Mith arched her back and twisted her shoulders, but she could not escape the boy's vice-like grip. She could feel her panic levels skyrocketing, and her face was flushed and sweaty.

"Look, mate, it was real nice of you to help, but I honestly feel terrible about taking up so much of your time. I'll find my parents myself."

Mith wriggled again, trying and failing to conceal how freaked out she was.

The boy smiled pleasantly. His eyes glinted like sharp knives, cold and dangerous. "I insist. I have time to kill, anyway." He propelled her towards the airport entrance, where a stern-looking guard was examining passports.

Mith laughed hysterically. "You're very kind," she replied, in a too-high voice stretched thin with fear. He wasn't buying her bullshit story about her parents being inside. Of course he wasn't.

Some absolute creep of a boy was leading her inside an airport without any identification or plane tickets or adult supervision; what if she got arrested? What if he tried to kill her because she had seen too much?

Mith had never been as frantic as she was now. She was going to make a run for it. Her muscles tensed as she prepared to kick him and bolt.

The boy sensed her tautness. Almost immediately, something cool and sharp nicked at her shoulder.

"I wouldn't fidget if I were you," he said cheerfully.

Goddamn knife.

"I do occasionally dip the knives in snake venom. Really, it's very effective when it comes to preventing people from bolting for it."

The boy continued, conversational.

"I mean, isn't it so tiresome when people start running? What a lot of unnecessary chaos it causes. And the chasing too. So undignified. I believe myself to be above such amateurishness."

"So that's it, then? You're going to kill me?" Mith's voice quavered like a harp string. She couldn't help it. She was scared out of her mind.

"Dear God, no. Even I'm not daring enough to attempt murder in an international airport." The boy considered this, thoughtful. "Although, with a bit of planning, anything is possible, really. And the easy access to a getaway is rather convenient."

Oh, how Mith hated him. She could tell that he was doing this just to psyche her out. She could feel the ever-present edge of a taunt in his voice.

They were at the entrance. The boy's arm didn't leave her shoulder. The knife was still there, impeccably concealed under his fingers. The guard shot them curious looks.

"Passport?" he asked, in a thick accent.

The boy used his free hand to draw the chain he had stolen out. He flashed the compass at the guard, who, bizarrely, nodded.

The boy nudged Mith, who had sucked in a shocked breath.

The guard recognised the signum! Is he a member of the Carcerem Society too? What's going on?

"Your compass, please," the boy said impatiently.

Mith couldn't feel her fingers. Here she was, sneaking into an airport. With a psychotic boy. And to top it all off, her parents didn't know where she was.

By all that's holy, if I get out of this alive, mum and dad are going to kill me.

She repressed the urge to laugh hysterically again, and drew her own signum out. The guard bent down to get a closer look at it and then waved them inside.

And just like that, Mith Rai had gotten into the Bangalore International Airport. And just like that, Mith Rai had begun the adventure of a lifetime.

Naturally, she didn't know that. What with the whole psychotic-kidnapping-teenage-boy situation, she was more concerned about how many intact limbs she could make it out of this shitfest with.

She certainly was not above grovelling.

"Please, please let me go," she said tearfully, despising the fear in her voice. "My parents will be so worried. I have to get home. I won't tell anyone about the stunt you pulled. I promise."

"Is that so?" The boy laughed humourlessly. "I don't believe you. I don't believe in promises either. So I'm afraid that's a no from me. Keep walking." The knife dug a little harder into her back.

The fear was going to overcome Mith. Her heart was beating like a drum, and her hands were shaking like a couple of maracas. It was pitiful.

Silently willing herself to be strong, Mith shut her eyes and counted to ten.

"Look-" she began, and then shut her mouth, because her voice was shaking too.

Damn.

She swallowed past the knot of tears in her throat.

She didn't know where the boy was taking her. They were wending down some seedy corridors in the domestic terminal, and they hadn't even checked in and gotten boarding passes. Boarding passes? Boarding passes to where? That should've been the last thing on Mith's mind.

It wasn't, possibly because her brain had jumped into hyperactive freak out mode.

"Look here," she began again, relieved that her voice wasn't shaking this time.

"Where the hell are you taking me?" she demanded, crossing her arms over chest and planting her feet on the ground; a firm refusal to give in.

The boy stopped too, and withdrew the knife. "Do you really want to know?" He asked calmly.

"Take a wild guess, creep," Mith hissed, and when she saw no reply forthcoming, lunged wildly at him, limbs flailing. She kicked out in every direction, screaming bloody murder.

The boy tackled her, pinning her to the ground. She swore loudly as her elbows dug into the cold tile floor. In a short moment, the knife was against her throat.

They were too deep in the deserted corridor for anyone to hear her screams. The seats near the terminal gates were all empty, and outside the large glass windows, the sun was beginning to set. Mith realised with a kind of belated horror that it was setting on her life, too.

There's no way I'm making it out of this alive.

"Let me go," she pleaded, in a last, desperate whisper.

The boy stared mercilessly back into her eyes. He crouched next to her, a pitiless predator.

She had to do something. Something. Anything. She wouldn't become another sordid headline on the city newspaper

Bargain. Bargain damn it, there has to be something you have that he can use.

"What if I agreed to help you?" Mith choked out.

"My parents are high ranking members of the Carcerem Society." The lie tasted like ash, but Mith pressed on.

"I mean, surely there's some information on the Society that I can provide? Anything that might prove useful in whatever shitfest criminal activity you're trying to run here?"

Mith groaned inwardly. Who was she kidding? This boy probably had insiders everywhere. He probably already owned his own network of spies. Jesus, she was so screwed.

"You'd be willing to sell out your entire Society to save your own life?" The boy's lips twisted in disgust. "That's pathetic."

Joke's on you, moron. I don't know anything, and neither do dear mum and dad.

"Hark, look who preaches. If it isn't the little angel going around threatening people with goddamned knives!" Mith's boldness was fuelled by anger. Anger towards the Society woman who had so callously abandoned her. Anger towards parents who had knowingly kept her from the one place where she could truly fit in. Anger towards this boy, who had so easily assumed that she would give up her life like a martyr.

I pledge my loyalty to this institution, and loyal I shall remain until death.

She laughed bitterly.

Extenuating circumstances, forefathers. My apologies, but it looks like I'm going to have to betray the lot of you.

"Take it or leave it," Mith hissed again, her mind made up. She would do anything to survive.

After a moment of confusion, the boy grabbed her hand and hauled her up.

"You are a singularly horrible person," he said happily, the manic grin back on his face. "Welcome to the team!"

Mith's head was spinning, and she was violently nauseous. "What team? What- What are you trying to do?"

Gods in all heavens above, what have I done? What have I signed myself up for? Did I really just sell out the Society that I've wanted to join for fifteen years?

The boy grinned wider, bearing an eerie resemblance to the Cheshire Cat. "It's fairly straightforward, love. You and I are going to bust a couple of monsters out of prison."

Hi guys! Liking the story so far? You should be getting a good idea of why i included the tag #antihero in my story description by now ;)