13

"I don't know, there's something off about Rehan."

"I agree," Orabelle sides with Aasim.

My legs are spread in front of me as I stretch my arms to reach my toes. Each group has been allocated to a different room in the training centre for a few minutes, with mini gyms in each one. In these times we are supposed to be discussing what we did horribly in our latest operations and how to improve our strategies. We do normally eventually follow that expectation... when we are walking to regroup in the main training ground. But overall, we use these moments to gossip amongst one another privately as a group without listening ears. 

Aasim drops his medium weight dumbbells, causing them to roll over in my direction so Jiaying and Zeth are forced to jumped over them whilst they spar together. 

"You didn't mention this last night A," I mention as I grab hold of the dumbbells just to pass them onto Orabelle who is currently pretending to exercise.  

Aasim seizes some heavier weights. Rolling the dumbbell under his right foot in thought. "I know it just... I thought about it all night-his reaction. It was just too..."

Orabelle fills in for him, "Relaxed?"

"Yeah. I mean, kind of. Except for the breakdown in the car. When I thought it over, it even seemed like a performance from him."

"What if he just gave up and accepted his fate? Whatever that is." I suggest.

"Insanity is doing the the same thing over and over and expecting it to finally work each time! I like your insanity, but not your style of fighting. It's not working! Let it go!" We hear Belle shout from the other room.

"Yep I think it's time to go." Zeth wipes the sweat off of his forehead with a handkerchief before throwing it onto my face.

"Ew Zeth!" I shriek horrified. Snatching the handkerchief off of my face, I scrunch it up standing up and sprinting to Zeth. I aim to shove it into his mouth and choke him but we're interrupted by Mason who is lingering at the doorway. His fluffy, dark brown hair looks almost black as the light reflects off of it, sharp against his lightly tanned skin and green eyes.

"Belle says hurry the hell up."

The room tenses even though Mason leaves as soon as he delivers the message almost demurely. We all look at Aasim instinctively, feeling protective over him due to the history between them. His jaw tenses but he says defensively, "I'm fine. Let's go," as he marches out of the room swiftly. 

Finding out Mason was apart of this gang seemed like a shock factor for Aasim when we had a first meeting with everyone. My friends and I immediately noticed Aasim's eyes narrowed and arms tense making the atmosphere shift. Zeth pretended to be oblivious, using Aasim's shoulder as a ledge to hang his arm on so that Aasim was distracted when pushing it off of him. A logical part of me knows that he would have left that very same day if it wasn't for Leyna. Another part of me hoped he might have stayed in consideration for me. 

Aasim has never told us what happened between them. Jiaying, Orabelle and I filled in for Zeth about the fake shooting near the school. Without Aasim's knowledge, I did speak to Mason in private to get some answers for that day. He was a bit hesitant at first, using every chance to get away from me it seemed since he thought I was 'Aasim's girl' and kept repeating that he 'didn't want trouble' but he warmed up to me slightly after I clarified that I'm not. 

"So who- like what? I'm sorry I don't know where to start."

"It was my first real mission if you can even call it that. To see if I and the rest of the boys you saw were good enough for the gang basically."

"But you didn't shoot anyone?"

"No that wasn't the rubric of the job."

"What was then?" I ask getting impatient.

"You really don't know?" Mason looks at me shocked. I don't bother replying, letting my face talk for me.

"Your connection with The Joker was becoming a problem."

"My what?" 

"Aren't you related The Joker in some way? Anyway the higher ups or whatever started to question The Joker's devotion to running the gang once they found out about you. Thought you could be a distraction. The Joker had to show you weren't going to be but he also didn't want to kill you...yet. Well that's my theory."

My reply was complete silence. Confusion, shock and relief was probably all reflected off of my eyes. Mason looked at me for a while, most likely thinking he said too much and that he would get into trouble. I forced a small smile barely managing to utter the words, "T-thanks for telling me."

He took that as a sign to go, patting my back once as he walked away before saying, "Please don't tell Aasim I touched you."

I was and am still grateful to still be alive, thanks to The Joker I guess but the whole situation made me suspicious and a small percent terrified. My life was literally in the hands of The Joker and he kept me because I'm apparently related to him? It's not a good enough reason when his position as leader is under threat. What plan did The Joker have for me? Is there a countdown on the days I live? What would mum have done if I was murdered that day? Would she have continued living in obviousness or would she have known it was him?

Every day I ponder over these questions in silent. Every night I replay the conversation with Mason over and over in my mind like a broken record. It has become so routine to me that I drift off straight after-my body knowing that if I don't sleep, I can't function in the jobs well, making the members of my squad pull their weight. And I can't let my team down.

When we enter the hall, everyone has already gathered around Belle who has finished relaying everyone's mission. Usually, there is a last mission she reveals to us all which is the most toughest and challenging mission meaning that more money can be earned from it. Belle scrutinises my squad when we walk in.

"I'm assigning the mission to your squad," she discloses, "as punishment for disrespecting me by being tardy." 

Nobody groans which is surprising since there is normally a fight to see which squad takes on the most money-earning mission. This leads me to fear that this job is more high stakes and endangering than than usual. 

As members exit there are comments like, "Have fun in heaven, or hell, or wherever y'all are going to go." or "Good luck making it back." or "See you in the next life." or straight up laughing whilst saying "It was nice knowing you!" Anxiety courses through me but I tell myself that they are jealous and just trying to rattle us.

Once everyone leaves us to train for this mysterious mission, the sparring becomes more playful. Jiaying pairs up with Orabelle telling her that she needs to get off of her lazy ass.

Zeth does laps around the periphery of the room whilst Aasim and I centre ourselves on the mat and take our positions. We circle each other for a few seconds, only stepping forward to tease the other. Then Aasim swings, making me duck and move behind him. I stretch my right leg to kick his back but he grabs a hold of my right foot and twists himself to push me to the floor. I rapidly reach up and hold his neck so that his focus is pulling my hands off of his neck causing him to let go of my foot. He foresees the move I was about to make as he ducks down so that I automatically look down distracted and pry's my hands off him, sweeping my feet so that I fall onto the mat backwards. I quickly react, grabbing his arms so that he goes down with me. But he stabilises himself expertly so that he doesn't collapse on top of me and instead braces himself so that he is in a plank position above me. Giggling, I tickle his armpits, leading him to lose his balance. Before he falls on me, I hug his torso and flip us around whilst he's disoriented so that I end up on top of him, straddling him. 

I smile in triumph, breathing heavily in fatigue since Aasim is taller and heavier than me causing me to use more power when I rolled us around. Zeth's whistle diverts my attention, and I notice that he has paused his jogging, bending down to rest his hands on his knees. Orabelle and Jiaying have also presumably paused, leaning against the wall. They are all smirking so I ignore them, focusing my eyes back on Aasim. His laboured breathing mirrors my own and he stares back up at me, his pupils dilated against his blue eyes. His eyes hold different emotions: pride, exhaustion and something else I can't decipher. 

"Shit," he abruptly mutters, easily carrying me off him and walking out of the room without looking back. Zeth follows him, only turning around to wink at me. Jiaying wiggles her eyebrows at me.

Orabelle speaks up. "Do you guys realise that we don't even know what the mission is?"

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