chapter 23

I stood up from the floor and looked at Jack directly in the eye. "What are you doing here," I said in an angry voice.

"Well, I came to kill you. Isn't that obvious?" He asked in a sarcastic voice. I let my eyes wander away from him and to the mirror that showed me and Lydia hiding behind the bed.

"She can leave. I only came for you Amber," He said. I looked back at him and without breaking eye contact I said, "Lydia, go."

She stood up from her crouching position and looked at me before leaving. As soon as she was behind Jack, he turned around and aimed at her leg and pulled the trigger. "Or not," He said with an evil smile on his face. I tried to run over to Lydia, who was on the floor, screaming, and grabbing her bloody thigh. He turned back to me and aimed at my chest. I stopped in my tracks.

"Jack, Please. Let her go and you can do whatever you want with me. Please," I begged. He looked at my face and could tell that I was telling the truth. "Fine. She can leave," He said. I looked down at her and gave her a small nod. She managed to get up from the floor and limp quickly out of the room. I stood there until I heard the door that led to the stairs slam shut. After that I tore my eyes away from the red stain on the floor and gave Jack an angry look while I had my eyes narrowed at him.

"What do you want?" I asked. He gave a small laugh before responding, "Well. For one thing, I want the reward they are offering for you. But the main reason I came was to get you back," He said, lowering the gun to my waist and putting his other hand on my waist. He pulled me close to him.

"If you come with me, I may think twice before giving you to the labs. You and I can probably have a normal life. I have enough money to get us out of here. Go to Europe and escape this mess," He whispered in my ear. He retracted his head to look at me.

"Go to hell," I said through gritted teeth. I managed to punch him, forcing me out of his grip. He stumbled back and as soon as he did, I ran as fast as I could out of the room. I ran to the door that led to the stairs and then heard the loud bang echo through the hallway. I felt the bullet graze my side and I fell to my knees. I gripped my side, trying to stop the bleeding but I couldn't stop the scream from coming out and the pain from spreading up and down my body. Jack walked over to me and picked me up with one hand. He shoved me against the wall and had his hand around my throat, loose enough to let me breathe. He pointed the gun at my head and inched his face close to mine. Our noses touched.

"Guess I'll just have to take you to the labs. I really wish you made this easy for me Amber. I like you. But I like myself more," He said. I shoved my foot into his crotch and he let me go. He still had the gun in his hand and he aimed at my thigh and shot me. I fell down to the floor.

"You know, you're a fighter. But that won't save you now," He said, coming over to me. He let his feet pin my legs to the ground and had one wrist pinned to the ground. I struggled to get him off of me. He punched me across the face.

"You're crazy!" I screamed. He kept hitting me across the face until I felt the warm substance on my lip and nose. He stopped when he heard that.

"I'm not crazy! I'm surviving. And I don't care what it takes," He screamed in my face. I tried getting him off of me again but when he felt that he put his hands around my throat.

"I gave up my family. My friends. Peyton, Cameron, and Layla, just to get out of here. I don't care if I have to give you up too," He said with a crazy look in his eyes. I felt his hands tighten around my throat, blocking the air from entering. I scratched at his arms and I finally managed to get to his face. That's when he let go of my throat. He grabbed his gun and pointed it at my head. I was coughing and gasping for air.

"Sorry, Amber. It's not personal. Just survival of the fittest," He said. I heard his finger go onto the trigger and that's when I felt his weight come off of me. Trevor picked him up and pinned him against the wall with one hand. Lydia was right behind him, pointing a gun at Jack.

"You won't fight me. You're too weak," Jack said with an evil smile on his face.

"Want to try me?" Trevor said with an angry voice. Jack looked at me and then pulled the trigger. The bullet launched right at my healing shoulder. I grabbed my shoulder as a reflex and let the scream out. Trevor looked at me and then back at Jack before letting his grip go and punching Jack across the face. I coughed for air after screaming in reaction of the pain going up and down my arm. Lydia walked over to me and helped me up. I leaned against the wall to support my weight. Lydia stood next to me and kept the gun on Jack as Trevor dragged his limp body into a big and open room. He put Jack's body in an empty chair and tied him up with zip ties. He stood there for a second, hesitating whether to punch Jack again out of rage or wait for him to wake up. He turned around and walked over to me leaning against the wall.

"Keep an eye on him. If he does anything, shoot him in the leg," He said to Lydia. She nodded at him before limping over to the open room. He looked at me and took in my injuries.

"Can you walk?" He asked, looking down at me.

"Doesn't feel like it," I said, my leg feeling like it was Jello. It was the same leg that had a piece of metal during the car accident and I felt so weak from the bullet wound in my shoulder and the beatings that Jack gave me. Trevor bent down and scooped my legs into his arm and my upper body into the other. He walked all the way to the room we were staying in and put me down on the bed.

"Stitches?" I asked in a scared voice.

He gave a small laugh and said, "Yeah. Don't know why you're so scared of stitches and not of getting shot." He walked over to the bathroom and grabbed a towel, rubbing alcohol, a clean needle, and the thread to stitch me up.

"I don't like needles," I said, coughing afterwards. He looked up at me before pouring the clear liquid on my thigh. It stung so bad and I tried so hard to contain the scream by biting my lip but that also hurt since I had a cut on it. I tasted the metal flavor in my mouth. He wiped the area and grabbed the needle and thread before closing the bleeding hole in my thigh. It took him maybe 5 minutes to finish stitching up my thigh. After he finished, he stood up from his crouching position and told me to take off my shirt. I did as he said so he could get the pain over quickly in my shoulder, and exposed the bra that I was wearing to him. He did the same process with my shoulder that he did with my thigh. Rubbing alcohol, towel, stitches. Once he was done with that, I let a breath of relief out. I grabbed my shirt and put it back on before carefully getting up.

"Maybe you should just stay in bed. Your healing process should be back to normal for you so you can get up in a couple of days," He said.

"No. I have to see him," I said.

"Absolutely not," Trevor said with definity in his voice. He handed me a damp towel and I took it from his hand.

"Why not? It's not like he is going to talk to you. He might break if I'm talking to him," I said. His eyes searched my face. He was hesitant with his answer. Like he was trying to find all of the ways that something could go wrong if I talk with Jack.

"Fine. But I have to be there with you," He said, walking away from me. He walked out and left me to clean up a bit. I walked carefully to the bathroom and turned on the light to reveal the bruise forming on my cheek and the dried blood on my nose and lip. I wiped the towel across my lip and let the blood come of with every rub. I did the same with my nose. I splashed my face with water, cleaning all of the sweat off and dried it with the same towel. I looked down at my side and lifted up my shirt to see the graze of the bullet. I picked the towel back up and held it against the graze, leaving it to soak away all the blood. As soon as it did, I grabbed a bandage that Trevor used when the poisoned bullet came into my system, and put it on the graze. I looked at myself one more time, taking in the bruise on my cheek and the minimized cut on my lip.

I turned the light off and slowly walked out of the room and down the hall to where the big room was. It took a few minutes to finally ignore the pain and walk normally.

I walked into the golden brown room that had gold designs on the wall and an ugly green carpet. In the center was Jack, tied up in a chair. Lydia was leaning against a wall and thinking about something. Trevor was standing next to her, watching Jack like a hawk, even though he wasn't moving. I walked over to Trevor and Lydia. Trevor didn't break eye contact with the spot he was so fixed on. I stood in front of Lydia and asked, "How's your leg?"

"Painful but I took a hell of a lot of tylenol so it's manageable. What about you?" She asked.

"Painful but I have a sped up healing system so manageable," I said, giving a small laugh.

"Do you guys ever shut up?" The waking voice of Jack said. I looked at Trevor and he looked at me.

"Hey Lydia? Why don't you get some sleep. You need some rest since you've been hacking all night," I said.

"Finally. I was hoping one of you two would say that," She said, handing Trevor the gun and walking out.

"Since your pet is gone can we make this a little more PG-13?" Jack asked with anger in voice. I walked around to stand in front of Jack and Trevor stayed behind me.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "Damn. I did a number on you didn't I?" Jack said.

"So are you going to tell me what you really want or do we have to force it out of you?" I said.

"I already told you. You know. Before I made you look like the mess you are," He said with an evil voice. I saw Trevor move out of the corner of my eye off of the wall he was leaning against. He looked tense. I turned my eyes back to Jack.

"See here's the thing," I said slowly walking closer to him. "You gave up Peyton, Cameron, and Layla. That's enough money to get you out of the country. So why stay? Why not just leave? Because I don't think the real reason you stayed was because of a girl you barely know," I said, stopping at a safe distance.

He looked over at Trevor. "She's smart. Is that why you've been hooking up with her or is it because you like fixing broken girls that hide behind walls?" He said. Trevor started to walk over to us. I met him halfway and stopped him in his tracks.

"Don't give him what he wants," I said in a low voice. He looked down at me slowly and then stepped back. I stood there for a second before walking back in front of Jack.

"What do you want Jack?" I asked again. He turned his head to look back at me.

"Money," He said maniaclly.

"You have that though. You have what? $180,000? That's enough for you to go anywhere you want," I said. He laughed.

"You don't get it do you? Money isn't just something you earn. It's something you kill for. If I want to live somewhere for a while I'm going to need all the rewards I can get. And you're one of the highest in the database," He said in a low voice.

"So I'm just what? An experiment? A game? A reward?" I asked.

"You are all of that. And nothing else," He said in a low voice.

"You are nothing. You have nothing left. And nobody wants you. You are nothing Amber. NOTHING!" He screamed. I stepped away from him, scared. As if he could escape his restraints at any moment if he pushed hard enough. You are something. To Trevor. To Lydia. To Jared.

He kept mumbling nothing with a crazy laugh. I turned my head to look at Trevor who was looking at me with an angry expression on his face. I cocked my head a little towards the door and we both started walking out. I stopped him by grabbing his arm and pulling him to the side.

"You can't do that. It's what he wants," I said, lowering my hand back down to my side. Trevor looked into my eyes.

"I can't just stand there and do nothing," He said.

"Listen. I understand that you hate him. I think all of us do but he may be useful. He works with the labs since he is collecting the bounties so he may know something we don't. If he doesn't break in 2 days then we leave him here and go to California ok?" I said. He had to think about his answer. He gave a small nod before replying with "Ok."

"Go and blow off some steam ok? Come back to the room when you feel like you want to," I said, placing a kiss on his cheek afterwards. I walked past him and down the hall, all the way to our room.

I didn't look back but I already knew he went downstairs to the gym. I opened the door to our room and walked inside slowly. I looked around and thought to myself for a moment. I mean something. If I didn't, Trevor and Lydia would have left me a long time ago. I mean something. I shut the door and walked into the bathroom about to take a shower. I grabbed a towel and placed it on the towel rack, ready for me to grab when I got out. I got in as soon as I felt the lukewarm water hit my hand as I was checking the temperature. I washed away all the dried blood from my body and the only thought that kept repeating was I mean something. And I knew that it was the truth.

* * *

I took a shower, ate a sandwich, watched TV, and then went to bed. But I haven't fallen asleep. I've been laying in bed for almost 5 hours, just looking at the pitch black of the room. I turned onto my back carefully, making sure not to hurt my shoulder, and faced the ceiling. It's been 5 hours since I've seen Lydia. Or Trevor. I turned my head to see the glowing red numbers on the black clock. 4:18 AM. I turned my head back, closed my eyes for a moment and then took a deep breath before getting up from the bed.

I looked down at my thigh to see the red line that had small black thread through it. I saw past my leg and saw my converse. I reached over and grabbed them, throwing them on before standing up. I walked over to the bathroom and checked my hair.

If I wasn't going to sleep then might as well get ready for the day. Even if it is at 4:20 AM. I combed my hair down with my fingers and turned off the light as I walked out of the room with a white shirt and my usual black shorts on. I walked down the hall and stopped at Lydia's door. I listened into the room and heard her faint snoring. I smiled a little before walking down the hall again and stopping in front of the big, open room that Jack was in the center of. I crossed my arms over my chest and peeked into the room. His head was tilted forward and his body was relaxed. I kept a stern face on until I finally got to the door that led to the stairs. I let myself relax as I walked carefully down the stairs, making sure to cause minimal pain in my thigh.

I finally reached the lobby floor and looked around for any sign of Trevor. I walked slowly in the center of the hotel, admiring the things I never saw before. The high ceilings that, at the top, was glass. The small shops on the side that were filled with clothes and candy. The chairs and couches that were a nice forest green color and went well with the blue rugs on the marble floor. I walked across the open room and into the opening in front of me that led to the gym. I turned my head to the left and saw the light on. I walked over to the brightness of the fluorescent lights and leaned against the door frame as soon as I got there. I kept my eyes on the 6 foot 1, 18 year-old boy in front of me. He was shirtless, showing his muscles off when he punched the leather bag with his full force, sending the bag swinging back and forth when he hit it everytime. I felt like I could stay here forever. Watching Trevor as he focused on sending the bag back and getting stronger. Better. Like me.

I straightened back up again and walked slowly towards Trevor. His eyes drifted to the reflection of me in the mirror in front of him.

"You ok?" I asked. He stopped punching the bag and was breathing heavily.

"Yeah. Just needed a moment," He said. I looked at his sweaty, but handsome, face and his dark eyes.

"Why don't you come back up? Aren't you tired?" I said. He turned his eyes back to the punching bag and started hitting it again.

"No. I'm fine," He said. I looked at his reflection again. He was angry. But there was something else trying to fight it's way out of his head. I walked over to him, stopping when I was right next to him.

"Want to tell me what is really bothering you?" I said. He didn't stop punching or even break contact with the spot he was so focused on.

"Nothing, Amber," He said, with a breathless voice. I searched his face and crossed my arms over my chest, trying to say that I'm not leaving.

He stopped punching the bag and looked down at his hands and then turning his head towards me. His jaw was clenched and his eyes hungry for more of the red leather bag.

"What, Amber?" He said in an angry tone.

"I know you're upset about Jack but what else is going on?" I asked in a calming voice.

"Like I said Amber. It's nothing," He said, keeping eye contact with me.

"I don't believe that," I said. He gave an angry laugh before walking over to a water bottle on the floor.

"Of course you don't," He said. My eyes followed him as he walked over to the plastic bottle.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked in a high pitched voice.

"Nothing, Amber! Just stop worrying about it!" He yelled. I felt my face harden into a stern expression. He's never yelled at me before.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell," He said in a low voice. I searched his face trying to figure out if he was angry or frustrated.

"Don't shut me out Trevor. You said it yourself," I said, walking slowly towards him.

His face went cold again. "What if I want to shut you out? What if I don't want to show you the angry part of me?" He said in a cold voice.

"Why would you want to do that? So you don't hurt me?" I asked. He searched my face and narrowed his eyes while he crossed his arms across his chest.

"So I don't scare you, Amber," He said. I stopped a foot or two away from him. I felt my face fall into a relaxed expression.

"Nothing you do can scare me Trevor," I said. He gave the same angry laugh as before.

"You haven't seen the worst of it," He said, taking a sip from his water bottle.

"Try me," I said in a cold voice.

He put the water bottle down and walked over to the punching bag again. He started punching it and at the 5th punch, the bag fell from the chain, breaking open on the ground. My eyes wandered from the bag up to Trevor's angry eyes. He couldn't have tore down a whole bag unless he had the strength side-effect. Is that what he was scared of? Losing control of his anger and his strength?

"Now are you scared?" He said.

"No," I said in a cold voice. He walked over towards me, towering over me and I walked back slowly until my back hit the wall.

"How about now?" He said, narrowing his eyes at me as his muscular body covered my petite one.

I gave him the same expression he gave me. "No," I said in a stern voice, trying to reach for his chest. As my hands came up to his chest, he grabbed my wrists with one hand each and pinned them against the wall, inching his face closer to mine. I kept my eyes locked on his. He was still breathing heavily from the force he put against the heavy bag, and his hair and face were still shiny with the sweat he built up over the few hours he was down here. I felt my heart racing at his touch and the distance between our bodies. His strong hands gripped my wrists harder and harder, holding me against the wall and I couldn't escape even if I tried. But with the increased strength he possessed, he was still delicate with me. It didn't hurt like it did with Jack. Trevor knew how to control his strength.

"Now are you scared of the monster raging inside of me?" He whispered, narrowing his eyes at me. His breath was hot against my cheek.

"No," I said in a low, but strong voice.

"Then why is your heart racing?" He asked, looking down at my lips.

"Because you're not the only one with a monster inside of you," I said. His eyes went back up to mine and they weren't cold. They were soft as usual. Innocent.

"Nothing can change how I see you or feel about you Trevor. Because I'm just like you. But you still love me the way that I love you. Nothing can change that," I said, looking into his eyes with a soft look. He kept breathing heavily against me. His eyes wandered down to my lips again and my eyes did the same to his. He hesitated before slowly placing his lips on mine. I kissed him back as softly as he did with me. His hands started to loosen it's grip on my wrists. He still had me pinned up against the wall when he broke our lips.

"I'm sorry," He whispered, letting me go and stepping back.

I let my hands fall to my side. He turned around and started walking out when I ran over to him and caught his hand, tangling our fingers together. He turned back around to face my face with a small smile on it.

"Nothing," I said in a low voice. I searched his face for some type of reaction, telling me that he knew that I knew about his strength.

After a moment, he gave the same small smile back at me.

"Come on, let's go back upstairs," He said. He unhooked our fingers and grabbed his shirt and water bottle from the ground before exiting the gym next to me.

As we walked down the hall, all I could think about was asking him about his side-effect. It wouldn't hurt to ask, would it?

"How long have you known?" I asked, in a calm voice. He stopped and turned to look at me.

"Did I hurt you?" He asked in a concerned tone. I shook my head.

"I just figured that you couldn't have broken the bag if you didn't have strength as a side-effect. Those things are meant to last a few years and you just broke it easily," I said. I heard him let out a deep breath.

"Almost a year," He said, turning his body back towards the opening across from us.

"How?" I asked. I looked up at him and I saw him look at me through the corner of his eye.

"You remember those scars you saw on my back?" He said. I nodded in response.

"Well, Luke and Jason were training me, I guess, but they stabbed me. They thought it would be more efficient than a gun and killing me right then and there. The scar on my shoulder is where Luke stabbed me and the one on my lower back is where Jason stabbed me. At one point, they pinned me to the ground and held a knife to my throat and that's when I just threw them off of me without trying," He said in a deep and calm voice. I turned my head back forward looking at the door that was only a few feet away from us and led us to the stairs that went to the second floor.

"Can you control it?" I asked. He nodded.

"There are just moments where I let out my full strength. Plus, it's hard to keep it hidden from you and Lydia," He said.

"Wait. Lydia doesn't know?" I asked in a surprised voice.

"No. And I would appreciate it if you didn't tell her that her brother is more of a freak than she thought," He said.

"Guess that makes two of us," I said in a low voice. He looked at me. I met his eyes and tapped my temple.

"I'm not Lydia smart where I understand technology but I can put 2 and 2 together quickly. I also can analyze certain things and find the best outcome," I said, turning back to the door. I opened it and started climbing the stairs until I reached the second floor door, opening that one.

I walked through the door and held it open for Trevor who was right behind me. I walked a few steps in front of him before he caught my hand and pulled me towards him. He cupped my cheeks, one with each hand. He stroked his thumb across my bruised cheek carefully.

"I'm sorry about what happened back there," He said in a low voice. I put my hands on top of his.

"It's ok," I said.

"If something like that ever happens again. If I ever hurt you or if someone ever gets me to hurt you then I want you to run," He said. I looked at his dark brown eyes that were searching my face.

"No. I'm going to fight Trevor. I'm not going to leave you to be controlled by anything or anyone," I said.

"Amber, please," He said in a begging voice.

"I'm not going to leave you Trevor. End of story," I said. He let out a sigh before kissing my forehead and pulling me into an embrace. I wrapped my arms around him and then heard a sound coming from the room next to us.

"Aw. The puppies made up," Jack said. I felt Trevor turn his head to face inside the dark room.

"Can I beat the shit out of him?" He asked.

"As much as we would all like that, I'm going to have to say no," I said. Trevor let get of me and put his shirt on before entering the room that had Jack at the center. I walked behind him, kind of terrified of Jack acting like a maniac instead of the boy I met in the Wal-Mart. Trevor was about to go over to the wall and stay out of the conversation until I caught his hand. He turned to look at my scared expression, begging him to stay near in case something happened. He looked over at Jack and then back at me before giving a small nod and standing behind me.

"What? Is the little princess scared of her prince charming?" He said sarcastically.

"If you're referring to yourself, then I think you have the wrong role in this little fairytale," I said with a cold tone.

He rolled his eyes at me. "Are you ready to talk?" I asked.

"What do you want to know?" He said in response with a small smile on his face.

"How are you working with Fallen Labs if you're pure?" I asked.

"Dear old mommy. She's been with them for years and gave me a small exception to hunt for my own kind," He explained. I narrowed my eyes at him. Something felt off.

"What do you know about L-27's?" I said, curious to see if he knew what he was a part of.

"I know that half of them die and then half of them become mindless kids with abilities no adults have," He said with a small smile.

A shiver went down my spine at the words he just said. He knows what is happening and he's helping?

"If you're so valuable to them then why did they send you here alone without help?" I asked as my final question.

"Maybe because I'm stronger than the rest so they know I can complete the job," He said. The rest?

"The rest of what?" I asked curiously. When he heard that question, I heard the snaps of the zip ties holding him down. His eyes went black like the boy I saw in the video and he had a small knife in his right hand. His face went cold and he lunged at me. He pinned me to the ground and I started kicking and trying to throw him off of me. I kicked him off of me and ran to Trevor who was about to punch Jack. He stood up quickly and Trevor tried to punch him but he dodged his punch and managed to cut Trevor's arm. Trevor groaned in pain and Jack kicked Trevor, making him stumble away from me. Jack walked over to me and swung the knife at me and ended up cutting me under my eye. I tried punching him or hitting him in any possible way but he dodged all of my hits. Trevor got up and made a fist ready to punch Jack but Jack punched Trevor first and kicked him until he stumbled back again. Once Trevor got back up, Jack grabbed my arm as I was about to punch him and put me into a headlock with the knife at one end of my throat.

"Don't do anything stupid Trevor. You've seen what kids like me can do. We're trained to kill," Jack said in a cold voice. Trevor took a step closer and Jack dug the point of the knife into my throat, drawing blood out of the small cut. He stopped in his tracks. Jack kept dragging the knife slowly against my throat, drawing blood with every centimeter.

"Stop!" Trevor yelled. Jack stopped when the cut was maybe 3 inches long.

"We just want her. You can go on with your merry little life. I mean you can live without dead weight in your life, right?" Jack asked.

"Not a chance," Trevor said, making a fist with his hands.

"Touching. Oh well. Might just have to kill you both," Jack said.

"No!" Trevor screamed with terror in his voice and ran over quickly about to punch Jack when he started dragging the knife again. When the cut reached 6 inches, I shoved my elbow into his stomach, making him drop the knife and escaped out of his grip, punching him in the face and making him stumble back. I punched him again and again until I felt his body go limp. At the end, I was out of breath. I turned back to face Trevor, who was only a few feet behind me. I walked over to him quickly and he met me halfway.

"I'm ok," I said. He looked over at Jack and I turned my head to look at his limp body.

"What was that?" Trevor asked, terrified that it was the thing that could have taken away the thing he loved most from him.

"That's what the labs have been working on," I said in response. I looked back at Trevor and his bleeding arm. Jack's cut extended from Trevor's wrist to half of his forearm.

"What do we do with him?" He asked. I looked up from his cut and into his eyes. He looked away from Jack and into my eyes, reading what we had to do. He turned his head to the table that was across the room and walked over to it. He picked a gun up and started walking back over to Jack. I walked behind him. He loaded the gun and clicked off the safety. As his finger pulled the trigger, I turned my body to face away from Jack. No matter who it was, I could never look.

Trevor stood there, pointing the gun at Jack's head for a moment and he let out a deep breath before slowly backing away and facing me again. I turned my head a little, only seeing the body and a pool of blood.

"Don't look," Trevor said, turning my head back towards him.

"Let's fix these cuts," He said in a deep voice. I nodded. Trevor pushed me in front of him, making me the first to leave the room. Even though it was Jack, I still wouldn't wish that fate upon anyone. Losing yourself to chemicals. Losing the people you love. As much as I hated Jack, it wasn't what I wanted.

We walked down the hall in silence, allowing me time to clear my thoughts. Once we reached the room, I walked into the bathroom and grabbed a towel, damping it and wiping it across my face to clean the cut. I did the same with my neck. I washed the towel again, taking the blood off of it and walked out of the bathroom. I walked over to Trevor, who was sitting on the bed and putting rubbing alcohol on his cut. I handed him the towel and walked over to the window, putting my hands on the sill and leaning against it. I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts.

"They're creating monsters in there. And they say they are trying to save humanity when in reality they are destroying it," I said. Trevor looked up at me while pressing the towel against his cut.

"I just...I want to stop running. Hiding. Killing," I said.

"We all do, Amber. But we can't stop them now. Not when they have those...things," He said.

I looked away from him. "There has to be something. Maybe we could take the money he has from Peyton, Layla, and Cameron. We can leave. All three of us," I said.

"We can't leave Amber," He said in a calm voice. I kept shaking my head. Trevor walked over to me and I looked up at him.

"I'm terrified. Of becoming one of those. Because in this war. In this reality, we either become those monsters or we die and I would prefer to die than be one of them. Or you become one of them," I said, my voice low.

"I'm terrified too. But we can find a way out of this. One way or another," He said. I laid my forehead against his chest and he lifted a hand to my head, stroking my hair.

"I can't live like this," I said in a quiet voice.

"We have to Amber," He said.

He was right. We can have love and friends. But we couldn't be normal. We have to kill, lie, die, in this world. We either lost to the rage in us, the chemicals controlling our bodies, or to death. This is my world. This is my reality.