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West Destiny High School

We hid under the desks The entire room was quiet except for the occasional sob from Leslie Winters a few desks away

“Ssssh,” Brody Meyers, the school star quarterback hissed “Or you’ll get us all killed”

He was crouched aardly beneath a science table, his body shaking as he clutched onto one of the table legs

Across the aisle, Leslie sobbed again but this time it was silent and she dropped her head to her chest as another round of terror wracked her body

I watched theot us killed

My eyes shifted to Indy crouching besideher bottom lip and her eyes were filled with fear I’d known her my entire life and I had never seen fear in those beautiful eyes of hers Indigo Parrish wasn’t so brown eyes were glea about it

I leaned forward and mashed an backing out from under the safety of the desk

“Cade, no …!” She pleaded But it was just a whisper, because somewhere out in that hallway, Travis Hawthorne was on the hunt for blood, and if he heard us he would co so out as many of us as possible

I gave rin I knew she loved The one she spent hours kissing because she was so da her Of letting her know that I would always protect her I had loved her my whole life Ever since ere little and she used to climb into my bedroohting again and she needed to escape We were neighbors Our parents were friends We were club kids She was the love of my life

“I’ll be back,” I whispered with a wink

I snuck across the roo in my chest

“Cade, get down!” Our chem teacher, Mr Leet shot!”

I ignored him and said a silent prayer as I opened the classroom door I sed deep The hallasn’t e the corridor like a hunter stalking his prey His back was toaround when he heard the quiet click of the door behind ht and crazy He was clearly surprised to see me, and for a moment we just stared at one another and all I could hear was the pounding of my heartbeat in my ears

Travis was brandishing a 12-gauge shotgun, which he aiht at my chest

Standing there I figured this could go one of tays: Travis Hawthorne could shoot and kill me—which would set off a world of trouble for the Hawthorne fareatest weapon—my ability to talk myself out of most situations—and ould both live to tell the story