Old Friend

I slipped into the taxi, and said, "Follow that car!" I pointed to a car. The taxi driver raised an eyebrow at me, but did as I said. The car sped up, and so I told the taxi driver to speed up too. I was not about to let that car get away. The driver, once again, did as I said without a word. Either he knew, or he didn't care.

A few weeks ago, I was with my best friend, Ollie. He wasn't just my friend, he was also my partner. You see, we were both secret agents. Long ago, when we were only in 5th grade, we both read some books. All by the same author, Lemony Snicket. We read the series, 'A Series Of Unfortunate Events', and the series, 'All The Wrong Questions'. We were inspired to create a group just like the VFD in those series. So we did, and it had been a success, but it was failing now. Currently, we only have 7 members, including me and Ollie.

When I was with Ollie a few weeks ago, we held a meeting for our group. Our group was the WHB, the Willow Hallow Books. It was a strange name indeed, but it was confusing to anyone who didn't know about the group. We named our group after the town, Willow Hallow. We added 'Books' to the end, to make the name our own. We didn't want very many people to know about our group. We wanted to keep the information secret, and hidden from all of the world. Once information is out, it spreads, and it can't be stopped

The meeting we held was for only one reason; to go over our next mission. There was one person who knew about our group, and they were bad. Not like 'the annoying kid at school' bad, but 'actually bad and should be dealt with' bad. She was once a member of WHB, but betrayed us, and became her own. Nobody knows if she is working with others or on her own.

The taxi driver suddenly stopped the taxi, and I snapped out of my thoughts. I saw the car we were following disappear around a bend. The driver thrust his hand toward me.

"I can't drive you much longer, I've got to be somewhere very soon. So you should get out here. Pay before you leave, though," The driver said.

"Please? This is very important!" I argued, but time was ticking, and I still needed to follow the car. "Oh, never mind."

I shoved a 20 dollar bill into his hand, and quickly slid out of the taxi. The driver sped away, and I began to run. To catch the car, I was going to have to run, so I did. I ran as far as I could down the road, but my situation was hopeless. There was no way I could catch the car running. I wanted to stop, but for some reason, I didn't. I kept going, as If it would help.

When we had the meeting a few weeks ago, we planned our mission. We ran through every little detail and pretty soon, we had all memorized the plan. It was much easier said than done, but we still went on with it. The plan was to capture the traitor, the one in the car I was running after right now. She was trying to shut down our group, and we wouldn't have that. We couldn't. She went by the name Circe.

The plan was for me to follow her to her base, and spy on her. Then, I would call the others in to help me capture her. I was the main part of the plan, so if I failed, our entire mission would fail.

Ollie was also a big part of the plan. He was the one that would receive my call, then alert the others. If he failed, the mission would likely fail.

I pushed all the thoughts out of my mind when I noticed the sky begin to darken. The sun slowly disappeared, and the moon took its place, its glow only slightly illuminating the road. I had already slowed to a slow walk, and now I stopped, my throat was dry, and I had no water. It was night, and I was in the middle of nowhere. I was exhausted, and I had nowhere to rest. What was I going to do? I had just gotten myself into a big mess, and I had no way out of it.

I was beginning to think I would fail, and the mission would fail too, when I noticed the dim yellow glow ahead of me. It moved forward, closer to me, and soon I could tell it was the headlights on a car. Circe's car. It stopped, and Circe stepped out. She grabbed my arm, pulled me in the car, and slammed the door shut.

Circe spoke only 16 words, but it was enough. "I knew someone was following me. I had to go back to see who it was."

I didn't say anything. I didn't need to. I knew Circe would take me to her base, which is where I needed to go. Although she was going to lock me in a room, or worse, a jail cell, when we arrived, I would still be able to contact Ollie. He would come with the others. They could save me, and stop Circe.

I had one question for Circe. One I never got to ask. "Circe," I croaked. My throat was still dry, and I needed water. "Why did you betray us?" It was a stupid question, I knew, but I asked anyway.

Circe shrugged then said, "No more questions, and I can tell you need water. I don't want you to die of thirst."

She tossed a plastic water bottle at me, and I drank it all in 3 gulps. I was relieved that she didn't want me dead. I wondered why she wanted me, though. Was it because I was the leader of the WHB?

I didn't get a chance to think  about it anymore, for the car stopped, and before I knew it, Circe opened the car door. She reached for me, and I recoiled. I couldn't outrun her though, after all, I was in a small car, where she could easily grab me. I crawled into the trunk, and as Circe was opening the trunk, I quickly got back out of the trunk, and ran out of the door, which she had left wide open. I hid in the trees, while Circe looked around for me.

If she was mad, her anger didn't show. After nearly an hour, she gave up, and went into a small house near where the car was parked. Circe's base had to be the small house. I crept toward it, and stopped near a window. The curtain was drawn, and I couldn't see inside, but I could hear. I didn't hear much, only Circe walking around a few times.

Suddenly, the window shattered and a hand reached for me. It was Circe's hand. She smiled, and I screamed. I woke up, then realized it was a dream. But my scream was real, and Circe had heard. She was standing beside me. I tried to get away, but her strong grasp held me tight. I wasn't sure if it was my exhaustion, or me being scared, but at that moment, I blacked out.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a jail cell. Circe was nowhere to be seen. I looked around. There was a small wooden desk, which held bread and water. There were no windows. All the walls were made of cement, except the front wall was made of iron bars, with a door of iron bars too. I assumed it was locked, and when I tried to open it, it was locked. Just as I had thought. In one corner, a small room sat, with cement walls and a wooden door.

There was a small cot beside the little room, which I wandered over to and opened the door. Inside was a small toilet and sink. So far, this seemed to be a pretty nice jail cell. Except for the fact that it was a jail cell.

I heard footsteps coming from the stairs outside my cell. It seemed like I was in the basement of the little house. Circe appeared at the bottom of the stairs, and I shuddered.

"Kalie, I'm going to tell you the truth." Circe came closer to me. "I left you, because I hated seeing us fail. We failed way too much, and I couldn't bear seeing everyone fail. So I left. But it didn't help me. You guys thought I betrayed you, so for a while, I acted like I did betray you."

"Huh?" I said, and listened closely.

"I don't think you realized how close I was with you and Ollie. I-I'm sorry. I understand if you don't want to be friends again." Circe began to cry.

"Unlock my cell!" I demanded.

"O-okay," Circe fumbled with the lock, then pointed to the stairs. "I know you want to leave. And I'll let you. The stairs are that way. Again, Kalie. I'm sorry!"

"I don't want to leave," I said.

"Huh?" Circe blinked back her tears.

I walked over to Circe, and sat next to her. I held her hand, then said. "Don't cry, old friend. I forgive you."

Circe stopped crying, and hugged me. "You'll never know how much this means to me," Circe said.

"We better go find Ollie and the others! We're ending the WHB. You've been right all along. We fail way too much," I said.

Circe stood, and I stood with her. "Let's go," She said, and I remembered the old times, back when we were a group. I remembered, we were the best of friends. And nothing could separate us. We were still friends, despite everything that happened.

Because sometimes, friendship is stronger than anything. Some friendships can't be broken.