The Purge ➵ a.i

3

Annalise

8:43 p.m.

I had finally stopped crying. Gun shots happens all night and that's all I'm hearing right now. I walk into my room and lay down.

Michael// anna r u awake

Me// No.

Michael// o. makes sense

Me// My dad is dead.

Michael// omg fr

Me// Yeah..

Michael// ill b ovr in a min

Me// No, just stay at home.

Michael// i want to c my bby

Me// I'm not your baby.

Michael// yes u r. my mom evn said so

Me// You listen to your mom about me being your baby?

Michael// yep. ur my bby. no chngng tht

Me// Bye.

Michael// bye

I heard a chair move downstairs. It can't be Luke. He would text me to open the doors. Who's here?

Me// THERRD SYMIRNF IN MY HOISR

Michael// i cant undrstnd ur language

Me// MICHAEL THERE IS SOMEONE IS MY HOUSE. OH MY GOD.

Michael// ill b ovr in a min. hide

Me// No, you have to stay safe.

Michael// my best friend is in trble. i cant jst sit here nd let it hppn

Me// Stay at home. I have a gun, don't worry.

Michael// u sure

Me// I'm sure.

I lock my phone and put it in my back pocket. I run out and run into my dads room which has a big bed that I can hide under. I hide and not long after, the person walks into the room.

I hold my breath, in case if he could hear my heavy breathing. "I know you're under there," the person says. It happens to be a boy.

"Get out of there or I'll hurt your brother. I know you don't want that," he says. I take a deep breath and slowly crawl out from the under the bed. I feel tears in my eyes, and I know my face is red.

"Give me the gun," he says. I slowly hand it over. He snatches is from my hand. "I won't hurt you, but I need you to come with me," he says. His voice sounds oddly familiar, but I don't know who it is because of the mask he's wearing and his hoodie is covering his hair.

"Who are you?" I ask. "You know me, but you'll find out soon," he says. "Where are we going?" I ask. "To this guy's house. You're going to help me kill him," he says. "I can't do that," I say.

"Sure you can. Murder isn't illegal tonight," he says. "I know, but I don't kill the living," I say. "I don't care, you're either helping me or you dying. Take your pick," he says pointing a gun to my head. "H-helping you," I say, swallowing hard.

"That's what I thought," he says and he puts his gun down. "Let's go, baby," he says. My head shoots in his direction. Michael is the only person I know that says baby. We start to walk down the stairs.

"I want to know who you are," I say. "You'll find out," he says. I pull my phone out. "Put the phone down," he says. I heard the gun click. "I was just texting my best friend back," I say.

"I don't want you to text him. He's not important right now," he says. "Please, I just want to tell him I can't talk right now," I say. The only reason why I want to text him back is because I want to see if it's Michael behind the mask.

"Put the phone down, or I will shoot," he says. I put it back in my pocket slowly. "Thank you," he says. "My brother is going to be here any minute, he's going to freak out if he sees I'm gone," I say.

"He'll be fine," he says. "How'd you get in here anyway?" I ask. "When you opened the doors to let your dad out, I snuck in. I've been here for a while," he says.

When we get to the bottom of the stairs, my phone starts to ring Luke's ringtone. Luke has his own ringtone so if he needs to call me and I want to ignore him, I know who it is.

"Answer it, tell him you're alright and that he can stay gone," he says. I nod and pull it out of my pocket and answer it.

"Hello?" I ask. I swallow hard, hoping that he can't hear how shaky my voice is and how scared I am.

"Anna, I'm outside. Let me in," he says. "I'm fine now. Keep purging. Find the man who killed dad," I say. "Bad idea. I don't know who it was," he says, I can almost hear the annoyance in his voice.

"It was his co-worker that he always talks to on the phone. I don't know his name but you know who he is," I say. "Jared. I know exactly who he is. Okay, little sis. I'll go find him," Luke says and hangs up.

"Very good. Let's get going then. Unlock the doors," he says. I do as said on my phone, and we both go outside into the dark, killing night.