I awoke to Ash shaking me roughly. I instantly became alert when I saw the concerned look on her face and scanned my surroundings. It was the middle of the night and everyone else was still asleep.

“There’s an extreme malicious intent nearby,” Ash whispered to me.

“Reapers?” I asked in a whisper as well to not wake the others. I didn’t want to disturb them until I absolutely had to.

“It feels like it’s coming from one of us,” she replied quietly.

I grew confused by that and looked around again. That was when I noticed Jackson was missing. I felt my red eye activating even though I didn’t sense any danger. It sensed Jackson and he was using his invisibility to sneak past the sleeping people. He had a knife in his hands and my predictive power told me he was going to attack me. He didn’t notice that I saw him and since we were still lying down, he probably thought we were still asleep. A plan formed in my mind to counter his attack.

I closed my eyes and waited until I could feel Jackson standing above me. I opened my eyes right as he was about to strike and I shoved Ash away while rolling to the side to avoid the knife that was being aimed at my red eye. He had every intention of killing me and was confused that I had caught him.

I was quick to grab the knife that was on my pack within reach. Jackson didn’t feel the need to stay invisible and appeared in front of me. Ash gasped from her spot, finally realizing that Jackson was the threat and she reached for her handgun.

“You move and I won’t hesitate to kill you too, girl,” Jackson growled. Ash froze in her spot.

“What are you doing Jackson?” I asked. I didn’t know why he would be attacking me, unless he was still in contact with the Contractors somehow.

“Mark sends his love. He wants you dead so the military can’t use you against him,” Jackson stated.

I grew angry at that. Mark was the leader of the Contractors. He was the person that controlled the money and jobs that were given to Powers. When I was 13 he recruited me after I was caught raided one of their warehouses of supplies. He threatened to hurt Ash and Seth if I didn’t join him and at the time I was young and didn’t want anyone getting hurt because of me. After I had joined he took full advantage of my powers and did not give me much choice in the jobs I took. He did give me payment for the jobs, but I still worked for him because he would threaten the only family I had.

“So you never left the Contractors?” I questioned.

“I was sent to be captured by the military specifically to kill you. Mark was so disappointed to hear you let them capture you.”

He didn’t waste any more time and attacked. He charged at me and slashed downward with his knife to try and get my shoulder. I dodged and landed a punch to his gut which gave me enough time to get to Ash’s pack. Her handgun was on top of her pile of clothing and I grabbed it, swinging it around to aim at Jackson.

“I don’t want to kill you Jackson,” I told him. The others were starting to wake up with the commotion, but most were still half asleep.

“You either kill me or I kill you. Those are the only options,” Jackson said smirking. He was truly enjoying this and I found that disturbing. I remembered him being a great assassin and other Contractors warned me to not team up with him so I never did. I understood why in this moment. He was disturbed.

“What’s going on?” Jamison asked when he saw what was going on. I was kneeling beside Ash, aiming a gun at Jackson who was holding a knife and standing about 20 feet away from us.

“Jackson’s trying to kill Liam,” Ash stated.

Jackson lunged forward, knife posed to strike and I instinctively pulled the trigger. I didn’t even have time to process it because my survival instincts had kicked in. The bullet went straight through Jackson’s forehead and his body toppled to the ground. If people weren’t awake now, then they definitely were after that gunshot. I dropped the gun and let out a shaky breath. This probably looked really bad, but I just got up and walked away from the group. I felt a wave of emotions threatening to spill out of me and I didn’t want anyone to see me in this state.

Once I was a safe distance away I fell to my knees and buried my face in my hands. Tears spilled out of my eyes and the last time I had cried like this was when Blue died a few years ago. I thought I had left the life of killing when I was in Fairview. I had finally stopped feeling the guilt of hurting and killing people just in the past year. The nightmares of missions I did while I was with the Contractors had stopped only six months ago and I thought I was finally moving on and putting that trauma behind me. It had all come rushing back the moment I pulled the trigger on Jackson.

I felt a hand on my back and I knew it was Ash. She was the only one to ever see me like this before, but even now I didn’t want her to see me struggling so much. I tried to keep my suffering from her over the years, but in my heart I knew she noticed. I didn’t want to burden her. She had already been through so much. I calmed down a little with just her presence.

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” I told her.

“I’m glad I was able to warn you. His murderous intent was so strong it woke me up,” she said.

“The others are going to think I’m a ruthless killer. Just like the Contractors are painted to be in the media,” I sighed.

“I explained the situation to Jamison so he can tell he others. I don’t think anyone can fault you for defending yourself. Besides you had a look of horror on your face when you fired the gun so I think people will understand you didn’t want to.”

“You’ll never have a normal life if you insist on staying with me Ash. Once we get back you should consider leaving me behind. You and Seth can have a better life without me.”

“Don’t say things like that. I’m not leaving you regardless of what happens. We can figure this out together,” Ash said wrapping her arm around my shoulder.

“There’s nothing to figure out. If Mark gave Jackson that order to kill me then he will send more after me.”

“You’ve never really talked about your time in the Contractors, but I’ve noticed that it’s been really hard on you. I want to help you. Please, Liam, let me help since I’m sticking around regardless of if you like it or not.”

I looked at her and she had her determined look on her face. I knew she wouldn’t give up so I decided to tell her the truth of what was going to happen after we got back. Maybe if she had enough time to process that I wouldn’t be there, the blow would be easier for when we actually separated. Then if I were to get killed one day she would hopefully already be gone and it wouldn’t be so bad for her. If I told her the truth now then she would detach from me and would be much safer on her own with Seth.

“I guess now is the best time to tell you this. I won’t be returning to the city with you. In order to have you on the same squad so I could protect you I made a deal with the military that I’d join them after this mission.”

I watched her reaction carefully. So many emotions ran across her face before finally settling on hurt. Pain ran through me when I saw that. There wasn’t any way out of this. I couldn’t run from the military and even if I did then both them and the Contractors would be after my life. If I stayed with the military then I might survive and be able to protect myself against the Contractors.

“Are you serious?” Ash whispered.

“Yes and I’m sorry,” I sighed.

“I can’t believe you’d do something like that. It’s not fair. Is there nothing we can do about this?” Ash had tears running down her cheeks now. I didn’t know if I should comfort her so I resisted the urge to hold her. If she wanted to take space from me then I would let her. After I got her back to the city safely we would go our separate ways so I wanted her to do whatever she needed to prepare for that.

“You can go on to have a normal life. Well, as normal as the world is going to be for someone with powers. I’m sure you won’t be totally accepted into society, but maybe you won’t have to fight like this anymore,” I said trying to be hopeful.

Ash looked me dead in the eyes and then turned to leave. Before leaving she said, “It’s not worth it unless you’re there with me.”