Pizza with Tyler after the tryouts turned out to be an absolute disaster. If this was a first date and it ended up with Tyler nursing a broken nose while sitting in a pile of trash, then I was pretty sure there wouldn't be a second one.

It started off pretty well. I mean, he acted somewhat like a gentleman by pulling the chair out from the table for me to sit in. He ordered the food and offered to pay for the both of us. He even threw in dessert, which was a cookie skillet with caramel drizzle and vanilla ice cream that murdered my taste buds with delight.

Tyler talked a lot about his family. He said his father was a lawyer that represented some of the richest people that he couldn't even mention their names because it was top secret. His mother was a famous brain surgeon who charged quite the price to "fix people's heads," as Tyler put it.

He even bragged about how he mostly had the house to himself, and as an only child he got everything he wanted.

He was basically super spoiled. That should've been my second warning sign after the way he treated Ash like a dead cockroach back at school that day.

Signs one and two of his true character morphed together after the date, when we left the restaurant through a back entrance that led to an alley. Tyler held my hand and looked at me with those raindrop eyes and said, "Zay, you're amazingly sexy. You know that?"

My brain kind of lagged for a bit at the word sexy. I'd prefer beautiful, or gorgeous, or even wonderful. But sexy felt kind of...objectifying.

Then he leaned in and kissed me. My eyes widened. Tyler was definitely hot, and a kiss from him wasn't exactly something I was against. But it was rather forced, and it was really slobbery. His tongue was bouncing around my mouth like a fish marooned on the shore. For a first kiss...this was not what I had imagined.

I pushed him away after a couple of seconds. "Whoa," I said, trying to wrap my head around the situation and reign in my emotions. My heart was beating faster than a cheetah in full stride. But I wasn't sure if I was infatuated, infuriated, or insecure.

Then Tyler nodded. "I'm an awesome kisser, right? I watched a couple of adult videos online that taught me everything I know. You just lean back...," he said pushing me up against the wall. He leaned in and whispered closer to my face, "And let me amaze you."

He kissed me again and this time my body seemed to freeze not wondering how to react. Do I push him away? Would he get offended if I asked him to take things slower? Do I just go with it since I think he's gorgeous?

Then his hand slipped beneath my shirt and up towards my chest and I felt something shatter in my head again, as if the windows to intimacy had been blown out by a terrible storm.

With one hand I pushed him backwards separating the two of us. With another I punched him right in the face. I heard a snap where his nose was, then blood flowed from it. I planted a kick right in his chest that sent him flying into a pile of trash bags piled outside an overfilled dumpster.

"Ouch you bitch!" Tyler cursed. "Why'd you do that for?"

"Because you're a creep," I shouted at him. "And the trash is where you belong."

I should've listened to Ash. It took till the third sign, when he tried to have his way with me, that I finally realized that good looks weren't the only thing that made a guy couple material. Common decency was needed too. Sometimes how hot a guy was could distract us from that.

While Tyler nursed his bloody nose, he started to tear up. "I'm going to tell my dad and then we're going to sue you."

I laughed hysterically. Clearly this boy had no idea who he was messing with. I got close up to his face and he tried to recede into the mound of trash. "I'd like to see you try."

Then I blew him a kiss and skipped away knowing if he tried anything funny again, I'll have to battle my parents over who gets to beat him up first.

***

The next day Tyler came with a medical tape around the bridge of his nose. People asked him how he got it. He made up different stories. He got planted in the face with a soccer ball; he got into a fight with a black dude; a pigeon slammed into his face...everything except that a girl decked him square on the face because he was a creepazoid.

"Looks like your date with McDreamy went well," Ash said when he found me by my locker the next morning.

"Yeap," I said, grabbing my school tablet from my locker. "He deserved it."

"I knew you'd come to your senses," Ash patted me on the back.

The bell rang calling us to history class, where I crossed the threshold of the classroom with Tyler. He looked at me and cringed as he moved away. "Sorry Zay," he muttered before sitting in the seat furthest from mine.

Knowing him, he went home and told his dad what happened at school. He probably told him my full name. Then his dad probably shut the book on Tyler and told him to never mess with me again.

Because Tyler's father was known to use our family's services. Perhaps a jury member needed to disappear or needed some convincing to acquit a client in court. I should know, I had one of his contracts to make a black jury member disappear in a court case against police brutality. He was the only jury member of color. I didn't kill him. Our family were assassins primarily but killing a jury member can bring a lot of heat. Making him disappear long enough for the trial to end or replace him was just enough.

After the school day was over, Ash finally brought up some official business. "Auntie wanted me to tell you that stage five will be on Friday. It is...a quick stage, but it'll feel long nonetheless."

I wasn't sure how they'd top off brutalizing Ash to near death, a topic we have mostly skipped over the past week. Every time I brought it up, he changed the topic or simply told me he didn't want to talk about it.

But I kept on trying. "Can't be any worse than the last stage, right?"

Ash shuddered as if the memory caused him phantom pains. "It won't be for me at least..." He looked at me with eyes of concern. A wet film coated his eyes. "But I'll be there to support you. I promise."

He kept his promise.

***

I knew something was up the moment I stepped foot into the Hive. Ash told me to head through the main entrance while he took a side one. When I asked him why we were splitting up, he couldn't look me in the eye when he said he needed to talk privately with Auntie.

Because he was lying.

"Ash, is something wrong?" I asked. I was worried for him. I couldn't trust these people with his safety anymore. If they laid another finger on him...

Ash wrapped his hands around my arms and shook me, "Hey, I'll be fine Zay. You just worry about yourself and know that I'll be there at the end of the line waiting for you. Whatever happens, don't stop running. Can you promise me that?"

My worry started to shift from him to me. Sure, I had been in sticky situations before, but assassins tended to avoid them as much as possible.

"Ash, what's going to happen during the fifth stage?"

"Just promise me!" he shouted with a tear escaping his eye. He let it slide down his cheek to show how serious he was being.

Throughout the whole week he only alluded to the fifth stage once. Other than that, he was all smiles and sunshine. We laughed, hung out, and for once I felt like a normal middle schooler.

Now the flip side of that made me have a dreadful thought. Was this my last week with Ash?

I gripped his arms, willing myself to make sure it wouldn't be, "I promise."

He pulled away and wiped away the tear. "Then I'll see you at the end of the tunnel." After that he took off and disappeared around a corner. I was left facing the abandoned factory as I went in once again towards the elevator and awaited the descent down.

Usually, as the elevator reached the bottom, you could hear the hustle and bustle of the capillaries of the Locust hive in full motion. Children laughing, people chatting, fryers sizzling, drills drilling, tea kettles whistling, footsteps clapping...

Now, all I heard were lights buzzing.

The rusted doors of the elevator opened up and all I saw were two parallel lines of people along the walls of the tunnel that shot straight forward for almost half a mile towards the abandoned underground train station where the open atrium was. Lined on both sides were men, women, and children armed with bats, boxing gloves, old fashion fists...

And guns.

The tunnel was layered with Locusts on both sides, waiting to swarm the first patch of crops they laid eyes on...

Which was me.

A blob formed at the end of the tunnel. She crossed her arms and held up a megaphone that echoed down the tunnel. "Zaslay Mata, you are about to embark on the fifth stage of the initiation to becoming a full-fledged member of the Royden Hive. Your task is simple, reach the end of this tunnel..."

She paused and tapped her foot before clearing her throat. "Alive."

Then she handed the megaphone to a figure standing next to her. I noticed his silver skin from afar. Ash took the microphone and spoke with a shaky voice. "Remember your promise Zay." He pulled the megaphone from his lips and gulped before holding it back and shouting, "Now run!"