Louis George. The son of one of the greatest scientists in the Central, and his personal spy to sniff out the Abstruse.

Louis. Who we considered our friend. And who lured Astha to the truth trail building and hit her head with a rock.

The plan was to make all of us weak and extract Astha's truth from us, or make her reveal it. But when Astha had fought back and threatened to expose him in front of us, he did the only thing he thought would save him - he attacked her, and then ran away.

What he was doing however was illegal. So he was being interrogated with the serum.

But I was worried about him being interrogated. Because no one really knew how much he had found out, and under influence of the Pentothal, all of our secrets could be in danger.

As we are speaking, I notice Astha's eyelids flutter, and we quickly form a cover around her to shield her movements from everyone around.

Astha's eyes open in a panic, and she frantically looks around her. When she sees it is us, she relaxes for a second, then seems to remember something.

"Bugs!! Louis had planted bugged our dorm.. Nebula, our secrets - he has them!!"

My mind begins to spin, and collecting myself I ask her, "What- where? Astha?? Astha?!!! Astha!!"

I whisper frantically in her ears as I try to wake her up, and suddenly Jay realises something and he pinches the painkiller and sedative drip's tube she is on.

After a couple of minutes she wakes up again, and manages to tell us that he told her in a fit of anger that he had audiotapes of our conversations somewhere in his dorm.

We all look at each other as Astha drifts away again -

It is now or never.

This is the one chance we get to save our secrets.

Kalani and LC agree to stand guard for Astha while Jay and I try to find the audioclips.

We manage to sneak away towards the boys dorm, which is completely deserted. Just as we are about to reach, Mike spots us,and starts asking questions that start getting too heated for comfort.

"Mike. Look, this is our business. Stay OUT of it." I say, looking him square in the eye.

"And... If I don't??" he asks in an extremely obnoxious tone.

Suddenly, Jay grabs him by his collar and slams him into the wall.

"Listen. Mike. You mind your own business, we mind our own. Otherwise, I know some things about you that I wouldn't mind opening my mouth about too.", he says.

Mike shoots us both a glare, and starts to walk away, and I shout after him,
"If you open your mouth infront of Cherry or Bella, I will tell the whole class and document on the Alumni room that you are cheating on Cherry. With Bella."

Mike freezes in his place for a moment, clasps his hands, then unclasps them and walks away without looking back.

Jay and I rush into the dorm and start searching Louis' bed, belongings, phone and laptop for any sign of suspicious material and audiotapes.

After frantically searching for some time, we come across a file named Honour, and when we try to open it, we find it to be password protected.

We try typing his birthdate in, but it doesn't work, and we are afraid of setting off an alarm due to too many tries.

Then, Jay leans over me and types one simple word into the password box -

Abstruse

And the file opens.

Inside we find recordings on recordings of conversations with Jay, Astha, my mother, Astha's family, Kalani, LC, and so many other conversations that could ruin and probably even take our lives.

For a minute, we just stare at the screen, then Jay finds an extra chip in his possession on which we copy all the data, erasing everything on Louis' laptop. After double checking for any backups and safety protocols, we wipe off our fingerprints from his computer and keeping it at its original place, turn to go back to the hospital.

Standing in the entrance of the dorm and blocking our path is Ms. Catherine Lodge.

Her eyes glare daggers at us, and her mouth is twisted in a cruel smile.

"Caught you" she says, and then waves her hand, motioning two boys and two girls inside.

"I want them alive"

Is the only thing she says as she walks away.

And I know she has gone to call the authorities. Luckily, she hasn't noticed the chip in Jay's hand.

The initiates CHARGE at us, and my survival instinct kicks in. Jay is bloody good at hand to hand combat, so I am not really worried about him, and I know he isn't worried about me.

We can both hold our own. What I am worried about is them noticing the chip and making away with it.

That would mark our ultimate doom.

I shift myself so that my back is against the wall, giving them one less direction to attack me from. The two girls sprint towards me, and one of them has a small but sharp knife raised in attack.

I bend down, dodging the blow of the knife, and then stand back up and grab her wrist.

With my free hand, I smack the other girl's face, giving me a moment to twist the other girl's wrist and make her drop the knife. I grab it under my shoe and kick it as far as I can to the other side of the room.

Just then the first girl recovers and throws a punch to my ribs. I stagger back as the other grabs me from behind.

I headbutt her as hard as I can and kick the one infront of me in the shins.

Then I duck and try to get away, but one of them drags me back by my leg.
I manage to twist around and send a hard kick to her face and then regain my balance and elbow her hard in her ribs and neck.

I spot the other girl charging at me with a glass flower pot, and viciously shoving the first girl aside, I dive low and sweep out the girl's legs from under her. She falls quick,and I manage to reach the pepper spray in my purse,which I had thrown near Louis' bed.

I unscrew it and spray both the girls, who are screaming in agony. No kidding, it does hurt like hell.

I turn my attention back to Jay, and to my horror, I notice that he is dodging the two guys as they try to pry the chip away from him.

Jay notices that I am free and throws me the chip, and after a heart-stopping moment, I manage to catch it mid-air.

As the guys try to charge towards me, he expertly holds them back, and I use the oldest trick in the book to destroy evidence -

I put the chip under my grunge boot and crush it as hard as I can, and the spray the remaining powder generously with the pepper spray.

Then I toss the can to Jay, who finally manages to beat both guys, as they clutch their faces and howl in pain.

We turn around to leave, but this time our escape is cut short by the authorities, and some of our teachers, who have no doubt been called by Crazy Lodge.

I know we are going to have hell to pay, but I don't care about that. What matters is that we managed to destroy the chip.

No proof No crime.

And the furious look on Crazy Lodge's face proves that.

As we are being led away, Lodge does the one thing remaining that could possibly jeopardize our lives again. Leaning towards Christian, the Central monster, ahe says, "We ought to call their parents."

As we look at her in horror, she flashes me a cruel grin, noticed by none except me, and then continues on her way.

My eyes frantically search for Mr. Hector, who catches my eyes and gives a firm nod, encouraging me to be brave.

As we reach the training building, we are told we are going to be separated and interrogated, and Jay's hand finds mine and we squeeze tight.

When we let go and start walking away, we look back and lock eyes with each other, both saying the same thing -

The prisoners dillema-

Will we be able to pull it off?