I. Obedience

Blue turned into the block, and the familiar, quiet, dark building pierced Ivory's eyesight. Blue pulled over, and the three slowly got out. Ivory stood as the wind surrounded her, curly hair blowing in the air. The long, tall black building stood quietly, but it called to her.

Ivory wondered how no one noticed the building and why the police never came by. Ivory knew that the road was abandoned, but most people liked checking out abandoned buildings. Maybe other gangs hung around the train station? Ivory couldn't come up with a plausible explanation.

The three walked inside, warm air touching them. Blue led them to the basement as Ivory was the hot dog between a bun; she felt cornered, trapped from the outside world. The air got cold, her surroundings darkened. For some reason, she heard furniture being moved around from above and faint footsteps, but thought nothing of it. She figured it was one of Blue's tricks. Ivory recognized the unopened door on the side and saw the hallway she first walked through when brought to the gang almost two years ago.

Ivory got small when Blue stopped in front of room thirteen. He looked back at her and smirked. "Why are you so nervous, Ivory?"

She didn't answer him.

"Don't be scared," Red seemed to be mocking her.

Blue laughed, "It's not like we're going to do anything to you, well, unless you disobey me."

Blue was super charming one minute, then aggressive and violent the next. He turned back to the door and opened it, revealing a woman trapped to the table, screaming at Blue to let her go.

Red scooted Ivory inside and closed the door, blocking it with his broad body.

Ivory stared at the lady, trying to remember where she'd seen her; the robbery hit her. The woman's husband shot her, and then Leech killed the husband. She wasn't too sure where the little boy was.

"Let me go," the woman shouted, "let me go!"

Blue ignored her. He didn't seem fazed by the woman screaming at him. His focus was on Ivory, his light blue eyes were apathetic. "Do you recognize this lady, Ivory?"

Ivory looked at her, the two making eye contact. "Yeah, I went with Fox and Leech to rob her apartment. Her husband—"

"—shot you," Blue finished, crossing his arms. Ivory nodded.

"I'm starting to think that the robbery wasn't random," Ivory said, narrowing her eyes at Blue.

"It wasn't," the woman said, taking a deep breath. "My husband and I were about to divorce because he was buying illegal drugs from some guy with dark hair," the woman said. "He's about your age, has a weird name. I always saw him come once a week at night to give my husband drugs."

"Hawks?"

"I don't know. I just know that these people are evil!"

"Her husband was a businessman here in the city and owed a great amount of debt to me. He bought hardcore drugs and refused to pay me back. That's when you were brought to the gang, so I figured that if you went and did as I ordered, you'd be a great fit for my gang," Blue explained. Ivory raised an eyebrow at the word "my."

"That's changed," Red added, puffing from his cigarette. Ivory coughed as the smoke hit her, Red fanned the air. "Since Roxie and Viper tried to put our name out, we're testing everyone's loyalty now: Hawks and Lucky proved theirs by bringing Roxie's body to the crematory. You partly proved yours by cremating her body."

"I'm guessing this is part two," she said.

"You'd be correct."

"Wait, how come you aren't proving your own loyalty to Blue?"

Red looked dumbfounded. "I don't need too. Besides, I'm here, aren't I?" Though, the look in his eyes said something different. Ivory decided to drop the conservation and turned to Blue, who didn't pay any mind to his second-in-command, or the woman. His attention was focused on her.

Ivory stared at the woman, trying to understand why she was here, but figured that the woman wasn't innocent.

"I'm guessing you did something to Blue," Ivory said.

"What makes you think that?"

"He wouldn't kill a random person," Ivory accused. "What's your involvement?"

The lady sighed, "I told my husband not to repay Blue, so that's why I'm here. All I know is that I won't see my son again, and I don't know where he is!"

"The kiddie's fine," Red rolled his eyes. "He won't remember a thing."

Ivory turned to see Blue staring at her. "Part two begins," Blue smirked.

"Blue, you're not doing what I think you're doing, are you?"

"No, you're doing it."

Ivory's mouth fell open. "I can't..."

"You can, and you will," Blue sneered. "If you want to go unpunished, you'll do as I say."

He pushed her to the table, and there she saw the twist and curves of all the familiar tools. It made her sick. Memories of her first time here unveiled; how that man hit Birdie, and Blue and Red had Gerald commit inhuman pain onto the unknown man. It was scary; his screams lingered behind her. The air got colder.

"I don't think she knows where to start, Blue," Red chimed in.

"Anywhere," Blue said. "She's lucky it's not her that's on that table," he sent her a devious smirk.

She's never felt so uncomfortable in her entire life. As she stood there, not knowing what to do, the kid began to cry, and she felt awful. She couldn't do that to the woman anymore.

She let out a scream as someone yanked her hair.

"Cut her up now!" Blue screamed at her.

Her heart began to beat, she looked away from him. She was frozen, no limbs would move, her mouth felt glued shut. He yanked her over to a small, metal table and banged her head on it. She fell to the floor as her head pounded, blood poured down her face.

The woman screamed.

"Blue!" Red shouted.

"Shut up! Or you can join her!"

Ivory stood up, unbalanced as she tumbled over and crashed onto a small table of other tools. Her head felt light, dizziness took over for a few seconds until Red picked her up and balanced her. After a few minutes, she felt better.

"Are you done now?" Blue crossed his arms. She notices that he always had his arms in the position; he was usually angry about something. "If you don't kill her in the next ten seconds, I'll place you on that table myself!"

Ivory slowly walked over to the woman, grabbed a tool, and grabbed a tool, and quickly stabbed the lady in the heart; her own pain felt the same as the woman's, but it was different. Her humanity was gone. The woman's eyes closed; she died on that table. Red took the tool out of her smaller hand and pushed her away as Blue called for Gerald to take the woman.

"We need to take care of Ivory's forehead, Blue," Red said.

"You might be right," Blue said.

They walked out to the car, and Red sat in the back, holding a hand towel to Ivory's forehead while Blue drove. As Red cleaned her up and bandaged her forehead, Blue ordered them food, and they all ate in silence. Ivory's never had such a difficult time finishing a cheeseburger in her life. Her head was pounding, she felt exhausted.

After a long day of proving loyalty, the three were back in the woods. They entered to see everyone else but Rover, Spike, and Harley chatting away, eating, drinking, and smoking. Lily and one of the other girls were whispering, quietly glancing at the blonde. Everyone had been so secretive.

Ivory quietly went to her room and closed the door. They were all unscratched; they all passed Blue's test. Ivory couldn't think straight, especially after killing that woman. It was crazy how Blue could easily discard others at his cost; it was crazier that she had to kill the lady. Ivory then guessed that everyone in the gang had killed someone. That was when she realized what Hawks meant when she wasn't ready to hear his stories. Ivory definitely would have judged him before, but after what she did, she understood why.

Ivory started to feel queasy, ran into her bathroom, and vomited, seeing her lunch go right in the bowl for the toilet to eat. She flushed the toilet after puking her insides out as the inanimate object took her offering delightfully. Ivory made her way onto her bed and laid there, feeling different. She felt numb, emotionless, several things. Everything came all at once, so finding the right emotions and thoughts was difficult.

Ivory felt that she'd never be the same individual again, but that's what being in a gang was about.