"I asked, who the hell is this!" the older woman repeated, shaking her gun at me. Her eyes were filled with wildfire. I was partially nervous she would start shooting any second now.

Fortunately, June sat at the table across from the woman. She stood up, not even taking a second to glance at me. "Ma'am, I understand this is a peculiar situation, but if you would just put the gun down, I can explain it all..." She didn't look too confident.

The woman didn't budge. "That's not sufficient."

She pulled the trigger. I closed my eyes, but nothing hit. She'd intentionally missed, a bullet breaking a hole in the side of the wall instead of my heart. The echo of the gunshot filled the room.

Now, nearly everyone was standing. Besides June, there were a couple older faces I didn't recognize, along with a few that I recognized as bodyguards.

One of the men – a twenty-something year old with bright red hair – gently placed a hand on June's arm. "Ara, there was an incident with the Sardon case."

"Right, so explain," she ordered, aggressively. She seemed to have very little patience.

"Well, Stacey Sardon...she was killed. By...by her," he said, nodding his head in my direction. "She's a native to this city. We needed someone with the city chip. She was our only option. She agreed to take Stacey's place to pay for her crimes."

The woman, Ara, slowly lowered her gun. Then, she lifted it again and shot a hole through the table right in front of him. The man flinched but tried not to show his fear.

"You think that's a sufficient explanation? There's a stranger in one of our highly guarded safe houses, and everyone here simply let it be? Does no one have common sense?!" she ranted, crossing her arms.

It hit me then that this lady, who I assumed was a higher up in the rebellion, had not been informed of my existence. Which meant June and the others had been hoping to not only fool the Antheian government, but to fool the rebellion as well.

Man, that wouldn't have worked out well in any case.

I understood why they hadn't wanted me seen.

All of a sudden, the room's door flew open and Erin came in, out of breath. Took him long enough. He took one look at the situation, blushed furiously, and slowly started backing out.

"Boy! Don't you leave so fast. Tell me what's so urgent?" she said, her tone quickly changing into something much sweeter. It was a scary sort of sweet. Erin seemed to realize that, too.

"I'm sorry...didn't mean to interrupt," he mumbled, backing out a bit more. He was probably afraid she'd shoot that gun one more time...and not miss.

"Right. I'm sure it had nothing to do with you and the rest of this house trying to keep this girl a secret from me. I'm sure none of you would be that ridiculous," she said angrily.

She slammed her gun down on the table. A few of the others jumped.

I continued to stand awkwardly in the window opening, legs cramped from crouching. I was honestly too afraid to move.

Ara eyed everyone one last time before storming out the door without another word. She didn't even look back as she opened the front entrance and slammed it behind her.

She hadn't even bothered to pick her gun up off the table.

Everyone else was shock-still. I slowly slid out of the opening and onto the ground.

Erin eyed me from across the room angrily. Then, he stormed over and grabbed my arm. I was dragged out into the hallway and back up the stairs towards my bedroom. He didn't speak the entire time.

I had a feeling I was pretty screwed.

"Nice job. You've officially ruined everything," Erin muttered as he shoved me into the bedroom. He stood sentry at the door as I plopped onto my book-covered bed. I glared right back at him. I didn't enjoy being reprimanded. Especially when I hadn't asked for any of this in the first place.

Seconds later, June came through the door, shutting it aggressively behind her. Somehow, she managed to look even more pissed than normal.

"We gave you an order," she said calmly. Far too calm for her demeanor.

"And?" I replied.

"You're not allowed to leave this room for the next three days. Meals will be brought to you. If you need to use the bathroom, you need two escorts. And we're boarding the windows." She stared me down as if daring me to object.

And I did. "So, what is this? Are you putting me in timeout because I'm not the obedient servant you signed up for? Sorry for killing your spy. But I didn't ask for any of this." I wanted to throw something like a little girl having a temper tantrum. Really, I just wanted my bow and arrow back. I would gladly take down Ara if I could.

June didn't even react. "Three days," was all she said before swiftly exiting the room.

Erin looked at me sadly, then followed June out. He did seem to pity me in the slightest.

Sadly, pity wouldn't get me out of this mess.