I walked down the empty hallways to the schools' main entrance. The distant sounds of students shouting came from the school’s sports fields but otherwise, all else was still. Haven Academy was a somewhat prestigious school. All students here were expected to achieve high grades and were beholden to a strong social standard. While I couldn’t fault the school, I couldn’t exactly praise it either. I truly felt that school focused more on its reputation than the welfare of its students. In fact, I knew this to be the case, witnessing several situations in which others were bullied to their limits, sometimes even in the presence of teachers by those who brought ‘value’ to the school.

I exited the school, casually walking down the steps into the school parking lot. I didn’t drive so I could either get a bus or walk home. I typically walked, it helped me think and formulate things inside my head with the added bonus of giving me a token amount of exercise. It took about thirty minutes this way, but I didn’t mind too much. On occasion, my Uncle would arrange a pickup for me, whenever he dropped by for dinner for example. He wasn’t my real uncle, just a friend of my father’s, but he had essentially raised me whilst my parents had lived on the other side of the world doing business. My parents were often away for that reason, I saw them a few times a year if I was lucky. Being an effective diplomat had it's downsides.

The air was crisp, the cool air of the coming winter filled the small town of my residence, Ashville. I shuddered as my body adjusted from being inside the warm environment of the school. I glanced at the large oak tree that was sat outside the school building.

As I trundled at a steady pace along the sidewalk and into the main street, the school was accessible through this side road only, I noticed that the man in the black muscle car, I didn’t know too much about cars but it was perhaps a classic Mustang, was once again present, watching me. I paid great attention to not give away I had caught on to his surveillance. I still didn’t know what was up, but I wasn’t that worried. If he had bad intentions, he’d have most likely made that apparent by now. As it was, he was just watching.

I turned a corner, leaving a residential road for the high road that ran through the town. The area was the commercial hub of the town. Although that was the case, at this time it was mostly empty apart from a few people getting some shopping or takeaways, and a few groups of kids from my school hanging out.

The man in the car waited a minute or two, as he always did, before following. He thought he had my daily routine down by now so he was not worried about losing me and could afford to keep his distance. That’s what he thought, but what didn’t know was that I had altered my routine soon after I caught on to this surveillance. He didn’t know about the Clubhouse, for example, my so-called hideout.

The Clubhouse was my private area, a place for me to digest my thoughts and have some peace. It was a gift from my parents, who were important diplomats often away on business so I had to stay with a friend of the family. But they figured, and correctly so, that sometimes I would prefer some time alone. It was located in a small unassuming storage building which they owned. Disguised as a simple storage locker, once you entered the room it opened up into a large space in which I had spent many hours in. My friends had too before we fell out. I had craved its usage in recent months, the stresses of navigating teenage politics were often quite tiresome. But I had held back, resisting. After all, who knew what this man wanted with me? I may have to lay low for a time, and the Clubhouse was the perfect place to do so.

These thoughts drifted within my head as my body went on autopilot, navigating the familiar route to where I currently reside: My ‘Uncles’ home. He wasn’t my real uncle, rather he was a close friend of my father, but I had known him since birth and was quite comfortable with him.

He had a daughter too, she was the same age as I, but we never really got too close or became good friends, especially at first. In recent years though, she had been kind and considerate of me. I was sure she was just taking pity on me as she knew I didn't really have friends. I appreciated it, but honestly, I didn't mind not having any. Her name was Amy and she ran with a different group of popular kids at school, I referred to her group as the Puppies, only in my mind of course, else I'd start getting strange looks. I called them such because they were always excited and friendly to everyone, they were popular not because people wanted to be them but more than they were actually liked.

My group of former friends wasn't exactly jerk's, but they fell into the category not being popular more due to the fact that many people envied them.

There was other groupings and factions present within the school hierarchy such as the SMARTs, your stereotypical geek unit and the then you have your leather jacket-clad, tough kids. There are of course other groups too, but these were the factions that dominated the social scene at Haven Academy.

All the while these internal monologues flowed through my head, I turned down the street in which I resided. Large houses with perfectly manicured lawns lined the roadway, with expensive cars often parked behind fenced driveways. This was the expensive part of town. Many of those who lived here commuted by cay to nearby Eastville City. CEO’s, politicians and investors populated the area here, opting to live a small town lifestyle while reaping the profits of being based near a large city.

I paused outside one such house, tapping a code into the mechanical gate and stepping onto the property grounds. The house was designed to borrow elements of gothic architecture on the outside with plenty of colored glass panes as decorative pieces along with traditional clear windows.

I stepped up to the large wooden door, pulling my keys from my pocket and fumbling with them briefly before unlocking the door and stepping inside my home. I was tired and still annoyed so I decided to head straight to bed. As I walked through the grand entrance hall which served as the center of the house, the walls adorned with expensive painting and other rare and costly decoration was on show in special display cabinets. I was at the foot of the stairs when Amy sprinted from one of the lounges and embraced me. I caught a glimpse of her face before she started squeezing the breath out me, there were tears flowing down her face. She shuddered in my arms slightly, as I began to return the surprise hug.

“What’s wrong? Amy.” I asked softly. Something was up, so I set aside the natural distance I usually set between myself and others.

I had only seen her like this once before when her Mother had passed away several years earlier, so I was extremely concerned immediately. Whilst we got on well enough and had grown up together like siblings, she had never hugged me before, which is why the event was so shocking.

“I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry.” She repeated, continuing to bury her face in my chest.

“Your parents…” She started when a sense of dread and emptiness filled my stomach.