Rebel Born [FIRST DRAFT]

Chapter 7: It's Not Over Yet [PART 1]

"Guys! They found a new house for us!!" Hugh yelled out as he came charging back into the suite.

"Really? Which sector is it in?" Kyle asked from the living room. "Oi that's cheating!" He screamed. I looked over into the living room to see Kyle and Max playing a video game.

"Not my fault you weren't paying attention." Max replied as he continued the game. Kyle grumbled and refocused on the game.

"Where's Vanessa?" Hugh asked as he walked into the living room as well.

I motioned towards the room Vanessa and I were sharing, "Napping."

Hugh sighed dramatically. "And here I was soooo excited to tell you guys this news and you don't even give the proper reaction. Don't you guys want to see what it looks like?" I stared at him blankly and nobody else responded to him. Hugh sighed again and his shoulders drooped before he perked up again almost immediately.

I began to back away slightly. What idea did he just have? Hugh grabbed my shoulders. Hands off please... I grumbled. He's not getting the message...

"You're not doing anything right?" Hugh squealed with glee, like a little kid who found his next victim. I nodded slowly, still edging away slightly from Hugh.

Hugh's grin only widened. "Great! Then I can show you the new house! And then you can help me convince the others to go check it out!" Without waiting for me to reply, Hugh dragged me out of the hotel and out onto the streets. We stopped running once we were far away from the hotel and when Hugh was convinced that I wouldn't ditch him.

"The house is in Sector 3 too! Which is one of the elite sectors! Guess this is one of the special privileges we get as the current number one ranked Syndicate." Hugh ended off proudly, puffing out his chest as he strolled along. Damn his long legs. I had to walk a lot faster just to keep up with him.

I frowned, "Privileges?"

Hugh nodded, "Yeah. So like, to keep us motivated to do what we do, they give us points based on how well we do and then they rank the syndicates based on how many points we have. The higher you're ranked, the more privileges you get. They also trust you with more... special missions I suppose?" He paused a bit to think.

"You also get paid a lot more and the house you live in is also vamped up. And we also gain access to more places in the Syndicate Management Building and we get more new technology to try out. If you thought what we had before was fancy, just wait til you see what we have now!" Hugh continued as we got onto a train heading towards Sector 3. Why don't we just run to the sector like we usually do during missions?

Hugh saw my questioning look, "I don't feel like running right now. And we only run from sector to sector during missions because we can get there faster and we won't be stopped by any obstacles or traffic. Plus it's easier to keep an eye on the person you're chasing when running so there's that too." I nodded in understanding.

Hugh began to ramble about something else and I tuned him out. I watched him spill words from his mouth with his arms waving around slightly as if to prove his point. His dark brown eyes sparkled as he continued to talk and he looked like an innocent, excited child. Not someone who went around behind the scenes dealing with criminals.

"Why did you join the Syndicate?" I asked without thinking, cutting him off apparently mid-sentence. Hugh looked at me with a surprised look on his face. He slowly returned his arm to his side and leaned back into his seat.

"Well," Hugh started. "I wasn't wanted so I wanted to somewhere where I was wanted."

Oh. What happened to him. I waited in silence to see if he was going to continue. He glanced back at me and folded his arms behind his head and leaned back, slightly coming into my seat in the process. Well he's getting comfortable. I moved towards the edge of my seat a little more.

"I don't have any memories of my life before the age of 6." He said. "I'm not exactly sure what happened either but whatever happened killed my parents and I was put into an orphanage. To say I was mistreated there is an understatement." He gave a bitter laugh. "It was hell and I ran away when I was 10 and decided to join a Syndicate. I thought it would be the only place where I would be able to feel like I was needed."

Oh. I stayed silent. I didn't know how to respond to that or what to say. Am I supposed to comfort him? Tell him that everything's okay now? This was uncharted territory for me. The awkward silence loomed over us until Hugh broke it himself.

"Oh this is our stop, let's go."

I nodded and followed him off the train. "Do you miss it?" I asked.

"Huh?" Hugh whipped his head towards me with a dumb look.

"Your memories." Was this a good thing to ask?

"Not really." He replied, rubbing his neck. "I mean, if it were good memories then I would probably be more resentful towards my life back then in the orphanage and I wouldn't have ended up here with the Syndicates. So I guess without my memories I don't miss anything."

Hugh hmmed for a bit before sighing, "That had gotta be the worst explanation ever."

I waved it off, "I get it." In other words, you don't have anything to look back to so you can look forward instead. That's actually really nice. I smiled slightly.

Something's wrong. I froze up and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. "Hugh -"

I was suddenly yanked into a small alley. Someone twisted my hands behind my back and had a cloth over my nose and mouth. Trying to drug me? Who is this? I looked for Hugh and saw him struggling to free himself from three people who had twisted his limbs into strange positions. Wait... those people...

I shake my head free and prepare to shout at Hugh before something metal hit my head and black spots immediately filled my vision and I felt myself go limp.

The last thing I heard was Hugh screaming out in pain.