That night I was wracked with nightmares and my mind seemed obsessed with showing me images of dead bodies and gruesome murders. To say I was nervous was an understatement, I was terrified. However when I woke up and got ready for school the next morning I practiced my best neutral face in the mirror, making sure I had wiped all emotions away. I was better at this now then I had been when I first was kidnapped, but I still wasn’t an expert at it like Ash was.
The thought of Ash made me swallow painfully. I missed her. I might not have been friends with her for very long, but we had already bonded in a way that I hadn’t since my sister. Maybe she could get me out of killing Ms. Glass, she had influence with Cody, right? Snake had once said that she was Cody’s favorite.
With that hopeful thought in mind, Zach and I drove to school. Nobody noticed anything amiss with my quiet behavior in any of my classes, and lucky for me Blair wasn’t in class so I didn’t have to deal with him. Maybe it was because I was dreading it so much that the day went by unusually quickly. I didn’t have cheer practice today so we drove home and Zach and I spent the entire time practicing until we got a call from Cody. Zach went to let him into our hotel suite and I continued practicing until I heard a familiar voice.
“Guard your left side more.”
I turned around and grinned when I saw Ash in the doorway. She smiled back and came over to hug me.
“How was school?”
I scoffed at her. “I forgot how boring it was.”
Ash rolled her eyes and nodded. “At least you were smart, I got straight B’s.”
“Well you’ll be happy to know I was failing every class in this school for not turning in any work.”
“That’s my girl!” Ash cheered and smacked my arm.
“Where’s Cody and Zach?”
“They went early to scope out the park. I’m in charge of telling you the plan.”
“All right, tell away!”
“Basically you go in first and distract her while we hide and make sure she doesn’t have any hidden reinforcements. Then we’ll come out and question her, kill her, burn her body, and then leave town.”
My stomach turned uneasily. It must have shown on my face because Ash gave me a small smile. “It’s going to be ok, I was able to talk Cody out of making you kill her. You’re just here to observe right now.”
I gave her a weak smile back and managed to whisper. “Thank you.”
Ash pulled me into another comforting hug. “You didn’t deserve being dragged into any of this, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, I’m strong enough to handle it.”
“You most definitely are.”
“What do I do when you all come out?”
“Just be my little shadow. It will all work out for the best, I promise.” Ash told me, looking at me intently. There was something odd about what she said and I felt uneasy, but I pushed the feeling away and nodded at her. “Good, now let’s go watch TV till we have to leave.”
So we watched reality shows and made fun of brainless morons on the shows for a good couple hours until it was time to leave. Ash drove me to the park and then quickly hid, leaving me to go and search for Ms. Glass on my own. When I finally found her she was on an open soccer field next to a playground.
“Kylie, I’m so glad you came!” she beamed at me and I felt a twist of guilt in the pit of my stomach, but forced myself to smile back at the poor woman.
“It will all work out for the best, I promise.”
“Hi Ms. Glass.” I told her weakly. “You promised to explain...”
“Of course. I work for a group called the Resistance. We work to bring peace between people like you with special abilities and humans, hoping that we can coexist.”
“And you want me to work with this group?” I asked her. “I’m not even out of high school yet.”
“I realize that, but we work around such limitations. We can talk to your parents if they know of your powers.”
“They don’t.” I quickly said.
“Would they support you if they knew?”
“Of course they would, I was just always too ashamed to tell them.”
Ms. Glass smiled at me and put an arm around my shoulder. “There’s no need to be ashamed. You can’t help who you are and you aren’t using your powers selfishly.”
“Actually that’s kind of the point of my power.” I pointed out.
“Well, you aren’t using it to do stupid things. But if you help us you will-” she was cut off as a rock hit the back of her head, pushing her forward into the ground. I looked down at her in shock and turned around to see Zach walking out towards me. He grinned and winked at me.
“Alex?” Ms. Glass breathed out.
“Nuh-uh, Ms. Glass. Zach’s the name. Revolution’s the game.” the look on his face was devilish and his smirk only widened as all the color drained from the unfortunate woman’s face.
“Revolution? You are part of the Revolution?” her eyes flickered to me and a look of terror mixed with anger flashed across her face. “You tricked me!”
I grimaced slightly but Zach laughed at her and took my hand.
“She’s a wonderful actress, isn’t she?” he asked her while pulling me closer, dropping my hand so he could rest his on my hips and giving me a lingering kiss on the lips. He rested his forehead against mine and then turned his head slightly so he was looking at Ms. Glass. Coward I was, I turned my eyes down so I didn’t have to look at her.
“Now we have some questions for you, teach.”
“I don’t know anything.” she breathed out. I could hear her getting to her feet and out of the corner of my eye I saw her turn around and begin to run. I turned my head so I could watch her. Before she had even gotten a yard, Cody was in front of her.
“Guilty people don’t run.” Cody told her with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. He viciously backhanded her, making her fall to the ground, and even though I knew he was going easy on her since using his real strength would kill her, my heart still went out to the woman. I remembered when I was in her position and Cody had been playing cat and mouse with me.
Ash began to walk out from the trees to the left of me and Zach released me from his hold at the look Ash was giving him. He gave her an impish grin and a shrug. Ash walked over to join Cody and pinned Ms. Glass down, straddling her.
Zach grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me over so that we joined them and Zach bent down to cover the woman’s mouth with his hand. Ash grabbed the woman’s left hand, pinning the right arm underneath her left leg, and then allowed a small fire to begin dancing on her finger.
Ms. Glass’ eyes widened as she saw the flame approaching her left wrist and she kicked and squirmed and tried to scream around Zach’s hand, but Ash was unrelenting as the flame begin to burn away the flesh.
I began to feel a little ill and tried to stop my hands from shaking.
“What powers do you have within the Resistance and where are their locations?” Cody asked her.
Ash released the fire and as Ms. Glass stopped screaming Zach removed his hand.
“Screw you.” Ms. Glass breathed, tears streaming down her face. “I won’t tell you anything.”
Ash burnt another circle onto her arm and the woman thrashed. I fought to keep down the nausea.
“Answer my question.” Cody told her calmly. I knew his emotions well enough to see anger, impatience, and disgust flashing in his eye, though. Ms. Glass shook her head, her teeth gritted. Cody bent down and nodded at Zach who put his hand back against her mouth. Then Cody preceded to break the woman’s pinky finger.
“I’m not a very patient person.” he told her before breaking her ring finger. “And I’m just asking two questions.” I winced as he broke her middle finger, and finally moved my head away from looking at her. I looked up and met Zach’s eyes and froze as I realized he’d been watching me, amusement clear on his face. I was saved from Zach’s sadistic behavior by a snapping noise, this time not from a broken bone but rather from the trees. We all jerked our heads up to look in that direction.
“Zach, go see what that was.” Cody whispered. Zach nodded and left, Ash putting her hand over Ms. Glass’ mouth this time and pulling the woman to her feet.
Cody got to his feet as welland took a few steps towards the forest, watching the darkness carefully. After one more sweeping glance at the trees, he turned back to Ms. Glass. “Well then if you are so set on silence, you’re no good to me. Ash finish her off. Burn the body, we’re leaving.” He turned around to walk away but froze as he heard Ash speak.
“No.”
My eyes widened and I turned to look at Ash. Her eyes were on Cody’s back as she took a few steps away from him.
“Excuse me? Cody asked, turning back around slowly.
“No.” Ash said again.
Cody looked at Ash steely. “Do it, or you know the consequences.”
Ash glanced in my direction and in that look, I knew what she was about to do. My eyes widened; I wanted to stop her. She was going to do something which she could never take back, something that would bring down unparalleled consequences, and I could see in her eyes that she was past caring.
“Go to hell, Cody.” she said.
She looked him straight in the eye and a fire glinted behind her gaze, a change from the icy gaze she normally had. She flicked her fingers and a fan of flame circled her and the woman. I could see through the flames as she grabbed the woman’s arm, pulling her away at a run, the flames protecting them from Cody’s wrath.
I watched Cody’s face as he regarded the circle of flames which were vanishing quickly. Finally he said without even looking my way.
“Go after Ash, Elaine. When you find her, kill her.”
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Please comment guys, first person to comment will get a dedication! So what do you think? Will Elaine actually kill Ash?