Prologue

I have so many names now, I forgot who I used to be. The one thing I am sure of: I am one of the Gifted.

There are times I wish that I had never been born, and times that I wish that people had just ignored me, us, my whole team, and never knew that any of us had existed. Then maybe we wouldn’t have been put through the nightmare of our ‘adventures’.

I belong to no side, not anymore, not since the betrayal within my own team. I just observe. I watch over the Gifted, like a guardian angel. I watch their games of cat and mouse, their outbursts of anger, their attempts to run from their problems. I’ve seen them as they discovered who they really are, and what they were destined for.

Allyssianne is now pacing around the white-walled room in an agitated manner, her face looking like thunder. The other two girls, her friends, watching her from their places sitting on the floor with their backs to the walls. There wasn’t much else to do until they came back. No, not much at all. They were stuck there, and there was nothing they could do, for now at least. Stuck in this game of life and death. They WERE going to get out of this mess. Of that, they were sure. Eventually...

It had all started a few weeks ago, when the governments of the world started to be threatened, and it was all over the news. No one thought anything of it, which they now see was not the best idea. If they had done something about it, they could have avoided the stress, the tears and the pain. They could have saved the lives of some of the team, a team that they would rely on in years to come.

Chapter 1

Allyssianne, more commonly known as Ally (she considered her name to be too much of a mouthful), had known for nearly three years, she had been hiding her secret, from everyone, even from her parents. She had found out on her own, in her room, while she was pacing, trying to let out the anger against her parents. She only noticed that there was something wrong when she suddenly felt drained, tired, and then she saw that all of her belongings were in the air, hovering, surrounded by some sort of dark energy. She quickly calmed herself, watching everything drop back into their normal places. No one knew, not even her best friend. No one knew of the person she had killed because of her powers, and just how much she regretted it.

Marny had known about her powers for longer than Allyssianne had, discovering them during a singing contest at her old school. She hadn’t known what the strange feeling in her mind was when she had started to sing, but as the audience fell into a trance-like state, she had realised it. Since then, she had never sung within earshot of anyone else, but that wasn’t to be the end of her problems. She had recognised the state once more when she had made eye contact with one of her teachers, when that teacher had been telling her off. Now, she refused to make eye contact with anyone, anyone except Allyssianne and her brother, Caleb. She didn’t know why, but since then, the two girls had been best friends.

Now, in class, Allyssianne leaned back in her chair, only half listening to the teacher as she played noughts and crosses with Marny. The lesson was boring; then again, you could not exactly call it a lesson with all the time they spent on deviation! It was then that the bomb really dropped. It was then that everything had started, and everything had gone wrong. It was then that they found out that they had been discovered for what they really were, and not what they pretended to be. That was the day that the two girls discovered the dark world underneath the one they had lived in before.

Allyssianne was hiding her worry. Barely a week before, her brother had disappeared. Caleb had been taken as he walked home from his rugby training. As much as Allyssianne hated her brother, the star player of his rugby team for his speed and his strength as well as being the favourite of their parents, she still hoped that he would come back soon. She didn’t know if she could stand another day of going home to be greeted with cold looks, as if the disappearance was somehow her fault, or if sh. could live another moment of being surrounded by search and rescue posters.

Everyone had all heard about the terrorism threat, that one day all the heads of the EU would be killed, either on the news or from word of mouth, but no one expected it to actually come true. After all, with the amount of security around them all, it would be almost impossible. Not many people believed that the terrorists could actually be bothered with all that. How wrong did they have to be? How many people would have to die?

Chapter 2

It happened all of a sudden, and no one was ready. They couldn’t have been. Nothing in their lives could have prepared them for such an adventure. Allyssianne was still leaning back on her chair; Marny was chewing her pencil, trying to think of the next part of the co-operative story-writing they had moved onto. After all, neither of them were listening. No one ever listened for the whole two hours of history/geography. They had wished that their lives were like those stories they wrote together, their adventurous, dangerous, romantic fantasies. Had they known, they never would have wished for that. It was the ancient seeming PA system that gave them the first alert to their fate, but the school’s technology denied them the chance to run from the fate that lay in store for them.
“Atte...Al...and...y...re...erous” It crackled and coughed at them, sounding like someone was dying on the other end.
“You know, it could have said: “The Germans have started another war.” Or it could be saying: “The canteen is now open. And we wouldn’t know the difference...” Marny mused aloud.
“True, albeit it would be rather funny if the canteen staff were on standby and all the sections in the international school turned on the German section.” Allyssianne said.

They never finished that class, because no one could understand the PA system, and neither girl fled for their lives. There would have been no point in any case to be honest. They would have found the two girls eventually, no matter where they hid, no matter how good the disguise they adopted.

I remember that day clearly, and how it began. Doors started to bang outside in the corridors, and Marny glanced at her watch.
“It’s due to ring in two minutes.”
“Lucky first years get out early.” Allysianne muttered, rolling her eyes as she remembered the easy lives of the first years at their school.

Their own door banged open as a man kicked it in, and then stride inside the classroom, wielding an automatic rifle, fully dressed in black and a balaclava covering his face. Allyssianne fell off her chair in shock, several girls screamed, Marny broke the pencil she had been playing with. Allyssianne’s hand reached up and grabbed the table, pulling herself up to stare at the man, her eyes wide.

“Nobody move!” He ordered, and the pupils of the class obeyed nervously for the first time in their lives, perhaps sensing the authority behind the gun-wielding man’s words.
“We’re looking for Allyssianne Roth and Marny Bay, police warrent.” He ordered.
“There are proper channels!” The teacher protested, but then gave a pathetic squeak as the gun was turned on her. She shakily raised a hand in the direction of the two teenagers. The man signalled outside the door, and three more figures entered the room. The first man pointed to Allyssianne and Marny, and the four figures approached them swiftly, dragging them to their feet. Both girls kicked and struggled, watched by the stunned stares of their classmates, but to no avail.

All it took was a short a short scuffle before the pair had their hands tied behind their backs and were blindfolded. The leader gave Allyssianne a sharp jab between the shoulder blades to get her moving. Marny followed her, walking out of the room, flanked by the other black figures. They walked through the school, and down into the courtyard, where there was a small cargo van waiting. Marny was uneasy, restless, but Allyssianne took the biscuit and went ballistic. The broke out of the ranks and ran, but one guard calmly raised his gun and shot her. Everyone heard the gunshot as it echoed, and they heard Allyssianne fall before footsteps of those going to get her and drag the tranquillized girl back. Marny couldn’t get her thoughts in order as she heard the commotion, she was scared. Scared for herself, for her friend, for anyone else who was in their situation.

Soon, the girls were in the compact van, sitting on benches that had been bolted to the metal floor. The doors banged shut, and the van began to move a few seconds later. Marny shifted restlessly again, trying to find a comfortable position. She didn’t know where they were going, but she hoped that there would be a chance to escape.

The journey seemed to last several nights and several days. When Allyssianne had come round again, she fought against the ropes, but soon gave up, knowing that even if she did break free, there was no chance of getting out of the moving van.

Chapter 3

The journey was long, it seemed to stretch over nearly a week, but neither Marny or Allyssianne could tell inside the van. All they knew was that they were on stretches of motorway, judging by the revving of the engine and the smoothness of the road. But then they hit ocean. Marny was distinctly uneasy. She shifted on her bench, barely picking at the food that they had been given. She didn’t know where they were going and, all of a sudden, she wished that she could go home more than ever.

They arrived at their destination, neither girl knew where, and only got an inkling when they were lead out of the van. It was cold, very cold. The girls shivered as the icy wind seemed to pass right through them giving them no mercy. Marny and Allyssianne were taken into what they guessed was a building, because instead of trampling through wet snow, their shoes squeaked like they did on the linoleum floors of the school. The people holding them said something strange, but Marny couldn’t understand it. It worried her. They must have been taken out of the country if she didn’t understand the language. What’s more, it didn’t sound like any of the languages that she had heard around the international school, meaning that she and Allyssianne were out of the European Union.

The pair were bundled into a room they didn’t know, after the guards-of-a-sort had untied their arms. Allyssianne immediately ripped off the blindfold, looking around with furious eyes just as the door slammed shut. Looking around, the trio saw that they were in a cell, but it was completely white, no windows, only the greyish metal door.. There were a few small mattresses on the ground, one occupied by another girl. The redhead merely nodded at them, seemingly lost in thought as she stared blankly at the white wall. Allyssianne’s eyes narrowed as she stormed towards her, looking ready to kill until Marny grabbed her, her own bright green eyes narrowed at her friend as she flicked her purplish brown hair out of her eyes.
“Allyssianne! Calm down!” She hissed in her friend’s ear, letting the girl go. The black haired girl glared at Marny, icy blue eyes flashing with anger. Marny turned to the girl already sitting there, staring at the spectacle.
“I’m Marny, the hot head is Allyssianne.”
The other girl nodded, “Illianna.”

All three girls sat down, discussing what they were doing. Everyone knew how this had started, but no one knew how it would end, so they had decided to try to form an escape plan. Illianna listened intently, having been there the longest; she said that she was desperate to escape. Marny seemed to warm up to her instantly, being the kind of soul who doesn’t like to see others suffer, and that she liked to have a lot of friends around her. A people person inside out.

Allyssianne sat away from the others, her back against the wall as she listened in. The other girls all engaged in the heated conversation about what was going on.
“We all know about that cult that was threatening the governments of the world.” Marny started.
“Not hard when it was on the news every night.” Allyssianne said before seeing the dirty looks she was getting. “Sorry, my parents always watch the news almost 24/7.”
Marny sighed. “Ok, anyway, I think we need to find a way out of here and get back to our friends and family.”
“Question is, how.” Illianna pointed out. “I’ve been here for about two years already, and there is no way out with all the guards that are keeping us in.”
“When they brought us here, they said something,” Marny mused aloud. “but I couldn’t make any of it out.”
They said ‘put these girls with the other, they’re both Gifted.” Allyssianne translated quietly. The others all stared at Allyssianne.
“How did you know that?” Marny asked.
“Because they were speaking Russian.” Allyssianne admitted quietly. Marny looked surprised, opening her mouth to say something, but Illianna quickly cut in, sensing the reluctance in Allyssianne’s voice when she had spoken.
“So basically, we’re ‘Gifted’. Why? What does that mean?” The other two looked slightly uncomfortable. “What? What did I say?”

Allyssianne looked distinctly uncomfortable again, and Marny fidgeted, looking at the floor. Illianna bit her lip, worried that ther reaction was because of her. She had to gain their trust, not make them wary of her. She couldn’t fail this part of her assignment, not this early, not without having to pay severely for it.

A few minutes later, Allyssianne sighed, stretching out a hand in front of her, palm facing upwards. Something black sparked in the air above her palm before it grew into an orb of something black, some sort of black energy. Marny watched her curiously, but then her curiosity dulled, she felt empty of emotion. Allyssianne looked at Illianna, her orb of magic disappearing. The other girl seemed to be concentrating on Marny, but her concentration broke when she realised that Allyssianne was watching her.
“I can dull emotions,” Illianna admitted somewhat sheepishly.

Marny smiled slightly, locking gazes with Illianna. The other girl’s facial features seemed to relax, but her eyes were far away. Marny broke eye contact, muttering something under her breath. Illianna shook her head, returning to her previous state.
“I’m a hypnotist,” She said with a slight smile. Allyssianne grinned at her friend, giving her a high five.
“So, that explains why the call us ‘Gifted’.” Marny mused aloud.
“I think we have to get out of here.” Illianna said, her face determined
“Aye.” Allyssianne agreed quietly, but her fury echoed under her tone. “I need to find Caleb.” Illianna looked slightly confused before Marny took pity on her and explained.
“Her brother.” The redhead nodded wisely, and Marny turned to Allyssianne, “Are you sure that he was taken by these people?”
“There was more to him that the rugby club thought.” Allyssianne said quietly.
“Ah...”

Plans formed between the three of them, and gradually they managed to agree on one and started to go into the details, forming a backup plan as well... aka, if it does not go well, kick some butt and run as fast as you can. That being Allyssianne’s contribution, apart from the technical side, as technology was one of her strong points.

Several guards walked into the room, pointing guns at them as if afraid of the girls. They ordered that Illianna and the new girls followed them quietly. After a few questioning and worried looks between them, the girls nodded and walked out of the cell, surrounded by the soldiers.

On the other side of the equator, a sixteen-year-old boy growled, throwing his weight against the door, intending to break it down. He yelped as it refused to yield, falling back, holding his shoulder. His pale blonde hair fell over his eyes as he bowed his head, breathing heavily and gritting his teeth. The five other boys watched. One of those boys, seemingly his twin as they shared the same hair, features and fiery eyes tried to calm his brother down, leading him back into the centre of the white cell.
“Daniel, that’ll get you nowhere. You’ve been trying to break it down for the past hour. We’re better off trying to form a plan than just blundering into things like you’re trying to.”
“I want to get out of here, James.” Daniel growled, his eyes flashing with anger. “You know full on well that I can’t stand captivity!”
“But this is not the way to go about it!” Another boy snapped, flicking his black hair out of his dark eyes.
“What would you know Caleb?!”
“Just calm down.” Said another boy though gritted teeth, his brown eyes glaring beneath blond hair. He seemed to be in pain, trying to mask the emotions flashing across his face. The last boy was sitting calmly in the corner, ignoring the goings on as he contemplated the white ceiling.
“Listen to Alex.” He said at last.
“Thank you Jamie.” Alex said, seemingly relieved that someone agreed with him. James began to pace frantically while his brother tried equally frantically to get him to calm down. That’s when an aura of calm seemed to fall over the boys like a blanket, smoothing out the frowns and quenching all worries.
“There, that’s better. Now, what are we going to do?” Alex asked lightly.
“Break out of here.” Caleb said in his growling voice.

Chapter 4

Meanwhile, the girls were escorted to a different room, Illianna having been taken somewhere during the short journey. This cell was filled with various pieces of medical equipment and fitness material with seemed to loom over the girl with a terrifying prescence. The girls looked around, just as the female doctor walked into the room, looking cheerful.
“Welcome girls, now, no need to be afraid, we’re just going to be running tests to make sure that you’re all healthy. Now, who is going first?”

Neither girl volunteered, so they had to go in alphabetical order. Marny groaned. Her last name began with B, making her first. She stepped forward, but the doctor stopped her.
“Why you dear?”
“Because my last name is Bay.”
“No it isn’t dear.” Marny frowned.
“I should know my own last name! I’ve been stuck with it for the last fifteen years!”
“But you don’t have a last name anymore, sweetheart. You don’t have any connection to the outside world. Neither of you do.” The girls were speechless. Taking away someone’s name is like taking away your whole family’s history, but the doctor just smiled. “So, Allyssianne...”

Allyssianne was obviously uncomfortable as she stepped forwards, but did as she was told. The doctor took blood samples of each girl, and took the normal measurements, like breathing and pulse. After this, the girls were all given a pill to help them cope and calm down from the apparent stress they were under.

Two guards escorted each girl to a different, smaller cell, but the girls had found that they were too tired to argue. Some food had been laid out in each cell. Allyssianne and Marny picked at it before walking away from the chair and table to the only other furniture in the cell. A small bed. They had only eaten a few mouthfuls, but they felt ill, like something was wrong, very wrong. Allyssianne stretched out wolfishly before falling into an abnormally deep sleep, Marny not far behind.

Chapter 5

Allyssianne was the first up the next morning, meditating quietly until she realised what was wrong. The others woke up gradually, also realising the problem. Each girl explored the cell their own way, but only Marny really realised the problem. They shouldn’t be in different cells, they shouldn’t be in cells! Gradually, everything that had happened in the previous days came back to her, and she growled low in her throat. Allyssianne, scowled the same thoughts going through her mind. The other girls were just curious, exploring the room, searching every corner. Allyssianne immediately took out the CCTV camera rotating in a corner of the room, while Marny first made sure there were no guards outside before doing the same. Marny, at least, was a bit more cautious than the sorceress was.

In a dark room somewhere, a man was watching their actions on several different screens, each one linked to the CCTV camera. Two of them were showing blizzards. The man gritted his teeth and turned to the set of screens to his right. There were five more screens lit up there, showing a different set of cells. A boy, in the same situation, occupied each one.

A month dragged past, and the girls were getting sick of their captivity. Although they had been returned to their collective cell, they had returned, but part of them was missing. They had no confidence left and they were as jumpy as a child stealing a biscuit. They were skittish, jumping at every little thing. Marny often had lapses into more feral behaviour, Allyssianne released lightning like bolts of magic every time she jumped. They were waiting for something to happen, but all they knew was that it wasn’t going to be good.

Allyssianne was the first one to snap out of it, closely followed by Marny. Illianna watched their actions carefully. She hadn’t been affected like the others, or if she had, she made a very good job of hiding it. Allyssianne frowned when she realised this. What was up with Illianna?

Chapter 6

On the other side of the world, the boys were still in their separate cells. James and Daniel were sitting on the floor, backs against the wall, separated only by brick and plaster. They were the most affected by the separation, having never been separated in their life. Caleb was pacing around the room, and Jamie lay on the floor, a small hole in the side of his head and blood on the floor. Alex was nowhere to be seen on the screens, but that’s because the man watching them knew that he daren’t do anything against the carefully placed rules, not while he knew the punishment for doing so.

The man in the dark room was watching the boys, and his eyebrows raised in interest as Jamie picked himself up, the only trace of the bullet hole being a spot of blood on his forehead and the small pool of it on the ground. He made a quick note on a laptop sitting beside him before turning his gaze back to the screens, observing their behaviour closely. Separating them into quarantine cells allowed him access to their weaknesses, how to use them, and he planned to use them.

Back in the girl’s cell, plans were taking form, and suspicions were arising. No one knew where Illianna went on her daily excursions, although they were told that she was just going to the infirmary to take the tablets for her diabetes. The plans had to be twisted every day, because every day, new measures came in to stop their plan, even though Allyssianne had found a way to stop the CCTV camera being able to record their voices, and they always kept their backs to it. How was he finding out about their every move?

Soon, by being quiet around Illianna and disconnecting the CCTV camera completely in order to communicate their plans to each other, the plan was able to be put into place. Everyone was at their stations, Allyssianne was on the ground, crying as she clutched a broken shin, and Marny was hiding behind the door.

A guard walked in, carrying their evening meal. Illianna was nowhere in sight as usual. So far, everything was going to plan as he caught sight of the injured Allyssianne, kneeling beside her. Marny started to sing, pouring hypnotic power into her voice as she did. Allyssianne smirked slightly as the guard’s eyes drifted out of focus. The sorceress had plugged her ears with cotton to ward off the effect of her friend’s voice, not knowing that the hypnotism had a lessened effect on her. She stood up, nothing wrong with her and she nudged the guard with her foot to make sure he was responding to Marny. The girls then put in the earpieces that had been re-frequenced so that it was hidden from the soldiers’ radios. Allyssianne nodded once at her friend, signalling that everything was in place. Marny gave her the thumbs up, grinning nervously before the two girls ran as silently as they could out of the cell, taking off in different directions to try and find any exit possible from the only place they had found that was a worse hell hole than school was.

Chapter 7

Allyssianne ran silently down the corridor, looking anxiously around for any sign of an exit. She tripped over a broken tile, landing heavily on the ground. She sat up, massaging her shoulder, when she spotted something going on through a grill floor level. Lying down on her stomach, curiosity peaked, she looked through, and saw an old looking but vigorous man sitting behind a desk, and in the chair in front of her, sat Illianna. Allyssianne eavesdropped on their conversation.
“It’s not working anymore.” Illianna was saying. “They don’t seem to trust me.”
“Then make them trust you.” The man growled, his hand drifting over to a small black box that was sitting on the desk just in front of him. Illianna started to tremble, her eyes wide, her tone higher and slightly panicked as she hurriedly spoke again.
“But Allyssianne is so... cautious!”
“We’ll deal with her. Just keep trying with Marny and you should be able to get to Allyssianne through her...”

Allyssianne pulled back, unable to take anymore. Her mind was reeling, and she felt ill. Illianna was betraying them? Working with their captors? No, she couldn’t be! The girl tried to get a hold of her thoughts, pushing the topic out of her mind, and concentrated on her mission, but it nagged at the back of her conscience, refusing to be forgotten, but Allyssianne had to forget it for now. She couldn’t have a lapse in her control, not here, not now, not without putting Marny and herself in danger.

The hypnotist snuck along a corridor, glad of the once-white clothes that blended in quite well with the once-white walls. She looked around warily, as if waiting for a guard to spring out from behind a corner and grab them. Marny split off from the main corridor as she came across corridors that lead off from the one they had been following in an attempt to find the one she needed.

Allyssianne, having moved on from the scene that cast horrible shivers through her mind every time she thought about it, came across a room filled with screens. On one screen, she recognised the collective cell that she and Marny had recently vacated, alongside various other shots of corridors around the complex. However, there was another brilliantly white screen, in a corner of the bank, isolated, but close to the one of the girls’ cell. This room was almost identical, but it was occupied. Occupied by five boys. Allyssianne frowned, taking a closer look. There was a head of familiar looking rebellious black hair. Caleb! Her heart suddenly felt lighter, and she memorised the place stamp at the bottom of the screen before hurrying on, scared that the leader of the organisation would come back and catch her snooping.

Chapter 8

It was Marny that discovered the exit through a lot of winding corridors and silent doors. She was tired. They hadn’t been out of their cell, in the corridors, for this long before and she was continually scared of being found. At each door, she listened carefully before opening it. She listened carefully at one, but heard nothing. She turned the handle, opening the door and poking her head round. She stifled a gasp, her eyes wide, pulling her head back quickly. There were soldiers in there, lots of soldiers. The hypnotist closed the door, running as quietly as she could for a couple of metres before stopping to try and calm herself down. She must have stumbled upon the soldier’s dorm.

When she found the exit, she pressed the transmit button on her earpiece.
“This is Spine Tail to Blackie, Come in Blackie.” She whispered as loud as she dared. After a brief burst of static, Allyssianne answered.
“Spine Tail, this is Blackie.” Came Allyssianne’s thankfully familiar voice.
“Blackie, I’ve located the grail.”
“Ok, I’ve eyeballed a double agent.”
“What?”
“We have a double agent!”
“Where did you learn this language?”
“I read too many spy novels, now get a move on!”

Marny and Allyssianne, or Spine Tail and Blackie soon met at the exit, but someone had obviously been spotted, or someone had noticed their absence. An alarm began to blare and the sound of heavy army boots resonated off the dark grey concrete walls. Marny was well ahead as she sprinted through the door and out into a compound surrounded by chain link fencing, Allyssianne arriving not far behind her. They looked wide eyed, panicked and desperate as they ran towards the fence, starting to climb up.

Chapter 9

It was painful, agony as they scaled the wire. It cut into their fingers, their shoes being just too wide to get a decent grip between the links. Getting to the top, the girls had to carefully negotiate the barbed wire, and by this time, there were guards there, shouting at them, some trying to scale the fence, and several were sprinting for the only gate. Although it was a security advantage for them, this was one of the times it didn’t work, because it was on the other side of the compound. The two girls leapt lightly down from the fence just as the soldiers came charging round the corner, but the girls were already running as fast as they could the opposite direction, desperately trying to outrun and escape the grasp of the soldiers.

The chase went on throughout empty, cold and dark streets. If they hadn’t been concentrating so hard on outrunning their pursuers, they might have stopped to find out where they were. Allyssianne thought she recognised one of the squares they ran through, but wasn’t about to stop and think about it. Marny fell to the ground suddenly as she caught her foot on a curb hidden by a snow drift. Sprawled in the icy crystals, she yelled at Allyssianne that she’d catch up, but the sorceress slammed on the brakes, haring back towards her friend as the soldiers rapidly closed the gap between them. The hypnotist scrabbled at the snow, trying to scramble back to her feet, but she couldn’t, she kept slipping on the icy road underneath. Allyssianne grabbed her friend’s arm, pulling her to her feet, launching a few bolts of magic at the soldiers in a futile attempt to slow them down. The two girls started to sprint again, running away from the soldiers.


After ducking in and out of side streets, running anywhere that wasn’t large, open or straight for long distances, they managed to escape from the city and the guards, and into a forest nearby.

They collapsed in a panting heap a few kilometres in, their adrenaline rush over. The pair dragged themselves back to their feet and walked slowly away to find a sheltered place to stay. There was snow all around, even in the city, most of it was coated in white. Allyssianne thought back to the square she had seen, and tried to think of where she had seen it before.

The girls took off army style backpacks that Allyssianne had managed to swipe, complete with material, from a storeroom when they reached a small clearing, thankfully sheltered from the snow. They took out thick grey cloaks, putting them around their shoulders to try and ward off the chill as Marny tiredly gathered the resources to start a fire. Allyssianne, to Marny’s surprise, morphed into a wolf and loped off to hunt some food.

When she got back dragging a small deer with her, the other girl was huddled around the small fire, trying to escape the chill of the rapidly approaching night. While eating the cooked deer, they tried to think of what they were going to do. Allyssianne was silent, still puzzling over the square. Marny, however, was throwing ideas at her like snowballs to try to create a plan. It wasn’t long before they had an idea of their next course of action.
“We should find the guys that you saw on that screen.” Marny said, her teeth chattering as she huddled closer to the fire. “It would be easier to coordinate that rescue plan if we knew where we were...” She then pointed out to herself.
“We’re near Moscow.” Allyssianne said, her puzzle finally solved.
“WHAT?!”

Marny looked at her friend in shock. The thought of being in Moscow was a bit much. After all, Allyssianne and Marny had been in France! She shook her head, disbelieving.
“Moscow, you mean we’re in RUSSIA?” She said, her eyes wide
“Is there any other?” Allyssianne asked sarcastically. “Look, it’s isolated; those people clearly didn’t want us around. There are piles of snow around even though we’re in the middle of APRIL, and the fact we ran through the Red Square. All of these are a bit of a giveaway.”
“I dunno.” Marny said. “It could be Scotland...” But it was obvious that the sorceress wasn’t joking. Marny had also been through Russian geography when they did Stalin’s Russia, and it hit her that it had been the Red Square they had run through. Allyssianne drew a crude map of the world in the dirt, trying to bring her friend’s flagging spirits up, despite the fact that the sorceress had never been particularly bright in geography and had drawn America upside down and forgotten Greenland.
“Ok, we can go down through Russia, across Ukraine, Romania and Bulgaria. Across the water to Turkey, though Syria, Jordan and into Egypt. We know that the boys are being held there, on the outskirts of Cairo.”
“It’s gonna take a while...” Marny mused aloud, “But I think we should go for it.”

And so the travel began.

Chapter 10

Allyssianne gazed moodily into the fire nearly an hour later, and Marny watched her with a worried but curious look.
“How come you understood those soldiers back there? You never told me that you understood Russian...”
Allyssianne sighed, leaning back on her hands before she began to speak. “My blood father is Russian. I’ve been bilingual ever since I could speak. My family’s a bit complicated. Caleb’s only my half brother. His father was French, and our mother was Scottish.”
“I didn’t know that,” Marny mused aloud, “I didn’t realise that you had a step-mum.”
“You think that I haven’t been able to get on with my mum since I was born?”
“No! I just... just didn’t think...”
“S’ok Marny, I only pretend to be a part of the family for appearances anyway. As soon as she finds out that I’m, well, like this, I wouldn’t be surprised to find myself up for adoption or sent to live with my real mum.”
Marny stayed silent, not knowing what to reply to Allyssianne’s seemingly sure statement.

Allyssianne kept watch that night, while the Marny slept. Marny woke up at midnight to take over the watch so that the sorceress could get some sleep as well.

Allyssianne tossed and turned for the first hour before she could fall into a fitful sleep. She had never been able to sleep right if she wasn’t in a place that she deemed to be safe. In her sleep, she could see things, things happening in the future. A battlefield, thick with blood. She, Marny, the boys she could see on the screen, several adults were there, dressed in a camouflage uniform different to the others. Gunshots echoed everywhere around her, an unseen enemy. What was happening? Where was she? Why did everyone look so calm about this? They shouldn’t be in a battle! Suddenly, there was another boy beside her, Alex, she remembered his name. He slung his rifle over his shoulder briefly to envelope her in an embrace.
“It’s ok Ally, it’s all going to be ok. Don’t be scared. We’ve been through worse, remember?
Allyssianne nodded automatically, but she didn’t remember. Alarm bells were tolling in her head. She was scared, so scared. Alex backed away again, taking his rifle in hand.
“Let’s show them what confronting a team of Gifted is like.” He said encouragingly. Why did he like this battle? Why was he so calm about it? He cocked his rifle, a slightly cheeky grin on his face as he turned to face the ridge across from them where the enemy gunfire was coming from.

Allyssianne woke with a start, terrified. Several objects were hovering in the air with her magic, and she quickly recalled the black energy. The few objects fell back to the ground with a more or less loud thud and the sorceress took a deep breath, trying to calm down, swallowing hard. She closed her eyes briefly, the images of the dream trickling away. She shook her head, bringing herself back into the present. It was a dream, no more, no less. You need to get a grip on yourself. She thought sternly to herself, lying down again, but sleep refused to come again.

Marny was the one to raise the alarm not long after Allyssianne had started to doze off again. She had heard quiet footsteps. The two girls pulled handguns out of the bags they had, loading the clips of ammunition into them before looking around, standing back to back. Allyssianne’s eyes were wide as she they darted around, trying to find the source of the disturbance. She took a shaky breath, needing to get her emotions back under control or she risked harming Marny. She closed her eyes briefly again,

Tension was thick in the air as they were on their guard, waiting for the intruder or attacker to show themselves. Eyes were darting around the clearing as slight, cold breeze ruffled the leaves on the ever green trees, making the girls shift restlessly, fingers on the triggers. The rustling grew louder and louder, until a figure appeared in the gloom. The pair turned their eyes and their aim towards the figure, who put their hands up.
“Who are you?!” Marny demanded.
“It’s me!” A terrified voice called out. “Illianna!”


Marny lowered her gun in relief, but Allyssianne didn’t. She had no trust in this girl whatsoever. Illianna certainly looked terrified, her eyes red from crying. Marny smiled at the newcomer welcomingly.
“I, how’d you get out?”
“I knocked out the guard and ran for it!” She said tearfully. Allyssianne gritted her teeth. There was an alarm bell in her mind going off, ringing ‘fake! Fake!’. There was no way that she was innocent! How could Marny be stupid enough not to see past her act? Anger boiled in the back of her mind, but she desperately tried to get a grasp on it before it triggered a magical reaction from her, scared of hurting one of the two, even though she didn’t really care about what happened to Illianna after the scene she had witnessed.

They were settled around the fire now, two of the girls happily chatting away while the other three sat, silent. Allyssianne looked furious. Illianna looked over at her, and the smile on her face faded.
“What?” She asked, seemingly worried.
“You don’t belong here with us.” Allyssianne said, getting to her feet. “Traitor.”
“I’m not a traitor!” Illianna exclaimed.
“Don’t play the innocent!” Allyssianne spat. “I saw you speaking to some of those guards! You’re spying on us!”
“Enough Allyssianne!” Marny snarled. The sorceress narrowed her eyes, but stormed off into the forest before she could attack anything. Illianna looked worried.
“I’d better go and settle the score with her.” She said quietly before she got up and followed Allyssianne. In the back of her mind, Illianna was planning her next move. How to discredit Allyssianne before finally converting Marny?

Chapter 11

When the sorceress got back to the camp site the next morning, having calmed down enough to do so, but she was greeted with frosty glares from the other two. Confused, she tilted her head on one side as she looked at them, looking like a wolf in her actions. She frowned slightly, trying to think of anything she could have possibly done to deserve the looks she was getting.
“What?” She asked.
“Don’t play the innocent Ally.” Marny spat. “Illianna saw you talking to two guards and telling them about our plans.”

The two girls advanced on Allyssianne, who didn’t move, trying to think of a response, but in her shock, none came, leaving her frozen to the spot as she tried to make sense of the situation. Marny grabbed her arm, tying it tightly to a tree before turning her back. The hypnotist felt troubled about leaving one of her friends behind, especially as they had just been thrown into this whole new world that they didn’t understand, but she had to trust Illianna’s word on this one, as much as it seemed impossible.

Allyssianne badly wanted to yell out to Marny, to tell her the truth about Illianna, but she knew that it was too late. Even the bonds of friendship that she had cherished since they had met seemed to have melted away because of a simple story that Illianna had spun to try and get Marny to follow her. She didn’t know what the other girl was planning to do with Marny, but in the back of her mind, she had a nagging feeling that it probably had something to do with that man and the way that he controlled Illianna so easily. Marny, however, almost as if she sensed Allyssianne’s wishing thoughts, turned around briefly. Her gaze was sad, as if she really believed Illianna’s story.
“Why?” She murmured.
“Please believe me, I didn’t!” Allyssianne said quietly, trying to convince her friend of her innocence as she gazed into Marny’s green eyes, but the hypnotist broke eye contact, scared of hypnotising the other girl.
“Illianna saw you, Ally. I’m sorry.” She said before she glanced over her shoulder at Illianna’s departing back. She reached into her bag, one that she had swiped from the Medical Research Centre that they had been held in as they escaped, drawing out a thick grey cloak and a hunting knife. Allyssianne leant her head to one side, confused for a moment before Marny smiled a dejected smile and turned her back, hurrying after Illianna.

Chapter 12

The other girls trudged through the sheltered woodland. Silence reigned between them as they thought about the betrayal. They walked steadily onwards, heading for the border between Russia and Ukraine. Marny looked up at the sky see yellowish, heavy looking clouds drifting above them, and the first few fluffy flakes drifting down. She shivered in the cold, pulling the cloak further around her. Marny was thinking Allyssianne, about all the times they had told each other their secrets, they had gotten to know each other so well that Marny knew exactly when Ally was lying or telling the truth...

The sky darkened as the day wore on, and they soon started to scout around for a place to set up camp. Illianna came across a small wall of stones, left by an old landslide. It created a nice wind barrier, and they soon set to work to prepare for the cold night ahead. Illianna gathered some wood from the dead trees brought down with the rocks, starting a fire. The two girls huddled around it, looking for warmth. The heat was one of the few small luxuries they could give themselves after a day of trekking through the almost freezing temperatures of Russia, and of course it thawed out their frozen toes. No one spoke for a few moments until Marny broke the silence.
“We should go back for her.”
“We can’t turn back for a traitor.” Illianna growled.
“Prove that she’s a traitor!” Marny challenged.
“I saw her talking to the guards and giving them our exact locations and plans!”
Marny fell silent, but the two girls glared at each other, looking ready to rip out the other’s throat. You could almost see the sparks flying until they came to their senses. Marny looked like she was going to rip someone’s throat out while Illianna somehow managed to look murderous and calm at the same time. The silence had a violent air to it for a few minutes before Marny spoke, sounding slightly defeated.
“I just can’t believe that Ally would betray us like that.”
“I understand, but we have to keep moving so that we can get to the boys and free them. Forget about Allyssianne.”
“I know, it’s just, I’ve known her for so long.”

Chapter 13


Allyssianne froze. There were people coming. She could hear the twigs snapping beneath feet, the crunching of snow as it compacted. She bit her lip, scared, trying to think of anything that she could do to prevent her recapture. The footsteps were getting closer, and Allyssianne could see the shadows of at least two people, armed people, approaching over the snow. She allowed herself to slump against the ropes holding herself to the tree, kicking herself for not memorising all of those how-to-untie-knots tricks that she had read about.

The shadows stretched out on the snow in front of her, and now the light thrown by torches made the snow glitter in its deadly beauty like tiny fragments of broken glass. The sorceress heard someone speak, a man, his low voice whispering among the silent trees as he spoke in Russian.
“Exactly where Illianna said that she would be,” He said. Allyssianne’s blood seemed to freeze in her veins. She had been right about the girl’s collaboration, but her mind went back to the scene that she had witnessed. There was something more behind the Illianna’s actions.
“Is she unconscious?” The second soldier said, sounding nervous.
“It would seem so. Their uniforms are not designed to combat the cold. She would have died within a few days.” The older soldier said. She heard the rustle of fabric as he drew a penknife from a pocket, proceeding to cut through the ropes.
“Sir?” The younger soldier said, holding up the cloak and knife that Marny had accidently-on-purpose left behind.
“It must have been the other girl, the one that was seized at the same time. Their files said that they were close to each other.” He finished cutting through the ropes, slinging his rifle over his shoulder before picking the teenage girl up, turning to head back to the base.

The sorceress opened her eyes a fraction, and saw that the guard’s arm was in a prime position. Her eyes glittered evilly as she bit down hard on the offending limb. The guard let out a yell of pain, dropping Allyssianne as he clutched the bitten arm. She sprung back up to her feet before staggering slightly until they held, weak from the lack of use combined with the icy snow. She drew the hunting knife that Marny had left behind, adopting a fight stance. She lunged at one man, swinging the short blade against his chest. She didn’t, however, see the other man grab his gun, load, cock and aim. When she turned round, she realised, and jumped out of the way a split second too late. The shot echoed through the silent trees, and Allyssianne fell to the ground, blood staining the white snow.

Marny and Illianna trudged on through the snow, Marny trying to convince herself that they were doing the right thing. The previous footprints had been covered up by the newest layer of snow, and the new tracks they were making were soon covered by the glittering crystals, as if they had never passed by there at all. Then a shot rang through the trees.

It sounded distant enough, but the two girls knew that there were no hunters around here. Quickening their pace, they hurried away from the origin of the noise.

Chapter 14

Allyssianne looked up at the man, eyes full of pain, before she faked death. It wasn’t that hard to be honest. The bullet had embedded itself in her shoulder, just missing her collar bone and her lung, but it was painful. Her shoulder felt as if it was on fire, as if it had just been torn apart but white hot pincers. One of the guards knelt down warily and checked for breathing. She held her breath and listened to them talk in Russian, her heart hit by a sudden pang of homesickness. She had spoken Russian nearly all the time with her father, because Caleb and her step mother had never learnt the language. It had allowed them a bit of privacy.
“Blade will be most displeased if we bring her back with an injury like that...”
“I know, but what else do we do?”
“Say that we fired a warning shot, she got in the way and say that she was killed and that we burnt the body. She will be dead in a matter of days anyway.”

They turned and walked off, leaving Allyssianne there, bleeding and in pain. The girl blinked once, no words coming to express the pain in her shoulder. She drew a shaky breath, trying to calm herself, but it felt like the metal had torn her shoulder apart and shattered the fragile bone beneath. What had she done to come to this? Only one answer came to her. She had been born a Gifted, and because of that, her life was destined to be full of a whole load of crap.
Great, She thought to herself, Just great...

She waited until they were out of earshot until rolling back onto her feet with a low moan. The shot to the shoulder wouldn’t be fatal unless it became infected, or didn’t stop bleeding, but she felt like dying at that precise moment in time, she didn’t want to face the pain. She knelt in the snow for a few moments, eyes squeezed shut as she panted in pain, bent almost double.


Thinking that the best course of action was to find the others, she closed her eyes and reached into a more feral part of her mind. She felt it awaken, sniffing the air before it spread through her consciousness and then through her body, taking over.

Once she opened her eyes again, she swayed a little for a few steps until she was confident enough on her black wolf paws. Keeping her injured leg off the ground as much as possible, the hunting knife between her teeth, the wolf set of at a steady rhythm, planning to stick to it until her weary limbs couldn’t carry her any more.

She covered the snow with a lopsided lope, hopefully heading in the same direction as Illianna and Marny. A quiet whine tickled the back of her throat as she ran. The pain was so great, she felt as if she was already in hell. Despite her atheism, she now wondered if God was now punishing her for being born a Gifted.

She loped onwards, her pace gradually growing slower and slower, going from determined but lopsided to barely dragging herself along on three legs. Eventually, she collapsed into the snow, breathless, her eyes closed, a heap of black fur starting to be covered by the falling snowflakes.