VICIOUS

4.

Carefully, I lay the girl in the backseat. There's no need to hurt her yet. I sit down in the driver's seat. Both doors are open, Matthew and Thomas can jump in anytime now. I rest my forehead on the steering wheel. I just kidnapped a girl and let a whole class of 14 and 15-year-old's die. Damn.

I look up at the sound of people shouting. I turn my head to the side and narrow my eyes at the two guys who are running my way. 

Thomas and Matthew. 

''Start the car!''

Thomas jumps in next to me and Matthew jumps in the backseat. They shut the doors and we drive away like crazy people. We can't take the risk of people coming after us. 

We did it. 

We fucking did it. 

Happy and relieved. That's what we are. But this is just the beginning. 

An hour later, I stop the car in front of a small house made of wood. It looks like a normal cabin where people would spend their time with friends or family. But this one is special. There's nothing in the house, except for an elevator. An elevator that leads to our place. 

I get out of the car and shut my door. Thomas and Matthew are helping each other to get Rose out of the car. She's still passed out. 

''Jesus, what did you give to her?'' Thomas asks while examining her face. ''She's been out for more than an hour now.'' We walk into the small house. Thomas carries her.

''First of all, Jesus didn't give her anything,'' I say. Matthew enters the code for the elevator. ''Second, I gave her chloroform.'' Thomas doesn't seem happy with my answer. 

''You gave her chloroform?'' He asks me. I nod. 

''I thought you were gonna give her something light,'' he says. I frown. 

''Chloroform isn't that bad,'' I say. We step into the elevator and I push the button for the correct floor. ''I needed to make sure she would be passed out the whole car ride. If she starts asking questions it'll annoy me and she can't know the way to get to this place.'' 

We walk out and end up in a black and white hallway. Most of the walls are just white with a few doors in between. We stop at the third door. I take out the keys and unlock the door.

''Where are we?'' Matthew asks. He looks confused. Understandable, since they've never been at this place or this floor. 

''My apartment,'' I answer and I push the door open. 

Most of the furniture is black with a hint of gold. The design is modern and classy. It looks rich. We put almost all of our stolen money into these apartments and shops. We had no other choice. We had to rebuild this gang. The fact that I've been through all that, says a lot about my strengths and weaknesses. Nothing can hurt or break me. 

''You can lay her down in my bedroom, follow me,'' I say to Thomas. ''When she wakes up, I will have a nice little talk with her.'' 

He walks behind me, Rose in his arms. I open the door to my bedroom and we walk in. It feels good to be home again. I got this apartment about 3 years ago, when we went underground. I was 18.

I turn around and make my way into the kitchen. A bottle of vodka stands on the counter and I grab it. I deserve it. And a little bit of vodka isn't that bad, anyway.

Thomas walks in.

''She's in your bed,'' he says. ''Still passed out. You have a nice bedroom, by the way.'' 

Weird compliment. Especially from him. He never gives people compliments, at least not to me. 

''Uhm, thanks, I guess?'' I bring out. He sighs and I can see him think. To distract myself, I take out a glass and pour the vodka in. When I'm about to take the shot, he starts talking. 

''You have a picture of him,'' He says. ''An old photograph.''

I freeze. I know exactly who and what he's talking about. 

''And to be honest, it doesn't seem like something you would do,'' He continues. ''I get it, you loved him and all that kind of bullshit. But Jesus, Taylor. He died. He was shot right in front of us. You've seen it, I've seen it, everybody has seen it. Get over him, for fucks sake.'' 

I don't know why he's getting so upset about this, but I need him to shut up. I turn his way and kick him in his crotch and he finally stops talking. Instead, he just groans. 

''What'd you do that for?'' He grunts in pain. 

''You had to shut up,'' I say. ''And you need to stay out of my business. What I do in and with this apartment, is my business. If I want to place a photograph of him in my bedroom, then I do that. But just because you don't like it because you're jealous or something, does not mean you have to bring up his death. Understood?''

He nods. 

I'm so fucking mad at him now. For almost two years, I have been able to let my brain block that one horrible moment. And Thomas brings it up like it's nothing. Maybe for him, but not for me.  

This was all about Ben, my old boyfriend. Cheesy, I know. But for some reason he liked me. And I liked him. We were a pretty good team, working together, etcetera. But then Oblivion took him with them. And on camera, they shot him. I can still hear him shouting for help in that video. 

Why Oblivion did that is not a riddle to me. They have their reasons to hate us and we have our own reasons to hate them. We both did heartless things in the past.

I don't want to talk about this right now. Especially not to strangers, like you.