Fifth Avenue

Justin sat below the tree picking at a flower he had found, he had gotten a text from Candice to meet him under the oak tree near her house, which she had shown him after Hartley pulled that stupid trick.

His heartbeat began to pick up pace, his hair sticking up at the ends and when he looked up he saw Candice, her beautiful blonde hair shining the sunlight. “Candice” he says slightly breathless, her beauty making it seem harder to breathe “I’m so glad you’re here” she smiles sweetly, her soft hand brushing against his cheek. As it does a warm feeling floods throughout his body

“My love” she soothes before looking away, like she is sad “I have a problem, my mother, you see she isn’t happy with me, take me to your place instead, please?” she begs, never removing her hand from his cheek.

He knew it was against the rules, but he also knew the feelings he had for her were strong and it had to be love, so he had no reason not to trust her “Okay” he says standing up and taking her hand in his, loving the warm feeling he got whenever they touched.

Justin lead Candice towards the storage box, luckily for him everyone seemed to be inside so he wouldn’t get tackled when simply walking through the doors.

The sound of laughter echoed down the dark hall but Justin ignored the slight anger he felt for being left out and instead focused on the blonde bombshell walking beside him, the made it into my room and she took a seat on the bed whereas he took the dust covered chair across from her.

“Justin, baby can you look me in the eyes” Candice asks sweetly, without argument he looked up, finding himself lost in the ocean blue colour “Now I have to show you my secret, because I want you to love me, the real me” she smiles lightly before turning around, her hands fiddling slightly around her face.

When she turned back around the blue colour was gone, replaced with hot pink ones. “C-Candii” Justin breathed but before he could comprehend anything or call for help she jumps forward pressing her dry and swollen lips against his.

His eyes went misty as she pulled away and a smile of triumph took over her face as she saw her good work. “Now baby can you please go get your friend Hartley for me?” she pouts “Just bring her out to the street, we’re just going to play a game, but don’t tell her I’m here I want it to be a surprise. Just tell her you want to talk and walk her out to the street, okay” she rubs his shoulder and he nods leaving the room.

Hartley was walking down the hall and was going to walk straight past Justin but he stopped her by placing his hand on her shoulder “Listen Hartley I just wanted to sorry, I mean for Candice I don’t know what came over me” he says softly “and I know that it was a really cruel move” he sighs pretending to feel sympathy for her “Look I have a surprise for you, will you come with me please?” Hartley obviously wanted to say no but Justin’s hand tightened on her shoulder telling her he wasn’t going to let her go.

They both walked out, Justin behind Hartley. She felt worried, her heartbeat hitting against her ribcage, something was wrong, she could tell because he never called her Hartley.

When they reached the road, Justin stopped “Okay um this is a good place to do it I guess” Hartley turns towards him, he was scratching the back of his neck.

“BOO!” Candii shouts as she jumps from behind a tree and begins to laugh when Hartley jumps back. “I don’t think we’ve quite met yet,” she says circling Hartley, seemingly eyeing her. “I honestly don’t see what all the ruckus is about, you don’t look like much to me” Candii brushes a hand through her pink hair and lets out a tiresome sigh, “Hartley do you have any idea the drama you have caused at my workplace?” Candii stops before she goes on “Oh no I’m doing the speech” she looks to Justin and links her arm in his showing him something on her phone “grab her, we can go finish this conversation there”

Justin nods roughly grabbing Hartley’s arm and they were gone.

Candii felt ill, and when they arrived to wherever Justin had taken her, she leant over and threw up. “Oh, toughen up” Hartley says rolling her eyes.

“Grab her, let’s go” Candii orders angrily and Hartley smiles slightly before being lead down a long wooden corridor. Hartley looked around, trying to get as much detail she could about her surroundings in case she would need this information later.

Justin threw her into a crack filled concrete room and closed a large, heavy looking metal door behind her. A red light in the corner began to flash and soon the small room began to fill with smoke, Hartley tried to cover her mouth and nose but within minutes she was knocked out.

Several hours later she awoke, her hands stuck together with chains that connected to the wall, her head pulsed in pain and she could feel the drying blood sticking to her forehead. She groans before looking up, the room was in complete darkness but she knew she wasn’t alone.

“Come out already, I’m not in the mood for your games” she hisses trying to sound angered, but it came out weak and broken.

A chuckle echoed from the darkness and Wisdom steps out, her purple hair was greasy and untamed, her face was pale and her eyes were dark “Hello Hartley” she says leaning down so they were eye-to-eye “It’s so nice to see you again” Wisdom brushes her hand down Hartley’s face “You’ve looked better” she admits before standing up and turning on the lights making Hartley have to close her eyes.

“The world is a horrible and cruel place Hartley, you should understand that better than anybody, it took your parents, your life, your chance of ever being normal” she sighs brushing a loose piece of hair from her eyes “and trust me I understand how cruel the world is” she sniffles “having my own family taken from me” Hartley lunged for Wisdom but was held in place by the chains.

Hartley growled “Your family was taken from you because of you!” she yells “You killed your own family, your own children, so don’t give me the world is evil when the only evil I can see is standing right in front of me” Wisdom looked slightly taken back.

“He told you?” she whispered quietly “No he wouldn’t have told you, the only person he would ever tell is that little brat” Wisdom moved closer to Hartley, her metal leg clanging against the cold concreted floor loudly. “How do you know that?” Wisdom asks, this time louder and slightly angered.

Hartley gulps and looks down “I-” Wisdom grabs Hartley’s shirt closing her eyes, a large smirk on her face.

“You get visions, do you?” Wisdom sneers pushing Hartley away “don’t forget I have abilities too, so Hartley you really are just like dear old mum, aren’t you?” she teases “You see Hartley, in a way you are right, the world is beautiful, it is society that is the evil in this world”

“I was once a wife and mother of three, I had a happy life but society drove that away from me. My husband would never admit it to me but his career was going downhill, he worked every day and stayed at work all night, he worked all the time just keeping us afloat and then to make things worse, people began to spread rumours and I tried best to keep my family safe and away from speculation, but soon I realised there was nothing I could do, my husband could no, longer look at me with love in his eyes, we were veering the end of our marriage but I soon realised, it wasn’t me or my family that had any fault, it was society. I had no choice, Hartley don’t you understand?” Wisdom looked to Hartley.

Hartley noticed the three stray tears that had rolled down her cheek “Even you regret it, but you will never admit your mistake which makes you more of a monster than anybody else, you did the wrong, you were at fault, nobody else” Wisdom grabs Hartley’s cheeks, pushing her mouth together like a fish, Wisdom’s nails digging into the skin.

“Listen here you little brat and listen well, you can act tough, but the truth is you’re nothing but a scared little girl pretending to understand a world you know absolutely nothing about. I need your power, your parents were both connected to some of the most powerful blood lines in the world and they agreed to hand you over, I knew you would be powerful, but the idiots decided they wanted to keep you, so they hid you from me, I made them pay for that” she chuckled “so you are going to scream for me, I need to unlock your abilities so together we can fix society and trust me you will thank me one day” Wisdom stands up and walks away “Call in Reaper” she calls before the sound of a door closing echoes.