'Just follow my jump scar and we'll be inside the lair. It's a corridor though so we might have company' I inform Griffin.

Griffin held up his blow torch and retorted, 'Oh, I'm expecting company'

I picked up a pair of pliers just in case we need to cut David and Millie free then took a deep breath and prepared for what awaits us. I visualised the paladin's lair the underground feel to it, how trapped it feels and the paladins that were commanding me to drop Griffin. I opened my eyes and I was there in the exact spot with a gust of air Griffin was next to me. We were in the same positions but I feel like we are different people now to how we were when we were last here.

'I don't know why the General wants us to keep those jumpers alive. It's obvious they have nothing to tell us; we should just kill them' a paladin officer mumbled a few metres ahead of us.

'He has some master plan that he isn't telling anybody' the other paladin officer laughed to the other.

Griffin and I exchanged a dark smile and jumped behind the paladins trapping them in our grip.

'Where are you keeping the jumpers?' I asked with a stern voice and strong grip.

'Why would we tell you?' the paladin officer responded.

'Because we can kill you in a second if you don't tell us' Griffin strengthen the grip on his trapped paladin.

'Just tell them' the other paladin officer barely spoke through my grip.

'Straight ahead but you'll need our ID cards to get in… which we aren't giving you' he attempted to stand his ground.

'We'll just take it off you then' Griffin said before he jumped his paladin into a wall knocking him into it and falling limp on the floor.

I strengthened the grip on the other paladin and then before I strangled him to death let go so he fell to the ground gasping for air. I knocked him out in one punch to the face and searched him for an ID card. I found his ID card across his belt and pulled it off to show Griffin.

'He's got one around his belt' Griffin then took his paladin's ID card from his belt.

'I got it' Griffin told me and then looked down the corridor, 'right this way'

Griffin and I quickly but carefully ran down the corridor until we reached a door with a security pad where the door knob should be. I placed the ID card on the pad, it turned green and the door opened.

The room was dark with only a few lights on the opposite sides of the wall and it had poles set up with wires with David on one, Millie on another and a jumper I've never seen before. This was the room I was locked in; I recognise it all too well and it looks like Griffin does too.

'This is the room you were trapped in' Griffin whispered, 'they were using those wires to electrocute you'

'You had it worse though' I said while pushing the door fully open and viewing the whole room.

Suddenly a paladin run at me with a blue glowing rod as a reflex I tried to jump but my body wasn't moving; I should have known it was an anti-jumping room. Panic washed through me as the paladin closed in on me but before his rod touched me a roaring fire engulfed his body. I turned slightly to see it was Griffin with the blowtorch; the fire reached metres and the paladin fell to the ground. The fire shopped and Griffin smiled evilly at the burnt and crisp paladin on the floor.

'Nice one mate' I laughed.

'No problem' Griffin walked into the room but then his evil smile dropped and he looked at me with slight panic in his eyes.

I stepped into the room and the door automatically shut behind me. There in front of me was Sophie in paladin uniform staring at Griffin as if he was the only person in the room. Griffin's expression was hesitant and he was still holding up his blow torch in defence.

'It's fine Griffin' I assured him in a whisper, 'she's with us'

'Hmmm' he dismissed my comment.

Sophie's eyes seemed to be looking everywhere apart from at Griffin; I could tell she was uncomfortable.

'Sophie, I'm glad you're okay' I walked toward her about to embrace her.

Sophie turned to face me and I noticed slight bruising under her eye my body washed with guilt.

'What happened to your eye? Was it me? I'm sure I didn't hit you that hard…' I trailed off caressing the bruise with my thumb.

'It wasn't you' she brushed off my thumb and I knew that she wouldn't say anything further on the matter. 'More will come you know? What's your plan, kill them all?'

'More or less' Griffin shrugged beside me; even his stance seemed to be opposing Sophie. Which made me think; whatever happened to them it's going to take something big to fix it.

'More are coming soon' Sophie whispered, 'but most of them are on the other side of the building so you have enough time to get yourselves and them out of here' Sophie gestured toward David and Millie.

'Take… her-' David forced out of his mouth; his voice sounded choked from the pain.

I quickly paced toward David who was paler than I remember and he looked very ill and pale.

'David… what did they do to you?' I said cutting the wires that bound him to the pole but I didn't have the key to unlock his handcuffs. I passed the pliers to Griffin to unbound Millie as well but they were still trapped by the handcuffs.

'They're handcuffed… Sophie have you got the key?' I asked thinking quickly.

'I don't' Sophie thought about it and continued, 'but they do' She then knelt beside the paladins on the floor and searched them for the keys. I did wonder why Sophie didn't have possession of the keys considering she was highly ranked in the paladin's organisation but interrupting my thoughts was a surge of electricity coming from David. The handcuffs were the supply of this energy and David's eyes starting rolling and his body went floppy. The electricity was weakening for him but it was surely killing Millie; I could see it in her pale and lifeless face.

'Sophie! Hurry, Millie's dying' I queried worriedly. Sophie threw the keys at me; I caught them in one hand and unlocked David's handcuffs. He sunk to the floor and I propped him up against the pool but threw the handcuffs into the corner. Griffin used the keys to unlock Millie who also drooped to the floor and David who was looking throw his nearly closed eyes groaned in pain of seeing Millie on the floor.

'Get… her… o-o-out' David struggled to say.

'I will' I promised him. Bemused, I looked to Griffin for what to do and as if he knew exactly what my look meant he replied, 'take Millie to a hospital and come back here as soon as you can… but we might have company'

'Okay, what about I take Millie and you take David. We could go together?' I suggested.

'We can't just leave Sophie by herself' Griffin almost looked insulted that I suggested such a thing. It was in this moment that I knew that he cared and she cared but they were just too stubborn to admit it to each other.

'Sure, I'll go and come back' I said with a smile curving my lips. I held Millie in my arms and tried to jump to the hospital Alice was in but we didn't move.

'You can't jump in here, go back into the corridor and do it' Sophie said indifferently but I caught her looking at Griffin as I turned around.

'Right' I said clutching on to Millie and lifting us carefully. I stalked over to the door and as soon as my body was outside of the door I jumped Millie to the hospital. We landed in the reception area, we were noticed by a few people but I figured they would assume they were seeing things and check into a mental hospital afterwards.

'Help! This woman is unconscious and needs help right now!' I called and the receptionist called the doctor in response. They assigned Millie a bed which was luckily very close to Alice so before I returned I went passed Alice's bed. Her father was asleep next to her, his head resting on her arm and Alice was peacefully lying on the bed unconscious and oblivious to the world.

I jumped back to the corridor of the paladin's lair which was strangely becoming more and more familiar to me. I walked towards the door but realised that if they had company then I wouldn't have anything to protect myself and them with so I walked in the other direction to find something, anything. I stumbled across a room which was quiet so I assumed there was no one inside and opened it as this door didn't have a security panel on it. I felt a chill when I opened the door but what took me by surprise was when I turned on the light.

The whole room was plastered with pictures of different people, most were from security cameras but not of the lair; from shops, banks, schools… Some of the pictures had an X threw them but about half probably the majority weren't marked. I was bewildered as to who these people were because there must have been more than a thousand. As I looked closer at the pictures and around the wall I realised it was as if the people on the wall were being stalked. Different pictures of the same person, then another and then another. The pictures were dated and had times to go with them; the aura of the room was really eerie.

I looked the other side of the room and to my horror I saw a picture of Griffin but next to Griffin I saw pictures of me. Not just one picture but a sea of pictures of me with Alice, a picture of our house, us in Italy with David and Millie and Griffin, Alice and I in the school before Alice was attacked. Next to the picture were Alice's phone number and what I assume was Millie's which proves that they traced the call to find Alice. A shrill came up my spine urging me to leave but as I was about to… I saw a picture of another familiar face. It was my mum...