Hunter. Sydney Robinson
heat of his hand was like a vice grip on her shoulder. She could tell, because it was his left hand holding her right shoulder, that he stood almost perpendicular to her. This position did not give him much leverage over her and could almost be interpreted as a sign of good faith. However, Angel had known him long enough to know that nothing Erik did was ever for the gain of anyone but himself. Lucky for her, though, someone else was paying attention to them and saved her from whatever it was Erik had planned.
“All right, looks like we are a team then. Should we get moving or maybe stay here? Bet all the good planning locations are taken by now. Oh! Wait, I know, we could…” The voice of Chase cut through the silence that had formed around Angel and Erik like a knife through soft butter. Angel had always wondered if there was something wrong with Chase mentally, considering that he was always so hyper and peppy even when none of them seemed to display emotions. Erik shot Chase a glare that shut him up and pushed Angel out of the entrance hall, expecting Chase to follow them.
They had entered the hall that led to the lower west wing of the school, located under Angel and Erik’s room. The only real room on this floor, aside from classrooms, was the armory room. Angel cast a glance back at the bookshelf that blocked the entry to the old staircase (almost the exact same as the floor above). Erik caught her looking back and pushed her down the hall with more force.
The armory door was located to the right almost as soon as one began down the hall that led to the back of the school. This placed the armory directly underneath the higher-ups’ rooms. Chase moved in front of them and opened the door only to find another team in there already.
“Ah, guess we will be moving on,” Chase muttered, slowly shutting the door.
“You do that,” one of the boys commented before the door was shut. He was older than them, and Angel had no idea who he was. But just with the short glimpse of him, Angel had gotten warned to stay far away from him.
Grumbling to himself, Erik cocked his head toward the next closest room. “Try this one.”
Angel pulled the door open and walked inside. The room was empty, so she climbed onto the desk located in the front of the room and looked at Erik expectantly. Chase pulled a seat over and sat near the desk she was sitting on, while Erik remained standing but made his way over to the barred windows. Angel wondered for a moment if he noticed the bars or not as they sat in silence for a several minutes.
When she had finally had enough of the quiet, Angel broke the silence. “So what’s the plan?” she asked.
Erik looked at her and then back out the window before replying, “There is no plan.”
“What do you mean?” Angel asked, confused. She was trying to hide her emotions, but it was getting more complicated by the moment. Ashlee was out there somewhere, having killed Kelly at some point last night, and all Erik wanted to do was sit there. “Why aren’t we coming up with one then?”
Chase, who had been sitting quietly, probably waiting for orders or just lost because he was out of his element, spoke up, “I’m all for a plan, but we don’t have a target.”
“Yes, we do,” Angel insisted, standing now.
“And who would that be, the mystery killer?” Erik asked, moving toward Angel in a confrontational manner. “For all we know, this is just another test from the Elites. No one actually died. They were just trying to see how we all react.”
Angel moved so she was standing toe to toe with Erik and growled out, “Of course we know that someone is dead. Did you not notice that someone was missing this morning?”
“How am I supposed to keep track of all the Recruits here? It’s not my job. It’s the Guardians’.” Erik’s cold response shocked Angel, and she took a step backward. His green eyes were cold, and he looked as if the death of someone who was once a classmate meant as little as rain falling from the sky. Angel had never noticed how emotionless everyone here seemed to look; she never really noticed how little anyone cared about their fellow Recruits.
“Kelly died last night,” Chase commented. Both Angel and Erik cast him a look to find he was standing and looking at a tablet that neither remembered him having earlier. He looked up at the two, his eyes almost alight and molten. He passed the tablet to Erik first as he spoke, “Her body was found this morning in the back field.”
Angel took the tablet and came face-to-face with Kelly’s dead body. Her green eyes were open, staring into nothingness, and a bloody gaping wound was on her throat, which had been slit. Angel closed her eyes, struggling to calm her heartbeat and her rage at what Ashlee had done. As she did so, Angel could feel Erik’s eyes on her.
“So what do we do?” she asked, passing the tablet back to Chase.
“I told you, nothing,” Erik commented.
Angel glared at him. “It was confirmed that a classmate was killed. You have your orders from the higher-ups to find her killer, and still you plan on doing nothing?”
“We don’t know who her killer is.”
“So we find them.”
“It doesn’t work like that,” Erik commented, running a hand through his short black hair. “We have to wait for them to reveal themselves.”
“He’s right,” Chase added. “In all this chaos, the murderer will be anxious, looking to get away before they are found. And if everyone else in the school is calm and collected, they will stick out. We just have to wait for them to make a move. Shouldn’t that be rigor mortis?” Chase’s attention had returned to the tablet on his lap. Erik seemed to be ignoring him, and Angel paid no mind to the more energetic boy.
“But how will we know that if we are stuck in this room?” Angel protested, turning her back on Erik to look at Chase.
“Because the murderer is in the room,” Erik whispered into her ear. “Because I watched two people leave the dorm last night, and only one returned before the morning bell, soaked through as if they had fallen into the river on the far side of the field, which is close to where Kelly’s body was found. And I know that individual is far better at distance killing than hand-to-hand. I’ve seen her fight Kelly.”
“You think it was me?” Angel asked. She was fighting to keep the panic from her tone.
“Prove me wrong,” Erik challenged.
Angel was about to respond when she noticed something outside the window. From their position, they were looking at the back hill behind the field. And between the trees, she could see something black moving, carrying something metal because of how it kept shining in the light.
Ashlee ran up the side of the hill as quickly as she could. Her employer was not impressed. This was supposed to be a simple mission, and the girl was supposed to be easy to find. However, there had been two girls with similar description, and Ashlee had bet on the wrong one. She should have hidden the corpse better. Leaving the girl in the open like that was asking for trouble.
Her departure this morning had been delayed. She was hoping to have been gone before the school could be alerted or the body was found, but she had no such luck. She just had to get up the side of the hill into the forested valley on the other side, and from there, she would be able to radio for her pickup. No matter what those stupid Hessians tried to do now, she was home free.
A sharp pain raced through her right side as she fell to the ground. Her body was spun to the left as she rolled down the hill a few feet. Ashlee landed on her back and looked up at the sky in confusion. Breathing began to become more painful, and she began to feel cold. Ashlee moved her right hand from its place on the ground and moved it to her side. When she lifted it up, it was covered in blood. Ashlee began to laugh as she heard the sound of footsteps approaching.
“You know, for a moment there, I actually thought I’d underestimated you,” Ashlee called out between gasps of air, turning her head to the side, expecting to see that black-haired boy from her dorm room. He had been such a pain throughout this whole mission; he was far too observant for his own good. And