"Will as in the Will who was best friends with my father and who died in debt of F.U.S.E? You have got to be kidding me," I run a hand down my face, exhaling as I start to walk out, planning to confront the girl.

Soren stops me, "Hey, this might not be a bad thing. Will was good friend of your dad's. F.U.S.E are no doubt going to be after this girl to seek revenge on her father for him taking three million pounds from them and using it to buy intoxicants. And on top of that, not paying them back before he passed away. Maybe you finding her was a good thing; we can protect her from them."

I shake my head in answer, "We can't take on that responsibility. You said yourself that for our plans we have to lay low for a while. If we're taking in the person F.U.S.E probably wants the most right now, we'll be ruining our chances of destroying them. The police will be after us before we even step one foot in their territory. We have to send her away and just hope she survives."

Soren crosses his arms and looks at me in annoyance, "We can't just leave her! Will was a good man and your father's friend. He was misled and became addicted to drugs and alcohol and maybe he borrowed money for all the wrong reasons from all the wrong people, but no-one is perfect and he does not deserve to die in vain! We have to protect this girl - his daughter! She is his legacy, and if we lose that, he may as well have never existed. Come on."

"We can't!" I insist, running a hand through my hair stressfully as I reach for the doorknob, "We have to stick to our main plan of getting rid of F.U.S.E."

"Plans are made to be changed! If we didn't go through trial and error, buildings would never be built! Medicine would never have been developed! Cures would never have been found! This isn't a choice, we can't just let Will's daughter die in the hands of F.U.S.E."

"Well maybe that's what it will take to get them to stop. One life of a stranger versus our whole gang's lives - I think I know who's more important."

Soren seems to be on the verge of slapping me as I narrow my eyes at him to challenge him.

"She's not a stranger, and our gang consists of four people!" he yells as I stride out the room, seeing the girl and Red's eyes turned to us, probably at the sound of Soren's voice.

"What are you staring at?" I force out through a clenched jaw as Soren walks into the room after me, heading into the kitchen with aggravation written all over his face.

The girl timidly turns away to glance at the trapdoor. Her every movement is twitchy and her leg taps incessantly on the floor while she takes one of her lip rings in-between her teeth, nervous.

Well, who wouldn't be? She doesn't know anyone here and is confident that any one of us could kill her with a flick of our wrists.

"You can stop acting so scared, you'll be with us for a while," I tell her, enjoying the confusion and silent protest that coats her pale features.

She manages to utter out a sentence in the midst of her anxiousness, "I can't stay here! I-I have a family!"

Just then, Trent comes into the room, handing me a sheet of paper with neat, printed sentences on it. I scan it, realising it's a factfile on someone called Avyn Lunaver. I nudge him, "Who's this?"

He laughs he points at the picture, directing my attention to the girl in the photo. My eyes flit up to the girl standing in the room and then back to the photo of an unamused-looking girl.

"Avyn Lunaver," I read, walking over to sit on the sofa, "Female, eighteen, single, lives by herself and the daughter of Will Lunaver... Well. Looks like Soren wasn't kidding."

I put down the factfile as she all of a sudden roots herself to the spot, uncomfortable, "D-did you say daughter of Will Lunaver?" she questions carefully, tense as I nod.

"So?"

"N-nothing," she retaliates, much too quickly for it to seem natural.

She's hiding something.

I stand up, facing the back of the sofa so that my face is close to hers. She breathes in shakily, unable to take a step back as her feet glue themselves to the ground in fear, "I am part of a gang called A.C.R.E. And in case you didn't know, we kill people. If you are seriously considering to withhold information, I suggest you reevaluate your decisions. You are eighteen, it wouldn't be nice to have a scar across your neck for the rest of your life, would it?" I mutter in a quiet tone of voice, watching the colour drain from her face as she hears our gang name - undoubtedly she has seen one of the many news reports complaining about us.

She swallows as I sharpen my stare at her, practically shaking in her skin. All of a sudden, she turns and sprints away down the corridor which leads to the other rooms, entering my room and slamming it shut behind her. A sliding sound tells me she's locked herself in. I can hear her hyperventilating and on the verge on a panic attack.

With a sigh, I walk towards the room, crossing my arms as I stand outside, "You know, for a girl with..." I refer to my sheet, "Twelve piercings who dresses in black and leather clothing and was earlier acting about as friendly as The Joker, you sure are a pussy."

When she doesn't reply, I continue to taunt her, "Dang, you have a lot of piercings on your ears. Industrial, double lobes, helixes... Dang, girl. Wait, you aren't one of those people who are into piercing their genitals, right? I can't imagine that being very fun. Then again, even your tongue is pierced, so I wouldn't put it past you. You know, Trent was once considering to pierce his dick. Luckily I managed to talk him out of it since it clearly wouldn't be very enjoyable for the girls he fu-"

I cut myself off as Trent wanders past me, punching my arm with a scowl. I hear the door unlock and push it open with a kick of my leg, seeing Avyn in the corner with her fingers in her ears. Her eyes are watering and she's shivering - whether it's from knowing she's in the jaws of a gang or because of the below zero temperatures in here, I don't know.

She shrinks against the wall as I lean close to her ear, pressing my lower body against hers and holding down her arms with my hands, "Never. Ever. Try and hide something from me again. The second you start to think that hiding something from my gang okay is the day I throw you out of here. And I promise you, you will not survive."

She goes ice cold as she turns so her back is to the wall and instead her front is pressed against mine. Confusion is painted over her face as she narrows her eyes, "W-what? Why wouldn't I survive?"

:| A V Y N L U N A V E R |:

What does he mean I wouldn't survive? I live a normal life, I live in a normal house, I eat normal food - my whole life is normal. Well, it had been up until the moment a worldwide-wanted gang kidnapped me. I'm practically shaking like a leaf, blood running ice cold as his steely gaze meets my teary one. I'm trying to not let my fear show through but clearly it won't work if my eyes are betraying me.

His head tilts to the side ever so slightly as if trying to see into my mind, "Do you... not know?"

"Not know what?"

"Wait, I thought you knew already? That's why you acted like that in the living room. Isn't it?"

"What? Not know what?"

"How can you not know?"

"Godammit, just tell me already!" I exclaim, frustration building enough for me to dare to be more outspoken.

"Your father?" he asks, pushing back against my hips with his as I tried to get around him and leave the room, trembling wih fear and confusion.

His hands remain around my waist, driving me into the wall as I return his confused look with mine. Ignoring the pain from his forceful push, I wipe away the worry that fills my mind. My dad died of cancer when I was young, I don't even remember him. How could this guy know him? Surely it's just a misunderstanding, some other Will Lunaver they're talking about, some other girl who looks like my doppleganger and that A.C.R.E wants. Surely it can't be me.

"H-how do you know my father?" I swallowed, knowing that I was treading on paper-thin ice.

A painful silence lingers as he tried to discover my motive for asking him, "Will Lunaver. He was my dad's friend," he eventually answers.

Our eyes wrestle for some insight into each other's thoughts before I give up and look away, "P-please leave me alone," I stammer, mind swirling with jigsaw pieces which refuse to fit together.

He lets me walk out the room and into the main one, fright still swimming in my body and not planning to leave. Before I let myself question my mind further, I hurry towards the trapdoor and begin climbing the ladder. My right foot hits the third rung as someone clears their throat behind me.

"I know you don't know what's going on, but you can't-"

On the verge of hyperventilating, I grip the sides of the ladder until my knuckles turn ghostly white, "Y-you can't keep me here, I haven't done a-anything wrong! I-I don't plan to, and I can survive just f-fine on my own. I... I don't know who any of you are, or why you want me, or w-why you are hiding it this hole in your garage. All I want to do is for you to please let me leave and live normally. I'm scared to fucking death and I don't know what's going on and if you could just let me leave, I won't speak a word for the rest of my life," I choke out.

My limbs lock up as I hear shuffling behind me and the still-nameless guy finally speaks up, "If you expect me to be nice to you just because you're scared, you are sorely mistaken. I am part of a gang. No mercy. No tears, no crying, no comforting. So you better stop fucking crying because it's not working. No matter what you fucking do or say, you are staying here. You will not leave or breathe fresh air again without us right next to you. Do you understand?"

He dares me to say no, his penetrating faze burning into the back of my head. I step back down the ladder and nod my head, keeping my gaze downwards as he grabs my wrist and forces me into the kitchen, following close behind me.

"Eat."

I look down at the large pizza sitting on the kitchen island and reluctantly take a seat, collapsing under his challenging look. Soren, Red, and Trent stare at me before Red speaks up, deep voice echoing in the huge kitchen.

"Oscar," finally, I have a name for the scary-ass dick next to me, "I booked the flights for tomorrow," Red removes five slides of paper from his pocket and hands them to Oscar who nods in approval.

Soren nudges a plate with a steaming-hot pizza perched on it invitingly towards me. I deny it, feeling too bothered by the drama of today to eat anything.

"Avyn, you have to eat something. Personally, I don't fucking care if you starve yourself to death, but Soren seems to think you are important to the gang," Oscar states unkindly as I feel more tears burn the back of my eyes.

A heavy silence follows where I don't reach for a slice, nervous.

"Suit yourself," he shrugs and pushes the plate away, crossing his arms, "Go sleep. We have a flight in the morning to go to L.A. No questions."

I meekly hurry to leave the room, cold because of his brazen attitude and the freezing temperatures of this underground base. Finding an empty room with a mattress in the corner, I settle into it, leaning against the wall. I feel more protected leaning against two inaminate walls than out there with those men.

I don't let my tears fall, ashamed of myself. I'm meant to be the badass, the one who isn't scared of anything or anyone. I'm meant to be planning my great escape, willing to risk my life for freedom. But instead, I'm cowering in a corner, missing my dysfunctional family and non-existent friends, and not planning to ever dare to leave. I'm even too scared to cry.

What happened? Once upon a time I was trying to buy a sandwich in the corner shop, and now I'm in the hands of the most-wanted criminals of the world. What has this got to do with my father?

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The door opens with a creak, light seeping through into the dark, cold container of this barren room.

"Get up," Oscar demands, tone icier than the room.

Not having blinked for the whole night, I lift my head up, pain surging through my neck at the position as fatigue swallowed me. I manage to stand up, rubbing my eyes.

Definitely wasn't a dream.

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|| B I S H ' S N O T E ||

A kind of not filler for ya :) Next chapter will be them flying to L.A. :D Exciting! But seriously, Oscar is such a jerk.

Question: Hot or cold drinks? Hot for me, but it's kinda hard to decide!

xx