With the new knowledge, Annie, Kayla, and Rose wasted no time.
They gathered around the dining table, the coded message spread out beside a map of the city.
Kayla traced her finger across the paper. "If this is right, it's pointing to the old industrial complex near the eastern rail. It's been abandoned for years."
Rose nodded. "Perfect place to hide something—or someone."
The Plan was simple, but precise:
Kayla would stay near the back entrance, positioned to cut off any escape and call for backup if things went south.
Rose would enter from the side, disabling any alarms or cameras.
Annie would go in through the front—the bait, the distraction, and the strike.
They would use earpieces to stay in contact and body cams to record everything in case it needed to be used as evidence.
Rose packed a stun baton. Kayla had a pocket blade and a small first-aid kit. Annie, despite her past wounds, strapped on light armor and a flashlight-embedded baton—non-lethal, but effective.
On the way there, the streets blurred past the window.
Annie glanced at them from the back seat, her voice low but serious.
"You guys ready for this? We could be walking straight into a trap."
Neither Rose nor Kayla flinched.
Rose cracked a rare grin. "I'd rather walk into a trap than let someone else end up like Kayla."
Kayla just looked ahead, her expression calm. "We've come too far to back down now."
The night grew darker as the building came into view, towering like a forgotten monument of pain.
Whatever awaited them inside… they were ready to face it.
They followed the plan to the letter.
Kayla looped around the side entrance, disabling the weak chain lock with quiet precision and slipping in through a cracked doorway.
Rose scaled a rusted staircase to a second-story window, her eyes darting for any signs of surveillance—none. She slid in like a shadow.
And Annie? She moved through the front with purpose, flashlight ready, baton gripped tight.
Inside, the air was damp and stale. The building groaned with age, but they didn't stop moving.
Through whispered chatter in their earpieces, they coordinated their movement.
An old storage room. One guard—easy to subdue.
Locked door—Kayla handled it.
And inside, they found her.
The victim: A young woman, tied to a pipe, shivering and bruised but alive. Tears filled her eyes the moment she saw Annie.
"You came…" she whispered.
Annie smiled faintly. "We're getting you out."
With Kayla's help, they freed her and began retreating out the way they came.
But as they reached the exit—someone was waiting.
A tall figure stood against the moonlight, her silhouette sharp and poised. A long coat wrapped around her frame, black boots clicking against the concrete as she stepped forward with the calm of someone completely in control.
Her voice cut the silence.
"So… you're the thorns choking my garden."
The three of them froze.
A woman stepped forward—her heels tapping against the metal floor with eerie calm. Her hair was jet black, cascading behind her in a sleek curtain. Dressed in a tailored black coat with violet trim and a blood-red emblem of a rose with thorns stitched onto the collar—she exuded control.
Her name was Lilith Blackthorn.
A name Rose hadn't heard in years—but the face was familiar.
Back then, she was a quiet girl. A background blur. A name barely remembered.
But Rose recalled now—Lilith was one of the few who never spoke up, never fought back… but her eyes, even then, always watched. Calculated.
She was a victim—but one who admired the torment, not feared it.
Lilith tilted her head.
"You stole something from me, Rose. You gave me the dream of power, and then you let it rot when your little 'garden' collapsed. So I built a better one. Deeper roots. Deadlier petals."
Kayla pulled Annie back. "We need to go."
Lilith didn't chase them. She just watched, smiling faintly.
"Run, thorns. Run while you can. But eventually… everything blooms again."
And then she vanished into the darkness.