• Hania watched the sky cautiously. She loved the smell of the night time, it was pretty late. Her mother was cooking food in the kitchen too, so the smell of the warm soup and the crisp air warmed her heart. The blank, navy blue canvas of the heavens stood before her, crusading plainly in full view to the world. Many people had seen lights flashing across the vast blue space, but she hadn’t seen any yet. They must have been earlier in the day. She sighed, turning to go inside, leaving the cool night air.
    “Nah’ ma, I’se ain’t seen any aliens.” she called in, walking inside to kick off her shoes. “I s’gest we leave da’ flashy lights for da’ neighbas. Eh?” Her accent flowed off her tongue naturally; she had been raised with parents who talked in a familiar way. She sighed, running up the stairs up and into her bedroom. From the other room her mother nodded.
    Slamming the door so hard the door-frame creaked, she agilely jumped upon to her bed and flipped her thick book open again. She hated it when her mother butted in when she was reading; she always lost her page. She started to flip through the pages, skim reading as she attempted to find where she left off earlier. She found it victoriously, grinning happily to herself as she flipped onto her back and started to read from where she left off.

    ‘ Then the ship suddenly rumbled, the captain sliding across the room on his chair. He slammed against the window, where it smashed and he plummeted into the sea. Damien and I rushed forwards, but missed him. We stared out of the broken window, out into the outraged ocean. Looking at Damien, I bit my lip. My face went pale, and my eyes wide. Damien’s face echoed mine, a face of shock horror. Water started to gush into the room as I ran to the controls. I gasped. We sprinted towards the door, but the water got to us first, and we were engulfed in the salt water. I kicked out to the surface, panicking. I took a breath, diving down to search for Damien. A light grey wolf was rising towards the underwater door. He took a quick glance at me, and I nodded, morphing as quickly as I could. My wolf form too big for my clothes, they were shredded immediately. A little upset, I took one quick glance at a piece of my leather pants. They were my favourite pair. ‘

    She read quietly. The corner of her mouth curled up into a half smile. She loved that book: The Stranded Pack. It was one that her friend from her old town wrote a while ago, she had read it about five times now. The storyline always intrigued her; the whole ‘morphing into werewolves’ thing rocked. She brushed her electric blue hair back and loosened the strap of her overalls. She always wore them; they were comfortable to wear and didn’t look half bad with her shocking aquamarine hair. And people never suspected the weird, standing out-y girl to be that important anyways. She needed the secrecy badly.
    A door slammed outside her house and she froze, listening carefully. They never usually got visitors that drove cars, especially ones that visited this late. That was the beauty of living in a small town. The only visitors that drove were the important government people who needed to talk to her. She was in hiding after all.

    Many years ago, she overheard a couple of men talking about something in the city. She was only 14 at the time, but she was as sneaky as ever. The men stood together, gathered into a small group.
    “...the upper court building...” she heard muffled whispers. “...around 3200 people live there...”
    “...national crisis...”
    “...bombing it...” they paused, and she missed some of the conversation. “...in the basement...”
    Within minutes, she was spotted nearby by the tallest and darkest of the gang and everyone advanced on her. She tried to run, but her young legs weren’t fast enough and the mean caught her, dragging her off. A small scar now remains of a painful stab wound to her stomach, inflicted by a rough crowbar. She had found out that the men were terrorists and she had heard a lot about their future plans. She had been placed in this town, not unlike her old town, and had surveillance laced across the house and watching everyone who approached her. Then again, she had been placed in many towns, and many more scars laced her body where the men attempted to finish her off. But Hania was a tough cookie; she wouldn’t go down that easily.

    The doorbell rang and echoed through the house. She leapt up to look out of the window, grimacing a little. It was exactly like she remembered last time she was nearly found. A black Mercedes was waiting outside her house, whilst a couple of buff men in suits were standing outside her door, waiting for an answer. Her heart raced. She hadn’t had any government visits for a couple of years now; surely there was nothing else she could do for them. She saw her mum open the door to greet them. The first, taller man flashed a silver badge and insisted they come inside. She nodded slowly, making room for them to come in. Hania watched in dismay, swallowing nervously, her energy pulsing out of her. Her room suddenly felt quite stuffy, so she opened the window wide, taking deep breaths of the cool, fresh air. It calmed her down a little, but she braced herself for her mother’s beckoning.
    “Oi! Hania! c** doon ‘ere.” Hania’s mum called up, her voice wavering. Gaining energy quickly, Hania jumped to her feet and towards the door. Pulling it open and shutting it carelessly behind her, she slid down the stairs to face the men. They were both grimacing. Something was up.
    “Hania Downhaven?” They asked, regarding her closely. They had obviously never met the eccentric girl before, otherwise they wouldn’t have such questioning looks on their faces. Hania was used to such looks, yet it was still disturbing to see it on the faces of two men in high authority.
    She nodded. “And youse being dose special gove’ment peeps?” She questioned, narrowing her eyes.
    They glared back, before pulling out their ID’s.
    “Special agents’ Kam Bridger and Chad Wolfe.” they introduced, shuffling awkwardly. They replaced their ID’s and looked at the girl with identical, warm eyes. She frowned. The taller one, Chad, had brown-hair and grey-green eyes. He had a tall build and long, mournful face, which scared Hania a little, but she didn’t show her mild fear. He seemed secretive and courteous, holding himself in a slightly cowering way. Kam, however, was very different to his partner. This willowy, golden-skinned man with curly strawberry blond hair stood more confidently and proudly than Chad, showing more authority than him. Maybe Kam was generally higher ranked than him. Chad’s appearance made him seem incapable of handling stuff on his own, no matter how old he was. Or maybe Chad was told to hold himself like that. Not that that made any sense. The couple looked around twenty-four, even though she didn’t find it in her best interests to ask them their age. Maybe later, when she had finished talking to them about the government or whatever they wanted. They sure seemed distressed, shadows were evident in their faces which indicated both lack of sleep and apprehension.
    “ ‘nd dere we were thinkin’ dat youse gove’ment peeps ‘ad done wit’ me.” she replied in a calm voice. She was unusually calm in times like these. Moving several times had given her that confidence.
    “ Yer, youse were s’posed ta be leavin’ us aloon.” her mother said dryly, a crease appearing in her brow as she walked over to stand by her teenage daughter. The agents grimaced again. It was Kam who stepped in first. Surprise surprise.
    “We have reason to believe that the terrorist group are after you again, and they know where you are.” He explained quickly, looking reassuringly at his partner, who then stepped forwards to help.
    “Our station was broken into and all of our files were salvaged. Yours was among the lost cases. We have a feeling that they were sold on the black market. Only a few men would be interested in your whereabouts.” He shifted his weight awkwardly. Blood drained from her face as she sat down on the wooden chair behind her. That meant that the men who she was running from knew where she was. She looked up at the men and swallowed nervously. Kam gave her a comforting half-smile, but dropped it when Hania looked down.
    “What youse gunna do aboot it then?” She asked, looking back up sceptically at Kam. He grimaced, then pulling out his PDA. He started to fiddle around with it, a gold bracelet hanging from his wrist, until a message came up on the screen. He hastily passed the device to Hania, who took it and started to read through their instructions.

    ‘Hania Downhaven. A safe house has been arranged for her in the city but she must speak to Rowen Shunsen, who will inform her with the details. She and her family will stay within the city perimeter until it is deemed safe for her to return home. Every security measure has been taken in order for her to arrive here safely, however if her family has no wishes to leave, then undercover officers will be station around the town to ensure their safety. For Hania no option as such has yet been presented, due to the exceeding amount of danger president in the idea. Whilst still in her current location, there is little chance that we can properly protect herself from the terrorists, the family is a different matter as there has not been any action taken by the group to attempt to harm them.’

    She read slowly, staring to go red with fury and her eyes blazing as she looked up to glare at the agents. Her nostrils flaring and her muscles tensing, she shook her head. They were pushing her around everywhere, and every time she started to get comfortable in her new home, they pushed her somewhere else. Now they wanted to take her back to the city where she was first attacked. It was overwhelming, and not in a good way. She hated being pushed around, her stubborn side took over. There was nothing that could change her mind... Apart from her mother, but that was a completely different matter.
    “Uh-uh. Youse ain’t takin’ meh back to da city, na way matee.” She argued. Her mother jumped up in alarm. She hadn’t known they were planning on taking her back to the city; she took a defensive stance in front of her daughter.
    “Youse ain’t takin meh daugh’er away agen.” She snapped, tears welling up in her eyes. What else could they do though?
    They already had plenty of security cameras around the house, they couldn’t do anymore without moving them again. They would have to stand guard at the house 24 hours a day, and that would certainly be suspicious. No-one wanted to move again, everyone had just got settled down. Hania had just started making friends, and the school had finally accepted her. Her mother couldn’t just pick up her stuff and leave, she had a job now, along with the women’s reading group. It was the closest thing they had ever had to a permanent home, they really couldn’t leave the little town.
    “sorry ma’am. That’s our orders ma’am.” Chad argued sheepishly in their defence. Hania sighed. If it was best for everyone, she had to go along, right? A thought formulated in her mind, and she suppressed a smirk.
    “Whatevers.” she agreed, to her mother’s dismay. She had a plan that would make her happy. Surely they weren’t planning on just keeping her locked up and not letting anyone see her. Maybe she could do some personal investigation. Special Agent Hania. It had a nice ring to it. Maybe she could even get out undercover, that would be perfect. She would find out everything about those terrorists, and she could finish what she started; snitching to the police.
    “What if we dose come?” Her mother asked, choking back her tears. Hania passed the PDA to her, and watched her as she read it through. She watched her mother fight back curses that ran through her mind, it was obvious when it happened. She finally answered. “Dat dun’t seys ne’thin aboot when we gets der.”
    “You’ll be under government protection.” Chad offered timidly. “not much would change from now, but you’ll be in the city and have undercover police escorts when you want to go somewhere. It’s not really that bad and it’s safer than just living here.” Obviously the outgoing nature of the mother and daughter had scared him a little. Hania smirked a little.
    ‘And he calls himself a special agent.’
    Her face straightened as she got up and regarded the special agents.
    “Well, youse be wai’ing ‘ere whilst I’se be packin’. Eh?” she said, excusing herself as she ran up the stairs and towards her room to pack her stuff. Again.
    She slammed the door carelessly behind her for the second time in the past half hour. Pulling a rucksack from the top of her wardrobe, she opened it and laid it on her bed. She looked around her room. There was so much that she wanted to take with her, but she knew the drill: clothes, essentials and only a couple of sentimental items. She started to go through her drawers.
    If she was going to do some undercover work, she was going to need some suitable clothes. She pulled out some black jeans which she had never worn, and a couple of plain t-shirts. A large amount of the bag was later filled with more of her casual clothes, overalls, and a small photo album she was given for Christmas. As it landed on her bed, it flipped open to a familiar page. It held pictures of when her and her father went to the zoo together, in the city. She was seven at the time, and her father was still alive. The terrorists had gotten to him after they got to Hania, but her father didn’t survive. She mourned foe years after. She smiled sentimentally at the photo’s.
    “I’se knowing you’re proud of meh, pa...” She murmured quietly, picking up the album and holding it close to her. She nodded, shutting the photo album and placing it in the rucksack carefully. Closing the bag and zipping it up, she sighed. Slinging it onto her back, she emerged from her room and walked down to face the agents again. They were both standing uneasily in the hallway, with her mother glaring at them. She hadn’t packed yet.
    “Oi, Ma? Why ain’t youse packed yet? Eh?” She asked, looking at her suspiciously. Her mother bowed her head.
    “Coz I’se be followin’ la’er on.” she said sadly, before turning and fleeing, not willing to say goodbye to her daughter.
    She sighed, looking crestfallen and broken-hearted. Kam coughed nervously, and she turned to gaze up at his sympathetic face.
    “We’ve got to leave now if we want to get there in time for the boss.” he reminded, turning to the door. Hania heard the sobs from her mother in the other room and felt her own eyes welling up as she left the house, climbed into the back of the car. She watched out of the window as Chad drove towards the city and Kam kept an eye on her from the passenger seat.
    “I’se no baby; youse dun’t haf to be watchin’ me’s.” She snapped. Kam quickly whipped around to face the front, keeping an eye on the busy road.
    “You think this is a good idea?” Chad whispered to Kam. Hania didn’t hear his answer, so she carried on staring out of the window.