"Okay, wait a minute," I said, holding up my hand. "How in the world do you know all of this?"

Before answering me, Hayden walked over to the air vent and sat down next to it, his back pressed against the wall.

I also slid down to sit on the other side of the air vent, crossing my legs.

"Please. I'm a Bandit with dumb ass friends. Do you really expect me to pick flowers for fun?" he teased, keeping his voice down.

"You broke in here with your friends?" I asked, giving him a look, asking if he was crazy.

He just shrugged.

"Now I know why people are trying to get rid of you guys," I sarcastically mumbled and rolled my eyes.

"Okey, first of all--"

"Shh!" I hissed and clamped my hand down over his mouth.

There were voices outside of the door. And they were getting louder. The heavy footsteps suddenly stopped and I wondered what had happened, until I realised that they were standing in front of the door.

"Cut the lights!" I hissed and Hayden jumped up to turn of the lamp in the corner.

As soon as the room went black, the door opened. There were two guys standing in the doorway. Luckily, they didn't open the door all the way. Because if they did, the room would have been illuminated with the hallway light and they would have seen us.

"I told you it's not this room," one of the two elderly guys by the door said.

"Yeah, yeah," the other one grumped and shut the door, leaving Hayden and I in silence.

We both waited a while until we were sure that they weren't coming back. Once I was certain nobody else would come, I let out a silent sigh of relief and relaxed my tensed muscles.

"You can turn the light on again," I said to Hayden in a low voice, even though he could be gone for all I know because he was really quiet.

"Uh, yeah...about that....," he drifted off.

I could here the regret in his voice and immediately tensed up again.

"What did you do?" I hissed in his direction, where I guessed he was sitting.

"You scared me. So out of fright I might have pulled the cord off of the lamp," he explained, blaming me in the process.

"You what?!" I shouted as best as I could in a whisper.

"Sorry," he apologised as I heard some shuffling.

My guess, he was trying to find his way back to where the vent was in the dark.

The loud bang and his muttered curse words told me that he had some problems getting to the other side of the room.

But eventually he made it. 

And how did I know? Because he was apparently crawling on the floor and hit his head against the wall right next to me.

"Be quiet!" I warned, trying to keep my laughter under control.

"I appreciate how much you care about me," he murmured while taking his old place on the other side of the vent.

I rolled my eyes even though Hayden couldn't see me. Old habit.

After a few minutes of silence, we heard voices again. At first I thought there were more people in the hall but when Hayden bent down to the ground, I realised that the voices were coming from the room next to us.

A light turned on and our faces that were on the ground right in front of the vent were slightly lit up so that I could see Hayden's face, that was set into a grim expression.

"Good evening, everyone," a deep voice spoke.

"The mayor," Hayden whispered to me, most probably knowing that I had no idea who was talking.

I nodded, not trusting myself to talk quiet enough with people right next to us.

"As you all know, this town is filled with crimes and disasters and all that has to be stopped," the mayor spoke. "That's why I called this meeting. I want to--"

He was interrupted by the out sound of a door banging open which even made me jump. I strained my ear to listen to the distant voice that was talking.

"Mayor Wayland, you're needed immediately," a voice spoke.

"Can't this wait? I'm in a meeting," the mayor's annoyed and angered voice spoke harshly.

"I'm sorry, sir. But this needs your attention immediately," the other voice replied.

The mayor sighed deeply but then it sounded like he was walking. 

"Excuse me for just a minute. I'll be right back. Meanwhile, go ahead and enjoy the refreshments," the mayor spoke before leaving the room.

As soon as the door closed, chatter and chair scraping filled the room. Through the slits of the air vent, I could see people getting up from the long table and walking over to a corner of the room which probably had all the refreshments.

"What was that about?" I asked Hayden.

I didn't notice, that the noise had died done because everyone was busy eating or drinking and that I spoke too loudly.

"Did you say something?" I heard a voice ask, which I immediately recognised as my dad's.

My eyes went wide as I froze.

"No, you must be imagining things," I heard Max's mom reply.

My dad just grumped in return but dropped the subject.

I let out  silent sigh of relief and saw Hayden send me a pointed look, telling me to be more careful. I just rolled my eyes and went back to watching the people thought the air vent.

If we weren't on a quest to solve all these murders, I would surely consider this stalking....

"Sorry for that interruption," the mayor's voice spoke as he walked back into the room. "If we could please continue now."

Everyone went back to their seats and waited for the mayor to speak.

But as he was about to say something, the one window in the room shattered and a gun shot sounded loud. I was getting way to used to that sound for my liking.

Screams and shuffling filled the air as I jumped once again from the loud sound, covering my ears with my hands and squeezing my eyes shut. When I opened them, I saw everyone fleeing out of the room in a ducked position.

"We need to get you out of here!" a voice shouted and dragged the mayor out of the room.

"Shit!" Hayden cursed and his face vanished from my view, meaning he had stood up.

I heard him walking across the room and was slightly blinded when he pulled open the door to the bright hallway. 

"Are you crazy! Close the door!" I exclaimed but he was already gone. "Ugh!" I groaned as I got up too and followed him.

Luckily, the hallway was empty and we were the only ones here. Hayden went into the room where everyone else had been.

It was completely empty, except for the one man laying on the ground with a bullet hole in his head and a pool of blood forming around him.

I think I'm going to be sick again....

"Stay low," Hayden advised as he bent down and made his way over to the guy laying on the ground. 

I for once decided to listen and stayed close to the ground incase the person that had shot the gun decided to get rid of a few more bullets. 

Hayden checked the man's pulse but shook his head when I sent him look, asking if he was alive.

"We should get out of here before someone sees us," I told him, glancing around nervously incase someone was going to come back for the guy.

"You're right. Follow me," Hayden replied and began to jog out of the room and down the hallway. 

He led me down a hallway and through several rooms after checking if there were any people there. But it was like the whole house was deserted.

Pretty soon, we were both standing outside in the dark and chilly night.

"This way," Hayden said and began to walk through the trees that were in the back of the mayor's house.

"You really now your way around here," I commented when we stepped onto the street that I recognised.

"Well, when you live here 17 years, it starts to get boring only knowing the way from your house to school or Charly's," he simply replied.

In silence, we walked down the street.

I think there were too many thoughts swimming around in both of our minds to say anything right now.

The biggest thought in my head was: If it was the Elites killing those Bandits, why did they kill one of there own? Was it just an accident or did somebody completely else fire the shot?

As we kept on walking, I realised just how tired I was and how much my whole body hurt. My head was starting to hurt from all the unanswered questions and my body was still hurting from my little jump into the rose bushes.

I was so glad when we walked up to Hayden's house. After he unlocked his front door, I immediately walked over to his comfy couch and let myself fall onto it.

"We should get you home soon. Your dad is probably going to wonder where you are once he gets home, if he's not home already," I heard Hayden's voice say.

I opened my closed eyes a little to see him walk into the kitchen and mumbled a quiet: "Sure."

After shutting my eyes again, I heard his footsteps getting louder but quieter at the same time, because I was slowly drifting off to sleep even though I was trying hard not too. Two seconds away from falling asleep completely, Hayden spoke again, waking me up in the process.

"You know, I went to the mayor's house to get answers. But now I just have even more questions," Hayden spoke and ran his hand through his hair.

To prevent myself from falling asleep, I sat upright and watched Hayden who was standing on the other side of the coffee table.

"I mean, if it really is the Elites killing everyone, why did they kill one of their own guys?" he asked himself and sat down next to me, letting out a frustrated sigh as he fell onto the couch.

"Maybe it's somebody completely different that we haven't even considered," I suggested before yawning.

"But who?"

I shrugged, the adrenaline now leaving me and the sleepiness taking over. The last thing I felt was me slowly falling to the side and onto the soft couch, where I fell asleep in an instant.

____________________

I have nothing to say except I'm sorry!! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know I've promised a bunch of times that I'll try and update every week but obviously that's not going to work so I'm not even going to say it anymore. I will try and update as much as I can but I can't promise that there will be a new chapter every week. 

But for now I hope you liked the chapter! Remember to vote and comment!

Love you to bits and pieces!

-Emili