I'm drawn back into this cruel world by the chatter emerging from around the corner. Getting myself in tact, I join the rest of the group.

Ashley has a pink laptop seated on his lap, most-likely Olivia's. Felix sits next to him, pointing to the screen and walking him through some of the steps. "You know, it's kinda hard to focus with you breathing down my neck, dude," Ashley complains.

"You've got one shot to get this right, bro. If we get caught, we'll be sending snapchats of our mugshots," Felix says.

The laptop makes a sudden sound, alerting the group. Maxi is the first to speak up. "What happened? Did you do it?"

"Yes, yes, yes, yes! I got it!" Ashley cheers, followed by Felix.

Silas walks around to see the screen of the laptop. He soon smiles, patting his friend on the back. "Ash, I never doubted you."

I walk over as well and gaze at the screen, not knowing at all how this even works. "So how exactly does this... bugging thing work?"

"Oh it's pretty simple, actually," Ashley replies. "It involves some coding and some of those fancy hacking skills, but basically, the bug I put on her computer allows me to record the things that she does on the screen and I can watch what she does from my screen." He then picks up a small box that's hooked up to a bunch of wires. "And this hardrive records everything, so we'll always have a copy."

I nod my head, pretty impressed. "And how far back does this go?" I ask.

He seems to be enjoying my questions. "Technically, we can go back to the time that we bugged it, but with more coding, I can go further."

"Well, let's just get this done. I don't wanna be here another second then we need to," Maxi says, still pacing back and forth across the hall. She's acting as if she's never broken into anything before. I mean, I'm assuming she has, with her lock picking skills and all that, but I'd expect her to act the same way when under pressure.

Another chime comes from the laptop and Ashley puts his arms in the air in success. "Boom! We are officially in!" Olivia's computer screen is now identical to Ashley's.

Felix takes Olivia's laptop and shuts it down, placing back into her locker. "Alright, let's get out of here. The cameras won't stay disabled for much longer."

Quickly, we all gather the rest of the bags and begin to pack up shop. I look over at Silas, who now seems sort of stressed out as he hurriedly packs his belongings. I want to ask if he's okay, but then I remember something important.

No. What the hell are you doing? He's blackmailing you, for God's sake. Don't show him any pity! This transparent voice in my head and getting rather annoying.

Maxi approaches Silas and says something from over his shoulder. His face reads denial as he shakes his head, just like he did earlier. Again, I can't make out any of their whispers. At least no one would eavesdrop on them. Silas then walks away from Maxi, striding past me. As he does, his eyes fall on me, and suddenly, everything goes into slow motion. The moonlight leaks through the windows around us, coloring the school in a faded white. It projects onto Silas, bathing him in blues and greys, reflecting off of his moon-kissed eyes. It's like he's the night itself.

As the world transfers back into normality, Maxi too sweeps past me, purposely bumping my shoulder. Deciding to ignore her failing attempts to get me angry, I too follow the rest of the crowd. Once we successfully exit the building, Felix stops abruptly.

"Dude, what's going on?" Ashley asks.

Felix turns around, looking completely panicked. "Shit shit shit shit shit, we are so dead," he chants, slowly walking back into the school.

"Well you're gonna be dead in a minute if you don't tell us what the hell is going on," Maxi threatens, already clenching her fists.

Felix begins pacing and sighing frantically. "We're all gonna be dead anyway! The freaking cops are here!"

"What?!" Silas races to the door and takes a peek outside. Flashes of blue and red make his face glow as he squints his eyes to see clearly. "Shit, he's right. There's two cops out there."

Maxi puts her face in her hands. "Dammit, I told you people we shouldn't have brought her along!" She walks up to me with a look of slaughter. "Was this your plan the whole time? To catch us in the action and then call the cops?"

"I- I- I didn't call the cops!" I claim, almost losing the words to my stutters.

"Bullshit! You're the only one who could've done it!" She yells.

"Maxi!" Silas hollars. Everyone's eyes land on him. "If she says she didn't do it, then she didn't do it. So back the hell off." Maxi bites the side of her lip and slowly backs off of me, not saying a word. She doesn't even look at me. "Now we don't have time to place blame. Right now, we need to focus on getting out of here without earning ourselves a shiny pair of handcuffs, and not the fluffy kind."

Ashley goes toward the door and hesitantly looks out the crack, doubting what Silas just explained. "And how the hell are we gonna do that?" He asks him, looking worried.

No one answers. Felix stands there looking more frightened than ever, Maxi looks as if she's going to draw blood, and Silas stands with his arms crossed, trying to come up with some way of escaping without getting caught. When no one comes up with a plan, I speak up. "There's a back door that we can escape through."

Silas looks up, followed by everyone else.
"Where?" Felix asks.

"It's kinda hard to explain but if you follow me, I can get us all out without being spotted."

"Huh," Maxi scoffs. "Like we're gonna put our freedom in your hands."

Ashley shakes his head, walking toward me. "Screw it, I don't want to get arrested, so I'm going with Rowen," he says.

Felix hesitates before he too speaks up. "Guys, I don't think we have another choice." He looks at Maxi but she doesn't share eye contact. "Max, c'mon. I'm pretty sure you won't be able to pick the locks on a jail cell."

Her glare falls on me, those cold eyes robbing me of any warmth. I force my eyes away from hers and look into the direction of Silas, who is still debating on whether or not to follow me. I hear Maxi sigh as she decides to sercombe to my plan. "Fine, whatever."

"Alright, Hewitt. You have everyone's attention. So what do we do?" Silas asks from just a few feet away, shining his flashlight in my direction.

Without even realizing it, my hands begin to shake and I almost drop my flashlight. Everyone looks at me in utter confusion, especially Silas. I quickly clutch my wrist to put a stop to the violent shaking, and it begins to steady. Looking back at the crowd of wondering eyes, I force a grin onto my face, trying to appear completely casual. "Okay, so just follow me and I'll show you guys where the door is." Not looking back, I begin walking, the light from my flashlight flooding the empty halls.

No one speaks on the way to my 'secret' door, not even Maxi. I expected some sort of rude comment from her about my shaking, but she's doesn't speak a word. Regardless, I feel her appraising eyes assess me as we walk, her midnight lashes just hovering above her brown eyes: the only feminine pieces compared to the rest of her motorcycle getup.

I soon smell a familiar whiff of gunpowder in the air. Silas is now walking next to me. Though our eyes don't mate, I can still feel the cold touch of his silver irises on my face. "You okay?" He asks, his voice sounding sincere.

"Yeah. I've dealt with people worse than Maxi before, no offense," I explain, taking care to keep my voice at a low volume.

"None taken. Maxi isn't exactly everyone's favorite person."

I glance behind my shoulder and see Maxi at the rear of the pack. Then looking back to Silas, I ask, "What's her problem with me anyway?"

The halls are dressed in black as the five of us walk among the tiled floors. I still can't believe I'm helping a bunch of criminals escape the crime scene. After all, if I did turn them in, I can always say that I was forced to assist them with their dirty work. Then again, I can't help but think that what I'm going is the right thing to do. It wouldn't feel right if I turned them in now. No matter how much I want to dismiss the thought, I do owe Silas. He is keeping his promise by keeping my secret. I'm gonna have to do the same for him.

Silas compresses his lips together. "She has a complicated past, and some family issues, none of which she'll let me disclose." I nod and continue walking the halls with him by my side. "But she does mean well. She just had issues trusting people."

"A fucked up past and a lack of trust. Sounds familiar," I say. Silas looks at me with pity for a brief second before we finally reach the back door that leads to the back of the school building.

"I didn't know this was here," Felix says.

I make my way toward the door and open it a crack, looking out into the empty void of darkness just ahead. "Yeah well when you want to get away, you go someplace no one knows about," I exclaim, still looking into the night. I open the door a bit more as soon as I realize that there are no cops in sight. "Okay, there's no police. We can go."

Stepping outside, the moon lies still in the sky, thin clouds slowly tracing the dangling pearl. Moonlight bleaches the terrain in a silvery fire, making my thoughts go ballistic. All I want to do is lay on the grass and gaze at the sky sprinkled with stars, but then I remember that I'm currently trying to escape from the cops. That wish is instantly thrown out the window.

I'm followed by Silas and the others as I lead them around the building towards the front of the school. Our paces quicken the more we walk, and so does my beating heart. When we approach the front of the building, Silas instructs everyone to shut off their flashlights. Once all the lights are dimmed, he spoke. "Okay, now how the hell are we gonna get past those cops?" He questions. Three cops stand guard outside of the school, shining their own flashlights on the dark walls.

It takes me a moment to realize that he's talking to me. "I know how to get out of a building. I don't know how to sneak past cops, if that's what you were asking."

"Great. We're goners," Ashley says, his back sinking into the wall of the school.

"Hey, we are not goners. Alright, I'm gonna get us out of this," replies Silas.

Maxi drops her bag to the ground, a hard thump reflecting in the air. "You were the one who got us into this mess in the first place!" She growls. Felix then shushes her and tells her to keep her voice down. "No, I'm not going to keep my voice down. Now, because of Silas and his little girlfriend, we are all gonna end up behind bars."

"Okay, first of all, I never forced you to do anything, Maxi. You came on your own terms," Silas declares, his tone slowly rising. "And second, do not put this on Rowen. She had no idea what we were doing. And I... did kinda force her to come." He looks at me as he explains this. An apologetic look swims in the crystals of his eyes.

Her glare travels between the two of us until it finally drops to the ground. Even though it's dark, it's not hard to spot the eye rolling performance she's giving us.

"Well, I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I would really like to get out of here and not just stand here waiting to be arrested," Felix says.

Silas runs his over his face before placing both on his hips. "You're right. We need some kind of plan."

The five of us take a moment of silence to try and formulate a plan. I can see the wheels turning in Ashley's, Felix's, and Silas' heads. Maxi doesn't appear to be thinking at all as her back is up against the wall with her arms crossed. She looks off into the distance, not setting her eyes on anything in particular. The more I think about it, the more I start to see the resemblance between the two of us. We both use our anger as masks to hide away what we really feel - pain.

"I've got it," Felix says, snapping his fingers. "We need some kind of diversion."

"What kind of diversion?" Ashley asks.

"Someone needs to distract the cops so the rest of us can get away," he replies. He then turns his attention to me. "Thank you for volunteering, Rowen."

A bewildered look takes over my face. "Excuse me?"

"C'mon, Rowen," Ashley urges. "It'll be fun."

"No!" I almost shout too loudly. "I'm not risking my ass to save the rest of yours!"

Silas steps forward and faces me, our gazes meeting. His hands are shoved deeply into the depths of his pockets. "I think I have a better idea."

A/N

Another chapter is up! Yay!!!

So I don't have much to announce in the author's note, other than to say thank you to everyone who has made it this far into my book! I appreciate every vote, comment, and read I can get!

Anyways, if you enjoyed the chapter, maybe give it a little vote? That pretty little star in the bottom left-hand corner wants to be orange!

XOXO