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The night breeze covered my bare arms in goosebumps, and made me shiver under the moonlight. What was I supposed to think? What was I supposed to do? Tears started to form in the corners of my eyes, I tried my best to push them back, just trying to find Kacen and make sure he was okay. 

He was probably where we usually went to hide out at the swing hidden away by large green hedges decorated with fairy lights, so that's where I was headed.

Shoving myself past a group of drunk girls gossiping about who knows what, I was finally alone. "Kacen?" Wondering around the hedges, he was nowhere to be seen. "Kacen?"

Hearing no response, I turned around and continued my search for him.  As I turned a corner, a cold pair of hands slapped against my mouth. Fingers gripped onto my arm with so much force I had no room to breathe. My scream was muffled and with the loud party inside, surely nobody would be able to hear me as I was pulled away from any line of light. 

"Strip her, make sure she is truly who we are looking for," His voice was husky, and full of demand. I couldn't tell who he was and truly, I was too scared to look. I was shoved into another set of arms and let out another scream before my mouth was stuffed with a dirty rag and covered by another hand.

There were three large men around me and a younger looking boy who couldn't have been older than fourteen. 

"Here? Someone will find us, take her behind the house," One of them said in a low whisper, he was already leading the way when I started getting shoved. The two who were holding me shoved me forward and made me walk to my possible death, and I couldn't stop any of it from happening. Tears burned my eyes, and my whole body shook, my heart racing loudly in my ears. Terrified wasn't even enough to describe how I was feeling. 

"Do you really think it's her?" The young boy followed behind quickly, he kept glancing around every possible corner, he looked shaken up himself. "What if it isn't?"

"Shut up, boy. He was with her, he's been with her. It has to be her and if it's not we will just kill her before anyone finds us." As horrific as his words were, I didn't try to escape the grips or try to cry for help even though I knew it was possible. It would be stupid and could end up making me hurt worse or die faster, the longer they took, the easier it would be for someone to find me, although, I did hope someone would find me, I didn't want anyone else to get hurt. 

My high heel caught itself in the grass and I started to fall, the grips only went tighter around my arms and I was lifted as if I was nothing but a bag of flower. My shoe being left in the grass where I had tripped. 

"Stupid girl," One spat, my face being hit with saliva. "We better hurry before someone realizes she's missing," He added.

"Oh please, nobody will notice with how many people are in there." The other said, shoving me against the ground. I was only free from their grasps for a mere second before I was being shoved against the dirt, their bodies on top of mine so I couldn't escape. 

"Just strip her!" The third guy yelled, watching me carefully through his mask. Thats when I tried to identify him, all I could see were his eyes, and it was too dark to tell for sure, but they looked brown. He had a small scar over the bridge of his nose, perhaps it had been broken more than once, but it was easy to see with the moonlight laying over it. 

After replacing his hand with tape over my mouth, it was harder to breathe. Tears were falling down my cheeks and I tried to make noise to make them stop, but I knew I had no power over them and their combined strength. 

My dress was being ripped apart, and not knowing what was going to happen next made me squeeze my eyes closed and hope with everything that I had, that someone would find me before I could be killed. Just trying to listen to what they were saying and try with everything that I could remember. I was forced up from the ground, my arms being held tightly. I could hear and feel my dress being ripped, the cold hitting against my skin making me tremble. They ripped the straps off my shoulders and shoved it off of me, leaving me in nothing but my under garments. They looked over me slowly, carefully. 

They were looking for my mark. 

When the thought hit me, I suddenly regretted not screaming for help or trying harder to break free. 

Being shoved against the brick wall, their eyes stabbed into my back and I let out a cry, trying my best to wiggle my arms from their grasps, but it was too late. "Its her, oh my gosh it's actually her," He sounded as if he was about to cry, and I didn't care to learn why. There could be nothing good out of this. 

It became quiet, and the hands that were holding me fell away from me. I squeezed my eyes closed, a sob falling from my lips waiting for something worse to happen, but nothing did. 

"Blake!" 

Turning around, Oliver stood in front of me, all three of the men laying on the ground, not even a drop of blood to be seen. I ripped the rag from my mouth. "Oh my gosh," I started sobbing harder. Oliver ran over to me and wrapped his suit coat around my shoulders. 

"Its okay, they can't hurt you," He shushed me and pulled me into an embrace. "Lets get you out of here." He lifted me up and continued to walk, I didn't know why but I trusted him more than I probably should. 

"Where's the boy?" My question made Oliver stop. 

"What boy?"

"There was a young boy."

Oliver started walking faster, and then he let me down. "Get in the car," He opened the door for me and then ran to the other side. 

"What?" 

"Blakely, just get in the car. You don't have time for this!" He got into the drivers seat and I got in the passengers, not sure what was a good idea at this point. Oliver locked all the doors and then started to drive. 

"Where are we going?" 

"Somewhere safe," He assured me, not once looking in my direction. 

"What about my mom? Kacen?"

"Kacen left already, I watched him leave, he's fine. They shouldn't know about him, and your mom thinks you left with Chad." 

"What is going on?" 

"How many people know you're Blank?" His question made me tense up. 

"What?" My hand found the handle of the door as I watched Oliver carefully. 

"How many people know you're a Blank?" He asked again.

"I'm not." 

He looked over at me and sighed. "Look in the glove department."

I hesitantly opened it, and a familiar book sat inside. "How did you get this?!" 

"It fell out of your backpack when you fainted at school," He casually stated. 

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" My heart raced and I pressed my hands in-between my thighs to warm them and stop them from shaking so terribly. 

"If you had that book, You already knew you were different, but if the Ryders are after you, you must be a Blank. I am sure you are aware of that by now, so how many people did you tell?" He sounded angry, and it was making my heart race faster.

"Only my parents know and Thea and Kacen, what are the Ryders?" 

"I will explain everything you need to know when the time is right. You can trust me," He gave me a small smile and then looked back to the road that was being lit by the headlights of the car.

°•°•

Bursting awake, a scream escaped my mouth remembering what had happened only hours ago. Feeling like my arm was still being held captive, I glanced down at a large bruise. My gaze fell down to my knees, large scrapes and a few small bruises covered them, one knee still bleeding onto the white sheets I laid on top of. 

Looking around at the white walls and towards the door, I thought for a long moment before giving in and walking out of the room with a blanket wrapped around my body. 

Oliver was standing in a large kitchen and I found myself in a living space. "Good morning, I left some clothes on the counter in your bathroom, if you didn't find them yourself," He placed a bowl on the ledge of the counter and waited for me to take a seat. 

"Is this your house?" My question made him smile. 

"Yeah, this is where I live."

"It's very, white." 

"Is it? I hadn't noticed," He chuckled. "Here, eat, then you can dress," He pointed to the bowl he had set out for me and then he turned and got himself a bowl. 

"Thanks," Looking down at the bowl of oatmeal, I took a bite and just watched Oliver move around the kitchen. 

"So are you like, rich? This house looks huge."

"It's technically my brothers house, he made it with his wife," Oliver ate from the other side of the island in front of the sink. "So no, I'm not rich."

"So you live with your brother?" 

"I live alone, actually," He sighed and set his dish in the sink. "I am going to go do some work, feel free to shower or look around, just please don't go upstairs," He smiled and then left me alone. 

After hesitantly finishing my oatmeal, I walked back into the room I had slept in and found the bathroom Oliver talked about. There was a change of clothes, which were just white sweatpants and a large white t-shirt. Everything in this house was white, I even noticed a white plant. How could someone live with so little color?

I put on the clothes, despite the pants being a little too big, and then decided to look around the place some more. I didn't have my phone, or really anything else to do, and I deeply needed a distraction from my thoughts. 

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