RUNNING WAS OUR BEST FRIEND.

Stop for nothing.

Just run.

My hand tightened around hers as we ran down the dark alleyway. Sweat beads formed on my forehead and my knees buckled with each step I took. Her breathing was almost as loud as mine and I knew she was tired. We were not able to stop, though. We had to keep moving.

We had to keep running.

Our steps echoed down the empty alley and I constantly looked over my shoulder, looking to see if we were being followed. It would not be long before they figured out where we were. If they found us, we would be executed on the spot. We had been through too much and I was not about to give it all up now.

Blood covered my hands, face, and clothes. We were both covered in blood...blood of our enemies and of our friends. I hated the smell but there was absolutely nothing I could do about it until we reached our destination. Until then, I had to deal with the retched smell and hope we made it out of this alive.

We approached the woods and Gwen pulled her hand out of my grip as she started running faster. Her blonde hair bounced on her shoulders and she kept looking back to make sure I was still there. Shots were fired behind us and she winced at the sound. I opened my mouth to tell her everything was going to be all right when an excruciating pain shot through my chest.

My feet came to a halt and when Gwen's eyes met mine, they were filled with both denial and horror. She opened her mouth to scream but somehow through the pain, I managed to bring a shaky finger up to my lips before collapsing onto the hard ground below. Gwen ran towards me, her lips moving as if she were shouting; however, I was unable to hear a single word coming out of her mouth.

The constant barks of order were getting closer and closer, the look of horror on her face letting me know we were going to get caught if we did not hurry. My head laid comfortably on her lap and frequently, I groaned out in pain. Blood stained my lips and my shirt was stained with the same substance. Her arms were tightly wrapped around me and she kept shaking her head, in denial about what was currently happening to us. The bullet was still in my chest and it had caused us to slow down. There was no way we were going to make it out alive with me in this current condition.

"You're going to be okay," Gwen whispered, tightening her arms around me. "This...This is just one little bump in the road. We're going to make it out of this and we're going to sail the world together, remember? Do you remember what you told me that day at the beach?"

My eyes met hers and it took everything in me not to cry. We both knew how this was going to end but the hope in her eyes made my chest ache more. Did she honestly think I was going to make it? I opened my mouth to tell her I was as good as dead but I coughed. I felt warm liquid on my lips and it did not take me long to realize it was more blood.

"You..." I met her gaze again. "You have to run."

"No," she quickly snapped. "I'm not leaving you here alone."

"Run," I kept trying. "Change...Change your identity. Move away from this Hell. Keep your mother and Jett safe. Don't you ever look back, you hear me? You have to run and hi—"

"No!" she screamed.

"Don't get caught because of me," I begged. "I'll only slow you down."

"If they find you, they'll kill you, Elijah!"

"Gwen," I reached up and stroked her wet cheek. "I'm already dead."

She opened her mouth and let out a single cry. I wanted to comfort her but the pain was getting worse by the second. I had to convince her I was all right and it was okay for her to leave me. Forcing a smile, I looked into her blue eyes and waited for her to make the right decision. They were getting closer and if she did not make a decision soon, we were both going to be dead.

"Go," I pleaded when she was starting to take too long. "They'll be here any minute and I won't let them take you."

"Please—"

"Why are you still here?" I struggled to look at her because of how this was affecting her. "Go!"

As she nodded her head, she told me, "I love you."

"I love you, too."

Gwen stood up quickly, making sure I was comfortable on the ground. I grunted when she laid my head down on the grass and she pressed her soft lips against mine, knowing it would be our last. My fingers ran along the engagement ring on her finger and she choked on a sob. I managed to keep my smile but my eyes had moved toward the trees. She kissed me once more on the forehead before I heard the sound of her feet running away from me.

Her footsteps became fainter and fainter but the shouts were getting louder and louder. My hands balled up into fists and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to ignore the fact that my breathing had shortened and the pain in my chest had decreased. I was going to die, not from the bullet in my chest, but probably from the bullet they were getting ready to put in my head. Because of them, I had just lost the woman I truly loved. I hoped...prayed she was going to get far away from here and never look back. If she did everything I told her to do, she was going to be just fine.

Three figures approached me and I heard the clicking of a gun. In the dark, they looked eerie with their masks on their faces and dark hoods hiding their hair from view. I used to consider these men my friends but now they were worse than Lucifer himself. My eyes locked with theirs and my fists tightened, despite the fact that I was actually dying.

"Well, would you look at that," Alexander sneered. "We caught the damn bastard."

"Looks like you shot him in the chest," Tyler muttered, looking at the third person with them. I had no idea who he or she was and the mask covering their face was not helping. "I thought we made it very clear we wanted him alive."

"And he is," the person, who was clearly male, spoke. "Last time I checked, he was still looking at us and still very much alive."

"Meet your replacement," Alexander chuckled. "Lucas."

"Tyler," I groaned as my body jerked. Blood came out of my mouth and Alexander removed his mask from his face before kneeling down beside me. He raised his gun into the air and fired a couple rounds before smiling at me.

"We know you let her go but that's all right," he chuckled. "Now, she thinks you're dead."

"He is going to be dead if we don't do something," Tyler said and looked at the new man. "You shot him. Help me get him into standing position."

The man—Lucas—tore his mask from his face and his emerald eyes shined in the moonlight. Alexander rose to his feet and the man took his place, kneeling down beside me. He pressed his index finger down on my wound and I let out a scream of agonizing pain. My eyes squeezed shut but I knew if I tried to push him off, they would kill me. He wiped the blood on my shirt and laughed before standing to his feet.

"I'm going to have a lot of fun with this one."

• • •

I did not speak much during the months that followed me getting shot in the chest. Hell, I would have sat on my very uncomfortable bed all day in my cell if it had not been for Alexander and Tyler taking me out, trying to make me the Elijah they claimed I truly was...whatever that meant.

The outings usually resulted in a taser being placed to my side and me crying out in pain. I never gave them the answers they wanted but they should have known better. The questions were usually always about the whereabouts of Gwen but I was not going to tell them. How was I supposed to tell them when I had no idea?

As part of my daily routine, I found myself laying down on the freezing cold floor with my arms used as pillows. My eyes stared upward at the ceiling as the man in the cell next to mine started his daily routine, too. I never asked what he did to get in here but I just assumed he was a traitor like me. He started his daily humming and I tried to block it out like I always did. I focused on the different cracks in the ceiling and, like I did everyday, tried to think of a way out of this horrid place and find Gwen.

She had to know I was alive.

I sat up and ran my fingers along my healing chest. It no longer hurt when I touched it; however, the feeling was now numb. Scratching at the hair stubble on my chin, I rose to my feet and walked over to the bars of the cell. Guards stood at each end of the narrow hallway and I took a deep breath. There was no way I could escape with them always watching. I was too weak to do any real damage to them and this angered me even more. My chest could take up to six months to heal and six months was too long. I needed it to completely heal now.

"Ramone, we have a situation on Floor C. Do you copy?"

My head turned to the left as one of the guards grabbed his walkie talkie, obviously confused as to what was going on. Wrapping my hands around the bars, I tried to get a better look as to what was happening. There was obvious screaming and yelling in the background and it sounded like a woman. The man in the cell next to me stopped humming and when I looked to my right, I saw his brown hands wrapped around his bars, too. It was not everyday something like this happened and when it did, it was exhilarating for us.

"On my way up," the guard responded. "Over and out."

The exhilarating moment soon enough came to an end when three guards disappeared through the doors. I slumped down on my bed and sat my hands firmly on my lap. It was once again quiet and I hated being alone with my thoughts. They sometimes drove me mad and they often made me do things I regretted. I sometimes wished Gwen would turn herself in so I would no longer have to be tortured. Of course, I hated myself for thinking of something so cruel and vicious. I often wished I could end my life right here and not have to worry about anything or anyone anymore.

I was just that tired.

A sigh escaped my lips and I began to tap my fingers on the floor. I wanted nothing more than to be able to hold her close to me again, to run my fingers through her frizzy, blonde hair, and listen to her goofy laugh one more time. It was hard being away from her for this long. We had always been together, making various promises about never separating. The night I was supposed to die, we broke that promise and I made her leave me behind. If she stayed, she would have died and I did not want to be the cause of that.

It did not take a genius to know I was losing my mind. Every day, I have been tortured and the wounds on each part of my body prove so. A part of me was willing to do anything to make it stop. At times, I wanted to go out and find Gwen myself just to stop my suffering. Where would I even begin, though, if I went out to look for her? Months had passed and she could have been anywhere by now. For all I knew, she was probably in another country.

The sound of screaming pulled me away from my thoughts and toward my cell bars to see what was happening. Two guards were holding a woman who was constantly throwing her body around, hoping to get away from them. She was screaming at the top of her lungs and shouting as much as she could.

"Liars!" she screeched. "All of you! I did what you asked of me. Now own up to your end of the bargain and let me go!"

Her black ponytail moved about as she continued to fight back. A black collar was wrapped around her neck and every second, a red light flashed. The screams grew louder and louder as she got closer and I was almost tempted to cover my overwhelmed ears. Both of her bare feet slid across the floor as she tried to put all of her weight on them to try to come to a halt. It was not everyday someone new was brought in here. Last I checked, I was the last prisoner captured and brought in. From the looks of it, she was going to be the first female and she did not look too happy about that.

"I did my part!" she shouted, throwing her head back in a quick motion.

The guard behind her grunted and released her to check on his probably broken nose. With her free hand, she punched the other guard and kicked him where the sun never shined. He staggered back, grunting from the sudden impact, and squeezed his eyes shut. The woman took her chance and went running back towards the door in which she came from. Before she turned, her blue eyes met mine for a split second and they were wild, so full of energy. As soon as she reached the doorway, her body jerked and she fell onto the floor.

One of the guards was holding a small remote and he was pointing it at the woman, more specifically at the collar on her neck. The light flashing was no longer red, but green. Whatever it was had been activated and it knocked the hell out of her. Her body twitched on the floor as the guards approached her, lifting from the floor and carrying down to her cell. She was tossed inside of it and a groan escaped her lips. I stayed where I was and one of the guards laughed as he locked her inside.

"We thank you for your service," he spoke. "However, you are no longer needed."

She rolled over onto her back and her hands went up to the black collar. Tears fell from her eyes but they were not intended. I assumed she was going to try to take the collar off but she did no such thing. Instead, she looked at the guards and opened her mouth to speak.

"Are you going to do the same thing to him when his part is completed?" she asked, her voice weak and hoarse. "Are you going to put a collar around his neck and shock him as if he's some disobedient dog?"

Ignoring her questions, the guards went back to their positions and I backed away from the cell bars. The woman was now watching my every move and I wondered if she capable of blinking. I sat down on the edge of my bed and scratched my jawline. She sat up, her azure eyes still locked on my statue.

"What did you do?" she wondered. I looked her up and down before looking at the wall to my right. I barely knew her; therefore, she did not deserve any answers from me. For all I knew, answering her would get me into even more trouble. "Fine. Don't answer me. I prefer silence, anyway."

My eyes looked back at her and she was running her fingers along the dog collar. Knitting my eyebrows together, I asked, "Why don't you just take that thing off?"

The corner of her lip twitched upward, "He's a curious one." Her hands fell down onto her lap and she tilted her head to the side. "Answer my question and I'll answer yours."

I took a heavy breath and shrugged my shoulders. It had been too long since I had an actual conversation with someone and I missed it. What harm could be done by talking to someone who was in the same position as I was?

"I tried turning everyone into the police," I told her.

"Oh," she nodded her head. "You were one of them?"

"Yeah."

"Me, too," she rolled her eyes. "I worked in Seattle and I did everything I was told. I guess they thought they no longer needed me and brought me here."

"What did they want you to do?"

"Act normal, for the most part," she told me. "But then they asked me to fake my own death."

"They can't just keep us here." I frowned.

"Oh, but they can," she widened her eyes. "I know everything."

"What?"

She laughed, "Don't you get it? I was a part of the plan! I know everything about Gwen, only she goes by Sydney now. I already know how the two of you betrayed the organization and tried to turn everyone in, including me. So, yeah, I participated in the plan. After my part was completed, they were supposed to let me go. That obviously didn't happen, though, seeing as how I'm stuck in here with you and the mute over there as my company."

The man whose cell was next to mine snorted.

"I also know they're going to use you to get to Gwen."

It was my turn to laugh, "I'm not telling them anything."

"You don't have to," she grinned. "They already know where she is thanks to me. Now, they just need someone to bring her down. I wonder who they're going to choose..."

The look on her face made my heart nearly stop.

"They wouldn't choose me to kill her."

"They would, and they will. You won't even see it coming. They plan to erase your memories and poison you with lies about Gwen. Honestly, it's cruel but it's also pure genius. You won't remember a single thing about her and you won't have a problem killing her. Like I said, genius."

"And why would I believe anything that's coming out of your mouth right now?"

Her smile fell from her lips and sadness filled her eyes, "Because they plan on doing the same thing to me."

"Why?"

"The man I love is procrastinating on completing his part of the plan," she covered her face with her hands and shook her head. "Instead of hurting her, he's doing the complete opposite. He's interfering with the plan and must be terminated for his actions."

"What?"

"There's nothing we can do about that."

"Maybe we'll make it out of here. I'm sure there's a way."

"You really think so?" she removed her hands from her face.

"Yeah, I really do," I gave her a reassuring smile. "I'm Elijah."

"I know."

"Right, because you know everything about Gwen and I."

"Precisely."

"And your name is?"

"Cassandra," she smiled. "But everyone calls me Jillian."