I was going to leave it a week but I really wanted to get this one up. Sorry for any spelling/grammar mistakes. Enjoy...

Preston decided to take the stairs which he realised ,when he got half way up, was an extremely stupid idea. He ran up the last flight of stairs in such a hurry that he nearly lost his footing at least twice. When he got to the front door of Macey's apartment, he fumbled for the right key. It took him a few seconds to find it and open up the door but when he did, he went inside and immediately shut the door behind him.

Abby looked up and shot him a concerned glance.

"Where's Macey?" She asked but Preston just shook his head and put a finger to his lips signalling for Abby to be quiet. This only made her more confused and she got up from the table.

"Are all of the windows closed?" He asked her in a whisper, like she was supposed to know.

"I presume so, I haven't opened any. Preston, what the hell is going on? You're acting weird, and you don't do weird." she replied, in the same volume.

"Turn the light off." He instructed but Abby just stopped. "Abby, seriously, I can't tell you anything yet. Turn the lights off and go into the bedroom with Evie." Abby knew that something was extremely wrong now, and did exactly as Preston had said. After she had turned the lights off, she walked into the bedroom where Preston was sitting in the chair next to the bed where Evie was still fast asleep. She closed the bedroom door behind her and turned to face Preston.

"Now tell me, what the hell is going on? And where the hell is Macey?" she stood by the window.

"Macey is in her car. She said to tell you that the apartment block has been being watched for a couple hours. She's not sure who's watching or who they're after but she's keeping an eye on them."

"Does she need backup?"

"She didn't say, I don't know. She just said that if you were planning on going downstairs then you should go out of the front entrance, because she's covered the bac..." Preston's sentence was cut short by the sound of a gunshot. Evie jumped, stirred slightly but didn't wake.

"I've gotta go out there." Preston said, about to get up but Abby stopped him.

"If i'm staying here, so are you. She's fine. She's still in the car so sit down and shut up."

"If she's still in the car, why was there a shot?"

"They're telling her that they know she's there. Now shut up,I'm trying to watch."

Macey looked out of her mirror for the 5th time in the space of 20 seconds. The gunshot had startled her, and she knew that they, whoever they were, were now aware of her presence. She opened up a small compartment under the floor mat and pulled out an FN Five-Seven pistol. The waiting was killing her, she had to find out what they wanted. She was pretty sure that they were after Evie but this wasn't a time that she could just go with her instincts. She put the loaded gun on her lap and quickly pulled out her phone, dialling Preston's number.

"Macey? What's wrong? Do you need help?"

"I need you to listen to me, carefully and without freaking out. If you can't do that, put me onto Abby." She said, and Preston hesitated for a second and then passed the phone over to Abby.

"You need backup?" Abby asked, immediately assuming the worst.

"No, I'm handling it but I need you to listen and quickly because they're watching me."

"Tell me what you need."

"Get Evie out of the bed,pick her up and try not to wake her, but if you do just tell her she needs to pretend to be asleep. She's smart and she'll listen. Tell Preston that there's a suitcase in my closet, get him to grab it and go downstairs. Make sure you all take the stairs. If they've got control of the building then they'll shut the elevator down when you're inside and then you're screwed. Go out to your car, get in it and drive to the hotel where you're staying. Pick up your stuff and go straight to the airport. I'll meet you there as soon as I can. If you don't hear from me after 2 hours, get straight on my plane to Grandonia and assume that i'm dead. Save that girl's life Abby."

"Macey..."

"Save her life. It's what you do. You're good at it." Macey ended the call and put her phone into her pocket. She knew that she should wait a few minutes, until she saw the others coming down the stairs. Surely enough, after 2 minutes she saw the silhouettes of Preston, Abby and Evie descending the stairs and knew that it was safe for her to get out of the car. Macey grabbed the gun and put it in her back pocket. With hands that were trembling slightly, she opened the car door and stepped out into the parking lot.

"You might as well come out of the bushes, I know you're here as you know that I am. So you might as well show your faces." Macey shouted.

There was no answer. No movement. Nothing.

"Oh come on. Why so shy all of a sudden? I mean, a gunshot to announce your presence and then you go quiet on me. That's not how this works."

"Why don't you enlighten me on how this does work then, Ms McHenry?" A man said, stepping out from by the bushes and into her sight line.

"You tell me what you want, I tell you that you can't have it. You try and kill me, I win and you either leave or you die a slow and more than likely painful death."

"You seem to have done this too many times."

"Maybe so, But once more won't be too much of a strain on myself. So please, what is it that you want so badly that you'd stand in the middle of a parking lot at nearly 11 o'clock at night in the middle of December?"

"The Princess."

"What?"

"Princess Evelyn. We want her, need her in fact." Another man stepped out from behind the first man, he was shorter and thinner than the first man but he looked equally as creepy.

"Need her for what exactly?"

"Ransom. The king has things, money, power. And we want these things. We'll give him back his daughter, in return for what we want. And if he doesn't give us what we want then we won't give her back. And of course, we killed her mother so we really wouldn't mind killing her too." The second man explain

"Well I hate to tell you, but you're too late. I dropped her off at a care home just before I discovered that there were people hiding in my parking lot."

"You're lying, Ms McHenry." the first man replied. And just as he spoke, Macey heard footsteps approaching.

"EVIE GET BACK HERE." the shout had come from Abby who was following Evie across the parking lot.

"Macey!" Evie called, and ran towards her.

"No Evie, get back." Macey tried to stop her, but it was too late. The silver bullet was already flying towards the little girl at full speed.

Both Macey and Abby had the same thought when they had seen it. To put themselves between that little girl and the thing that was meant to kill her. But neither of them moved in time, and the tiny bullet had already gone straight through Evie's chest.

The shot had come from the taller man, who was standing there smiling. Abby rushed over to where Evie had fallen. Macey would have done the same, but now she was angry. She pulled her gun out, aimed and shot twice. One hit the first man directly in the forehead, the other hit the second man in the chest. Macey knew that they'd both be dead in minutes. Her shot was never off.

Macey put her gun down, and ran over to Evie who was lying flat on the ground in a pool of her own blood. Abby was sat beside her, holding her hand. Her skin was pale, almost white and her eyes were gradually closing.

"Evie come on, sweetie. Stay awake for me." Macey was clinging onto the only ounce of hope that she had left but it was no use.

There were no last words. Evie said nothing. The colour completely drained from her face and her tiny eyelids closed and remained shut. Macey looked up at Abby in a panic.

"Abby?"

But Abby just shook her head and Macey burst into tears. Abby got up from the ground but Macey just sat there with tears falling from her eyes as, once again, her emotions got the better of her.

"Macey, come on. There's nothing we can do now. We've gotta leave, we can't be caught out in this."

"We ARE this, don't you see Abby?"

"No, Macey you can't blame yourself for what happened here. It's not your fault."

"I can't just leave her."

"You have to, now you're the one that doesn't understand. Unless you want to spend the rest of your life behind bars in a bright orange jumpsuit you need to pick yourself up off the ground and we need to get the hell away from here." Abby said sternly and despite her hysterical crying Macey knew that she had to listen. So she got herself up, took one last look at Evie and ran to the car with Abby.

When they got there, Preston was sitting in the back of the car staring out of the window.

" Hey, what's happened? Where's Evie? " he asked, looking at Macey.

" She's dead." Macey said bluntly as she got into the passenger seat.

" What? So where are we going?"

" We need to leave. We can't be seen here. You two cannot be seen here." Abby replied,starting the car up.

"I get that but where can we go?" Preston asked again.

"Back to Gallagher?" Abby suggested.

"No. Not yet, we don't have to go for another few days." Macey spoke, her voice still shaking from shock. "Look, I'll go to a hotel, I'll go to Preston's place, hell I'll even stay with my parents but I am not going back to Gallagher yet. Not after this."

"Vermont." Preston stated plainly.

"What?" Abby asked, with a confused look on her face.

"I bought a cabin in Vermont, I used to stay there when things got too much, like after the breakup. We could go there now, nobody else knows that I have it so we wouldn't be found."
"Sounds like a plan." Abby said as she drove the car out of the parking space and headed for the airport.

As the car progressed further and further away from Macey's apartment block, she was internally screaming. How could they have just left Evie? She understood that she was dead but still, it was just wrong. But it was life. She turned around and looked at Preston, who was staring out of the window. She wanted to talk to him. To tell him how she felt about leaving Evie so hastily. But she knew that it was no use, he wouldn't understand and neither would Abby.

In that moment, she couldn't wait to get to Vermont. It was her happy place. Her spiritual home. And she decided that she would shut herself in her room there for a few days. Away from Preston, Abby and the rest of reality. It would give her time to think about everything. So much had gone on over the last few days and her head was crowded with thoughts of confusion. She needed to do this. For once, she would do something for herself.

You have permission to hate me, for am I a murderer of a fictional character.

And I just wanna warn y'all that it's not gonna get too depressing. Macey should sort herself out pretty quickly. (I literally just want to get to the Christmas chapters already, they're so much better.)

On the bright side, it's Easter this weekend. Which means too much chocolate and no school for two weeks (which should, hopefully, result in more updates.)

Thank you for reading, sorry it sucked. :) x