Chpt 7: "What the balls happened to my phone"

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Anna's P.O.V

When the hospital disappears from our sight and no one appears to be following us, I release the breath I've been holding.

"We actually made it out and no one got hurt." Ayla exclaims surprised.

"It's a fucking miracle." Devin responds.

"It shouldn't be that surprising." Jace scoffs annoyed. "People get safely out of hospitals all the time."

"Great, but we're not normal people with ordinary lives and Ayla's statement isn't entirely true either. Anna received a couple of hits from that lunatic guard that accompanied us in the elevator." Brad points out.

"I'm not hurt. I took the hits no problem, used to it anyways." I mutter annoyed.

"And I considered our lives to be pretty normal before Anna's family decided to act up and throw that fact on the pyre." Jace harshly adds and I feel my stomach twist.

"Whatever just drive to Anna's." Brad dismisses the subject.

"No" I flatly interrupt and everyone gives me an incredulous look. "Hey unless you expect Devin to stay at my place with what he had at the hospital, we're gonna have to stop at his place." I spit.

Jace awkwardly makes a U-turn. "Devin's place it is then." He comments while I pull my legs close to my body and rest my head on my knees, eyes fixated on the ground.

Jace is right, before the festival our lives actually were pretty normal. I encountered my cousin maybe once every four months and he was pretty quick to deal with, but this is downright insane. I'm bringing everyone in danger. God I need my family off my ass.

We already got threatened with a gun twice in the past month. Before that the last time I saw a gun was before I left the Preston mansion. Fuck Devin got shot for god's sake, all because for one reason or another my abusive family wants me back. What if I can't keep them safe? My friends don't deserve this, they shouldn't worry about leaving a hospital. Why did they have to be friends with me, they'd be off so much better with someone who doesn't have a past catching up with her, ready to set the lives of her friends on fire like a pyromaniac. It would be a lot less of a burden and at least then you'd be sure you're waking up the next morning.

Oh I know this feeling all too well, guilt.

I have already accepted my life was never normal nor will be and that the fight between me and the Prestons will continue to burden and scar me until I get away from them for good, but that notion does not include my friends.

"We're here." Ayla snaps me out of my thoughts.

"Wait. Do we even have keys?" Brad wonders as we're walking through the gate towards Devin's front door.

"Fuuuuuuuuccckkkk." Devin groans and rest his head against the door.

"Breaking in it is." He states. "Everybody search for bricks or something."

While the rest is actually following up with Devin's ridiculous plan, I fish out a set of keys from my pockets and calmly unlock the door. I throw the door wide open and step inside the familiar home I once stayed every other week in.

"Really Anna? Do you know how long I wanted to destroy the kitchen window with a pickaxe? This was a golden opportunity." Devin whines.

"Of course I do, why do you think I took us and two pickaxes into the woods for your 15th birthday." I chuckle.

Everyone follows me inside and I walk into the kitchen remembering Jolene told me she left a note there. I pick it up and scan through it. Hearing everyone walk into the kitchen, I decide to put some of us to work. "Brad, Jace, help Devin stuff some shit into a bag so we can get going again. Be generous, but don't be too enthusiastic, he's not gonna have to survive an apocalypse."

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