To Live Forever

Chapter 17

Aria was sure of a few things, even in the hazy state she was.

One, she was not in her room.

Two, she didn't reach her apartment yesterday.

Third, she was not wearing her favourite jacket.

She opened her eyes, ignoring the throbbing in her temples and looked around in the white room. She saw her jacket and bag in the corner and walked towards it. She wore the jacket and slumped down, hands on her knees, and held her head, groaning at the pain.

She remembered what had happened yesterday and panicked, getting up and stumbling towards the door.

Locked.

She looked around for windows.

None.

She sat back down, fear growing in her chest as she looked for her phone or pepper spray in her bag.

Gone.

She slammed her hands on the floor and grimaced at the sting.

She cursed at herself for not listening to her friend, Haley, as she had advised Aria to not go to work after the third attack on her. She had gone to the police after the second one, but, as expected, they were of no use. Aria had stayed in her apartment for two whole weeks, ignoring calls from the parents she used to babysit for, and her manager in the supermarket.

But after being cooped up inside her apartment for such a long time, and being surrounded by the letters of rent she had yet to pay, Aria felt like she might have exploded.

But now, she was regretting ever going outside.

She kept her head on her arms, a few tears escaping her eyes as she thought of what would happen to her. Were the kidnappers the ones who had attacked Aria all those times? What did they want? She didn't even have any money. Only two accounts, one under her legal name and one under her orphanage, which had the numbers in negative.

She heard the door open and sat up straight, backing away in the wall.

She saw two men enter.

To be honest, they weren't that old, maybe a few years older than herself.

The first thing she noticed was the height difference. The taller one was maybe almost six feet, an inch shorter perhaps. He had dark brown hair arranged messily, and chocolate brown eyes, which looked lively despite the glare she was receiving.
He had the most elegant facial structure she had ever seen. From the sleek nose, to the prominent cheekbones to the wide, pink lips.

He was wearing a checked button down shirt and pants, his feet secured in dress shoes.

The other man looked...bored.

He had dark, messy hair, and brown eyes, which stared at her. He had very unique features as well. The slanted eyes, the button nose, and the small lips, paired with the almost translucent skin colour.

He kept his hands in his jeans' pockets, his simple shirt riding up a bit.

Aria frowned a bit, as the boys kept staring at her, and she cleared her throat, "Care to tell me why I'm here?"

The sleepy boy answered, his voice deep and bored, "Sure. You're being hunted by very dangerous people. We are protecting you from them, which is why you're supposed to stay with us here."

Aria stared at the boy, until the taller one rolled his eyes, "Something like that."

"I'm... being hunted by...um, okay." She looked at the taller man, who was still glaring at her.

"Off topic, but did I do something to you? Because you look like you might kill me in my sleep and I really don't appreciate that."

The taller man raised an eyebrow, "Well, I don't appreciate the fact that I've become a laughing stock ever since we've returned with you, because you hit me."

"I hit you?"

"Right in the crotch."

"Oh. Well." Aria flushed, scratching her nose, "In my defense, you were trying to kidnap me."

"Again, we're protecting you." The taller man sighed.

"Alright, buddy. This is going to hurt, but the people who are after me did seem very threatening. You all...don't seem that dangerous-"

Aria squeaked as in a matter of milliseconds, the shorter man had pulled out a black gun from his shirt, clicked the bullet into place and had positioned it on Aria's forehead.

"You were saying...?" He raised an eyebrow.

"That you're all really menacing." Aria cleared her throat, "But, um, who is after me?"

The shorter man kept the gun away from Aria and she eyed it warily as the taller man spoke, "That is a very good question. Our boss will probably come here in a while. Ask him that."

They gave her a look before walking out of the room, and she heard the lock click into place.

She groaned, slumping back on the ground and rested her head on the wall.

***

Everyone was still laughing.

Max had warned them to shut their mouths a thousand times, but the way Tyler told the story, the way Max flushed, it was too much.

"She-she-", Hayden laughed, rolling over and even Nathan was trying to hold back his laughter.

"Did you see how he was waking when he came back?" Noah laughed, "As if someone had shoved something up his-"

"Okay, Noah." Nathan rolled his eyes, smiling and said, "Its not even that funny, to be honest. He was bound to get hurt, he was at a Cov Ops. You all don't laugh when one of us get hurt while on a mission."

"But the girl hit him right in the-" Hayden choked and coughed, sitting up straight and Nathan rolled his eyes again.

"It was a little funny, to be honest." Jason sighed, "Especially how he started rolling on the floor after she kicked him."

And Hayden went off again.

After a while, Max and Tyler came out of the interrogation room and all the boys looked at them.

"She's a weird one." Tyler sighed and Max rolled his eyes.

"She kind of reminds me of someone...I can't put my finger on it, but...she's just really familiar. Maybe its the way she talks, I don't know."

"Who does she remind you of?" Logan asked and Tyler shrugged, "I don't know."

Max nodded as well, "Yeah, I get what he means. She reminds me of someone really...familiar too."

"Well, we'll see about that later. We have to go introduce ourselves now, right?" Noah got up and so did everyone else.

"Remind me why we're telling her our real names again?" Max asked, as they walked towards the interrogation room.

"Well, according to the High Quarter, she's going to stay with us until the threat on her has ended. Which means until the new gang is caught. And that might take a while. So why not tell her our real identities?" Noah sighed and Max shrugged.

"I can tell she is going to be my new best friend." Hayden smirked.

"Why?" Nathan asked.

"Because she hit Max right in the-"

And Max jumped on him.

***

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Love,

Alexandria 💞