******
Everyone immediately gets up and starts moving around with such purpose. I stand still not knowing what to do. It's getting louder.
"Eden! I need you to go upstairs and go into my closet, you'll find a secret door. You need to go in and lock it. Now, Eden!" Sage yells at me over all the gunshots. I nod and start to run. I stop halfway to the stairs. I turn around and look at my friends who are now all holding guns.
"Eden! Go!" Sage shouts. I turn around and go up the stairs. I quickly go into Sage's closet and find the secret door. When I open it I see that it's a small soundproof room. I get in and sit down on the ground. My heart is racing and so is my brain. I shouldn't have just left them down there. What if they get hurt? Eden, they all had some crazy looking guns, they'll be fine. I tell myself. And what if they're not? But before I can finish that thought I hear someone enter the room. It sounds like they're wearing really heavy boots. The gunshots stopped. It's eerily quiet. I can hear someone in Sage's room. I hear his closet door slam open. I have to slap my hand over my mouth to refrain from screaming. Then, the door to the room I'm hiding in is getting banged on. Whoever's out there is trying to get in. I keep myself huddled up and I keep my hand over my mouth. Then the door gets opened and I'm face to face with a man with a mask on. He has a gun in his hand so when he tells me to stand up, I do. He walks me out of Sage's room and we walk down the stairs.
That's when my world stopped.
On the floor unconscious but not hurt I see every single one of my friends. Marie, Val, Shawn, even Jasper. Then my eyes find Sage.
No. This can't be real.
I see blood seeping out from his chest. I let out a loud shrill scream. I feel the sobs rip through me but I can't feel anything. In this moment I don't care if I live or die. The man slaps his hand over my mouth and drags me outside. Someone else ties my hands and puts a gag in my mouth. I don't even try to fight it. Without my lifeline, I'm nothing. Without Sage, I'm dead. They put me in a car and suddenly I'm blacked out.
******
I wake up in a damp, concrete room. I'm sitting in a hard chair with my hands tied behind my back. The room is dimly lit and there are no windows. Sage. He's gone. You don't know that though. HE could be alive. He could be okay. What about the rest of them? All your friends, they looked so, dead. No they're fine. So is Sage. I tell myself.
"Are you ever going to stop crying?" I hear a feminine voice ask. I look around but don't see anyone.
"I'm behind you." She says as she steps out.
"Wh-who are you?" I stutter. She smirks.
"I'm Zara." She says. My tongue feels heavy in my mouth. "Don't take me as an ally. I'm not. I sure as hell won't get you out of here. But welcome to The Void darling. " She says. Then she flips her clearly dyed platinum blond hair over her shoulder and struts out. The Void? Is that like their gang name? I sit there for what seems like hours until a man comes in and unties me. He puts a blindfold over my eyes and I assume he's leading me out of the room. We walk for a while and I don't bother trying to run. If they're all really dead I have no where to go. If Sage is really dead there's no reason for me to live.
I get pushed to the ground and then my blindfold is taken off. I open my eyes to see that I'm locked in yet another concrete room, only this time there's a bed in the middle of the room with a rusty bed frame. There's a very small window towards the top of the wall and there's a doorway, without a door, that leads to a bathroom that consists of a barely even a toilet, toilet, and well that's it. I sit on the bed and stare. I end up leaning back onto it and falling asleep after a while.
"Get up!" I hear a deep voice saying. Ugh, all I want to do is sleep. I also forgot that I'm on my period, great. I open my eyes and see and angry looking man standing over me. I sit up and he pulls me so I'm standing. He keeps a hold of my arm as he leads me out of the room, but he never blindfolds me. As we walk down the hallways and up many sets of stairs I realize how deep in the building we must be. When we went up one last flight of stairs we entered a beautiful house. My mouth fell open. I couldn't help it. The man brings me into a room. It looks like an office. There's a big desk and a chair, bookcases line the back walls.
"Sit down." The man says pointing to the chair in front of the desk. I hear the door open.
"Hello, Smith." A deep voice says. "This is her?"
"Yes." The man who brought me here replies. The man with the deep voice comes into view. He has brown hair and enchanting blue eyes. He has a very muscular build. He really doesn't look more than a year or two older than me. He's wearing a button down shirt and pants. He gives off the 'I'm important' vibe.
"So, you're Eden." He says.
"Yes. Who are you?" I ask. He smirks.
"A little sassy even in the position you're in." I glare at him. "Okay, I'm Carter Henry. The leader of The Void. Nice to meet you beautiful." He says.
"You do know I'm 16 right? I'm a minor?" I say coldly.
"Oh, I know. I'm 17 darling."
"And your a gang leader?" I ask amazed.
"Yes. Your little boyfriend killed my father a few years ago. Maybe it wasn't him directly but it was The Ravens." He says.
"They're called The Raven's?" I ask. He laughs.
"You don't know the name of your boyfriend's gang?" He asks with humor lining his voice. I chuckle a bit too. How did I not know the name? "It is a pretty crappy name too." He says and smiles wider. His smile and laugh are so contagious, I can't help but do the same. But then I think of Sage. Is he really dead? I need answers. Are my friends dead? Why am I laughing with Carter? He notices my change in mood and sits down.
"Look. I've had my eye on you for a while." He says and I snap my gaze to his. "I've had my eye on you because at one point your father tried to join our gang. When I learned about him abusing you, I kicked him out. But I couldn't leave you alone like that. So, I had my men go to your house. But it turns out I was too late, Sage had already swept you off of your feet. Now here's the thing with Sage, him and his father let your father, Robert, into their gang. Recently. I don't know why, I don't know what they're up to but I had to get you out of there. I hate abuse. I can't stand it." I see something flicker in his eyes but it's covered up too quickly for me to see what it is. He clears his throat almost realizing that he said too much.
"You will be staying here for now. I'm sure that after you've learnt this, that it's not against your will. Or at least I'm hoping. Sage and his father are up to something. I don't know how it involves you or your father but I will get to the bottom of it." He says.
"How do I know you're not lying to me? And why do you care about me?" I ask. He looks at me sadly for a while.
"I have video proof of your father and Sage and his meeting up last week. I can show it to you if you would like. And I can't believe you don't remember me." He says. Remember him?
"Okay, think back to when you lived in Ashland, Oregon." He says. "Middle school." He says trying to jog my memory.
Oregon.
Middle school.
Carter Henry. He was my neighbor 6-8th grade until we moved. He was my best friend. My dad made us move because I was getting too close to him. He was devastated when I told him we had to move and so was I.
"Oh my god." I say. He smiles. "That's why I feel so comfortable around you!" I get up and jump on him giving him a hug. He hugs me back.
"It's good to see you Munchkin. You look great." He says as he rubs circles on my back.
"Gosh Henry, don't get all emotional on me." I say and laugh. He laughs and I pull out of the hug.
"You don't look so bad yourself. You grew up, a lot." I say.
"You know Munchkin, when you moved I was worried. I had a feeling that something wasn't right. I had my dad look into it and we discovered that your father was abusive. My dad said he couldn't track you and I got worried. Then we were finally hot on your trail and the my father got killed. I had to take over the gang and it took a while. When I finally got everything under control I immediately started searching for you again. Luckily I was able to track you down, so I moved across the country, found a nice house here and started looking out for you. But I was too late to actually save you I guess." He says sadly.
"No, Carter, you saved me. If what you're saying about The Raven's and my dad, then you saved me." I say. "You wouldn't lie to me about that, would you?" I ask warily. He shakes his head rapidly and takes my hands.
"Munchkin, I would never. Okay? I would never. I missed you so much. I worked so hard to get you back, to make sure you were safe. I even bribed people to keep your dad at work so you could get home and safe in your room." He says. I search for a lie in his eyes and find none. I let out a sigh of relief and hug him again. Right as I hug him someone walks in.
"So, it's true. This girl really does know you? You really are friends?" I turn around and see a smirking guy standing in the doorway. He walks over to me and sticks out his hand. "Hi Eden, I'm Josh. Carter's right hand man." I shake his hand and smile.
"It's nice to meet you." I say.
"I'm going to bring you to your room now." Carter says. He takes a hold of my hand and leads me out of the room and to the stairs. This may sound weird but my hand fits perfectly in his hand. We walk up the stairs and he leads me to a room. I walk in and it feels so warm. It's a beautiful room with warm light brown walls. The bed spread is white and there's a big balcony across from the bed.
"Thank you for letting me stay here." I say.
"Of course, if you need anything, that door leads to my room." He says. I smile and he leaves and has clothes brought in by someone. I go into the bathroom and take a hot shower that burns my skin. But it feels good. I get out and get dressed. Carter comes back in once I'm out and dressed.
"Dinner is ready." He says and sticks his hand out for me to take. I gladly take it and walk downstairs with him a huge smile on my face.
******
WOW. What a twisty twist lol.
I hope you loved this chapter and Brock thank you.
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xoxo-J