I lay on my blanket which is spread out on the wooden floor of our treehouse.

Christina's quiet breathing next to me is the only sound I hear besides the occasional howl of some wild dog below us.

I exhale loudly and turn over, trying to get comfortable, but the restless feeling in my gut won't go away. Fed up, I flop over on my back and stare at the wooden beams that form the ceiling.

I think about what happened at the meeting a few hours ago. We were welcomed warmly by James and a few others, but got some cold glares from people that couldn't be younger than 60. I ignored them.  I learned that the person who started this whole operation wasn't Sam, as I had previously thought, but a man people called "Cheif". It was fitting, as the man was in his late 40's and had long black hair that was tied in a ponytail behind his head. This man informed me that I would start training tommorow because he 'liked the look in my eyes', and thought that even though I was too young, I was a much needed addition to the team.

I didn't even know I had a 'look' in my eyes. What was that supposed to mean?
 

I scrunch my eyebrows down and try to think of something else, but only bad thoughts come to mind.

'His name's Lee Taemin. He's the one we're trying to kill.' Abigail and Hazel's voices echo through my head, but I can't believe it. Someone like him was so cruel to the people of his country? I close my eyes again and picture his face in my mind, trying to remember each and every detail of his face. The more I think about it the more perfect it seems.

My breath catches in my throat as I think that soon I'd be a murderer. I'd have to kill him. I feel nauseous as I think of blood splattered on the picture. Squeezing my eyes shut, I turn over again and try to fall asleep.

~

The shrill sound of a horn wakes me up in the morning. I immediately sit up and look around the room, expecting to find myself back home in my own room. Instead I see a mess of blankets around my legs and my sister next to me. A blank wall stares back at me as the horn sounds again. I stare at my lap drowsily, then remember what had been discussed last night at the meeting- the first 2 horns were the horns to wake up the trainees- the people that were to be training to be assasins. I glance over at my parents and see my dad is still sleeping, but my mom's awake.

"You should get ready to go," She says. I nod and get up, careful not to bother my sleeping sister. I then walk across the room and grab the clothes that I was given yesterday night after the meeting. I quickly undress and slip on the tunic and leggings, then buckle the belt around my waist and pull on my boots. Looking back at my sleeping family one more time, I open the door to our house and step out.

~

Abigail and Hazel were waiting for me on the small ledge just outside our houses. I glance nervously at them and see they're dressed the same way I am- Long, dark green tunic that comes down to our mid thigh, cinched at the waist with a black belt, dark brown leggings with flat bottomed boots to cover our feet.

"Morning," I say, smiling. They both smile back.

"You better be prepared," Hazel says to me with a smirk, "This training is really hard, and we don't get to eat breakfast until we're done."

I raise an eyebrow. The training was really hard?

"Yeah," Abigail agrees, "The physical part is tougher than the mental part, though. You'll see what we mean." I stare at them confusedly and they just laugh.

"Come on," Hazel says, "I'll show you where we meet every morning."

They lead me across a bridge, then we cross over to another one, then to another and another. I look back the way we came and can't even figure out which house is mine- it looks like a maze of wooden bridges strung across the trees.

"Don't worry," Abigail says, as if reading my mind. "You'll know your way around here in no time. Ah, here we are." They stop at the end of the bridge we're standing on and I stop behind them, looking over their shoulders to see where we are. We've arived at another platform that's been attatched to the tree in front of us. They step onto the platform and I follow, noticing something strange about the tree in front of us. I realize that a door is built into the tree.

"You mean we have to go down to ground level?" I ask.

"Well how would we get a workout up at this height?" Abigail asks, staring at me with a raised eyebrow.

"I thought we'd be like, swinging on vines or something," I say, watching as Hazel opens the door and steps into the dark opening in the tree.

Abigail gives me a quizical look steps inside the tree as well. I follow and begin the descent down the dark stairway.

~

We step out at the bottom of the tree and onto the damp leaf covered earth. It feels weird to not be looking down at the ground from above and to be actually standing on it, even though I've only been suspended in the air for a day or so.

The sun is just coming up from the horizon, filtering through the trees and casting a warm glow.

"So," I say, breathing in the cool air deeply, "Is it just us, or are there more people coming?"

Hazel and Abigail laugh. "There are at least 10 more people that should be here. They should be here soon."

Right on cue, the door in the tree we just came through opens up and 5 people spill out; two are girls and 3 are boys. The boys are all about my height and look like siblings. The two girls are very short, and one is blonde and the other has brown hair.

I quickly learn that all 5 of them are siblings with the last name of "Johnson". They're refugees from Landion, and we hit off well together as we have a lot in common.

More people trickle down through the tree and stand around quietly, not making much of an effort to be friendly.

"You'll get used to it," One of the Johnson girls says with a small smile, "More than half of the people that live up here don't actually want to. They're doing it because they have no choice."

"No choice?" I ask, cocking my head to one side.

"What she means," The oldest Johnson boy interrupts, "is that they didn't move here by choice. Belegian soldiers kicked them out of their homes or burned them down."

I allow my jaw to drop slightly. I knew that Belegian soldiers had already invaded Landion- that was old news. But I had no idea that they had already burned houses. Was it really that bad already?

I close my mouth and look down at my feet. Lee Taemin. He's the culprit, I think angrily. He deserves what he gets. His smiling face on the poster in Abigail and Hazel's room rushes through my head. My mouth goes dry.

But I don't want to kill him. I don't want to kill someone. But I also want to protect Landion.

"Elizabeth!" Abigail nudges me in the side and I snap my head up from the ground. "Let's go."

I look around and see that someone else had just arrived- a tall, blonde guy that looked to be in his early 20's. I shoot Abigail a questioning glance.

"He's the trainer," She says. "We're starting now." Then she holds up a finger to her lips and stares intently at the trainer.

"Hi," The blonde guy says with a small smile. "I hear we have a new person today."
His voice is smooth and fuzzy around the edges. I try to remember where I've felt this way before- the tingle at the back of my neck, the chill down my spine-

His sharp eyes quickly brush over the crowd and I see them stop on me. He gives me a once over and then smiles again.

"And what is your name, dear?" He takes a step closer to me.

"Elizabeth," I say defensively, trying to resist taking a step back just to get away from him. "And who are you?" His eyes catch mine.

"Your new personal trainer. It's nice to meet you." I give a slight nod of recognition but don't look away. I hope it makes him uncomfortable.

After a few seconds of silence, he seems to realize I'm not going to say anything else and glances away, awkwardly laughing.

"Well," He then continues, coughing into his hand, "Since today is Elizabeth's first day, we'll be going easier than usual." A few relieved breaths are exhaled. "Run for 25 minutes as a warm up."

I slowly take that in.Twenty-five minutes is a long time, and although I was in pretty decent shape, I didn't know if I'd be able to keep up. I look around and see a few satisfied grins. The blonde guy has a small hourglass in his hand. He turns it upsidown and starts running.

The rest of the group follows after, and I run to catch up with Abigail and Hazel.

"How long have we been going?" I manage to ask between gasps for air, struggling to keep up with the rest of the group. Abigail looks back at me quizically.

"Probably about 20 minutes," She says shaking her head. "Is it really that hard?"

I nod and try to focus on moving my arms. The pace we were going at was insanely fast. It was almost an all out sprint to try and stay in sight of the main group. Abigail had dropped behind so she could run with me.

"You'll get used to it," She says reassuringly, "Most days we don't run this hard for a warmup... Actually, I don't think our Trainer has ever set the pace this fast before. It'll get easier, I promise."
I smile weakly in appreciation and try to inhale deeply, ignoring the fire burning in my lungs.

We stop running very soon after that. Me and Abigail walk over to where the rest of the pack had stopped and I sit down on the ground, breathing heavily with my head resting on my knees.

I look up just in time to see my new trainer walking toward me with a smug grin. "How are you faring after this easy run?" He asks. I take a deep breath and will my panting away.

"It was okay, I guess," I say, staring him in his snake-like eyes. I wasn't going to let him know that it was the hardest thing I've ever done physically and that I already felt bile coming up my throat. I also wasn't going to give him a reason to hate me.

I swollow the acid back down and stand up, ignoring the tightness in the back of my legs. "What's next?" I ask confidently.

"I'm glad you asked, actually," The trainer says gleefully. "HIde and seek."

I almost laugh out loud. We were playing that stupid children's game? I let a smile slip onto my face and look around. Solemn expressions plaster everyone's faces.

"How, exactly, do you play this hide and seek? That's what you're wondering, right, Elizabeth?" The trainer asks me.

I feel a glare forming on my face, but I take a quick intake of breath and put an expression of indifference on instead. "I guess," I say carefully, allowing no hate to slip into my voice.

"Well," He says, his eyes flaring intensely, "This hide and go seek is played here, in the forest. With weapons. You know what weapons are, don't you, Elizabeth?"

I feel anger bubbling up my stomach into my chest. Who was he to look down on me like that? I will away from my frustration and say, "Yes, I do know what a weapon is." I glare into his opaque, mud colored eyes, letting all the rage I felt pass through me into him. He glances away quickly and keeps smilng.

"Well," He continues, unfazed, "Everyone hides and one person has to find them. To avoid getting caught, you must fight them off and hide again. It's over when I blow my whistle."

I swallow nervously and allow my sore muscles to tighten, but keep an air of indifference. This sounds like a sick version of kindergarten. We're using weapons to play hide and seek, and if you mess up you could die. What kind of place is this?

Oh, that's right, I remind myself. This is a place training me to be an assasin to kill the Prince of Beleg. Of course you're going to have to learn how to kill people. My stomach ties itself in knots as I mull this over silently behind my poker face. I make sure that I seem totally fine with this. I wasn't going to let anyone know how awful I felt.

"Of course," The trainer continues, "We're not using sharp weapons. Just wooden ones so that you don't forget that it will hurt if you do get cut in real life." He then gives a short chortle of laughter and tugs the backpack off his back. ping it, he pulls out a handfull wooden knives and a few long wooden swords. Everyone around me jumps on the wooden weapons as I stand a few feet back with an eyebrow raised.

Of course, I think, everyone will go for the swords first. Those have the most reach length on them. The people with the knives will be hurt more and have to work harder not to get hurt.

I then internally scold myself for waiting to jump on the small pile of weapons. It was my first day, and that meant that everybody here was probably way better at handling a weapon than I was.

After just a few seconds, everyone steps away from the trainer, examining their weapon closely, spinning it around skillfully in their hands and eyeing me closely as I step forward.

One lone knife lays on the ground at the trainer's feet. I feel the trainer's eyes on me and look at him. An uncomfortable silence passes where nobody says anything. Hodling his eyes in mine, I crouch down and pick up the knife, then take a few steps back with it.

I hate you, I think towards the trainer, hoping that through my eyes he gets the message, I hate you and I haven't even known you for half an hour.

"Well then," The trainer says, breaking away from my glare, "It's time to find who will be the seeker. Any volunteers?" Nobody says anything.

"Okay, since it's her first day, Elizabeth. You shall be the seeker."

A grim silence grips the air. I glance fleetingly around our group. The seeker. The seeker. The person that finds the hiders. I gulp and then realize what that means. Even though it's my first day, I'm going to fight everyone I find. Wait, I think, thanking God I had just found a solution- I can "look" without the intent of really finding anybody! Then nobody gets hurt.

"Okay," I say, allowing a smirk to creep up my cheeks.

"But remember," The trainer says with a malignant grin in a singsong voice, "If you don't find at least five people, no dinner for you." The smile slides off my face and a feeling of dread fills my insides.

I hate you, I think, and I wish looks could kill. I hate you.

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