~Tyler~

I pressed harder on the accelerator, the engine vibrating as the scenery around us morphed into blurs.

Jordan was sitting next to me, letting out low curses, mostly to himself about how he never should've let Julia go. His phone had Julia's location pulled up, her phone pinging one spot on the bad side of town. I pushed the gas pedal even harder.

Just minutes earlier a text was sent through Julia's phone to me. It was a picture of a hand lying in a pool of blood in the middle of the street. The picture never showed who it was connected to, but it was unmistakably Julia's. Her grandmother's small, golden bracelet glittered prominently on her wrist. The picture was immediately followed by a phone call from her phone. I answered the call only to be met with the sound of tires. And then total and complete silence. There was no sign of Julia. We didn't even know if she was alive.

"Turn right," Jordan said. I veered to the right, diving for the exit at the last minute. We sped down the highway ramp and back into the local roads, our speed never once wavering.

A couple minutes later, we were rounding the corner into a dark and desolate street. The only thing visible was the empty street in front of us that was caught in the headlights.

Then Julia's body came into view.

"Tyler!"

"Holy-" I hit the brakes and jerked the car to the side. It spun a little, but ultimately stayed in my control as we passed by Julia. A couple more spins and the car slowed to a stop. Jordan was out of the car in the blink of an eye.

He ran to his sister's body. She stayed still, completely rigid and pale as he gathered her into his arms. A long gash in the side of her head glistened in the blue light, dripping blood that seeped through her hair and pooled onto the ground. Her arm was bent at a strange angle, her ribs most definitely broken as her stomach seemed to cave in. Blood covered her clothes and crawled across the ground, soaking my shoes.

She looked dead.

My head spun and I pushed the thought away. I couldn't think like that. Not now.

My eyes landed on Julia's phone which was still connected in the call with mine. I bent down to pick it up but froze halfway. There, on the ground, beneath the phone was a little red card, one that I had become to accustomed with these past few days. Gulping, I gently picked it up. Jordan saw my movements and narrowed his eyes.

I flipped the card open, reading the fancy golden letters.

Tyler,

Your lips slipped, so did my foot on the gas pedal. Next time, it might be my finger on the trigger.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

-Secret Keeper

My heart rate spiked. I re-read the note and swallowed. Jordan motioned towards me and I handed him the note.

This was bad. This was really bad.

Somehow, Secret Keeper knew that I had told the others what had really happened. And, just as she had threatened, she took action. She acted on her threat to possibly push us into our graves early. And this time, she was giving one last chance to obey her before she kicked us off the board.

"Secret Keeper used Julia as a message," Jordan said, the quiet rage building up behind his voice not going unnoticed. "She wanted us to know exactly what would happen the next time we didn't listen. She would..."

Jordan trailed off, but I didn't need to hear the rest of the sentence to understand what he was implying.

Secret Keeper was ready to kill.

Jordan stuffed the red note into his pocket and exchanged it for his phone. He was still cradling Julia as he dialed 911. I looked around the scene, trying to figure out what exactly had happened. Julia said she was buying shampoo. Did she ever make the purchase?

My eyes landed on the plastic bag. I picked it up. Inside was a shampoo bottle, as expected, but something else stopped my heart. It explained everything: why she would buy shampoo in the middle of the night, why she would come here, in the bad side of town.

At the very bottom of the plastic bag was a large pack of white powder.

I pried it out of the bag. I flipped it over in my hands, inspecting it. I took a sniff of the pack. It smelled like the same type of stuff at the tracks and in the boy's locker room. They were definitely drugs. A lot of drugs.

Jordan, who had gotten connected the 911 dispatcher, looked up at the packet in my hands. Our eyes met, and in the emerald green depths I knew he what he was thinking. I silently agreed with him.

No one needed to know about this. We wouldn't let them lock away Julia, no matter what she did. Without a word, I opened the car door and stuffed the packet into my glove box, hiding it behind sheets of paper.

I slammed the door shut.

~Jordan~

Julia was wheeled through the white halls on a stretcher. Doctors rushed to her side pushing her further and further. I tried to follow. I wanted to follow. But then a doctor held me back, telling me to wait where I was. I was forced to watch as they pushed Julia down the hall and around the corner, leading her to an unknown fate.

I collapsed into the chair, vaguely aware of Tyler only a few seats away. Rubbing my hands, I leaned back, staring at the ceiling. The blood on my clothes earned a few strange looks. Julia's blood on my clothes.

"You should go clean up," Tyler told me. I nodded and headed to the bathroom.

I cleaned the blood off of my hands and stood over the sink, my head hung down. Thoughts swirled through my mind.

This was never supposed to happen. Never had I ever dreamed about having to wait in the hospital as my sister fought for her life after trying to purchase drugs and being run over by a car. And there was certainly never supposed to be a person named Secret Keeper driving the car. Secret Keeper who was blackmailing us to keep Jason's fake death a secret. Jason was never supposed to fake his death in the first place. I was never supposed to think I killed him. This was not where life was supposed to lead me.

But it did. And it started when I pushed Jason down that hill. Or at least, I thought.

In reality, it started much further back. It started with Jason. He did something bad, something huge, and then he decided to hide it instead of telling us, his younger siblings. The ones that were supposed to be with him through thick and thin. No. He faked his death instead. He jumped through the rabbit hole knowing full and well the consequences that lied ahead. And then he dragged all of us down with him.

We were here because of him. Julia was in the Emergency Room because of him. Secret Keeper existed because of him.

Jason Hargrove.

The angel of America. The white king. The savior. The demon who abandoned his own siblings.

Rage simmered through my blood. I raised my fist and threw it forward. My hand connected with the mirror and it shattered. The sparkling shards clattered to the ground in a cascading reflecting waterfall. I looked back up. From the pieces left on the wall my broken reflection stared back at me. I looked broken and worn out. But my eyes were filled with sense of determination.

I knew what I had to do. I don't care if he's my brother. He doesn't either.

I am going to bring Jason down, even if it kills me in the process.

~Vera~

I ran through the white halls, following the directions that the receptionist had given. Alyssa was right beside me, eyes shifting, shoulders tense. I turned a corner and barely registered that a girl from school, the Indian girl, Lasiya Agrawal, walked by. My mind was focused on Julia.

I had just changed out of my clothes and collapsed onto my bed when my phone rang. It was late and I debated whether or not to answer. I noticed that the caller ID was Tyler. Again, I wasn't sure if I wanted to answer. I let the phone ring until it was sent to voicemail. But when he called again, I picked it up, deciding that it must be something important. He told me that Julia had been attacked. I was out the door in an instant.

I saw Jordan and Tyler sitting in the empty waiting area. I ran to them. They stood as they saw us near.

"How's Julia?" Alyssa asked.

"They took her to the ER," Jordan replied. "She's been in surgery for over an hour, but no one told us her condition."

I sighed wondering what Julia was going through. Was she even going to make it? A shiver crawled up my spine.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Shortly after you guys left, Julia wanted to buy some shampoo," Tyler said slowly. "So we let her go. The plan was for her to meet Jordan back at my house again and then they would go home."

"You let her go alone?!" Alyssa questioned. "In the middle of the night?"

"She had pepper spray and insisted on it. We didn't think Secret Keeper would strike so fast."

"Wait," I raised my hands. "Secret Keeper?"

Tyler nodded, his expression grim. "A little while later someone sent a picture through her phone of her bloody and lying on the street. The person then called me and left it in silence. Jordan tracked her phone and we found her on the ground, unconscious and bleeding. I think she was run over by Secret Keeper."

Alyssa looked murderous. "That little piece of-"

"That's not all. There was a note left beside her."

I looked back up. "A note?"

Tyler turned to Jordan who pried something from his pocket and held it out. I took the red card and skimmed it over, my heart rate accelerating as I read the note. Alyssa yanked it out of my hands and read it, her eyes narrowing as she read further and further.

"Shit."

"So, Secret Keeper somehow found out about what you told us. And then she ran over Julia to give us a warning. Keep us in check."

Tyler nodded.

"But how did she know?" Alyssa asked.

Alyssa was right. How did she know? Only the five of us were present when Tyler told us everything. She couldn't have known. Unless...

No. I pushed the thought out of my mind. It can't be. That was impossible.

"I don't know," I finally responded. "But it couldn't have been hard to figure out. She must've saw all of us gang up on Tyler before we entered the house. It would be easy to assume that we had figured out what Tyler knew and he confirmed it as we talked to him."

Tyler sighed and shook his head. "We have to stop Secret Keeper. We need to bring her down."

"But she's virtually untouchable," I said. "She seems to know exactly what we're doing at all times. She knows more about all of this than any of us do. And she's willing to run us over with a car and who knows what else. How are we supposed to defeat her? How do we even get the upper hand?"

"Jason."

We turned to Jordan who was still staring straight ahead at the wall in front of him. "What?"

"You want to get an upper hand," Jordan said, finally turning to us. "I say we use Jason."

"What do you mean?" Alyssa questioned. "Why?"

"Jason is the one who started all of this," Jordan explained. "He faked his own death and then Secret Keeper came to life. He's the one who holds all the answers. Jason has to know who Secret Keeper is, or at least a couple of guesses. He probably even knows why Secret Keeper is doing all of this and how we could stop her. If we find him, we find her."

"But Jason faked his death," Alyssa argued. "We don't even know where he is now, or what he's doing."

"That's better than Secret Keeper," Jordan pointed out. "We don't even have an identity for her."

Alyssa shook her head. "This is crazy. We're never going to find him."

"I agree with Jordan," I said. "Jason's our best shot now, dead or alive. He could lead us right to Secret Keeper."

If he's not Secret Keeper himself.

I didn't voice that thought.

Tyler nodded, showing that he also agreed with Jordan. We turned to Alyssa who looked between the three of us, biting her lip. Finally, she sighed. "Fine."

"So it's settled," Jordan said. "We find Jason. Then, we take down Secret Keeper."

"But how do we start?" I asked.

"His room might be a good place to start. We still didn't clean it out. He could've hidden some clues there."

I didn't think a boy who planned his death so meticulously would leave clues lying around, but I didn't have another idea.

Tyler must've read my thoughts when he said, "I know the fight club he used to attend. It's not far from the tracks. Maybe I could find some more info there."

Jordan nodded. "Good idea."

A long silence ensued as we stood around, pondering our new plan and worrying about Julia's fate. I didn't know what was going to happen, but I had a feeling it wasn't going to be easy.

Alyssa clapped her hands once, pulling us out of our thoughts.

"I should call our parents," Alyssa told me. "We left so fast, they must be worried."

I nodded and Alyssa walked off, down the hall and around the corner.

~Ryder~

Ryder stood on the railing, overlooking the cars passing by beneath him. A cool breeze whipped through his hair, the darkness of the night engulfing him, swallowing him up like they had for the past seven years. The city spread out around him, like a glass empire sparkling in the cool night. It was a sight to behold. But Ryder wasn't here for the view.

Behind him, gravel crunched. He didn't need to turn around to know there were two people crossing the rooftop, approaching him. Finally, they stopped beside him. The first was a middle-aged woman. Blonde hair extended down the side of her black jacket. The man next to her was wearing a similar outfit. His dark brown hair almost blended into the night. Dark brown eyes turned to Ryder and even in the darkness of the night, Ryder could see the swirling depths of insanity behind them. But he wasn't always insane. There used to be compassion, love, and loyalty behind those eyes. But they had long been pushed out and replaced by a malevolent need for revenge.

That's what the world did to men. It turned the pure of heart mad.

"Night Rider!" the man called out. Amusement lined his voice, as it usually did. "How are you doing this fine night?"

Ryder sighed and kept a stoic face as he locked his eyes in front of him. "I'm fine, Andrew. What do you need from me?"

"We have another assignment," the woman, Juliana, said as she held out a file. "Multiple, actually, but we have decided to group all of them together as it is to achieve the same goal."

Ryder took the file and flipped through them. The first thing he noticed was how heavy the file was. How many people did they want him to kill? The second thing he noticed was that they were all children. The third was that he recognized most of them.

He flipped through the file, skimming the names: Sophie Whitlock, Vera Reinhart, Tyler Turnpike, Maya Mendoza, Michael Mendoza, Jordan Kleizmick, Lasiya Agrawal, Alyssa Adler...

"We know of your personal relationship with most of them," the woman said. "I hope that won't get in the way of completing your task."

Ryder shook his head automatically. "No. It won't."

"Good."

Ryder turned back to the file and verbalized the second to last name he had read. "Lasiya Agrawal? You want me to get rid of her?"

Andrew shrugged. "We're not entirely sure if she turned her back on us. I would keep an eye on her for now. As soon as we're certain she has, go in for a kill shot."

Ryder nodded before flipping the file shut. He turned back to the other two. "May I ask you a question?"

The woman nodded.

"Why are we killing them? What did they do to deserve to die?"

"They know too much about the Circumvent," Andrew replied, offhandedly. "Or, at least they're about to."

"So we're going to kill them all?"

Andrew's lips spread into an unnatural smile. "Dead men tell no tales."

"But why take the risk of using me? You are perfectly capable of killing them yourselves."

"First of all, we've tried and failed," the woman said. "Forget killing. Andrew couldn't even successfully kidnap one of them."

"Hey!" Andrew whined. "That was years ago, back when I had no idea what I was doing. It was a more spur-of-the-moment thing. If I tried now I would definitely succeed."

"So then why don't you?"

"I have more pressing matters to attend."

Ryder tilted his head. "Like what?"

"My, my, my," Andrew said, the smile widened, a deep contrast to his darkening eyes. "Aren't you extra curious today?"

Ryder clenched his jaw and turned back to face the street. "Will that be all?"

"One more thing," the woman said. "There may be a third-party involved. Just an hour ago, the Kleizmick girl was ran over. We don't know for sure if it was intentional or who could've been behind the attack. For now, do not engage the third party. We will notify you if anything changes."

Ryder gave a terse nod.

"You asked earlier why we were using you," she continued. "It's because you have a clean record. Not a single failure. Keep it that way. This job will go smoothly and precisely. Kill them before they sense you coming. And disappear before they start looking for you. We do not want any loose ends."

Ryder nodded.

"Do not fail us."

Ryder slid the files in a large pocket across the chest of his jacket. "I won't."

He jumped off the ledge and landed running on the next roof. He meant what he had said. Ryder wouldn't fail them. He needed to make sure his wife and daughter stayed safe, and there was only one way to do that. Follow their rules. Complete your tasks. And as he ran through the night, he was determined to complete his assignment:

Kill them all.

~Alyssa~

I walked away from the group, rounding the corner and pulling out my phone. At the same time, Lasiya rounded a different corner and fell into step beside me. Our footsteps echoed through the virtually empty halls.

"Are you going to call him or should I?" she asked, eyes still set straight ahead.

"You didn't call yet?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Why should I?"

I sighed and looked back down at my phone. My fingers flew across the keypad, calling the number I had memorized, not wanting to leave it in my contacts.

He picked up on the third ring.

"Jason," I said. "We have a problem."

~Secret Keeper~

Secret Keeper sat at the desk, grabbing a golden calligraphy pen, a red card lying on top, blank and innocent. Secret Keeper thought for a moment before letting the pen press down onto the card. Golden ink swirled across the card, engraving the beautifully destructive message into the red material. When finished, Secret Keeper leaned back, rereading the words that had been written.

Lips may be sealed,
Secrets can be kept,
But none are safe from me.

-Secret Keeper