Academy Everlasting

Cornered

When Luke finally had his fill of the candy store, we made our way back to the food court. We arrived just in time for Gabriel to throw his trash away from his lunch. I keep it to myself how hungry I am because I don't want them to wait on me to eat or spend more money on me than they already have. Gabriel says it is time to finish up our shopping, so as soon as Nathan and Kota show up we head over to the second half of the mall. While inside the last department store, paying for Gabriel's picks, I hear Kota's phone ding.

"Si and North are finished with their job," He says, looking up at me. "They want to know if you want them to meet us here?"

I would love to see them now, but they have been working for almost nine hours and they must be more tired than I am. Before I can answer Kota, something catches my eye and I turn to see the same scary guy that grabbed me in the dressing room. He is staring right at me, with an evil glint in his eyes.

"Sang?" I hear Kota call my name, but I can't take my eyes off the evil man. "Sang, what's wrong?"

"Kota, can we please leave?" I beg, keeping my attention on the man as he inches his way to the exit.

"Why? What happened?" He asks, sounding very concerned.

"I think that man over there has me mistaken for someone else," I whisper, noticing my voice has started to shake. "He grabbed me earlier telling me he knew my secret and he wanted it for himself."

"What?!" This time it is Gabriel talking, or rather yelling.

I flinch at his tone, but the guys don't seem to notice. They are all glaring in the direction of the now smirking man. He gives me one last scary glare, then walks out the door.

"Come on," Kota says, typing furiously on his cell phone.

No one says a word as we walk to the cars. We all pile in and speed off toward an unknown destination. After about five minutes of driving we pull into the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse. The guys jump out, and Kota comes around to open my door before I can get my seatbelt off. He pulls me out of the car and brings me over to the corner that the guys are huddled in.

No one says a word and it seems we are waiting for something. It doesn't take long to realize what that something is, when I notice North's truck come screeching into the lot. He slams on the breaks right next to Kota's car and jumps out. Silas isn't far behind him, hopping from the passenger seat.

"Ok, why in the fuck did you guys call an emergency meeting right here?" North asks with his usual scowl. "The Doc and Mr. B are about twenty minutes out but I am not fucking waiting. Someone start talking, now!"

"Calm down, North," Nathan says with his own scowl. "Some guy tried to grab Sang, said he knew her secret and wanted it for himself?"

"WHAT THE FUCKING HELL?!" North's booming voice scares the bejesus out of me and I wrap my arms around myself in a protective gesture. He glances at me for a second, then does a double take.

"Baby, I'm sorry I yelled," He says with barely controlled anger in his voice. "We will discuss this when Mr. B and Doc get here. How was your day? What did you have for lunch?" He asks, trying to keep calm and change the subject.

"Uh..." I say, putting my finger to my bottom lip and pushing it toward my teeth. "The day was good, I had fun."

"What'd you eat?" He asks, with scrunched eyebrows, noticing I didn't answer his question about lunch.

"Well, we got pretty busy," I whisper.

"What does that mean, Sang Baby?" North asks through gritted teeth.

"I didn't really get a chance to eat," I say so quietly, I almost wonder if he hears me.

"SON OF A BITCH!" North booms, turning to the other guys, yelling at them about how irresponsible it was to not feed me. The all start to argue that they thought one of the others was feeding me. I take a step back from all of the anger and wrap my arms around myself tighter.

I see Silas watching me with curious eyes, and as soon as my shirt sleeve raises from my movement his eyes turn ice cold. He turns to North and says something in Greek that sounds like "Αυτό μαλάκα της μελανιασμένο!"

At Silas' words, North head snaps back to me. He looks from my arm to my eyes and his whole body tenses with anger. He must blame me for the arguing and anger going on in the group. I knew I should have kept my mouth shut! Why am I always doing the wrong thing?!

North takes a heavy step toward me and I give into my instincts. I run like crazy, just like I did when I met Kota, Silas, and Nathan. I should have just stayed at my old house. I knew this was too good to be true. I was stupid and made them mad. They won't want me anymore, who would?! I wonder if I can even go back home now. My father and step mother signed over custody of me. Maybe I can find a job and live on my own. I could probably sleep in the woods for a few weeks while I save up for an apartment or something.

All of these thoughts run through my head as I am running full speed out of the parking lot. As I pass the abandoned looking warehouse, I vaguely wonder if I just felt an earthquake. I don't take much time to wonder about it, as I can hear the guys chasing after me and yelling my name. I push myself to go faster but I can hear them gaining on me. Just as I turn the corner, leaving the empty parking lot, a sleek grey car comes swinging into the lot.

Before I know what is happening, the car backs up, shoots in front of me, and jumps the curb. This effectively blocks my path and I skid to a stop. Mr. Blackbourne and Dr. Green jump out of the grey car and I turn to try going the other way, only to be blocked by the rest of the guys. I feel surrounded and cornered.

This causes my heart to start racing and my breathing to accelerate. I am terrified they are going to hurt me, I didn't mean to make North so mad. I try to explain this but all that comes out of my mouth are gasps for air. The guys are all talking at once, but I can't understand what they are saying. My vision is going fuzzy and all I can hear is buzzing in my ears. This cannot be good. Suddenly the floor comes rushing toward my face, I don't understand why the world has suddenly tilted like this, but everything goes black before I can figure it out.