Never Again

Chapter 27

Katie's - POV

Our journey was uneventful and we successfully snuck off the ship without being spotted. The hard part now was going to be staying off the radar while travelling to London. Where I lived.

We didn't have a car or any identification so our only real options were train tickets, walking or travelling by different buses.

Since it seemed easiest, we decided on going by train. It would take a few hours and quite a lot of changes but we needed to be discreet. The best way to do that was to try and stay in crowed areas, away from main roads and streets, making it harder to spot us.

"You got the tickets?" I asked Drew, as I had been acting as a lookout.

"Got them," She said, flashing them to me before handing one over. "Let's go."

I didn't let my thoughts drift too much because otherwise the anxiousness would probably appear on my face. I didn't want to be the reason this failed, especially since it was going so well.

Although the train journey was long, because I was so focused on the fact that I was going home, it didn't seem like a long time.

It was only when we got off the train that I was finally hit with the fact that I was going to see my family and friends again.

How much had they changed, I wondered.

I knew I had changed a lot since the last time they had seen me and what if they didn't like the person I'd become?

I cared less about people's lives and had no problem killing. My personality had become a lot more rigid and I was sure that I was a lot more observant to compensate for how jumpy I got.

Just as I was about to go spiraling down that line of thought Drew stopped me.

"I know you're worried about what is going to happen when we get there," She said, facing me, "but worrying won't solve anything. All you can do is your best and if they still dont accept you then its their loss."

What Drew was saying made complete sense but it didn't make it any easier to digest.

"I know." I said, swallowing visibly.

"I'll always be there for you." Drew said it as if it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Thank you." I said.

I wasn't sure if she even realised how much that had meant to me but I was eternally grateful for how much she cared about me. How much she did for me without complaint and how much she blindly trusted me.

I was not sure that I could've found a better person and friend in such a hell hole.

As we walked through town I was noticing all the little things that I so carelessly over-looked before as everyday occurances.

The kids having fun in the playground, the school kids walking back from school talking to each other and having a laugh. People sitting on one of the benches, on their phones, looking to have a great time.

Despite everything that was bad about this place I had missed it when I was gone. The feel of the town that you grew up in wasn't something that you could easily replace. All of my experiences in this area were coming back to me. Things that I hadn't thought of in years.

Although we were back in my home town, I didn't want to go home straight away. I wanted to make sure that nothing was going to happen to my family if we were to show up. The only way to do that was to wait a bit and make sure that nothing would go wrong.

As if my thoughts had manifested I suddenly felt eyes on me. Glancing towards Drew I saw her looking back at me, confirming my thoughts.

Had they found us already?

No, it couldn't be that. The only answer I could think of was that they already had someone stationed here all this time. Maybe even from before they kidnapped me.

Now fully focused on my surroundings I took Drew to the closest hotel, keeping an eye out incase the person decided to be more obvious in their stalking.

We reached the hotel without spotting anything suspicous but I knew for a fact that someone had been following us. I just had to hope that they couldn't get into contact with Ana in the next few days otherwise we would be royally screwed.

We payed for the room with cash using fake names and then went up to our room.

"So we had someone following us." Drew said, s deadpan expression on her face.

"Yeah," I said, flopping onto the bed. "I think that they are going to try and get into here later tonight, especially since they now know exactly where we are staying."

Drew took a second to think before smirking over at me.

"You purposefully led them here so that when they try and break in to do whatever they want to us, we can instead ambush them and capture them?"

"Exactly." I said. "I don't think that they're going to contact anyone about this either."

I didn't know why but my gut was telling me that this person wasn't going to contact anyone unless things started going extremely wrong.

"We should get to work then." Drew said, getting out the stuff we had available for the makeshift security for our room.

"Lets do it." I said grabbing the wiring out of the bag.

                                                                                       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours later we had set everything up and were waiting for the person to try and come in.

Because we knew that it was someone from the academy, we had to improvise our traps so that they wouldn't be nullified straight away.

Luckily, we didn't have to wait long for the person to start their attempt.

All the lights were off and since we had nothing to help us see in the dark, all we could use was the limited moon light allowed through the curtains.

The lock was being jiggled around and it wasn't long before it clicked and the door slowly moved to an open position. The person was obviously being extremely careful as they knew who we were.

As soon as the door opened half way our first trap triggered and the wire made a stack of bottles fall over onto the person, trying to startle the person more than anything.

Drew and I quickly rushed up to the door but by the time we got there the person was already sprinting down the pitch black hallway. Going out of the hotel we were in would void our advantage of already knowing the place inside out.

Quickly realising that the only exit was just below our window, I hurried over there.

All I saw before the person vanished around a corner into an alleyway was a flash of red hair fading into the night.