School was meant to be a safe space. Or so I thought.  

11:23 was when the first shot rang through the air. We were in Latin, and suddenly the pen ink was not the only red thing on the board. Our teacher laying slump against the wall, blood pouring out of the hole in his head dripping down his pale face and down his pure white shirt, the sound of deafening gunshots, screams and cries filling the air. 'Hey, I found them!' suddenly an arm grabbed my shoulder, and a damp handkerchief with a sweet taste and an ether like smell covered my mouth, struggling to fight and pull away getting weaker, my body going limp.  

  

The sharp ice-cold rain waking me up. My arms chained to a metal pipe in the corner of the pitch-black room, the door slightly ajar allowing a slither of blinding light in. The suffocating smell of mold and cigarette smoke filling the room, the muffled sound of beeping and some of the rain dripping through the broken ceiling. Suddenly the door swings open, and a man limps over and unchains me and pulls me up, a sharp pain rushes through my body as he drags me through an empty corridor covered in graffiti and blood stains, looking around, I recognize where I am, the town court or what was left of it at least. I was dragged up into the judge's chair and a deep scratchy voice came from the Masked Man 'read the script' I nod, I look down in front of me as he yells at me to hurry up. I take a shaky deep breath and start speaking, as I am reading, I realize that this is a group whose aim is to find a cure for some sort of worldwide disease since the government is not doing anything. I realize that they are recording me and when I am reading the part about how the government has ruined the environment as they don't do their jobs, I start emphasizing the word 'port, water' and as I emphasize those words I look straight at the camera. As I was chained to the pipe, I smelled the damp wood and I heard the water rippling in the strong wind, so I trusted my gut and tried to hint whereabouts I was.  

  

After I finish reading the script the Masked Man nods to a man who towered menacingly over him. He walked over to me; I could feel his ice-cold stare piercing into my skin. He grabs my shoulder and drags me back to the room and chains me back to the pipe. He crouches down and I look away, in a croaky voice he whispered. 'I can help you; you just need to trust me.' 

I scoff and shake my head. 'Why should I trust you?' 

He says, 'I can get you out, they captured me 6 months ago, I know every way out'. 

I feel his gaze on me and I look up and stare into his eyes, a slight rash creeping up from under his mask, he is pleading me to trust him, I smile and say, 'why didn't you escape before then?' 

He gives me a strange look almost as if I ruined something; something secret. He storms off and as his footsteps fade, I suddenly hear a deafening gun shot after another followed by several dull thuds. Hearing someone running towards the room I inch back as far into the corner as I can. The door bursts open, and a blinding light floods the room as a silhouette of someone rush towards me and unchains me and helps me up and we sprint down the hall to the exit and with each step sharp pains run down my spine. The door bursts open, and I am surrounded by a group of people who are slowly inching towards me, out of the corner of my eye I notice one of the Masked People holding a syringe. I freeze and everything moves in slow motion and the mystery man unmasks himself and I recognize the rash and it covers half of his face. 'Oh honey. You should have taken my offer the first time, that way we wouldn't have to do it the hard way' I suddenly have feel a agonizing pain in my neck and I cry out in agony. 

  

I wake up what seems like days later in a blinding clean room, strapped to a table, I try to move but I am trapped. I hear footsteps come closer and closer and it is him. He says, 'hiya darling, you know, if you just trusted me, we would have been able to do this so much easier.'  

'Why am I here?'

 

'Well, you see I need something, but no one has it. Oh wait,’ he smirks and looks me up and down tauntingly ‘you have it.’ in a patronizing voice almost as if he is taunting me. Looking at him confused I hear him scoff and roll his eyes. He walks away but stays in the room and I hear a drawer open and some fidgeting. I tense up and he walks over, and he is holding a syringe and he smiles at me and says, 'so you might be wondering what you have that I need?' my eyes dart around the room desperately trying to avoid eye contact and trying to find an escape route. I hear a smirk 'you don't really think you'll be able to escape do you? Oh, bless you, so young, so naïve.' he injects me with something that turns my whole body numb, I try to scream out, but it comes out as a hoarse whisper. He smirks and says 'it's simple, your body has the correct antibodies that I need to fight whatever sickness I and over 99% of the population have now and honestly it feels like whatever I had has begun mutating. So, I will get them and then, well we will see how nice or, more likely, not nice I feel' my heart beat feels so strong that I feel like it could burst through my chest as the sound of my heart beat pounds through my head as I start to drift unconscious.  

  

Awoken by a loud crash, I jolt up and the restraints hold me down and I turn my head as much as I can to see that there are 3 bags of my blood hanging up and one on an IV hook dripping into the Mystery Man's left arm and the right hand holding a gun pointed at a pile of dead police officers. 'Look who's finally awake. Clearly not them' he laughs sadistically. 'How did you know I had the antibodies and what was the whole the government is not doing anything speech about?' he smiles and turns in his creaky, rust covered chair, wincing slightly. 'The speech was purely out of boredom, I just wanted some cops to kill and for your other question, we have been tracking you and keeping an extremely close eye relative of Desmond Bates and he owes me an excruciatingly large amount of money so we started to look into what he holds dearest, which is you, and then we started following you and noticed you have the symptoms of the antibodies and well I need to stay alive to get my money and then kill him.' I take a deep breath and scoff; 'I don't know anyone called Desmond Bates. Then he unhooks himself from the IV and stands up and shakily undoes my restraints. I try to swing my fist, but I am too weak. He drags me against the closest wall which was once white but is now decorated in blood splatters.  

  

He inches closer and I can smell cigarette smoke and vomit. Suddenly, I hear a deep voice yell 'duck!' I crouch down and wrap my arms around my head, and I hear muffled yelling and finally two gunshots. One gets the Mystery Man in the head, and one missed him and gets my chest. I slump against the wall and see a silhouette rush towards me and put pressure on the wound and I hear the silhouette say 'stay with me, I'm here' but it sounds like I am underwater. Then everything goes dark. 

 

I wake up on a tattered green sofa with a stabbing pain in my chest. I try to sit up and a firm hand grasps my shoulder and holds me down ‘you need to rest then we need to move.’ the silhouette comes out of the corner of my eye, and he sits down on the rotting wooden coffee table and says ‘you might be pretty confused’ I look at him blankly and nod. He smiles softly ‘I’m Desmond Bates, I guess I’m here to protect you’ my eyes widen, and I sit up groaning slightly. ‘So, you’re the reason I was kidnapped?’ he shakes his head and hesitates then nods his head. I scoff and look away and suddenly bullets fly through the windows, he pulls me down to the floor and after a few seconds the gunfire settles down and the door bursts open and some of the Masked Men rush in and Desmond grabs my arm in one hand and a gun in the other and drags me out through the back exit whilst he shoots the Masked men, he pushes me towards a black government issued SUV, yelling ‘get in!’ I stumble in and he runs to the other door and gets in, slams the door shut and stamps on the gas and we speed off whilst the Masked Men who are left shoot at the car.  

An hour later Desmond slams on the brakes and my seatbelt harshly pushes down on the bullet wound on my chest causing me to curse out and bite down on my tongue. I look up in front of us and we are surrounded by a new group of Masked Men. I hear one Desmond mutter something under his breath and lean over to me and say, ‘undo your seatbelt and open your door slightly, and follow me, ok?’ I nod, we both undo our seatbelts and slightly open our doors and the Masked Men inch closer towards the car and he says ‘brace yourself’ he stamps down on the gas, and we speed forward and into the lake after running over 3 of the Masked men. He swims over to my side and grabs my hand, and we swim towards a small patch of land, overgrown with weeds and dying flowers. He pushes a pile of dead leaves and twigs off a trap door, he grabs some keys out of his pocket and opens it and looks around and says ‘get in’ I climb inside and when I get to the bottom of the ladder, I notice a long stretch of dimly lit hallway paved with blood-stained white colored tiles.

 He grabs my hand and leads me down the hallway and into an office full of doctors and people in suits. ‘Hey, look who’s back.’ one of the men in suits says with a grin on his face, holding out his hand. Desmond shakes his hand and says ‘hey, this is Greyson Becker’ a low murmur fills the room, and a doctor holds out her hand and says ‘this is them? You probably don’t realize but you have the potential to cure one of the biggest diseases at the moment.’ I sigh and ask, ‘why me and what disease?' the muttering grows louder. The doctor quiets everyone and says ‘you didn’t hear? You’re a miracle, and the disease is DP, deteriorating paralysis, basically at first your memory starts to fade then you forget how to do simple things like tie your shoes or write, then you start to get pins and needles in your body and then your blood stops circulating and then you start to lose the ability to move, until you can’t move at all and your heart stops and your brain shuts down. Its highly contagious.’ I hesitate and look around and everyone is looking at me with curiosity. Desmond interrupts, ‘I’ll take them to get cleaned up and then we can run a few tests’ he takes me and walks me down another corridor and into a room which has a hospital bed and a bunch of machines and screens, and he opens a cupboard and pulls out a stack of clean clothes and hands them to me and says ‘these should fit you, so you get dressed and I’ll have someone bring some decent food in a few minutes and then we’ll start some tests tomorrow, you need to rest, I’ll get someone to come and clean you up’ I nod and he smiles softly and leaves. I change into the clothes he left me and then there’s a knock at the door and one of the doctors comes in and says ‘hey, I’m going to clean you up and then you need to rest, then tomorrow we will run a few tests.’ I nod and she sits me down and cleans the wounds, then she leaves and dims the lights. I lie down processing everything that has happened then I finally drift asleep.   

I awake with a jolt my heart racing; pounding all throughout my body. Hands trembling. A bloodcurdling, piercing high pitch scream ringing in my ears as I shoot up. A suspenseful silence then I hear a demonic yet clownlike but also childlike laughter which sounds more pained and desperate than cheerful.

Creeping towards the door trying to peer through the skinny window that is in the right side of the door. I gasp as I espy blood splattered all over the once white floors and walls. The florescent light reflecting off the rusty red mess painting the rest of the walls in a weak reddish hue. Without thinking my hand stretches shaking towards the handle trying to open the door but it won't budge. Breath trembling and becoming shallow as I retreat backwards to the corner of the room as my body shakes like a paper thin autumn leaf in strong winter winds.

 

A crash awakes me from this nightmare. I shoot up finding myself in the same bed I fell asleep in; this time everything is silent; too silent.

I notice the plethora of nurses and doctors standing outside my room and peering in through the window get shoved out of the way by Desmond who bursts in my room and locks the door behind him as he simultaneously turns off the lights he pulls me into the corner of the room out of direct eyeline from the window. His breath trembles as he whispers 'stay silent, I'll go into more detail when it's safe but just know that one of our experiments as we call it, has escaped and so basically it's a code red - complete lockdown of the base.' I feel a lump in my throat as tears prick my eyes and my stomach flips as a weird acidic taste and burning feeling fills my throat. We hear the faint screaming grow louder and the deafening crashes fills the blood covered hallways which are littered with the corpses of award winning scientists, nurses and doctors and the occasional government official. The experiment  stops outside of my room just after we had crawled under the bed. Our breaths hitch. Peering left to right the experiment's face was millimeters away from the window peering in. It's breath fogging up the glass as the demonic unhuman bloodshot eyes are bulging out of the eye sockets. Despite the creature having begun human the result ,which Desmond and I are glancing at now from under the bed, is far from human. The muscles are too large and artificial. Skin covered in bruises every color and shade of the rainbow. Cuts and wounds plastered in the bare spaces of skin that are not adorned with bruises. 

After a few seconds, the sound of a pained, cynical laughter escapes from its mouth accompanied with the experiment tearing out its hair. Laughter dying out as its eyes  the words 'help me' escape from its mouth in a hoarse whimper. Its eyes fill with a sense of hopelessness and numbness as they meet mine and widen and the sense of helplessness transform into a sense of insanity as an uncanny, spine-chilling grin grows across its face. 

Suddenly, a deafening series of gunshots echo in the halls abruptly blood paints the window; followed by a dull impossibly heavy yet hollow thud. 

My body gravitates towards the window when Desmond grasps my wrist and tugs me back and mutters 'something's not right. Surely it's not that easy to kill.' His brows furrow and eyes narrow.

The click of the lock disrupts his thinking. As the door swings open, a rather cheerful and chipper man saunters in with a suspiciously immense grin on his face. He starts laughing hysterically and clutching his stomach in a fit of laughter for an uncomfortably long time to the point his pale white face turns into a deep burgundy red which is then immediately followed by a very chesty dry cough and wheezes. Desmond looks at me as his eyebrows furrow and his head tilts to the side. I reply with a brief distracted shrug as I am hypnotized by this uncanny man and his peculiar persona.

The man pulls himself together suddenly and profusely apologizes followed by a very drunk giggle. After clearing his throat and straightening his jacket he apologizes 'Hello' another drunk giggle, 'I am Dean Wayne' and begins nodding with a blank expression. Desmond and I glance at each other and give each other the 'what the hell is going on?' look and Dean just strides out of the room. 

'what the hell is going on?' Desmond mutters under his breath.

He grabs my wrist and in hushed tones murmured 'stay silent and keep an eye out.' he leads me out and along a blood soaked hallway. We hear a group of people blabbering impatiently we press our backs to the wall and hold our breath until they pass. We exhale and continue our way to the ladder we entered this place of chaos. 

We finally find the ladder, after far too many close calls, and Desmond climbs up first and struggles to open the hatch. Panic rushes over me feeling like a tsunami crashes down on a beach. The room starts spinning and my breathing increases as Desmond's urgent voice sounds like it's underwater. He eventually opens the hatch and pulls me up and silently closes it behind us. 

I crumble to the grass and Desmond crouches down beside me and holds me and tells me everything is okay and I shoot up and in a shaky voice mutter angrily 'what the hell is going on? I was in Latin. I was doing my work. And I was kidnapped. My teacher is dead. Gone. Forever. Along with god knows how many other people. What the hell is going on?' Desmonds face softens and he fidgets uncomfortably and mumbles 'you're too young to know.' My breath steadies as rage and a weird sense of calm takes over. 'too young? I have been through trudging through hell for as long as I can remember. I have gone through stuff that a large number of adults could not even begin to fathom. So do not tell me I am too young. Because I am not.' 

Desmond is taken aback. I realize what I have just done and said and I begin apologizing profusely and he hugs me, he begins to apologize as his face softens. he pulls away as he admits 'I haven't been present in your life and I apologize. I want to be a bigger part of your life. If you let me, I'll explain everything and try make it up to you.' I nod reluctantly. We hear urgent yells grow beneath our feet. Desmond hoists some bulky rocks from the surrounding water and covers the already hefty hatch to buy us some time. We take off swimming away from the island the opposite way from which we came from. 

We finally arrive at the island we were swimming towards. In front of us is some sort of lakeside resort with a car park full of cars. I notice Desmond eyeing the black SUV eagerly and I debate arguing but I decide against it, deciding to go along with it. Desmond looks at me eagerly like a child wanting a puppy and like the exhausted parent I nod just giving in after what felt like years of asking. We take off towards the car but just before we reach the car we notice a small holiday clothing shop full of holiday and trip souvenirs. Looking down at our drenched clothes we decide to get some new ones to not look so out of place - ignoring the bullet wounds and scars. 

We venture in and the cashier glances at us up and down trying to hide her disgust and Desmond laughs and announces to the practically empty store 'we were a bit drunk and accidently wandered into the lake fully clothed.' followed by a giggle. I laughed and agreed 'yep, I now know the importance of bathing suits and not just bringing one pair of clothes.' the cashier attempts to hide the look of bewilderment shrouding her face. We split up and find some decent clothes and some food and Desmond pays and we walk off we glance back and the cashier is watching us. 

After getting changed in the public toilets we ditch our clothes in the bin and start walking towards the end of the car park full with sparsely parked cars. Desmond looks around casually and begins to break into a black SUV and he urges me to get in. We begin to drive off and Desmond decided to try be like a family member and was asking me how schools been going and about my friends. Me being a straight grade A student in every subject with no friends but 1 crush and lots of hobbies had a lot to talk about and catch up on. Before we knew it we were laughing and joking about as if nothing happened. For the first time since everything began. I felt safe and happy. 

After a couple of hours driving on the highway, Desmond turns and begins to drive through the woods and in the distance I spot a cabin hidden deep in-between the trees. We drive up and Desmond parks behind the cabin and we creep inside making sure not to set off any of the traps Desmond set up a couple of months ago it seems. 

Inside, it looks like a normal cabin however Desmond shows me a hidden trap door in the center of the room, invisible to the naked door. A branch snaps close to the cabin and his eyes shoot up and he cautiously opens the trap door and ushers me down the stairs and closes the door behind us. 

The walls are lined with weapons of all sorts: guns, knives, and a couple of swords. Wondering around, I notice a photobook. I glance behind me and Desmond is occupied checking the weapons to make sure they are ready just in case we are ambushed. I open the photobook occasionally checking to make sure Desmond is not looking. 

I gasp.

Inside the photobook are pictures of me from when I was born up to a couple of days ago. At the back of the book, the pages are full of drawings and any small mementos. I lift the book up and a note falls out. I turn around and look at Desmond and he is still checking the weapons. I bend down and pick up the note and read it. It's a note from my parents explaining how when I turn 18 they will let Desmond see me and be part of my life since they don't think I am ready yet to 'deal with him' and they still don't approve of his life but there's elements of him in my attitude and personality. I smile softly and Desmond steps beside me smiling softly and is about to say something when suddenly we hear the front door of the cabin slam open followed by footsteps and muffled yelling.

Desmond warns me to get behind him and grab a gun. I grab a pistol and steady my breathing and Desmond turns around and ask 'ready to have some fun and get your anger out?' I smile softly and announce 'always.' Desmond opens the door and we begin shooting back at the Masked Men and we escape unharmed apart from the odd scratch. We stand in the center of the room staring at the corpses with a strange sense of triumph. I laugh to myself 'that was honestly so fun, not in a serial killer type of way though' Desmond nods and he hugs me as he mumbles 'welcome to my life.' I felt a sense of finally belonging. He steps away smiling and announces 'now its clean up time though' I nod and start searching on the shelves looking for anything to help the clean up.

A shot rings through the air.

Desmond flinches and peers down at his chest. The spot of blood growing rapidly. He falls to his knees and a Masked Man is standing in the door way with a gun in his hand. He pulls off his mask to reveal an evil smile. My jaw drops as I realize who the Masked Man is.

My dad.

'I... I thought you were dead?'

His eyebrows furrow as a puzzled yet surprised expression shrouds his face.

'Sandra? Honey, I can explain' he declared as he reaches out to touch the side of my face as if to make sure I am real. 

I step back and my confused expression hardens as I realize the one person who promised he would stay forever and out of the blue just took off leaving my dad and I to believe he was dead or missing. I notice a hurt look on his face and I feel a sense of guilt but the feeling of courage I gained from Desmond overtakes the guilt. 

My shaking hand steadies as my finger wraps round the trigger and I point the gun at his head. The heartbeat racing through my body and pounding in my ears steadies. 

'My name is Dean now. You would have known that if you didn't take off. Dad's dead by the way. Bet you didn't know that. Huh Hagen?'

His face drops. A softened expression appears as he steps forward about to embrace me in a hug. My expression hardens as I stand my ground, refusing to forgive him for everything my other dad and I went through.

The corners of his lips curl up into an evil smirk as his hands grasp his gun tighter and points it at me. I control my breathing to ensure I don't look weak and keep the gun pointing at his head.

'My own daughter. Acting like she is about to kill me. It's hilarious!' he exclaimed.

I scoff and riposte 'I'm not your daughter. You have never been my dad and never will be. Also, I'm not a girl. It's fine though' I say sarcastically, ' you weren't around to know and be there for any major things like me coming out.' 

He drops his gun and replies in a softened voice 'you're trans?' I nod and lower my aim and shoot a single bullet in his chest. He stares at his chest then looks up at me in disbelief as a fresh blood stain spreads around his white shirt.

'oh, and I wasn't acting.' followed by a smirk. 

I grab a cloth from the shelf and wipe my fingerprints of the gun as I waited for the guy who thinks he is still worthy of a dad title to bleed out in front of me. Once his eyes shut and he takes his final breath, I place the gun in his hand. I kneel down beside Desmond and I take off one of the important three bracelets I wear everyday and place it on his wrist. Desmond was more of a father figure in the past couple of days then Hagen ever was in the past 17 years. 

My heart starts racing as I go back down the stairs under the trapdoor and change into some fresh clean clothes and I clean the blood off my hands, literally, I decide to take off towards the nearby town, that we drove past on our way here, to look for a fresh start with a new identity. 

After what felt like maybe 2 hours of trudging through the woods. The trees provided very little shade to help battle with the scorching heat which beat down, worsening the pain of my infected scratches. In the distance, only about a mile away, I spot a small village nestled between some mountains. I hear a twig snap behind me, without turning around or thinking, I take off in a sprint towards the village. 

The village was about 200 meters away when I tripped over the roots of a tree and hit my head on a rock. The feeling of intense fear washes over me as I clamber up and stumble towards the village whilst my vision blurs and darkens and my throat starts burning. I throw up in a bush in front of a tree putting my hands on the tree trunk to steady myself. My surroundings start spinning and everything falls dark.

I wake up on a sofa covered with a blanket with a man standing over me, his eyebrows  furrowed with a look of concern.  

My vision focuses as I realize who is standing in front of me.

Desmond Bates.