♕✿~♕✿~The basics on how to be dangerous♕✿~♕✿~

Madison's POV

After lunch, I return back to my shared room with Lucas and Damon. However, only a couple minutes pass until a knock sounds at the door. Evelyn comes into the room, asking if we want to go do something.

Lucas and Damon, antsy about having done nothing, jump at the chance and follow Evelyn out. I decline, too tired and only wanting to lay in my bed. The previous days were now catching up to me, and I just needed some rest.

But when I close my eyes, I can't find myself relaxing. I'm too on edge in this place, and there's no way I will be getting sleep right now.

I push myself up from the bed, walking over to pick up the extra clothes that had been dropped off in the room. Evelyn had told us all that we could shower and change whenever we needed to. I felt gross from the events of the past few weeks. A shower sounds equivalent to heaven right now.

Outside the room, there is no one. The halls are empty, and the whole atmosphere is eerily creepy. I shiver involuntarily, running my hands over my arms where goosebumps have formed. If I remembered correctly, there was a public bathroom that was shared by everyone in one hall.

I easily find the bathroom after walking down the hall, and I step in to gratefully find no one using the showers right now. Setting my clothes on the bench just outside of the showers, I strip off the grimy clothes I'm wearing and turn on the water.

As I step under the pounding water, a delightful sigh escapes my lips. The water felt so amazingly good. I scrub at my skin quickly, knowing that there was a time limit to the showers so that water could be saved.

When the showers turn off five minutes later, I step out and grab one of the towels on the racks. I quickly dry off my body and hair, putting on my clothes soon after.

I grab my old clothes, not knowing what to do with them. Frankly, I wanted nothing to do with these clothes I had worn during the worst weeks of my life. I end up throwing them in the trash.

I leave the bathroom, but slow down to a stop. I didn't want to return to the room I share with Damon and Lucas if I was just going to be alone with silence and my thoughts as company. I make a quick decision to go outside to try and find them.

I hurry out of the halls, reaching the entrance of the building where some Scarlet Guards members are standing about, talking. Their conversations cease as I walk past them.

The air is cool and the afternoon sky is slightly cloudy. Around me, activity buzzes; small kids are running around with each other, people are walking around and talking with their friends. The scene looks so normal I'm startled. I didn't think I'd ever get used to seeing this site when I walk into a Scarlet Guard base.

I continue to walk, going past buildings which seem to be the sleeping area for many. I dodge people as they continue to come out of buildings. Movement was constant in this place; there was never a moment where people stated in place for long.

As I walk along a path, I try to calm my worries. I was anxious to get back to the capital and see my family. My chest hurt whenever I thought about them. And then there was Ahren. I needed to get to him quickly. It was a foreign feeling, but I longed to see him again, to feel his lips against mine and to feel his arms around me once more. The need was constantly present, making me feel like I was doing drugs and needed my next dose to continue with life.

But Nathan was still out there, waiting for his time to kill Ahren. The few times he had talked to me about it was enough to let me know he was absolutely obsessed with killing Ahren. He would do it if it was the last thing he did. He needed to be stopped before he hurt any more people I cared for.

I come to an abrupt stop as I take in my surrounding. I had blanked out while walking, too into my thoughts, but now that I had looked up, I noticed the people around me. They were practicing various fighting techniques, ranging from physical fights to knife throwing, ability fights where abilities were clashing with each other, and even target practice, where people were shooting at different targets.

The baffling part about all of this was I couldn't hear any of the activity going on around me. I felt like I had gone deaf, but I could still hear the yells of the children in the background.

Maybe this was the work of a Newblood.

I noticed the heads of Lucas and Damon, both of them practicing physical fighting with each other. Damon and Lucas looked to be pretty even; they had similar builds and were pushing against each other, trying to overpower the other. I could see Lucas biting his lip, and it looked like he was trying to stop himself from using his ability on Damon.

I move towards them, and stop in shock as all the sounds I couldn't hear hits me suddenly. The sounds of grunts, gun shots, and knives lodging themselves into their targets fill the air.

I do my best to act like I hadn't just been severely surprised and caught off guard. I continue to make my way to Damon and Lucas.

They're still locked in a fierce physical fight with each other. Damon gets his arms wrapped around Lucas' neck, and Lucas kicks out Damon's legs. Damon keeps his arms tightly wrapped around Lucas' neck, but realizes it's a mistake the same time I do. Lucas lets Damon pull him down, and ends up elbowing him in the stomach, knocking all of his breath from him.

Damon wheezes on the ground, barely able to curse at Lucas as he turns sideways on the ground, holding his stomach. Lucas apologizes profusely.

The two look at me as I come to a stop in front of them. I look around me, taking in the scene of others practicing. It was weird, but I wanted to practice as well. It would give me something to do and I would be able to get something useful out of these lessons. Who knew, maybe I would use what I learn today later on.

"Can you teach me how to fight and...." I look around, trying to decide if I should attempt to learn how to throw knives or shoot. I finally decide on shooting.

Lucas and Damon look at each other, and they unanimously decide Lucas is in better condition to teach me. He starts off with something he considers a basic move.

"Let's say someone is threatening you with a gun." Lucas mimics a gun shape with his hands. "Your life is on the line. Your first move should be disarming the person. There's a lot of ways you can do that."

Lucas takes me through a step by step process for each way. For the first way, I'm supposed to grab the 'gun' and twist it away from me and flip the gunman on the ground. The second technique he shows me is one where I can grab the gun directly from the gunman's hand and break the person's finger in the process. He also shows me how to disarm a gunman if they're pointing the gun at my back.

After going through the processes, he tells me to demonstrate what I've learned.

I end up on my back and the pretend gun pointing at me in five seconds.

I take a moment to get my breath back. This was definitely a lot harder than I had expected.

I continue to practice disarming someone, and I finally disarm Lucas correctly after 50 times of falling as Damon watches me and teases me.

I huff out a breath, ready to call it a day, but Lucas stops me. "Let's try it again."

I look at him in disbelief. "What?" I wheeze out.

He raises a brow. "You don't expect to be a pro at disarming someone after one successful try, do you?"

I don't ever expect to be a pro at this at all, I think glumly.

"You play the viola, right?" I nod. "Well, you didn't get good at it by only practicing something successfully once. You got good at it by playing a piece correctly multiple times until your fingers are already moving to the positions they need to move in before you reach certain spots in the music. You need to practice," Lucas tells me.

After begrudgingly admitting he's right, I ready myself to disarm the gun again.

Doing so takes at least another hour. Many people have left, and new people take their places. However, we stay where we are, practicing the art of disarming someone.

When Lucas deems I'm good enough for now at disarming someone, we move to the shooting range. He hands me some plugs to put in my ears and something that resembles glasses.

"It gets loud and you need to protect you eyes," Lucas merely says.

The plugs aren't anything fancy. In fact, they look like they've just been cut from some soft material. I put them in my ears, and the sounds around me are slightly muted. I place the glasses on.

Lucas hands me a gun and grabs one for himself. Damon grabs one as well, walking away to shoot targets.

"This is the safety." Lucas points at something on the gun. "You need to make sure this is off before shooting. You won't be shooting if it's on."

I turn it off like Lucas shows me. He talks to me about the stance I need to be in and how my hands should be positioned around the gun. He fixes the way my elbows are positioned, and then tells me to do one practice shot.

I gingerly pull the trigger and jump as the gunshot sounds, my hands jerking back a bit.

"You'll get used to it the more you practice," Lucas tells me.

While Damon is next to me, shooting at targets with terrifying accuracy, I take it slow. Whenever I shoot, I usually end up missing. The first time I hit the target, albeit not even close to the center, I cheer wildly as Lucas and Damon watch in amusement.

The hours pass by as Lucas gives me more tips on how to shoot more accurately. I do my best to follow what he says, and do my best to aim well. By the time dinner rolls around and the sun is setting, I've mastered the ability to shoot more accurately, although I'm still not shooting the center.

The three of us follow the others to go eat dinner, which is some watery soup and suspiciously hard mashed potatoes. However, I'm too hungry to complain and I wolf down the food, Lucas and Damon doing the same.

Evelyn slides into the seat in front of us as we eat. Damon glares at her, his appetite ruined just at the sight of her, and Lucas watches her warily.

She looks at me. "Captain Arenal plans to interrogate you tomorrow at 9 o'clock in the morning. She doesn't like people who are late."

When Evelyn leaves, my good mood dampers. The idea of being interrogated was scaring me more and more by the minute.

I would just have to hope that I would be able to survive all of this.

♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~♕✿~

So, yesterday was my homecoming, and it was fun like always! I honestly love going to school dances just because it's a chance to hang out with your friends, dance, and let loose. Have you guys been to your homecoming yet?

I have planned out my chapters already, and right now I plan to have 46 chapters for this book! (excluding epilogue). I'm so excited for what I have planned for this book (though you guys might die a bit with what I have planned for the big finale...;) but I won't give anything away :p

Do you guys have any theories on how the ending will be?

Have a great rest of your week!

Glass_Sword