Scarly's pov:

I checked the time on my watch for what seemed like the thousandth time in the past 2 hours and sighed heavily. It would probably be another hour or so before we reached the town, and I was getting more and more impatient by the second. An eerie silence filled the whole carriage as everyone kept to themselves. Florence and Zach were asleep with her head on his shoulder and his head on top of her head. Arsen and Andy were both on their phones, possibly reading stories, and Aura was lost in her thoughts, as usual.

I couldn't blame her though, with everything that's been going on, we've all been a little caught up in our own minds. Just a few months ago, none of us could have even imagined anything like this happening, and our biggest problems were 5 tests in a week, back to back. Now we were running away from people who had hunted down our families, kidnapped them and held them hostages for days, and burning up shady crime scenes and getting paid for it. As soon as I thought of what we had done earlier today, a shiver ran down my spine. I thought back to two days ago, when we took the job, the gruesomeness of it, unknown to us.

*flashback*

"Are you sure about this?" Arsen asked,anxiously.

"No of course I'm not, we're in an abandoned glass building which looks like the whole thing would shatter at any moment." muttered Andy.

" Guys we don't have many options right now so this is our best hope." Aura told us.

"Uh correction, this is our ONLY hope." I said, " without this, we have no money, no food and nowhere to go, so in short, without this, we're dead one way or another."

"Well yea but can't we do something legal and less shady?" asked Zach while cautiously looking around the rooms we were walking through.

"Who do you think would pay us enough to last even a week if we were doing something legal?" Aura retorted," and plus, we don't even know what we have to do. Calm down."

"A person who chooses a place like this to meet up CANNOT give us a sane job to do."

"It's not that bad you know, I mean it's made of glass, you can see the outside and all. It could be much worse, we could have to meet him in a dark barely visible basement, or an abandoned construction site or even in a forest!" Flo replied, obviously trying to reassure Zach and I'm pretty sure she was also kind of wishing we WERE meeting him in a creepier place. That girl is impossible at times.

"Okay it's not just a glass building that has a nice view and is just windows instead of walls, it's a glass building that no one has been to for almost a year. It's a glass building that has cracks everywhere and we're still walking through it. It's a glass building that looks like it could collapse right now on top of us, shower us with shards of glass and rip us to pieces all in under 10 seconds. Do you wanna experience a rainfall with pointy shards of glass that are sharper than knives?!" exclaimed Zach, visibly distressed.

"Look we'll meet the guy, take the job and walk out of here as soon as possible okay? The building won't collapse on us you idiot." Aura reassured him, kind of.

"Not like it would either way." mumbled Arsen, rolling his eyes slightly.

I just shook my head and picked a faster pace. Even though I didn't think the building would collapse on us, I did wanna get out of here as soon as possible.

We were soon standing in a large circular room filled with armed guards encircling the whole room. In the middle was a small rickety and old wooden desk that tipped over to one side due to missing a chunk on the left side. It looked like it had been disposed of long ago and had sat out in the rain for a long long time, to the point where most of the outer layer had chipped away.

Behind the desk sat a tall, sharp looking man who appeared to be in his mid-forties or so. He had sharp, distinctive features and a cat-like set of green eyes. He looked well groomed and ready to steal your homes and all the property you own with fake deals and a charming smile at any given moment. In short he looked like what I imagined all successful businessmen looked like. The kind to whom money and power came above all else and who would be ready to even commit mass murder just to get what they want.

He was leaning back in his black leather chair, his fingers pressed together under his chin, a hard, curious look on his face. He had been studying us for the past 5 minutes and the silence was deafening. Finally he let out a deep breath and leaned forward, resting his hands on the table and immediately grimacing, probably due to the fact that the table was absolutely drenched.

"Welcome gentlemen and ladies. You are 10 minutes late for our timed meeting." He says, scrunching his nose up almost as if disgusted.

"This building was a little hard to find with it being almost transparent and all....." Andy replied in a slight mocking tone.

I watched as the man's face just hardened as he clenched his jaw tightly. It was safe to say that this man had no sense of humor whatsoever.

"You will not talk to me like that and you will be on time. ALWAYS. Understood?" he said in a stern voice, "I do not tolerate 3 things; disrespect, poor time management and half done works. Now, let's get down to business. "

"What's the work?" Aura asked him in a monotone voice.

"It's not much, you just have to burn down an old bookshop and the flat above it."

"Excuse me? You want us to commit arson on a residence?"

"Oh relax, no one lives there anymore."

"So we just go and set fire to a building and that's it? You'll pay us for it?"

"Precisely."

"How much? How much will you pay us for it?"

"You'll receive 500 dollars before and 500 after finishing the job."

"Why don't you get one of your goons to do it? Why us?"

"That you don't need to know. I am not obligated to answer you."

"Why do you need us to burn it down? It's just an old bookshop right? How is that a threat to you?"

"What makes you think it's a threat to me?"

"Why else would you pay us so much to set fire to an old building where no one even lives anymore."

"That is none of your business. You just have to do your job."

"How can we take a job like this without having all the information and details?"

"Quiet. You either take the job and shut up or leave." He says, almost challenging us to leave.

I smirk. Boy he doesn't know us. We glanced at each other and began to leave.

"Wow we're daring idiots aren't we?" he asked us in a teasing voice.

We just walked away without looking back.

"Are we seriously gonna walk away from all that money? Are we insane or what?"

"Calm down. He's desperate. He won't let us leave the building. If I'm correct,one of his goons will be sent to fetch us in 7...6....5....4.....3....2....1.....boom."

Just then ,we heard footsteps behind us.

"Wait. Boss wishes to re-negotiate some rules with you." A guard says,in a pained voice.

"Told ya."

We follow the guy back to the room.

"See? It's a threat to you. You're willing to compromise your own egotistical values to get the job done."

"I will not tolerate this behaviour. I may be willing to compromise, but I am also willing to take your lives right here and no one would ever know. Who would? Your families aren't there are they? They were kidnapped by a gang." he said with a smirk, "That's right, I know all about you guys and Ialso know that you are just as desperate." he continued when he saw us stiffen upon hearing the mention of our families.

"How do you know that?" Arsen growls out.

"I have my ways and I can help you. Maybe not to find your families, but I CAN make sure you don't get killed before you find them."

"How?"

"I'm powerful. I have my ways. Now let's talk business. You wish to know why I want to burn down the place and why I chose you guys. So be it but I must warn you, if one word about this gets out , I WILL find you and hunt you down."

"Like I was saying, I chose you guys because you need the money as much as I need to burn that place down and therefore you need me to survive."

" Correction- You need us."

"Perhaps."

I smirked at his reply, damn he's extremely desperate isn't he.

"And about why I wish to burn that shop down, it's because I want to destroy evidence. That's all you need to know for now."

" What evidence?"

He studies us for a couple of minutes,debating whether or not to tell us. Finally he sighs and gives in.

"As I mentioned before, one of my previous teams, they were sent there on a mission, which they failed miserably and I need you to cover that up."

I considered asking what they had done, but decided against it. We were already wearing thin on his patience and I feared if we pushed too far, it would end badly for us. And even though we didn't want to admit it, we DID need him. Or at least his money and protection?

"So when do we do this?"

"Day after tomorrow. You will find the needed equipment in the small broken down truck in front of the shop."

"How will we get there though?"

"I have already purchased train tickets for you to the nearest town and you will walk the rest of the way to the shop. After you're done, one of my men will pick you up from there."

"On one condition. Everything must be sanitized and bleached."

"Will do"

"So,that's all?"

"Indeed"

Aura nodded and Andy took the tickets from him.

"Good luck and do not mess up, and here's the number you can call if something goes out of plan."

" Alright."

With that we walked out the room and made our way back to the forest clearing where we'd been hiding ever since our families got kidnapped.

*fast forward to the day we were supposed to complete the job*

"Something about this still doesn't add up. What could they have possibly done that would make him so desperate to burn the WHOLE place down?"

"Well I guess we'll figure it out once we get there."

We were right now on our way to the bookshop.

"That's the place right?" Aura asked as we rounded a corner.

"Yea."

In front of us was a deserted road with only one truck in front of the shop. As we approached the shop, I could see that it was an old two-storied building. The first floor probably used to be a bookshop. It was completely tarnished down with bookshelves tipped over and books strewn all over the place. Shards from broken windows littered the place and there was only one dimly lit lamp overhead that swung from side to side with the light breeze.

As we crossed the lawn, I picked up my pace and entered the bookshop, and immediately froze in place. There was dry blood everywhere which I did not see before. My eyes scanned the room to find the source and I sucked in a deep breath when I found it. There was a small crumpled body thrown against one of the corners. I immediately stepped out and shut the door.

I asked Andy for the number we were supposed to call if things went wrong and harshly dialed the numbers on my phone and walked away telling them to not go inside.

The phone call was chaotic to say the least. There was a lot of yelling, most of it on my part until he snapped and told me to finish the job as quick as possible. There was no way we could back out now and I knew that too. I cut the call and walked back to the rest of the group.

I saw them all standing there with puzzled looks on their faces and I was honestly shocked to see that they had listened to them.

I explained to them what I saw and briefed them about my phone call with Flinch (the man who had given us the job).

Basically, the team before us who had come here to do a mission had committed murder and we were supposed to cover that up. They had gathered information that the people who owned this place had some kind of ability to produce antibodies and were immune to the virus. So Mr.Finch had sent them to obtain bone marrow from them which would help him make the cure artificially. He owned a pharmaceutical company which is why it was so important to him. However the information his team had collected was wrong and the family living here couldn't help them. When they refused to accept that, they pushed too far and extracted the bone marrow regardless and somehow ended up killing all of them.

By the time I finished telling them about this they looked just as shaken up as I felt.

"So what now?"

"What now? We can't do this! This is inhuman! We CANNOT do this job."

"We have no option."

"No we do-"

"He's right, we don't have an option. We came here to do a job and we're gonna do it. We cannot back out now."

"Let' s just get this done as fast as possible and not think too much about it."

*end of flashback*

I snapped back to reality as the train screeched to a halt. We had arrived, finally.

We all got out of the train to be met by Axel, who had come to pick us up.

Aura rushed to hug him and we all gave him a polite smile. He hung out with us quite often but we weren't that well acquainted.

"Where are your stuff?" he asked us with a puzzled look on his face.

"The people were back. We couldn't get to our houses."

He just nodded in understanding and motioned for us to follow him. 

Okayyy chapter 12 is finally up and it's a day late but ehh it's long so ig that makes up for it?

what did you think of this chapter? please let us know and constructive criticism is always appreciated. 

thank youuuuu for reading and i'll keep this short since i'm literally in the middle of class right now. 

Stay safe and have a gud day/night. 

-OZ