I began to shake all over. I have to kill him? I began to piece everything in my head. The way he tried to drown me. The way he reacted when I didn’t know what he was talking about. The video of the little girl, of my parents.

I looked Kyro in his eyes. Dread—that’s what I saw. The look of a man who knew he didn’t have much time to live.

“Did you hear me?” Kyro said. “I said you have to kill me.”

“I heard you.” I turned to face the Director. “I just don’t understand why.”

The Director nodded. “I figured you would want to know. It’s a new research directive that I’ve decided to take. Nothing personal. But we have to eliminate the weak. This research project requires the most powerful specimens for it to succeed. Having more than we need will just slow us down.”

I watched a video on the Director when I first got here. They handed each one of us a DVD detailing his past work. He was a notorious interrogator for the CIA before he took over as Director of the Gifted program.

He would use unconventional methods of coercion to get people to talk. If a captive didn’t give him the information he wanted, he would threaten their family. People knew that he followed through with his threats if you heard on the news the following day that a family had been killed by a drone strike while attending a wedding or a funeral, or a group of masked men opened fire in a public place where a captive’s family just so happened to be at the time.

All this viewing material was meant to scare us into submission, keep us from trying anything. I didn’t think for a minute that he would use those very same tactics on citizens...on teenagers.

“I won’t,” I said, looking the Director in the eye so he knew I was serious. “I told you, I’m not a killer.”

“Excuse me? Do you want me to kill his little sister? Your parents? All I have to do is give the word.”

I stood my ground, adrenaline pumping through my body. “You won’t do anything to them. You’re just trying to scare us, and it’s not working.” It felt good to stand up to the Director. It wouldn’t last, though.

The Director typed something into the tablet. Was he talking to someone? Curious, I looked at the screen. My dad stood from the couch and walked to the door. A man came into the house. He was dressed as a cable technician, hard hat and work jacket on. I could clearly see the gun hiding under his jacket from this angle. My parents, however, wouldn’t be able to see it. They’d think he was a real cable technician when he was really a hitman waiting for a kill order. He smiled and waved at the camera just in case the gun wasn’t convincing enough.

“You were saying?” the Director said.

I walked over to Scar, held out my hand. “Give me the gun.” Scar looked at the Director. He nodded. Scar put the gun in my palm. I turned and pointed it at Kyro. “I’m sorry.”

“No need to be sorry,” Kyro said, voice shaky. “You’re doing what you have to. I’d do the same thing if I was in your shoes. Just promise me one thing, will ya?”

“Anything.”

“Promise me you’ll make sure she’s safe when you get out of this place.”

I nodded.

He took a few deep breaths. “Do it.”

I fired a single shot into his skull.

Next Chapter: Chapter Three