Burnt Lies

I've Got Her

Cameron

A gun had just sounded off and my hand immediately reached for my own. An action that many of the guests took pulling out various weapons from beneath their garments. 

A swarm of masked attackers flooded through every entrance and exit possible and then the gunfire began. It was relentless as the flash of bullets sprayed across the hall, people began to fall having met their demise through the fray of bullets. 

I rushed towards Theo, he too had a gun pulled out aimed straight at the masked assailants, every shot he took landed a target.

"Where's Alara?" I rushed out over all the shouting and shooting. 

"She felt sick she went to the bathroom," Theo responded quickly, throwing back his elbow at a masked attacker that had tried to disarm him. I laid a bullet into him watching as his body slumped to the floor. 

It was then I heard a domineering voice bellow, "Find the girl," it was a brute of a man who's mask was different to the others, split between black and white, it looked like those drama masks with the white side of the mask showing a sneering smirk and the black side a deepened frown. 

The girl could be anyone, but my mind immediately went to Alara, I needed to find her. Theo and I began to rush towards the bathrooms, but were cornered by five more attackers. 

"The great Cameron Grayson," one of the men brooded, "It will be fun to kill you," I lifted my gun and so did Theo who's back was pressed against mine, their were for five of them so I would take three and Theo the other two.

As though he had read my mind, Theo began to charge at the two closest to him, raising his gun and firing with deadly accuracy. I flung myself forwards also, slamming the but of my gun into one attacker and shooting another. 

The man who had bragged about wanting to kill me was all that was left, he lifted his own weapon taking aim at my heart but was stopped by someone smashing their weapon on his head. 

The body dropped revealing the person who had saved me, I looked up to see Leo heaving behind him with Mel by his side, "What would you do without me Cam," he laughed as he pulled Mel with him so that we were all together. 

Despite the situation I laughed with him, "Thanks Mate,"

"Where's Alara," his brow furrowed with concern.

"Last I heard she was in the bathrooms, I'm going to get her now," I was charging towards the toilets only to realise that they were the most heavily guarded area of the hall. 

The majority of the masked fiends were congregating around there, blocking a clear path to Alara. 

It only made sense that they were after her, why I still didn't know but I wasn't about to lose her again. 

This attack smelt like Dane Laurier, I tired to locate him in the crowd and was surprised to him cornered by an attacker. Though that could all be a show, to convince us of his innocence. 

Owen Ross, shot the man in the head and reached out an arm to Dane. 

I stormed over, pressing my gun against his throat much like I had done a couple of days prior, Owen looked at me with confusion but didn't intervene. 

"You better fucking tell me you have nothing to do with this Laurier," his eyes steeled themselves while with all the conviction he could possibly muster he said, "This has nothing to do with me. I was almost killed."

I shook him one last time before letting him go, he fell back against the wall, and then all of a sudden he pulled his gun out faster than I could and shot. 

I expected the bullet to tear through me but it flew past my head and landed straight in an attacker who had tried to smash a vase over my head. 

"You owe me now Grayson," he muttered wiping the dust and debris from his suit trousers. 

"I don't owe you shit, Laurier, if you haven't forgotten you've been terrorising me and my fiancé,"

He rolled his eyes as though this wasn't a life or death situation, "Forget it then Grayson, but one way or another you will help me," 

Owen turned to me, "There are more weapons in the kitchen hidden in the freezer if you can get to them it will really help us, I had suspected something like this would happen,"

He then grasped my shoulder, "I don't know why but I have a feeling that this has something to do with Alara, this didn't happen last year and she is one of the only new added guests this year.  I have a safe room that Kayla is getting some of the women and children in the code is 5498, remember that and get Alara to it," with those instructions in hand he left barrelling towards the kitchens to further fortify the ball. 

The attackers kept coming as more gunshots rang out through the hall. Still the bathroom was blocked and my only shot was to pretend to be one of them. I thanked God that Alara had chosen a black shirt. I chucked my blazer off so that it wasn't too obvious that I was a guest. The attackers were wearing black shirts and trousers too thought they were looser and less professional amidst the chaos no one would really bat and eye at it. 

I took off the navy tie and threw it with my blazer, I unbuttoned the top two buttons to make myself look scruffier and less put together. I was staring to look more like them with each article of clothing removed. With the pocket square, tie and blazer discarded all I needed now was a mask. 

I located a slumped over body with a mask on it and pulled it off, it revealed a boy who must have only been 18 and for a moment I wondered what had led him to be a part of this so young. I felt a pang in my heart as I knew he must have been coerced into this and it had cost him his life. I silently thanked him for the mask even though I knew there was no longer breath in his body. I bent down to shut his eyes, so it looked like he was more peaceful than the shock of widened eyes. I silently prayed for him before slipping on the mask and blending into the attackers. 

I pretended to shoot at guests but with my hand making the sign of serpent curling my fingers around into a specific shape that indicated I was a member of the Viper gang. This meant that nobody shot at me thinking I was an attacker. 

It worked for the most part, the only thing that really hurt me were scared people running into me, mostly the plus ones of the gang members who had little to no training. It was easy to identify them as they didn't hold the conviction of those wielding weapons. 

I made my way over to the group guarding the bathroom, and masking the real sound of my voice by lowering it ever so slightly and changing my accent to be a thicker one than it was, "The boss sent me to get the girl," I said to one of the guards. 

They gave me a once over before asking, "Are you Elias?" I nodded mutely, and he began to shuffle out of the room, he slipped something into my hand, it was needle filled with an unnamed liquid. 

"You know what to do," he whispered to me. 

My blood began to boil, they were planning to drug Alara. I swiftly made my way into the bathroom and found nothing. 

Nothing but the wall with letters written in Alara's lipstick, I knew from the shade alone it must have been her.

It said, "Don't worry, I've got her."