PROLOGUE

In a world, where everyone fights to the death, it’s rare to have a weakling. But every once in a while, it happens. And they usually die before they turn 10. There aren’t any parents around to save you. It’s every person for themselves. The parents’ abandon you after you’re born. If you’re lucky enough, a child may take you into your care. Sometimes the animals take pity on you. But sooner or later, whether an animal or human takes you in, the Fighters come. And they tell you who you really are. And then whisk you away but not before trying to kill the adopted family you have. They die unless they try to fight back. This is a world where society has broken down so much; it’s almost barbaric. The Fighters are the last of the army. The Center is the last of the Government. But, is the world really broken down that much? Or, are they just saying that, for their own entertainment…?


CHAPTER 1

A lady from the Center put a bright blue-eyed baby girl into a bed of moss. She kissed two of her fingers and touched the baby’s forehead. The baby girl looked up at her curiously, but didn’t cry.
“Good luck, child. You’re going to need it. Be strong…or die,” the lady said. Then she took a necklace off of her neck and put it around the baby. She fingered the pendulant that was in the shape of the new society. It was real gold and had an intricate design of the symbol for infinity that was intertwined with all the animals of the world and vines. Then the lady put up the hood of her dark navy cloak and disappeared. The baby girl looked around curiously. Then a fox came up to the baby, slowly and carefully. The she-fox sniffed the baby and suddenly the baby started to laugh, piercing the silence. The fox looked at the baby who made the curious noise. Then the other foxes came out. They were all huge. The baby showed no fear. The leader of these foxes nodded to the little she-fox, indicating that they will indeed take in the child. The biggest fox that was obviously the leader picked up the baby gingerly with his teeth. The pendulant fell and the small she-fox picked it up quickly with her teeth.
I was that baby.
I knew I was different from my adopted family of foxes. I moved differently. Heck, I even looked different. But the foxes were different too. It was like they knew what was going to happen to me. They taught me many things. If I was lost in the woods, I know what to eat. Or when it came down to it, I knew how to steal from other animals. I was stealthy. I didn’t make one sound in the woods. The she-fox who had found me in the woods when I was a baby handed me this pendulant. I looked at her confused when there were yelps coming from our home. We came in time to see the men in big black suits. I clasped the necklace around me. They turned to look at me.
“Hey Fox Girl,” one of the guys said. I cocked my head curiously.
“Raised by animals. Should be a fighter,” said another. One of them held a silver glinting sharp object. My instincts told me to run and never come back. But then they held the she-fox, practically my mother, and slit her neck. I knew she was dead. I looked at them angry. And for the first time, gave a scream. I ran towards the men and immediately wrestled that sharp object out of one of the men. I located where the hearts were in these animals in 2 milliseconds. Then I jabbed the sharp object into one of the men’s chest, piercing his heart. He made a grunting noise and crimson blood started pouring out. Then I twisted his head, breaking his neck, making a swift death for him. A guy was getting some black heavy thing into his hands. I knew it was danger for me if he pressed the trigger. I threw the sharp object and pinned his sleeve to a tree. I bared my teeth at him as he looked at me with a mixture of fear and amusement. Then I felt a sharp prick in my leg. I look down and there was this sharp thing in it. My sight started to blur. I was getting dizzy. Suddenly the ground was in my face. And I blacked out.


CHAPTER 2

I woke up confined in a white room with a small bed. There was also some glass thing that when I looked into it I saw some person that moved with me. My reflection, I immediately thought. Under the mirror was a table with a prickly thing and a wooden handle. A brush, I thought. How I knew what these things were, I didn’t know. I ran the brush through my auburn hair. It made my hair abnormally softer. It also glistened in this artificial light. My hair was the color of my mother fox’s fur. Something wet started going down my cheek. I wiped it and looked at it in awe. A lady came in wearing white. I got down in pouncing position. She ignored it and proceeded to sit down in a spare chair.
“It’s called crying. You’re crying for your mother. Who is actually not your mother,” she said.
“I know that,” I said in a crystal clear voice. She was surprised that I could speak her language. Humans, I thought rolling my eyes.
“You can speak,” she said. Then she wrote something down.
“The leader of our little group taught me,” I said. I sat down the way she was sitting on the bed. One of my legs was crossed over the other. It felt abnormal and unnatural. Then something occurred to me.
“Is he still alive? Are they all still alive?” I asked warily knowing how well that man killed my mother without hesitating. Well, thank God he’s dead. The lady smirked.
“Weird that you care about them so much,” she said. I just looked at her.
“It’s weird to care about your family in this place?” I asked.
“Every man for himself,” she replied. I looked at her curiously.
“So you guys don’t care for each other?” I asked.
“It doesn’t exist here. Caring for each other. You’ll get used to it,” she said.
“Don’t you get lonely?” I ask. I could tell by her eyes that she did.
“Anyway, you’re in a place where us Fighters live,” she said ignoring my question. I took note of this.
“What are the Fighters?” I ask.
“What’s left of the US Army,” she said.
“US?” I ask.
“What we used to be called. But society fell. And now, we find kids like you,” she said.
”I don’t understand,” I said.
“’Course you don’t. Listen kid. This world is part of a bitter long war. If you want to live, you must fight and kill. That’s why there’s no room for caring for others. These are the Last Wars,” she said softly, like she didn’t want anyone to hear her.
I shook my head. She grabbed my shoulder and I yanked it off.
“Good. You’re good. You’ll survive,” she said.
“I don’t understand,” I said.
“And you never will,” she said.
“Training in an hour,” she called out before she locked me into my confinement area again.
“Training?” I whispered. I looked at myself in the mirror again. My auburn hair was wavy and went down to my waist. It used to be longer but it got tangled into a bush and Mother Fox had to bite off my hair like 50 billion times ‘til I was free. But I felt my hair was cut into layers by these people… Fighters, the lady called them. Well, obviously not good ones if I could easily kill that one guy. My face was crystal white. My eyes were so blue they looked purple. Plus, they were really big. I had high cheekbones and my cheeks had a slight pinkish flush to it. My lips were full and pink. I lifted my lips to bare my teeth. They were ivory and strong by the looks of it. They were also were really straight. My canines were really sharp though. Then the lady came back. It had been an hour. She handed me this stretchy black material of a jumpsuit. I just looked at it.
“Put it on,” she ordered. Then she left. I slipped the outfit on. She also left me this stretchy band thing. I tied my long auburn hair up, knowing it was going to get in the way. I sat down on my bed as the lady walked in.
“What is your name by the way?” she asked.
“I’m not sure…” I said.
“What did your family call you?” she asked.
“That child,” I answered.
“Okay, then, we’ll see what your name will be after you do your training. Now this is one on one combat. He’s been here longer and has had more training, but we want you to fight him first. Just to see where your level stands,” she said handing me a helmet thing that goes over my face. She led me to a bigger room that looked like some obstacle course. Then she pressed a button and all the stuff disappeared. I put my helmet on and she handed me a knife.
“This will be your only weapon. But don’t kill him, okay?” she said. I nodded my head. What was this? I thought, I have to fight the dude but not kill him?
A pretty built up guy came in wearing the same outfit as me, and holding a knife.
He was also pretty thin so that means he was pretty swift and quick like me. I knew he was sizing me up as well.
“I’m fighting a girl?” he called out.
“What? Can’t take being beat by one?” I called out.
“Thought you were raised by foxes,” he said.
“I was,” I said.
“How can she talk?” he called out angry and confused.
“Brute,” I said.
“What did you call me?” He asked.
“Nothing. Let’s just get this show on the road, shall we?” I asked.
“This will be a piece of cake, darling,” he said. By his tone of voice I knew he was mocking me.
“We’ll see,” I said shrugging, getting down to a pouncing stance, holding out my knife. He didn’t really imitate me but he had a fighter stance. Then a voice yelled out “Go!” from above. He ran towards me. I was right he was quick. I sidestepped him and he couldn’t stop in time but he swung his knife and cut my arm. I looked at it. He cut me, I thought in shock. Then I dodged his other jab at me. I ran as fast as I could. I can’t kill him so what the heck am I supposed to do?? I thought angrily. He threw his knife at me. I moved just a centimeter away, and it hardly missed my neck. Jesus! I thought. I yanked it out of the wall before he could grab it. Now I had two knives. He tried not to show any fear but his eyes were trying to figure out what he could do now before getting chopped up like liver. He was close to the wall. So, I threw one of my knives and pinned him against the wall. Then I threw the other one, which pinned him on the other side of him. A bell rang.
“What?” He cried out. “REMATCH!” he yelled. I’m guessing I won and he didn’t like that very much. They handed us knives again. I traced the tip of my knife.
“I told you I would win,” I said. I could feel him glaring at me. Then a voice yelled, “Go!” and we both lunged for each other’s throats. He pinned me to the ground and I kneed him. He rolled off of me, groaning. I got on top of him and then he pushed me off. I got up quickly before he could get on top of me again, my knife ready. Then he ran after me again. He knocked my knife out of my hands. It slid across the floor, a good five feet away from me. Damn. Maybe I can run for it. He grabbed my wrist and I punched him in the jaw, knocking his helmet off. He rubbed his jaw and stared at me curiously with bright blue eyes. I stared back at him. He was really handsome. I shook the thought out of my head and kicked his knife out of his hands and caught it, the blade cutting my hand. I turned it around so I was holding the handle of it. I just made a cut on his hand so he would let go. He did. He made a dive for my knife. But I got onto his back and straddled him. I held the knife to his neck. But then he swung around, my knife cutting his neck. And then he used his knife to conveniently tilt my helmet off and then put his knife to my neck, he looked smug until he looked down and noticed that my knife was at his upper abdomen. My helmet fully came off and his eyes showed how shocked he was. A bell rang. A man came in clapping. We still stared each other down.
“Good show, good show. Now, now, no need for hostility towards each other. It’s a tie. You both won,” he said looking at us. But I still stared into his bright blue eyes and he stared into mine. Neither of us moving.
“Let’s care for those wounds. Especially for you, Nick. That’s a pretty big gash in your neck,” he said tugging on Nick’s wrist. Nick didn’t move for a little while and then he flashed me a smile.
“You’re really a tough opponent,” he said smiling. I nodded and then he walked away with the man. The lady came in.
“So, I have been assigned to be your mentor. My name is Jane,” she said smiling. I nodded again, even though my mind was going mentor?? Why the heck do I need a mentor? But I just nodded and didn’t ask questions. She rubbed her stomach.
“God, I’m hungry. Aren’t you? You can meet the others in the cafeteria,” she said. I mouthed ‘Cafeteria?’ to myself when she turned her back. We walked out of the training center and down the hallway. We passed a lot of doors that had people’s names and sometimes crudely drawn pictures that I guess were supposed to make people happy. Finally, we got to a big room that you could see into the inside because the wall facing us was made completely out of glass. There were a lot of kids there. Some animatedly telling a story.
“Now, what shall we call you?” asked Jane.
“Why do you need to call me anything?” I asked. We were just standing outside of the Cafeteria.
“Well, the kids will want to know what you’re name is…” she explained. I just stared at her.
“In other words, you need a name besides ‘New Girl’ because you won’t be the ‘new girl’ forever,” Jane said.
“Uh…” I said. I couldn’t think of any names.
“I know, how about Isis? From that Egyptian Goddess back in the day. Ancient, ANCIENT times,” Jane said.
“Isis?” I asked. I didn’t think it suited me. I shook my head slowly.
“Okay, hmm, how about…well, you’re sort of small. And for some reason, there is something very musical about you… How about Viola?” she asked. I thought about it. Viola. It ringed all right I suppose.
“No? Okay, um, Blaze? Fawn? Bliss? Valarie? Valora? Zanita? Annika? Ida? Irina? Silvestre? Fayre? Bambi? C’mon SOME of these I’m throwing out have to fit you,” said Jane getting exasperated. I thought about the names she just threw out there.
“Annika. I like the name Annika,” I said.
“Thank GOD,” she cried out. Then she pushed me into the cafeteria.
“Ta-ta!” she called out. I walked into the crowded cafeteria full of kids who probably know how to fight way better than I. Then a girl came bouncing up to me. She was young with big brown eyes. She was tugging another girl, by the arm, which looked exactly like her and seemed to be the same age.
“Hi! I’m Bambi!” she called out looking up at me with big brown eyes.
“And she’s Fawn!” she said pointing to her identical twin sister. I bent down to see them.
“Hi, I’m Annika,” I said smiling. Bambi beamed and then grabbed my wrist. She dragged me to a table with some other girls.
“Whose this Bambi?” asked a tall girl who had scars all over her face, that formed sort of like a design. She said it sort of territorial. Hmmm, raised by wolves? I thought. That would explain her scars.
“This is Annika. She’s new,” she said stage whispering the last part. I gave a half-heartedly wave.
“Well, why doesn’t she just sit down then?” asked a petite girl with white blond hair and dainty everything. The scar girl glared at her. The petite girl just kept eating her lunch, quietly. A girl with wavy caramel colored hair looked up at me.
“I don’t see why she can’t sit with us,” she said.
“Well, did she already do training?” asked another girl who was really pretty.
“I don’t know! Ask her! She’s right there!” called out the scar girl grumpily.
“Yeah. I did already do training,” I said. Then another girl came to the table. She had jet-black curly hair and snow-white skin. She had big brown eyes but smaller than Fawn’s and Bambi’s.
“Guess what guys! So, I saw Nick in the waiting whatever nurse thingy doctor room and he had like a gash in his neck! Who could’ve beaten Nick? That kid is FAST,” she gushed. Then the really pretty girl looked at me curiously.
“You did it, didn’t you?” she asked. I felt my face growing hot.
“Um, well, yeah. I wasn’t allowed to kill him…I didn’t know what else to do…Plus, it was an accident! He turned around to get me off his back when I had my knife to his neck. Technically, it’s his fault for being stupid and trying not to lose his pride,” I said sort of angrily. The petite girl looked amused. The scarred girl just looked at me. So did everyone else at the table. Then the scar girl started to nod.
“Yeah, you can sit here,” she said. Like I had just proved my worthiness or something. So I did.
“Fawn? Bambi? Think you could get something for…?” said the girl with snow-white skin.
“Annika,” I said.
“Annika,” said the girl but Bambi and Fawn were already bounding for the food. The scarred girl hit a hand to her chest and bowed her head then lifted it.
“My name is Valora. It means Bravery. My den mother gave it to me,” then she made a barking/growling noise.
“That’s what it actually is though. Translated to this language, it’s Valora,” she said smiling. I smiled back and did some yipping/barking.
“Ah, a fox girl over here,” she said smiling.
“Do you know how to speak it?” I asked.
“I know the important things. Like ‘Don’t steal our food’ and ‘Get out of my territory’. You know, stuff like that,” Valora said. The really pretty girl tapped my shoulder as Bambi handed me a tray of food.
“My name is Venus,” she said giving me a whole-heartedly smile. The petite girl smiled but not before taking a cookie off of my tray.
“My name’s Fayre. Like a fairy? Those mythical flying things?” she asked. I shook my head. I didn’t know what a fairy was.
“Oh,” she said nibbling on my cookie.
“She was raised by flying animals,” said Valora rolling her eyes.
“They’re not flying animals! They’re birds! And not any normal kind of bird, a hawk,” said Fayre.
“Oooo a HAWK! I’m so SCARED! Save me,” said Valora sarcastically trying to open a bag of something. Fayre looked like she was going to go flying into Valora on purpose, but the girl with snow-white skin put her arm across her chest, holding Fayre back.
“I’m Snow White. Like that really old fairytale character,” she said smiling. Fairytale character? I asked myself. But I nodded anyway.
“I’m Ida,” said the girl with wavy caramel colored hair. She smiled warmly at me. I returned the smile.
“We are the elite group in this place,” said Valora.
“That’s just you, Val,” said Venus.
“Oh don’t be modest, Venus,” said Valora teasingly. Fawn crawled up into my lap and looked up at me.
“You all look like you’re my age. But these two, they’re so little,” I said looking down at Fawn. Bambi crossed her arms while sitting in Snow White’s lap.
“We are NOT small,” she argued.
“They’re small but deadly,” said Ida stroking Bambi’s hair.
“How so?” I asked. They didn’t look deadly. But then again Foxita ate that butterfly that was really pretty and cute. Now look at her, she’s dead.
“Fawn and Bambi were found alone with no family. Adopted or otherwise, which is why they were picked up so early. They let them train together against a bigger opponent. But they look so much alike that if you’re focusing on one then the other can come up behind and knock you out easily. Usually you focus on Bambi ‘cause she’ll just talk and talk. Fawn is the one you’ll have to watch out for,” said Venus. Fawn looked up and smiled innocently at me.
“How in the world do they have the strength to knock you out?” I asked.
“Depends on what weapon they get. Sometimes, when they feel like it, they’ll create a crazy design on you. It’s like coloring with knives. If they get darts, well, I suggest ducking and jumping. Plus, because they’re little and cute, they’re opponent doesn’t have the will to cause any harm to them. Now, swords are too heavy for them to carry, so don’t expect to use that. If it’s just your body and no weapons, they know where every pressure point in your body is. They work together to win, no matter who you are. No one knows where they developed these skills, but they have them, and they’re most likely your most dangerous opponents. Hence why they’re on our elite team,” finished Venus. I shuddered. Little girls knowing how to kill, how sickening.
“Why are the rest of you on this elite team?” I asked.
“Does she even need to ask?” asked Valora to Venus. I guessed Venus was the leader of this pack. Venus or Valora. One of those two. Venus laughed.
“Well, I’m very good with poison,” she said very slyly.
“Poison?” I asked. She laughed.
“I always win. Especially if it’s against a guy. I don’t have to do much. Sometimes my weapon is lipstick. I just have to rub it onto my lips and then kiss him. He’s instantaneously knocked out,” Venus said.
“How is lipstick a weapon?” I asked. Venus shrugs.
“It’s a special type of lipstick, made especially for my use. I don’t know how it does what it does…” she said.
“That’s why you’re part of this group?” I asked wondering if this was a wannabe elite group.
“Unimpressed?” she asked.
“Sorta, kinda,” I said.
“I’m a good kicker, too. I’m really strong and very flexible,” she said.
“Fight her, you’ll probably lose,” said Valora nodding.
“She’s really smart and can figure out what you’re going to do before you do it,” said Ida.
“Now, Valora,” started Venus.
“I come from a wolf pack. I rely on my strength and that usually does it. Plus, my teeth are a pretty good built in weapon,” she said lifting up her lip to show me her canines. They looked fairly sharp. They could probably rip off flesh if she wanted them to.
“Yeah, that’s pretty much it,” said Valora nodding her head.
“I fly,” said Fayre taking something of Venus’s lunch without her knowing. God, that girl has to be at least partially raised by foxes, I thought to myself watching her keep stealing things from people.
“Fayre, explain a bit more,” said Venus exasperatedly.
“I’m a really good jumper, and it looks like I fly,” said Fayre.
“So if she’s in front of you, she can jump over you and then suddenly be behind you,” said Ida. I looked at Fayre’s sparkling green-gold eyes. I didn’t doubt that she was just as deadly as the twins. She smiled. Raised by hawks…got to watch out for her, I thought. Even though Valora scoffed about it early, hawks had very good eyesight and they were a sort of predator. I tried to swallow this meat thing, but I was really scared of this small petite girl.
“Ida?” asked Venus.
“I’m very good with a bow and arrow,” she said smiling. Great, stupid archers, I thought to myself. They’re better than knife throwers sometimes.
“That’s all you’re gonna say?” asked Valora.
“Pretty much,” nodded Ida.
“Snow?” asked Venus. Snow looked up.
“What?” she asked. Venus shook her head and sighed.
“Why are you part of us?” she asked. Snow White smiled.
“Why else?” she asked.
“WE know why but little miss Annika here doesn’t,” said Valora.
“Hmm, do I have to tell her?” she asked.
“YES,” said Ida.
“Do it! Do it!” called out Bambi, banging her little fists on the table. Fawn imitated the movement but didn’t say anything.
“Fine, I’ll tell her,” said Venus rolling her eyes.
“What?” I asked confused.
“She has this touch. We’re not quite sure how she’d possibly be able to get it. Maybe that old myth about toxic waste is right, but when she touches you in a certain way then you fall over in pain. You’re not physically hurt but you have this serious pain. It could be anywhere too. You may feel like every limb in your body is being ripped off, when in reality it’s not. It’s a complicated gift. And no one knows how she’d possibly be able to have it. A family of humans raised her; all had an unnatural gift. We’re thinking that maybe they lived near radiation or actual toxic waste. We’re not sure. Even the Fighters Control isn’t sure. All anyone knows is that she’s most definitely a threat,” said Venus.
“But you all said this boy, Nick, has never been beaten,” I said slowly.
“Mhmm, never. He’s really good at dodging and escaping. Which is needed in all of our skills, especially mine and Snow’s,” said Venus.
“He’s extraordinarily strong too,” said Valora.
“And absolutely scrumptious,” said Fayre absentmindedly.
“Fayre! You know we’re not supposed to think any man is…scrumptious…” said Ida slightly turning red.
“Oh, you know we’re all thinking it,” said Fayre.
“Scrumptious?” I asked, “Doesn’t that mean delicious? Like as in…food?” Venus laughed.
“Could also be used to say that a guy is extremely handsome,” she explained. I mouthed ‘oh’. I looked over, across the cafeteria and caught Nick staring back at me. He quickly looked away.
“We’re not allowed to speak about boys in that way though. Because love doesn’t exist, no matter how many times SOME people read those old love stories,” said Ida teasingly. Fayre stuck her tongue out at her.
“Those are really good books. Whether they’re extremely old or not, they’re superb,” said Fayre, defensively.
“Books?” I asked.
“Shh!” said Venus putting a finger to her lips. Then she leaned over to whisper in my ear.
“Books are what the ancient people did to bide their time. We all learned how to read illegally. Books were banned, mostly because there’s not much of them and because they teach wrongful things. For example, love. Or trusting people. Or caring. They don’t condone those things. So, in return, they don’t condone books. So, Fayre hides them. I taught them all how to read,” whispered Venus.
“How?” I asked.
“My adopted family knew somehow…so they taught me. And they told me to teach other people,” said Venus shrugging.
“Teach me,” I begged. She laughed.
“I will, I promise,” she said holding up her pinky. I stared at it. Then I lifted mine next to hers and she curled hers around mine.
“Pinky promise,” she confirmed. Then a bell rang indicating lunch was over.
“Nice meeting you!” called out Valora.
“Great to have someone like you in the Elite group,” said Venus.
“I’m in your group?” I asked.
“Well, duh, why wouldn’t you be?” she asked. I shrugged. My mentor, Jane, was waving her arms maniacally.
“Um, I have to go,” I said looking at my mentor like she’s crazy. Venus and everybody waved goodbye. Before I got to Jane, someone yanked my upper arm and turned me around. It was Nick. I was staring into beautiful blue eyes. I blinked in surprise. He flashed a slight smile. Then I yanked my arm out of his grip and then rubbed it.
“Caught ya,” he whispered. Then he walked away. Then I realized he took my pendulant. I ran after him and then tackled him.
“Give it back,” I hissed. He dangled the pendulant in my face.
“You mean this?” he asked teasingly. I tried to grab it and then he rolled out from under me. Then I grabbed the pendulant and wrapped the chain around my neck.
“Let. Go,” I hissed. He fingered the pendulant and then let go.
“Interesting design there,” he murmured.
“I don’t know what it means and I honestly don’t care,” I said.
“Hmm, a bit ignorant are we?” he asked looking at me curiously. I just glared.
“I’m Nick,” he said pointing to himself.
“I know,” I said. He stared at me with his mysterious blue eyes. I couldn’t read what his thoughts were.
“Well, I don’t know yours, I’m sorry,” he said.
“Annika,” I said.
“Annika,” he said, like he was trying it out on his tongue. I nodded my head. He smirked.
“That means beautiful in Arabian,” he whispered when Jane came up. He patted my head and then walked away. What. Just. Happened???? I asked myself. Did he just say I was beautiful? But there was supposed to be no love connection to anyone what so ever. Maybe its just attraction… Then I thought the most deadliest thought…the most regretted thought I ever had…and that thought was: I hope not…
“What just happened with you and Nick?” asked Jane.
“Nothing,” I simply said but a little too quickly as I put the necklace back on my neck. She watched as I put it back on.
“Ah. He stole your necklace,” she mused. But I could tell by her eyes that she knew it was much more deeper than that… I couldn’t tell if she approved or that she knew I was going to distinguish this flame as soon as possible.


CHAPTER 3

I just love it when our mentor people thingies give us “recess”. It was snowing and I couldn’t help but cry. I haven’t mourned my dead family that I knew were dead. And I figured that now was a good a time as any. Except after just mourning over the leader of our pack of foxes, I realized that people like to train during this time, only more playfully. I figured this out after Fawn practically paralyzed me for a few minutes. Bambi was just giggling and pointing at me. Fawn just smiled, a bit hardly though, like she was expecting me to retaliate. Instead I just smiled back at her, when I was able to actually move. Fayre cartwheeled towards me. Then she jumped like 10 feet into the air and landed on my shoulders, lightly, but I was startled and fell to the ground.
“Hmm, some elite member you are,” she murmured under her breath.
“I’m better with weapons,” I snapped back. She rolled her eyes and proceeded to smirk at me. Oh, I was going to get her whenever I got to train against her, I thought angrily. Venus stepped up; against the snowy background she was dazzling. I immediately thought if Nick thought she was extremely beautiful…. Then I shook the thought out of my head. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. I had hardly talked to him once. The only connection we had was that I beat him and he was probably impressed and angry about it. This was just a trick, I was sure. He probably did this to ALL the new girls who beat him… Oh, wait… I’m the only girl who’s beaten him. I smiled smugly as I thought this. Valora bounded up to us all chewing on some bone of hers so vigorously you would think that she thought someone was going to take it from her in a second.
“HEY VALORA! DUCK!” yelled Bambi as she hurled her twin sister into Valora. Valora looked up too late. Fawn outstretched her claws (that I didn’t know she had) and dug them into Valora’s thigh. It hit her thigh instead of the designated place of the chest because Valora might’ve looked up too late but she moves very quickly. So she had stood up and was going to run when Fawn dug her little claws into Valora. Blood started to pour out of the little wound and Valora looked enraged with anger. She yanked Fawn off of her and threw her. Snow White, coming just in time, caught the dazed yet smug Fawn and set her down gently. No one wanted to kill off one of the twins, that would just be devastating, whether Valora knew it or not at the moment. Valora started to run towards Fawn and Bambi but they both danced around her. Valora, getting confused, mostly because she was so angry and because it seemed like she was seeing doubles, just grabbed at the air. Fawn and Bambi giggled, from different sides of Valora, sounding identical, making sure Valora thought it was coming from everywhere around her. They were also dressed the same, their long wavy hair was pulled off their faces with identical navy blue headbands. Matching puffy winter coats covered both their torsos and underneath that they were both wearing navy blue dresses. They were giggling and running their long nails against Valora’s leg, the only place they could get to. They practically shredded her jeans and then started to cut up her legs. Valora screamed in agony. So, this was why the little twins were part of this elite group…they happily killed. I went to go help Valora but suddenly someone was holding me back. I struggled but this person was stronger than me. I gathered that he was a male. I looked up angry and frustrated. It was Nick. Then I just felt shock. Why was he holding me back when I could save my friend who was being slowly cut into pieces by monster twins? He shook his head no. Then he leaned in close to my ear.
“Don’t get into the middle of that. You’ll just die with her, trust me, it gets confusing with those two,” he said. But I couldn’t just stand there and watch. Snow White was sort of turning her head away from the thing. Venus looked like she was being tormented along with Valora, conflicted about whether she should go in and save her best friend or not. I saw Fawn pick up a piece of glass. I didn’t know where she got it, but I looked at it terrified, as Fawn was about to throw the glass into Valora’s chest. I struggled to take the knife out of my back pocket and in a second, the knife made contact with the piece of glass, knocking it away from Valora. Nick just looked at me with a mixture of anger and annoyance.
“What. Did. You. Just. Do??” he hissed in my ear. Suddenly, I noticed that Valora’s screams had died off. Bambi had finished the deed but now Fawn was looking at me curiously. She had a slight smile on her face. No, I thought. I was now her target.


CHAPTER 4

The only sounds I heard was my heart beat. I was aware that Venus was crying over Valora’s dead body; that Fayre was sort of standing there, white in the face and that Snow White was trying to wrestle the sharp stick from Bambi. But considering that Snow White seemed like a mother to both Bambi and Fawn, Snow got the stick and threw it as far away as possible.
Fawn stared at me and kept doing it. I have only been terrified one other time in my life, and that was when I was about three dozen moons old, or in other words, three years old. We had encountered saber tooth tigers. My leader said that he thought that they had died out earlier on, went extinct, but they were back, and he didn’t know how or why. But they had really long canine teeth that stuck out of their mouths. They looked at us all like we were something to eat, but especially me. One lunged for me, and I didn’t know what to do but a fox sacrificed their life for me. She was the same age as I. She died quickly. Soon enough everyone was fighting. But the same saber tooth tiger still stared at me, with hungry yellow eyes. I remember being frightened…and then I realized I was as terrified as I was that day when we encountered the tigers. Fawn was staring at me in the same way.
I looked up at Nick and he kept his eyes on Fawn, slowly moving his body in front of me in a protective stance.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Shh,” he simply said putting a finger to his lips. I wasn’t going to let another animal sacrifice their selves for me. I moved his arm away from me as Fawn picked up the glass that my knife knocked away. Then she dropped the glass and picked up my knife. Oh, God, I thought. She looked at me with big brown eyes, eyes that you’d normally couldn’t help but trust. But she and her twin focused on killing Valora, and now she was dead. Fawn seemed to be very focused on killing me. I knew that Nick wasn’t going to be able to stop her unless he broke her neck, crushing her windpipe, and killing her quickly. He looked at me confused and angry as I pushed him away. I wasn’t about to let Fawn kill off someone that I cared about….
Great.
I just thought that I cared about Nick.
I’m insane.
Do I WANT to be helpless because I’m in love?
No.
So, that never happened in my mind.
…. But it did… I groaned inwardly. Fawn threw the knife when a dart sunk into her arm. She looked at it, and then fell to the ground, unconscious. I stepped to the side to avoid the dagger, about to push Nick away and then I realized that he had already sidestepped the dagger. I smiled at him and he slowly returned it. Then I felt a prick in my arm and saw a dart go into Nick. We both fell to the ground, blackness taking over.

CHAPTER 5

I woke up in my confinement room thingy. It was so cold and lonely there. Then I remembered, Valora! I banged on the walls of my confinement center. I needed to see Valora. She had to have lived through that. She had to! I cried out and then sunk to the floor in defeat. Tears started to flow fast down my cheeks. I had lost a friend. One of the first ones, who knew that you should be wary of new comers. If only I had seen Bambi with that stick. I just only focused on Fawn. I cried harder. It’s my entire fault. If only. If only. Then I wiped the salty tears off of my face. I am supposed to be strong. Crying shows weakness. And I’m not weak. I got up and I shouted at the top of my lungs, “YOU DIDN’T COME SAVE VALORA! YOU COULD’VE! I KNOW YOU SAW THE WHOLE THING, BUT YOU DIDN’T! AND YOU’RE GOING TO PAY!” I knew they saw me yell out like this. I just faced the ceiling, a look of determination on my face. Jane didn’t let me out for two whole days. I counted the seconds, the minutes, the hours, and I waited for someone to let me out of this room. But I wasn’t going to give in by going insane or anything. Then suddenly on the third night, my door opened.
“What? I get to come out now?” I asked sarcastically. Then someone said sharply, “SHH!” I looked up with big eyes. What’s going on? There was a silhouette of a person standing at my door. I walked up slowly looking at it. Were they going to kill me? I thought, a moment of fear creeping through my body. Then I saw it flash a smile. The moonlight caught a pale strand of hair. Bright green eyes winked at me. It was Fayre!
“Fayre!” I whispered, joy filling me. Then Venus pulled me out of the room and closed the door almost silently.
“You know how to walk the forest floor silently, right?” she whispered. I nodded my head.
“Good, ‘cause you’re going to have to know that to survive,” Venus whispered. I nodded my head again. This was serious. I think we were breaking out. Odd, I had only been here for a week. Now, I was leaving this God forsaken place. Then I saw Snow White carrying Bambi and Ida carrying Fawn. I bared my teeth and a growl escaped my lips. Venus looked over at them and then Fayre and her had me down.
“Don’t,” Venus ordered. I looked up at her, betrayal clear on my face. She sighed.
“They did something to their brains. They put some chip in it. To make them lethal weapons, to make them think that killing is fun. Zanita knew how to keep the chips in their heads neutral. Some kind of leaf that they have to eat. And now they’re perfectly pleasant. They cried for days when they found out that they killed Valora,” said Venus trying to hide her choking voice. I frowned.
“Whose Zanita?” I asked. Then a girl with bright scarlet red hair and copper eyes grinned at me.
“Hi,” she said. I glared.
“Zanita means long teeth,” I murmured. Zanita nodded.
“I know. I was given this name when I was younger. Apparently I liked to bite things,” she said then she rolled her eyes. Huh, she grew up with humans, figures, I thought.
“Oh so you were raised by humans huh,” I said making it sound like an insult. Zanita shook her head slowly.
“No…I was raised by saber tooth tigers,” she said. I stared at her like a doe being hunted. Saber tooth tigers? A chill went down my spine. She stared at me curiously. Probably wondering why I was so frozen. I think everyone was wondering that. I slowly went out of it and then smiled back.
“Great,” was all I said.
“Yeah, well, I’m apparently better with technology than biting things…. Although I’m very good at that,” she said flashing me a smile. I made a mental note to stay away from those teeth.
“Anyway, let’s get out of here,” hissed Fayre getting impatient. We ran down the corridor and then Fayre ran into someone.
“Daniel! What are you doing?” she whisper-yelled. I saw the guy shrug.
“We saw you guys leaving, thought we would too,” he said. We? I asked. Then I saw the rest of the guys. There were six in total but each looked extremely strong. I saw Nick’s sparkling blue eyes and felt myself blush. Thank God it was dark.
“We’re not just leaving for fun like last time, Daniel,” Fayre said. I could hear the impatience and anger seeping from her voice.
“I didn’t think you were,” he grinned.
“After we saw Valora die, we knew you guys would at least try to break out. But we know the area better than you six so…” said another guy. He was sort of small, taller than me though, but smaller compared to the rest. I saw that he was one of those guys who always have a sarcastic grin on his face. He had dark eyes and jet-black hair. I could see he had a darker complexion than the rest of us. So, he saw Valora die, too. And didn’t do anything to stop it. I glared at him. All of them. He stared back at me. His dark eyes mirroring black holes. Venus stepped up to talk to them.
“Well, you guys do know the area better than us, but don’t think you need to protect us,” said Venus.
“Not for a second,” smiled Daniel. So, with no time to lose, we found a way out. Apparently there was some trap door that led to the roof. When we were on the roof, Fayre threw a rock off it. It came flying back at us.
“Figures,” murmured Fayre. Force fields, I thought not knowing what the word meant.
“They must have the security up,” whispered the small dark boy. In the moonlight I could see he had freckles sprinkled across his cheeks and nose. He was tan and good-looking of course but there was something off about him that I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Zanita stared across the roof at what was presumably the force field really hard. Then she panned her eyes across the force field and fixed her eyes at a single point.
“That,” she said pointing at a small round nail.
“What about it?” asked Nick looking at what she was pointing at.
“That’s where the force field is coming up from. Smash that, and we’re home free,” she said. Huh, I could tell why she would think that. She had to have been looking very carefully at it to know. I panned my eyes across the force field, following the almost invisible patterns, and it all lead to that nail in the roof. Nick watched me. I nodded my head at him.
“She’s right,” I whispered. Venus stared at the both of us, a look of confusion on her face.
“How?” she asked. I pointed at the force field.
“There are little patterns on it that when the moonlight hits it, you can see, and all the patterns lead to the nail in the roof,” I said.
“I don’t see them,” she said staring really hard at it. Fayre nodded.
“I see,” she said following the patterns to the nail in the roof.
“I don’t,” said Snow White and Ida. Bambi had fallen asleep in Snow White’s arms but Fawn was staring at us with wide brown eyes.
“Hmm… Seems like only the people who were raised by animals can see it,” mused Daniel. Seemed like none of the guys could see it either though. Odd, I thought.
“So, let’s smash the nail in the roof,” one of the guys said not seeing the problem.
“It might have some alarm on it,” I said getting a closer look on it.
“If it does, we’ll just run really fast,” said another guy. I just looked at him. I heard someone say, “idiot,” under his or her breath.
“Not with Ida and Snow carrying the twins we can’t,” I pointed out. Venus nodded.
“We have to do this carefully and silently. No one can wake up and catch us. Once they do, we’re dead for sure,” said Venus. Zanita looked at the nail and pressed on it. All of a sudden a hologram of a women came up.
“Hello. Do you want to shut down the force field?” she asked. Zanita just stared at it scared. I moved her and stood in front of the hologram.
“Yes,” I said.
“And what authority do you have?” she asked.
“I am Jane, a mentor,” I said.
“Who told you to shut down the force field?” she asked.
“Johnny…” I said slowly.
“What is the pass code?” she asked, not missing a beat. That’s when Zanita took over.
“513J890A1245N781E,” said Zanita.
“Force field disabled,” said the hologram. And then she and the force field went away.
“How did you know the pass code?” I asked.
“You said you were Jane. I saw her name card on the back. That was her code for everything,” Zanita said. Nick nodded.
“I heard her say J-A-N-E with a mixture of numbers,” he said. Fayre tapped her foot.
“Are we just going to stand around talking about what just happened? Or can we save that for later?” she asked in an almost sarcastic tone.
“Let’s go,” I said rolling my eyes. Daniel took the twins and jumped off the building, doing somersaults and landing silently on his feet. Snow and Ida jumped off next, quickly taking the twins out of Daniel’s hands. Fayre sort of flew to a nearby tree, the small dark boy following after. Venus just jumped, and landed like a cat. The rest of the guys jumped down. Zanita waved good-bye at me and then fell off the building; she landed on her hands and then did a flip onto her feet, silently. Nick grabbed my hand and we jumped down together. I landed more silently than he, but we hardly made a sound. Venus looked at our linked hands with a mixture of awe and disapproval. I quickly let go of Nick’s hand. Caring for one another wasn’t permitted…but then I thought, didn’t we all care for Valora? Don’t we all care for each other? So, we were breaking the rules whether we knew it or not. That’s why they let Valora die… they wanted to teach us a lesson that when you care for someone, they’re going to die sometime in the near future. Then Fayre jumped down in front of me, startling me out of my thoughts.
“Let’s go,” she hissed. Then we ran into the woods and kept running until we couldn’t see the horrid building anymore.

CHAPTER 6

I don’t remember falling asleep, but here we were, all sleeping underneath a huge willow tree. Bambi and Fawn were both curled up next to Snow White. Ida was sitting up holding some notebook thing and a writing utensil. Fayre was sleeping up in the tree, same with the small dark boy. Nick looked dead, but I seeing the rise and fall of his chest told me otherwise. Daniel was sprawled across the grass. Venus was curled up next to him. Huh, I thought smugly. Zanita was sleeping like a cat. Once she heard a twig snap or the rustle of leaves, her head would snap up and then she’d go back to sleep. I would laugh at her but I probably was doing the same thing. The rest of the boys were everywhere. I woke up Zanita, knowing she’d be useful and pointed away from the willow tree. She carefully got up, prying herself from a guy who carelessly threw an arm over her while he was sleeping, and followed me.
“You’re good at hunting right?” I asked. She nodded.
“Well, let’s go get some breakfast, shall we?” I asked smiling slyly. She smiled back, thrilled to be hunting again. Finally we saw a deer. He was a huge buck. Zanita’s copper eyes looked at it hungrily. I figured she should take it down. I watched her as she came up to it. Then she pounced like a tigress and sunk her teeth into the buck’s neck. The buck tried to throw her off. Then she ripped, a chunk of the buck came off with her teeth. It was bleeding profusely. This was barbaric, I thought to myself trying to keep my stomach acid in my stomach. She took her hands and dug them into the buck’s chest, puncturing its heart. The buck looked at me, helpless, as I decided to kill him more quickly. I threw a crudely made spear square into its head. Finally, it was dead. Zanita glared at me after she saw my spear protruding from the buck’s forehead.
“It was already dying,” she said looking at me with blood dripping from her mouth and hands. She brushed her hair back with her hand, leaving a trail of blood on her face and now, in her hair.
“Not fast enough,” I said. We carried the buck back by its antlers, to the willow tree. I made sure to stop by a river and make Zanita wash herself down because honestly, I think she would be enough to frighten the twins. Everyone was up when we got there, and looked hungry too. Snow and Ida took over the buck, skinning it and then cooking it. Daniel and the boys took the buck’s antlers, shaping it into weapons. When the buck was cooked, we all ate it sitting around in a circle. Snow was putting Bambi’s hair into a complicated braid twist thing. Snow told me it was a French Braid. Who’s French, was all I could think. Bambi and Fawn were hungrily eating the buck like there was no tomorrow. Then Daniel looked at all of us and grinned.
“Hey, who’s Scarlet over there and Bright Eyes over here?” he asked nodding over at Zanita and then me.
“Zanita and Annika,” answered Venus.
“Annika? The girl who beat Nick to a pulp?” Daniel asked. Then he burst into hysterics. The other guys were laughing their heads off too while Nick looked like he wanted to stab someone.
“Yeah,” Fayre answered.
“Who are all of you?” I asked looking at all the guys.
“Well, you already know Nick,” said Daniel pointing over at him. The other guys started another round of laughter. Nick just glared at Daniel. Then Daniel pointed at himself.
“I’m Daniel,” he said giving me a sincere smile. Venus just rolled her eyes when Daniel winked at me. He pointed over at the small dark boy.
“That’s Terryn,” Daniel said. Terryn waved. Daniel pointed to a boy with gold eyes and light brown hair.
“That’s Aiden,” said Daniel. Aiden just nodded at me.
“That’s Cedric,” Daniel said. I looked over to see a boy with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes.
“And that’s Prince,” said Daniel practically rolling his eyes as I looked at Prince. Prince had blonde hair and gray-blue eyes. He was very handsome with a nice complexion. I noticed that Snow White couldn’t stop staring at him.
“Derived from Prince Charming,” said Prince. His voice was like melted butter. All of us were hanging on his every word. Well, all of us girls were.
“Ahem!” coughed Daniel looking angrily at Venus who was also mesmerized by Prince.
“He’s new,” said Terryn, pointedly looking at Prince. Prince shrugged and continued to eat his venison. When all of our bellies were big and round, Venus gulped down a large amount of water and then looked at everyone straight in the eye as she swallowed. I noticed she sort of took over Valora’s position of staring everyone down. My face started to feel hot, and my eyes were stinging as I tried to hold back a flood of tears.
“So, they’re going to notice that we’re gone and then start looking for us,” said Venus finally. We all nodded, knowing she voiced what everyone was thinking.
“Well, what are we going to do? Keep running?” asked Cedric, his dark eyebrows knitted in thought.
“Or we can fight back,” Daniel said leaning back onto the tree. All the boys voiced their agreement. The girls just stared at them like they were crazy.
“A war? Twelve to hundreds? Are you crazy?” asked Ida.
“Actually fourteen, including the little ones,” said Daniel.
“No,” said Venus declining Daniel’s suggestion. I’ve never seen that boy sad in the little time I’ve known him, but at the moment, he was pretty sad.
“So, what then?” asked Nick, pushing his red-blonde hair out of his eyes.
“If they try to hurt us in any way, we will defend ourselves and each other by fighting back. We can’t let this keep going on. Having our own kids taken away from us to be raised by wild animals for entertainment? No. I will not stand for it anymore,” said Daniel sounding determined, his face looking grim.
“What?” I voiced out my confusion. A lot of us looked confused like Prince, Zanita, Fayre, and I.
“Haven’t you ever wondered why your own parents left you? In the woods? By yourself? You could’ve died, and you don’t think they cared?” asked Daniel. Venus, Snow White, and Ida just sat in silence when I looked over at them. Zanita and Fayre looked at me in confusion as well.
“No…” I said slowly.
“What did your mentor tell you anyway?” asked Nick.
“Jane said that no one cares in this place. No one cares for one another. I assumed it was lonely, I could tell by her eyes,” I said. Nick shook his head.
“About your birth parents. The human ones,” he said pressing me for information. I thought hard. I shook my head slowly.
“It never came up. I’ve never thought about my human parents. All I know is that they gave me this,” I said pulling out my necklace and showing them the pendulant. Daniel’s eyes were wide with excitement.
“Let me see,” he said bounding over at me so quickly that I blinked and then he was in my face. He examined the pendulant, turning it over and over. He waved Aiden over. Aiden examined my pendulant. Nick sighed.
“I already looked at it. It’s the one,” he said. What? I thought completely and totally confused. Everyone looked at me in a mixture of awe and hope.
“What?” said Fayre, Zanita, and I. Prince just sat there observing everything that was going on. Daniel looked at Nick expectantly. Nick sighed again and turned to look at me. Once again, I was faced with having to stare into his beautiful blue eyes.
“When I was born, my parents didn’t set me in the wilderness like the others did. They kept me, hidden, for a long time. When I was four or five years old, the Fighters broke down the door of our house and killed my parents. They made me watch them die and a woman came up to me with dark crimson eyes and said, ‘this is what happens to those who resist. This is what happens to those who break the law.’ And then I was pulled into blackness for five whole years. Even though I couldn’t move, or see, I could hear everything they were saying. They were relieved I wasn’t ‘The One’ but apparently the resistance was getting stronger. Apparently, there isn’t only just wilderness there are cities, too. They make you think that our society has been broken down so much that there are only barbarians left. And that we have to fight them or something. But then the question is asked, how were we come to be? The mentors will just say that for survival your parents got together, had a baby, but since no one cared for anyone, they just left the baby in the woods. Now that didn’t make any sense to me. My mentor didn’t know that I had seen my parents die. That I lived with them for four to five years.
“But anyway, our society is booming. We have a huge population. But every other family has to give up their first child. They give them to the Center and the Center leaves them somewhere in the woods. The family never gets to see us again, except through television screens. We’re not entertainment per say, we are kids who fight each other. Who grew up in a supposedly messed up world. In other words, we are an experiment that the Center made up. The Center is evil. The Fighters are evil. Everyone in this truly messed up world is evil,” finished Nick, he clenched his jaw angrily. Fayre and I just looked at each other while Zanita had a far away look in her eyes.
“What does that have anything to do with me?” I asked.
“You are The One. You’re the one to bring this to an end. To start society over. You’re the one who’s supposedly going to kill thousands of people to save our society. To save our country. To make sure none of this will happen again. It’s you, Annika! The pendulant is proof,” said Aiden excitedly. I just stared at all of them in shock. ‘You’re the one. You’re the one who’s supposedly going to kill thousands of people…’ Thousands of people. Dead. Corpses everywhere. Dead like Valora. Dead like Nick’s parents. Dead. For what? For really nothing. I stared at them wide eyed. Then I turned to run.
“Annika! ANNIKA!” I heard Nick yell. This was all just a ploy for me to trust him. For me to help him. I HATED him. I continued to run and I could hear that someone had stopped Nick from chasing after me. Good. I don’t want anyone to chase after me. I kept running, even after I had lost my breath. I kept running when I got dizzy. I kept running after I had thrown up blood. And then, I couldn’t run anymore. I fell to the ground, tears staining my face. Brown dried up blood was stuck to my black jumpsuit. I shivered on the cold hard ground, remembering again that it was winter. How we survived last night was beyond me. And then I remembered everything there was green. Huh, how odd, I thought as snow crystals began to fall. Pretty, I thought smiling. I closed my eyes and then all I could see was darkness.

CHAPTER 7

I was under the willow tree again, where everything was green and lush, but everyone was gone. Then I saw Valora, dressed in white, her brown hair flowing out behind her. I looked at her happy and confused.
“Valora!” I cried out. I got up to run to her but she looked worried.
“Annika, you must listen to me. It’s the middle of winter. Why is everything so warm and green?” she asked. I shrugged; my mind was muddy. I couldn’t think right. I shook my head.
“I don’t know Valora,” I said slowly. She shook her head, fear showing in her eyes, something that I had only seen when she was dying.
“Yes, you DO Annika. You DO know. Because you are the One and I think the Fighters know it now. They might have seen your pendulant. And now that you have escaped, everyone with you is in danger. WHY IS IT GREEN IN THE MIDDLE OF WINTER?!!” she yelled at me. I shook my head trying to think as I was coming out of my sleep. I sat up straight, a light layer of snow covering me. Then I knew.
“It’s a trap,” I whispered. I got up quickly and started to run back the way I came. I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. Everyone I knew would be dead if I did. I felt dizzy and nauseous when I got there. It was warm and green just like in my dream. But also like in my dream, no one was to be seen. Then I saw Ida’s body in the middle of the field. Her eyes were open, staring at me. Staring into horror. Her mouth was open like she was going to scream. But she wasn’t going to scream. She was too pale to be alive. I slowly walked over to her dead body. I fell to my knees and then grabbed her pale hand. Tears started to roll down my face. Sweet Ida was dead. But where were the others. I looked up. Nick, I thought frightened. Where was he? I had obviously come too late, but… That’s when I noticed something cold being held to my temple. I put my hands up and slowly turned around. It was Fayre, but she looked crazed, insane. Something about her eyes told me that she didn’t recognize me.
“Fayre!” I cried out in joy. She looked at me confused. Her face hardening and relaxing. That’s when Terryn stepped out of the shadows. He slowly pried Fayre’s fingers off of the gun and took it away from her.
“It’s Annika, Fayre. It’s Annika,” he whispered. Then Fayre fell to the ground, crying hysterically.
“What happened to her?” I whispered. How long have I been gone? I asked myself, not daring to ask. Venus stepped out with Daniel, still looking as gorgeous as ever.
“They came, they killed, they captured. Could turn anyone a little insane. Especially someone who’s never seen real violence,” said Venus looking at Fayre. Terryn had his arms around her and rocked her like she was a baby. She just cried into his shirt.
“In case you didn’t know, she and Ida were very close. Actually she, Snow, AND Ida were all very close. Snow has been captured and Ida is dead. There’s a very good possibility that they’re never going to see each other again. It’s like losing a sister of yours,” said Venus harshly.
“Where’s Nick?” I asked ignoring her glare. Venus looked away at that time. She didn’t answer.
“Daniel?” I asked looking up at his grim face.
“He’s been captured. They took him first, thinking he started the whole runaway thing,” he said slowly. I felt like I had been frozen into ice.
“Why would they think that?” I asked, my lips hardly moving. And then I figured it out. Because of his parents’ resistance, they would think Nick would resist as well. Daniel didn’t say anything, probably recognizing that I had figured it out myself.
“Nick,” I whispered. I couldn’t hold myself up anymore. My legs fell out from under me. I hit my head against the ground, pain shooting to my fingertips and toes. I knew I was going to black out again.
“NICK!” I screamed trying to fight the blackness. But the darkness was taking over. What’s the use living anyway? Why am I here? Then I remembered. Oh, right. I’m the stupid One. Then I became a slave to the darkness.

CHAPTER 8

I woke up gasping for air and instead gulping water. Venus lifted my head from the river as I coughed up water. She stared at me coldly. The water was ice-cold. And everywhere there was snow. Then she dunked my head into the ice-cold river again. I came back up sputtering water.
“What are you doing?” I managed to cry out before she dunked my head into the river again. She kept my head down there for a long time that I thought I was going to drown. Then she yanked on my hair, pulling me back out. I coughed, shaking my shivering, small body when I did. I kept coughing unable to stop. She just glared at me, sitting in the snow. Daniel, Terryn, and Fayre were nowhere to be seen. After a few minutes of coughing, I got to whisper what I said before.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“What do you THINK I’m doing, Annika?” asked Venus.
“Killing me?” was all I could think of.
“No, you idiot fox human thing that ruins everything and can’t warn people ‘til damage has already been done!” she cried at me. I just stared at her.
“AND you can’t go three seconds without fainting. You are such a stupid human being. You DESERVE to live with foxes. You obviously can’t comprehend ANYTHING. YOU IDIOT!” She yelled at me. I just blinked.
“YOU’RE SO SELFISH!!! We tell you you’re the One and you run away because you can’t ‘handle’ being so important!” she screamed at me, putting literal quotations around “handle”. Her hazel eyes fiery.
“You’re right. And you probably are wondering how I can possibly be the One as well,” I said, calmly, but my body was shivering like crazy. Venus just stared at me, confirming my suspicions. She had been waiting for me, the One, for practically her whole life. She was trained to protect me. But she was also wondering, why wasn’t it her? It probably would be better if it were she. Instead she gets an emotional girl who doesn’t know a thing. A fox idiot.
“The One is supposed to possess some sort of power. A power that is so…magnificent. But you don’t possess any power. I don’t believe you could possibly be the One,” said Venus glaring at me. It was like all the friendship we might’ve had, was gone. Great. Then Daniel came out from behind a tree.
“Venus, the power is supposed to come out when she’s really distressed. When she needs it,” said Daniel calmly.
“Yeah. When SHE needs it,” said Venus. Practically saying I was selfish again. Then she got up and walked away from me. I coughed again, shaking terribly, and then I think I started to cry. Daniel grabbed my upper arm and yanked me up. He wrung out my wet hair and patted my head.
“It’s okay, Annika. Venus is just upset. She lost everyone. And when I say everyone, I mean Valora. She and Val were like best friends,” said Daniel brushing caked snow off of my clothes. I didn’t say anything. Probably Valora dying was my fault too.
“What are we supposed to do now?” I asked. Daniel smiled at me.
“We’re going to put your power to the test of course,” he said smiling. What? I thought.
“We’re going to save Nick, Snow, and well, everybody,” said Daniel. I just stared at him. How were we going to pull this off? I thought. Then I thought the inevitable…we’re going back… I looked at him, fear in my eyes.
“We can’t,” I whispered, letting the words of defeat slip through my lips.
“Not with that attitude,” he said mockingly scolding me. I just stared at him.
“Okay,” I said reluctantly. He grabbed me into a huge hug.
“YESS let’s do this!” he exclaimed grabbing my arm. We found Fayre curled up in Terryn’s lap. Thank God she was asleep or I would think she’d jump up and try to scratch my eyeballs out again.

CHAPTER 9

We shook Fayre awake (unfortunately) while Terryn just looked at me with boredom and curiosity. I don’t think I would EVER understand him… His dark brown eyes followed me slowly as I warily walked towards Venus. She glared at me.
“Just…Don’t. Say. Anything,” she said through gritted teeth. I nodded and just looked at her sadly. I didn’t like her like this. Losing Valora, and now Ida, and practically Fayre, she was going insane. She was supposed to be the leader of this elite group. This group that was supposed to protect the One. And now this group was broken up…BECAUSE of the One… Me. I looked over at who used to be so sly and sarcastic, Fayre, she was shaking uncontrollably. She stared at me with crazed, unfocused eyes. She looked like she was being possessed by some demon. This was my entire fault, I couldn’t help thinking.
“We’re going to save the others,” I said sort of quietly. No one was paying attention to me. I stood on top of a snow-covered rock and looked at the four of them with fiery eyes.
“We’re going to save the others!” I said loudly. Daniel smirked at me. Fayre stopped shaking and watched me while Terryn’s arms were around her. He watched me as well with his dark eyes. Venus just looked at me, hopeless.
“We will. And I will prove to you that I AM the One,” I said with confidence that I didn’t know where it was coming from.
“And Valora won’t be proud of us just SITTING around staring at each other. Ida, sweet, sweet Ida, wouldn’t want us to fight either. Not between us. You’re either with me, or your not. You’re either on MY side or you’re not. We’re either still friends or we’re not,” I said directing the last sentence towards Venus. She looked away.
“We’re still a family. And you know what, families don’t leave each other behind. I don’t care if ‘love’ is forbidden here. I don’t care that everyone is ‘selfish’. ‘Cause you know what? It isn’t true. Someone, EVERYONE, cares about at least ONE other person beside himself or herself. Don’t you think we should save future generations from the same fate as us? Because you all know, they’re going to find us, and then maybe even kill us. We need to save everyone. Not just Nick, Snow, Zanita, Prince, Cedric and the rest. We need to save every single person in this world. We need to take down the Center,” I cried out. Fayre stood up and whooped. She was starting to look like herself again. Venus gave me an approving glance.
“We need more people. Followers,” said Daniel standing up. Terryn nodded approvingly. I smirked.
“Then let’s go into those cities you all were talking about,” I said smiling.

CHAPTER 10

So, it took four days to get to the first city. Four. Whole. Days. During those four days, Fayre was a pain. More of a pain than she ever was. She was so emotional. She cried. She was ecstatic. She cried some more. She hit Terryn so hard he’d go flying. Although, she was a pretty strong little girl and Terryn was pretty small… She was an emotional wreck. Finally we got to the city with her in a happier mood.
“What if someone turns us in?” whispered Venus. We all looked at each other. She was voicing all of our thoughts since the first day we left in search of the cities. No one answered her. The city was large and magnificent. There were lights everywhere. It was like fireflies during the summer, all around the trees, except there were no trees, and these weren’t fireflies. We all looked at the city in awe. Then we noticed a man in white patrolling a gate that surrounded the city.
“So, any guess on how we’re going to get through that gate?” asked Terryn. I looked up and down it. There seemed to be a current running through it and there was barbed wire on top.
“I have no idea…” I whispered.
“I’ve got one,” said Fayre. We all looked up at her. She was balancing herself on a branch that was about seventy feet in the air. The gate was about fifty feet.
“She’s already unstable,” whispered Venus in my ear. I was about to voice my protest when she silently leaped over the gate and landing lightly on her feet. I caught a smile on her face as she silently ran towards the city.
“What in the world is she doing?” asked Daniel loudly voicing his confusion.
“Shh!” we all said to him as we watched Fayre curiously. She collapsed close to the man in white clutching her neck. A big lady in line to get into the city screamed and fainted. No one ran up to catch her. The man in white ran to Fayre. We walked closer to see what was going on. She looked over at us when the man in white looked away. She winked and mouthed ‘Go!’ We quietly ran through the crowd and into the city.
“We should wait for Fayre,” said Terryn, his face worried. He was twisting his hands, anxious to know if Fayre was safe or not. None of us said anything and hid behind some column. I wondered if Nick was like this. Waiting for me. Anxious to know if I was safe. Or was he unconscious somewhere, suffocating on his own pool of blood. I clutched my chest. I suddenly couldn’t breathe thinking of him like that. I sat down slowly, carefully not calling attention to myself. Daniel, Venus, and Terryn were all waiting anxiously for Fayre anyway, that they didn’t notice. I was the One. And I couldn’t even control my own feelings. When everyone was gone and they had “saved” her, Fayre ran over to our hiding place.
“You guys couldn’t have created some other kind of distraction? They were poking me and probing me for like broken bones and stuff. I think I have bruises,” she said rubbing her arm. Terryn just engulfed her into a hug. Huh, didn’t think he was the caring type. I couldn’t help but think that a little harshly.
“How are we supposed to find someone who will help us?” I asked. Venus shrugged. She asked the question first anyway in a different way. Then a little girl tugged on my shirt. I looked down at her. She had bright pink hair and bright red eyes. She pointed to a poster she had that had all of our faces on it. We all looked at each other and then Fayre had a knife to the girl’s neck in one swift movement.
“No! I’m here to help,” she choked out. Fayre reluctantly removed her knife from the girl’s neck.
“My family knew you’d be here soon. They told me to keep track of whoever comes through those gates. I saw you guys sneaking in. I saw her jumping over the gate. It has to be you guys,” said the girl pointing at Fayre.
“Take us to your home, little girl,” said Venus.
“My name is Valentine,” she said. Then she took my hand and led us down the streets of this first city to a quaint little home a little away from the bright lights that danced off of our skin. A woman opened the door. This was the first time I saw a middle aged woman. She looked…different than how I imagined them… She had navy blue hair and big black eyes. Her skin was pale white and on her skin was moving tattoos. They spun and squiggled. They went slowly and moved faster as her eyes widened and smiled.
“Valentine…is it them?” she asked holding her breath. And as she did, her tattoos seemed to hold their breath too. Valentine nodded her little strawberry head. The lady quickly ushered us into her house and then closed the curtains quickly.
“JOE! They’re here!” cried out the lady excitingly. A middle-aged man came out of the kitchen. He had graying black hair and warm brown eyes. He didn’t have any tattoos or dyed hair. He was a regular human being. FINALLY.
He smiled and hugged us all.
“It’s a pleasure to be in all of your presence. Now, which one of you is the One?” he asked excitedly and getting right to the point. The lady slapped Joe’s shoulder playfully.
“First, answer some of our questions,” I said sitting down. Joe raised his eyebrows at me as the others proceeded to sit down as well.
“And what would that be little miss?” asked Joe as he sat down on an armchair.
“My name’s Annika. And this is Venus, Daniel, Terryn, and Fayre. I apologize for Fayre almost attacking your daughter,” I said introducing every one of us. The lady raised her eyebrows at her daughter.
“No, no. She shouldn’t have snuck up on you guys. You were all jumpy. Can’t trust anyone. We understand,” said Joe. After a moment of silence Joe asked, “and the question?”
“Why?” I asked, slowly meeting his eyes. I knew he knew what I meant.
“Well, what they say is not completely untrue. There is some truth to it. Our society did crumble. There was no real sense of any kind of government. Then out of nowhere parts of us were beginning to get organized. Granted, it was a slow moving process but we got there. We’re not as big as we used to be. But we are more powerful. Do you want to know why? It’s because of the Fighters, our army. The Center decided to be stricter on us, so society didn’t reboot again. Every other child that each family has has to be given to the Center to be put into the wilderness. This is so the child learns to use their instincts. That way they become more deadly… It’s our punishment for rioting against the last bureaucracy, against the last government. Although, it doesn’t sound so bad. Giving up a child or two for protection and freedom? Sure, I can do that. But when those very same children are being used against us, it’s not right,” said Joe looking at me sadly. Nick was wrong… I thought sadly. He had his story mixed up.
“Against you…?” asked Venus.
“The President uses the Fighters to his/her pleasure of advantage. Sometimes, just for the fun of it, a child from the Fighters has to kill someone as a ‘test’. Not just anyone. Half the time it is their mother but it is always a family member. They of course don’t know this until it is time to kill that person. Their mentor usually tells them right before they do. And if they refuse, they both die. It’s to show that the Fighters don’t care about the family that ‘left them’. And if they do, then they weren’t ‘strong’ enough to stay alive. It’s like a game. A war. The last wars, but the conflict is always inside of you,” said Joe looking straight at me, boring holes into my very existence. The last wars…kept ringing in my mind. Just like what Jane said, but she used it differently. I remembered her giving me a sort of desperate look when she said that. A hint. A sign. I stared back at Joe.
“These are the Last Wars,” I whispered. He nodded.
“But they’re not actual wars… It’s the wars within the children,” I said looking at his daughter.
“Inside every one,” he said nodding.
“But…how? Why?” asked Fayre. Joe looked over at the lady with the moving tattoos.
“Mary?” he asked. She sighed and as she began, her tattoos moved faster and faster into a blur.
“When a child is born, they have a chip put into their heads. The hospital doesn’t tell you this but I did some research on it. They have already chosen which child is going to go. It’s already been decided. And they put a certain chip into them. A chip that makes them waver all the time on good and evil. They’re never peaceful. But they never act out on their own. The Center can insert their own ideas into their heads that might totally contradict what they REALLY think. Now, in people like us who live in the city, our chips just make us obey. We obey all the laws. It’s easier to resist than you would think. Both of the chips are… All you have to do is-,” said Mary.
“Eat a certain type of leaf,” said Venus and Mary at the same time.
“Well…yes. You already know this?” asked Mary. Venus nodded slowly.
“That’s what Zanita said. She fed it to Fawn and Bambi to make them more mellow,” said Venus
“And to stop the urge to kill off the rest of us,” I murmured. Venus gave me a shut-up glare.
“There’s others?” asked Joe leaning towards us.
“They got captured,” said Venus.
“Or died,” said Fayre thinking of Ida and Valora. Venus shot Fayre a glare. We were in front of guests. Be on your best behavior. I could hear what was seeping through that glare. Fayre quickly shut up. Who knew if Venus had that poison lipstick thing.
“Well, you all are probably tired, I’m sure,” said Mary looking at Valentine. Valentine motioned for us to follow her.
“Come, come,” she said. She led the way to one room and looked back at her mother. Her mother nodded. Something felt wrong here… I looked at Terryn and I knew he was thinking the same thing.
“Wait,” I called out standing in front of the closed wooden door.
“What? What is it?” asked Valentine concerned.
“We’re not tired,” I said.
“What?? Yes we-!” said Fayre. I cut her off with a glare. Venus looked around searching with her eyes. She didn’t sense anything out of the ordinary.
“I’d like to talk a little more,” I said turning around back towards the living room. Daniel gave me a searching glance as I proceeded to sit down on the couch. Terryn did the same. Venus, Fayre, and Daniel looked so confused.
“Talk about what?” asked Mary, her black eyes widening.
“This,” I said gesturing at my surroundings.
“Who are you working for?” asked Terryn.
“What do you want with us?” I asked.
“Do you just want to turn us in to the Center?” asked Terryn.
“Because we’re NOT going back,” I finished the interrogation. Mary just stared at us in disbelief. I heard a scuffle behind me and turned around. Joe and Valentine were trying to get Venus, Daniel, and Fayre. Fayre twisted a gun out of Valentine’s hands and pointed it at her. Venus took Joe’s rifle as Daniel knocked him out. Then I felt something cold and metallic on my throat. Mary had a knife to my neck. I stared into her cold black eyes.
“Don’t make a move,” said Mary. I heard the footsteps behind me stop. She pushed the knife to my neck harder. I just stared at her. Do it, I thought. Go ahead. Because I wasn’t going to move away from this. I am not a coward. Then I heard a sort of whistling through the air, and then Mary dropped her knife. Her eyes were wide and her veins were bulging. Blood was spurting out of a wound. A bullet wound. It came from behind, I thought as she sank to the ground. I kicked her away from me and stood up. There, behind Mary, was a girl with shining black hair and bright green eyes. She was wearing a camouflage outfit and combat boots. In her hand was a blue gun looking thing but much deadlier as I saw the current go through it. It was a weapon…that was alive.
“Ello refugees. I’m Amelia. So nice to meet you,” she said smiling. She had an accent. British, was what my mind identified it as. We all just stared at her.
“Well, come along then. I’ll explain on the way,” she said; looking behind her, back at the city.
“Who says we should trust you?” asked Venus stepping toward the girl.
“I do. Now are you coming or what?” she said staring at Venus with her green eyes. They stared each other down for what seemed like forever. Then Venus looked back at me and I knew that she has decided to trust this odd girl. I started to follow her and I could feel that the rest of them behind me were following her too. We followed her further away from the city.
“This is it,” she said stopping.
“What? We’re almost to the woods,” said Fayre. Amelia turned and smiled at her.
“Exactly,” she said. Then she disappeared.
“Is this a trap?” I heard Daniel whisper. Then suddenly there was something around all of us. A membrane of some kind and we were sinking into the ground. Then the membrane disappeared and we were in some area. Some control center.
“Where are we?” I asked demanding to know if this was a trap or not.
“Your in our Head Quarters. HQ,” said Amelia smiling. All around us were other people dressed like her, but they weren’t carrying weapons. The whole HQ was made out of metal. There were screens that showed faces. Our faces. They were tracking us this whole time. Then a girl with scars on her face came towards us. Her brown eyes glinting. It couldn’t be, I thought. But I knew who it was when Venus screamed and ran towards the girl. Valora was alive.

CHAPTER 11

Valora laughed as Venus hugged her.
“We thought you were dead!” she cried.
“I know. You were supposed to. I’m sorry,” said Valora giving her a sad look.
“Oh who cares? You’re ALIVE!” cried Fayre hugging Valora. I stood back looking at them hugging each other.
“Why?” I asked her.
“I had to. You guys had to believe I was,” said Valora.
“For what?” I asked giving her a betraying look.
“So you would leave,” she said. We stared at each other for a while. Then she smiled over at Daniel.
“Hey big guy! Thought you were rid of me huh?” asked Valora. He just sniffed and then engulfed her into a huge hug.
“No fair, Valora. No fair,” he murmured into her hair. She laughed and just patted his back.
“It’s okay, brother, it’s okay,” she said. …Brother? They looked completely different. Daniel had copper red hair and steel blue eyes. Valora had brown hair and light brown eyes. They didn’t look anything alike. Then I noticed the faint scars on Daniel’s face. How did I not notice that before?
“They were from the same pack. They’re not literal brother and sister, but they were found together. So, they refer to themselves as brother and sister. It’s not all the time that two children are picked up by the same pack of wolves,” said Terryn. Then I looked at Valora.
“That dream! What about that dream?” I asked her.
“It was sent from here. A figment of imagination but…an idea planted into your brain,” said Valora. Because of the chip she could do that huh? I asked myself. Then a lady who had strawberry blonde hair came up to us. Valora and Amelia bowed their heads in respect for this woman.
“You are the One, yes?” she asked.
“Annika,” I said. She smiled.
“I’m the head of this HQ. Like the President of our failing country, but I’m only her sister,” she said. The President’s sister? Should’ve seen THAT one coming…
“Nice to meet you,” I said.
“No, pleasure to meet YOU. I didn’t think I’d be alive when the One was going to come. I should’ve known better,” she said smiling. I shrugged.
“I see you have met my daughter, Amelia,” she said. Should’ve seen that coming too…
“Yes, she killed Mary,” I stated.
“Mary was going to kill you,” she stated.
“But why? I thought her family was going to help us but then…” I said.
“I know. Her family WAS part of the resistance. But then the Center got their hands on their son, Aiden. They said they would stop torturing him if they surrendered and captured you, Annika,” said the lady. Aiden, I thought. He was that boy that was with us. I felt Daniel stiffen when the lady said ‘torture’. That means they were torturing them all. Aiden, the boy with gold eyes and light brown hair. Aiden, who was so interested in my pendulant. Now his family was dead just because they wanted to save him. I stared at the lady.
“Just to save him? They would kill his friends?” I asked gesturing to Daniel and Terryn. The lady shrugged.
“I don’t know what was going on inside their minds. I just know that they wanted to save their son that they couldn’t raise. That was taken away from them with force,” said the lady.
“Do you think he’s still alive?” asked Daniel.
“I doubt it. If I know my sister, she probably wasn’t happy that they got killed and trust me she knows now. What’s the use of having Aiden still? Might as well kill him off,” she said looking away. Daniel took a sharp, shaky breath. Venus patted his shoulder.
“Devil worshipper,” I heard Fayre say under her breath.
“She most definitely is a monster,” whispered Valora.
“I’ve never met your sister,” I said.
“Good, you don’t want to,” said the lady.
“President Rose,” whispered Terryn.
“And I’m Lilly,” said the lady.
“She has crimson eyes. She’s the scariest person alive,” said Valora shaking uncontrollably. She was staring far away.
“Amelia,” whispered Lilly. Amelia took Valora by the hand and led her away from us.
“What did she do to her?” demanded Venus. Lilly sighed.
“I don’t know. But, they could’ve done a lot to her. Brainwashed her. Tortured her. She was pretty beat up when we got to her. Not only was she walking around without a beating heart, she was glowing. We thought maybe she was the One, but she wasn’t,” said Lilly. Walking around without a beating heart?
“Does she still not have a…a…” Venus said not able to finish the question.
“A heart? No. We got one in her now. Though, she really doesn’t need it,” said Lilly.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“We did some research. Read the prophecy a few times. A few companions of the One have a certain power. Each power is a fragment of the One’s power. The One has many powers. Valora’s power has already shown. Hers is that she cannot die. She’s indestructible. And if she was under the hand of my sister, then Rose has already figured that out,” said Lilly.
“How would she be able to figure that out?” asked Fayre. Then there was silence. President Rose tortured Valora so much that she should’ve died…but didn’t.
“It’s like a curse,” whispered Venus. It felt like a ball was in my throat. A curse that I gave to her. That she can never die.
“There is only one way she can die,” said Lilly.
“And what’s that?” asked Daniel. Lilly looked at me.
“Only the One can kill her,” she said. Great. Now I had to kill one of my friends when the time comes. Always love when THAT happens.
“If we all have some super power thing, why don’t I have one?” asked Fayre getting right to the point.
“I don’t know. Maybe yours hasn’t come yet,” said Lilly.
“It only comes when you desperately need it, like the One,” whispered Venus. I knew she was right when Lilly nodded her head. Look whose selfish NOW, I couldn’t help think. I still hadn’t forgiven her for the whole ice-cold river thing and the constant dunking and almost killing me. Yeah, I think I have the right to hold a grudge against her about that…
“Come with me,” she said. She led us down a metal hallway. We passed a lot of people dressed the same as Amelia. We got to some doors.
“These will be your sleeping quarters,” she was saying as alarms started to go off. There were red lights everywhere and the alarm kept going.
“Oh no,” whispered Lilly.
“What? What’s going on?” asked Fayre. Lilly didn’t answer and started to run down the corridor.
“Come!” she yelled back at us. We ran after her. We followed her into what seemed to be a weapon room.
“What’s going on?” asked Venus. Lilly just handed her one of those alive weapons. It was at first a gun and then it transformed into a tube of lipstick. Venus just stared at it in awe.
“Huh, never did that before…” said Lilly. She handed Daniel a gun as well that transformed into…something. None of us knew what it was. It was a glove that clamped over his hand. It wasn’t metal anymore, it was a black fabric.
“What is it?” asked Terryn.
“A glove…?” said Daniel unsure.
“Guess you’ll find out won’t you?” asked Lilly. She handed Terryn a gun and it transformed into a spear. Then she handed Fayre one, and Fayre’s turned into a talon, a hawk’s talon. Fayre stared at it; missing home I’m sure. Then when Lilly handed me mine, it didn’t turn into a weapon, it turned into a mini dragon. It was coal black with bright yellow eyes. It curled itself around my arm like a snake, and stayed there.
“What the-?” I asked looking at it. It coughed a little ball of fire. Lilly didn’t look surprised.
“Each of you name yours,” she said.
“What are they?” I asked.
“Shape shifting dragons, of course,” she said.
“What else?” murmured Venus. We all named our…dragons… And then I caught Lilly’s arm before we left.
“Tell me. What’s going on?” I asked. She sighed.
“They’re here… Not all of them. My sister is here with some Fighters. It’s one of her tests for one of the Fighters. Someone has family here,” she said.
“And we need weapons because…?” I asked.
“Because the one who’s being tested, is Snow,” she said. I felt like the world had slipped away from me again. Snow can’t. She can’t. But she’ll have to, or she’ll die. Fayre was frozen, staring at Lilly.
“Let’s go then,” I said. We needed weapons so we can actually save her. So we can put a stop to this…at least for today. Daniel had to carry Fayre because she just couldn’t move and we ran up to the surface. HQ was literally under the city. We got up and were in a crowd. I pulled my sleeve over my dragon, which was STILL curled on my arm. It hissed at me as I pulled it over.
“Don’t do that,” I heard a voice in my mind.
“What?” I asked in my head.
“Don’t do that. I’m right here. And you STILL haven’t named me,” said the voice.
…My dragon was talking to me inside of my head….
“I need to cover you up so no one notices you,” I told it.
“Well, I won’t be able to attack faster if I’m under your sleeve,” it said.
“Just leave it to me,” I said hastily.
“Your life,” it told me. Ugh. Dragons.
“Oh, and my NAAAME?” she asked obnoxiously.
“Ebony,” I thought. It was the first thing that came to my mind. She shut up so I guess she liked it. I pushed my way through the crowd and came to a stop behind the first person in line. There was Snow. She looked skinnier and more sullen. In front of her was a little girl who was practically the spitting image of Snow. I knew Snow had a soft spot for children, which is why she took Bambi and Fawn under her care. Behind Snow was, who looked like, President Rose. She had the same strawberry blonde hair as her sister but her eyes were an unsettling crimson red. Her face was an ashen color and her lips were pale pink. She looked like a dead lady…but I knew her heart was still beating. She whispered something into Snow’s ear and Snow started to shake uncontrollably. I saw tears about to overflow out of her eyes as she stepped up to the girl. The girl just stood there staring at Snow curiously. Then I realized it. Snow wasn’t holding any weapon because she already had one. It was good for torturing people with. She would touch someone in a certain way, and that person would feel the most pain they have ever felt in their lives. No, Snow can’t! I watched Snow touch the girl, and then the girl’s screams pierced the silence. She fell to the ground, writhing in pain. Snow’s tears fell down her face. I was about to run to the girl, to rescue her from that pain, when Lilly’s voice sang in my ear.
“Don’t do it,” she said. What? Don’t run to save a girl. Screw her.
I ran towards the precious child. Snow looked over at me as I rolled up my sleeve. My dragon leaped out but not at Snow, at the guard holding a gun to Snow’s head. Ebony transformed into a glowing red-hot knife and sunk the blade into the guard’s chest. Snow let go of the child and stared at me.
“No! Annika it’s a trap!” she screamed out. Ebony leaped back towards me, dripping in blood, and curled herself around my arm. What? A trap? I looked around and suddenly I was staring into crimson eyes. Cold, crimson red eyes. And then once again, I gave myself to the darkness that I had taken over me.

CHAPTER 12

I woke up writhing in pain.
“Where are the others, Annika? It’s a simple question,” said President Rose. I just stared at her with unmoving eyes. Then I heard the crack of a whip and the unbearable pain in my back.
“I know my sister’s hiding them, darling Annika. Where are they? Because you know, if you die, they ALL die,” said President Rose. I knew what she meant. If I die, the resistance is over. The prophecy is over. But the prophecy never mentioned that I was going to die… So, I figured I wasn’t going to. Plus, if Lilly was right, then I couldn’t die anyway. It is a curse, I thought as the whip came down hard on my back again. I screamed out and then spat up blood. I could hardly see. I wasn’t built for pain that I knew.
“Tell me,” she ordered. I just stared into her crimson eyes.
“Never,” I choked out. She glared at me.
“Fine then. I know what will make you talk,” she said. She left the room and I felt like I could breathe for the first time since I got here. She came back holding someone who was bloodied and beaten. He looked up and I saw those familiar blue eyes. But they lost a lot of life in them.
“Nick…” I whispered. Oh Nick, what did they do to you? I looked down at my arm and realized that my dragon had turned itself into a watch. I looked back up at Nick. He just stared at me, unrecognizing me, not knowing who I was. President Rose was holding Nick by his beautiful red-blonde hair and threw him to the ground. He cried out in pain.
“If you won’t talk when I torture you, let’s see if you talk when I torture him. Hmm, Annika?” said President Rose. Nick’s eyes searched mine when he heard my name.
“Annika,” he mouthed. And then the whip cracked down on my back. Nick’s eyes became enraged. He got up and got a punch to President Rose’s jaw before Snow was forced to touching Nick. His eyes bulged out of his skull. He screamed out, so loud and so pure. He fell to the ground and writhed in pain.
“STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!!” he yelled over and over again. I couldn’t watch him like this. That woman. She was going to pay. I saw her eyes widen at me as I got up. Good, she should be scared. That’s when I noticed my hands. They were glowing white. They were so bright. And then it filled all of me, this pure light. I felt healed. I felt the scars on me go away. I looked over at the President but she was gone. I touched the guard confining Snow and he disintegrated. His scream echoing as he disintegrated. Snow looked at me, her eyes wide.
“You are the One,” she said as she let go of Nick. I hugged her, my glowing hands gone.
“Snow, I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!” I kept saying. We were crying and hugging.
“Hey…guys…can…you…help…me…?” panted Nick. We helped him up and then we had to get out of the building. I wiped the sweat off of Nick’s forehead.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. He tried to smile at me.
“Darling Annika, it wasn’t your fault,” he said. We ran out of the room. (Well, sort of. Nick was sort of limping so it wasn’t a grand, quick escape.) A guard came towards me.
“Ebony,” I said. Then the dragon leaped off of my arm and attacked every guard coming towards us. Nick just looked at it in awe.
“Shape shifting dragon,” I simply said.
“So cool,” he said back.
“What about the others?” I asked Snow. She shook her head.
“The only one left is Prince. Cedric, Aiden, Bambi, and Fawn…didn’t make it,” she said. I looked at her.
“Bambi and Fawn couldn’t make it?” I asked simply astounded.
“No. Well, I mean, they’re still alive…but…President Rose has already turned them into weapons. They’re too far gone,” said Snow sadly. She looked like she was going to cry.
“Zanita?” I asked.
“No one knows what happened to her. She might’ve escaped,” she said hopefully. I shook my head.
“Who knows? …Now lets get Prince,” I said. We ran towards a closed door. Ebony turned into a key and the door opened. Sitting on the floor in a pool of blood, was Prince. It wasn’t his blood, it was his guards. He looked at us, curiously.
“Oh my God…Prince!” cried Snow looking at the guards.
“I don’t let anyone torture me,” he said. He had a bloody knife in his hands. Then he dropped it like it was something poisonous.
“Let’s just get out,” he said coming towards us. Snow stepped away from him like he was some awful being. Like I didn’t just kill that guard holding her. Well, at least I wasn’t eating them like Prince was. That was sort of…
“They didn’t feed me,” he said after a while. Okay then… Maybe that was the President’s way of torturing him…
“Snow, you go with Prince. We need to split up,” I said. She looked at me like I was crazy.
“GO!” I yelled at her as alarms started wailing. I took Nick’s hands and we ran into those woods that we had run into just weeks before. I heard hound dogs chasing after us, but they weren’t just regular hound dogs, they were much dangerous than that. They might’ve been bred differently. Who knows? All I knew was that those weren’t regular dogs.
“C’mon Nick! They have weird dog things chasing us. Hurry!” I cried out to him. He fell and just gave me a helpless look.
“Go without me, Annika. Just go,” he whispered.
“No, Nick I can’t!” I yelled at him. Why won’t he just get up for God’s sake?
“GET UP!” I yelled desperately at him. I tugged on him.
“Get up, Nick. Get up,” I said tugging on his arm. He just looked at me with his bright blue eyes. His beautiful blue eyes.
“Annika, go,” he said. I sat down next to him.
“Nick, I won’t. I can’t,” I said, a tear rolling down my cheek. I heard the dogs getting closer. That’s when I noticed Nick’s leg. It was twisted in such a weird way.
“Nick,” I said gingerly touching his leg. He winced in pain. Then he caressed my cheek, making me look into those bright blue eyes.
“Annika, go,” he said again. Then he kissed me with his soft lips. I never wanted this moment to go. I never wanted him to leave me. I wanted to stay like this, forever. He pulled away, but with a scream. It wasn’t a dog, like I thought. It was a mix between a saber tooth tiger and a bloodhound. The…thing had Nick by his leg.
“GO! ANNIKA FOR GOD’S SAKE JUST GO!” he screamed at me. I stared at it. I was so scared of saber tooth tigers. They knew I was. All this time they knew. Then Ebony leaped off my arm and attacked the thing. I grabbed Nick and decided to drag him. He screamed.
“What are you DOING?!” he yelled at me.
“I’m not letting you go,” I said. He just stared at me. Pain evident in his eyes.
“Annika, you have to. I’m slowing you down,” he said as the things surrounded us. I dropped his arm and sat down with him. I saw a hovercraft thing appear in the air.
“If you go, I’m going to,” I said, knowing very well that I couldn’t possibly die. He just stared at me like I was crazy.
“Annika, I have no importance in this world. It’s you. It’s only you. You are the One. You have to save countless of other people,” he said. I cupped his face in my hands.
“You’re important to me,” I said. That’s when the fire thing fell out of the sky. It made a circle around us, so we couldn’t escape. Then Nick passed out.
“Nick!” I screamed. His pulse was slowly dying. HE was slowly dying. He was losing so much blood.
“NICK!” I screamed, tears running down my face. Then I felt his hand on my face, his eyes looking at me. I felt so warm. And then he was gone. His hand dropped and his eyes just stared ahead. I screamed and put my head on his chest. No, no, no, no!! I thought. Nick, my precious Nick. My hands were glowing white again. This has to save him, I thought, it has to. I put my hands where his heart was supposed to be. The light filled his whole body. Then I heard it, loud and clear. His heart was beating. Then he blinked and his blue eyes filled with life again. He gasped. Then he looked at me.
“Annika,” he whispered.
“Oh, Nick!” I cried out. I engulfed him into a huge hug.
“I love you,” he said. I hit him upside the head.
“You better,” I said smiling. Then the smoke became so much. I started to cough.
“Can’t you do something about that helicopter?” he asked.
“Maybe,” I said coughing. I lifted my white glowing hands and then closed them into a fist. I heard a creaking metallic sound. And then screams as people fell out of the crushing helicopter. Then the helicopter seemed to explode and bits fell toward us to the ground. Yet, still, the fire was around us, and getting closer every second.
“What are we going to do?” I panicked.
“I don’t know,” Nick said looking around with bright new eyes.
“What can we do?” he asked looking at me. I looked back at him, knowing it was useless.
“HELP!” I screamed. It was the last thing I had. The last idea I had. Then out of nowhere, people came into our little circle of fire. A girl lifted a gas mask and winked at me. It was Fayre.
“Well, c’mon you two love birds. Let’s go,” she said. Daniel picked me up so easily and then threw me over his shoulder. Nick was thrown on his other shoulder. Then we were pulled up into the air, out of the smoke. We were put into some hovercraft thing and I couldn’t stop coughing. I coughed and coughed and coughed. Even Ebony couldn’t stay on my shaky body. So she just decided to walk around a bit, exploring the hovercraft.
“Where are we going?” I managed to choke out.
“Somewhere further away,” said Lilly.
“Away from President Rose’s reach,” said Venus.
“But what about the others?” I asked.
“What about them?” asked Lilly.
“We need to save the whole country! We need to have everyone out of President Rose’s grasp!” I said.
“We agree, we do,” said Lilly.
“But…?” I asked.
“We shouldn’t right now,” said Amelia. I didn’t see her and hearing her strange accented voice made me jump.
“For now, we’re going to take refuge in MY country. Where my father is. Until further notice,” said Amelia.
“YOUR country?” I asked.
“Once called England. Now called Britland,” she said.
“Britland?” I asked.
“I don’t get it either. Mixing Great Britain and England together or something. I didn’t name the country,” Amelia said rolling her eyes. We were taking refuge in some unknown country that all spoke how Amelia spoke. We were going to take refuge in a place called Britland, which honestly in my opinion just sounded totally and completely STUPID. I guess my face was a total open book because Amelia just glared at my distaste.
“Again, I didn’t name the country. Besides the name it’s completely awesome. There aren’t so many things to rebel against there. We’re a perfectly good country. Unlike yours,” she said, defending her own country. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Britland is so wonderful. So superb. Just the place where everyone wants to be. Yeah, ‘cause I want to tell people that I’m from “Britland”. In my head I mimicked Amelia’s accent (very badly) and said, “Oh, ello there! I’m the One, named Annika. Oh, did I mention that I’m from Britland? What a wonderful place. Just absolutely wonderful. So peaceful. Nothing to rebel against there!” I saw my dragon snicker because apparently she can hear all my thoughts. When we finally landed in Britland, a man with graying hair and bright green eyes like Amelia rushed us into a huge home. I was guessing it was her father.
“Come, come. Hurry,” said the father.
“What? What is it daddy?” asked Amelia. For once, I was jealous of her. She had her mother and her father. She was able to keep them. My childhood was stolen of that. I didn’t get my mother and father. They didn’t keep me. Suddenly I was snapped back into reality when I heard Amelia’s father say, “President Rose followed you. She’s here, in Britland.” I heard Daniel snicker when he said Britland. You had to admit. It was a pretty funny name. Amelia’s father glared at Daniel.
“Mister, I don’t think you know how serious this is,” he said.
“No, no, I do sir, I do,” said Daniel straightening up. Snow rolled her eyes at him.
“So, what do we do?” I asked him. Before he could say another word, a lady came down the stairs in a scarlet red dress.
“Surrender,” she said smiling with perfect white teeth and fiery red hair. Her copper eyes twinkled.
“Zanita…” whispered Venus. Zanita smiled at Venus and twinkled her fingers.
“Hello, there, Venus. Didn’t think I’d follow everyone here to Britland did you? How are you? You look well,” she said. Then she took out a gun and pointed it at all of us.
“Remember that prophecy thing? About how a few of the One’s companions would get a supernatural power? Remember that? I’m sure Amelia’s oh-so-good mother told you. Well, guess who has one,” she said smirking. Then she held out her hand that glowed dimly and suddenly, Nick was flying towards her. I held out my white glowing hand and pulled on Nick. Neither one of us were touching him. He was floating in mid air, and screaming in pain. We were pulling on his very existence. Then from behind me someone stabbed my back. I keeled over in pain, letting go of Nick, and Zanita had him in her grips. She put the gun to his head. I took out the knife out of my back and realized that the twins were here. They just walked up the stairs toward Zanita. Their eyes were different. Instead of the pretty big brown eyes they had, they were crimson red, like President Rose’s. I threw the knife at Zanita’s head but she stopped it with her dimly glowing hand. She could control things with her mind. But guess what, so can I, I thought. As I was lifting my hand to crush her head in, the gun in her hand went off, and then blood spurted out from Nick’s head. His body went limp and he fell to the ground with a sickening thud. It was silent. Zanita shrugged.
“Whoops,” she said. Then before I could cry out or kill her, she disappeared. The twins were gone too. I ran towards Nick.
“Nick! Nick, c’mon! Don’t leave me again! Don’t!” I cried at him. I slapped his face.
“Wake up! Wake up! NICK! WAKE UP!” I yelled at him. I shook him and shook him. Soon enough Daniel was holding me back. I was aware of me screaming, tears streaking my stained face. But I couldn’t hear anything. And then, upstairs on the railing I saw her. I saw President Rose. And I saw her smug smile on her face. The two words I couldn’t bear to think came into my mind. Two words that would crush all hope. And I knew. I knew, unfortunately, that it was true.
She won.

Impressum

Texte: THIS IS MINE. ANY REPRODUCTION OF THIS, I WILL SUE YOU.
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 24.11.2011

Alle Rechte vorbehalten

Widmung:
To: Everyone who reads this