Assassin's Desire, Chapter 14

​Finale

“What do you mean one chance?” I asked Urge.

He was hesitant. I could tell he was really hesitant to talk about it. He looked at me. I wondered what he was so hesitant about really. If he knew a way to escape then he needed to tell us. He needed to tell us now.

“He's bluffing,” Allure stated shaking her head, “There is no way out. There is no way in hell we get out of this.”

“Shut up Allure, you don't know everything goddam it, no matter how much you think you do,” Craving replied, “Let him talk.”

I walked over to Urge. I put my hand on his hand. He was looking at the ground. He was so hesitant. He was so scared. A part of me always knew that he must have known something. He was the SON of Tom after all. He had to have had some sort of edge in this situation. He must have overheard something in his time. He must have known a little bit more. I was hoping me coming close would give him strength.

“Urge, please tell me,” I said, “If there is any hope that we can get away from this life. You have to let us know...”

Urge nodded, “Listen. Tomorrow is the initiation. My father used to send me to each team's initiations. He has it on this mountain. He's so obsessed with it. It's really far away. We will be drugged and taken there. He doesn't like people to know where it is but it is on the edge of a small town in Massachusetts. Well anyway, my dad would take me to this mountain to watch them. He never drugged me though. He let me drive up there. I was thinking straight. A part of me thinks he wanted to shame me. He wanted me to realize how much of a failure he was. You guys don't care about that though. Well, here's the point. At those initiations I realized a few things. A few things that can lead to escape.”

“Like what?” I asked.

Allure, Craving and I were staring at Urge. Our eyes were piercing him. We were clearly so interested in what he had to say.

“One...Tom is never actually at the initiations,” Urge stated, “Trust me that's a good thing. Two. There are usually eight moderators at the initiations. Three. We don't have trackers yet. Four is the most important. Four is the location. The initiation takes place at the top of a mountain that over looks a river town.”

“I don't get it. Am I stupid? How do these four things equal escape?” Craving asked.

Craving looked at me as though wanting some sort of answer. I didn't get it either. I was confused.

Allure was the only one to seem to get it, “He's saying that it's our only chance to escape. He wants us to take out the 8 moderators and make a run for it. But they'll find us. It's pointless. They will find us.”

“Maybe not. Tomorrow is also July 4th. I know that the town next to here is really crowded on July 4th.”

“We'd be able to blend in with the crowd,” Craving stated.

Urge nodded, “Right after the initiations we get trackers put in us. When those trackers go in us they don't come out. It's our only chance.”

“Why are you helping us?” Allure asked, “Why are you telling us this?”

There was no way that Allure could honestly still think that Urge was on his father's side with this. I knew she was always suspicious though. She was too smart for her own good.

“I'm not doing it for you,” Urge stated, “I'm doing it...for what's that word...love...”

Urge was staring at me. He was staring right into my eyes.

I wished we were alone right now. The way he was looking at me made it clear that it was about me. The others seemed to realize it too.

It was Craving who broke the silence, “Whatever reason you are doing it Urge, I'll take it. I'm in. Or should I say I'm out?”

It wasn't a time to be cracking jokes. I stood at that moment. I stood and looked at everyone.

“So am I. I refuse to spend the rest of of my life some assassin for the Assembly. I refuse to be their killing machine. I refuse to be their slave.”

We all turned to Allure. She had that hard Russian stare. She was staring at Urge like she just wanted to choke him. It was the same look she had given him all those time she tried to kill him. Allure was a deadly woman too. I wouldn't have doubt it she did take one last try at Urge to stop us from going through with this plan.

Her accent was hard, “This is a stupid, stupid plan.”

Craving smiled at that moment, “Come on. Do it for Mother Russia. Do it for the team. We need you.”

“Clearly!” she said screaming at the top of her lungs before turning away, “You guys wouldn't be able to do it without me. So I'm in. It's still a stupid ass idea though...”

It was settled. I tried to smile. Craving was happy. He was all celebrating like we were already free. I wished he would have stopped. I tried to get on his level of happiness that we had a plan to escape the Assembly but I was still nervous. Maybe it was the fact that Urge was still silent, but then again he was always silent. Maybe it was the fact that Allure was over thinking but of course that is what she always seemed to do as well.

I just hoped we were making the right decision but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that we wouldn't have any chance to make this stupid decision again.

It was now...or never...

The next day we woke up to the moderators. They had lined up. Lust and Love were also there. I noticed one moderator had set up some sort of station. She had a needle in her hand. I looked over at Urge and he looked at me. My heart was beating. I was so nervous. I was so anxious. I didn't know how this would turn out and a part of me just wanted to go in the back and throw up.

We gathered around Lust who smiled at us.

“Today is your initiation into the Assembly,” she stated smiling at us at the front of the dorm, “It isn't here of course.”

“Where is it?” Allure asked.

I wasn't sure if Allure was still suspicious of what Urge had told us or whether she was just trying to play dumb so that the moderators didn't pick up on anything.

Lust looked over at the moderator as though asking permission. The moderator shook her head. I knew Lust well enough to know that she wouldn't go against the moderator...or Tom for that matter. Not in public at least.

Lust smiled lightly, “I'm afraid I am not at the liberty to say. You guys will be given a sedative, here...and then transported to the location. Love and I will be here when you return to welcome you onto the team.”

“Why aren't you coming?” Craving asked.

“I would if I could. In fact there is nothing more I would like, but...I can't. Unfortunately,” Lust stated shaking her head.

Love was next to her. He had on this cheerful smile that annoyed the fuck out of me, “But you guys should be happy. Take off those worried faces. It's graduation day goddam it!”
Graduation day.

I walked forward, “I'll take the sedative first.”

I wanted to get it over with.

I walked over to the moderator. She flicked the needle letting a little bit of the liquid out. I was so nervous. I hadn't been able to sleep the entire night. I turned to Urge. He was staring at me. Craving and Allure were there too. Allure looked worried. Craving looked overexcited. A part of me just wished everyone stayed strong and didn't crack. We had one chance. We only had one chance to get away and this was it.

I put down my hand. The moderator looked at me emotionless. She waited like some sort of cyborg until she saw a vein and then she injected me with the sedative.

I sat on the bed, next to Urge. He kept looking at me.

The room was getting more and more dizzy.

The last thing I remembered was Lust at the front of the dorm. She was looking over at everyone but she was looking at me specifically.

“I'm proud of all of you...”

“Get up...get up.”

I felt these hands on my shoulder. They kept poking at me. Slowly my eyes woke up. Someone was smacking me lightly as though trying to put feeling back into me.

I woke up to see Craving there. Seeing my best friend's face first definitely made me feel a little bit more at ease. I must have been the last one up. Urge wasn't that far from Craving. He had his arms crossed like he usually did. He didn't have anything to lean on this time so he was just standing there. Allure was beside Craving looking down at me.

“Are we here?” I asked.

“Yes, it's a mountain...” Craving replied.

Just like Urge stated. He had been telling the truth. I looked around. There were mountains around us. We were right on the peak of the mountain. There was a huge rock there. The rock seemed to be chiseled on the front. It stood at the edge of the mountain. I tried to look over the edge and when I did I was almost thrown off by how high it was. We were among cliffs.

“Be careful,” Urge told me.

Looking at his face was that same disconnected glare that I knew Urge to perfect but I knew better. I knew that Urge actually did care about me.

I noticed the moderators at that moment. They were facing us. They all had guns straps with pistols. I counted them. Eight. Just like Urge had stated.

Just at that moment one moderator walked forward. It didn't matter which moderator it was. They were all the same really. Different faces but all of them had no personalities. They might as well have been the exact same person. Rather, the exact same robot I should say.

She handed something to Craving.

“Sign the rock with your Codename. When you sign it you should say your name and then say 'of the assembly'.”
Craving nodded, “That's it?”

“Yes.”

“That is anti-climatic. I thought we would at least get some kind of parade or some shit. Guess secret organizations of assassins must be on a budget huh?” Craving stated.

The moderator looked at him as though she hadn't heard anything at all. Craving laughed at his own stupidity though. He turned away clearly not getting anything else from the moderator.

I noticed what the moderator had given Craving. She had given him some sort of brush. I watched as Craving walked to the edge of the cliff where the rock was. I watched as he dipped the brush into a bowl that was right next to the rock and he started to sign his name.

“Craving...of the Assembly.”

Craving handed the brush off. Allure was the next person. She sighed. I could almost read her mind. She still thought this was a bad idea. Allure was still over thinking things. Maybe she was right. Maybe she should have been concerned.

“Allure...of the Assembly.”

She walked over to me next. She handed me the brush. For a minute she seemed like she was so pissed that she was just going to throw the brush at me. I knew Allure was beyond mad. I walked over to the rock. I was the third.

I looked at the rock. I started noticing all the names on there. God. There were a lot of names on here. They were all code names. They were all members of the assembly. I looked down at the bowl that was used for the ink. I dipped the brush into the ink. When I brought the brush up I realized that this was definitely not ink.

No...this was blood. We were signing in blood.

I signed my codename.

“Desire...of the Assembly.”

I walked over to Urge. He was the last one. I was about to hand him the brush but he held onto it. He held onto it and leaned in really close to me for a second.

“Get ready. I'm about to go for it.”
Urge was serious. He wasn't even nervous. He was just ready. I felt nervous. I felt nervous as FUCK. I went and stood between Craving and Allure. Craving looked at me and I nodded at him. I then did the same thing to Allure. Urge was about to make a move.

We had to be ready. The time was now. We had to be ready.

“Urge...of the Assembly.”

Urge got back up after signing the rock. He was making his way to the moderator. I could see how slow and steady he walked. He was looking for an opening. He was looking for an opening.

Something was about to happen!

Everything was about to go down. Right now!
I felt my heart racing faster. I felt my palms getting more and more sweaty as I realized that something was definitely about to go down. I tried to think of which moderator I would go after. I tried to think of how it would be possible to get to them before I ended up getting shot. I had to see what Urge was going to do first.

I was so fucking nervous.

Urge reached out his hand with the paintbrush in it. He was handing it back to the moderator, “Here...we are done...”

The moderator looked at the brush for a second. Urge wasn't looking at her though. He was looking at her gun at her waist. I was looking at it too.

I sent a silent prayer out to him. I wanted him to be careful.

“Hey SILLY!”

No. No. No.

The voice. I could hear the sick voice almost immediately.

Craving was shocked by who it was as well. “This is not happening. This is not happening.”

The excitement that he had was completely gone. I felt the same way. My mouth had dropped. It was almost as though all hope had gone out of my body just at that moment.

It was Wrath!

No...not just Wrath. It seemed like he brought others with him. They walked up the hill. They didn't have weapons with them and they were dressed in gray scrubs. I counted 4 of them with Wrath. What the fuck was this? What the fuck were they doing here? I noticed Rage was one of the people that Wrath was with him. The fact that they didn't have scrubs let me know that these weren't trainees. These were actual members. These were the real deal. It was clear that they had to be Wrath's team.

“Shut up. Nothing changes...both of you act normal,” Allure stated.

It was odd that Allure who had been the most worried now was acting the most calm. She was clealry trying to calm us down. I tried to keep a straight face.

A moderator had walked up.

The moderator was calm and authoritative, “Codenames Wrath, Rage, Anger, Fury and Madness you are not authorized to be here. Leader Wrath, please remove your team from the vicinity.”

“That's not happening,” Wrath stated.

Wrath looked crazy. He wasn't even looking at her. He was looking directly at me. His eyes were looking at me with those same crazy eyes. It made me so fucking nervous. This man was out of his mind and the more I thought about it the more I was shocked. The weird thing was he wasn't the only one looking at me either. The others were looking at me. Rage was who I recognized. There was bigger guy next to Rage that was almost twice the size of Craving and two black girls with long Chinese bangs that covered their eyes. They looked as though they could have been twins and if they weren't twins then they were definitely sisters. They looked identical.

“Please remove your team from the vicinity,” another moderator said.

“That is NOT happening you stupid ROBOTIC bitches!” Wrath stated shaking his head, “See last night I had sent my boy Rage to check on my soon-to-be husband, Desire. I just wanted to make sure he was behaving before we got married. And guess what Rage overheard. Rage...what did you overhear?”

I was shocked. No...

He had sent Rage to spy on me! What the fuck? How had I not heard him? How had I not been aware that he had sent Rage to spy on me.

Rage walked forward his eyes almost as crazy as Wrath, “They are planning on running away.”

The moderators had turned over to us, “Explain yourselves.”

“Yes...BROTHER!” Wrath stated, “Explain how you planned on stealing away my man. I'll have you killed. I should KILL YOU, Urge. RIGHT NOW!”

“No. We will take them back,” one moderator stated, “Tom will decide. Urge cannot die. He is now Tom's successor.”

“Successor?” Urge asked.

“Successor?” Wrath repeated almost immediately, “I am my father's successor. I AM the oldest son. What the fuck do you mean? Do you hear me you soulless doll? I'm talking to you! Bitch. Look at me when I'm talking to you! What the fuck do you mean?”

One of the robots answered, “That is above your authorization, Wrath.”

That was when Wrath seemed to snap.

He went after the moderator who had said that. He grabbed the moderator by her neck and started running at her. He threw her off the cliff. I could see her falling to her death at that moment.

Just at that moment Urge made his move.

He took his gun from the moderator next to him. He shot her in the back of her head. I watched as she fell down.

“Now! NOW! NOW!” Allure was screaming.

There was chaos at that moment. I wasn't sure who was attacking who. The moderators seemed to be worried about detaining us and Wrath's crew was doing an all out attack on anyone within distance.

Allure had gone after a gun. She managed to get it. One of the moderators shot at her but she shot the moderator in the leg and started to run. I could see her feet moving fast. Craving grabbed onto my arm.

“Come on!”

“No I have to get Urge!”

A lot of the moderators were fighting with Wrath's team but three of them managed to take Urge down. It was clear they weren't trying to kill him. Maybe it was because of who he was. They weren't going to kill Tom's son. Still the bitches were stronger than I thought. I watched as they punched Urge, kicking him and pinning him to the ground. Two of them were pinning him to the ground.

All the while Wrath and his crew were trying to fight through the other moderators to get at us.

“No time!” Craving stated, “Come on!”

“Throw me!”

“What?”

“Throw me at them!”

Craving looked at me like I had two heads but he did what I asked. He was the strongest person I knew. It was nothing for him to pick me up and toss me into the melee that was ensuing.

I landed on one moderator and managed to punch the other moderator in her face. Another moderator had tried to take out her gun but immediately I heard a bang. I noticed that there a hole in the hand that she used to reach for the shot. I looked around. I didn't see who it was but I knew that it had to be Allure from some distance. There was no one else who had that kind of accurate shooting.

I managed to take her gun out of her hand and shoot the moderator. I watched as she fell.

“Urge. Urge!”

He was out of it. He was squirming. I had no idea what it was from but then I realized that he had been shot. I didn't know who shot him but luckily it seemed like it was just in his foot. It didn't seem like a serious wound but it enough to keep him squirming in pain.

We had to move. There was chaos all over but it was only a matter of time before someone came after us again.

“We have to move,” I told Urge, “Urge get up. Get the hell up. We have to move!”

“Leave me.”

“No!”

Just at that moment I felt an arm grab me. It was Rage. He wasn't alone. He had the two girls with him. The girls were laughing. LAUGHING. I wasn't sure what the fuck was so funny to them but you would think they were at some sort of comedy show. They looked just as crazy as Wrath was. You had to be crazy to make it onto Wrath's team it seemed like.

“I can't let you leave,” Rage was saying to me, “I can't let you leave Wrath. Can't you see he loves you? Can't you see he loves you?”

“Fuck off of him!”

Someone punched him. Someone punched Rage so hard that he went flying on the ground and seemed to have blacked out. It had to have been Craving. I was so happy to see my best friend at that moment. He was standing there.

“Ooo...look Madness,” one of the twins said.

“Yes Fury. He's a big one. Haha....”

They were laughing amongst themselves. They were approaching Craving. The two of them looked dangerous in some mad crazy way. I could only think about Gogo from Kill Bill when I saw how they just giggled like a bunch of lunatic school girls.

Craving didn't back down. He balled up his fists.

“Desire, listen to me closely. Get Urge. And get out of here.”

“I'm not leaving you. We can take them. It's only two. Two of them and two of us.

Rage was getting up.

Rage had that madness in his eyes.

“I'll hold them off,” Craving stated, “Take them and leave. This is your only chance Desire. If I am your best friend you'll do what I say. You hear me? You'll do what I say.”

“No...no...”

Just at that moment I felt Urge grabbing on your arm, “Don't let him do this in vain.”

I felt sick. I felt sick to my stomach as I grabbed Urge to help support his weight. A part of me wanted to just carry Urge to safety. I knew I had to come back. I knew I had to come back for Craving. I watched as Craving was fighting off not one assassin but three.

He was really holding them back.

Urge and I made it down towards where there were some trees on the mountain. The mountains were thick and there was a lot of bushes in them.

“Hey! HEY THIS WAY!”

I turned. I recognized the voice. It was Allure. She had her gun in her hand. I watched as she got close up to us. The look in her eyes said it all. We looked around. There was no one to be found. Craving must have still been on the top of the hill with the others. I thought about going back. I knew if I went back though I probably wouldn't have the chance to save Craving...or myself...

“You saved me Allure,” I said, “You shot that moderator in her hand.”

“I told you guys that you needed me,” she stated looking over at Urge, “Is he ok?”

“It's just a skin wound,” Urge stated, “I'm fine. We need to keep moving.”

“What about Craving?” Allure asked.

I turned away. There was this sadness that I had. Craving. Fuck. He had held them off so that Urge and I could get away during the melee. He had literally saved us as well. What the fuck?

“We can wait for him,” I said, “Maybe he'll get away...”

Allure shook her head, “I doubt it. He'd want you us to keep moving. You know that Desire. He'd want us to get away. We are almost in the clear now. Come on. I'll help you with Urge.”

Allure got on the other side of Urge. We started to help him down the hill even further. We were quiet but we were moving fast. All I could think about was Craving. All I could think about was the fact that this was happening. The further and further we got the more I realized that we could really get away. This could really be happening. We were really escaping.

But we were escaping without Craving...

I heard something in the trees.

“Stop,” I stated, “Everyone get down.”

There were footsteps. Not one or two. There were a lot of footsteps. We had ducked behind some bushes at that moment but I noticed what was coming towards us. There were moderators. There weren't just one or two. There were...dozens.

There were so many that I couldn't count. It was like a small army of these moderators were combing up the mountain at that point.

“Reinforcements,” Urge stated.

“You knew they would call them?” Allure stated.

“I figured we'd be gone by the time they showed up. Fuck...Wrath showing up slowed us down way too much.”

I noticed how they were walking. They were looking through the bushes up the side of the mountain. They were looking around all the trees. They were looking for us.

I noticed how close a few of them were getting, “They are headed right for us.”

“You guys stay down...for 30 seconds and then run the other way that I run,” Allure stated.

“What?”

“Allure don't,” Urge stated.

I didn't know what he was talking about. I was surprised that he was saying something but he seemed to be worried. It was the first time I saw Urge seeming to be worried about anyone else besides himself. Right at that moment he honestly seemed to be concerned about Allure. I wondered why but then I realized what Allure was doing.

“What would you losers do without me?” Allure asked.

Just at that moment she crouched under the bushes. She kept low until she was far enough away from Urge and I then she popped up. All the moderators seemed to notice her immediately.

She started screaming. Allure started screaming at the top of her lungs like a wild woman.

She was doing that on purpose.

She was leading them away from us.

No. No...all my friends were almost sacrificing themselves. This wasn't the plan! The plan was for us to escape together. The plan was for ALL of us to get out together.

“Stop it don't you dare,” Urge stated, “You are stronger than that. That is not my Desire.”

He must have noticed me cracking under the pressure. He must have noticed me buckling at the idea that all the moderators were now chasing after Allure.

She had led the small army away from us. She was leading them in the opposite direction. Now once again there was clear path down the hill.

“I'm fine,” I told Urge, “Let's go.”

We started to move now even more. I tried to hold back my emotions. I tried to be strong. It was impossible though. It was all too impossible.

We had managed to get all the way down the mountain. I could see the people. We were free. Urge and I. We had made it. We had it because the sacrifice of our friends who loved us. They had taken the fall for us. They had sacrificed themselves for us. I wondered if Craving and Allure were still alive. I wondered if they had been captured by now. A small part of me hoped they got away but I knew by the sheer number of moderators that was probably not going to happen.

I didn't have the luxury to think about what was going to happen to Crave and Urge.

“Not far now,” I told Urge.

“Yeah, right across that bridge there's a ---AH!”

All of a sudden someone had pulled Urge back!

Impossible. No one could sneak up on me! No one was that quiet.

Wait...no. There was one person that was quiet enough to sneak up on me.

“Hey there again silly,” Wrath stated.

He had caught up to us. With one arm he had grabbed the back of Urge's shirt and tossed him hard into a rock next to us. I heard Urge squirm in pain as he clutched onto the injured foot. It was clear he was in pain. How the fuck was that even possible. He had gotten down the hill so quickly. I reached out my gun at that point and pointed it at Wrath. I was too slow though. I was way too slow. He punched the gun out of my hand and lifted me up by one arm.

“Let me go!”

It was useless. He was so fucking strong.

I found myself kicking and thrashing at him. I managed to hit him in his crotch and felt him finally drop me.

“Now why would you do that?” Wrath stated, “I love you. I'll take you back to the Assembly. We'll get married.”

“I don't want to FUCKING marry you, you crazy motherfucker.”

I went over to him. I punched him a few times in the stomach. He backed up and then backhanded me. He backhanded me so hard that I spit up a little bit. I fell back. I tried to go after him again. This time I tried to dropkick him. God knows how far I thought I was going to get with that. He caught my feet midair and slammed me hard on the ground.

“I hate it when you call me crazy, silly, don't you know that?” Wrath asked, “I'm only crazy for you. Don't you get it. Now wait here. Let me go get rid of that brother of mine. I'll kill him and then we'll be together...we'll be together forever.”

He was going after Urge!

Fuck. No. No!
I tried to get up. After he had slammed me however my body was almost in shock. It wasn't responding to me as fast as I wanted it to. I needed my body to move. I needed to protect Urge. I had to protect him no matter what.

The gun. The gun. It wasn't that far away. I was a horrible shot though. I was useless with shooting. I started to crawl towards the gun as Wrath started to crawl towards Urge.

Urge was in pain still. He was still just holding onto his foot.

“You try to replace me as Dad's successor, huh brother? You try to replace me as Desire's man, huh brother? Don't you know I don't like being replaced? Huh?”

He was leaning in at Urge.

“Fuck you bitch!”

Just at that moment I felt Urge do something I wasn't expecting. Hell Wrath wasn't expecting it either. Urge seemed to get up all his strength and jumped from off the ground. He punched Wrath. He punched Wrath hard in his face.

“You little piece of shit,” Wrath was saying.

“Now! Desire, NOW!”

I shot.

I shot the gun.

I had closed my eyes. When I opened them I realized that I had hit my target. Wrath was bleeding. He was looking at me. The shot had went right into his stomach. He was holding at the blood and looking shocked at that moment. He just kept looking at me.

“Why would you do this?” he asked, “I love you...Silly...”

Wrath fell over at that moment. He fell to the ground in a loud thump. I don't think I ever was so happy to see someone die in my life. I don't think nothing made me happier than to see him on the floor like that.

I watched at Urge walked over to me. He was limping but he managed to grab me by my arm.

We had made it to the town. All I could think about was Craving and Allure. I kept thinking that they were ok. I kept hoping that they would survive. The town was busy. All these people walking and back and forth with smiles on their faces. I almost wanted to kiss them. They had no idea what Urge and I had been through. They walked past us not knowing how truly blessed they were.

“Come on baby,” he stated holding my hand, “The bus is that way. We need to hurry up. It's leaving in a few minutes.”

He had called me baby. I smiled at the idea of it.

It was a greyhound station.

Urge went to the front. I saw him pull out money, “I had this saved up for a while now. I never thought I would actually need money, but figured I would bring it today just in case.”

Urge didn't let go of my hand. He didn't seem to want to let go of my hand and truth was I didn't want to let go of him too. After losing all my friends this meant the world to me to have him here. I smiled as he got close. We were safe. We were away from the assembly. The bus was leaving in a few minutes.

I went up to the ticket agent.

“Can we have two tickets---to wherever that bus is going...”

The further I got from the Assembly the better.

“Actually one ticket,” Urge stated.

I turned to Urge. I was completely confused.

“What?”

“I can't go with you,” Urge stated.

“Urge. You are not Craving. You aren't good at jokes. I mean Craving isn't good at jokes either but you DEFINITELY aren't good at jokes. You have to laugh when you say jokes. Like haha. You know. Don't you know that? Why is your face not laughing? You're still not laughing. What the fuck is going on? Urge...you, you aren't joking are you.”

I was panicking. My heart was beating faster and faster. Urge just looked at me. He looked at me and then he slowly looked down. He wasn't joking.

“I can't go. I have a tracker in me.”

“What?

“My dad installed a tracker in me when I was a kid,” Urge told me not looking at me in my eyes, “If I go with you, they will find you. They will bring you back. I can't even stay here long.”

“You knew all along...”

My face wrinkled. My mouth dried. My friends had sacrificed themselves so I could get away and now he was sacrificing himself. My heart was in so much pain at that moment.

“Don't you dare cry...”

He was telling me not to cry but he was crying. I could see it. I could see the tears in his eyes. He was trying to hide them. I didn't even know it was possible from Urge. I had never seen this level of emotion but the amount of emotion he felt I felt the same.

“You are the love of my life Urge,” I said shaking my head, “I can't leave without you.”

“You can and you will,” Urge stated, “I did this because I fell in love with you. Kid, you showed me fucking emotions I didn't think I had. Iwas a male moderator before you. I was a soulless killing machine. You...brought me to life. And I am not going to have you live this life. I want you to live the life you wanted to live. I want you to be free...but it is going to have to be without me...”

We were both crying now.

I know we looked weak. All this talk about not showing emotion and I don't think I ever showed this much emotion in my life either. I looked at his face. I looked at his beautiful blue eyes as they settled on me. I was so in love with this boy. I was beyond in love with him.

“We can find a way to take out the tracker, we can---”

“There is no way to take out the tracker,” Urge stated, “Look. There is a bright side to this. Craving and Allure are probably captured remember. Tom will kill them. He will kill them unless I go back and talk him out of it.”

“Your father won't listen to you.”

“He will now that I am his successor,” Urge stated, “I'll give him whatever he wants if he spares them. Listen. If I don't go back Craving and Allure are dead. If I go with you, you will be brought back. There is no other choice here.”

“Excuse me. I don't mean to be rude but the bus is about to leave...if you are going to get on...you need to get on now,” the ticket lady said.

I was silent as I watched Urge pay for my ticket. He held my hand and walked me to the bus. The others were already on the bus. Urge and I just were staring at each other.

“Do you have any bags?” The bus driver said.

“No...no bags,” I said.

I didn't have a life. I didn't have anything to take with me. I had been a prisoner. If only they knew my story. If only they had any idea.

“Well we are boarding,” The bus driver said.

I looked over at Urge.

“Is this goodbye?” I asked him.

“I hope so...” he stated, “I never want to see you again. You hear me? I never want to see your face again. I want you to go be happy. I want you get married. I want you go be in love. I want you to have everything that I can't have. You hear me?”

I nodded.

I leaned over to him. I kissed him. It was a soft kiss. It meant everything to me though. It meant everything to me.

I started to board the bus but stopped.

“Wait...what's your name? Your real name.”

I had just realized I never knew his name.

“Dominic.”

I smiled. It was a beautiful name. “I'm Jonathan.”

“I love you Jonathan,” he stated.

It had been so long since someone had called me that.

I boarded the bus and looked back at him. I pressed my face up against the cold window. I didn't know where this bus was going. Did it matter? I was getting away from the Assembly. I had a chance now to live a normal life away from him. I had a chance to start all over. I had a chance to be a normal person. The worst part of it all was I couldn't even call the cops and tell them where the Assembly was. I had no idea still. They had drugged me before they put me in the van to take me to the mountain. I knew I was in Massachusetts now but I had no idea where that school building was. It didn't matter where this bus was going. There was happiness but mostly there was pain. There was pain from losing Allure. There was pain from losing my best friend Craving.

And then there was pain from losing the man who saved me over and over again.

He was wrong. I would see him again. I would see him every time I closed my eyes. As the bus started to drive away and I saw Urge staring back at me I knew that I would never forget him. I had really meant it.

He was my one urge.

And I was his only desire...

To read ahead now please go to www.crushedcrown.com