Mission The Second Part Two (Volatile Times)

Look at me

Days passed and the small group seemed to become rather attached to Violet. Many of them would come to me for advice not just about Slendy and running, but life in general. Everyone except Adrian of course. Everyone else thought that we had something going on between us and, in a way, they were right. But it wasn't romantic - we were just planning on killing them.

One night, three days after I got there, we were sitting inside his tent while everyone else was asleep and Luke was on watch duty.

What have I become?

"You know I still don't believe that you're a proxy, you could just be some crazy-ass runner. Or a fed. Show me where you're marked."

"I'd rather not..." I muttered, looking away from him.

"You got to see mine."

"Yours is on your arm."

Adrian did very little to hide his mark, and he just played it off as a scar he got from fighting a proxy when he started out.  Which was probably true, but it seems like those who are marked early on usually end up becoming Proxies - at least it seems that way to me.

I am lost I was once...

Suddenly he was hovering over where I had been laying on my back, nearly pinning me. "I'm not above finding out for myself," he smirked.

"And I'm not above kicking you in the balls," I smirked back. We both laughed softly at this. "Besides, I'm not marked on the front part of my person."

Adrian cocked an eyebrow before grabbing me and rolling me over. I let him. I felt him sit down on my back. I turned my head in an attempt to see what he was doing. When I finally twisted my head around in a way that I could see him, I could see him smirking. I raised my eyebrows, silently telling him that he would regret trying to take my clothes off. He rolled his eyes and got off of me.

"Fine, I'll show you..." I sighed and sat up, facing my back towards him. "Oh and by the way, I have about a million scars pretty much all over my body."

A "gentleman"

"So that's why you're wearing jeans and long sleeves in - holy shit V!"

"Hey, I wasn't kidding," I smirked. I had my shirt lifted mid-way up my back. I flinched when I felt his finger brush lightly against my back.

"How the hell...?"

"Back when I was still running, I thought I could take on a proxy that was pretty to close to being a Revenant as you can get. I was wrong. Got myself carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey as well as both of my legs and a few fingers broken. Internal bleeding. Fractured ribs. And I just about went crazy from being in a wheel chair for a long time," I shrugged. "Anyway my mark? Think tramp stamp."

"What do you...?" He trailed off before I felt him poke the top half of the operator symbol. "Oh."

"Yeah. You believe me now?"

"Yeah, I do," he muttered as he traced over some of my other scars, causing me to shiver. Eventually he wrapped his arm around me and pulled me back to lean on him. He continued tracing the scars on my stomach. "You know, these are too sexy to cover up," he whispered in my ear.

"Hmmm, that seems to be the popular opinion," I chuckled. "So what're you doing with this group?"

But I will remember the ups and the down

"Easiest way to snag runners. I just kill them off one by one every few weeks. But I always make sure to leave a few that will find me new ones." He moved his hands up slightly so he was tracing the scars at the bottom of my ribs. "What about you?"

"Orders from Father. I kill runners without blogs. I used to be a medic, but apparently he wants all hands on deck or something." I rolled my eyes.

"Oh so you run a blog? You sound like the writer type," he chuckled.

"Yeah well I'm not that great of a writer. Honestly it's just a way to talk to people that know about this kind of stuff, you know?" I moved so I was facing him, but still close. His hands were on my sides, still tracing over my scars.

"You live alone then I'm guessing?" The question was innocent but suddenly I felt like I needed to get out of there, and I needed him to stop touching me like this. It felt wrong when just moments ago... Well I'm sure you can guess.

"Sorry to cut this short, but I should get back to my tent before Luke calls you to take over his watch." I backed up but he grabbed my sides and started to lean over me.

"We have about an hour," he smirked.

Adieu to the fuckers that think that it's funny

"No, I should really get some sleep. Maybe some other time?" I smiled at him and brought my hands up to rest on his arms, gently pushing them away from me.

Adrian smirked and squeezed my sides lightly. "Didn't think you were such a damn tease," he growled.

"Get used to it," I smirked before crawling over to the opening of the tent.

Once I was in my own tent, I sat there, numb. Why had I reacted that way when he asked that? I shook my head and pushed it out of my mind - I had to focus on my mission not... that. Regardless, I knew that I had to study this group's dynamics before slaughtering them all.

A full week passed. In that week I learned that there was no leader of this group, but Luke was looked to as the authority figure. Apparently he had been running the longest. The twins were new to the running game and James fell between Luke and the twins. I also learned that Adrian had been running since he was eighteen and that he was actually twenty now.

The six of us were sitting around one of the camping lanterns that they had eating what little we had managed to scrounge up for dinner. I just needed to test out one more thing before I could start setting an attack plan in stone.

I just wanna turn the lights on

"What's the point of all of this though?" I asked suddenly. The other five looked at me with varying degrees of "the fuck is she talking about?" expressed on their faces, Adrian included. "Running I mean," I clarified.

"So we don't die..." James answered, sounding unsure.

"To protect our families," the twins spoke up, talking in unison. They too looked unsure.

"It's way better than being a damn proxie - a mindless servant," Luke spat.

"Instinct," Adrian piped up.

"Does running really solve that though? I mean, you can still get killed by proxies or Slendy, and your families aren't always safe. And we're the ones running mindlessly - like chickens with their heads cut off. Our instinct as humans is to survive in the best way possible, is this really the best way?"

"How the fuck can you think that Vi?!" Luke growled.

In these volatile times

"I have looked death straight in the eyes; I'm not afraid of it. My biological family is dead; I have no need to protect them. I have a mind of my own and that mind is telling me that this is going to backfire on us one way or another! So why not just give in?" I sighed and stared glumly at the camping light.

"Just because you're tired of it all doesn't mean it's not worth it you know," James said.

"What's the point in running when I haven't got anything to run for?" I stared at him.

"Hey, you've got us now right?" Natalie asked.

"We can be your family if you want," Melody smiled.

I smiled at them and murmured a thanks. We lapsed into silence for the rest of "dinner."

I just wanna turn the lights on

Later that night, Adrian ducked into my tent. I was awake still, making sure that my weapons were clean, sharp, and ready.

"Tomorrow night?" he whispered, eyeing my guns and throwing knives.

"Sounds good. I think that the twins and James are open to conversion... If the stakes are high enough."

In these volatile....

"Sounds like you already have a plan little miss," Adrian smirked as he pulled me over to him, trying to get me to lean on him.

"Don't call me that," I snapped. "But yes, I do have a plan. You up for a little acting?"

Adrian smirked at me and motioned for me to go on. I told him the idea and rough outline I had for the plan and by sunrise we had a fairly concrete plan, as well as alternatives if something happened.

"Get some sleep little miss, we have a big night tonight," Adrian winked as he exited my tent.

I fell into a fitful sleep that night, wrought with guilt and a sick feeling of elation.

Volatile Times