The life I lead is very different to the life everyone else lives. Yeah, you might have the same skills as me. Sure, you might see the things I see, but you've not used those skills the way have or looked at the things through my eyes. Ever since I was little, I had always looked on life a little differently to others. When I was 5, follow my dad around the Mall, just to see what he was buying me for Christmas. That's not something a toddler does.

Like I said, the world is seems a lot different in my eyes, and that isn't always a bad thing.


-CHAPTER FOUR-


He actually dipped me and kissed me. Of course, I pulled back straight away; not because I was outraged, but because something had registered in my mind. I stepped back and held him at arm's length, pure horror written all over my face. 'Zach, who's your mother?'

And then came the answer I had feared. 'I have no idea. Never met her,' he shrugged, nonchalantly, as if it didn't matter at all. Wrong.

Zach Goode.

Catherine Goode.

Oh, God.

The Goode's.

'Really?' I laughed nervously. 'Because I have.'

His jaw fell open. 'What? No. You couldn't have. She died when I was born...' he trailed off, eyes wide.

I shook my head, grabbed his hand, ran to the Headmaster's office and swung open the door. 'You didn't tell him about his mother?' I screamed at Mr Anthony. He looked quite bewildered. 'You didn't tell him about who she was or what she did for a living? How dare you... How dare you withhold that information from him? He has a right to know all about his mother and what she does.'

'Now hang on a minute, Miss-'

'Is it because you were scared that he'd turn out like her if he knew what she was?'

'Miss Morgan-'

'No, I want you to explain to Zach all about his mother and what she is,' I said, crossing my arms over my chest, and staring him in the eyes.

'Cammie, it is of Catherine's request that Zach need not know who or what his mother is,' Mr Anthony explained, standing up from his desk. 'It is her choice whether he knows about her or not.'

And then I snapped, for real. 'Well I think you should, considering one of her victims is standing in this room now.' I turned to Zach. If Mr Anthony wasn't going to explain, then I was. 'Your mother is an assassin, Zach. She kills for a living.' The look on his face was one of disbelief. But I couldn't stop now. My tethers were gone, I was off.

'She tortured people for information and when she didn't get it, she tortured their families, their friends, everyone who was close to that person. She would chase people halfway around the world to get them, and if she couldn't, she'd pay people to get them. She's a cold-blooded killer.'

The entire colour had drained from his face. 'How were you involved with her?'

'I have a list. A special list mentally screwed into my brain. She wanted it, so, of course, I told her a fake. She found out, hunted me down and tortured me. I wasn't about to tell her the people on the list, so I told her where she could find a hard copy. She left me, practically begging for death. But, what I didn't tell her is that you need a password to access the file. And it was the type you couldn't just hack.'

I sat down across from him, positioning my head in my hands. 'She came back and tortured me for the password, I gave it her. And now she's out to kill me. She wants to make sure no one else gets hold of that list. Before, I wasn't worried; I was the only person she'd think twice about killing, because she needed that list. But now, she'll stop at nothing.'

And then I cried, like full on crying. Last winter was the most horrifying thing ever, and I never want to see that woman again.

I was being hugged. Someone was sat next to me, leaning me into their shoulder, and rubbing my arm. I didn't know whether it was Mr Anthony or Zach and to be truthfully honest, I really didn't care. 'Shh,' the person soothed - Zach. He picked me up, and leant my head under his chin. I could hear his heartbeat. Slow. Steady. Alive. And that reminded me that even though I was one of her victims and enemies, I was lucky, in a way. Zach has only just found out who his mother is. A killer. An assassin. His own mother.

I was being carried through the Headmaster's door, down the staff corridor, but in the wrong direction. We were headed to the Faculty Lounge. He threw open the door with his knee and walked inside, instantly turning to open another door on the right. A bedroom.

The blankets were soft under my burning skin. The mattress was moulding to fit my aching back and tense muscles. The covers were warm on my shivering body. And so were the arms. The arms that were slowly, tentatively, easing around my body, pulling me closer to them. They were protective, controlling, as if saying 'no' was an option. I wasn't planning on running away again.

'You could forget it all, you know,' he muttered, his breath warm on the back of my neck. He twisted me around so I was now facing him. 'You could just... forget.'

'It's not that easy, Zach. I'm scarred.'

'It's not a matter of it being easy. It's not a matter of leaving scars. You can forget the things you don't want to remember, without actually forgetting.'

I looked at him, confused.

'Ignore,' he clarified, as if that was all I needed to hear to understand. 'You can remember the things that happened that vacation, but you can simply ignore them. You can remember where you went, who you went with, why you went, what you did, but you can then, just as easily ignore it.'

It was sound advice, I admit. And at the time, it seemed perfectly simple, but by, God, it's not. You can close your eyes to things you don't want to see; close your ears to things you don't want to hear; close your mouth to things you don't want to taste, but you can't close your mind to things you don't want to remember, or close your heart to things you don't want to feel.

'Why did you kiss me?' I asked, a few minutes later.

He contemplated it. 'The truth?' I nodded. 'Absolutely no idea.'

I smiled. 'Thank you, for everything.' I saw him smirk.

'It's what I'm here for,' he said. Or, he would've said if the sirens hadn't pierced through his words. A mechanical voice was saying 'CODE BLACK CODE BLACK CODE BLACK.'

And then all the lights went out.

'Zach, what's happening?' I asked. I felt him move away from me, and then I felt him grab my hand and pull me up too. He dragged me out of the Faculty Room but didn't bother to answer my question. 'Zach!' I shouted, louder.

He still didn't answer, just continued dragging me through corridor after corridor. We passed an open door labelled Waste and inside, the big pit that is used to hold all the rubbish, was in flames. Doors were being mechanically locked. And then, one by one, as if they were waiting for us, the lanterns that hung on the walls sprung to life, emitting light up and down the corridor.

'I thought those were for decoration,' I yelled to Zach.

Then came the answer I was dreading. 'If all goes right, they are!'

'So, this means...' I trailed off, as we zoomed past another door labelled Alumni Library. Everything inside the library was turning, spinning downwards into the floor, off to a secure place in God-knows-where.

'Something's seriously not right,' he said. We turned a corner and ran down another corridor. 'It's security protocol. There must have been a breach, or something. The whole school goes into lockdown - nothing gets in.' Right on cue, the corridor which we had just came from, was know being closed off, steal shutters fell from the ceiling, sealing the hallway. 'And nothing gets out.'

'Does this happen a lot?' I struggled to scream.

'No.' And I think, right then, that that one word, was the one word I was scared of. Of course, if something like this happened a lot, then that wouldn't be good either, but at least they would have had experience and actually known what to do. Right now, everyone was just running wild.

Then, as we neared the end of the corridor, I realised where Zach was taking me. So I wriggled out of his grip, quickly pushed a stone in the wall, and ran down the passageway, leaving Zach running down the corridor, unaware to my disappearance. I came out of the passageway into the Grand Hall, behind everyone else, just as Zach came bursting through the doors.

'Mr Goode! Why were you not in your room?' Mr Anthony screamed at him. He stuttered them seem to notice that I was no longer beside him. 'MR GOODE?'

Before he could answer, a dozen men were descending from the glass windows. The Circle. 'Get back!' I screamed, to everyone. The Circle agents were still hanging from the windows. A few people tried to push forward, to fight. 'I said, get back! Let me handle them!'

The first agent to land on the floor rushed toward me, gun in hand, aimed at my forehead. The stupid guy must have been new, he ran straight at me, not even bothering to try and shoot me. He carried on running at me, and I stood still, as he took me at gunpoint, positioning the gun on my temple.

The other agents circle me, praising the young boy that held a gun to my head. 'Well done, boy. Finish her.'

The boy paused. Perfect. I twisted out of his headlock, grabbed the gun and quickly slid a bolt and split a section away from the body, rendering it useless. The young boy seemed shocked at my sudden movements. The other agents laughed. And I knew why.

The young boy was my ex-boyfriend.


Okay, to anyone who's confused.
-The books never happened in my story.
-Yes, the Circle are involved in this story.
-No, the ex is not Josh.
-We will see more of Bex, Grant, Liz and Jonas.
-This is story is kind of a mix of all the books, just different(?).
-AU.