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Chapter 1

"Can I come out now" was no different than 3 small knocks on the closet door in Taylor Manifasts house.

Every morning she had to do this, just to be safe.

If there was no answer in 5 minutes, stay put.

If there was no answer in 20 minutes, come out ready to fight.

There has been different cases here and there but nothing big.

Nothing life changing.

knock knock knock.

Taylor waits...

waits...

wa-

"Coast is clear, Tay."

A smile spreads across Taylors face as she rose to open the door. Her closet/room is on the left wall when you walk into her small house, just so if she needs to, she can make an easy get away. The rest of her house is simple. Simple as in just like every single other house in Billings, Montana. Cream walls, white kitchens, brown bed spreads, and to add your own splash of color to your house, you get to choose the color of your pillows.

How exciting.

But Taylor loves her house. What she doesn't like is that she has to spend more than 12 hours of her time in a 7 by 5 foot closet, hiding for her life.

"Good morning mom"

Her mother turns from the kitchen sink and says, "Good morning sweetie. Would you like some-"

Taylor cuts her off, "Actually I'm not hungry I'm just gonna go watch TV."

She turns without looking and her moms expression and goes to sit on the couch. This is what she waits for every morning, watching crime shows for 4 hours straight, mentally getting ready for her first real fight.

"Tay, I don't think its very good for you to be watching those shows..."

Taylor rolls her eyes, " Mom I need to be ready for whatever comes and this is the best way to prepare."

Both of them knew this was true. Every day when they talk about it their minds don't change. But what they do have different opinions on is what side of the closet door Taylor should be on every night.

"If the find out that we have been hiding you, you'll be dead within the blink of an eye."

"But I wouldn't be dead if I was able to prove I'm ready by kicking their-"

"TAYLOR."

Though Taylor and her father practice self defense whenever they get the chance, Taylors parents never think it is quite enough. Neither if them think that she is ready, and neither of them think they will ever need to find out.

"Taylor, pleasejust cooperate today. Your father is going through a lot at work and he isn't going to want to deal with your attitude."

Taylor looks directly in her mothers eyes, "Mom, I don't even have an attitude. I'm just sticking up for what I believe in. And you know what? I'm right, and you know it."

Her mother let's out a laugh. "Your just like your father. So stubborn." A small smile makes its way back on both of their faces. "I will let you watch it onlyif you do better in training today."

"No problem!" Taylor gets off the couch, kisses her mother, and heads to the training room. The first thing she picks up is a Colt .45 pistol. Her father had used it in one of their first "breakins" and she had been using it ever since. Besides that she uses the AK 47 she got for her fourteenth birthday.

Ready.

Aim.

Fire.

Bullseye, Bullseye, Bullseye. Over and over again. Taylor looks at the clock and realizes its been just about 2 hours. Every shot she has taken went right in the middle. She ran out to the kitchen, "Hey mom guess wha-"

BANG!

The sound crackled theough the air and threw her off balance. She took careful steps down the hall and sees her mother, standing in the middle of the kitchen with a gun tightly held in her hands.