The Recall Trials
Chapter 49: When the Crowd Choses the Wrong Hero

Chapter 49: When the Crowd Choses the Wrong Hero

His fist hit the side of my jaw, hard. My head snapped to the side, the pain blinding for a second.

I heard Zaara scream.

The hit was real. Not staged. I could taste the blood.

I stumbled back, my vision blurred, blood pooling in my mouth...but I caught myself. Swallowed the pain.

Perfect timing.

I stormed to the corner, yanked the fire extinguisher off the wall...and turned back.

Theo’s chest was heaving. He looked ready to come at me again.

I didn’t give him the chance.

I pulled the pin.

FOOM

Blasted him straight in the face with the thick, choking fog. It hit Theo square in the chest, knocking him off balance. He cursed.

But I didn’t stop.

The white cloud exploded, engulfing the room in seconds...swallowing faces, limbs, beds, screams.

Everyone was coughing. Yelling.

"Vincent, what the hell!" someone shouted.

"I can’t breathe!" Someone wheezed.

Guards burst in almost immediately. Three of them. Their boots thudded heavy across the

metal floor.

One barked an order: "Everyone down! On the ground!"

I dropped the extinguisher and fell to my knees, coughing through the smoke. One of the guards pushed past me, I noticed a shadow slipping into another. A figure dragging something...someone....back into the corridor.

Jojo.

She had done it.

Just as planned.

She had taken one of them.

And no one saw. No one could see clearly. The smoke masked everything.

The chaos kept swirling. Theo was cursing, stumbling toward the bunks, covered in foam. Zaara was crouched low beside me.

The guards moved blindly, directing one of their own toward the far side...right where Jojo had gone. I was scared, what if someone sees jojo.. Zaara dropped beside me, grabbing my arm.

"Did she make it?" she whispered.

"I—I think so."

Deep down, I wasn’t sure.

But I hoped.

Zaara clutched my arm tighter.

"I don’t like this," she whispered, her breath trembling.

"I know," I said. "But we did what we had to."

She looked me dead in the eyes. "What if they find out?"

I glanced toward the corridor where Jojo had disappeared. The fog was still thick, but it was thinning fast. The guards were shouting again.. Ordering people back to their beds.

"If she gets caught," I said slowly, "we’ll say we had no idea. She acted alone."

Zaara’s jaw tightened. "I don’t want her to die."

"Neither do I."

Jojo was out there now, somewhere past the cameras, past the smoke, wearing a stolen mask. Risking everything.

And we could only pray... that it hadn’t been for nothing.

The fog was starting to settle.

Most of it had cleared out by now...thin wisps trailing across the floor like the ghosts of what we’d just done. The fire extinguisher was empty, discarded on the ground like a weapon after war. The room was still buzzing, but the chaos had dimmed. My ears were ringing. My jaw ached. And my cheek still throbbed from where Theo’s fist landed..

The room was buzzing with whispers, stares, half-loud accusations barely hiding behind shaky words.

People were whispering. Pointing.

And all the fingers were aimed at me.

"You see the way Vincent snapped?"

"He’s losing it."

"He could’ve blinded someone."

"Is he insane?"

"What the hell was that about?"

"Was it about the girl?"

"Zaara looked terrified."

"She screamed. Said don’t touch me...what the hell did he do?"

I heard it all. Every word.

Even though I kept my eyes down and my fists clenched, I could feel the stares burning through me. Like I’d gone too far. Played the part too well.

I was the villain now.

And that was the plan... wasn’t it?

I sat near the wall, still trying to breathe right. My cheek was throbbing from Theo’s punch. My hands were shaking...part adrenaline, part fury. Even though I knew it was all for show, my body didn’t. It was still locked in survival mode.

My chest felt tighter...no matter how much of it was staged, that punch was real. Theo’s smug face was real. And now, the whole damn room thought I was exactly what the elites wanted me to be....unstable. Dangerous. Alone.

I sat on the edge of my bunk, elbows on my knees, head down. Breathing in slow, like I was trying to swallow the fire in my lungs.

I turned to Zaara.

Sitting across the room on her bed. Her shoulders were hunched, hands in her lap. She looked like she wanted to melt into the mattress and disappear. Like she hadn’t just pulled off the most crucial part of the plan. Like she was the one who’d been hit.

And around her were her friends.

Luca was already there, kneeling by the edge of her bed, talking softly. Asha stood next to him, arms folded like a protective sister, giving me side-eyes like I’d kicked a puppy. And then...ofcourse...Theo.

He strutted across the room with that smug shitty face like he thought the punch gave him a medal. There was even a smear of extinguisher foam on his arm, and he wore it like a badge of honor.

He reached Zaara, leaned forward, and said something.

She didn’t laugh.

But she didn’t shove him away either.

And that lit something in me. Something I couldn’t reason with.

The fight had been fake.

But the anger?

The anger was real.

My fists curled. I wanted to hit him back—not for the plan, but for the way he looked at her now. Like he’d saved her. Like he’d earned something.

He smiled down at her like a damn hero in some cheap action movie. His whole face said, "I was right to step in."

You weren’t.

You were just playing dress-up.

You have no idea what you’re in.

Before I could even think about storming over there, someone appeared at my side.

"Hey," Nomi said quietly, crouching a little so she could look up into my face. "You okay?"

I blinked, glancing at her. "Yeah. Just peachy."

She tilted her head, scanning me like she was looking for cracks in my skin. "That was... a lot," she said. "Did Theo hit you too hard or did you actually lose your mind back there?"

I blinked. "What?"