My eyes adjusted to the dazzling room that I was in. From the corners of my eyes, the sight of an ocean stretched the horizon and Mediterranean fan palm trees permeated the land below through the glass windows. A cathedral's outline emerged beyond the cities, beyond the fortresses. To the west there was an ancient castle. We were high off the ground. My guess was a private facility. But what floor?

A floor high enough to kill a body before it reached the ground from a fall, that's for sure.

That was all I could take in from the dream before the sudden noise of a group of people fighting was brought to my attention. I turned to the center of the room. Five people, masks on, were attacking the guards in the room. It took only a moment before I realized it was my team. They were outnumbered, but yet, their expressions told me that they were winning.

Whatever was going on, all that mattered was that my team was winning.

Or so I thought. Because in a split second, I found myself feeling uncomfortable. Uncomfortable at them... winning. The longer I looked at them, the weirder the feeling became.

Someone made eye contact with me. Beta, I presumed. I could make out his tropical green and grey eyes. He looked at me as if time had stopped. As if he wasn't currently battling a room filled with assailants. As if we were in our own world.

Which we might have been, because I have never felt so much hate for someone more than this very moment.

I hated him. And when my eyes glazed over the rest of the team, I hated them too. They wanted to take me away when I was safe. I didn't want to be taken hostage again.

Who was talking right now..?

They called me a different name and pretended I was someone I wasn't. They wanted to force me to labor for them. They wanted to rip me away from my love. I was a prisoner. I despised all of them.

But I loved messing with them.

I felt myself smiling oddly as I made eye contact with the youngest member in the room. Pooh. He stopped in his tracks and pointed his stick at me. But he didn't hit. He didn't intimidate. He just stared on as if the soul left his body.

This was fun. Every time I looked at someone, they just freeze. What a fun game. Who next?

The other woman in the room noticed me, but she didn't stop fighting. Did she not care about me? Why was she fighting if she didn't care?

Maybe she couldn't recognize me.

So I cleared my throat, practiced a few words, and then acted out a string of phrases that seemed like what this 'Venus' of theirs would say.

She didn't stop. Touch cookie. I like her.

I walked forward. She eyed me cautiously from the corner of her eye as she and RSMS took two guards down together. I waved. She frowned. RSMS stopped and he stared. L01 came towards me, and he was the only one that put a hand on me. He grabbed my wrist and tugged at it. I saw him mouth, 'Come on. Let's go.'

I smiled, but it faltered when the woman put her hand on L01 and shook her head disapprovingly, bringing his hand away from me.

Why was she in my way? I was going to have fun with him. Expression shifting darkly, I suddenly realized I didn't like her anymore.

Beta and Pooh stopped fighting. The guards ceased fighting. The room became silent.

I hated silence. It wasn't fun. I needed to provoke someone. M&M.

She was the only one that didn't freeze. Why? Was I not mesmerizing enough? Did she not care about me like the others? Was she not close to me? Why?

We exchanged a few words. Her expression didn't change. She was firm and unfazed like she knew my games. Beta spoke up and soon I felt hesitant.

That man scared me. I hated him for scaring me. What did Venus see in him? Why was this other girl with this lot?

I became angry. Everyone unfroze. They were all looking at me, shouting at me, telling me to stop, and then to leave. Leave with them.

I faltered. My head became heavy. I lost my composure and stumbled a few steps back. Just when I thought I was going back to normal, another man's voice filled the room.

He called for torture.

My eyes widened. Torture? Torture who? Me? Them? But we were just playing...

I was pulled back into an embrace as the five people before me were suddenly overtaken and chained up. Forced down on their knees. Gun barrels pointed at their skulls and daggers at their throats.

Something wasn't right. We were just playing. Playing shouldn't have guns and daggers. Why were they in so much pain?

What was going on?

I stayed silent as a soft breath hit the nape of my neck. I angled my head to the side and saw the face of the man that was holding me.

I know him.

One side of me felt safe in his embrace, the other was confused at the foreign touch.

Everything spiraled into chaos after that. I felt scared. The team was taken down one by one. Pooh was taken first, and that took the sanity away from the team. One by one they were dragged in a room. Beta was forced to watch it all. He was in so much pain I couldn't bare to look at him.

Before he was dragged away, I heard him say, "Risa, you come back to your senses this instant. You saw what happened. Now what are you going to do? Save yourself. Wake up."

Wake up.

My eyes were wide as it started filling with tears. I choked on my words. I couldn't speak. I couldn't move. I just stared dumbly at him being dragged away after a blow to his head. His mask fell off.

No. Come back. I'm not part of them. I'm scared, don't leave me with him.

Somehow, I managed to break out of the man's hold. I ran to Beta. Pierce's face came into view and I instantly felt guilty for all those thoughts I had. Respect filled my chest, love, memories, and the sense that I was safe.

He jerked his body away from the guards and accepted me into his arms for one short moment. One short moment where I was able to let him know that I was sorry. That I was back. He held me into an embrace and kissed the top of my head in relief, as if to calm me and him down.

'Run." He whispered to me with his jaw tense, before he was separated from me and forcefully taken to a room. I yelled. I received a blow and I fell back.

The last thing I remembered was that it was my turn to fight. My turn to be tortured. The moment I was sane, I was forced to save myself. I was safer here when I was clueless and thought I was playing a game. I was all by myself now. The dream started fading away.

Suddenly, a voice spoke up. It was my voice. But I was no longer in first person. This Risa had a strong stance as she cracked her knuckles. I knew she couldn't take on all of them, but she didn't look like she was going to leave them unscathed either. She was furious. I have never seen myself so angry. She then said one word, as if a warning to me.

'Locket.'

And then she charged forward into the mass with her head held high.

▂▂▂▂▂

I woke up with a cold sweat. Panting, sweating, and heart racing, my head spun and my eyes ached. It took a moment before my body stopped in place, and I was only staring dazedly off into the darkness with one drop of tear down my face.

I immediately found my phone and dialed someone. My hands were shaking. I was tearing up and I couldn't recall why. The line made a sound on the other end as soon as the person picked up.

"Ergh.. hello?" came a raspy, bed-ridden voice, "...Risa?" he asked grudgingly, going silent as he processed what was going on.

I tried to compose myself. I was out of breath. "T-They took you— where are you?"

"Um, my apartment..."

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to—"

There was small shifting on the other side before he spoke up again. "You sound weird. What's going on?"

"You were hurt, and I didn't know what to do. I was—"

"Are you talking about my wound?" his voice came in, "it wasn't your fault, sunny. Don't tell me you were up all night thinking about that?"

"No, no." I shook my head in frustration, "We were being taken away. I was useless. It was all my fault. I'm so sorry, Pierce, I didn't mean it. I didn't want it to happen."

"'We?' Risa... are you hurt? Is someone there?"

"No, I— I'm in my... my room. No one's here."

"Did you just wake up?"

"I... yes I mean, I don't know."

There was silence again. "Don't tell me you had a bad dream?"

My chest contracted and I felt compressed. It was hard to breathe. I felt sick. Searching blindly in the dark, I realized that I was back in my room.

No longer in that bright-lit room. No longer surrounded by people I didn't know. No longer haunted by things that weren't true.

Pierce seemed to understand what was going on, even though he wasn't here. His voice brought me back to reality. I began breathing normally again. "You had a bad dream, didn't you? The other time I came into your room, you woke up pretty abnormally too. You don't seem the type to have nightmares. I guess I was wrong."

My hands stopped shaking. I glanced at the time and realized it was five in the morning. The room was still pitched-black. The sun hadn't woken up yet.

"Pierce, are you okay?" I heard myself ask shakily.

"I'm fine. Whatever happened in your dream, it's not real. You're safe. When I brought you back to your apartment, I made sure all the doors were locked. Wash your face a bit and try to go back to sleep. You had a long day yesterday, that might've caused your nightmare."

We exchanged a few more words. Him telling me to relax and fall back to sleep, me slowly realizing it was all just a dream. He began joking around and I had to snap at him a couple times, and we bickered lamely for a bit. But that made me calm down, and I finally found the courage to end the call and give myself some time to think about what had just happened.

Little did I know, the usual locket around my neck... was missing.

▂▂▂▂▂

School. I was currently in LA class. The class was doing a seminar and I hated seminars. I did enough to get my 100, and then I stopped participating. Cody wasn't in here so I couldn't talk to him about it.

This morning, I didn't tell him about the dream. I also didn't call back Pierce and check up on him in his apartment. I just drove to school and acted as if nothing had happened.

Thinking about it, I was ashamed. And then I was embarrassed that I had called that man when it wasn't anything serious. He probably thought I was a fucking weirdo.

I let out a loud groan and smashed my head into the desk, probably breaking a few bones. The class all heard it and they stopped talking as all heads snapped my way. I sensed Mr. Buht sashaying to my territory because I heard the vibrations through the desk.

I froze. Great, you fucking drama queen.

"Miss Kennedy."

I turned to face my instructor while my head was still stuck on the desk.

"You called?" I mumbled emotionlessly.

"What are you doing?"

"Dying. Thanks for asking."

"You're disrupting class."

"No shit Sherlock."

He tensed up and smacked his meter stick, which I don't know why he even had one in the first place because he was a LA teacher, against his palm.

"If you're trying to intimidate me than you're not doing very well," I sighed out as I glanced at the stick and dismissed it off, "that stick's shorter than what I've been hit with before."

"Who said I was going to hit you?"

"Who said you weren't? You're wasting class time, I won't make noise again, just continue with your boring seminar."

"Come after school for detention."

"Can't do," I arched my eyebrows as soon as I recalled something, "I have something to do this afternoon."

Mr. Buht let out a mocking laugh as he told the class to observe me as if I was crazy. "Would you like to go to the principal's office?"

"Yes," I said matter-of-factly, "But I won't because I have no purpose there. I made a mistake and I already stopped. So stop coming for my throat."

"Sir, can we just go back to our activity?" came a quiet girl at the front of the seminar, "We only have a few more minutes of class left. A lot of us haven't been to the inner circle yet."

"Yeah, tomorrow we have an assessment so we can't continue. A good half of the class hasn't even finished getting their grades," jutted in a boy with his arms crossed.

Without much room for argument, the man went back to his desk and allowed the seminar to continue for the rest of the class. Whether I had detention or not, it was unclear, but I was not going to show up, so he can be in detention by himself if he wanted.

I had originally planned to text Pierce and ask what time the interrogation was, but after last night, I think I gave up on that idea.

Sure, I could show up at the police station. Sure, I could skip class. Sure, I could make that old hog shut up for good.

But that was abusing my power. Venus hadn't shown up in a very long time. How would Pierce react when Venus showed up at the interrogation randomly? How did she know about the café incident? How did she know where he was? Where was she this whole time?

I didn't have the answers. And using it in school would expose my identity. I was trapped. I wanted to go out and do something, but I was powerless, even when I had authority.

I suddenly sat up straighter as I came up with another thought. Well, why don't I do what I do best as Venus? Hack. Hack into the police station and the cameras they had in the interrogation room. Find where it will be held.

Pierce had a laptop last night. Will he bring it today?

My heart jumped as I shook my head at the outrageous thought that I had. Then I looked at my fingers and saw myself doing it.

I saw myself hacking Pierce.

Suddenly, the lights flickered above and a blackout followed. My eyes narrowed as I picked my head up. The class cut-off dead silent, and Mr. Buht rose from his seat. The intercom blasted on.

❝Attention, the school is now in a hard lockdown. This is not a drill, we repeat, this is not a drill.❞

Everyone panicked. From down the hallways, you could hear glass breaking and the yells of a different class. While my instructor gathered everyone to the corner of the room, I grabbed my phone and slipped out of the classroom. I grabbed a few students I saw in the hallways and pushed them into my class before I locked the door.

Pitch-black. Yells. Footsteps. Glass breaking.

It took a while for my eyes to adjust to the dark, but my memory didn't fail me as I navigated carefully through the hallways and made my way to the control room. I needed to access the school's cameras. Who was here? What did they want?

And that's when I realized something as I made a turn around the corner and met eyes with a man dressed in black.

Another chase..?

A hand reached out for my throat and I tensed up. But since last night, I was mentally prepared for trouble. I cracked the arm holding me and jammed by elbow into his skull. The man recovered quickly and swung his leg. I kicked him backward to the ground swiftly with one thrust to the chest. His head hit the wall, and he knocked out, unconscious.

I calmly eyed his body and searched for something on his outfit. No crest, emblem, tattoo, object. Nothing. Nothing that could give me a clue.

I dragged his body into the control room with me before someone saw the suspicious scene and locked the door. Using my phone as a flashlight, I was able to locate the main computer and took a seat at the desk that was left unoccupied. I cracked the passcode in five minutes. The CCTV cameras were accessed in a few more minutes. The screens all around my flickered on. Each camera recorded a separate part of the school.

"But where do I start?" I mumbled to myself as I feverishly scanned every screen that I could. The lens were in night-mode. I could only make out green and black. Green were the walls and little objects sticking out. Black was the empty hallways.

I remembered hearing glass break. I searched for the hallway that was my class, and made my way from there. No one. There was no one. Just as I was about to try a different method, a figure from a screen to my right caught my attention. The blob of green was moving. Then figures of black came into view. I clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth in satisfaction as I directed my attention to the screen. There they were. The intruders.

I watched intensely as the green blob joined the black figures. Then there was no movement. I thought the screen had froze and I clicked away on the main computer, but I soon realized they were talking.

And then the green blob backed away.

I narrowed my eyes as the black figures charged at the lone figure. And when a light shone on the familiar metallic pendant that hung around the green figure's neck, I shot up and stared at the screen in disbelief.

I had given Cody that same pendant for his birthday.

"What the fuck is he—" I started, hands on my hips, "Why the fuck is he— what?"

I almost reached for my phone until I realized that that wouldn't do him any good if he really was fighting the intruders. Breathing out a heavy and deep sigh, I stared concernedly at the screens and observed the screen intensely.

"Can he handle it?" I talked to myself as I watched my best friend take on six figures, "He can, can't he? He's able, right? I don't need to step in? Will it be too late if I do? God dammit, I hate my job."

Just then, I heard a voice speak up and I instantly spun around with my fist ready. My fist was blocked. My eyes widened as I took in the figure of a man I hadn't seen in a while.

"Casey, how did you get in here?" I asked, highly suspicious. I shifted my body and blocked the computer from his view. From the looks of it, it seemed like he just came in here.

"Chill," he put his hands up," I slipped in when you were having that monologue to yourself. I was in the bathroom when the lights shut off."

"Too much information, blondie." I raised my eyebrows. My eyes glanced over the body to the side and I tensed up as Casey glanced over as well.

He seemed amused. "Did you do this?"

I shook my head. "He fainted when I entered."

"Is that so?" Casey glanced at the screens behind me and his eyes lit up with interest, "Damn, what's going on here?"

I shifted when he took a step closer. "I'm trying to see what's going on. Who the intruders were. That man already had it set up before I came in."

"That figure there seems to be doing really well," Casey commented as he studied the screen, "He seems like a student. I hope he's safe. It'll be over soon."

"Soon?" I asked with a frown, "How do you know? You said you were in the bathroom."

"I was," Casey sighed, "They came in the bathroom to discuss. Seems like they couldn't find what they were looking for. They all decided to evacuate before the lights came back on. I think the only ones left are the ones that the student is fighting."

I looked back at the screen and my eyes wavered as Cody was no where to be seen, as well as the black figures. Casey stepped forward and I hesitantly stepped to the side as he went straight to the main computer and started rapidly typing and clicking.

"What are you doing?"

"Saving the recording at the time frame the intruders came in so that we have evidence. Maybe with a little image tweaking and filtering we can find something valuable about them."

I eyed the man weirdly before he finished and straightened up. "There, I saved it. You can do whatever you want with it now, I trust you. Also, the lights should be coming back on in a few minutes since I redirected the back-up circuits. I'm going to head back out and slip into a classroom so that Kenya doesn't realize I was in the bathroom."

I had forgotten he and Kenya were friends. I let myself ease up a bit as the boy waved with a side-smile and said, "Sorry if I scared you. I really just wanted a hand at the control room for the footage since I heard the discussion in the bathroom."

"Don't mention it," I replied, still unclear on how I should act.

"Also, handle the body better, will you?" Casey suddenly lectured as he motioned his head towards the disfigured body I took out, "He looks like you mobbed him. Arrange his arms and make him look like he slept or something."

I scoffed and my arms folded across my chest, "Why don't you?" I tried.

"Gladly," he arched his brows with a smirk as he bent down and arranged the man's arms. When he backed away, I ended up failing at holding back a laugh as the man in black resembled the sleeping beauty posture.

"Unbelievable." I shook my head at him with a soft smile.

"See you around, Risa." He gave me a small wink before leaving, and he closed the door behind him.

I broke from my trance and found it odd that I was smiling so much. I don't usually smile. Not even around Cody. Not even around the fake friends that were Serena, Vanessa, and Jeremy.

But him. Something about him made me feel open.

I began sitting down again as I took a glance at sleeping beauty and shook my head. I went back at working on the footage. Once I got the files sent to myself, I quickly logged off and erased all traces of me from that room. The lights to the entire school came back on around this time. I decided to let the man in black lay there until law enforcements came.

With one hand on the door knob, I turned it quietly with a swift twist before attempting to leave. And I say 'attempt,' because I soon realized something strange when I peered down at the knob. My face darkened.

The control room was locked.

▂▂▂▂▂

Pooh: :D

Code decrypting....

Standby....

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