Target

I swallow. I was right. “Why? I still have a month left.” I tremble. “I heard that you are very reluctant to do what I told you to do. So I decided to give you a little preview of what will happen if you don’t.” “I am not… I just…” I have actually no idea what I am doing. “I changed my mind. You have till the end of the week. I want it done Liam.” “Why? What did she ever do to you?” I try to keep my voice down, because people start looking. “Enough, but that is none of your concern.” I see that Alysha has paid for a sketch book and pencils and now walks to me. “Listen, I’ll do it, just back off.” “By the end of the week,” Conrad repeats. “Yeah, sure, I’ve got to go.” I end the call before he can reply. “Hey, you’re okay? You look like you’re about to throw up,” Alysha asks. That pretty much describes how I feel right now. I wrap my arms around her and close my eyes. “It’s just… too much is happening at once.” “Zayn will be fine. And with all this crazy security you guys have, the police will find the idiots who did this.” And still, some minions of Conrad managed to slip into my house unnoticed, and since he had send them, they probably also slipped unnoticed into Zayn’s house. Alysha pushes me softly away. “Come on. Let’s bring Zayn this.” She holds up a sketch book with Winnie the Pooh on the cover. “Are you kidding me?” I laugh. “It’s cute. And he should be grateful that I got this for him anyway,” she laughs.

I am done with this shit. It is now Wednesday and no way I can kill Alysha, let alone in the four more days I have. I pace through the living room trying to come up with a solution for this mess. I can’t go to the police. If I do they wouldn’t believe me and Conrad would leek all evidence of my killings. I have no idea who else I can turn to except… Alysha. She must know why he wants her to die. But how do you tell someone that you have to kill her because somebody is pissed off? “Tomorrow,” I mutter to myself. Then I have all night to come up with a way to tell her.

I stay up all night and come up blank. There is no manner to tell her this without hurting her. I’ve lied to her and not about something small. I go to the bathroom to take a quick shower and to attempt to look decent. I am startled as I look in the mirror. I look like a zombie. Again, that pretty much describes how I feel. I pass the kitchen on my way out and decide that it’s better not to eat something. Besides, I don’t think I can swallow something anyway. Well, time to come clean.

Alysha pov
“I’m just saying, there is something weird about the whole thing with Zayn,” Gwenn says. “What do you mean?” “Don’t you think it is strange that they gained access to his place without triggering the alarm. And you know how heavy their places are secured.” I shrug. “I don’t know. You’re right something is wrong, but I can’t put my finger on it. I have this feeling something is wrong for a few weeks already…” I talk more to myself than to Gwenn. “Liam is acting strange as well… Have you noticed something about Harry?” Gwenn shakes her head. “We should ask…” “You’re crazy. They were already mad when we refused to break up with them, you think they’re going to help us? Besides, it was just a burglary, you think they care about that?” Gwenn doesn’t respond. I shake my head. “And besides, I am done with this. I just… I want to focus on something… A little less dark and creepy.” “You know you never can. There will always be something to fuck our lives up.” “You’re such an optimist,” I say sarcastically. “More a realist.” My phone interrupts this conversation, that is going nowhere anyway. It’s Liam. “Hey, what’s up?” I say. “I need to talk to you. Can I pick you up?” Liam asks. He sounds like he hasn’t had any sleep. “Sure, I am at home.” “I’ll be there in five minutes.” “Sure.”

“Hey…” My smile drops when I see Liam. He looks awful. “What happened?” I ask. “Come on, I need to talk to you.” We drive in silence until we leave London behind us. I want to ask Liam what he wanted to talk about, but I don’t know how to ask. My phone rings and to my surprise I see it is Moira. “Hello Moira,” I answer. I am pretty surprised. Maybe she has a new assignment for me? “Alysha, where are you now?” “I am with Liam and…” “You have to get away from him as soon as possible.” “What, where are you talking about?” “We connected him to about twenty murders that were ordered by Conrad.” I stare at Liam. “Alysha, do you hear me?” Then, I see a car approaching us with high velocity, on our lane. “Liam,” I yell, but it’s too late.

Notes

Xx..