I'd just finished with my shower and cleaned my wound when Dylan barges into my room, without knocking, as if he owns the place. What is his actual reason for being here except to piss everyone off and sleep with every girl in the building?

"Hey princess," I have to force myself not to gag at this new-found nickname he has for me. Princess, really?

"Why are you here?" I get straight to the chase and ask the question that has been on my mind since he messaged me last night.

"Are you not happy I'm here?" he asks as if I would be overwhelmed with joy at the sight of his face. But no Dylan I am not happy to see you.

"Answer the question," I'm sick of him playing games and avoiding.

"Feisty aren't you," he smirks and I remember Colton saying the same thing to me when I'd first met him. Wow... I had never realised how similar their personalities are and how equally easy they both are to hate. "What happened to the sweet, shy Rose I once knew," Dylan says.

"She got sick of your crap," I snap and his eyes go wide.

"I'm here because there is a patrol taking place tomorrow night and they asked me to attend," wasn't that hard now was it? This is just perfect. I am going on a stake out with the two people I hate most in this world, could life get any better?

"Why'd they ask you? What relevance do you have?" I ask a bit too harshly. "I mean like what does this have to do with you?" that doesn't sound great either but we'll just roll with it.

"Because they need my skills. Andrew Grey is close friends with my family so he knew about the training I had been doing and asked if I wanted to come tomorrow night," Dylan explains and the reason seems fair enough. "Anyways, how do you know about this?" he asks.

"Funnily enough, they asked me as well," I explain and he smirks again.

"It was meant to be," he jokes and I actually laugh. Our moment's cut short when he tells me he has to go and that he'll see me later.

I then realise I never got to ask how he knew where my room was.

Knowing him, he probably followed me.

***

My schedule consists of mostly training, eating and sleeping so it can't get repetitive whatsoever. It honestly feels like I am living everyday on repeat, except some days new people get added and a random event that messes with my head appears.

It's late in the afternoon and I am supposed to be going to the shooting range but I have absolutely no clue where it is located within the facility. How fitting that I am going to be training to use a gun when I am probably scarred for life from my previous experience with the contraption.

I walk out into the corridor and muster up the confidence to actually ask someone where it is because I have no clue where Zach is and he probably knows less than I do. Okay... who looks the nicest? Her. She's a petite girl with caramel skin and black curly, shoulder length hair. She looks effortlessly beautiful and is easily the kindest looking person here.

"Hi, I'm sorry to bother you but do you know where the shooting range is?" I ask and it takes her a second to register that I am talking to her but when she does, she flashes me a warm smile.

"Yeah of course, I am actually heading there now. Follow me," she smiles and I'm glad I asked her. "I take it you're new here," people must see right through me.

"Yeah my father thought it would be best to delay me coming here for a year so I am a year behind everyone else," I say with mock happiness.

"I can see how that would be a problem," she laughs. "Anyways, I'm Melissa," she beams and I return a kind smile.

"I'm Rose," she studies my face as we walk as if she knows me. "Do I know you from somewhere?" I ask and she obviously snaps out of it.

"No," she answers quickly, too quickly. "I mean... no I don't think so," she offers me a sweet smile and I decide to ignore her erraticness. She's probably just tired - I don't blame her.

***

We're finally at the shooting range and I made sure to memorise, as best as I could, the way here so I wouldn't have to ask anyone again. I'm quite an independent person so I try my best to not rely on others as much as I can.

I know Colton is here... I don't know how but I can just feel that he's here, feel his presence. I scan the room but can't see him anywhere... weird.

"You looking for someone?" Melissa asks from beside me and I shake my head. I'm kind of relieved really that I was wrong about him being here, it will make this less stressful.

The room is just as plain as the others and concrete as far as the eye can see, I can tell a lot of thought went into designing these rooms. Sarcasm at it's finest.

Small pods are lined up on the furthest wall, walls separating each one and various guns are displayed on the opposite wall. Ammunition is scattered throughout the room - boxes on tables and the odd few bullet casings on the floor. My palms begin to sweat at the sight.

Everything in this room is just a reminder of what I have done. I wonder if anyone else in this room have done the tragic things I have, I hope for their sake that they haven't and they still have their sanity.

"Hello love," Colton says coldly, what's new, from beside me and I try to convince myself that it was in my head. He's not here... he doesn't exist.

It works until he puts his hand on the small of my back and I jerk away.

"Why are you here?" I cross my arms and make a point to stare ahead at the very interesting wall and not acknowledge that he is standing right next to me.

"Wouldn't want to miss the show," he laughs and I can't help the confusion that washes over me.

"Show? What show?" let me guess everyone's gonna start shooting each other and this is going to turn into a whole bloodbath.

"You'll see," he smirks and a wave of nervousness takes over me and settles in my bones. What show? He always finds a way to dampen the mood and make everyone miserable. It's a talent at this point, to be able to make things so melancholic without doing anything but simply being.

"I want my knife back," I say. I need it back and I don't care what I have to do to get it.

"As you wish," he pulls it out of the blazer he's wearing and holds it out for me. I can't help but think he is trying to trick me. I raise an eyebrow at him and he rolls his eyes. "Take it," and I do before tucking it back into the waistband of my leggings.

That was too easy...

***

"Rose Waterstone," the instructor calls me over and my hands shake violently at my sides. I ball them into fists and press down so hard I feel my nails dig into the flesh of my palms.

"Good luck," Colton says, amused as usual.

I walk towards the man and he holds out a gun for me to take. Everyone is doing there own thing, getting on with the task at hand but it still feels like everyone has their eyes on me - waiting for me to crack.

I reach a shaky hand and take the gun from his hand and he looks at me questionably.

"Are you okay?" he asks cautiously and I try to smile but I can't. My eyes are fixated on the metal object in my hand, a metal object I used to kill someone. To take their life. The person explains how to use the gun but I can't hear him over the thrumming of my own heart. "You ready?" he seems wary and uncertain and I don't blame him.

Slowly, I lift my arms and aim the gun. It feels like everything is taking a million years to do - as if everything is in slow motion. My limbs feel numb and my arms are working at their own accord, I don't feel in control of my own body.

My finger hesitantly lands on the trigger. As much as I need to pull the trigger, I can't do it. Even at a stupid target. I really am useless. I hated my father for saying those cruel things to me so often but he was only trying to shine light on the truth. I see that now.

"I'm sorry... I can't do this" I place the gun down so quickly, it would look like the torcherous device had burnt me. The images, the images are all I see. My breathing is erratic and the room feels like it is closing in on me. I have to leave... I need to get out of this room.

I sprint straight for the door, pushing it with such force I'm scared it may of rip off of it's hinges. The corridors are like a maze and are even harder to navigate when a dead body is clouding your vision. It feels like I am going in circles and I can't breathe. It feels like someone is standing on my chest, trying to make it cave in on itself. My head is pounding and everything just seems to blur together.

I open a door and I'm overwhelmed with relief to see that it's my bedroom. I walk straight to the bathroom, turn the shower on and get in fully clothed. Sitting under the cold sprays of water does wonders but I still can't stop it.

"Grow up Rose, why are you letting this effect you so much?" I whisper to myself. My knees are tucked to my chest and my arms are wrapped around my legs as I rock back and forth. "Sort yourself out," I say breathless, hoping that these words will somehow lure my mind out of it's destructive state. "Sort yourself out," I repeat and continue to rock. It calms me - repeating the same words and the same movements brings me back to reality.

****

I'm unaware of how long I have been rocking back and forth but someone enters the room and my numbed brain suddenly becomes sharp and aware. Dylan walks in and sees my sorry state and smiles a sad smile.

"What are you doing Rose?" he asks gently as he crouches down so he is at my level. Through the glass, I can see the concern in his eyes.

"Having the time of my life... can't you see," I deadpan. Everything is tired: my mind, body and soul and no amount of sleep can cure it. It's not that kind of tired... not anymore.

"What's going on?" he opens the door of the shower so that we are now face to face. The water blurs my vision a little as it flows down my face, making Dylan's face look distorted.

"Nothing much," I lie and he doesn't look convinced. He doesn't need an explanation, this has nothing to do with him. Besides, I don't need his opinion on my life choices.

I probably look bat-crazy but I've looked worse.

"C'mon let's get you dried off," he holds out his hand for me and I take it reluctantly. The water managed to calm me down by a margin and it's then that I realise the whole scenario that went down in the shooting range was "the show". My blood boils.

"You can talk to me," he says reassuringly and I nod but know that I am never going to take his advice, no matter how desperate I get.

"Thanks," I whisper as he hands me a towel. Dylan leaves the room for a second so I can get changed out of my, now drenched, attire and I wrap the towel around my body. After opening the door, I leave the bathroom to go to my wardrobe to pick out some fresh clothes.

After getting dressed, I join Dylan on the bed. He looks at me, studying my face and slowly brings his hand to my cheek. I lean into his hand, without thinking, and he looks into my eyes.

The one thing I loved most about Dylan is that he was understanding and never pitied me like everyone else.

"You're different," Dylan says softly and I can't tell if that's a bad thing or not.

"People change, we move on," I state and play with the loose piece of thread on my hoodie.

"You've moved on already?" I can hear the hurt in his voice but I didn't think he'd actually care that I'd tried to move on. Yes it was unsuccessful but I still tried.

"I had to, you hurt me and I needed to get on with my life," this is probably the most civil conversation Dylan and I have ever had. Usually we'd be cussing each other out by now and one of us would have stormed out, but no.

We are sitting here and having a conversation maturely and actually talking.

"I'm sorry," he whispers and I'm actually shocked. He just apologised? Dylan says I'm different but here he is apologising? If anything he is the one that has changed. Before, no matter whose fault it was, I would be the one that would have to apologise. Even if he cheated on me - I would be the one to say sorry. "What?" he laughs.

"You apologised, that's a first," I raise my eyebrows and laugh a little, completely shocked. His eyes flicker down to my lips and I know what he is going to do before he even does it.

Dylan's lips crash into mine.

***

A/N Wow... we hit 1k reads, I can't believe this. Thank you all so much for the continued support and I hope you are enjoying the story so far.