Destruction is heard out side a college lecture theatre; gun shots and screaming. The lock down bells begin to go off and everyone relocates to underneath their decks well all except one. Rose stands up and walks towards the chaos "what are you doin...
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"What?" I ask. She's frozen, her face stuck in a shocked impression. Rose disappeared for weeks with no explanation, we thought she was dead. We planned a funeral!
The safe house we were staying with got raided completely distorted and set in flames turned to dust. Nothing left except ash. "Rose! What's going on!? You disappeared and now? Now you're just back, completely fine and I have no idea what's going on!!" "Ace." She says, so quietly I nearly don't hear it. "Did he take you again!? He's the one who trashed the house?? Just to get you?" I glide a hand through my hair. This man is a psycho.
"Cameron. He saved me. Ace saved me." "Rose what are you talking about?" "The house. It- it was getting bombed or something, Ryle got shot and I was defenceless. He saved me, and Eden. She was there." "Who's Eden?" "He did it. He set the house on fire." "Eden?" "No! Nonononono. Eden is so kind she helped me. Ace. He saved me from the attack, but then he set the house on fire."
"That makes no sense, why would he set it on fire." "You have to trust me ok? It was him. Where's Tobias? TOBIAS!!!!" She screams into the house and starts looking around as if she didn't just show up out of the blue 20 minutes ago.
"You're- You're alive????" Tobias says as he makes his way down the stairs and pulls her into a tight hug, placing a kiss on her cheek. "The footage. Security footage. Do we have it?" "Woah woah woah! Slow down sweetheart, we thought you were dead and now you just show up with out an explanation??"
"Listen to me Tobias. We don't know how long until he comes for me, I need the footage. From the safe house right before the attack. Please." "Ok ok, I'll see what I can find. Sit down, relax for 5 minutes please. I don't know what you've just come from but believe me when I say you need a break from it."
Rose nods, heading towards the lounge room as Toby goes upstairs to retrieve his work laptop.
"Rose." She turns her head towards me. "What happened?" She starts fidgeting with her hands and looking down, something she does when she's unsure or shy and I know she's definitely not shy around me. "Rose." I place my hand beneath her chin and pull her face up too look at me. "What happened." I ask again, more soft this time.
Suddenly she sprouts into my lap wrapping herself around me in a hug. Tobias joins us in the lounge room, typing on his laptop, minding his own business. I missed you. She whispers
"Got it." He says. Rose turns to face him still in my lap by now her legs are draped over the side as she focuses on his laptop. An image of several black cars filing through the front gate show up on the screen, he taps a button and it switches to the front of the safe house and we see the black cars yet again.
An explosion goes off on one end of the house and heaps of people with guns file out of the cars and into the house through their make-shift entrance.
"Is that him?" Toby asks, referring to the many people with guns. Rose shakes her head. He taps the key board again and this time we are looking at the kitchen (minus a bit of wall) where all the people pass through, going their seperate ways, explosives can be heard although I'm not sure where from.
"Wait." Rose bursts. Tobias pauses the clip, Rose points to the hole in the wall, he zooms in on it. There he is. Ace. Standing with his hands on his hips, admiring his work.
"It was a set up." She basically whispers "How did you know that Rose?" Toby questions "Fire." She stops expecting us to know what she means. "It's his mark. He sets things on fire. Houses, even people. It was a message to you. He was telling you that he was there." She shakes her head.
"I can't believe I fell for that. AGAIN." She hugs me again, silently sobbing into my shoulder. I rub her back comforting her. "And the worst part!" She sits up again revealing her face. "I thought it was real. I thought he cared about me!" She throws her hands in the air getting up and leaving the room.
She makes her way into the kitchen and opens the fridge. She takes out some juice and just sips it straight from the bottle.
"I need a phone." I pull mine out of my pocket and hand it too her. She dials a number and we wait for what feels like forever.
