-The Banditos-

-Chapter Four-

"Chloe, I think he knows." I frantically tell her, rushing us along and out of the Center.

"What?" She questions, confused as to why I'm panicking all of a sudden.

"Keons. I think he knows I'm a," I whisper the word in case anyone is around who might hand us in, "bandito."

"What? How?"

"I don't know." I feel anxiety rising, which is strange. I don't usually feel anxious at things. I'm usually so confident, not caring of the consequences of my actions. But now the stakes are higher than before. We might be one step away from escaping and if Keons finds out he could prevent it all and wipe out the Banditos, "It must be because I've already tried escaping twice before." I guess, practically jogging to my house now. It's not far from the Center luckily.

"June, calm down." Chloe says, pulling my arm and stopping me. I take a deep breath and try to collect my thoughts, "He can't do anything. He can just pull random people who he only THINKS are Banditos."

"But they've already been taking innocent people, what's to stop them now? Especially because I'm not innocent. And what about you? What if he knows about-"

"June." Chloe says in a stern voice, shutting me up, "Everything is going to be fine. He doesn't know."

"But what if?"

"Look, we have more important things to worry about than some old dude making threats." She says it with such confidence but in her eyes I see that she's anxious too. She's trying to hide it, maybe for my sake or maybe for her own.

We go back to my house and frantically lock the door behind us. I let out a breath, finally feeling safer.

"Jesus, June, do you ever clean this place?" Chloe asks, moving old plates of food and old clothes off the sofa.

"I barely spend any time here." I feel myself calming down more and more but what if Keons does know? That makes me a pretty big target, and everyone I'm close to a target as well. Who knows what he'll do to get answers about the Banditos out of me. There have already been some Banditos which have been captured by the bishops and it doesn't seem like they gave up information, but this is Keons. He's knows I'm not exactly the quiet type as it...and I've heard Keons doesn't play fair when it comes to getting what he wants.

"So you destroyed your neon gravestone then, huh?" She says quietly, looking at all the glass bars on the ground in the corner.

"Yeah...I don't want to keep being reminded he's gone..." I mumble back, remembering how I lost myself and destroyed it without a second though. The neon gravestone belongs to my old roommate, Diego. We grew up together, long before I met Chloe. I only met Chloe through the Banditos. We were forced to work together by Seth, but slowly grew closer. She's much like Diego actually...but I don't think anybody could replace him. We lived together for ten years before he was arrested by the Bishops for associating with the Banditos. The thing is is that he wasn't, he barely even knew they existed. He got in the middle of an Failed Perimeter Escape attempt, just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time, and was arrested by the Bishops falsely.

The executed him later that day. He was taken and turned into one of those mindless freaks that wander the streets "protecting us."

They give you a gravestone to signify a loss in the household. Something in memory of the person you've lost. It's funny really...they gave me something for someone I lost and they gained. It was what motivated me to join the Banditos. I saw that the Bishops had no reasoning behind what they do. They took him with no remorse, they didn't even listen to his side of the story. And it doesn't help that I sometimes see him walking around the streets. The familiar, warm smile, the only happiness I had in my life has been replaced with darkness. His eyes look empty and it hurts so much. It makes me feel empty too. It's like he's left a void I don't know how to replace.