Fears

Chapter 24 |Ruby|

| Chapter 24 |

| Ruby |

We were on our way back to the cafe, hand in hand, talking about random things.

"See, I don't think that it would be a bad thing for Riley and Darren to rule the world," he said. "I know it would."

"Psh," I countered. "Do you know how much excitement there would be?"

"We have too much excitement to begin with." I snorted and shrugged.

"Hey, is that Lisette?" I looked toward where Levi looked and saw the blonde girl petting another passerby's schnauzer puppy. She stood up and smiled at the stranger as they walked on.

"Hey, Lisette!" I greeted. She turned and beamed at us.

"Ello! Wat a surprize! Where are zee reest of your American friends?" She asked. For the first time, I felt a little self-conscious next to her. Her medium length, blonde hair was done up in a half-do-thing. She wore a light blue sundress. I think I subconsciously shrunk back behind Levi.

"Um," I stuttered. "We split up for a while and--" I was cut off by a couple of playing kids running by. I chuckled. "We split up for a while to handle a few things." At this point, we were starting to walk back towards the cafe, which was surprisingly close to where we saw Lisette. As we went back, I tried my hardest to hear what she was saying through the curtain of her accent, but I could barely tell what she was saying. The most I picked up was some sort of event that happened at the cafe and she was spewing her words out incoherently. I looked to Levi for help, and he simply shrugged.

I sighed as Levi turned, obviously hearing something near us. Then I heard it, too. Somebody was saying our names. It sounded like... Riley? They were early to come back.

"Ruby! Levi! Guys!" He yelled. Then someone crashed into us. I righted myself and turned to see Riley, shaggy haired and disgruntled. He was alone.

"Riley?" Levi asked, grabbing his shoulders. "What's going on? Where are the others?"

Riley's wild eyes darted back and forth. He spoke between breaths. "Something.....Happened.... Van...Men...They were....taken." I gasped slightly and Levi cursed under his breath.

"What? What do you mean? What men--what van?" I stuttered.

He stopped to catch his breath, holding up a finger. "There were these men," he explained. "The ones from the hospital. They chased us down an alley and trapped us. A few of them beat the others up and threw them in a black van. Lakota told me to run, so I did. They're gone." He lowered his head and I saw his shoulders move in a sob.

"I didn't want to, guys," he cried, grasping Levi's shoulder. "But I had to or we'd all be gone. I'm so-orry," he hiccuped. Riley looked broken--no, shattered. I felt my heart drop to my stomach as though a weight was on it.

"Oh no," I breathed.

"Wat eez going on?" Lisette came up behind me and I jumped.

"Our friends are gone," I snapped, more hostile than I'd meant to sound. I could feel the sobs rising in my throat. I tried not to cry, I really did, gritting my teeth and digging my nails into my palms, but soon wet, salty streams fell down my cheeks.

They're gone. They're really gone.