I woke up to the sound of a loud siren, followed by an irritated roar. Eventually, I was forced to open my eyes when the ringing didn't stop.

The sun was literally just starting to rise. Shir was already making her way down the amphitheatre stairs, and I leapt up to meet her when she got to the bottom.

I patted her and whispered in her ear to calm down, but she only ended up roaring again.

The sound was obviously hurting her. I glanced back at tunnels where it was coming from and cursed when I realized it was getting louder.

"Go back into the woods, Shir." I instructed. "I'll come find you."

She hesitated before turning away and sprinting off.

"What the hell is that noise?" Jake had caught up with me.

I put my hands to my ears. "How am I supposed to know?"

When we got back to the huts, everybody was slowly emerging out of their rooms.

They all seemed to have the same grumpy look on their faces. It wasn't surprising since they were all woken up abruptly at the crack of dawn.

I glanced over at the hut Malvin and I had been given and noticed the door hadn't opened yet.

My jaw dropped.

You know those moments when you just can't believe what you're seeing?

Even if it's happening right in front of your eyes?

This was one of those moments.

Malvin opened the door, which was perfectly normal -and then next thing I know-

Bam!

Veera followed behind him, sheepishly.

Jake hadn't noticed yet because he was too busy cursing about the noise, so I elbowed him in the stomach.

"What?" He asked.

And then he saw it, and suddenly he looked like he had just seen a ghost.

"Tell me it's a trick of the light," I mumbled.

"If it is we're both seeing it."

"Can we un-see it?"

"I don't think so," he confirmed.

I'd been so overwhelmed by what was going on that I'd barely noticed the alarm stop.

Jake and I slowly started walking over to them, but Jeremiah stepped out in the centre to address everyone.

We paused reluctantly to listen since we were both eager to find out what the hell was going on.

"Sorry for the early morning wakeup," began. "But it's a fresh start to a new day. I'm sure you've all heard that we have some new guests. Everyone please welcome: Pacem Creed, Jake Maxwell and Veera Mercia."

My heart nearly pounded out of my chest when I heard him call them by their names.

He knew.

The crowds gasped and began to whisper.

"Now, now." Jeremiah chimed in. "We will greet our guests with open arms. They are our friends."

Before I could understand what he meant by that, he swiped his hand in front of him and a virtual screen popped up, like a television hanging in the air.

On the screen was a giant projection of a woman in a bulky, blue suite who was holding a microphone.

Definitely a reporter, I thought. Some things never changed.

"And now for the news everyone had been waiting for," her voice was annoyingly high-pitched. "Escaped-felon, Pacem Creed, is still on the loose and the inside scoop is, she's taken two of her bounty-hunters with her! The feared Karnoi, Jake Maxwell and Veera Mercia, former princess-to-be of the Mercia clan, were reported missing last night. It's uncertain whether Miss Creed took them with brutal force or they joined her willingly, but experts say she wouldn't have had the strength to detain them on her own."

Jeremiah swiped his hand and the image changed to a man in a suit.

"Pacem Creed, Karnoi fugitive, seems to have left her mark around town yesterday as several of her protest paintings have popped up on the streets. This has left the community in an outrage and was a direct attack on our leaders."

Suddenly my painting of Alluna appeared on-screen.

I smiled.

"A variety of sources claimed to have seen Miss Creed with her infamous accomplices, Veera Mercia and Jake Maxwell, as she demolished town property. This is confirmation that Jake Maxwell and Veera Mercia are a threat, and are armed and dangerous."

I noticed they hadn't mentioned Malvin's name at all.

Jeremiah touched the screen and the image faded into nothing.

"You see?" he said. "Veera and Jake are our friends and are on our side."

Jeremiah kept on talking about how friendly we were, but the crowd didn't seem too convinced. They also didn't break into a protest, which was a start.

Suddenly Jake nudged me from the side, and I looked at him expectantly.

He didn't say anything.

Apparently, I was supposed to know what he meant. When he raised his brow it suddenly occurred to me; he wanted me to use the podium so I could sway the crowd.

Who knew I would end up in politics?

My adrenaline started pumping again and I found myself getting unexpectedly nervous.

I sprinted past Malvin and aggressively pushed him out of the way so that he knew I was pissed before fetching my item from the room.

I poked my head out of the hut and stepped back into the action.

"Um..." I raised my voice. "I'd like to say something."

Everyone turned around to face me in unison, and I swallowed as I walked to the front where Jeremiah was standing.

I shuffled him out of the way and he cautiously stepped into the crowd.

"I'm Pacem Creed. The felon." It had been a joke but I was the only one laughing at it.

I paused in the silence.

"Look okay, I don't like being called a felon as much as any of you do, but if we sit and hide, nothing is going to change. People are always going to think of us as criminals and murderers, or worse, animals, unless we show them that we are so much more than that."

I couldn't see myself, but somehow I was absolutely certain that my eyes were glowing red.

The eyes staring back at me shone gold in return, and seeing so many of them together: it didn't look like animals at all.

It was... beautiful.

"You saw my painting on the screen. There's hundreds in the streets and I'd draw thousands more if that's what it takes to show people the truth. But I can't do it alone."

The crowd was frozen.

I dropped my podium onto the floor and pulled out my last card. Paint seeped out of the floor and hung in the air. All I had to do was move a finger now and the paint danced in rhythmic sequences.

It reminded me of flying fish, elegantly soaring as they jumped back and forth.

The crowd watched in disbelief, and slowly I bought the paint back down so it formed a spinning circle around my body.

Eventually I held my hands up to the sky and the paint seeped obediently into the disk.

There was an agonizing moment of silence, and I thought  this whole thing had been a waste of time, but finally the crowd responded and burst into applause and cheers.

I smiled in disbelief.

Once they had calmed down, I began to speak again.

"The first step is to learn how to control our abilities. Karnoi are strong, so we need to know how to use our strength as well as our connection to nature as a defence."

"We don't want to go to war!" someone shouted.

"We have been stuck in a war for a long time," I stated. "And now we have to fight. We want our freedom back, and some twisted people out there are going to want to retaliate to that. We just need to know how to deal with it."

Jeremiah seemed to realise that the crowd was in my favour and leapt back into the fold.

"This is ridiculous," His voice sounded slightly nervous. "We have been living in peace our entire life. That's exactly why I- we built this place so that we wouldn't be disturbed by the outside world."

"The outside world' is also called reality." I chimed in. "And none of you are living in it."

"We have all been perfectly happy in this lifestyle-"

"What happens when Alluna decides she doesn't want you living in peace anymore?" I asked. "They know you're here and it's not like you have a very good security system. They're keeping you all here like cattle until they decide on what to do with you. Don't give them that advantage."

"We're peaceful people," Jeremiah repeated.

"You keep saying that, but the truth is, you're all hiding," I corrected. "You don't have to live your lives in fear anymore."

"Miss Creed." Jeremiah's voice had gone stone cold. "Please, may I speak with you and your friends in private."

"Oh course." I gave him a fake smile and returned my attention to the crowd.

"Jake will be outside in the amphitheater in an hour. He's going to start teaching whoever wants to learn how to fight. I'm not forcing you into anything, but if you want to make a difference. If you want to feel like you have worth again, then you should come."

The crowd buzzed and excitement lingered in the air.

I glanced over at Jake.

He caught my eye and winked at me.

Eventually the people began to disperse in different directions and a part of me felt very nervous that no one would show up. I put the thought out of my mind.

First I had to deal with Jeremiah.

Once everyone was gone, he stomped off angrily. I suppose he was expecting me to follow.

When I looked back, I was pleased to see Jake, Malvin and Veera were already right behind me. They all looked a little too eager to participate in the fight that was about to break out.

Jeremiah's house was far away from the pathetic huts. The roof wasn't thatch but traditional concrete, and it even had a porch with a mat on it saying "welcome".

Inside was filled with several more luxuries that nobody else around here seemed to get. This included a kitchen, a lounge with expensive looking furniture, and a staircase, which I assumed led to a spacious master bedroom.

"Well you certainly haven't had to make a lot of sacrifices," my voice was  filled with judgement.

Jeremiah didn't defend himself right away, and instead waited until everyone was inside and the door was closed.

"I developed this society, Miss Creed," he snarled. "I created a safe-haven for these people to escape to. Call it a cult or whatever you like, but I want the best for these people."

"You want what's best for yourself." Jake folded his arms. "Everyone knows this place was just a ploy for you to make money. You were on the streets before all of this came along."

"And what?" He lost his self-control slightly. "Just because she has red eyes you think it's written in the stars that she's our savour? Clearwater certainly wasn't. This bitch can't-"

Jake didn't hesitate. In fact, neither did Malvin.

While Jake pinned him down, Malvin pulled a knife out of his pocket and held it to his throat. I hadn't realized he was even carrying a weapon.

He'd never taken it out in front of me before. I had always sensed that Malvin's insanity had a violent streak, but I had never allowed myself to think too much about it.

Then I looked at Veera, who had remained unusually quiet in all this.
She just seemed... sad.

"Don't call her that," Jake growled, and I saw an aggression in his eyes that I'd never seen before.

"Let him go," I said very calmly. "This isn't going to turn into a fight."

When neither of them moved, I walked up to Malvin and slowly took the knife out of his grasp.

He eventually stepped back and held his hands out in surrender, while the playful look returned to his face.

I'd expected Jake to move, but he was too busy having a stare down with Jeremiah.

I put my hand on his shoulder.

"Let him go, Jake."

"Can I be candid, Miss Creed?"

Jeremiah pushed away from Jake and casually rolled up his sleeves as if nothing had happened.

"Go ahead," I said.

Jeremiah's eyes flashed gold.

"I can't wait to see you fail."

Would you join Pacem in her fight???