Eyes Open

[Based on the song written by Taylor Swift]

Keep your eyes open.

I looked around trying to survey the area. I checked my surroundings and continued to walk down the road. Something's not right. Someone's here. I can sense it. I can feel it.

I can see it.

Keep your eyes open.

I remember just a few months ago, when I was still safe, when I was still at Gallagher, hatching this plan in my dorm room. Visiting the pigeons with Zach.

I remember that, back then. When I had family. When I had a home. When I was safe.

When I was Cameron Morgan.

Keep your eyes open.

I've had nightmares everyday this week, nightmares of the Circle killing everyone I loved. Mom. Abby. Bex. Liz. Macey. Mr. Solomon.

Zach.

Then I had the nightmare where I was playing in my backyard with my dad. We were playing Castle, like we used to. Then two men came behind him, grabbing him by the arms, pulling him away, ignoring my pleads and screams.

I woke up screaming that night.

Keep your eyes open.

I've been moving to a new home every night. I couldn't stay in the same place for too long. They could easily find me. They could take me. They could get answers out of me –then kill me.

I couldn't even sleep without being scared for the safety of my life.

I stayed with Preston for a few days. He gave me a home. I can see why Macey liked him, he was very nice to me. He didn't ask questions when I asked him to come with me to the piazza so I could borrow some money and pick up a few things for my friends on my little "vacation." Even though he already knew it was everything but. Even though he knew I was a spy. Even though he knew I went to spy school.

I walked up to a lady selling jewelry, Preston standing a few feet away.

"Mi scusi?" I asked her. She looked at me surprisingly.

"Tu parli italiano? Sei americano?"

"Sì, io parlo italiano. E sì, lo sono."

"Meraviglioso, signorina!Come posso aiutarla?" she asked kindly. She was a very kind old lady.

"Posso preghiamo di acquistare questi splendidi braccialetti?" I asked, referring to the bracelets showcased behind her. She nodded tenderly and a smile broke out of her face.

"Naturalmente, piccola principessa! Tu sei molto bello."

"Grazie. Quanto costerà?" I asked her. Preston reached for his wallet.

"Quante volete?"

"Vorrei tre. Hai collane?"

"Sì, sì! Non volete che i vostri braccialetti personalizzati?"

I nodded and scrambled for a piece of paper and a pen. "Sì, grazie." I said as I wrote down three names and handed them to her.

"Oh, questi bei nomi. Dovrebbe essere pronto in un attimo. Sono molto veloce a fare braccialetti." She said as she hurried to her little workshop in her cart. I smiled and walked over to the necklace section of the cart to find something for Mom and Abby. I picked two beautiful pedants with leather band and a wired charm, looking identical to the bracelets shown but with no names.

"Tutto finite!" the woman said, coming back not a second later. I looked at the bracelets she had handed me and ran my finger over them.

"Sono belle." I whispered. "Grazie."

"Di niente, caro. Tornerai in autunno? E 'molto bello poi." She said to me. I smiled up at her.

"Forse, ho la scuola allora. Spero di sì." I said as I handed her the money for the bracelets and necklaces.

"Oh, sì. Scuola. Bene, signorina, arrivederci. Avere un meraviglioso viaggio." She said with a smile.

"Grazie. Avere un giorno meraviglioso!" I said to her.

"Si, si. Grazie. Good-bye, signorina. Thank you for coming." She said, her English a bit broken and added with Italian.

I left the shop with Preston and went to the mailing center to ship the package to Mr. Solomon's cabin and continue my "trip".

Keep your eyes open.

Preston was gone. His father was gone. I was walking down the lone alley back to find another hotel to stay in, when someone came up behind me. I swung around and kicked their face. The figure punched my stomach. Hard. I grunted, but kept fighting. My heel scraped his face as I swung again, using my best defense, my legs, as my weapon. He grabbed it in the air and flipped me over. I jumped back up and felt someone grab my hands from behind me. I kneed them in a very hurtful place and watched them fall to the ground. Soon I was surrounded.

Keep your eyes open.

It was only me. There was no other person here. There were no teachers watching on surveillance. There was no comms unit in my ear, having Mr. Solomon tell me what to do. There was no secret boyfriend to come in with a forklift and "save me." There was no almost-sorta-complicated assassin to blow up the place to save me from dying, almost killing himself in the process. There were no Gallagher Girls there to serve back-up.

This wasn't a test.

This was real.

This was what Mr. Solomon and all of Gallagher's teachers had been training me for. This was my time to prove myself.

Only I didn't know it would come so soon.

Keep your eyes open.

"Get her! We cannot lose her again!" an all-too familiar voice said. I kept fighting. Blows were hitting my side, kicks were aiming for my face. I kept fighting. I wish Bex was here. I wish Macey was here.

Heck, I wish Liz was here.

Wait. I take that back. They're safe. They're somewhere. They're not coming.

That made all the difference.

Keep your eyes open.

I kept fighting through all of the pain. I was bleeding in multiple places, and there were bruises all over my body. Rags riddled with drugs were thrown at me, but I fought them off.
I had to. If I didn't… well, that was something I didn't want to think about.

Keep your eyes open.

"Oh, Cameron dear. Just give up now. You're not going to win." Ms. Goode said as I fought off her goons. I fought harder and she laughed.

"Oh. A fighter. Just like her father. Too bad he's dead." She said coldly. Tears ran down my face. But I kept fighting.

"I'm getting tired of watching this. She's going to die if I don't kill her first! You." she said, pointing to a buff man standing by her, waiting for his turn to fight. "Finish her off."

He reached in his back pocket and pulled out a gun. Not a regular gun. A gun with medical shots in it –not bullets. A napotine gun.

He aimed it for me. I kept fighting, hoping for the best.

Keep your eyes open.

Two seconds later, a sharp pain struck my arm. I fell to the ground, my legs numb. I screamed and screamed. I was full-on sobbing now. Something I swore never to do –but the pain was too much for me to handle.

"Oh, Cameron. No use crying. Just go to sleep. I promise everything will be alright soon enough." She said in a faux-motherly voice. One of the men picked me up and threw me into a black truck sitting by the road.

I can't sleep, I thought. But sleep was overcoming me. I couldn't. I couldn't sleep. My eyelids draped over. I tried to open them as I heard Ms. Goode cackle in the distance.

C'mon, Cammie!

Keep your eyes open.

Translation.

"Excuse me."

"You know Italian? Are you American?"

"Yes, I do speak Italian. And yes I am."

"Wonderful, miss! How can I help you?"

"Can I please buy these beautiful bracelets?"

"Of course, little princess! You are quite beautiful."

"Thank you. How much will it cost?"

"How many would you like?"

"I would like three. Do you have necklaces?"

"Yes, yes! Do you want your bracelets custom?"

"Yes, please."

"Oh, such beautiful names. Should be ready in one moment. I am very fast at making bracelets."

…

"All finished!"

"They're beautiful. Thank you.

"Thank you, darling. Will you come back soon, in autumn? Its beautiful then."

"Maybe, but I have school then. I hope so."

"Oh, yes. School. Well, signorina (which means miss or darling and what not), goodbye. Have a wonderful trip."

"Thank you. Have a wonderful day!"

"Yes, yes. Thank you. Goodbye, signorina. Thank you for coming."

And that's what I thought happened in Rome.

Authors Edit in: hi all. I know. No song lyrics. Well, I got a review saying someone would report me if I didn't follow the rules word for word. So I'm taking hours out of my time to "fix it" so I won't get reported. Yeah. The whole "keep your eyes open." Thing every five seconds? That's where the lyrics used to be. Sorry. Bye all.

Love you. 3