"Wake up!"

Someone shouting and banging something metal on the bars of our cage woke me up. I looked around to find that everyone else was also slowly waking up. Outside of the bars, two armed guards, Sir, and another man stood, looking in at us. As I stood and stretched my sore muscles, I took another look at the new addition.

He was much smaller than Sir but wore the same black suit. His light sandy hair was thinning though he appeared younger than Sir and the guards. A chair sat just a few feet away from our cell and as the rest of the group got to their feet, the new guy took a seat in it. He held a clipboard in one hand and a pen in another, repeatedly clicking the pen as if he was impatiently waiting for all of us to fully wake.

Once he seemed satisfied that he held out full attention, he crossed his legs and introduced himself, "Hello, kids. You may call me Mr. Smith. I'm here to discuss with you all, the events that took place last night."

The only reply he got from us was a grunt from Lucas and a quickly flipped middle finger from Declan.

"How lovely," Mr. Smith commented before looking at his clipboard and saying, "My records here say that there are seven of you, however, we only seem to have six. Can any of you tell me where number seven is?"

Alicia, she was the only one who wasn't here. Last time any of us saw her was in the training room. At the time I had assumed she had wandered off, not wanting to be the seventh wheel. But when everything had happened I didn't think twice about where she was. I wanted to imagine that she had been hiding, invisible and had seen us taken away. If that was the case, maybe she ran away. I couldn't blame her for it if she did, but I had a horrible feeling that on her own she would only be in danger. The Gate Keepers could get her, or she could be somewhere hurt. I made a silent prayer that she was safe and far away from here.

"We don't know," I told Mr. Smith as I stepped closer to the bars.

"His eyes narrowed at me as he stated, "We know you were all together before the dance, Landry's has enough video cameras in the halls for us to see the seven of you going down to the basement."

"That was the last time we saw her," I replied.

Lucas stepped up next to me with a question of his own, "If you saw us on camera than you should know we didn't do anything. There's no reason to hold us here."

"Well, unfortunately, it seems that not long after you all were caught going into the basement, all of the cameras in the building malfunctioned. In fact, Landry's is still having trouble getting them to come back on. They said their security system was hacked at the exact same time that you all escaped your cells," Mr. Smith informed us.

How convenient.

"We didn't kill Toby and Betty," Sage announced.

Mr. Smith looked down at his clipboard again, shuffled through some papers, and then replied, "Everything I have points to you all."

"Well, if you're so convinced that we did it, then tell us, how do you think it happened?" Wes asked, his words laced with venom and sarcasm.

Mr. Smith folded his hands on top of his clipboard and his eyes locked on Wes as he answered, "The day before the murders, you all were in a fight with the deceased. Afterwards, some of you were reclassified to Class B and banned from the dance while the deceased was only given warnings due to their injuries. You were angry and snuck out of your cells using your gifts. After going to the basement and shutting down the cameras, you all lured the deceased from the dance. Maybe you didn't intend to kill them, maybe it was only your demonic nature taking over, but either way Mr. And Ms. Danton were dead after this confrontation."

"That's bullshit!" Declan yelled as he banged his hands against the bars.

This was all too much. Everything we did was taken out of context and now we were being blamed for this horrible incident. It didn't make sense to me. How could this have happened?

Lucas placed a hand on Declan's shoulder and tried to pull him back as he asked Mr. Smith, "Why would we kill someone over a dance?"

When Mr. Smith answered, instead of looking at Lucas, his eyes bounced back and forth between Wes and me.

"The dance was only the last straw. Those two have been taunting and tormenting you all for a while now. Isn't that right?"

"Yes, that's right. But we wouldn't kill anybody over that," I informed him.

Lolly sauntered over and wrapped around Lucas' arm as she added, "Besides, we were having a dance of our own in the basement."

I appreciated Lolly trying to join in, but I highly doubted Mr. Smith believed that part, even though it was the truth.

Mr. Smith grabbed his clipboard and stood up as he said, "Well until we can determine whether or not you all are guilty, you will reside here."

"And what if the Organization doesn't come up with a decision before the blood moon?" I asked defiantly.

It was my last Hail Mary. They had been putting so much time and effort into getting us ready to fight the Gate Keepers, there's no way they would throw all of that away. At least I hoped not.

"We won't release uncontrollable dark bloods into the city, even if that means we risk the fight with the Gate Keepers. We've managed the problem this long without your help. We will figure something out this time too," Mr. Smith answered confidently before finally walking out of the room.

Dumb ass.

How could they risk the world over something like this? Especially when we weren't guilty! The whole situation just blew my mind. The Gate Keepers were going to win and all because we were being framed for murder. Everyone was doomed and we couldn't do anything about it.

Due to the scheduled meals, we were able to keep track of days. Though being underground and kept in dim lighting made it disorienting and hard to decipher times. Every day we were lead in groups, one for the boys, and one for us girls, to take showers. During those times, Lolly, Sage, and I were escorted by female guards to a set of door-less shower stalls. We had no privacy other than the guards keeping their backs turned to us. It felt degrading and inhumane, causing me to bathe as quickly as possible just so I could cover up again and not feel so exposed.

The meals were always the same. For breakfast it was soupy eggs, for lunch it was an unrecognizable gooey soup, and for dinner, ham sandwiches that smelled like they had expired over a year ago. Each day we ate the same crap they gave us, and each day one of us would throw it back up.

The guards that watched over our cell each day did one of two things. Either they were perfectly quiet, or they would ruthlessly taunt us. There was always two of them, though not always the same two. The ones who liked to taunt and tease us were a younger set, maybe early twenties. I had started to refer to them as Idiot one and two after their second time on guard duty. We were treated like monsters, soulless, emotionless, monsters. Then again, that was probably how they saw us.

After what we figured was two weeks of the same routine, we knew the blood moon was getting close. Sage figured it would occur any day now, not that we would be able to tell from down here. The fact that we hadn't seen Sir or Mr. Smith since we first got there only made us feel more on edge.

"I can't do it, I can't eat this crap again," Lolly announced, sliding her dinner plate away.

We were all sitting on the floor of our cell, trying unsuccessfully to choke down more smelly ham sandwiches. All of us felt the same way about the food but it wasn't like we had much of a choice.

"Rainbow bright, you better eat that food. You won't get anything else until the morning," Idiot one announced, standing at his post next to the room's only door.

As if the food wasn't bad enough, we had the worse guards on duty for the night. They had relieved the precious guards right before dinner time and surprisingly had managed to stay quiet while we attempted to eat. Though I knew the peace wasn't going to last long. These two seemed to enjoy poking and prodding the caged animals just as much as Toby and Betty loved to torment us at Landry's. I had had just about enough of all of it.

"Which one do you think would be the best date?" Idiot two asked his buddy as they watched us.

"I prefer blondes but her mirror image with the black hair seems fun too," Idiot one answered before adding, "Hell, they could always take turns."

Number two stepped towards the cage as he said, "Rainbow bright looks like a wild one. I bet she'd be pretty fun."

Lucas shot a fireball in the direction of the idiots, but this action had become such a regular occurrence that the guards didn't even flinch.

"You do know we're underage don't you?" Sage asked them as she got up from the floor.

"Doesn't matter, you aren't human anyway," Idiot two answered with a shrug.

Declan jumped to his feet, his whole body tense for a battle that couldn't happen. But before he could do or say anything, the room to the door opened and another guard walked in.

"Edwards, Sir needs to speak to you," the new guard announced.

Idiot two sneered at us before turning and stalking out of the room.

"What's going on?" number one asked the new guard who was already taking post next to the door.

The newbie shrugged and answered, "I don't ask questions, I just do what I'm told."

Idiot one took his spot on the other side of the door but couldn't seem to keep quiet for long.

"Want to pick at the monsters?" he asked the other guard with a child like smile.

The other guard didn't look interested but walked over to number one anyway.

"Which monsters?" Newbie asked and then added, "Them or you?"

The idiot looked confused, his brows pinched together and his mouth hung open like he was lost for words. Fortunately, he didn't have the chance to answer.

In a flash, the new guard pulled a syringe out of his pocket and plunged it into the jerk's neck. Just as his body unconsciously fell to the floor, the other guard turned to face us. His face started to change and shift, and strands of long red hair grew out from under his cap. Soon, we weren't looking at a guard but at Ms. Pierce.