I felt like crying. This was not ok. Nothing seemed to ever be ok anymore. People were yelling, guns were firing, and bodies were dropping. I screamed out when a body dropped on top of me staining my white clothes with his dark red blood. I scrambled to get his large frame off of me. The immense amount of adrenaline running through my veins enabled me to push him not only off, but away from me.

I was panting and on the verge of hyperventilating. My head was spinning, my eyes closed and I tried to control my breathing. I thought about my first day here. The tour I was given, I remembered being shown the basement and I remembered Mandy said that it was for emergencies. This definitely counted as an emergency.

I thought I recalled the basement being on the far side of the mansion next to the pool. I couldn't remember exactly but anything was batter than sitting in the middle of a war zone.

I peeked out from behind the safety of the table and saw men in masks on the other side of the room. Unfortunately for me they were advancing, and blocking the hallway I needed to take. I sucked in a deep breath and army crawled back into the hallway I started off in. There was no possible way to make it to the hall without being shot.

I weaved my way through dead corpses, dodging anything broken lying on the ground that could cause me harm. Men were shouting at me to get out of the way and get cover, for I was literally crawling across the foyer with no cover whatsoever.

By some miracle I made it back to the hallway I started off in. By now though it wasn't empty anymore people were running around and bumping into each other and some were yelling orders. I tried to make my way through the thick mass of people to no avail. I started to panic feeling my claustrophobia kicking in. I couldn't couldn't think, or move, but most importantly I couldn't breathe. My eyes watered in panic and the tears dripped down my face for the second time in the last 30 minutes.

"Take her to the basement!" I heard someone yell next to me that had witnessed my freak out. I felt someone grab my arm and start dragging me through the crowd. His grip on my wrist stayed iron tight and I was thankful. No matter how much it hurt I was positive we wouldn't have stayed together if he didn't have such a secure grip.

We arrived at the familiar steps that lead down to the rat room. We began our decent and I let out a breath of relief when we passed the door. We moved with less urgency now that we were so far away from where all the fighting was going on.

"You been locked in there yet?" The man asked without turning to me. I knew what he was referring to as we had just passed the room that one of the worst experiences of my life took place in.

"Yes." I shuddered and tried not to bring up the feelings associated with the memory.

He shook his head. "It's cruel. You know it's not even real." I stared at him dumbfounded what did he mean it wasn't real I was in there and it was most definitely real. "It's a little room with stone in it and a speaker that makes it sound like there are rodents in there with you." He shook his head.

"That can't be right. I felt things in there with me." I shook my head thoroughly confused at this point.

"Believe what you want. That's the truth, and anything you felt was a hallucination. A figment of your imagination."

We arrived at a large steel door. He knocked on the door in a certain order of taps, obviously a code they had so that they knew if the person outside was friendly or not.

The door swung open and there stood 3 men with guns pointed straight at us. I gasped and stepped back thinking they were going to pull the trigger. The man grabbed my arm before I could take a second step, he pulled me forward and pushed me into the room with the men with the guns. " Shut the door after me, I have to get back." The door was shut immediately after he told them to shut it.

" Go sit with the others. All their guns were lowered once the door was shut. They were now sitting down against the wall opposite all of the woman that were huddled together. I spotted Olivia with Mandy and several of the other girls watching me. I lowered my eyes and headed to the back of the dimly lit room. I lowered myself down to the wall. Being here wasn't much different than high school. The girls were just as mean, only now most of them were in their 20 and if not they were close to it. Olivia and I were the youngest.

Hours passed. No one came and knocked on the door to tell us that everything was ok. I was beginning to wonder if everything was OK. The girls sobs were scratching at my ear drums. I covered them in an attempt to block out the sound, but it didn't help. One would think that as time passed they would calm down but it seemed to have the opposite effect.

I leaned my head on my knees, and closed my heavy eyelids. My stomach was whining and growling at me for keeping it empty for so long. I drifted off to sleep for awhile curled into a ball on the floor.

•••••••••••••

My eyes fluttered open in response to the yelling echoing around in the small room. I stood up, but then almost fell back to the ground because both of my legs had fallen asleep. I made my way to the door where everyone was slowly filing out.

I spotted Joseph standing at the door studying everyone that stumbled out the room. I was the last besides the guards that had been with us in the room all night. "You're here." I looked up in time to see Joseph sigh and run his fingers through his blonde hair. "I was beginning to worry."

"So was I." I said. "We were in there an awfully long time. What happened?" I stared him in he eyes, and he stared right back.

"Come." He lead me up to his office. The mansion was in carnage. Blood was everywhere, furniture was broken, and broken glass was everywhere. I watched my step carefully seeing as how my bare feet were very vulnerable. I fell behind Joseph, he was wearing nice black shoes with thick soles so he didn't have to worry about the glass shredding his feet.

He glanced back at me once he reached the stairs and noticed that I was a good 15 feet behind him. He chuckled and headed back towards me.

"I don't really see what's funny here Mr. Copland. This could potentially be very dangerous for me. You know I haven't had a tetanus shot since I was in 5 grade." I huffed.

"Relax, the chances of you getting tetanus from glass are slim, and you're much to careful to let yourself step on glass."

"Well it's everywhere and nobody is perfect so-" he picked me up and bounded forward like I was weightless. "Put me down!" I yelled and squirmed in his arms.

"Stop squirming or I might drop you." He hissed. His grip tightening. I blushed deep red and tucked my head into my chest. "You're so cute when you blush." He whispered. I looked up at him through my eyelashes. He had a slight smile of his face, but his eyes were forward. I looked back down and waited patiently for him to release me.

He didn't put me down until we were at his office door, and he had to so he could unlock it. He pushed the door open and walked through the door way. He left it open so I assumed he wanted me to come in after him.

He sat at his large desk, in his large plush black chair comfortably. "Close the door after you. We're going to be discussing a delicate matter." I nodded slowly and pushed the heavy door shut behind me.

"We were attacked by The Red Edge. It was very sudden. We didn't see it coming and because of that we suffered significant losses." I stayed silent not knowing anything to say other than sorry. The air was thick. Just looking at Joseph I could tell that he was tense. "We've already started planning a counterattack. The deaths last night won't be for nothing." His voice sounded final. I didn't dare point out the fact that starting a war with another gang, another fang more powerful than you at that would only cause the death rate to go up.

I nodded my head silently and studied him. "You don't have anything to say?" He questioned with an eyebrow raised. "I may not know you very well but I thought I knew that you weren't a big fan of killing."

"I'm not a big fan of killing." I shrugged. "But I understand where you're coming from. I'm certainly not going to criticize you for wanting to defend your dead." He nodded and watched me for a few awkward moments.

"Ruben has been looking for you. I told him you would be here. He is probably outside. He'll take you to have breakfast." He looked down to his papers. I took that as my dismissal and left the room shutting the door softly behind me.

"There you are. I'm so glad you're safe, I was worried that no one had gone over the emergency protocol with you." I thought he might hug me until he turned and motioned for me to follow him.

"No one did show me. Joseph sent someone to take me down to the basement." He stopped short causing me to bump into his large frame and send me toppling over backwards. He didn't move an inch.

"He sent someone to get you? You mean to tell me that in the middle of a serious crisis he was thinking about you. And whether or not you were safe." I looked up at him and shrugged nonchalantly.

"Someone probably just knew that I had never been told the protocol and told him." I got up and dusted off my back side.

"No." He shook his head and laughed. "No one knows who you are. No one cares either. Technically you're not part of the family, you're just one of the many girls here and if you get hurt you can easily be replaced."

"Wow." I scoffed." Tell me how you feel." I trudged past him upset that my only friend thought of me as invaluable, and replaceable.

"No hey." He grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop with little to no effort. "I didn't mean me. I obviously know who you are. What I was trying to say was that no one would've pointed it out to him that you were on your own. He just knew and was worried about you."

"No I'm sure that can't be it. I'm just here to be a whore." I said grudgingly.

"Then why hasn't anyone slept with you yet. Why did Joseph ask me to not let anyone lay a finger on you when he assigned me to guard you?" He said excitedly.

"Are you gay?" I asked turning around slowly.

His eyes widened and he quickly straightened his back and puffed out his chest. "No! Why would you even suggest that?"

"I dunno. You just seem too invested in this whole Joseph Copland is in love with you thing. Kinda like how a girl would, and the girl version of a guy is gay." I shrugged and let the subject go after that not wanting to make him uncomfortable around me.

"Jessica!" I looked back forward and found Cameron in front of me. "I haven't seen you in a long time baby, how are you?" He pulled my into a hug. I stood there stunned.

"Baby? Why did you call me that?" I asked him once he had let go.

"Because I decided I want you to be my girlfriend." He said smugly, and crossed his arms waiting for me to jump up and down and hug and thank him for the honor. And to think I thought he was a nice guy.

I stared at him with a bewildered expression and his smirk faltered a little bit. "I don't want to be you're girlfriend. I appreciate all that you've done for me, and I liked you but.. I just don't see you like that anymore I guess." I shrugged. "Sorry."

"What do you mean you don't want to be my girlfriend. Every girl here would be dying for the chance to get with me." He frowned and seemed genuinely confused that I had turned him down.

"Sorry Cameron. I'll see you around maybe." I smiled at him warmly but it didn't seem to be helping him.

"Whatever." He angrily brushed passed me and bumped both Ruben and my shoulder on his way.

I shook my head feeling bad about the way I had reacted.

Ruben caught up to me and whispered. "So why are you not interested anymore? Does it happen to have anything to do with a certain blond mafia boss?" I elbowed him in the gut trying to hide my smile. He laughed at my blushing face.

"No." I whispered. But a small voice in my head whispered yes.