“What happened?” Natalie asks, her eyebrows furrowed.

“Some things, well, two things, if I say exactly,” Zoe answers, her voice sounds very serious.

“But the more important one is that Abigale called. She’s asking me to meet her tomorrow.”

Natalie’s frown grew more intense.

“But why? Aren’t all the squad leaders ordered not to contact each other?” Natalie asks.

“Yeah, I know, but I heard Clara is coming as well,” says Zoe.

“What? Clara is coming too? But that makes all the three squad leaders in the city!” Natalie exclaims.

“Well, I asked, but she refused to tell me the reason on the phone. Though she asked me to bring him along as well,” Zoe says, looking at me for the first time since we entered the room.

What? Me? Why do I need to go to your leaders’ meeting?

“Why me?” I ask in a rather rude tone.

“Did I told you that you can speak, fucker? And I am not asking you, I am telling you that you have to come. And I told you before, didn’t I? You can never say no to me…

“Next time you speak without permission, I will fuckin shoot you,” Zoe says while taking out her gun.

When did I say no? I just asked why!

This bitch. I hate her.

“Why does he need to go?” Natalie asks.

Natalie, I never thought a nice girl like you would be in a place like this.

“Hmph, I don’t know. Abigale just told me to bring him along with me no matter what,” Zoe answers with a bit irritated tone in her voice.

I can tell whosoever this Abigale is, Zoe does not agree with her.

Well, me neither.

“But for Abigale to go against the orders… I find it hard to believe.” Natalie says, sounding rather surprised.

“Can it be that the higher-ups are allowing this?”

Zoe lightly shakes her head left and right.

“No, she hasn’t told them yet. She says there is no time and we all know how much time it takes to get permission against an existing order.

“I think something big must have happened. Because one thing is clear, us leaders meeting together create a lot of risk of exposure; we all are relatively well known in the underworld.

“We are safe as long as we stay in our own bases and manage work through our subordinates. But even the meeting is scheduled in a different place. In fact, she called us to a hotel.

“I know Abigale, she won’t take a risk this big if it wasn’t really necessary. So, all-in-all, I will go and see what the matter is.” Zoe says decisively.

Man… this sounds exactly like some scary situation.

What could be an important matter to a criminal gang?

Most probably something illegal.

Heck, if this is so important, it might even involve killing someone. You never know when it comes to criminals…

And why am I asked to come? This girl, Abigale, even told Zoe to bring me along no matter what.

Now, I know that I am a so-called member of this group and Zoe even told me that I will have to kill someone if she asks me to, but I never planned to…

At first, I thought I would escape the moment I saw a chance, but I don’t know why, it now feels like escaping is seriously not an option, well, if I don’t want to die that is.

And yeah, I don’t want to.

And what about Zoe not fancying killing people? Oh yeah, she doesn’t know the reason for the meeting and even I may be thinking wrong.

Fuck, I am scared. What will these people have me do now?

“Well, if Abigale is going that far then it can’t be helped. I too think you should meet her… So, what about the second problem?” Natalie asks.

Zoe opens her mouth for a moment but then look at me instead.

“You can get out.” She tells me.

What? Why are you asking me to get out so suddenly?

“But why? What is the other problem?” I ask, suddenly growing suspicious.

But Zoe didn’t say anything. She simply took out her gun and point it at me.

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“Close the gates before you get out of here…” She orders.

You just wait, bitch, one day I will be pointing that gun at you and then I will force you to stri— I mean, bow to me.

I clumsily walk away from them and out of the room. Both Zoe and Natalie kept their quiet until I closed the door shut.

Yeah, like fuck I am not going to hear them.

The instant the I closed the door; I jammed my ear right next to it.

Shit! I really can’t hear anything. This room seems to be totally soundproof.

I don’t know why but I have a really strange feeling about this.

Why can’t I hear?

Hey, don’t get me wrong. It’s not like I am interested in their criminal discussions.

I am just having a strange feeling that this second problem is somehow related to me.

What else could be the reason to keep me out? It’s not like I haven’t heard the more important one. Why get me out of the room for the less important one?

After checking every corner of the door to look for the gaps and finally finding none, I now stand simply slumped against the door, tapping my foot on the floor lightly.

Suddenly, the door opens and I fall backward.

Hmm? What is this soft feeling? It feels so warm and comfortable… though my shoulders feel really heavy too…

The thing I am leaning onto moves back, making me fall hard on the ground.

Ouch… oh, so it was Natalie.

Shit! I fell on her boobs, though it was the back of my head but damn….they felt really good…No, fuck! Only Lily’s boobs should feel nice.

“I-I am sorry… I was just leaning on the door,” I apologize while standing up.

“”

Natalie didn’t say anything.

Heck, she didn’t even react to what I just said.

She’s just simply staring forwards. Her face looks paler than before, and her expression is a bit strange…

I am feeling a bit confused seeing her. She’s looking like as if she’s really tired… and bored?

Why is she looking bored? That’s strange… were they discussing tax returns inside? Does a criminal gang even give taxes?

Without even giving me a single glance Natalie starts to move forward in a somewhat fast manner and gets out from the door on the other end of the corridor.

I give a slight frown and look back inside the room

The door of is open ajar and inside Zoe is sitting on her usual chair. At her feet there are pieces of a broken cell phone lying here and there, the table next to Zoe’s chair has also fallen down.

What the heck happened here?

That phone looks like the one I saw Natalie holding… Did she smash it on the ground?

Anyway, one thing is for sure, they were not talking about the tax returns.

“What happened here?” I ask Zoe.

Zoe looks at me.

For an instance, I thought she looked sad but in the next moment, her face turns into a scowl.

“None of your business,” Zoe answers.

Well, true, it isn’t…

“What happened to Natalie?” I ask.

“Again, none of your business,” Zoe repeats.

Well, again, true…

“Okay… so… Remind me again, why am I still here?” I ask her.

“Aren’t you asking a bit too many questions, bastard?” Zoe says, glowering at me.

First of all, my name is Caiden, not bastard or fucker, you bitch.

“You can go where ever you want, just remember that we will be picking you up tomorrow after school. And I don’t think I need to tell you this, but don’t speak out what happened today to anyone,” Zoe says while taking out a tablet and tapping it threateningly.

“Y-Yeah, I get it… But how do I get out of this place?” I ask her.

“Figure out yourself…” Zoe answers.

“You kidnapped me! I don’t know even how to get to my home from here! You have to tell me” I say while accusing her.

Zoe’s raises her hand.

Fuck! Is she going to shoot me for saying that? Shit, I am dead meat now!

But she didn’t pick her gun, instead, she presses something on her tablet.

“You need to go home, right? Let me give you a lift…” Zoe says smiling sweetly.

What? What the fuck is with that smi–

*THUD*

_______________

Where am I? And why is this place so dark? I can’t even see my own body…

I walk around in this darkness without any sense of direction, my hands are forward, looking for anything solid.

After walking a few more steps, my hands touch a flat solid surface.

It seems like I have reached some sort of wall.

*SOB*

Suddenly a soft, moan like cry leaked out of somewhere.

I immediately look at the direction of the voice.

The sobbing sound is now continuously coming from this direction.

This tone sounds feminine and feels strangely familiar to me but I can’t seem to guess who is it….

Anyway, some girl is here beside me. I have to find her as quickly as possible.

*CLICK*

With a sudden clicking sound, light illuminates the scenery in front of me.

A girl is huddled up in the corner of what seems to be like an empty room.

I can’t see the face of the girl but she has silvery blond hair.

“Lily?” I ask out.

The sobbing stops abruptly and the girl looks up…

“Caiden?” She mutters, tears still streaming down her cheeks.

While staring at my face she stood up quietly and slowly starts walking towards me.

Lily’s eyes look strangely empty and are looking at me as if seeing through me.

She comes closer till she’s just a hand’s distance from me…

*SLAP*

Her hand raised so fast that I couldn’t even react to it.

“How could you….how dare you…” Lily says.

Even though she’s speaking softly, her tone contains strong anger and accusation.

“W-What are you talking about, Lily?” I ask, my hand on the cheek she just hit.

*SLAP*

She again hit me on the other cheek.

“I thought of you…..as my friend….but you turned out… to be a fiend,” Lily says, her voice growing louder and stronger.

I am greatly shocked; this is the first time Lily has hit me, that too twice.

“I-I don’t under-”

“SHUT UP” Lily bellows.

She grabs the collar of my shirt pulls me closer to her face.

I can see tears forming and running down from her bloodshot eyes.

I don’t understand why but a strange sense of fear grew inside me; a fear from Lily.

“You vile…..you evil person….” Lily says,

“…You rapist,”

I feel as if my body is made of air. I can’t feel anything. The only thought repeats itself into my mind…

She knows… Lily knows…

“You…..Caiden….. I hate you”