“So where is your mum?” I ask as I sit on his bed waiting for him to pack a few things. Jace was currently shoving handfuls of clothes in a duffle bag, and I had to resist the urge from pushing him out the way and folding his clothes for him.

“She finishes her shift in about 20 minutes so she should be back soon.” Jace explains while grabbing another handful of clothes and stuffing them in the bag. I wince as the OCD side of me comes out while I watch him. He notices my gaze on him, and looks at me puzzled. I quickly tear my eyes away from the mess that is his packing skills, but it was too late and I can see a smile creeping onto his face.

“What’s the matter Faith?” he asks with mock oblivion, while slowly taking a top and scrunching it together in a messy tight ball. He is smirking at me, and then he shoves the top in the bag roughly. I grit my teeth as I realise he is fully aware of how annoying I find that. Back when we were younger I used to go mental when I walked into his room and find his clothes all thrown on the floor.

“How’s your nose?” I smile up at him innocently.

The smirk fades from his face and he narrows his eyes at me “The bleedings stopped, thanks for asking.” He replies flatly. I resist the urge to laugh, and avert my eyes around the room as he continues to pack, not wanting to see the crash that is his packing skills.

I laugh slightly, but not from the wonderful memory of punching him. He looks up at me again.

“What’s so funny?”

“In 3 years, you have not changed your room at all.” I chuckle as I look around, and realise that everything is exactly the same. The dozens of posters of bands and girls on the wall, along with a desk full of gel, deodorants and anything else a guy might need. The weights are still in the same spot in the corner of the room. The teddy that his grandma got him when he was little was on the side chair, attempting to be hidden by a pile of Razzle magazines. He wasn’t fooling anyone.

He smiles faintly “Why change perfection?” he jokes, and amazingly, I actually find myself laughing.

I get to my feet and walk over to the wall of his room that is plastered with the hundreds of photos. I see the same pictures that I remember looking at those many times I was in this room when we were going out, and even when we were sneaking behind Gina’s back. I see the faces of all the people I used to go to high school with, the football team that Jace played for as well as a few new ones of people that I do not recognise. I notice that not one photo has Gina in it.

I see the faces of Dylan, Chelsea and Holly smiling and laughing back at me. I find myself smiling at the picture of my friends, my chest tightening as I realise I have pushed them to the back of my mind for years now, not wanting to remember the life that I could never have again. As I stare at their faces, I realise how much I miss them.

Then I see my own face, which causes me to catch my breath a little. The photo was of me and Jace at the carnival that he took me to when we were going out. He was giving me a piggy back while I was laughing hysterically as I shoved the stick of candy floss in his mouth. The memories of that day came flooding back to me, and I feel a lump rise to the back of my throat. As I gaze at the other pictures, I realise that I am actually in the majority of them, whether it was us with our other friends, or just photos of me and Jace.

I bite my bottom lip and shake my head before I find myself breaking down. This is why I pushed these memories to the back of my head, if I through about them I would lose it. I can’t let that happen.

“Everyone missed you like crazy.” Jace’s voice brings me back to reality, and I suddenly realise he is right behind me. I feel my body tense up at just how close he is. I don’t reply to his comment, and just stare at the group picture of us all. Chelsea and Holly are giving the camera toothy smiles while leaning forward, whilst Dylan is looking at them like they were freaks. Jace and I were next to each other, exchanging an amused look. I can still remember to this day what we were so amused about.

“We were the only one to spot that a bird had crapped on Dylan’s back.” Jace chuckles as if reading my thoughts, staring at the same picture I was. I let out a laugh, and am amazed that he actually remembers that. I turn around to face Jace, who is still smiling warmly at me at the memories. I actually found myself returning the look.

“Dylan and Chelsea are having a baby.” Jace informs me as if just remembering. My eyes widen in shock and excitement. Jace’s smile widens as he sees my expression, it was like he was after this reaction. I suppose he was trying to find some part of me that was still the same.

I was just about to reply and ask for more details, not only about Dylan and Chelsea but about Holly and my parents, when I heard a crashing sound from downstairs along with hushed whispers. That was definitely not Jace’s mum. Both our heads immediately shoot to the door, and instantly the excitement I felt mere seconds ago washed away.

How could I feel anything that remotely resembled happiness when this was my life?

I lean forward, grabbing the metal baseball bat that Jace kept by his wardrobe. I always used to have a go at him for having it because he would never actually use it, while he used to argue that in case there was a crazy intruder in his house then it would definitely come in handy.

Turns out the idiot was right for once.

“Stay behind me.” I order in a whisper. I notice the look of irritation on his face, and I could tell it was not from my bossy tone. He looked pissed off that we were interrupted. I was a little thankful to be honest; things were getting a little too real for my liking.

“Oh Faith, I thought that baseball bat was a ‘pointless waste of space to my room’?” He mocked my words from 3 years ago, to my amazement he quoted them word for word.

“Well it turns out you’re the only pointless waste of space to this room.” I reply whilst walking towards the door. He scowled at my reply, but followed me anyway.

We walked to the dark hallway, making our way to the stairs quietly and into his living room. My eyes scanned around the room, but I could not see anyone or anything out of place.

“Maybe it was a cat?” he suggested in my ear, and I rolled my eyes.

“Do you have a cat?”

“Well...No.”

“Then it’s not a fucking cat is it?”

“It was only a suggestion jeez.”

I suddenly see a dark figure from the corner of my eyes, and I turn to see a man raising his hand and pointing a gun at Jace. I instantly tackle Jace to the floor and the bullet the guy had fired missed him narrowly. I quickly push myself off him and run to the bald guy who just shot at Jace hitting him in the stomach with the end of the bat. The breath gets knocked out of him, and I raise my arm with the bat ready to smash his skull in.

Before I can deliver the final blow, I hear struggling from behind me and see another guy on top of Jace with his hands around his throat. I completely forget the guy in front of me, who I’m going to call a-hole #1, and run over to the guy on top of Jace, who I’m going to call a-hole #2. I kick a-hole #2 off Jace while swinging the bat down onto his leg, causing the bone to crack and his ear piercing scream to echo through the room.

I turn to Jace and hold my hand out, which he grabs and gets to his feet.

“One thing, try not to die.” I tell him, and he rolls his eyes as he rubs his throat from where a-hole #2 was choking him.

“Faith!” Jace quickly pushed me out of way and I see a-hole #1 deliver a kick to his stomach, which was meant for me.

I immediately feel the anger boiling inside of me; I hate people that sneak up on me. I swing the bat pummelling a=hole #1 repeatedly in the back, then around the back of his legs causing him to land flat on his back. I raise the bat over my head and crash it onto the guy’s skull. Blood splatters up and I can feel it staining my white top and my neck. Great blood on white clothes.

Nice choice of outfit for the start of a new job Faith.

I lower the bat and stare down at the guy, whose blood was starting to spread all over the laminate flooring. At least it wasn’t carpet. That would have been a bitch to clean.

“Right Jace, put a bin bag on this guy’s head to stop the blood getting everywhere, and carry him out to the boot of the car.” I order nonchalantly, like I’ve just asked him to go to shop and get some milk. He stares back at me with a dumbfounded expression, whilst looking like he was going to throw up as he looked at the dead guy whose skull was caved in and bits of brain were clearly visible.

“What are you going to do about him?” Jace asks, gagging slightly as he points to a-hole #2. He was still on the floor due to his leg being broken.

“Just take the dead one to the car; I’ll take care of him.” I reply, smiling cruelly as I see just how much pain a=hole #2 is in.

Once a=hole #1 had a bin bag over his head, Jace dragged him out to the car following my orders. I made sure Jace was out of sight before I took care of a=hole #2, I don’t think his gag reflexes could take much more tonight.

I took out the knife that I had earlier threatened Jace with in the car, and held it so a-hole#2 could get a clear look at the thing that is going to take his life away. The guy’s eyes widened in fear and I smiled. I walked to him, standing over him with one leg either side of his waist.

“Please, don’t...” he begged, his voice pained due to his broken leg.

Why the hell could I get this guy who the drug lord had specifically sent to kill Jace to beg for his life, whereas Jace actually had to stop himself from smirking when I pressed the knife to his face?

“You tried to choke my friend. You have no one but yourself to blame.” I say sweetly to him, just like I said to a good majority of the people I killed. They did only have themselves to blame at the end of the day. However, why the hell I just referred to Jace as my friend I have no idea.

I grabbed the guy by the hair, bringing my knife to the side of his neck, and began cutting.

**

After a while, Jace came back in the room looking out of breath from the dead weight he just had to carry.

I tied the bin bag in my hand, and tossed it to the side while tying the other one firmly closed.

“Where’s the guy gone?” Jace asks, looking around the floor for a-hole #2.

I toss him the bin bag I had just sealed, and he catches it with ease.

“His heads in there, the rest of him is in this one.” I simply tell him, picking up the other bin bag.

I walk past Jace, who is modelling the perfect expression of horror as he stares at the bin bag in his hand, holding it as far away from his as possible.

“I’m holding a guy’s head?”

I nod “Hey, be thankful you could be carrying the rest of him, the fat bastard.” I state, struggling to carry the bag in my hand due to how heavy the guy inside it was.

We put the bin bags in the boot of the car along with a-hole #1, and proceed to cleaning the blood up off his living room floor before his mum gets back from work, which should be any minute now. I assured Jace it was fine to leave as the guys that came to kill Jace would not hurt his mum. They were here to off Jace, killing his mum would be unnecessary and more hassle than it’s worth.

“Right, make your excuses and meet me at the end of the road where I’ll be waiting with the car.” I tell him, putting the cleaning stuff back in the cupboard, keeping hold of the bloody cloth to take away with me and dump somewhere else.

“You’re not waiting here for me?” Jace asks, looking a little disappointed.

I stare at him like the idiot he is “And say what? ‘Hey Ms Dixon, I know I'm supposto be dead but I thought I’d come round and kill a couple guys in the family room. I love what you’ve done with your hair by the way?’” I propose sarcastically, and Jace glares at me.

“A simple no would have been fine.” He replies through gritted teeth.

I roll my eyes “Just hurry up; remember I'm cooped up in the car with 2 stiffs. They stink after a while.”

Jace mumbles something under his breath that I cannot quite hear as I walk towards the door. I turn back to shoot my glare at him.

“What?”

“Nothing.” He replies innocently, smiling. “Don’t drive off without me.”

It was my turn to mumble as I walked out the door.

“You’re lucky I don’t drive over you.”



==



A/N: Sorry for taking years to upload this, but i really hope you liked the chapter enough not to hate me ;)

Time for your thoughts guys, what do you think of Jace and Faith and her trip down memory lane? What do you think will happen once Jace meets the other guys? let me know what you think of the chapter, as well as what you think will happen cos i love hearing it :D

love you all once again and thank you for reading, voteee and comment :D xx