We spent the next five days cramped up within the cabin, searching for a new activity each day to help keep our minds off of the oncoming troubles. We watched an endless amount of movies, while Seth and Bella divulged in their cooking skills and produced mouthwatering dishes every day.

Occasionally, we had company; Vincent, Scarlett, and Levi. They visitied us twice within our stay to introduce themselves again as well as keep us some company. On their first visit, I had watched as everyone in the room visibly tensed as soon as their eyes lay on Vincent, but it wasn't long before Xavier cleared things up and informed them all of who Vincent truly was, and how his infamous reputation came to be. Although Elliot was still skeptical, he chose to give him a chance since he was the right hand to the only man whom had the potential to keep us safe within these times.

As for Ariel, I was surprised to find her immediately clicking with Scarlett. They both seemed to have similar traits, both bubbly and loud. However, I wasn't sure how she reacted to their relationship because she kept avoiding Vincent's gaze throughout the entire night.

On the sixth day, we were gathered around the living-room in the early afternoon watching an episode of some random sitcom playing on the plasma TV, when the front door was unlocked with a slight creak and shoved open. Our attention was diverted towards the action and we were greeted by a weary-eyed Xavier walking into the cabin, accompanied by a rigid Vincent. Their postures and expressions instantly grabbed my attention for being completely out of the ordinary. Xavier's eyes were clouded over from exhaustion and his hair was slightly ruffled.

I stood up along with Elliot to greet them. When Xavier's eyes fell on me, they softened up a bit.

"Morning, everyone." Seth grabbed the remote control and switched off the TV, everyone in the room's attention fully diverted towards Xavier as he spoke. "There have been some updates and it's best that I inform you of what went down."

We nodded expectantly, waiting for him to continue. Xavier strolled over to a single couch and plopped down on it, gesturing to Elliot and I to also return to our previous seats. We did as told.

"Last night, my men were able to trace down the intruders and things took a violent turn," he began to explain. "Long story short, the third-in-command of our rival pack had been shot dead along with a number of his followers."

My eyes widened, and simultaneously gasps echoed around the room.

"Wait, what?!" Elliot exclaimed, fuming. His eyes were narrowed dangerously. "You do realize what that brings upon us, don't you?" To which Xavier's head fell to the floor and with a clenched jaw, he slowly nodded.

I glanced between them nervously. "What does that mean?" I asked.

Xavier rubbed his hands, hesitating to answer me. "It means we need to set a bigger protection detail on you guys, until things come to a complete end."

I heard someone scoff from the other side of the room. "And when will that be, exactly?" Noah asked furiously.

"Soon."

I breathed in sharply, my eyes taking in everyone's reaction. Ariel was in a shocked state, her mouth slightly open as she looked around the room, while Bella and Seth were fighting hard to maintain a calm expression.

The closer we were coming to an end to this whole mafia-revenge war the more dangerous it was getting, and a deep feeling of dread was settling in my chest as I begged myself to continue clinging onto the bit of faith I had in Xavier keeping us all safe.

"I can't stress this enough, but it's important that you all remain within the estate's premises as it is guarded all around and we need to be able to keep an eye on you."

"For how long?" I hissed. "We don't even have any of our belongings, it's like we're living as prisoners here!" I motioned around the room aimlessly.

"I will assign someone to bring you whatever you need from downtown, but you must stay here." Xavier insisted.

I sighed deeply, slumping down into the couch in defeat.

"And we need to discuss strategies." I looked up at him in confusion, only to find that his comment was directed to Elliot instead.

Elliot nodded his head once while staring at Xavier through narrowed eyes, clearly not approving of the sudden turn of events.

"I think we all need to discuss strategies," I jumped in. Xavier's intense gaze found mine, and he raised a brow in question. "We need to be able to protect ourselves instead of completely relying on you men to do so. It's sexist and frankly beyond offending." I clenched my jaw.

I watched as Xavier's eyes lightened up with amusement. "Fair enough, ma'am." I rolled my eyes at the nickname. "But for now, I will need Elliot and Noah's help to strategize, as they are aware of each of your abilities, and then we will inform you of the final plan. How does that sound?" He asked me.

I frowned deeply, still not liking how he singled out Elliot and Noah instead of involving us all to help, but I forced myself to nod once - interested to see how this will play out.

"If you would kindly follow me," Xavier nodded at Elliot and Noah before standing up from his seat. They followed him in his actions as he retreated towards the front door. He stopped to glance at us one last time, offering a tight, reassuring smile to me before shutting the door behind him.

Ariel sighed loudly, slumping down in her seat. Her face was shoved into a pillow as she muffled incoherently, "we're all gonna die."

It took me a few seconds to piece her mumbled words together, but when I did I frowned and yanked her by the shirt upwards into a seating position. She gasped and sat upright, her eyes widening as they fell to where I clutched onto her shirt.

"Don't say that!" I hissed. She narrowed her eyes.

"It's the truth!"

"No, it's not! Nothing's going to happen to us."

My eyes darted to Bella and Seth who sat quietly watching us. Their worry-filled gazes were enough to assure me that they didn't believe the words I spoke. And their silence had me freaking out even further.

"Would you guys please say something?" I begged.

Bella inhaled sharply. "I..." she hesitated as her eyes darted to the floor. "I honestly don't know what to say. Or expect."

"It's going to be alright, guys." Seth suddenly spoke in a strong, determined voice. I glanced over at him to see a deep frown set on his face.

I nodded. "It will be." But I didn't know whether my words were meant to reassure them, or me.

"I'll be heading up to my room." Ariel announced as she got up from her seat. I frowned as I studied her expression. She didn't offer another word as she continued up the staircase and towards her room, slamming the door shut.

I sighed.

"I'll start on lunch. Bells, a hand?" Seth glanced at Bella and offered her a smile, obviously trying to calm her nerves down. She inhaled sharply, and nodded. They started making their way towards the kitchen, Bella going over to one side and grabbing a large hard-covered book off the counter and spreading it open, her eyes reading over its contents.

I twiddled with my thumbs, now left completely alone in the living-room.

A voice in the back of my mind shouted at me to go console Ariel, but I didn't know how to do so. She was clearly overwhelmed by everything that was going down and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't stop the guilt-ridden feeling from crawling its way - once again - into my chest and hovering over my heart like a dark shadow, waiting for the right instance to occur so it could finally claw its way into my chest and tear me inside-out.

But I won't let anything go wrong. I can't let anything go wrong.

I set my palms on the couch and shoved myself upright, standing up and marching determinedly up the stairs. Heading towards Ariel's bedroom, my hand came up to pull the handle down but stopped as I heard her voice from inside.

"Yeah, I just miss you," she spoke. I frowned as my hand fell down to my side, straining my ear to hear her properly.

"We're having a good time, everything's going great. I was just checking in since it's been a while." There was a moment of silence afterwards.

"I hope to see you soon." Her voice wavered. "I love you, mom. Always."

I felt the weight in my chest get heavier, almost dragging me down to the floor. Unable to contain it any longer, my hand came to the handle and I shoved the door open. Ariel let out a small jump, her reddened eyes widening as they met my own. She rubbed away at her tear-stained cheeks and cleared her throat, her phone lying down in front of her on the bed.

"What're you doing here? Did something happen?" She asked.

I walked inside and over to her bed, sitting down on the plush mattress with my gaze never leaving her avoidant one. She was looking at everything but me.

"I wanted to speak with you."

Ariel puckered her lips, "why?"

I sighed, looking down at her hands where she fiddled with her thumbs. "How was your mom?"

She finally glanced into my eyes, frowning. When realization hit her that I heard her at the door, she rolled her eyes. "She's fine. Glad I'm having the time of my life."

I clenched my jaw. "Ariel, I promised you everything's going to be alright."

She suddenly snapped. "Oh, yeah? And how are you so sure about that? Because your boyfriend promised you so? Well, he promised us all, and we nearly got killed more times than I can count!"

I let her release her pent up anger.

"The least I could do is say goodbye to my mother before it was too late, and you're giving me crap for that, too?" I shook my head, opening my mouth to tell her I wasn't, but she never allowed me to speak. "I advice you to do the same. He killed their third-in-command, for God's sake! That's no joke. You're smart enough to realize how these men work and how serious it is to kill someone within a high rank! And don't you dare give me all this nonsense about how it's going to be alright. You're not fooling anyone. It's only going downhill from here on out."

I bit the inside of my cheek, staring into her intense gaze and watching the fire burn behind her eyes. Ariel was shaking, gripping tightly onto the bed-sheet with tightened fists. I knew she spoke only the truth, which is why I couldn't say anything back.

Suddenly, there was a loud crashing sound followed by a thud. Ariel and I both flinched as our eyes darted towards the open door. A shrilling scream sounded for a nano-second before it turned into a muffled noise, and my heart instantly fell to my stomach.

I jumped off my seat, Ariel's movements following my own. Her widened eyes found mine as I darted towards the door.

"What was that?" She whispered.

"Stay here," I demanded.

She shook her head frantically. "No! I'm coming with you."

"Stay here, Ariel!" I hissed.

"Don't leave me here!"

"Lock the door and call Elliot, but stay in this room!" I insisted. Her eyes were glazing over with tears, her quivering hands finding my own and clutching onto them tightly. "Please, Ariel. Do as I say." She shook her head, her tears now streaming down her reddened cheeks. I roughly pushed her inside the bedroom by the shoulders, grabbing the handle and shutting the door as I stepped out.

I strained to hear any noise from downstairs but the only sound in my ears was the thrumming of my heart-beats. With feather-light steps I walked over to the top of the staircase, trying to glance downstairs but unable to see anything from that angle.

My ears suddenly detected a light groan of pain, which fueled my legs to move forwards and I jogged down the stairs. I ran towards the kitchen to where I last saw Seth and Bella, praying to all the powers in the Universe for them to be okay.

I was about to burst through the kitchen door but fell a step behind as I was suddenly yanked by the shirt, almost losing my balance and falling backwards, but instead coming up against a hard chest. An arm snaked around my shoulder and a tight grip found my neck. I gasped loudly, but it was interrupted by the rough squeeze that clenched all around my throat and restricted the air from passing through my windpipe. My eyes widened, going into full panic-mode, and I was preparing myself to elbow my captor when the grip was suddenly loosened and I let myself gasp for air. I was pushed roughly into the kitchen, with my captor's hold still around my throat.

As I was shoved through the kitchen door, the first thing my eyes fell upon was the immobile figure lying face-first on the wooden floors, with crimson-red splotches covering the back of its head. My mouth opened to let out a shrilling scream, but the only noise that came out was a strangled sob.

My widened eyes searched around the room, and as the shock hit me I stumbled a step back only for my action to be blocked by my captor's chest. Four pairs of eyes were staring back at me, only one of them recognizable, and tear-filled. I gasped.

"Let go of her!" I roared as I shot forward.

The grip tightened around my throat and pulled me back, slamming me hard into the chest of my captor, who leaned forward and tsked in my ear. My own eyes began to water as I fought for air, scratching against the hand encircling my throat.

"Will you behave?" His breath fanned my ears. I nodded frantically, my vision blurring, until he eventually loosened his grip and I inhaled deeply.

"P-please, let her go." My eyes found Bella's glassy ones as she cried within the hold of a stranger, his hands tightly clasped around her mouth to keep her from making any noise. My eyes made contact with her captor's for a second, begging him to release her from his grip, but the bastard had the nerve to only smirk back. "She has nothing to do with this!" I yelled.

"Enough with the nagging," one of the other men groaned. He was sitting on the countertop, his gloved hands wiping away at the hand of his gun. When I noticed the white cloth and its red stains cleaning away at the back of his gun, a bile rose in my throat. My eyes fell down to where Seth lay immobile, and I let out an uncontrolled sob.

"N-no," I whispered, taking in his state as he lay motionless, frozen. I let out another sob, inching closer towards Seth but I was once again pulled back by my captor.

Why wasn't he moving?