~

I walk into school Monday morning, prepared to take care of the threats, and the person responsible for it. I wouldn't ignore it anymore, not when my friends' lives are at stake.

People can be such cowards. If you've got something to say, say it to my fucking face. Don't be hiding behind a tiny phone screen, sending death threats.

My eyes land on the victim- wait, I am the victim, so I'm going to rephrase that. My eyes land on the guilty party.

Luca is standing next to his locker, a grin on his face as he leans on his locker, engaged in a conversation with Zoe.

Well, is that grand? Two snakes communicating.

I walk up to them and pull Luca away from Zoe, letting him keep his perfect innocent image in Zoe's mind.

"Hey, I was talking to-,"

"Shut the fuck up," I cut her off. Luca yanks his wrist from my hand and stares at me, a bored expression on his face.

"Can I help you?" He raises his brow at me.

I look around at the people who were watching us, but pretending like they weren't and roll my eyes. I wanted to talk to him in private before, but it would be better to talk here.

I pull my phone out from my bag and show him the message. "What's this?" I ask, waving my phone in his face.

After struggling to read my phone screen, he collects the phone from me, narrowing his eyes as he scrolls through the messages.

"I really don't know," he replies and hands my phone back to me.

Liar.

"So, you didn't send me these messages?" I narrow my eyes into slits.

Luca juts out his lower lip and shakes his head. "NOPE."

I laugh at the absurdity and shake my head. He could have fooled me once, but not twice. I take small steps towards him, stopping just inches from his face.

He takes a sharp breath in and walks a step back. I mirror his steps until his back hits one of the lockers, leaving him no choice but to look me in the eye.

"What do you want, Dove," he asks with a small sigh.

"I want you to leave me and my friends alone. I want you to tell your friends or anyone sending me messages-, " I wave my phone in his face. "To stay the fuck away from me and my friends. Because I won't back down if you hurt them."

I turn on my heels to walk away- satisfied with my little rant- when I'm suddenly jerked back by Luca's strong arm. His breath fans my neck as he stands behind me, pinning my wrist behind my back.

"One thing you need to realize is that your friends are alive because of me. Did you really think you guys got away because of Jay?"

I bring my elbow up and try to nudge him, but Luca is faster to hold my hand and spin me around. "And you're alive because Gray let you live," I snap at his face.

My words seem to hit a wall because he pushes me towards the locker and grips my neck. His hands rested on my neck as his grip wasn't firm enough to choke or kill me.

A few of the students are watching us, but no one says anything. Either they were too scared or were enjoying the drama, but knowing the students in my school, it's probably the latter.

"Every-fucking time you say his name-," Luca grits his teeth and clenches his fist. He searches my face with his eyes and lets out a small breath. "You're going to be the end of-,"

He doesn't finish his sentence as a hard punch lands on his face, cracking his bone and causing his jaw to slack as he swerved to the side. A tooth flies out of his mouth-I think-, blood drips from his lips, and he whirls his head to see the source of the punch.

"I should have shot your fucking head," Gray growls, curling his hand into a fist and striding towards a wounded Luca.

"Gray, don't," I sigh, massaging my neck. Gray ignores me and grabs Luca by the collar.

"Gray," I call out a little louder, and his hands stop mid-air. He swerves to look at me, and I shake my head. He looks at Luca and back at me before he lets Luca go.

He leans to say something in Luca's ear, but I don't hear what he said. He walks to me and wraps his arms around me, running his hand through my hair in a soothing manner.

"Well, she didn't tell me to stop," Aaron says and throws Luca another punch.

Luca takes the punch without retaliating, raising his head to give Aaron a bloody grin. "His name was second on the list, right?" Luca turns to ask me.

Asshole

My eyes widen at his question, and Gray turns to me with a quizzical look. "What list?"

Aussie runs up to Luca and hands him a towel to wipe his blood. "Oh, shit. You told me before you told the boyfriend," Luca teases and places a hand on his chest. "I feel so special."

Jerk.

"A list of what," Zyair asks, placing his hand in his pocket.

I let my head fall and groan into my hands. The last thing I wanted was for them to find out and freak out. Especially, Gray, I didn't want him to blame himself again.

"Dead people. Or people that are about to die. I don't know the details," Luca winks at me before walking away with his stray dog- also known as Aussie.

Gray's face contorts as he stares at me. "Kelch?" He asks in a soft voice.

I sigh and run a hand through my hair before dragging it down my face. "A hit list."

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

I'm seated in my room with Gray, Ashley, Aaron, Zyair, Fawn, and Elliot- basically almost everyone on the list.

I had shown them the list and the threatening messages, expecting them to feel scared, but they acted far from it.

"But why am I the third on the list? We weren't even friends until a few days ago," Ashley frowns, slumping her shoulders.

"I'm the one in danger now, keep your drama for later," Aaron raises his hands to stop Ashley from talking.

Gray is next to me on my bed, playing with my finger, taking the situation lighter than I expected. I tilt my head to stare at Zyair, who bends over my computer- the keyboard clacking as he typed.

Now is not the time to surf the net. Am I really the only one who worried about the list.

"What are you doing?" I ask with a sigh, massage my temples with my index finger.

"Booking a flight to Africa," Zyair waves me off dismissively without turning to look at me. "I'll fit right in."

Gray snicker and turns his head to Zyair. "You're ditching us."

"There ain't no reason we should all die together, right?" Zyair swivels his chair and spreads his arms.

"I regret punching him in the halls now, " Aaron snickers, tapping his leg on my rug impatiently.

"If it makes you feel better, your name was on the list before you punched him, " Ashley shrugs, biting the inside of her cheeks.

Aaron gives her a dead look and hisses. "What if he planned to kill me easy, but not that I punched him, he might cut my body into tiny pieces and throw me in a river in Italy."

Almost everyone turns to give him an incredulous stare, confusion carved on our faces.

"What type of movies do you watch?" Gray laughs at him.

"The crime channel. Investigation discovery. Lifetime, " He says, but stops when we keep staring at him like he was crazy. "What?"

"Oh, babe. No, " Elliot shakes his head, patting Aaron's hair softly.

"Whatever happened to Netflix and Hulu?" Zyair gestures with his thumb and index finger.

"Crime channels help you to discover the snakes in your life. You'd be surprised how many people get killed by people they know and trust, " Aarons sticks his chin out and cross his arms.

"Did you discover Luca before he tried to kill us?" Zyair asks with a raising brow, putting his feet on my desk.

Aaron pouts and lets his eyes gaze around the room before they land on me. Then he smirks. "In my defense, Luca was more of Dove's friend than mine."

Suddenly, everyone turns to me, their facial expressions silently blaming me.

In all honesty, I didn't think it was anyone's fault. It's not like Luca had the word 'gangster or murderer' imprinted on his forehead.

"It's not Dove's fault, " Gray says, playing with the ring on his index finger.

"You're right. It's your fault," Ashley leans from the bean bag, pointing an accusing finger at Gray.

Gray doesn't day anything to refute her accusations. He just sits there with glazed eyes, staring at nothing in particular.

"It's not Gray's fault either, " I say and hold his hands.

Zyair rolls his eyes and stands to grab a bottle of water from the pack behind my door. "I get you guys want to do the 'I support my partner' whatever, but we need someone to blame here."

"Then blame the pyscho sending messages, " Fawns speaks for the first time since we got here.

"Besides, the cagers won't kill you. They have a protocol. They only hunt those who hunt or steal from them, " Gray says, stroking the nape of his nape.

"Then why did they send that to Dove?" Elliott asks.

"They probably meant to scare her. They won't kill you guys."

"Why don't we hit them first, " Fawn's face lights up. "We don't have to succumb to fear."

"Did you not hear anything he said, or you just feel like speaking, " Zyair blinks at her, pointing a finger to Gray.

"You want us to go after them after hearing they only go after people who hunt them?" Aaron asks, speaking slowly and narrowing his eyes at her.

Fawn nods her head, her face is still bright as her eyes dart around the room.

"How do you get all A's again?" Zyair taps his chin, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

She rolls her eyes at Zyair and turns her head to Gray.

"Gray?" She urges.

Going after the Cager was a bad idea. I've watched too many movies to know that someone always dies or ends up getting hurt. However, we couldn't just sit around and wait for them to come after us.

I look at Gray and realize he already made a decision. His electric blue eyes darken, and he raises them to look at Fawn without flinching.

"Let's do it."

"You've got to be fucking kidding me, " Zyair mutters under his breath, rolling his eyes.

"We're not killing anybody, are we?" Ashley widens her eyes and raises her hands.

Gray frowns and shakes his head. "No, we aren't. We just need to take down the leader, " He says, folding his arms over his chest.

"The head of the Cagers?" Zyair laughs, throwing his head back. "And how do you want to get to him?"

"He's Luca's father."

The room falls silent as everyone takes in the information. Ashley breaks the silence by asking a question. "So, we are going to kill Luca?"

"No, we start with his right hand. Aussie, " Gray replies.

Everyone nods in understanding- everyone, expect from Ashley, who stares at us with a frown. "Are we going to kill Aussie?"

"God, Ashley. We are not killing anybody, " Aaron yells frustratedly.

"Then what do we do?" She yells back, gesticulating with her hands.

"We don't know yet, " Zyair bits his lips and looks at Gray. "We just hit them whenever we get the chance."

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

I walked through the hallway the next morning, feeling a lot better. But my smile immediately falters when I see everyone staring at me as I walked through the halls, silently judging me with their eyes.

Gray had gone to school earlier for football practice, so I had hitched a ride with Dad and Shelia, hence my walking alone into school.

As I open my locker, I could still feel the stares on me, the whispers about me. Ashley runs towards me and stops a few inches from me, her chest heaving from the run.

"Bad news, " She swallows and shows me her phone screen.

I frown and drag my eyes to her phone screen. My eyes widen with each passing second as I watched the video on her phone.

My heart beats louder, and I could feel it pumping in my ear as my anxiety rose. "H- H- Ho- How?" I stutter, raising my face to look at her.

She shows me some pictures, and a gasp escaped my lips. "Almost everyone in school has seen this?" She says.

"Where is he?" I ask her.

"I don't know. I just got to school a few minutes ago, " She replies tapping her feet impatiently.

"We've got to find him."

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QOTD: How many kids do you want to have?

>> I want four kids, but the pain women go through when giving birth scares me. So maybe, two. 😂