"Darling could you come here?" My father's monotone voice rang through his and my mothers apartment as he stared down at my sleeping figure. I nearly never stayed in my parents home, unless Olive needed the room and Draco was working. Sleeping at their house was a death sentence for criticism and aggressive comments. But, alas, I was out of a room the night before and I found the couch in the penthouse much more comfortable than the bench in the boiler room. The sharp clicking heels of my mothers feet entered the room and I could practically hear her eye roll as I felt her stand over me. She scoffed and pushed at my arm. Slowly my eyes opened to find her and my disheveled father hovering like space crafts over what was my sleeping body. My father held a chocolate frosted doughnut and what was probably his third cup of coffee, while my mother was dressed in her finest mission outfit, a sexy, low cut dress with fancy jewelry and a large, curly wig.

"The purple contacts are a bit much don't you think?" I said sarcastically, giving my mother a glare and turning my head into my pillow.

   "Rita!" My mother screeched for her maid, waiting impatiently as the poor shell of a woman came quickly into the fancily decorated living room. "Look at this girl. Does this look like a professional to you? Hm?" She looked at Rita expectantly and raised an eyebrow. Rita looked at me desperately but as sorry as I felt for the woman, I was not one to verbally sympathize in front of my mother. She nearly silently mumbled an answer and shrunk into herself. "Is it really so much to ask that I get some respect and obedience from my daughter? All I ask is that she does everything exactly as she's told and takes her place here, just as her mother did, perfectly. Is that really too hard of an ideal to uphold?" I scoffed at my mother's insolence and shrunk further into the couch cushion, wishing I didn't exist.

   Before my mother could strip the woman of her dignity any more, my father interjected with a sigh, clearly not worried for the maid but instead tired of my mother's voice, "Rita go make my daughter a cup of tea and be sure to call Cardinal to pick her up from training."

  "I can go to training myself. I don't need an escort." I spat sharply. He simply looked at me, then mother, then Rita, then me again and sighed, visibly giving up. Then he looked once more to Rita, nodded his head and sauntered off to another room, chomping noisily on his doughnut and probably looking for the good scotch.

  My mother made a 'Hmf' noise, then stuck her sharp, irritating nose in the air and strode away, leaving the house and slamming the door behind her. Probably off to dirty her relationship with my father even further. Out of everything he had ever done, my father had never cheated on my mother. If he had we would have known, because as I've mentioned, he's quite a bad liar. My mother on the other hand had weekly affairs, which my father of course knew, though he couldn't leave her because the Order wouldn't allow it, and in some twisted way, he loved her.

  After a moment, Rita began to walk to the phone, but I only waved her off aimlessly and stood, swaying a bit and then walking out of the door as well, slamming it shut behind me and sending a silent cursing to whoever gave me those people as parents.

{::}

  "So what if she's horrible, all our parents are horrible. It's nothing new." This was Pepper Valentine, a small but feisty, half Russian girl with captivating looks and an enticing accent. She sat at the long lunch table, next to dear sweet Olive and across from myself and Draco. I feel that it's important to mention how much Pepper loved food, how she didn't get nearly enough of it and that she at that moment, was stuffing her mouth full of cafeteria slop.

    "Hungry?" I joked, watching as the skinny girl inhaled what was supposed to be mashed potatoes and beef, but looked more like troff food. 

     "Mhm." She hummed, taking another bite. Olive giggled from beside her and slid her hand onto her thigh. 

    As I took my eyes away from the chattering couple, I found that Draco was reading beside me. I just watched him a while, as his eyes flitted from page to page, hair swept messily across his brow, a small smile as he ran his index finger across the tattooed paper. His injured leg stayed intertwined with mine and every once in a while, he would absentmindedly move a hand to my leg and draw shapes on my knee. Never once did he lift his eyes from the page, not even to eat, he simply read and smiled, even chortled a laugh here and there.

      I grinned, watching him, so peaceful, so happy. He had told me once before, that when you read, your mind creates a whole world inside itself, and for just a moment, you get to live in it. Like a perfectly written character. We were so young when he told me that, but I've always wondered what that would be like, to be something written, planned, life would be so wonderful that way.   

     Unfortunately, my calm trance was broken by the startlingly cold voice of Tempest Foxglove. Short blonde hair and a beautifully rounded face, she walked with a sense of being and cruelty. Her ledger was dripping red and blood practically fell as she walked. And she knew it.

     Not that I could talk, I wasn't exactly all daisies and sunshine either. I guess in a sense, Tempest and I should have been friends, her father was Lachlan Foxglove, the King Pin of our regime, and of course, she was Draco's cousin. She was good at her job, respected her peers, she wasn't petty and always knew when to draw the line. She was particularly sad, just as sad as me, maybe even more. She knew how to draw people in and she also knew how to cut them out. She was trained from the same age as me, we were always top of our classes together. I guess the only problem I had with her, was that she didn't like Olive. That was always a deal breaker.

     In fact, it was so much so, that when we were 13 and she threatened Olive with a stapler, she woke up that night to find her hands and feet stapled to her mattress. The scars, to my great pride, still remained evident. Of course, the next night she got revenge by carving 'forgotten mourner'deep into the flesh of my back - this was a reference to the loss of my sister, a term often used for a child who loses there sibling and is forgotten in the grief of the aftermath, - and throwing salt into the wounds. Those scars remain as well.

     As she came towards us, I sat silently, nibbling on my old tomato slice and remembering how afterwards we were both rewarded for our ruthlessness and beaten for our carelessness. Her father had taken it upon himself to personally beat her.

     "Ravens." She caught my gaze in hers and shook her head, her eyes sunken and dark. She obviously hadn't slept much recently, not that any of us had. "Did you hear about McDaniel?" 

    I shook my head slowly, trying to recall the face that went along with the name. Not much special about her, she was like all the rest of us, malnourished, but strong and dangerous. She had this raven black hair and soft hazel eyes. I thought she was related to Pepper in some way. I wasn't sure why she was telling me though. 

    "Well, she failed a mission, couldn't go through with killing little kids, and she blew her cover. They'll be executing her tonight in the main hall."

     I scoffed and my expression darkened, "And by they, you mean your father." 

    She rolled her eyes and dismissed me with a flick of her hand, revealing some of the scars on her palm, "It's not like the whole family ordered it. It was an elder strategist decision, you know how it goes. I don't see you beating on Draco for it." She sighed and rubbed her temple, "It doesn't matter anyway, I just thought you'd like to know since she saved your life and all." With that she walked away, popping a pill in her mouth and taking a glass of water from a nearby tray. 

     Suddenly, it all came rushing back to me. A mission a few years ago, we had been partnered and when we got caught in a cross fire, I was shot in the leg and instantly lost a lot of blood, she had pulled me out and covered me until it was over. We hadn't talked much but I had owed her my life and a whole lot of respect. My heart dropped as I realized who she was to me, that I would do anything to return the favor, except to defy the Order. I shook my head and looked back at Draco. He brushed my hair from my face and played with the frayed ends.

     I knew it would be mandatory viewing. I'd be forced to watch her die. And all I could do was stay silent and grieve.

{::}

      Bang
      Perfectly on target.
      Bang
      Not even the slightest bit of movement from the backlash.
      Bang
      My finger twitched on the trigger as I took the last shot.
      Bang
      That was it.

      When I was finished, there were three perfect bullet holes in her head and another one, seeping with blood in the center of her chest.

     I had no clue as to who this woman was, I could only assume she was the witness of McDaniel's failed mission, and that she was a liability we couldn't afford. 

   All I knew was that Cardinal handed me a gun when I left the Mess Hall. Then he guided me to a room, closed the door behind me and the man inside told me to shoot. So I shot. And when another man told me he needed me to stand still so I could be patted down and checked for recording evidence, I shot him too. I didn't like being touched.

{::}

       McDaniel's execution was at 9:30 on the dot. She was hung in the training hall from a crystal chandelier and was left to rot there for five days. As she hung there, I took the time each day to renew her facial features in my mind, reminding myself what she looked like when she was alive.

    I didn't sleep the first three nights, I had felt as though she was haunting me, reminding me that I had done nothing to save her.

    On the day that her body was removed from its air suspension, Pepper and Olive were supposed to scout out a mission sight, months in advance of the actual mission. Me and Draco gladly tagged along, ridding ourselves of the smell of death and enjoying the sunlight.

     We were given the Keys to a beautiful 1996, black Chevrolet Camero and told not to be stupid. After the last few days, that was more than enough warning. Pepper, gladly snatched the keys from Draco's hand, popped a piece of bubble gum in her mouth, and slid into the drivers seat, sighing in joy. "Oh yeah." She whispered as she wrapped her fingers around the steering wheel, stretching them over the side in pleasure. Let me explain; Pepper was a year younger than us and she joined much, much later than most recruits ever did. Before us, she was a car thief and a damn good getaway driver, but eventually, she got her hands dirty, and when she did, the Order took a long look at her skill set and promised to wipe her record clean if she worked for them. Pepper told us the day she met us that her passion was driving and a good song on the radio, she drove every chance she got and was always in a better mood afterward. Driving was her calling and while she was damn good at it, she could also be quite scary behind the wheel.

     Olive and I laughed and the rest of us dove into the car, Olive in the passenger seat and me and Draco in the back. I sat in the middle seat and snuggled comfortably next to Draco, while he wrapped his arm around me and grinned, resting his head against the seat. Being out of the Order and in the fresh air was such a change of pace, and we all grasped at the feeling of true joy and comfort, finding every breath more full and every feeling burning with passion. This was truly the height of our lives, and after the week we'd had, we really needed it. Then, with a turn of the keys, a sputter of the engine and a loud holler, we were off.