My Double Life

Found

"Ed?"

"We have a problem. They've found you." It came out so fast I couldn't even really process what he had just said. They found me? I didn't even know someone was looking for me. I could tell by his voice that something was wrong, though. That Ed was worried. Ed is never worried.

Ed had started talking again but my mind was still trying to make sense of the first part so I didn't hear him. He was talking even faster than before so I couldn't even understand even if I was listening. There were two phrases that jumped out, muting everything else around me.

"They're coming to your school now... Your parents."

"What the bloody hell are you on about? You've just fucking realized they're alive. And now all of a sudden they decide to show up?"

"I don't understand myself. But they have a team. A kill team. Get out now!"

I dropped the phone, running quickly over to the large windows in the classroom. I was vaguely aware of the fact I had just dropped the facade of innocent American school girl but I didn't care. That didn't matter anymore. What mattered were the three large black SUVs parked outside with armed men rushing out. I guess they could have been armed women as well but it was impossible to tell over their masks and tactical gear.

One of them must have spotted me because all of a sudden guns starting being pointed at the window, firing off multiple times until the glass was nice and shattered. I tried to get away from the window as quickly as possible but in the process I tricked over my own stupid feet and fell to the ground. Perfect to avoid the bullets, not so perfect to my hand that just got sliced by the broken window glass.

I had expected the class to be well gone by now but when I looked up from my hand I noticed they were all staring at me with wide, terrified eyes. At least those who weren't staring in the opposite direction. I averted my gaze from my former classmates to the doorway. In it were two masked figures with large automatics pointed in the air. Explains why no one left the classroom.

The two masked figures looked at each other, as if unsure of how to handle the situation. I didn't really see the point in looking at each other though since they were both wearing full face masks. In other words, you couldn't see their eyes.

There seemed to be some unspoken words exchanged between the two because one of them started walking slowly towards me. I took this moment to look around me. It's practically a rule in these situations to look around and assess the scenario. To evaluate any possible casualties and find any escape routes. Looking around, however, I didn't seen possible casualties, people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time who become collateral. That was normally how I saw people who couldn't be saved. Instead, I saw classmates. People who weren't my friends but weren't strangers either. I saw Tinsley, our feud seeming stupid and pointless now. I saw Ryan, the man I swore to myself I would protect from all this. I saw teenagers caught up in my mess, teenagers whose whole lives could end because of me. Because of my stupid parents.

My stupid parents... it was the first time I really thought about them critically. This whole time I still thought of them as those loving parents I remember from so many years ago. But that isn't who they are. It never was. They are criminals who left me behind to work for bad people. Everything that was happening now was all their fault. It was like in an instant a light switch in my mind switched. I was no longer thinking about the gunmen after me but of my awful parents who did this to me. Why couldn't they have stayed with me? Why couldn't they have taken me with them? Why did they betray me, our family, and our country?

I started laughing them. And I mean really laughing. Like in hysterics. I must have caught the gunman coming towards me off guard because he stopped walking. He began to slowly inch towards me but he was noticeable concerned as to what was wrong with me. What was wrong with me? This isn't a situation to be laughing in!