's shoulder, at Blake. Behind him, the crowd had entirely filed out. I could not make out a single security guard within the entire floor, as if they all were forced out of here.

However, I could hear faint sirens from somewhere outside. Maybe the police was here. Either way, I was hoping Caden had a backup plan.

"All you need to do is give me that disk, Sky." He was looking at me with that same creepy grin. I found myself clutching Aden's shirt from the back.

"Or," He said. "I'll get it from you."

I felt Caden stiffening at that. "Don't even dare, Blake." He gritted out the words and I'm sure anyone could see the murderous look on his face.

Blake, however, just laughed at that—like a maniac he was.

"I won't." He added. "But somebody else might."

I didn't understand what he meant by that until I felt a presence right behind me, a bit too close. I turned around in alarm and before I could almost screamed again, Caden turned around as well.

It took him mere seconds to take out his gun, a loud firing sound filling up the silence as he shot whoever that had just been standing behind me. Gaping at the scene with wide eyes, I felt a rush of relief go through me when he pulled me, once again, behind his back.

My relief was short lived, though, when more of B lake's men started surroundings us. Before I could know what was about to happen, three of them lunged at Caden. While one of them pulled me back, gripping onto my hair.

The sudden pain from the fierce pull was so bad that I wasn't really surprised when tears welled up in my eyes. I started struggling then, clearly aware that Caden won't be able to save me this time.

Another one of them pulled onto my hand—the same hand in which I was holding the disk. I found myself fighting my way out of the grasp, but it was just too strong.

"Get away from me!" I shouted, wanting to pull out the gun from my pocket. But both of those shitheads were pulling my arms, and it hurt really bad.

That's when I felt somebody plucking out the small metal disk from my hand.

"No!" I yelled only to feel the cold, metal tip of a gun pressing up against my forehead. I froze then, my mouth instantly going dry with fear.

"Like I said, it wasn't really difficult to get this from you." I heard B lake's voice. I turned my head towards him and realized that he had the disk now.

Before Caden could’ve tried to stop him, Blake raised his eyebrows at him. "You won't dare, brother." He pointed over towards me. When Caden looked over at the gun pressed on my forehead, his eyes widened in alarm.

"Blake, please stop!" I shouted over to him.

He just laughed in response.

"I trusted you!"

"That's your fault, not mine." He looked down at the disk in his hand, inspecting it with obvious admiration in his eyes. As if realizing something suddenly, he looked back at me with a grin. "Talking about trust, Sky, looks like you trust Caden, huh?"

The guy holding the gun behind me, pressed it further against my forehead.

"Blake—" Caden seemed much more alarmed than before.

"What?" Blake looked over at him before barking out a laugh. "God, Caden, I thought you'd actually be truthful for once."

I felt my throat drying up at that. I didn't know what Blake was talking about. I didn't know why Caden looked so alarmed.

Something inside me clenched itself.

Something was wrong here, something that I didn't know.