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Mireya’s mother. Mireya’s mom was the first victim. And if he’s still alive, and still protected… It means he’s watching. And the note. The fucking note in front of my door.

Maybe he never left her?

She can’t know that. But everything makes sense now. He didn’t kill that young girl because classes started again. He did it because Mireya was going to enter St. Ellesta.

She’s in danger.

She’s in fucking danger and she can’t know about it. Mireya needs to finish it all, and leave.

I’ll catch this son of a bitch.

80

Mireya

Play - Youth by Daughter

Only the strongest survive

Training starts near the cliff today. Hayzel and I run together as pairs, Mrs Green doesn’t look at us when she tells us we won’t see the water until we finish. She just points and keeps walking slowly as we go faster.

“She’s a tyrant,” Hayzel says breathlessly.

I laugh and catch Ethan running toward us. “My favorite girls,” he yells and comes closer to us.

“Run faster, Bennett, you’re getting slower,” Hayzel replies as we keep our speed.

The path drops and everyone adjusts without talking. Sand and stone, breath getting heavier, Will stumbles behind me and catches himself too late.

No one stops apart from Ethan who helps him get up.

The beach finally appears around the bend in the path. Wedged between the cliffs, it's much smaller here. I used to come here with Hayzel when I was younger, so the disappointment of the students who aren't from around here makes me laugh. The poor things were expecting something more magnificent, whereas it's mostly made up of stones and rocks polished by the water.

Some slow down immediately upon reaching the bottom, others simply collapse, no one expects Ms. Green to stop us there.

“Good.” Her voice is loud enough to be heard over the sound of the waves for everyone to look up. “It's not over yet. You're spending the night here.”

A few seconds of silence follow, then the protests begin.

“Excuse me?”, “The whole night?”, “Are you serious?”, “We have class tomorrow!” All repeating the same thing but Ms Green doesn’t care. She’s still smiling, waiting for everyone to stop talking.

I turn my head toward Hayzel at the same moment she turns toward me. “Absolutely not,” she says immediately.

Ethan, sitting next to her, shakes his head. “We signed up to be agents, not scouts.”

This elicits a few laughs from those around us. Ms Green, however, doesn’t even smile.

“Some of you may be assigned cases where you’ll have to stake out a place, target or entity for more than twenty four hours. That’s days of sitting in your own filth waiting for your bosses call, and when that day does come remember this very day when you’re all moaning about a night at a beach.” She says before looking away from us.

We’re all given bags, equipment, tents to pitch, and a list of tasks that no one really listens to all the way through. Around me, groups are already starting to form.

I pull out my phone almost instinctively.

“What are you doing?” Hayzel asks.

I look at the screen, then at her, and smile. “Blue is alone.”

“He’ll survive one night.”