Thirteen's POV
"Siblings?" He asks as we sit by the pond. Him keeping his distance since I kicked him...or rather, kneed him.
I shake my head. "None." I lie easily. But then again that is kinda the truth too, so...
"Really? Oh man, how I wish I didn't have any siblings."
"You have siblings?" I ask, playing dumb.
"One. A little brother. Though he seems to forget he's younger." He grumbles.
"Are you sure it's not just because you act younger." I tease him lightly. He playfully glares at me. He gets a faraway look in his eyes.
"No, he's just...an idiot."
"I'm pretty sure all siblings say that about each other." He rolls his eyes.
"Yeah well if you had any siblings you'd understand."
"I have a few cousins," I reply. "They're good enough." He laughs.
"Is that the family you're out here visiting?"
"Yeah."
"How long are you going to be out here?"
I shrug. "Few weeks, possibly a couple months." He nods.
A ringtone splits through the silence. I pull my phone from my back pocket. A familiar number flashes across the screen.
I told them to leave me alone.
"Speak of the devil," I mutter.
"Your cousin?"
"Yeah." I lie. "I'm so sorry but I have to take this."
He waves me off, "No it's fine." I stand and walk a short distance away so he can't hear as much of the conversation. I answer the call.
"I told you not to-" I'm cut off.
"Are we allowed to kill civilians?"
"What?"
"Are we allowed to-"
"I heard what you said, I'm just having a hard time believing that those words actually came out of your mouth." I hiss into the phone.
"Is that a yes?"
"What do you think Devin?"
"Sounds like a yes to me. Ok got to go, I got to find a bag to put the body in, bye!" He chirps.
"Devin wait-" The call is disconnected. I run a hand through my hair.
"Everything alright?" Zack asks, "You seem distressed." I turn to face him.
"Distressed doesn't even begin to cover it," I mutter to myself. "I'm so sorry but I have to go. Do you mind giving me a ride back to the café? My ride's there."
"Yeah sure let's go." He says quietly. We head back to his car, him leading the way. We make it to the café in ten minutes.
"Thanks," I say to him as I exit the car.
"No problem." I stand right outside the passenger side door, staring at him.
"What?" He questions.
"My book."
A sly smile spreads across his lips. "And I'd give that back because..." he trails off.
I lean towards him "Because a knee to your family jewels is not the worst I can do." He glares back at me before pulling the book from the side compartment and handing it to me.
"See you soon?" He asks.
I pretend to ponder the question. "Possibly." I finally answer before turning on my heel and walking away. As soon as he drives off out of sight I run towards Cody's house. Luckily he doesn't live that far away. I just couldn't have Zack knowing that. I enter the house and am immediately assaulted by high pitched screeches.
"The hell?" I mutter.
"What are you doing back, you're supposed to be with lover boy." Devin states.
He's carrying a large black trash bag...and a knife.
I massage my forehead with my fingers. "I came back to make sure you didn't do anything stupid."
"I'm not doing anything stupid, I'm doing everyone a favor. People can only go so long listening to her pitchy parrot voice." He grumbles.
"Whose voice?" I question. I get my answer as a girl comes around the corner. Her top is too tight, her skirt too short. You could probably create a dust storm with the amount of makeup caked on her face, and her bleached hair was not helping her look at all. I stare at her dumbfounded. It's not often I'm caught off guard.
"Who the hell are you?" She screeches.
I glance at Devin out of the corner of my eye. He seems to wait for me to attack her first.
"Yes," I tell him, he scrunches his eyebrows up in confusion.
"What?"
"Yes, you're allowed to kill civilians...in self-defense," I tell him. He smirks back at me.
"Man, quick someone do something to make her go at me."
"I'm right here!" She fumes.
"And the door is right there," I tell her. She gapes at me, before glaring harshly.
"Excuse me?!" She screeches. Devin covers his ears and pretends to die. I roll my eyes at him.
"I didn't stutter."
"You have no idea who you're talking to." She hisses.
"My ears! Oh my ears, they're bleeding! They're bleeding!" Devin cries out as he rolls around on the floor covering his ears. I sigh as I stare down at him. She fumes.
"Narissa you need to leave." I jump slightly at the close proximity between me and Cody, who I hadn't even realize, came up behind me.
"I am an invited guest." she sneers. "I don't have to go anywhere."
"Who invited her?" I whisper to Cody.
"Hayden." He answers, my blood boils. "We already tried asking him to get her to leave, he's the only one she'll listen to." I turn and start up the stairs. "Where are you going."
"To get Hayden to get her to leave."
"I already told you we tried asking him."
"You tried asking," I reply as I pull my dagger from the small of my back. I watch him run a hand over his face in resignation. "I'm going to try forcing."
I head up the stairs quietly and stand in front of his door. Should I knock?... Nah. I bring my foot up and kick the door down.
"What the hell?" He turns and sees me, his fists clench. "For a second I thought you were my brother, but then I realized not even he's not stupid enough to do that."
"Good to know." I cross my arms over my chest. "She needs to go."
"Who?"
I glare at him. "Don't play stupid with me."
"Fine." he crosses his arms. "Then keep the promise you made."
I gape at him. "I have kept the damn promise. Your brother is not involved with this, he knows nothing about any of us."
"Oh really?" he takes a few steps forward, I don't move. "Then why the hell is he here now? You have him convinced that he's hunting down Tony, but that's not the real person they're looking for."
"This mission was not my call to make. That was all Zero." I growl out.
"I don't give a-" A ringtone silences him. I pull my phone from my back pocket and stare at the number before looking up at him.
He sits on his bed, arms still crossed. "Sure answer the phone, not like we were in the middle of-" I cut him off as I show him the number, he silences, and his face drains of all anger, instead it becomes serious.
"Put it on speaker." He says simply. I answer it.
"Go," I say.
"We're holding a meeting about an hour away from you guys. Get here as quickly as you can."
"How do you even know I'm with Hayden?" I question.
"You don't want to know," he replies.
"Actually I do."
"I'll send you the address, as soon as you have it memorized delete it, can't have anyone finding out about this."He states, changing the subject.
"We haven't seen each other in years, why are we having a meeting now?" Hayden questions.
"Don't know," he replies. "She calls the meetings, not me. You can take it up with her."
"Yeah, no thanks." Hayden answers.
"We'll be there as soon as possible," I state. "Just send the address."
"Copy that. Oh, and make sure you aren't followed." The call ends. I turn back to Hayden.
"I've kept the promise." he opens his mouth to retort, I hold up my hand silencing him. "He does not and will not know about any of it unless you tell him yourself. When I make a promise, I keep it. You of all people know that. And I'm sorry, I'm sorry about your friends, but that was not my fault. You can't blame me for that."
"But I do."
"Fine," I reply curtly. "Blame me all you want then, but right now we got to get out of this house without any of them suspecting anything."
"And how do you propose we do that?" He hisses.
I shrug, "I'm open to ideas."
"Well I could always say I'm driving Narissa home, but for you, I have no idea." He finally says. An idea pops into my head.
"I don't like that," he states. I frown in confusion.
"Don't like what?"
"That look in your eyes."
"Well then you'll like the plan even less." He groans out loud. I turn to leave. "Be ready to go in five minutes."
"You let me hit you didn't you?" He asks softly. I stop in the doorway, I say nothing in reply.
"Why?" He questions.
"You needed to get your anger on someone before you hurt anyone else," I reply quietly. "So figured maybe you'd feel better getting your anger out on the one person you blamed for what happened. You have to know that wasn't my fault. I did everything I could to try to save them." He says nothing.
"Be ready to leave, and then I'll inform on what I plan to do. You need to remember that I lost someone that day too." I mutter quietly. I turn and exit the room
Flashback
"We have to stop the train. Go to the other cart, there's a lever there that should separate the carts from each other so that this one slows down." He says.
"What are you going to do?" I question.
"I'm going to get all the people out of this cart and onto the next."
"Don't do anything stupid."
"When have I ever?" I give him a look, "Don't answer that." he adds in. He moves all the people to my cart.
"There's no lever!" I yell out to him. I turn just in time to see him close and lock the cabin door.
"What are you doing!" I shout as I run up to the door trying to get it to open.
"We were all never going to make it back, you had to know that Thirteen."
"No," I whisper.
"Good-bye." He says quietly. He pulls a lever in his cart that causes it to disconnect. It begins to speed away, as ours slows down. I bang on the door, trying to force it open.
Our cart slowly comes to a stop, just as an explosion shakes the subway tunnels. I stare ahead at the spreading fire.
"No," I whisper, I blink back the tears in my eyes that threaten to spill over. "No."
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