.o Heroes and Villains o.

Cammie POV

It sounded like a gunshot had gone off, though that was probably me knocking my leg on the table. I wasn't aware my arms had slipped from under me until I was stumbling to keep my balance. It felt like someone had hit me over the head.

Rome. I had met Alyson in Rome. She saw me in Rome almost two years ago. My head was spinning. What had happened while I was with her? How long was I with her? Was she part of the Circle when they caught me? What did she remember about that summer that I didn't?

It took me a few seconds to register the fact that Alyson was chuckling. It took another few seconds to realize I was on my knees, one hand on the floor and one on the table holding supporting my body. Pulling myself up, I tried to get control of my emotions and expressions. It was hard to focus with the static and ringing in my ears. My comms was still down. Glaring at the girl across from me, I pulled myself up and sat on the table.

Brick walls. Blood covered knife. A puddle of blood at my feet.

The images came and left without warning. The pain, however, lingered and added to my already existing headache. I shook my head. This was bad. There was a feeling in my gut telling me that I needed to get out of there. Fast.

"What's wrong, Cammie? The memories too painful? Are you remembering or did Dr. Steve do too well of a job covering our tracks?" Alyson's tone was cold and mocking. She took a step towards me, a sick smile on her face. "I'm shocked you didn't know we were in Rome. Though, knowing that Zachy never told you about us, it makes sense he wouldn't tell you that he saw us in the city."

I'm surprised my neck didn't pull a muscle from the speed my head whipped up.

Alyson raised her eyebrows. "What? Did you not know Brother Dearest was in Rome that summer? He found us when he was looking for you. Of course, that was before we found you. Oh, we had so much fun when we found you! But sadly Mom needed you more than we did- needed you alive that is. Eva and I were ready to burn you at the stake right before she found out we had you."

I couldn't process anything Alyson was saying. The only thing that was continually pulsing through my head was Zach. Zach had seen them when he was in Rome. Zach had been in Rome that summer. He had never told me he was in Rome that summer. Where was I when he went to Rome? Why didn't he find me? How did his sister and her friends find me? What had they done to me? How many of my scars were given to me by them?

How many lies did I have to find through Alyson?

Why had I come here? I had wanted to know more about Alyson. Stupid. Answers about Alyson didn't seem important now. Now, I wanted to get out. Out of that room. Out of that zoo. I wanted Alyson's words out of my head. I wanted to run away from her as fast as I could; I wanted to find Zach- to do what, I wasn't sure yet, and I wanted to strangle his sister until she told me everything about that summer.

That last one sounded like a good option.

I lunged forwards, kicking Alyson's leg out from under her and grabbed her knife from her boot. In five seconds, I had Zach's sister pinned under my knee and her own knife at her throat. Leaning down until my face was inches from hers, I hissed, "What did you do to me?"

Was it probably the best for me never to know what happened to me that summer? Yes.

Did I care about what was best for me at all anymore? Hell no.

Maybe it was a Goode trait, but even with me holding a knife to her throat, Zach's sister managed to annoy the sweet little bunnies out of me. She grinned and raised one eyebrow. "Violent aren't we?" Her voice held the air of someone watching something entertaining.

I narrowed my eyes and pressed the knife against her pulse point.

"Ah, the old 'I mean business' tactic. You know, that would be scary, if I wasn't absolutely certain that you can't bring yourself to do it." There was half mockery, half a challenge in her tone. She smirked, and I felt her relax under my hold.

Almost growling, I raised my eyebrows. "I've killed before. What makes you so certain that I won't?"

Her smile widened. "The fact you didn't just slash my throat, and the fact I'm the one who practically taught you to kill."

My grip faltered for a split second. Tightening it again, I put pressure on her wrists, which were under my right foot. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about the fact you may be the one pinning me down here, Morgan, but I'm the one who's in control of this entire situation. Surely Zachy's warned you that I love games?"

"I don't see what that has to do with this situation."

Alyson smiled. "You will." She sighed- as much as she could with a blade at her throat. "This has been fun. Now let me go."

I snorted. "Hmm, no."

"Very well. I was hoping you wouldn't cause yourself more pain, but if you insist."

"What the heck are you talking abo-" I was cut off as the redhead beneath me started singing, her voice familiar due to my nightmares.

"Above the plains, up on the hill, there stood a castle bold-"

A brick room. Blood on the walls. Laughter

"A gleaming palace made of white-"

Spiders. A small dagger. A checkers board.

"A pillar to behold. The horsemen lived in service to-"

"-the castle and the crown."

"Will you stop that stupid song!"

"Shush, Eva! Our visitor deserves a lullaby. She's played very hard today."

"Alyson, if you don't stop singing that stupid song, I swear I'm going to-"

"You will do nothing." My eyes fluttered shut as the red-haired girl leaned over me again. "Cammie has another game to play tomorrow, and we both know she needs all her strength. Now, where was I? Right... But the knights rose up and killed the kings, and it all burned down."

The pain behind my eyes was almost blinding. My body was trembling. I pressed my palms to my eyes. It hurt too much. I could feel the cuts up my arms, the blood in my hair. It felt like I was going to throw up.

"What did you do to her!?" A furious voice yelled.

"When?" Came the amused response.

"I swear, Alyson, if you don't answer me-"

Where was I? Who was yelling? I was sitting with my back against something. Somebody was shaking my shoulder. There was a familiar voice in my ear.

"Cammie? Cam, come on, answer me," the voice demanded. The hand on my shoulder was starting to grip tighter.

Blinking against the light and pain, I opened my eyes to see Bex's face in front of mine. She looked worried. When I opened my eyes, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Thank goodness." She looked over her shoulder. "Zach, she's up."

I glanced around, and the memory of where I was and what I was doing hit me like a brick. Straightening up, I looked around the room quickly. Alyson was on the floor, pinned down by Zach. Bex was helping me up. Macey was behind Zach, gun trained on the redhead on the floor.

"Where did you guys come from?"

Bex shook her head. "Lizzie tracked the last place your comms signal came from when you didn't answer us for ten minutes. She stayed there to monitor things while we followed the trail. The signal led us here, and we find you cowering in the corner with this psycho hovering above you! Why the bloody hell didn't you tell us where you were going?" My friend cried.

"Gallagher Girl, what were you thinking?" Zach yelled at me, still holding his sister down.

I looked at him. "I wanted answers."

"Answers about what? I promised I would tell you anything!"

"I'm not sure how much I believe that anymore." Now wasn't the time to yell at him, but the anger was still churning in my gut, bubbling like a volcano.

Zach turned to me, disbelief in his eyes. "What are you talking ab-"

"She was in Rome, Zach!" Everyone froze. I was shocked at the volume of my own voice. Zach's sister was staring at me with a smug grin on her face. "She was in Rome, and you saw her. You knew your sister had been in Rome, and you didn't tell me!"

I watched the confusion fade from Zach's features and melt into a mix of shock, hurt, anger, and guilt. "Gallagher Gir-"

"Well, as much as I hate to break up this drama fest," a new voice drawled out through the small room, "I think you guys might want to let my best friend go." We all turned to Evelyn standing in the doorway- holding a gun to Liz's temple.

The shift in the room was so fast, my friends' movements blurred to my headache sensitive sight. Bex had a gun I never saw her take out trained on Evelyn in less than two seconds; Zach repositioned and tightened his grip on Alyson, and Macey moved her gun's aim to the person next to Evelyn in the doorway- who was also aiming a gun.

"Grant? This is why you ran away? To join them?" Zach growled.

Grant shrugged, keeping his gun pointed at Macey. "I'm tired of your hero complex." He gestured to Liz, then Alyson. "Trade ya'." This didn't make sense. Since when was Grant one of them? He was never in the Circle. I thought he and Zach were best friends. Why was he acting as if he hated him? He wouldn't actually hurt any of us...Right?

"You okay, Liz?" Macey asked.

I was frozen as I watched my smallest friend give the tiniest of nods. Normally holding a Gallagher Girl at gunpoint in that position would be more dangerous for the attacker than the Girl; but this was Liz, the girl who tripped on the brick path on our way inside and scraped her arm on the zoo sign. My stomach twisted as I realized how bad this could end.

Bex shook her head. "What are you doing, Grant?" Out of the four of us, Bex had been the closest to Grant; Macey and I even had a bet going about how long it was going to take for them to start going out. It looked as if that wasn't going to happen very soon. A flash of anger ran through me. Would any of these Blackthorne boys be honest with us? Was there anyone we could trust? I watched as Bex's brow creased as she tried to understand the way Grant stood flanking the blonde who was holding a gun to our friend's head. "What's going on? Why did you leave-"

"Leave you?" Evelyn quipped.

"Leave us, to join her?" Bex snapped, glaring at Evelyn. "Why do this? Zach's your best friend!"

Grant shook his head. "You don't understand, Bex-"

"Don't understand what? That you're a bloody traitor?"

There was a flare in Grant's eyes I'd never seen before. The gun in his hands slipped from aiming at Macey and was pointed at Bex. "Don't you call me a traitor, Baxter! You don't know anything!" There was a moment I actually thought the gun would be fired, but Evelyn brushed her arm against his, and the muscles in Grant's arms visibly relaxed.

Bex scowled. "I thought you were better than this, Newman. We bloody trusted you!" she hissed.

Grant glared, nodding towards Zach. "And they trusted him."

"I thought-"

"You thought what exactly, Baxter?" Evelyn sneered, her voice bitter and mocking. "Did you think you actually knew him? You didn't grow up with him. You haven't been through anything! You don't know anything! None of you know anything!-"

"Enough, Eva." I glanced at Alyson. It was the first time she had spoken since Evelyn, Grant, and Liz had appeared. She looked perfectly calm like she knew exactly what was going to happen- as if this was all part of the plan. I almost laughed as I realized it was. This was all part of her sick game for the day, and we- I had played right into her hands. She was moving her pawns to ensure she maintained control, and it was still working.

Evelyn stopped her rant and narrowed her eyes. I felt helpless as I just watched the stare off between my friends and Alyson's, but there was nothing for me to do. My gun was across the floor, and even if I had it, there wouldn't be anything to do. If anyone fired, there would be either a death or a serious injury, and while I wasn't sure what the others were willing to sacrifice, I was in no position to pay that high a price.

"What's it going to be, Zach?" Evelyn challenged. "You know I can put a bullet in this girl's head without hesitation. How fast you think those girls can fire? Faster than a Viper and Cobra?"

There was a second in which the only thing heard was a string of Portuguese from Zach. The next instant, Zach tossed his smirking sister towards Evelyn. The blonde smiled and shoved Liz away from her body. Macey moved forwards to help our friend from falling.

Alyson straightened and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Thank you, Zachy." Evelyn smirked and held out the gun to the redhead. Alyson took it, and Evelyn stepped back with Grant.

"What do you want, Alyson?" Zach didn't look at his sister's face; his eyes were trained on the gun Evelyn had just handed her.

Zach's sister smiled a slow, wicked grin, but it was her eyes that were truly frightening; they held a cold rage and the slightest fracture of insanity. "To make you feel what I did the moment I realized that you had chosen her over me," she hissed, pointing the gun at me lazily. "I want you to know what we went through because you wanted to help the girl who ruined our lives before you even met her!" Alyson's voice cracked, and that seemed to make her even angrier. She shook her head and when she spoke, her voice was half growl, half scream. "You know what her family did! You know what happened to Laura! You know how they ruined everything for us, and yet you chose her!"

Zach shook his head. "That had nothing to do with them, Ally! Laura made her choices-"

"She chose to help him, and it ruined us! It ruined Mom! You knew who Cameron was the first day you met her, and you still chose her every time!"

"Because it was the right thing to do!"

"Because you were too selfish to stay with us! We needed help too, Zach!" They were face to face now, yelling at each other from a foot away.

"I had to help her take down the Circle!"

"Yeah, because you didn't care who was still in the Circle's control at the time, did you?"

"Alyson, you know I tried to get you to leave!"

"And you know I wanted to save Mom!"

"She was insane!"

"She needed help!"

Zach shook his head. "I had to do the right thing."

"No, you had to be 'the good guy'!" Alyson growled.

"Because it was the right thing to do!"

"Because you had a stupid crush!"

"Because I love her!"

The shocked silence that followed that statement was one no one dared to break. Zach and Alyson stood, less than a foot away from each other, fuming. After a few heavy breaths, Alyson nodded slowly, her voice thick like someone trying their hardest to keep from crying. "Yeah, good to know you love her." Alyson turned and looked at Evelyn. "Tell Clara we're ready." The blonde nodded and ran down the hall, Grant on her heels.

Zach reached out, "Ally, wait- I didn't mean-"

Alyson whipped around and, faster than I thought possible, smacked her brother across the face. "I. Don't. Care. Anymore," she hissed, though the tears in her eyes told a different story. "If you want to do the right thing and be the hero so much," she shrugged, her eyes cold as ice, "I'll let you be the hero."

"What does that mean?" Zach asked warily, taking a step back.

Alyson looked at the group of us, then back to Zach. A small smile creeping onto her face. When she spoke, her voice was small but it gave me chills. "Every hero needs a villain. Catch me if you can, Zachy." Then, before anyone could even process what she had just said, Alyson raised her gun and fired twice. The shots echoing in the small room like deadly cymbals.

Then the room went black.