Click. Click. Click.

With each passing second, fear crept into every living cell I had as he slowly unbolted the door.

Fear shot through my body over and over. I prayed, no, I willed for my body to blend into the darkness of the small cabin's corner hoping that somehow then, he might actually spare my life.

But my luck had already run short, I knew that he wouldn't spare me like that, especially with the cards that god had dealt me.

He turned the handle slowly, mocking me and my helplessness as I sat there, running through all the possible ways this could end; none of them ended with me getting out of here alive.

So as door creaked open, all the oxygen in my lungs was forced out of me while I came to grips with the fact that this might be the last sight I ever see:

The silver, hollow barrel of his handgun pointing right in between my brows.

---

A month and a half ago

Sitting at the dining table, I finished up the last of the rich purple strokes on the flower I'd started earlier. Flicking back in my sketchbook, I looked at the various paintings of the exact same flower I'd replicated over and over.

It wasn't as good as the last one. This ones blue centre was too bright, the flower looking more cartoonish than usual.

Letting out a sigh, I shoved the sketchbook into my bag, ignoring the plate of burnt scrambled eggs that sat on the table as I scrambled up to get out of the door.

"Maya, you didn't actually finish your breakfast. Get back in here." Brian screamed as I now left through the front door, speeding down the stairs at an alarming rate..

I looked around, completely aware that my dad was now hot on my trail.

Come on Connor, where are you? I asked to myself, hoping that in the next few seconds, they'd pull up and take me away from Brian, who was now attempting to get me back in the house to force feed me some still burnt scrambled eggs.

How do you even manage to burn scrambled eggs?

Goddamit, I swear if they're the reason I end up with food poisoning, I'll save some for later and mix it with their lunches.

Finally, after waiting for so long, Connor's teal Ford Fiesta pulled up onto my driveway.

"Ok, bye dad!" I screamed, trying to open up the door to get in.

Why wasn't the door opening?

I looked into the window, just to see a smirking Ocean and a sorry looking Connor staring back at me.

"I'm going to fucking kill you." I said under my breath as Brian finally caught up, grabbing onto my shoulder.

Ocean sat in the car moving her hands around hysterically, trying to get out of some imaginary grip. She was clearly mocking me.

Oh you're so going to regret that, O.

Turning to my dad, I pulled my innocent doe eyes, knowing that it would work.

"Dad, don't you think it's only fair that the other two get to eat something aswell, seeming as they did drive all the way down just to pick me up."

"They do that every morning last time I was aware." Dad cocked his brow, catching onto what I was trying to do.

"Yes but by then, I'd have already eaten and they'd already be gone."

After a few moments of contemplating, he nodded his head.

"I guess it's only fair."

So after walking me back into the house, he speed walked back down and ushered Connor and Ocean out of their car.

From the doorway, I looked over, sending them a smirk.

Walking up to the door, the both shot me glares as if to say this was my fault.

"Don't blame me, you guys were being the dickheads."

"Ahah." Ocean said, sarcasm seeping through her fake laugh.

Dad got up to cooking some more of his eggs. He looked like he was putting so much concentration into them but in the end, they always ended up feeling like rubber.

After about ten minutes of waiting, Brian finally came down with three plates holding his, still burnt, scrambled eggs. I just didn't have the heart to tell him though, he looked way too happy for us to burst his bubble like that.

"Dad, can I put it in some tupperware and just eat it for lunch? I'm really not feeling up to it right now." I said, putting on as much of an innocent face as I could.

"As long as you actually eat them, sure."

"Mr Cordero, you wouldn't mind if we could all do that, would you, I wouldn't want us to be late to school." Connor pleaded, his puppy dog eyes masking the game he was really playing.

That's when he looked up at the clock.

"Oh, I'm going to be late aswell."

I looked up at him confused. "Late for what, dad?"

"Mr. Harrison said he needed to  speak to me, something about you and your grades."

Oh for god's sake, not again. I'd actually been trying to up my grades recently as well, he didn't need to get on my case like this.

"Do you have to go? You know what they're going to say anyways so I don't really see the point." I seriously didn't need Harrison to put me down for not trying in school again.

"Yep. See you there, Maya."

So as we all scrambled up, dad grabbed his bags off of the counter-top and scurried off to his car.

"So, what do you think Harrison needed to talk to you about?" Ocean asked but you could see her mind was elsewhere.

"I already said in there, O, he wants to talk about how bad my grades are."

"Just show him your sketchbook, I'm sure he'll just get you to take part in them art competitions the school holds to redeem yourself or something." Connor gave Ocean a deathly glare as she continued looking off into space.

I looked at her,  confused. I've never shown her that sketchbook before, hell, even Brian didn't know about my art. Not that I could really call it art as such, it was mostly just the same flower over and over.

"You know, the ones with the flowers." she finished. 

"O, I actually haven't showed anyone else that sketchbook before, how do you know about it?"

She snapped her head up from whatever thoughts she was having and looked straight at Connor who was now glaring at her.

"I think you showed us this one time we all got drunk together. Probably last weeks sesh if I'mhonest, we were all completely off of it." Connor said, trying to catch Ocean where she had clearly slipped her tongue.

"No, I'm sure that I never--"

"Oi, Connor, pass me your keys." Ocean cut me off, walking to Connor and whispering something else in his ear.

Connor said something else back to Ocean in a whisper before throwing her his keys.

Driving to the school in almost complete silence, I looked at the other two and just realised how tired they looked.

"You guys didn't sleep last night?"

"We did," Connor started "But we had that assignment from Mr Nicolls for business, remember?"

"Erm... no?" I replied, confused.

Since when did I get an assignment from Nicolls?

"Not that Nicolls would care that much about you not handing yours in, would he Maya. You guys are best buds!" She said, her usual sarcasm coming through in her reply.

"Sorry that I'm friends with the coolest teacher in school, you guys can stay with old Miss Hetling if you'd like but I'm pretty happy with Nicolls."

"You're like the only student he actually talks to." Connor  said back, his eyes staying glued to the road still.

"Not to mention, but he appeared out of nowhere during year 7 aswell. Like just randomly out of the blue  in the middle of summer term. Didn't you ever find that weird?" Connor asked, saying it like I'd actually know the answers to all these questions.

"Not really, our school was low on teachers."

"How about the fact that he and your dad got along like best buds as soon as they met?"

"My dad's sociable?"

The two of them groaned, knowing that I wasn't going to let either one of them push me down.

We had hardly been in the building for a minute before I heard my name being screamed at me by Miss Hetling to go see Harrison at the headteachers office through the intercom.

Everyone's eyes were trained on me and my friends as I walked towards the office, curious as to what I must have done this time.

It wasn't a rare occurrence, me going to Harrison's office. With the grades I was getting recently, I was surprised I wasn't being called in more often.

No one dared to make eye contact as we walked down the all to familiar path towards the headteacher's office, no one but Mr Nicolls.

You see, Mr Nicolls had always been my favourite teacher, he was the only one I could actually endure. While everyone else would go and cry to the counsellor, Mr Nicolls was the one I'd confide in, he was the one that I told everything to.

He sent a knowing chuckle my way before walking off, knowing well enough that I'd probably landed in trouble once again.

Making my way into the office, I sat infront of the stand that read Principal Harrison, Headmaster.

I raised my head, trying to assess what he was going to talk to me about this time. Staring into his eyes, I tried to tell what he could have been thinking about but all I could see was disappointment, disappointment which I knew all too well.

"Maya, I need you to understand that your grades are slipping beyond what I may be able to help. You are very aware that your grades must be kept at a high to be able to attend this school. I know you are a very smart bright girl, you used to  be one of the top students in your year!"

My dad was just sat next tome, looking bored at the repetition of Harrison's words. He'd heard this speech a few times in the last year but I'd been distracted. Ocean and Connor kept acting really shady since the start of this year a few months ago. I'd tried to figure out what was up a few times but they never slipped up, not until today that is.

I rolled my eyes at his speech.

"I never asked to be sent here and so don't start on how I'm not showing my 'true colours' alright. I know my grades are bad but can you blame me? All the spare time I have you're training me for something different. One day it'll be karate, the other day it'll be boxing, the other day it'll be at the shooting range etc. How can you even expect me to have time for this?"

"I don't  expect for me to have to tell you this again, it's important that a young woman like yourself is ready for any kinds of situations, especially today!"

"And why's that, Mr. Harrison?"

"Must I remind you that now with Esteban as the leader of Genesis, London's streets are even more dangerous as the days go by."

"And why would a gang like Genesis need to have anything to do with me?"

"I'm not sayin--"

But I never heard the end of the speech and for once in my life, I felt real, true fear for everyone I cared about as multiple gunshots went off. All I could see was red. One by one, I watched as my friends were picked off. And one by one, my thoughts started going mad as I stared into those steel silver eyes once more, the rest of his face covered with a ski mask.

"Miss Cordero, nice to see you again."

Shot.

"How have you been doing? I know I've been missing you for a while."

Shot.

"Have you been missing me? I've been thinking about you plenty."

Shot.

"It's a pleasure seeing you again."

Shot.

I couldn't breathe straight as I looked into his menacing eyes, the evil in them taking away my breaths go haywire, my lungs not being able to hold enough of the oxygen as I tried to breath.

My heart was jumping, leaping out of my ribcage as my chest started tightening. He pointed the gun right next to me, right at Brian.

From the corner of my eye, I could see the fear and terror in his eyes. He looked at me, clearly trying to say  something.

"Find Men--"

And before dad could finish what he was saying, a bullet flew into his forehead. I watched my dad fall, eyes glassy and lifeless onto the desk infront of him.

He was gone.

_____________

Here's the first chapter of Target
I'm not going to burden you with a long as  note but like I said before, point out any problems on the inline comments and I hope that you guys vote and comment, show the book some love!
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