[six]

Coren had known Adri for most of his life.

They first met back when he was only ten years old, after his parents bitter divorced, he moved into the house opposite hers. His father had cheated on his mother, a few times, because of that the court ruling were favoured towards his mother. A few days after, barely managing to pack everything, they both moved away from the city lights of central Paris and set out on their four-hour journey to a little town on the outskirts of Nice, France.

His mother had wanted new scenery, she explained how the move would give them a chance to start again. Coren was too young to care, he had a few friends in Paris but none that were enough to make him want to stay. He was excited to move into a house with a garden, his mother had promised it was big. In Paris, the three of them shared a two-bedroom apartment with a small kitchen and an even smaller living room. When his parents argued, there wasn't any place to go where he wouldn't hear them, it was suffocating.

Even at ten, he knew the move would be best for the both of them.

When they parked on the driveway, he was the first out the door while his mother fished for the house keys. Coren noted how the house, rather modest in size, was just like the rest of the neighbourhood on his street, he liked the similarities. Rushing up the steps to the front door, he turned to appreciate how well kept the front garden was, there were even potted flowerbeds on the windowsill. His eyes roamed the street opposite him, wondering if every house had flowerbeds similar to theirs. that's when he first noticed Adri.

Well, it wasn't necessary Adri, it was her front garden.

Unkept grass mixed with overgrown wild mushrooms and the flowerbeds had managed to wrap around the window as if it was inches from breaking in. The most concerning part was the rubbish on their driveway. He wasn't sure whether there was a car underneath the pile or it was just a mountain of used, broken toys mixed in with bin bags. His mother had made sure that Coren knew to stay away, that all his privileges would be taken if he even thought about going over there.

He didn't need to be told twice, he wasn't that keen to go over to introduce himself either.

After a few days of settling into their house, picking rooms and unpacking, his mother drove him to school. It was only a ten-minute walk, but his mother insisted that it was on the way to work, that she wanted to make sure that he would get their safely. Coren didn't complain, he was quite nervous to start a new school, so he was happy for his mum to drop him off. Once parked, she double checked his tie was on properly, and gave him a quick hug before he jumped out. His mother waved at him bye from the car and waited for him to be past the school gates before driving off.

Coren noted how much smaller the classrooms were compared to the school he went to in Paris, but he didn't mind it. He quite liked how wide the windows were, it made the room brighter and it made him feel less anxious. Morning to afternoon, flew by with ease, he even managed to make a few friends and hung out with them during break and lunch, but it was the final class, English, which unsettled him the most. The teacher had enforced the rule of only speaking English, and that was not his finest second language. Sure, he was taught it in his previous school, but the teacher there was slightly more chilled, allowing him to slip in a few French words whenever he was stuck but this one was keen on English only. For all his classes he was forced to introduce himself and then he would be assigned a seat. The other classes were quite quick and easy, but this introduction was painfully slow.

"Hello," he nervously fumbled with his tie, "my name is Coren."

"What are your hobbies?" The teacher asked, she nodded in encouragement.

"Guitar?" Coren accidently phrased it as a question.

He wasn't entirely sure if he used the right word so he pretended to play an air guitar in front of the class, it caused a few of his classmates to laugh. A blush started to creep as he quickly let his hands fall down to his side, he tugged at the cufflinks on his blazer and prayed to just be seated already.

"You play guitar?" The teacher carried on, his blush intensified and he quickly nodded in response.

Noticing his discomfort, she clapped her hands and let him go, he practically ran to the only seat available. Unlike the other classes, there wasn't any individual desk, instead there were tables which had two students seated. The only one that was left was furthest away from the front, and the girl who was already seated, was admiring the view from the window. It overlooked the beach, he had yet to visit it, his mother had promised they would go the next weekend but he knew it was unlikely.

"Allô," he was about to say but quickly corrected it to a "hello."

She nodded in response before quickly moving her thing closer to her side of the table, then she went back to staring out the window.

That was how their conversations went, until the final year of high school.

Coren had remained in the seat beside her and would always say a greeting English, she would nod in response and that was it. On a few occasions he would notice the long sleeves school jumpers she wore, even in the hot summer heat but he never asked about it. She didn't seem to care about him, and the feeling was mutual so he quite liked their interactions, or lack of.

He had more important things to focus on, like the final year of school. His mother was pushing him to go to a private college that was quite out of their price range. There was a scholarship scheme that his mother had her heart set on so with that in mind, and his popularity amongst his peer, he managed to become the head boy for his year. Even though he was just representing his classes to his headmaster during school meetings, it still boosted his chances for the scholarship. All he needed to do was ace the exams during finals, then he was off to boarding college for two years.

A week before finals, Coren was walking home with his uneaten lunchbox weighing heavy in his backpack. The girl from his English class hadn't been going into school for over a week now and it was starting to bother him. They were far from close, he only knew her name from when teachers called for her during the class register.

Adrianna

In casual conversation with his friends, he asked about her wondering if they knew about where she could be, he was starting to think that she had moved away. His friends were quite taken back at how he didn't know that she lived opposite him, in the house that his mother had warned him to stay away from. In the very house that looked like a battle of grass and weed trying to get into the front door. The house that always had their blinds shut, lights off as if it was abandoned, that was where she lived with a younger sister, Celeste.

He went to unlock his front door but before he even reached it, he heard the strangled screams from behind him. Quickly, he turned around to see a much older man pull Adrianna's hair back, dragging her back into the house.

His feet ran ahead before his mind could catch wind of the situation.

Perhaps it was because he was on the track team but managed to block the front door with his arm as the man tried to slam it shut. Coren winced but he quickly overcame it when he noticed Adrianna's black eye, cut lips and tangled hair. For the first time, there eyes met and he had never realised how much pain he felt when he noticed the tears roll her cheek.

If he had given himself a bit of time to think things through, he would have walked away and called the police but instead all he saw was red. His hand shot at the man's face, forcing him to break away from the grab on her hair. He staggered backwards, his back hitting the banister stairs, caught out guard by the punch. Coren stalked towards him, rolling up his sleeves, with no plans of letting him off easy.

From there, things spiralled out of control.

The police were called, he had managed to only get a week worth of community service considering the circumstances but he lost the scholarship. His mother was so furious at the police station, that she had almost slapped Adrianna but Coren was quick to block the hit, getting himself hurt.

From that day, he lost a lot.

His scholarship, his mother and most of all, his future but for some strange reason, he couldn't bring himself to feel regret. A big part of him felt relieved, he finally felt that he had done something right, something that actually mattered to him. Ever since his parents divorced, his mother was pushing him to do better, to prove to his father that they could make it without him but none of the things he was doing, was really for him.

The day of his community service was the night, himself, Adrianna and her younger sister, Celeste, skipped town and travelled all the way back up to Paris. At first it was tough, the first few months they were homeless, hungry and broke but none of them were willing to go back to who they were. They hadn't wanted to turn to crime but smuggle things out of places were easy considering Celeste had light feet, Coren was the muscle and Adrianna managed to develop the charm in talking to their clients.

Over the years, Adrianna and Coren's relationship grew slowly from friendship and developed into an unspoken relationship, that only they understood.

She had somehow turned into everything he needed, creeping into his heart and in return, she just wanted him to be himself.

"You're sure they took her here?" Elijah asked, not looking away from his binoculars.

They three of them were crouched on the roof of a building, Elijah had been trying to find Adri for a good ten minutes, but all he saw were a few questionable men walking from room to room. There were some that blocked the entry of the unused factory building, Coren swore that was where Adri was dragged too, and just outside it, they left him for dead. He had managed to crawl his way back to the house, with the determination of getting her help.

Indiana noted, despite the building seeming to be abandoned, there was still a massive toothbrush statue on top of it that could be seen from miles, but she knew, it was far from being a toothpaste company.

"Yes," Coren grunted, he had refused to stay back despite the pain he felt. Indiana had warned him that he had fractured his shoulder, and that he needed to rest but he had out right refused.

"Okay," Elijah eyes narrowed as he scanned the windows again but then finally stopped, "second floor, middle one."

"Give it," Coren snatched it from his hands and sighed in relief when he saw her but his lips quickly curled into a snarl when he saw how they tied her to a chair, "arseholes."

Indiana and Celeste's eyes wondered to the rows of cars below them, it wouldn't be that hard to crack one open and fire it up, would it? She raised an eyebrow at Celeste, wondering if she had similar thoughts, from the giddy smile and evil glint in her eyes, she did.

That was how Elijah ended up behind the wheel of family car.

Indiana as his passenger in the front seat while Coren and Celeste in the back seats with guns in their hands, seat belts on.

They had weapons stored back in the house and Indiana knew better to question them, instead she followed along hoping no bullets would be used.

"You sure?" Indiana asked.

Elijah had insisted that he would be the one to drive since he had drove one year longer than her but from the way he gripped the wheel, it made her feel nervous.

"Yeah," he put the car into drive and eased it out between the car in front, narrowly missing it.

"Really?" Indiana felt unsettled at how his knees kept shaking, she didn't know whether it shook out of fear or excitement.

He didn't reply as he slowly drove to the factory, they were a good yard away with their headlights off, it almost felt like one of those undercover cop movies that Indiana use to watch with her aunt as a kid.

"Ready?" Coren asked, whilst checking his guns were loaded.

"Wait," Elijah muttered, he fumbled with the radio before it finally turned onto a station with some random rock style french song.

"Seriously?" All three asked, Celeste seemed to be the only one that seemed slightly amused by it from the way she hid her smile with her gun.

"It's relaxing," he shrugged, his hands tightening on the wheel but his knees seem to stop shaking, "ready?"

Elijah didn't wait for a response as he turned on the headlights to full beam, and revved the engine, it was almost as if he was warning them. Indiana squinted to see the men guarding the door, they started to stare at the them, wondering what was going on but before Coren could yell at Elijah to go, the car launched forward. They were sent flying, Coren and Celeste both rolled down their windows and shots were fired from either side. Indiana held onto her seatbelt, not fully understanding why she had agreed to this when she couldn't even handle rollercoaster rides.

The moment the car hit not just one of them, but the three of them was when Indiana started to scream causing Elijah to scream.

"Shut up," Celeste shouted from behind, while reloading her gun and going back out the window.

That did nothing to calm them, it got worse when the guy that they had just hit with the car, was now on the roof, tapping on Indiana's side of the window. She rolled down the windows while screaming at Elijah to slow down and punched the guy before he could touch her. The rear-view mirror reflected how the guy fell off the roof and rolled onto the concrete, Indiana frantically rolled her window back up.

"Elijah," Indiana choked and held onto her seatbelt as they drove into the factory building.

Similar to what happened in the pub, everything played in slow motion for Elijah. He peaked at Indiana, she curled herself into her ball, with her face buried into her knees while Coren was quick to shield Celeste by taking off his seatbelt and covering her. A second later with closed eyed and bated breath, they crash into the door.

Both Indiana and Elijah's airbags went off, Coren stopped himself from smashing into the window by holding the chair. There were a few minutes where Indiana and Elijah just blinked at each other wondering whether they were still alive but when Coren and Celeste jumped out, guns firing, they snapped out of it.

"You okay?" He asked her, using one hand to lift himself up right.

"Yeah," she did the same but her eyes wondered down to side, they were holding hands.

"You're bleeding," he went to inspect her cut lip.

"What's your story?"

Elijah turned around, the from the tower was beautiful at night, it overlooked the shops that were slowly turning off for the night.

"What do you mean?" He asked while tilting his head back, staring up at the sky. The star seemed brighter here, clearer then from his hospital bed.

"What got you into helping out at the hospital?" She leaned back against the metal railing, liking how no one else was there with them.

It took a few moments before he finally met her gaze, his eyes held a pain that she couldn't quite describe and his expression changed to what she could describe as regret.

"Your nose is bleeding."

Indiana flinched away before he could touch her, she muttered that she was fine before getting out of the car. Celeste and Coren had managed to tie the majority of the men up with some loose rope that they found on the floor, Indiana winced when she noticed a few were shot on the thigh. Most of them were knocked out because of the car so that was nice, but the few bleeding out were whimpering.

"Phone," Indiana called out, Coren quickly threw his phone over, she caught it and passed it to Elijah.

"Let's get her out," Celeste tightened the rope and reloaded her gun as she headed to go upstairs but Coren quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her behind him.

"You two," he pointed at Indiana and Elijah, "get a gun."

Indiana felt surprised when Elijah quickly complied after hanging up the phone, she didn't feel particularly fond of weapons. Back home, she was only taught how to unlock doors, not shoot a gun so she felt out of place with it in her hands. Her feelings grew worse as they walked upstairs, it was eerie silence as they crept down the corridor, checking each room. They were strangely empty.

Coren kicked down the door at the end of the corridor, Celeste cried out and was about to run ahead but Elijah quickly caught the hood of her jumper before she fled. Indiana grabbed onto her arm and yanked so she was behind them, that's when she saw Adri being held at gunpoint.

"Tu es venu," the gunman smiled, it was sickening.

"Laissez-la partir," Coren couldn't help the plea in his voice.

Adri smiled, trying to reassure Coren that she was okay but it only made him angrier, his fingers flickered at the trigger. He wondered if he would faster with the bullet but he didn't want to risk Adri getting shot.

"English?" Elijah asked randomly. Indiana tried to elbow him but he was quick to dodged it as he took a few steps ahead, only stopping when the gunman's hand tightened around Adri's neck.

"What?"

"Do you speak English?"

The gunman raised an eyebrow at Coren, who looked just as confused. Indiana tried to reach from Elijah's shirt to pull him back but was just out of reach, she didn't step forward out of fear for Adri. She internally cursed wondering why she had allowed him to come, he was going to get them all killed.

"I know a little English," the man relented.

"Good," he clapped his hands enthusiastically and stepped a little closer to him, "because we called the police."

On cue, the sirens cut in completely ruining the element of surprised.

[scenery by v from bts]

footnote 040819:

i hope this chapter does not disappoint, i just want to say thank you for support on this story and that i really hope you enjoy this chapter. 

feedback is always welcome and appreciated