Cammie
Run.
Run.
Run.
Run.
The word pounded my mind, like a painful heartbeat.
Run.
Run.
Run.
I wondered where all the people I loved were now. I hope they weren't looking for me. I was in enough pain without getting loved one involved.
Run.
Run.
Footsteps click-clacked down the long stone hallway, making me flinch with every sound.
Run.
She was there. She wanted to know. She was desperate to know. She was cruel, vicious and had no mercy.
Run.
The word was still bouncing around my head. One problem. I couldn't run. I couldn't do much of anything at the moment. The skin on my wrists and ankles were raw from weeks of rubbing agasint the iron shackles. I slumped down, no energy left to resist anymore. The chains connecting me to the cold stone wall were thick, unbreakable by anything I could possibly do in a reasonable amount of time.
Run.
Escape.
Leave.
But I couldn't. All I could do was hope that she went too far one time and killed me. It would be over then. She would find no reason to go after my friends and family. I would no longer endure the pain that can only come from torture, and the secret I had would die along with me.
But you don't know what's going on, do you? No, I suppose you don't, so I'll have to take you back. Back to right after I left Gallagher.
Back.
Memories.
Pain.
So much pain.
Zach
I searched the entire mansion for her. Nothing. I checked all of the secret passage-ways she loved so much, I searched every classroom, I scoured every nook and cranny in the entire building. Nothing.
I was going to talk to Rachel, Cammie's mom, and ask her if she had any idea where Cammie was. I really needed to talk to her. So, finally, infrustration, I gave up.
It was a short walk to the Headmistress's office, but each step seemed to take a year to complete. Where was Cammie? I knocked. Second later, the door opened up to reveal Mrs. Morgan, crying.
"Ah, yes, Zach. I thought you would come sooner or later. Come in, sit down." She sounded broken, defeated, like she'd just lost everything. Where was Cammie?
"Look, Rachel… I can't find Cammie anywhere… do you know where she is." I waited for an answer, any response at all, but it didn't come. I opened my eye to find Rachel Morgan shaking her head vigorously, a few tears leaving a fresh trail behind.
"Zach…" she said as calmly as she could manage. "I was going to come find you soon… but she left this in the Hall of History… and she's… she's…. well, you should read it." An before I knew it, I was back in the hallway outside of Rachel Morgan's office holding a CoveOps report. It was thick. Whoever wrote it had a lot to say.
Opening to the first page, I froze. This was Cammie's. I skipped quickly to the last page.
With every memory, I heard one word over and over like a song.
Run.
Run.
Run.
Run. It's what people have been telling me to do all year, and now I think it's time I really listen.
I skimmed through a little.
They won't hurt me. It's the people around me who are being made to suffer.
I skimmed some more, not believing what I read.
Please don't look for me. Please don't worry. And, most of all please don't think of this as me running away, but of me running toward.
Toward answers. Toward hope. Toward whenever I have to go finish my father's mission and stop this thing, once and for all.
I stared at the page in shock and I read the last line over and over.
I'll be back. And when I am, I promise I'll have answers.
She said she'd be back. She said she would be. But she doesn't know just how desperate they are to get her.
I ran to the room that she shared with her three best friends. It was getting late, shouldn't they notice something was wrong? I paused outside the door and heard voices raised.
"…And she's just gone. Not in passageways, not in classes. Where the Bloody Hell would she be?" Rebecca Baxter shouted.
"We don't know, Bex. Maybe she left us letters or something…" Liz suggested.
"You don't think… that the Circle…" Macey let it hang in the air.
"No! impossible! They would have had to come into Gallagher, kidnap the highest protected person in the world, excluding the president, and get out without any of us noticing! It's Bloody impossible!" I heard a thump that might have been Bex punching something. "And Zachary Goode… you better have some answers if you just stood there and listened to our conversation!" I pushed open the door with a sigh.
"This is Cammie's." I said, tossing the CoveOps report in the middle of the floor, and with a pained glance at it, looked away. "I suggest reading the last page…" I watched as their faces twisted. First with confusion, then disbelief, then shock, then anger, then sadness.
"Why the Bloody Hell would she do that!" Bex practically screamed, standing up and throwing the report aside. "Does she have any idea what she's doing to all of us? Like a few words are going to keep me from going after my best friend! Move, Zach. I'm leaving now."
"Look, Baxter… I'm might not have known Cam as long as you have, but I care just as much-if not more-about her than you do. Let's not act rashly. Keep your head, but I agree with you. We are going after her. And we are going to find her." Bex just looked at me for a second before huffing and storming back to her bed, where she plopped down muttering.
"She's gone. Cammie is gone."
"Yeah, she's gone." I said sadly. What if something happened to her? How would I live with myself, having put the idea to run in her head? "That doesn't mean we can't get her back."
