Ash's Pov:

"What the hell is going on"

"I don't fuckin know alright"

"guys, shut up."

"don't tell me to shut up when I'm literally hanging from a ceiling."

"spiderman has always been your idol, so suck it."

"can you guys stop bickering for ONCE in your entire life?"

I groggily opened my eyes and looked around. The dim golden-yellow light entered my eyes and I squinted because of the fuzziness in my head. I decided to close my eyes again and seep into the wilderness of the scenarios created by my subconscious brain. That was however, before I felt a sharp stinging pain on my wrists and the cramps travelling down my arms.

I shook my head and took a deep breath, waking up fully and finally registering the real world around me. It appeared to me that we were in some kind of a cell, maybe in a basement. It was a small jail kind of a thing and the hallway was eerily quite. Me and Ace were in one, Viola and Felix were in the one directly in front of ours. There was a chain of cells on both sides of the hallway. However, no sounds could be heard. It made sense that we were here all alone. It smelled like dusty old statues, similar to the kind you'd find in those small antique shops owned by an old lady, built by the corner of a lonely street that have just been there forever.

The four of our wrists were tied to a hook in the ceiling with a nylon rope, which was almost impossible to break through from. Our toes barely touched the ground and the rope kept digging into our skin. Overall, it was an annoying, uncomfortable and a painful position to be in.

"Well, it's about time you're up." Felix complained and sighed.

"Why, how long have you been up for?" I questioned, genuinely curious how long I was passed out for. Wait, how did I even pass out in the first place? My head was still spinning and the back of it felt swollen so I figured it was an attack to the back of it.

"Not that long at all, Felix is just acting like a baby because he got his ego hurt by the Spanish." Viola replied as she rolled her eyes at her brother.

"How did they even get to the both of you?" Ace whispered questioningly. Huh, he's been awfully quite so far.

"Well we were almost done with our part when these guards came out of nowhere along with Everly and she told us that they had already captured the both of you. We thought she was bluffing and that was impossible because, you know, both of you being deadly assassins and all. Anyway, so they were wearing these heavy masks and not much later, this gas which I'm guessing was nitrous oxide, seeped out from the vents and we were out like a corpse. Then we wake up and find ourselves in here, along with the both of you." Felix explained.

"We're assuming they pulled similar kind of crap with the both of you but it doesn't really matter now. Who knows what the Spanish members have planned for us. We need to get out of here as fast as we can, who knows how long it's been since Chris has been waiting for us by the plane." Viola exclaimed.

Oh, right.

Chris.

If that's even his real name.

I sucked in a sharp breath and swallowed the puke rising up my throat. The memories of what had just happened came rushing back and played in front of my eyes like an old horror movie.

It felt like I was reliving the moment and I couldn't move, speak, or even snap out of the memory. It felt like I was temporarily paralyzed.

I was so distracted, so afraid, so confused and so in disbelief that I didn't even hear the footsteps walking down the hall.

The sound of a key unlocking my jail cell made me snap back into reality.

Everly?

Initially, Everly prioritized the unlocking of mine and Ace's cell. She was accompanied by a young man, who appeared to be around my age. He was dressed in a black leather jacket and black pants, with a belt loaded with weapons and secured around his waist.

All of us observed her actions as she unlocked our cell and walked in with this random guy behind her. They looked around both the cells thoroughly and were on high alert the entire time before they finally spoke up.

"When you talked about the world's most dangerous group, I didn't think you meant a bunch of high schoolers." The guy spoke up, cautiously eyeing Ace and me.

"Shut up, you're exactly their age" Everly whisper-yelled as her hand reached into her pocket.

I know I was supposed to say something, but I wasn't sure what. Was I supposed to address what had just happened? Was I supposed to be mad and do something stupid? Was I supposed to cry?

Well, there wasn't much I could exactly do. My hands were tied on top of me and mind you, they were EXTREMELY tight. Except for wiggling around and hurting myself even more, I could just speak and yell. Very genuinely, I had energy for none.

I was feeling more emotions than I could handle at once and it made me wanna throw up.

The betrayed friend in me wanted to yell, but the emotional kid in me wanted to cry. The mafia Donna in me wanted to kill her right there, but the daughter in me wanted to mourn. The teenager in me wanted to forget all about this and watch a relaxing movie while the tired old soul in me just wanted to go home and be with my dog. I felt so much that I started to feel nothing.

I was so stuck up in my head that I couldn't believe that any of this was real.

It felt like I was going crazy.

Maybe I was.

Being so caught up in my own thoughts and reliving the memories, I didn't notice when Everly pulled out a little bunch of keys.

Ace was staring at Everly but he looked like he was lost in his own thoughts. I can't blame him, he was probably thinking about the same things I was.

Viola and Felix were cussing Everly out even though she didn't seem fazed by any of it.

The guy with her gave them a weird look and the turned his attention back to her. It seemed as if he was a lost puppy and Everly was his owner. To sum it up, he looked scared. Well, they both did, but him more than her.

My eyes were stuck on Everly as she made her way towards me. With all the strength I could muster, I swung back and kicked her in the chest, making her fall to the ground.

I expected her to get right back on her feet and fight, maybe go beyond the extent and bring out some torture equipment, but she didn't do any of that. Instead, she remained really calm. A little too calm that what i had expected. She gently got up from the floor and dusted off the dirt from her clothes.

The guy with her narrowed his eyes and made his was to me as he pulled out a knife from his pocket but Everly spoke up and he stopped in his tracks.

"It's alright River, step back. It was my mistake I should have said something before going right at it." She coughed.

Everly put her hands up in the air, one of them empty and the other holding up a bunch of keys. "I'm just here to help, I promise." She said considerately.

"Help who? Your father?" I scoffed, shaking my head as if that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard in my life. Well to be honest, in that moment it did feel like the dumbest thing anybody could ever say.

"No. I'm here to help you. I get it that you're angry but if you think clearly, you'll realize that you don't have a lot of options right now. Either you trust me this once and let me explain my side of the story or you stay here and rot until the Spanish decide to go through with whatever they have planned for you. I get that I'm the last person you trust right now but you really don't have any other option to be free. There is no way you're getting out of these chains. Even if you manage to do that, there are security cameras and special guards stationed at literally every corner of the building. Now they might not be more skilled than you but they're definitely enough to outnumber all of you. I'm asking you just this once Ash, let me do this. For the old time's sake." She insisted. It looked as if she was genuinely serious.

I didn't know what to think, let alone think clearly. How the hell am I supposed to think clearly when my head is hurting so bad? How am I supposed to think clearly when I was hanging from the ceiling and it felt like all my blood was flowing towards my feet.

I turned my head to look towards Ace and decided not to answer. Was it too shameful to admit that I think she might be right?

I was kinda speechless when she unlocked the chains and untied all the ropes. She looked like she was in a big hurry and her speed was pretty admirable. As she did the same for others, I got down on my feet and rubbed my arms, glad they hadn't been ripped off yet.

"That doesn't look too good" The guy, River, pointed towards my arm. He was referring to a little gash I got when I was fighting the guards earlier. I was a bit preoccupied and one of them shot right at me but I backed away the last second and the bullet ended up grazing the side of my shoulder.

"I'll live. Who are you again?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

"I'm River." He extended his hand out, expecting me to shake it. I rolled my eyes and whispered a "no shit" under my breath. He grinned and handed me one of his guns. That's a bold move-

"I know you can kill me with this thing any given second and I'm putting myself at a huge risk giving you this, but consider it as a temporary peace offering. If you feel like this is a trap at any moment, feel free to use it. Although I will appreciate if you didn't kill me since I plan to die in a much cooler way than by the hands of a pretty girl." He shrugged and looked towards Everly, telling her to speed up.

I looked down at the gun in my hand to check if it even had any bullets in it. I checked, and it did indeed. It was fully loaded.

For what I was feeling, confused would be an understatement. I took the gun anyway and hid it under my shirt. I'm not used to not knowing what the hell is going on and I sure as hell don't like to be left out of the loop.

These past few days had been one hell of a rollercoaster. Apparently, the people I trust with my whole being are not trust worthy at all and the people I never trusted in the first place are the good guys? What in the world?

Since thinking about all of this was too overwhelming, I decided not to think at all. They want me to follow them? Alright. I was too tired to make any decisions on my own, not that I'm gonna trust my judgement now anyway.

At least we were all in this together. If something felt off, I'm sure Viola, Felix or Ace will speak up. For me, I felt nothing right now. And even if something were to be messed up, I'm not sure what's the worst that could happen now. It's like the worst has already happened and it's hard to care about anything right now, really.

Once everyone was untied and on their feet again, Everly and River took the lead.

"wait, so we're just supposed to follow you?" Viola questioned, narrowing her eyes at both of them.

"Do you really feel like you have any other option?" Everly shot back, crossing her arms.

"Why would you 'help' us anyway?" Felix asked suspiciously.

"Look, it's a really long story and I promise to tell you everything once we are out of here. We can be caught any second, I'm not kidding when I say there are special guards stationed everywhere. You don't get it, but the both of us are risking so much just by being here. God knows what will happen once they figure out we were the ones who helped you guys escape. Trust me, we are in so much more danger right now than any of you are. You guys need to get it together and make a decision right now." Everly pleaded.

At the end, we decided to follow them anyway.

We climbed a couple of vents and crawled through them. Everly wasn't lying, there were way too many guards here. The whole base was on high alert and we had to be really silent. That wasn't really a problem, we had to be silent on all of of our missions.

Once we were finally out of the base, reality started to kick in. We were in an unknown country with the whole Spanish Mafia breathing down our necks.

Everly had a car with stocks of food, water and medical supplies hidden behind a bunch of big trees. It was kinda far, about a 30 minute walk from here. She had to make sure it wasn't under the Spanish's radar.

After a good 10 minutes of sprinting and 5 minutes of walking, we finally reached the car. From there, we drove to the private section of the airport where we had parked our jet earlier.

All of us had changed our clothes and cleaned up, ensuring that nobody at the airport will recognise us. We also steered clear of anyone who could be working with the Spanish.

"Wait, where's Chris? Wasn't he supposed to wait for us at the airport?" Felix asked, looking around.

That's right, he was. But apparently he had other plans.

As much as I wanted to tell Viola and Felix the truth, I didn't have the energy for it. Neither was I ready to admit it out loud yet. I looked towards Ace and he nodded at me.

He told them what had happened briefly since we didn't have a lot of time on our hands. To say they were shocked would be an understatement. There was so much going on and none of us were sure about what to do.

From there, the six of us boarded the jet and were ready to take off. Viola took charge as the pilot and the captian while Felix, Ace and me kept an eye on River and Everly. We had to make sure that we had the upper hand and they weren't playing us again.

In the jet, we had them sit down and explain everything, without leaving out a single detail.

Next stop, Italy.

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(A/N)

Okay first of all, 3 things come to mind.

I'm sorry, Thank you and You're Welcome.

I'm sorry it's been forever since I updated pfftt but i promise I'll try to update whenever I can (i know I say that every time but believe me I mean it every time)

Second, thank you so much if you've read till here and thank you for tolerating my disastrous updating schedules.

Third, you're welcome hehe I hope you enjoyed reading the chapter!!

Also, we're kinda close to one mil reads OMFG!? Thank you so much ugh you guys have no idea how happy this makes me😭😭

I love every single one of you people and I hope you'll keep showing the same support until the very end💗💗

I hope you have a wonderful day/night!!

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~Angel.