I followed after Malicius for what felt like hours, even though I knew it had really only been a few minutes. He was too fast for me to catch up to him, but that didn't matter as long as I could still see him and I knew wherever he ended up. Because Tom would be wherever he stopped.

Finally, Malicius started toward the ground, and I shot right after him. We were finally there.

He crashed through the roof of an old warehouse, causing even more rocks and rubble to come crumbling down with him. I followed through the hole, avoiding any falling debris.

The warehouse was quiet, but I knew Malicius was somewhere inside with me. I just didn't know where. It made me feel really uneasy.

This warehouse had large rocks and boulders scattered all around it, and I could tell that Malicius had planted these here on purpose so if we fought he would definitely have things he could use in the fight.

I was practically walking through a rock maze as I continued to look for Tom. I had no idea where he could have been, and I had no idea where Malicius was hiding either.

When I heard coughing, I stopped dead in my tracks and focused. I highly doubted that Malicius would have been the one coughing, so that only meant one other thing. It was Tom.

I searched around the large warehouse as quickly as I could, wanting to find Tom before it was too late. He could have been anywhere inside, and I had no idea what kind of state he was in.

I was scared. I absolutely hated to admit it, but I was terrified. Not of Malicius or whatever altercation that was to come between us, but whatever had happened to Tom. He was just a human and I had gotten him into such a horrible mess.

Finally, I saw a large mass on the ground that was not a rock like everything else was around me. It was a person.

I vaulted over a rock to get closer quicker, but stopped once I was close enough and really saw what it was.

"Oh, my goodness!" I gasped, clasping my hands over my mouth at what I'd just saw.

There was Tom, laying on the ground with blood dripping down his face from his mouth. His dress shirt was stained with blood from a gash that I was sure was underneath it. He could barely even keep his eyes open.

I crouched down beside him, unable to speak. I could barely even breathe. I squeezed my eyes shut to try to stop the tears, but it didn't help much. Tom was dying right in front of me and I had no idea what I was supposed to do to try to help him.

"Violet..." he rasped, reaching up for me. I took his hand and slowly pushed it back down. I didn't want him wasting any energy, especially on me. "I'm... I'm sorry I didn't show up to the dance."

I shook my head. "No," I sniffed. "You don't have anything to be sorry for..."

I did. This was all my fault. The only reason this was happening to him was because I had shown interest in him. I never should have even tried to have a relationship with him... Hank and Nay tried to warn me. They said nothing good would come out of having any types of relationships with humans.

He was gasping for air; it was too difficult for him to breathe. There was so much blood; it seemed that either Lynx had used her nails to stab him or Malicius had used a rock instead. I couldn't tell, and I honestly didn't want to find out.

"I'm so sorry," I apologized through my tears as the life faded in and out of Tom's eyes. "I'm so sorry that I got you into this... I'm so sorry, Tom..."

He reached up, placing his hand on my cheek. "It's okay," he told me with a smile, but this only made me feel worse. "I'm just... I'm so glad I met you..."

I felt completely helpless. There was nothing I could do; it was too late. He'd bled out so much already. It was miraculous that he was even still alive.

"I'm glad..." he breathed, quieter now, "I met you..."

His hand then slid from my face and hit the floor. His eyes were closed. His body was cold. He was dead.

I placed my forehead on his shoulder and began to cry. Tom was dead and it was all my fault. Unlike the DAU, Redrum didn't care who they killed to get whatever they wanted.

I knew that getting closer to him wouldn't be a good idea and I did it anyway... This was all my fault. Tom was dead. Tom was dead.

Freddie had died, and I felt like it had been all my fault. I had beaten Colton to a bloody pulp because I had lost control of everything I was doing. And now who knew how many people were hurt back at the gym at school? Who knew how my friends were doing? Why did innocent people continue to get hurt all because of me? Because of superhumans?

I was so emotional that I didn't notice the hand slowly making its way toward me. But when I finally felt it land on my back, it was too late. I suddenly felt a painful shock make its way through my body, causing me to fly back and paralyze me.

I looked up to see who my attacker was as my whole body twitched from the shock of the electricity. But nothing hurt more than the shock I felt when I saw who was standing above me.

"You're really gullible, you know that?" Tom smirked, fixing his dress shirt and wiping the blood from his chin. "You can't even tell the difference between fake blood and real blood."

"What... what are you..." I couldn't even form the words, and I didn't know if it was because of the shock he had sent through my body or the shock of seeing him standing before me.

He chuckled. "Surprise?"

"You... You're a superhuman," I gulped, slowly sitting up as I continued to shake. I did not want to continue just laying there, completely vulnerable. "You're... You're not a human at all!"

Tom laughed, as if this was the funniest thing he'd ever heard. He finished wiping at the fake blood on his chin and nodded. "I am, in fact, a superhuman, just like you," he informed me, and I'd never felt like such an idiot before in my entire life. "You and your little friends were just too stupid to figure it out."

My head was spinning. "And you're... apart of Redrum?" 

Tom laughed again. "Bingo."

I didn't know what to think. This was so much information coming in at a time. Tom was a superhuman. Tom was a member of Redrum. Tom had been lying to me this entire time and I had absolutely no idea.

"And as a member of Redrum, my personal mission," he began, reaching over and grabbing onto my throat with one hand, "is to kill as many members of the DAU as I possibly can."

As if it wasn't difficult at all, he lifted me swiftly up off the ground by my throat so I was now hanging in the air. I clawed at his hand, but this didn't make him let me go.

He had a look in his eye that I'd never seen before. A look a pure evil.

"I'll give you the shock of your life."

"Why, Tom?" I whimpered, finding it harder and harder to breathe. "I thought we were... You and I... I thought you liked me."

"You really thought I liked you?" Tom grinned, laughing as if the idea was the stupidest thing he'd ever heard. "Why would I? Who could ever like you?"

Even though I knew it was a rhetorical question, he was putting too much pressure on my throat for me to respond. I could barely breathe. I tried to kick any part of his body I could, but my legs were still week from his shock earlier. There was nothing I could do.

"Tom, Tom, Tom," a new voice now scolded, and I looked over to see that it was Malicius who was talking. "We need her alive."

Tom looked frustrated and disappointed as he let go of me and let me crash to the ground. 

"And why is that?" I coughed, rubbing at my throat as if that was going to help at all. "Why don't you just kill me?"

"You're a lot more valuable than you might think," Malicius informed me, as if that somehow was supposed to answer all of my questions. 

They wanted me alive... I didn't know why, but they did. They wanted me for something, but what? What could I possibly be valuable for? And why did I have absolutely no idea?

There were a lot of things I didn't know about myself. This was just one of them.

When the doors to the warehouse burst open, I was surprised. This warehouse was basically in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees. It was completely abandoned; the perfect place for Tom and Malicius to take me if they wanted to kill me.

Or whatever they actually wanted me for...

It was Dex and Kristie. I had no idea how they had gotten here, but I assumed they'd found me from the tracker on my phone. My other friends were most likely still dealing with Lynx and all the destruction she had caused back at the school.

"Violet!" Dex cried when he saw me, but as he took a step toward me he saw the boy that was supposed to be my date to the dance. "You..."

"Well, if it isn't my favorite person," Tom grinned, cracking his knuckles. "I heard you made a move on my girl."

Dex took a menacing step toward him. "She is not your girl."

Tom smirked. "She wishes."

Dex didn't even think twice before lunging at Tom. I let out a shriek as the Redrum boy shocked him, but this didn't deter Dex in the slightest. He'd been wanting to beat the crap out of Tom for a while and finally he'd be able to do it.

Kristie jumped into their fight to aid Dex, and I was about to as well until a rock whizzing by my head reminded me that Tom wasn't the only bad guy in the room. Malicius was still there, too.

"You know, Violet, we're not that much different from each other," he informed me with a wicked grin. "In fact, I think we're very much alike."

I could remember going through his profile the first time we had been introduced to both Malicius and Lynx. I saw all his in formation, and there was nothing in that information that we had in common. It made my blood boil that he even thought about comparing himself to me.

He picked up one of his boulders and hopped onto it, making his way back up into the air.

I flew up after him. If he wanted to have a fight in the air, we'd have a fight in the air. I was the one that could actually fly between the two of us. He needed his rocks. Without those, he wouldn't be able to stay up in the air. So I'd just have to knock him off any rocks he decided to use.

"Does it upset you that so many secrets are being kept from you, Violet?" Malicius asked mockingly as he continued his way up into the air. "Especially when so many of those secrets are about you."

"Shut up," I scowled, my hands balling into fists.

"Aw, is little Violet angry?" he laughed. "How cute!"

His tone pissed me off even more. My fists shake with the urge to punch him. It was like he was just begging for me to hit him.

"I had secrets hidden from me when I was apart of the DAU, too," Malicius continued, but this was not what I wanted to hear from him. "You and I are very much alike. I think we understand each other."

"I'll crush you; I'll kill you!" I screamed, a fury I'd never felt before running through my veins. "You know nothing about me! You don't understand me at all! You grew up with parents that loved you and cared for you, yet you still chose to do horrible things! My parents are dead; I've never met them, yet I'm still trying to be good! You know nothing!"

"On the contrary, my dear," Malicius smirked. "The one who knows nothing is you."

Maybe he was right. Hell, he was right! But that didn't mean I wanted him talking like he knew me at all!

I used my powers to smash him against the wall. The rock he had been standing on crashed to the ground far beneath us as I pinned him against the wall. 

"Shut up!" I shouted.

"We're very much alike, you and I," he continued, as if being thrown against the wall didn't faze him at all. "Both trying to fight on a team where we don't belong."

I smashed him against the wall once again. "Shut up, shutup!"

"Do you think your parents would be proud of you right now, Violet?" he asked, and this only made me angrier. I didn't want him talking about my parents. "You joined the same organization that got them killed. Do you really think that's what they wanted for their beloved daughter?"

I fought the urge to slam him against the wall again. He wasn't even trying to fight with me. He was just trying to have a conversation with me. A very rage-inducing conversation.

"Damien Black was the one who killed my parents," I growled, keeping him against the wall just in case he decided to pull anything. "Being in the DAU had nothing to do with it."

But he didn't try to get away as he said "But isn't the DAU how they met Damien Black?"

I swallowed. "But it's also how they met each other."

It might have gotten them killed, but they never would have met each other if it wasn't for the DAU. And even though I missed them terribly and I wished they were still alive more than anything, I was still glad they had been apart of the DAU.

"You don't belong in the Defensive Affairs Unit," Malicius continued, and I was just getting angrier and angrier. "You never have, and you never will. Redrum is where you belong. You belong with us."

I raised one of the boulders he had placed with my free hand, threatening to crush him like a spider against the wall. One hand kept him pressed against the wall while the other held the boulder up. We were closer to the ceiling than we were to the floor.

My head felt like it was splitting open, but I didn't back down. I was done with this conversation. If he kept talking, I'd crush him like the bug he was.

I suddenly got the attention of my two teammates that were fighting the other Redrum member in the warehouse.

"Violet!" Dex shouted at me. "Violet, stop!"

Kristie seemed absolutely horrified. "Violet, you can't hurt him!"

Dex tried shouting at me again, "Violet!"

Malicius didn't even seem frightened in the slightest. He had a grin on his face and he seemed just as amused as he always did. It pissed me off even more.

Every time I'd ever felt this way, nothing good had ever come from it. But I just didn't care. I was so angry and I just wanted to kill him. I wanted him to finally shut up for good, to no longer compare himself to me. We were not alike. There was nothing about us that was alike.

I wanted to kill him. I wanted him to die. I felt such a burning, painful sensation in my head, but I didn't even care. I wanted him to die.

"Come on, Violet," he smiled. "Let it out."

Oh, I would. I'd let it all out.

"Violet!" Dex called out to me again. "Stop!"

His pleas snapped me out of whatever trance I was in and I suddenly lost control. I fell back, letting go of both Malicius and the boulder. They went tumbling down toward the ground along with me.

The drop felt like hours. Dex caught me before I could crash against the floor, and I looked up to thank him but stopped when I saw his face.

He was looking at me with that same terrified look he always gave me whenever I was having an episode. The look he was giving me absolutely terrified me.

"What is it, Dex?" I asked shakily.

He shook his head and looked away from me. "Nothing."

No. I was done with secrets. I was done with being lied to. I pushed myself up away from him and toward one of the dirty, broken windows of the warehouse. And what I saw in the reflection made me stop dead in my tracks.

The birthmark shaped like an E on my shoulder was glowing red. But that wasn't what scared me. My eyes were filled completely black.

Now I understood why Dex always seemed so terrified when he looked into my eyes when I was having an episode. He saw the flickering of my pupils before they enlarged completely, filling my eyes with utter darkness.

I started screaming, terrified but what I had seen in my reflection. I was a monster. What was wrong with me? Why was this happening to me?

I dug my fingernails into my scalp and just kept screaming. I wanted it to go away. Why wouldn't it go away.

"Violet, calm down!" Dex ordered as he placed his hands on either side of my face, but I didn't even know how I was supposed to be calm. "Violet, you need to calm down!"

He forced my head up and stared right into my eyes. He told me to calm down once again, but I felt like I'd never be able to calm down ever again. What was wrong with me? Why had everyone kept this secret from me?

Dex had seen it, Hank and Nay clearly knew about it, and even Malicius and Lynx knew as well. But no one ever told me anything about it.

Dex's eyes bore into my black ones and I suddenly began to feel calmed. His presence, his gaze, his touch... They all calmed me. The terror and anger I felt slowly began to melt away.

I looked back into the dirty window to see my black eyes shrinking back into my pupils. My birthmark stopped glowing and turned back to its original color. I looked completely normal once again.

I collapsed back onto the ground, shaky and exhausted. Dex crouched down beside me. My head hurt, but nothing like the headache I had just had during that episode. It was a dulling pain that I knew would go away once I rested.

Kristie ran up to us now, squatting beside me to make sure I was okay. I didn't really know if I was or not.

"Where's Tom?" I demanded, looking around the large room to see that there seemed to be no one else inside any longer.

Kristie frowned. "He fled," she answered.

I looked around the warehouse in search of the other Redrum member we had been fighting. "Where's Malicius?" I asked now. "Did he flee too?"

Kristie suddenly grew very solemn. She shook her head.

My eyebrows furrowed. "What, Kristie?" I snapped. "What is it?"

She raised her hand, shakily lifting a pointed finger at the boulder I had been threatening Malicius with, which had fell to the floor and left an indent where it had landed.

"He's..." she started, her voice shaking. "He's under there..."

My eyes went wide. "Under... there?"

I couldn't take my eyes off of the rock. If Malicius was under there, that only meant one thing...

"Is he... dead?" I had to ask.

Dex sighed. "Only one way to find out," he said, standing up from his spot beside me and making his way over to the boulder. He let out a breath before grabbing onto it and lifted it above his head.

The first thing I noticed was the blood splattered against the bottom of the rock. I covered my mouth with my hands to stop the sob from escaping. I couldn't look in the hole the boulder had made, the hole I knew Malicius was in. I wouldn't be able to stomach it.

But Dex looked for me, shaking his head and turning away as he placed the boulder down out of the hole. He turned toward us and said, "He's there."

I didn't look, and neither did Kristie. The three of us said nothing else. We knew we had to call Hank and Nay.

I couldn't believe it. Malicius was dead. There was no faking that like Tom had.

Malicius was dead. And I had been the one that killed him.

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Two people down, I wonder how many to go...

It's summer! And now that I have a laptop that actually works, that means more updates more often!

I've been waiting to write this chapter for a while but I hate it. Oh well lol.

Please COMMENT, VOTE, and FAN! <3