Corruption

Compromise

"Are you insane?!" William exclaimed softly, staring wide-eyed at Layla.

By this point, his confession had been accepted, giving him every excuse to be protective over Layla. Especially after the plan she'd just suggested to the group.

"Although it doesn't happen often, I have to agree with William. What you're suggesting is suicide!" Rebecca agreed.

"But it could work, if you think about it," Chase thought out loud. "Jackson's ability is to be kind to everyone so they all follow him, right? But, there's a catch to every power. For me, I'm literally always tired. For Layla, well, we all know that"

"Just get to the point" Layla slightly snapped at him.

"Right. I have an idea of what his drawback is. Have any of you seen him be rude or remotely negative to anyone?" he asked.

TJ suddenly came to life. "I haven't! I always thought there was no way someone could be that nice!"

"Funny, that's kinda what I thought about you," Rebecca said.

"Ok, that's just petty. You should've gotten over it by now," he replied.

Layla rolled her eyes. "So, his drawback is that he can't be rude or negative to anyone? What're we supposed to do with that?"

"We use it to our advantage, duh!" Lily scoffed. "The question is, how?"

"We already know how to," Layla thought over the plan in her head. It'll work, she thought. The only problem was getting the others to agree to it. "If Chase is right about his weakness, he won't be able to do anything"

"Yeah, but if it fails, he could be the only one that walks out of this alive" Rebecca stated. "As I said before, it's suicide. Literally."

Layla was starting to get annoyed. "If anyone else got any bright ideas, speak up. I'd love to hear them"

"Yeah, I've got one," TJ said, peering at Lily. "Lily and I have been talking this over for some time now"

The table stared at them as Lily nodded. "We had a feeling that they would have some kind of last resort. But, this is a bit dramatic. So, we made a mini backup if everything went to shit" she explained.

"Well?" William asked.

As TJ and Lily explained their plan, it started to sound much less suicidal than Layla's plan. However, there was something that needed to change in this new plan.

"No way" William immediately objected. "Layla isn't going to play like Jackson's little puppet just so he can agree to that"

"Come on, Will! We get it, you love Layla, but it's the only way that it'll work!" TJ pleaded, which was something he rarely did. "It's better than turning ourselves in and leaving our trust with Jackson that he'll take down the wall!"

"This is any better?! It's too dangerous for Layla and that's all that matters!" he shouted.

Thank god they were in an empty classroom at lunch.

"No the hell it's not! What about all the other kids here that'll die if we don't do anything?!" Layla shouted back.

"As if they're innocent?! Besides, why are you agreeing to this? This stupid plan could get you killed!" he exclaimed, turning his attention solely on Layla.

"Do you really think I care?! Listen, the only reason I'm even agreeing to this demon versus angels crap is so that that stupid fucking wall comes down and we live like normal people!" she turned to the group. "As much as I want to be alive to see that, if I have to die then its fine by me" her voice softened.