I just wanted to thank everyone whose been commenting! It's really been helping me focus on this story and It's also been a huge confidence booster! I haven't been feeling the best lately, so I thank you all! MusicIsATherapy you have been a huge support as well! And one of the main reasons I'm posting this chapter! So thank you thank you!

Enjoy the incredibly hot gif of Cade, A.K.A Miles Teller, on the side! Your welcome (:

"I told you you'd be fine," Tate made an effort to comfort Autumn. She wanted to go home. Autumn hadn't planned on staying, though a small part of her had hoped for it. She desired nothing more than to fly to her mom's house and weep in her arms.

"What happens now?" Autumn questioned, tucking one of her auburn curls behind her ear.

"You have to go see Cade."

"Cade?" Autumn shuffled on her feet as Tate guided her away from the council door. The guard refused to lock eyes with either of them. He simply kicked open the door and held it, the two sliding under his arm so they could speak on the other side and away from outside listeners.

"Yeah, I know it's a weird name. But he's a computer genius and . . . well . . . an overall genius. He's going to help us with your cover story- "

"Cover story?" She was muddled over the idea of having to create a fake alibi. What if these monsters didn't plan on keeping her alive? They could twist her entire life around and make it seem as if she didn't, and never had, existed. "What do I need a cover story for?"

"Kyra," he gulped when he uttered her name. "She-uh. . . she knows your face an-and she's going to be looking for you. We're going to need Cade to come up with a cover story for you, get the police and the exterminators off your trail so you can go home."

"Exterminators?" Autumn knew he was referring to Kyra and her group of peculiarly tattooed friends. Nonetheless, she needed to know why they had been deemed as exterminators.

"Yeah, that's what they call themselves. They're exactly like us, except for one thing- "

"Really weird tattoos?" Autumn strained to lighten the mood for she couldn't spend another minute enveloped in fear. She could also tell Tate was still worried. He was just as tense now as he was before they visited the council. Tate chuckled, his smile triggering Autumn's heart to skip a beat.

"Okay, maybe two things." Autumn giggled along, his laughter resonating through the hall. It felt good to take a second to laugh. It wasn't faked, it wasn't hidden beneath a layer of fear, and it certainly wasn't something she'd have to worry about.

"And what would that second thing be?"

"They don't look at humans the same way we do." And the moment of humor came crashing down and the terror returned.

"Well that's comforting," Autumn muttered to herself.

"All I can say is we're more peaceful about it. You guys live your way, we live ours. The exterminators see more; humans are in our way let's get rid of them." Tate had gone from valiantly defending her, to soothing her, and then to horrifying her all in a matter of minutes.

"Great," Autumn sniveled.

"Sorry . . ." Tate ran a rough hand over his face as he came to the realization that he'd almost made her crap her pants she was so terrified. The thought and explanation of Kyra and the Exterminators wasn't anything new to him. "Just . . . try not to think about them. They don't know where we are, they can't find us." Tate retried his comforting techniques on Autumn, succeeding to some extent.

"It's easier to think of them," Autumn scoffed the silliness of her answer. At this point, she was more speaking to herself than Tate, who stood with a raised brow. "The people here are just as mean. It feels like being locked in a pool with a shark."

"I wouldn't think about either of them. Think about . . . your boyfriend."

"And how he ditched me? There's nothing to think about that doesn't hurt." Autumn frowned, swallowing the lump in her throat.

"Ditched you?" Tate was clearly taken a back.

"I'd rather not think about that either. . ." He hesitantly bobbed his head. The door nearest to them opened and Clarke stormed to them, the guard readjusting himself as she had physically shoved him from her path.

"Time's up," Clarke informed.

"Time's up for what?" Autumn asked in a panicked tone. Was her time up? Clarke stared daggers at Autumn, and that was the closest thing she'd get to a reply on the manner.

"I'll take her to Cade really quick- "

"No, you won't," Clarke snapped. "You have to get in there, now. They kicked me out, so I'll take her."

"They . . . they kicked you out?" Tate was alarmed at the idea of facing the Council on his own and without his sister by his side.

"It'll be fine." Clarke had tried to sound sincere but ultimately failed. "Just don't argue with them." Clarke gave Autumn a shove as a way to direct her to move down the hall. "And don't simply inform them of anything, you idiot," Clarke rolled her eyes. "They're pissed about that."

Autumn wasn't properly given her chance to say goodbye, or to even try and ease his worry. Clarke, again, gave her a push and guided her through the maze of hallways. Autumn could feel all eyes on her as Clarke basically paraded her around.

Autumn never knew looks could hurt so much. They felt like knives against her skin.

They marched past her room and Autumn slowed her pace, prepared to stop and duck into the room. She had never wanted solidary more in her life. However, Clarke didn't allow her to hide. She gripped her arm and tugged her away from the bedroom.

Leading her down the extended hall, they stopped at the last room.

The room was rather large. The walls and ceilings were as plain a white as Autumn's room. Nonetheless, that was the only similarity the two had. Five computer monitors were drilled into the wall on the left-hand side of the room.

Under those screens was a big mahogany desk which was blanketed in papers, food wrappers, and Styrofoam cups. A man rested in one of the two leather office chairs that sat behind the desk.

"I smell a giant pain in the ass," he whispered the moment the girls entered the room. "Is Clarke here?"

"You're probably catching just a whiff of your B.O." The man whirled around in his chair, a cocky smirk planted on his lips.

"No, it wasn't me. The smell had a hint of discontentment and had no detection what so ever of fun . . . describes you perfectly, doesn't it?" He tilted his head as he awaited an answer.

"I don't care enough about you to respond to your pathetic attempts at an insult . . . the Council wants you to- "

"Who's this? Bring me a new girlfriend?" Autumn couldn't help but mimic his smile. The first feature of his she perceived were the heavy bags under his eyes. The second trait was his actual eyes. They were calm, almost inviting, and not full of hatred. Autumn found that enormously reassuring.

"This is Autumn-" Clarke began to introduce.

"Like the season?" He speculated.

"Cade-"Clarke made an effort to quiet him.

"Yup." It was Autumn's turn to cut Clarke off. "My mom has this really weird obsession with the seasons. She almost named my brother winter."

"Ewh really? Gosh, that sounds like one of those stupid Hallmark movies . . . My Brother Winter, I can already see it in all its low-budget catastrophic-ness." Autumn couldn't clamp back her amusement.

"The council wants you to help make her a cover story. Get the exterminators off her back," Clarke practically shouted, disregarding Cade's previous comments.

"Ahh, the council. Everyone's favorite soul sucking douche bags," Cade groaned, swirling around in his chair to face his monitor. "Except you, Clarke. You'll always be my number one."

"Will you act like an adult for two seconds?" Clarke moaned.

"Just two seconds? I think I can manage." Clarke inhaled deeply, her face morphing into the slightest red color.

"I'll be back. Cade, don't let anyone in here. And don't let anyone take her but Tate or myself- "

"I know the drill," Cade mumbled.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure to delay your ignorance to the Council." Clarke gave Autumn another shove.

"Oh please do, it would mean the world to me." With that Clarke stormed from the room, her stomps reverberating down the hall. Autumn hovered in the corner, watching Cade as his fingers flew against his keyboard.

"Well come on," he spoke up after a minute, hitting the empty chair next to him. Autumn hesitated, still on guard after her disaster with the older woman and the angry-mob of a crowd. "Come and sit down, I don't bite."

She paced to the seat, descending leisurely down into it. Cade paid her no attention as his eyes were currently flicking between the five different monitors. Autumn glanced at them, each one displaying a different image than the others.

That's when she noticed a small television sat on the edge of his desk. It was playing, a news anchor speaking at the scene of a crime. The volume must have been lowered or muted since the television was connected to speakers yet no sound was emanating from them.

Cade lifted his hand in order to run it through his disheveled ebony hair, a single strand fell against his forehead. As he did this, Autumn flinched. She had met the residents here for only a few seconds and they had tried to bash her face in.

She didn't trust Cade.

"So . . ." Autumn cleared her throat, wanting to figure out as soon as she could if Cade was a friend or a foe. "You-uh . . . you don't like Clarke?"

"It's not that I don't like Clarke," he rested his typing fingers so he could view Autumn, "I just don't love her when she's being rude, obnoxious, or brutal."

"And when is she not being those things?" Cade smirked, returning his focus to one of the monitors. She took his amused grin as an answer: Never.

"Alright," Cade clapped his hands together before pointing to one of the screens. A picture of Autumn from last Christmas was blown up on the top right monitor.

"How . . . How did you find that?" She interrogated, scooting her chair closer to the desk.

"I hope by now Tate has shown you his uh . . . gift?" He broke off, eyeing Autumn. "Oh dear god not that gift. I meant his power- "

"I get it," Autumn chuckled. "And he did."

"Phew," he relaxed. "Well this is mine; technology. I can learn any system, any software, within a matter of minutes. So, you can guess as to how I'm so good at finding people and creating well . . . profiles."

"Okay," Autumn wasn't sure what to say.

"So! Ms. Autumn Marie Sumner." The fact that he knew her full name in less than a minute was utterly unnerving. "You were living in an apartment on Watson Street."

"That's right."

"And your lease was up at the end of the month. Were you planning on renewing it?"

"I wasn't going to. I was going to move in with my boyfriend but . . . he uh . . .he left me." Autumn felt that was the easiest and least painful way to explain herself.

"Well that blows," Cade remarked. "You can't go back to that place anyway, just in case of course. We'll go ahead and send a message to your tenant. I'll change the date of the email to before the incident. Throw the exterminators off our butts, I'll go ahead and get some guys in to pack up all of your belongings-"

"How can you do that?" Cade directed a 'I already explained that' expression her way. "Right right, the powers."

"Don't doubt my mad skills," Cade responded with a snort. Autumn found herself smiling to some extent. It was nice to have someone she could feel relaxed with. Cade dug through the seemingly endless stacks of paper casing his desk. In the end, he found a piece of paper missing the bottom half and a pencil. He scribbled something down as he asked: "Do you have any family?"

"Yeah. My parents live in Washington and my brother's in Pittsburg."

"Okay, we don't want them going to your family. We'll have to throw the family off your butt too."

"What do you mean?" Autumn didn't like the sound of someone 'throwing her family off' of anything.

"What's your boyfriend's name?" Cade disregarded her inquiry, not desiring an argument about her family in that moment.

"Mark," Cade's smile plunged. "What?" He typed away on his keyboard and, in the top left monitor, a clip from a news broadcast appeared. Cade hit the spacebar, slanting back as Mark turned up on the screen.

Just seeing his face sent waves of anger down her spine and throughout her entire body; he had left her to die.

"Can you tell us what happened?" A voice requested off camera, thrusting a microphone into Mike's face.

"Yeah, my girlfriend and I came in to get some things. Someone just started shooting. Of course we were trying to help people get out but we ended up getting separated. The cops say they haven't found her inside and I . . . I'm so worried about her." His eyes flashed to the screen. "If someone took her, please give her back. We were going to start a life together."

Autumn could feel the hot tears in her eyes, she wanted to rip that no good liars face offf. Cade tapped the space bar, pausing the video.

"If it makes you feel any better, he seems like a total douchebag." Autumn choked out a laugh, finding it hard due to the knob in her throat. When she blinked, a few tears managed to leak.

"Can't believe I was stupid enough to fall for him," Autumn couldn't look at the screen, her eyes on her shoes. Just the sight of Mark made her physically ill. "I-uh . . . I knew that he was cheating on me," she looked to Cade. "I just . . . I don't know. I thought we could work it out. I-I thought he loved me enough to try. God, I'm such an idiot."

"Hey! Don't feel bad . . . I mean he's got the face of a charmer. Sort of looks like me. With a face like mine you never stood a chance. . . Anyway! Enough about my extremely fantastic looks and that moron. We've got to get the cops off your back. I'll file a report that they found you or something like that. I'll figure it out later. We'll email the family and let them know you're alright and you're going awa-"

"How long until I can see them?" Autumn pondered. Cade exhaled, tilting back into his chair. This was the hard part; the truth.

"I don't know. The minimum would be two or so months," Autumn's head dropped into her hands. Even though she hadn't seen them for more than that, due to the multiple states between them, it still seemed like a death sentence.

She'd been through so much. All she wanted was to be with her mom.

"Can I at least call them on the phone?" Cade bit his lip, a hundred things speeding through his mind at once. After a few minutes, he extended his reach around the desk and latched onto a cane. Gradually rising, he staggered across the room.

Autumn couldn't help but wonder what had happened to him. Whatever it had been done had occurred to his right leg. Cade glimpsed over his shoulder at her and Autumn averted her gaze. He shuffled past a few tables he had on the right and ultimately picked up a corded phone.

"You can use this," he shouted. Autumn rose from her chair and bit by bit made her way over. Making sure to be careful, and not to hit his bad leg, she squeezed past him and gripped the phone. "If they ask make sure to mention the police found you, everything's fine, you're going on vacation etc. . . ."

"Thank you," Cade nodded and stumbled back towards his chair. Autumn hesitated, eyeballing the phone for a couple of minutes.

She couldn't do this, could she? Lie to her family, leave them without word for a minimum of two months?

Making herself dial her mother's number, she clasped her eyes shut firmly. Autumn wheezed, petrified to go through with this. Terrified to push away the only people, she had left.

"Hello?" Her mother picked up on the third ring.

"Mom?"

"Autumn! Oh thank god! We saw Mark on the news! Your father and I were packing up our stuff to come out there!"

"I'm fine," Autumn fibbed. The words hurt and the tears that had been gleaming in her eyes commenced their fall.

"Where are you? What happened? Are you okay?"

"I really am fine mom. Mark ditched me at the first sign of trouble but I got out okay-"

"God! When I see Mark I'm going to ring his little neck out!" Her mother yelled.

"Mom," Autumn couldn't help but smile. "That's my job." It was hard for Autumn to control her emotions. She had to try not to sound like she was crying.

"Where are you now?" Her mother probed after snickering at Autumn's joke.

"Where am I?" Autumn reiterated, gazing over her shoulder at Cade. He was inspecting her, eyebrow elevated, as if she was going to make a mistake and tell the truth. "I'm with the FBI," Cade bobbed in approval and she broke her gaze from him. "I uh . . . They need my help on this case."

"Why don't you come here instead? Let those worker monkeys figure it out on their own." Autumn bit her lip, abruptly gasping.

"I can't, Mom. They . . . I need to stay and help figure this out. They're going to protect me in the meantime. As soon as this is all over I'll be on the first ticket back home.

"You promise honey?" Autumn couldn't find the words to respond. She couldn't keep pretending that she wasn't sobbing. Autumn found herself battling the strongest feeling of anger she'd experienced in a while. Her mother hadn't always been very bright. She believed anything she was told.

"Promise." Someone's foot began tapping against the tile and, when Autumn turned around, Clarke was waiting in the doorway. "I have to go. The agents have some more questions. Tell Steven I love him." She didn't want her stepfather to feel left out of the conversation or unloved.

"He'll be so happy to hear you're alright. Love you baby."

"I love you too," with that she ended the call. Head down, she circled around the tables and stood by Clarke's side.

"Follow me," Clarke drilled, departing from the room.

"Thank you," Autumn spoke softly, staring at Cade before racing after Clarke. The two strode in silence as Autumn sniffled. The halls were emptier now, making her feel safer. Clarke heaved open a door and Autumn found herself right back in the same room as before.

"I left you some pajamas on the bed. The doctor said you need rest." Autumn urged past her and into the room, standing by the bed. As Clarke stretched for the handle, Autumn spoke up.

"Thank you for what you did today." Clarke halted, her hand draping so forcefully around the handle it began to turn red.

"Thank you for making my life worse than it already was," she barked. "The council made a stupid decision today. No matter what, you are an infestation. I can assure you I didn't save you today for you. I did it to protect my family, which you put in danger. If you ever threaten Tate's life like that again, I will not hesitate to squash you like the cockroach you are."

With that Clarke smashed the door shut.

Autumn wasn't sure what had just happened. She felt as if everything was falling apart, crumbling to pieces around her.

She crashed to her knees, finally alone. Everything came at her at once. The store, Mark, Kyra, getting shot, the people here attacking her, having to lie to her parents, Clarke.

Autumn couldn't breathe. She wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and stay there for the rest of her life. Tears streamed down her face as Autumn cried for hours.

She was nothing more than a bug, and it seemed as if everyone wanted to take turns crushing her.