The Assassin and the Spy

-14-

Emma

I woke up this morning hearing the steady muffled beeps of a heart-rate monitor connected to me.

It took me a moment to fully register where I was, but then it finally clicked:

The Anderson's Hospital.

Mr. Anderson must have taken me here after I had that huge blowout with Jake.

It was supposed to be just a calm talk, telling him that I was done.

How did it turn into me strapped onto a bunch of monitors and Jake being locked away in a conformant chamber?

No one gets sent there.

The older kids used to tell us younger kids a few years ago that, once every month, at night, someone on the inside unlocks the conformant rooms and sometimes they take their revenge on those who got them locked up.

That's why Ezekiel Leonard hasn't been seen in over a year.

Mr. Anderson told us that he went undercover, but the older kids said that he became one of the kids on the milk box cartons.

But if the older kid's stories were true, then the solitary conformant doors might be unlocking tomorrow.

And Jake had it out for two very specific people.

Me.

And.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Noah

Mr. Anderson quickly brought Emma to the doctors, and Michael brought Jake to the solitary conformant chambers even quicker.

Kitty went with Mr. Anderson to the doctors, so I just went to Courtney's room.

And not to my surprise, Gwen was there with her, along with Izzy and Eva.

For some reason, they were all sitting in the dark positioned in their chairs to be in some sort of semicircle style with Courtney and Gwen in the middle and Eva and Izzy on their opposite sides.

Courtney flicked on the lights revealing their faces to be more clearer now.

"So..." She started to say.

"So...?" I mimicked.

"Where were you?" Courtney asked.

"In Emma's room," I said.

"Ooo," Izzy and Gwen chorused.

"Not like that you weirdos. Her shitty ex boyfriend beat her up and Kitty needed someone to make sure everything was ok," I rolled my eyes at them, putting my hand on my hip.

"Mhm," Courtney stared at me.

"What happened to Emma's shitty ex?" Izzy asked.

"None of your business, nutso," I responded.

"I can and will destroy all of your books if you don't tell me what happened," Izzy threatened with the sweetest smile ever.