A scream echoed through the entire house.

                I was froze, my eyes wide with fear. I stared at the girl before me as she stared back, both of us equally afraid.

                I snapped out of my state of terror, standing up slowly.

                She screamed, backing away slightly, “What the hell are you going in here?!”

                I raised my hands up peacefully, but she didn’t seem to notice. The girl was backing up quickly, stumbling over her own feet. I didn’t move anymore, my heart beating.

                Where was Sofia?

                The girl reached around, trying to find something to defend herself with. Her eyes never left me. She was panting, her chest rising up and down in fear.

                I still hadn’t moved.

                “Please—” I said, trying to get her to calm down.

                “Shut the hell up!” She screamed, “Just shut up!”

                I closed my mouth, trying to keep her calm. I made a small motion with my hands as if to say, I did, see?.

                She was still breathing heavily, blindly searching for something-anything-to fight me with. As if it would come down to that. I wasn’t going to make any advances towards her. Any fight that started would be her fault.

                “How did you get in here?” She asked, trying to sound intimidating. The screams of terror sort of ruined that look.

                I opened my mouth to speak, when she cut me off.

                “Don’t speak!”

                But didn’t she just…?

                Nonetheless, I complied with her wishes.

                She took a deep breath, trying to steady herself before she spoke again, “I have a gun.”

                She didn’t.

                I didn’t move.

                I didn’t want to do anything that could upset her and react badly.

                Where was Sofia?!

                The girl took another breath, “This is what’s going to happen. You’re going to stay there and not move. I need to make a call real quick—”

                “No!” I shouted, moving towards her, “Don’t you dare!”

                She screamed, running out of the room without looking back. I cussed, following after her. I couldn’t let her tell the authorities about us. I didn’t mind about John getting caught, but I needed to keep my own ass saved.

                She raced up the stairs, stumbling as she climbed. She glanced back, screaming again when her eyes landed on my face.

                “Please! Stop!” I begged, trying to sound calm and sincere, “I mean no harm!”

                “Get away! Get away! Get away!” She screamed, running into a room.

                I chased after her to see her on the opposite side of the bed. She darted to the right, I darted to the right. She darted to the left, I followed her move.

                Tears fell down her face as she whimpered, pleading for mercy.

                I felt my breaths coming in short and shallow. I stared at her, trying to send her a telepathic message that I wasn’t the enemy. My gender was, but I was not.

                “Please,” I said gently, “I don’t mean to harm you. Let me explain everything because you make any rash—”

                She jumped over the bed, pushing past me and out of the room.

                I cussed, turning around and chasing after her.

                I finally caught her as she rounded the stairs.

                I reached out, grabbing on to the back of her shirt. I pulled her back roughly. She lost her footing falling on top of me.

                She screamed as she landed painfully on my chest. I kept my grip on her shirt tight, wrapping an arm overtop of her, restraining her arms. She struggled under my grasp, screaming the entire time as she attempted to free herself.

                I rolled over so that she was on her back. I restrained her legs with my own, holding her hands above her head by her wrists.

                She was sobbing uncontrollably now, tears pouring down the sides of her face. She shook her head, pleading with me through the sobs.   

                “Please, please, don’t hurt me,” She begged, sobbing, “I swear, I won’t tell the authorities on you! Just let me go, please. Please, I didn’t do anything!”

                “Shut up for a minute!” I hissed.

                She choked back a sob, silencing herself.

                I took a deep breath, “I need you to listen to me. Please, I promise you I won’t harm you if you just listen to me.”

                She nodded, her breath still shaky.

                “I’m not going to hurt you.” I promised “I’m not one of the normal Boys. I don’t spend my life thinking of how many ways I’d torture a Girl if I got a chance to.”

                She flinched slightly.

                “I think this whole war is stupid.” I said, “I’m a DQ.”

                Might as well continue with the lie for as long as I could.

                “Have you ever seen a DQ?”

                She shook her head no.

                “We’ll, Sofia said she’d take me in, since I’m a new DQ. I haven’t really had time to accessorize myself properly.” I hoped I sounded Drag Queen enough for this role.

                The girl’s eyes seemed to soften slightly at the thought of Sofia approving of this. Her breathing slowed to a normal pace. I kept my eyes trained on her, waiting for her to calm down enough so I could release her.

                “Where is Sofia?”

                “She went out to order food for the fridge.” The girl said, her voice soft, shaky. She wouldn’t meet my eyes.

                “If I release you, do you promise not to do anything rash?” I asked.

                She hesitated before nodding.

                I loosened my grip on her, backing off of her arms. I moved slowly off of her entirely, freeing her legs last.

                She stood up cautiously, her eyes never leaving my body, but never meeting my own gaze.

                As soon as she stood up the entire way, she took off, racing for the stairs.          

                I had anticipated that.

                I reached an arm out, wrapping it around her waist and pulling her back. She struggled against me, clearly not one to be very physically fit.

                “What did I just say?” I sighed, holding her against me, keeping her arms pressed against her chest.

                “Let go!”

                “I’m sorry, I can’t now.”

                “Please!”

                “You ruined your only chance.” All sympathy for her had disappeared. She may have been panicking, but I was only giving her one shot. She already blew it.

                She let out another sob as I forced her down the stairs. I made my way into the kitchen, looking for some way to keep her tied up.

                “What the hell are you doing?”

                I froze in my place, along with the girl next to me. I turned around, coming face to face with an incredibly pissed off Sofia.

                Her hair fell wildly about her, loose clothing hanging off. Her arms were crossed over her chest, one hip cocked to the side. Her lips were pulled into a thin line with one eyebrow raised.

                “She—”

                “Oh Sofia!” The girl in my arms screamed, “Thank God you’re here! He was trying to kill me! Quick! Grab the gun on the table! Get this thing off of me!”

                “Shut up, Mimi, I wasn’t talking to you.”

                The girl’s eyes widened, but she closed her mouth regardless.

                “Let her go.” Sofia growled.

                I pulled my arms away from the girl, taking a step back. The girl turned around, slamming her first into my stomach.

                The air rushed out of me. I doubled over, grabbing my abdominal.

                Sofia did nothing.

                “Mimi, get the gun.”

                The girl skirted off to the kitchen. Sofia took a few steps closer to me, an unsympathetic expression on her face.

                Sofia stood before me, looking down in the same position. She was silent for a moment, waiting for her friend to return.

                Mimi returned a few seconds later, handing the gun over to Sofia. Sofia turned it on, the sound ringing through-out the silent house.

                “The others?”

                “Still there.” I whispered, intimidated by Sofia. I felt fear coursing through my veins. She had already told me she didn’t entirely trust me. This was a perfect action to push her off the edge and blow my brains out.

                A silent minute passed before anything happened. I didn’t take my eyes off of Sofia the entire time. Neither did Mimi.

                “Mimi, leave for a moment will you?”

                “Are you sure?”

                “Go.”

                My eyes flickered over to the girl who left the room quickly.

                Sofia grabbed the collar of my shirt, dragging me along with her. I followed in toe, my heart beating like crazy. She shoved me against a wall, giving me a look. I watched as she walked down into the basement for a few seconds before coming up and locking the door.

                I assumed the other two were in fact in there still.

                She grabbed my collar again, pulling me with her. We passed Mimi who sat in the kitchen wide-eyes. The girl froze as we walked past, unable to say anything. Sofia didn’t look at her.

                Sofia pulled me up the stairs, roughly shoving me into a room.

                She closed the door, locking it.

                Holding the gun up aimed at me, she motioned for me to sit. I took a seat on the edge of the bed hesitantly.

                “Explain.”

                “She found us.”

                “What were you doing to her?” Her voice was hard.

                “Trying to restrain her.”

                “Why?”

                “She was going to call the authorities.”

                “So you thought it’d be smart to restrain her like that? It didn’t occur to you at all to try to reason with her at all?”

                “I tried!”

                “Clearly not well enough!”

                “I told her I wasn’t going to hurt her! I told her I was a fucking Drag Queen for crying out loud!” I shouted.

                Sofia gritted her teeth, “Of course she wouldn’t believe you! Not when you acted like that!”

                “I told her this before I grabbed her!”

                She rolled her eyes, “Why the hell would she be freaking out like she was then, Clay? Care to explain that?”

                “I don’t know!”

                Sofia took a deep breath, steadying herself, “Look. I want you to start from the beginning and tell me everything that happened.”

                “I was sitting at the top of the steps—”

                “Why?!”

                “Because it’s lonely down there when the only other two people are your enemies!” I growled angrily.

                She narrowed her eyes, but waited for me to continue.

                “She opened the door and started yelling at me. I didn’t do anything at first, but then she took off screaming that she was going to call the authorities. So I naturally, I ran after her to try and stop her.”

                “And where does your ‘reasoning’ come in to play?” She lowered the gun slightly, but the hum still buzzed in the room.

                I swallowed, “I chased her upstairs and tackled her by the stairs. I tried to tell her that I didn’t mean any harm; that I was a DQ. She said that she wouldn’t run away if I released her, so I did, but she ran anyways. I went back to get her and that’s when you came in.”

                Sofia was silent for a moment.

                “It’s true. I swear.” I held her eyes, trying to get her to see that I was sincere, “I didn’t want to put you in danger with this.”

                Sofia sighed, turning the gun off.

                A small smile crossed my lips.

                Her eyes hardened when she spoke next, “Clayton, I seriously can’t risk anything happening anymore while Mimi’s here. I’m going to fire this gun out the window and you’re going to have to stay here until Mimi goes to sleep.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “We’re going to pretend I killed you.”

                “Why?”

                “She can’t know that I’m willingly hiding a boy. Mimi may be one of my friends, but she would rat me out in a heartbeat if she knew I was hiding you.” Sofia sighed, her eyes glazing over slightly, “If she ever found out about John or Cassie… all Hell would break loose. It’s important she thinks you’re dead.”

                “Who’s going to watch over Cassie or J-John?” I hissed his name.

                She sighed, “I’m going to have to bind them both tightly and hope that it holds long enough for Mimi to leave.”

                “When’s she going?”

                “Tomorrow.”

                I nodded, sighing.

                Sofia rested the gun on the counter of her dresser, sighing. She motioned with her finger for me to come over to here.

                I stood up hesitantly, taking a few steps closer.

                “If Mimi comes up here, you need to hide.” Sofia moved to the wall to her right, pressing her hand against it. As soon as her fingers touched it, a red light flashed across it twice. Sofia knelt down to the ground, her fingers sliding underneath the edge of the wall.

                I watched with interest as she pried the wall up gently so that it hovered half an inch above the ground.

                “If Mimi comes this way, pull this up the rest of the way and hid in it. Pull it down entirely. You can get out of it from the inside.”

                “What’s in there?”

                “Extra space. I used to hide my experiments in here before I got a license to have practice them from the government.”

                “Wait so there could be dangerous chemicals in there?” I made a face, uncomfortable with the thought of staying somewhere her experiments had been.

                Sofia laughed, running a hand through her hair, “No. I cleaned it carefully. I couldn’t let anyone find out about them. I was careful. You’re safe.”

                I nodded, “Why did you need to hide them?”

                “I was experimenting with certain things that weren’t allowed.”

                “Like?”

                “I was trying to combine a bonsai seed with a male wolf’s sperm.”

                I made a face, “That’s sick and twisted Sofia.”

                She laughed, “I know. But I thought I could do it. It didn’t work. The wolf either couldn’t move, or the tree had fur.”

                “You’re so strange.”

                She shrugged, “Whatever. This is where you’re to go if you here her voice or footsteps. I’ll knock twice before I enter.”

                I nodded, going back to sit on the bed.

                “Now move.”

                “Why?”

                “I need to fire the gun to ‘kill you’” She said, turning the gun back on. The hum filled the room. I hesitated before coming over to stand where she was standing.

                I stood by her side as she aimed the gun at the window.

                “Ready?” She asked.

                I nodded.

                The red light connected with the glass.

                She pulled the trigger.

                The bullet sailed through the glass, causing it to shatter.

                A scream erupted from downstairs. Mimi must’ve heard.

                Sofia turned off the gun, pointing it at the floor. “Remember. Stay hidden. I’ll be back in a few hours for you.” 

**************

The new cover was made by HaydenGardner =] Thank youuu <3

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I'm thinking maybe four or five chapters left? Depending on where I take this story, :D I'm excited for the ending.