Chapter 9

We were finally on the road on our way to D.C. and I was already bored as hell. I had my itouch and I was listening to my music. Basically when I'm on the road, I was listening to my playlist I made called "The Chronicles of Forbidden Love." Cheesy, yeah, I know, but when I listen to the playlist, I can imagine a girl falling in love with a guy and we were never suppose to fall in love, Ugh, this reminds me of the Jedi Order from Star Wars. I mean, it's not all that bad, but it could be worse. Well, losing the love of your life, turning to the dark side for ultimate power…..okay that's really bad, but how could it get worse? Don't answer that. Anyway, the car ride was gonna be long, I'm listening to my music and looking out the window, watching the world outside changing before my eyes.

Leon glanced over at me and saw how I was watching everything change around me. He looked back at the road and to see if anything was unusual or if anyone was following us. It's a protocol; he has to do it for every mission. He glanced over at me one more time and saw my hand. It was empty. My legs were in the corner where the review mirror was and my elbow on the edge of the window to support my tilted head. His eyes were on the road again, but his right hand slid over to my empty hand. His fingers laced with mine and we were holding hand to hand. I didn't notice it, but I felt his soft hand on mine and felt him squeezing mine. It's his way of telling me "everything is going to be okay" feeling. I didn't squeeze back just yet if I agree with that feeling or not. However, he is putting his life in horrifying, freak show danger for me and dad, but mostly me because I'm his prior to get to safety. I glanced at Leon as he's driving and I'm starting to notice, he has a soft side. Was it for me? Or is for someone else that reminds him of someone he cares about that he works with? Whatever it was, I probably remind him of that someone. I started to squeeze his hand slowly and I shed one tear and let it dry on its own. This all happened so fast, I was never going to live a normal life. My life was never normal, I know that, dad knew that and Leon knew that. The music took me away and drifted off to sleep.

"She fell asleep," Leon said to himself. As he continues driving out of the smallest state called Rhode Island, he took his cellphone, dialed a number while using his knee to steer the wheel, and put an ear piece in his ear. He heard the calling tone, and then heard a soft yet cheerful voice.

"I thought you'd never call back?"

"Well, I have spare time, so why not call now?" He smirked at his joke he made to his partner on the other line. She chuckled.

"I see you're finally on the road. I thought the plan was to pick up the subject and head out to D.C. was yesterday?"

"We ran into of a little problem yesterday. She was almost assassinated yesterday in her own room."

"Shit! How did that happened?"

"We think he might've slipped in through the night before and either hid in her closet or under her bed."

"Jesus Christ! Was it the murderer who killed the blonde bitch?" Leon gave a "WTF" look for what Claire said. "I read her report from the Portsmouth Police department that was sent to headquarters two days ago. It sounds like the murders that happened two years ago."

"Do you think it's the some sort of copy cat or is it the same murderer who went into hiding for two years?"

"I don't know. I can look more into this if you want to know more of what you're getting yourself into."

"Might as well just in case, but I still need to get half of her side of the story first."

"What was the first half?"

"She joined an elite squad called "Crimson Rose" in her freshman year. The principal appointed them as security to protect the students."

"More like protecting certain students that were important to the school."

"More like using them for their own personal game."

"Well whatever it was, it brought up a lot of attention with the deaths of the students and members of the squad."

"And left one squad member alive."

"Which is your subject?" It went silent for a moment. Leon glanced at our hands together and then me. He needs to find out about the second half of my past. The more information he has, the better understanding about this investigation and knowing what he's dealing with.

"Leon, you still there?" He shook the feeling off and went on with his conversation with Claire.

"Yeah, I'm still here." He took his eyes off of me and back on the road. "Did you find anything?"

"I found an article about the very first murder by the group called 'The Myers Massacre.' Know anything about that?"

"It was the group that the elite squad had to compete with each other."

"Playing deadly games with guns, star-shaped knives, axes, and samurai sword fights is not competing. It's a death match."

"That would be why the death rate of students went up a year ago."

"Because of the death matches they got involved. They kidnapped the more important students say for example the Queen of Popularity was kidnapped by the Myers Massacre and they have five hours to find her and get out before they slaughter her and the team. They would make it into a deadly game, but it was basically a death match."

"They probably didn't have a choice to back down from the match unless they wanted to up the death rate of students."

"Probably, but what puzzles me most, why did this happen though? How did this happen?"

"Claire, I wished I knew the answer to that, but I don't."

"I'll keep looking into this and see what I find about what happened two years ago."

"Okay keep me posted."