The Only-Live-Once Society | Book 2

Chapter Twelve

On instinct I assume it's teachers or the new security patrol - maybe there's a silent alarm that triggered to tell them we're down here. Then I think maybe it's students, maybe Elijah brought them to thwart Vince.

Until I hear a voice that's vaguely familiar, a voice I shouldn't be hearing in the confine of these grounds. I dart towards the passageway I emerged from, flopping onto my stomach and crawling backwards. I make sure I'm out of sight but can still see in.

Not a moment later Miss. Gateshead appears. There's no mistaking her with her bright red hair and slender frame. My mind starts doing mental gymnastics, trying to put together the scene in front of me. She's been here the whole time? In the school?

Following behind her is another woman and two men. They all talk lowly, as though they're trying not to be heard.

"Mission update?" Gateshead commands as they enter the room. Her voice, though quiet, echos around.

"There isn't one." The woman, in a grey two piece suit and donning box-dyed blonde hair, shrugs.

Miss Gateshead whirls around to face her, "What do you mean?"

"They're still after Amelia."

"How? They know I have the hard-drive."

"I don't think they care. I think they just want Amelia."

"How can they just want her? They wanted the weapon. That's why this all started."

"The Snyder boy," one of the men chimes in. He's short and balding, his grey suit swamps him. "He's got an obsession with her and Vincent. He wants them both, I'm not sure he's thought about the hard-drive at all."

Miss Gateshead begins to pace. "So, all of this, all the work we've done is for no reason? The boy is obsessed with my son?"

"Unfortunately, yes." The man says. "Your son and the girl."

Miss. Gateshead slams her hand on the table in front of her, the sound reverberates. "I haven't seen my son for months. I have been working around-the-clock to protect him. He's been left to think I'm one of them, that I'm working with them. And you mean to tell me it's for nothing?"

Mr. Goldsmith appears and I suck in a breath. "Not for nothing. We've gotten vital intel through this mission. We've managed to add extra protection to the school. Amelia and Vince are still alive, they're playing a game of paintball right now. That's because of the protections you have awarded them."

Miss. Gateshead straightens. "I'd like to see my son."

"You can't."

"I have to see my son."

"You cannot."

"Actually," Vince steps out of the shadows. "You can."

There is complete stillness in the room. No one moves, no one makes a sound. No one breathes. I press myself harder into the floor and hold my breath. The moment is tense and pregnant with anticipation. Vince's gun is nowhere to be seen, he stands, looking exactly like a teenager who lost his mum should.

I haven't given much thought to what the last few months have been like for him. It's one thing to lose your mum to death, it's another to have to walk around believing she betrayed you. There are some wounds you can't come back from, and that could have been one of them.

I think back to the conversation where he told me he didn't know what to think had happened to his mum, why she did what she did. Maybe he was holding out hope to believe she wasn't who the evidence made her out to be. He would have been right.

How relieved he must feel.

Miss. Gateshead is the first to speak, she croaks out, "I'm so sorry."

I'm not sure what I expect Vince to do, but seeing him rush into his mother's' arms, collapsing into them as though the weight of the world has been crushing him, is not a sight I ever thought I would see.

The image of a woman who sends her son into a terrorist organisation alone, and the scene in front of me don't match up. They leave more questions than answers.

They stand like that for the longest time. Vince's face is buried into his mother's hair, her arms are gripping onto him like this is everything she needed. I can't imagine how awkward the people who are down there feel. I feel awkward hiding away up here. Like this is a private moment I shouldn't be seeing. I'm an intruder on this.

When they break free, Vince turns his entire body in the direction I'm lying and shouts, "You can come out."

I don't move for a second, and when no one else appears, I know he's talking to me. I don't know how he knew about my presence - how he could have seen me. With a sigh I rise, dropping the gun and making a horrible clattering noise. They all stare. I feel my cheeks go red.

"Sorry." I bend to pick the gun up and make my way towards them.

"What is going on?" Mr. Goldsmith is furious. "How do you know about this place?"

"We didn't." I tell him. "We were playing forty-forty and found it."

He huffs. "You don't just find a room like this."

I jut my chin out, I don't think I like being called a liar. "Well, we did."

"Does it really matter?" Miss. Gateshead asks. Her right arm is wrapped around Vince's shoulders, gripping onto him. "They're here now."

"That's the problem." He forces out. "They shouldn't be. This could blow the whole operation out the water. All the sacrifices we've made and hard work - this could be the very undoing."

Miss. Gateshead rolls her eyes. It's unbelievable and juvenile. "What would you like to do Hamish? Give them memory loss serum? Hit them with the butt of that rifle? What will that change?"

Before anyone can speak, my mouth moves of it's own free will. "There's memory loss serum?"

Miss. Gateshead gives me a look, "Yes. It's the same as the truth serum we used on you."

Oh. Right. Yeah. I forgot about that.

Mr. Goldsmith is turning red. "If they tell anyone about this-"

"They won't." Miss. Gateshead looks at us. "Will you?"

"No," we say in unison.

"Not even Elijah can know." Mr. Goldsmith snaps. "No one can know. Not a soul."

It's not something I want to agree to, but I find myself nodding anyway. After that, we stay down there for another thirty-minutes. Vince and his mum speak in quick hushed tones, Mr. Goldsmith keeps me a distance from them whilst they talk. Then he instructs us to go and finish the game.

I wonder up the path where I left the box, and I offer it to Vince. "You can win, if you'd like."

He grins at me and shakes his head, "I've already won tonight."

Maybe he has - but all I can think about is how this is one more thing that bonds me to Vince and takes me away from Elijah. It's another secret for me to hold, and it leaves more questions then answers.

I don't rush back to school. For the first time in the last year, I don't rush back to Elijah.