Conflate | Bellamy Blake ¹ ✓

✯ | chapter twenty-two

❝well, i'm a little bummed about being a fugitive, but other than that, i'm great.❞

-isaac lahey, teen wolf

♛

MY LIGHTHEARTED EMOTIONS GO down the drain when a red line appears on the keycard slot. Even though it's not green as it usually is, I try to open the door anyway. It doesn't budge. Not even Lovejoy's identification card works, causing Bellamy to groan in annoyance.

"Bellamy, Fallon, come in," Raven's voice commands in our ears.

"Yeah, a little busy here, Raven," Bellamy grumbles. I elbow him in the side, but it has no effect; he continues on walking as if I hadn't done anything at all.

"You missed check-in," she chastises anyway.

"Sorry," I apologize, hurrying to catch up with Bellamy's long and quick strides. "Things've been hectic here."

"Did you find the source of the acid fog yet?"

"Makin' our way there now," he informs her concisely, sharply turning a corner and almost running into the yellow bars outlining the center, preventing us from falling down several stories. "It's taking longer than we thought."

I scoff and roll my eyes. "No kidding."

The air is cool inside of the warehouse-type area of the mountain we've found. It's dark and dingy, with dust particles zooming through every inch of air and countless machines littering the place. It seems like a very good place to hide the source of acid fog.

"I can't crack it from this end," Raven informs us. "You've gotta give me something."

"Working on it," Bellamy sighs. I can tell just by his tone that he's tired and bothered beyond relief that the stupid acid fog is so hard to shut down. I can't blame him; I feel the exact same.

As we approach a stairwell, Bellamy scans Lovejoy's I.D, only to be met with the same red flash and a low beep. We share a heavy glance. When not even Francis' works, I feel a rock form in my stomach.

"This isn't right," I whisper, looking up at the sign for the stairs. They should have access to steps.

"What?" Raven asks worriedly.

"The key cards aren't working," Bellamy replies.

"That's not good," she states the obvious. Thank you, Raven, for that valuable insight.

"We need to find another way in." He tugs on my sleeve and urges me forward. "We'll call you back."

The millisecond he turns off his mic, a voice shouts, "Stay right there!" and his first instinct is to push me back so I slam against the door and am out of sight. My heart does a frantic leap into my chest. "Hands in the air!"

Bellamy looks toward the ground before quickly bolting up the metal steps to our left. I take a step forward to follow him, but a different plan leaps into my head at the last second. As the guards approach me, I put my hand on the door to the stairwell to make it seem like I've come out of it.

"Victoria, you aren't supposed to be here!" one of the men shouts- Emerson.

"I figured you might need backup," I answer back in a rush of hardly intelligible words, hoping I've made my voice sound enough like hers.

Grabbing onto the yellow railing, I swing myself up the steps after them and take them two at a time. An alarm begins blaring in my ears; I barely have the senses to grab Bellamy's fallen hat on the stairs without tripping. My heart is pumping so hard it hurts. I feel like my veins have been filled with acid as I make note of Bellamy sprinting across the platform above me.