Someone was screaming, and I was blinded by a deep shade of crimson red. I could feel one blow after another knocking the breath out of my lungs, my stomach muscles constricting and a bile rising in my sore throat. I couldn't make it stop. The screaming continued, and cold fingers wrapped around my upper arms and shook me in my place. The pain wouldn't stop. A quivering palm caressed my cheek, and a faint voice repeatedly calling out for me began to become clearer by each call.

A sharp intake of breath had me shooting up from my seat, my eyes searched my dark surrounding frantically as I backed away from the figure hovering over me.

"Nora! It's just me!" A female voice yelled. I reached out to my bedside table with trembling fingers and switched on the lamp. The bright orange light illuminated my bedroom, and I found that the figure standing over me belonged to Ariel. She was staring down at me with glassy eyes, her hands clutched at her chest, and her lower lip trembling in fear.

I sighed and pushed back the hair strands glued to my sweating forehead, fighting against my ragged breathing to regain composure. "I'm sorry," I apologized to Ariel. "Did I wake you up?"

She shook her head, her long strawberry-blonde locks bouncing over her stiff shoulders. "I couldn't sleep." I scooted over on my bed, offering a place for her to sit down beside me. She crawled over to my side and sat with her back straight against the bed-frame. "I thought you stopped having those dreams."

I gulped down a lump in my throat, trying to compose myself to avoid having another breakdown. Waking up from my disturbing dreams always left me feeling so relieved for it being just a fragment of my imagination, that I'd instantly break down in tears of joy.

"I did," I replied to her statement.

Ariel glanced at me but I avoided her eyes, knowing well enough that they must be filled with her own concerned tears. She always told me that it pained her to see me like this, and I hated having her see me so.

"When did they start again?"

I closed my eyes, inhaling sharply. That's the thing, they didn't. Tonight was the first night in years that I'd had to go back to those incessant memories.

"Just tonight," I answered. Ariel nodded slowly, her eyes moving to her fiddling thumbs set on her lap. It was only then that I noticed she was in a pair of new jeans and a white blouse. "Why are you wearing that?"

Her eyes shot to me in confusion, and then moved to inspect her outfit. "Oh!" She exclaimed, shifting over to the edge of the bed and standing up. "I almost forgot. I came to wake you up, we need to get ready. Noah is on his way."

I frowned at her words, my brain still half-asleep and unable to come up with any reason as to why Noah would be coming over at this time. I glanced at my bedside table to check the clock. "But it's 6:47."

Ariel nodded, "and our flight's at nine, we need to be there on time for check-in."

Flight. Last night's memories suddenly came crashing through and my blood instantly ran cold. Ariel's eyes trailed over my bedroom, and her eyebrows narrowed in confusion. She strode over to my closet and yanked the doors open. I groaned, sliding down on my bed-frame and lying flat on my bed, while reaching out for the sides of my pillow and folding them in to cover my ears.

Still, I could hear her sharp gasp as she swirled on her heels and stared at me with wide enraged eyes. "Oh my God!" She exclaimed. I groaned in disapproval at her tone.

She rushed towards my bed and fell down to her knees, reaching out under my bed and shuffling among the mess. I rolled over to my side at the same moment that she backed away and pulled out my black suitcase.

"Are you out of your mind?! Noah is going to kill us. We have no time to waste, he'll be here any second! Why do you always have to leave everything for last minute?!" She freaked on as she unzipped the suitcase and got back to her feet, moving over to my full closet.

"Ariel, stop." I demanded, but she couldn't hear me over her mumbling. "Ariel!" I exclaimed. This time, she halted in her tracks and spun to face me, her eyebrows raised.

"What?! Care to help? I can't pack everything on my own." She turned around again and yanked out a handful of my clothes, shoving them into the suitcase with the hangers still on.

"I'm not going."

Her arm instantly stopped moving. She froze in the middle of her action and snapped her head up to stare at me with horror-filled eyes. "What?"

"I'm not leaving, Ariel. I've decided on it." I shrugged nonchalantly.

Her hand came up to rest on her chest, as if she was feeling for her heartbeat. "You're messing with me, right?"

I shook my head, sitting up from my position on the bed. "I'm serious. I'm not leaving again."

She gasped and rushed over to me, her hands reaching out to place themselves on my shoulders. "What are you talking about?! Of course you're leaving. We're all leaving!"

I shook my head defiantly. "Ariel, listen." I grabbed her shoulders and guided her to sit down on the bed beside me. "You guys are leaving, and I support that a hundred percent. You need the protection Xavier will provide, but I don't; I can take care of anything - if anything were to happen - on my own. But I need to stay. There's so much for me here that I can't leave behind. I just can't go," I tried to explain to her, though I doubted she would understand me given she continued shaking her head defiantly throughout my entire speech.

"You need his protection just as much as we do, Nora! You heard Elliot, these men aren't like anything we've faced before." She argued, but I shook my head. "And what makes you so different from us, huh?!" She exclaimed. "Why do you think we need the protection while you don't?"

I rolled my eyes as I tried to reason, "their eyes are set on Xavier; he's the target. Once they find out he left to go back to Indiana they'll follow him along, and there'll be no more dangers roaming around here."

She jumped up from her seat, her eyes narrowed into a dangerous glare. "If you're not leaving, neither am I."

I rolled my eyes. "Please, Ariel. This isn't the time for childish play."

"I'm not leaving without you!"

I scowled at her stubbornness.

The doorbell suddenly rang and echoed its way to my bedroom. Ariel's eyes widened in fear, "oh, God. He's going to kill us."

I rolled my eyes once more. "Don't be ridiculous. Open the door, I'm not facing him."

Ariel snorted, "are you kidding me? You want me to deliver the news so my life would be at stake?!"

The bell rung again. "Go get it!" I insisted. She groaned loudly but complied, walking away towards the front door. I took the chance to compose myself a little, knowing for sure I looked like a huge mess after my sleep. I undid my hair from it's messy bun and pulled the loose strands away from my face, then rolled my hair on top of my head into a neater bun.

My bedroom door was suddenly burst open so violently that I heard the door hinges creak in objection. My eyes fell on a fuming Noah, his eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "What do you think you're doing?"

I got up from my seat on my bed, and walked over to where he stood. "It's as simple as it sounds, Noah."

A deep growl rumbled in his chest, and his jaw ticked in fury. "Get ready, right now. We're leaving."

I puckered my lips. "You're leaving. I'm not." I emphasized each word clearly, tired of repeating myself over and over again since last night.

Noah took a step forward, stopping a mere foot away and hovering over my figure in an effort to intimidate me, and he glared down at me with barely-contained rage. "I'm not going to repeat myself, Nora. Get. Ready."

I scoffed and took a step back to see him in better light. "My entire life is here, Noah! I can't just leave everything behind. I'm not going."

"Oh, and you think we want to leave? I'm not any more thrilled about following after your boyfriend than you are." I gaped at his words, but he spared me no chance to reply as he instantly spun on his feet to look at Ariel who was standing silently and nervously by the door, her hands cupped by her chest as she glanced between us worriedly. "Pack her clothes. You have five minutes." And with that, he walked out the door and to the living room.

I gaped at him in disbelief. The nerve!

I followed behind his heels and had to jog to keep up with his angry stride. I stopped in front of him and my hands fell to my hips. "Noah, you need to hear me out-"

"No, Nora. What we need right now is to stop wasting time and get going, because now the numbers have doubled and we need to get out of here as soon as possible." His jaw was tightly clenched as he spoke through gritted teeth, the anger in his eyes no longer directed towards my defiance.

"What do you mean, 'the numbers have doubled'?"

Noah sighed and ran a hand down his face, stroking the small stuble growing on his chin. "Six men are now on our heels. They're prepering for something bigger."

I gasped, my hand coming up to cover the evident shock on my features. "W-what?"

He nodded. "Elliot and I have been keeping an eye on things. They doubled overnight, that only means one thing - they're preparing to invade, soon." My heart began racing at an uncontrollable speed. "Go change. We're leaving in five."

I couldn't bring my feet to move even if I wanted to, an indescribable fear clawing at my chest. My hands began to tremble. Noah eventually noticed that I wasn't moving, and he sighed before stepping towards me. His hands came up to my shoulders and he gripped them gently, his promising eyes meeting my frightened ones.

"Everything will work out, and we will be fine. But we need to get moving."

Hesitantly, I nodded my head in understanding.

"Nora!" Ariel called out. "You need to help me out here, I don't know what else you need me to pack!"

I hardly managed to compose myself and spun on my heels, returning to my bedroom. I found Ariel going through my vanity desk, packing my beauty products. I shook my head as I said, "the clothes are enough."

I rushed towards my closet and rummaged through the remaining clothes hanging, and picked a random black shirt and a pair of jeans. I started changing right there in front of Ariel, who was too busy zipping up my suitcase to notice me anyway. I ran over to my study desk and grabbed my laptop and chargers, shoving them in a backpack alongside my passport and credit-cards.

"Done?" Noah burst through my bedroom door. Ariel nodded and offered the heavy suitcase to him, to which he instantly took and left with towards the front door. I put on my most comfortable pair of black Vans, and inspected my bedroom one last time for anything important that I might have missed packing.

"Nora!" Ariel called out for me. I forced my feet to move towards the living-room with a heaviness of heart. Ariel and Noah stood by the front door waiting for me.

I reached for the keys dangling behind the front door and stepped outside alongside them. Noah went to hit the elevator button while I locked my door without sparing a second glance at my apartment, too pained by the thought of leaving my home behind without a proper goodbye.

The elevator sounded as it reached our floor, and it rung the familiar bell before splitting its doors wide open, welcoming us in for the last time.

"Let's go," Noah glanced over his shoulder as he barked his order.

I swallowed the growing lump in my throat and dragged myself towards the elevator.