Curfew

Chapter Eight

Gemma^^

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I wake up in a cold sweat. I can hardly breathe, and I'm struggling to catch my breath. I can't see anything either. Blackness surrounds me and my throat feel swollen and dry. I hear voices calling but its dulled and I can't understand them. My cheek burns and I touch it gently, my hand leaving wet.

The voices get louder and more clear. The blackness starts to fade. I try to slow my heavy breathing but I'm still gasping. My stomach rolls around, making me nauseous. Something cool is pressed against my mouth. Water. I drink greedily, trying to soothe my throat.

The water helps. The blackness fades, my stomach doesn't roll as much, and my throat isn't so dry. Phoebe's face clears up first.

5 inches from my face.

"Stella!" She cries, squeezing me. I wince, and force a pained smile

She finally lets go and crawls off where I'm laying. The pain returns, throbbing where my ribs are.

"What happened? After I got knocked out," I ask, looking at them all. First Phoebe, then Gemma, and last Isaak. I pause, before adding, "And where are we?"

I take this time to look around. It seems to be a hollowed out, underground cave. It kind of reminds me of...

"My safe house??" I exclaim. "How did we get here?"

Isaak rubs the back of his neck uncomfortably. "Weeeeeeellllllllllllll..."

"That Avery girl was crazy with a capital 'K'," Phoebe mutters.

Gemma coughs,"What happened was that after you and that kook went unconscious we dragged in the direction you were walking and Isaak tripped and face-planted into the little hole entrance to this burrow thing which apparently is your safe house."

"Thank you Gemma. What did you do with Avery?" I reply.

"We took her weapons and everything she was carrying on her, except her clothes. We aren't savages," Gemma answers again.

"Did she wake up? Could she have followed us here?" I ask.

Isaak finally remembers how to speak,"No. I don't think so. She inhaled just as much, maybe more of the dust than you did. So if you just woke up, then I don't think she could've followed us. If she even survived. By the way, how did you survive? I thought a tablespoon or two could kill you."

I open my mouth to answer, but hesitate. I'm not sure either. I check my dust pouches,"Ohhhhh, I used the bright purple root dust, not the dark blue. So that means she's not dead, just suffering from a killer migraine, maybe worse if we're lucky." As if on cue, my head starts pounding again. "Which reminds me. My head hurts. Hand me your bag Phoebe."

She hands me her bag obediently. I reach in and pull out the small box in the bottom. I open it and look through the vials and bandages. I pull out a vial labeled "HA/M" (Headaches/Migraines). I pop open the vial and pour three drops onto my tongue. I swallow quickly and take a drink of water. My throat burns for a second before a comforting chill rises from my stomach into my head, soothing the pounding headache.

"What's that?" asks Gemma. 

"It's a concoction I made to soothe headaches. I actually discovered the recipe on accident. But it works, so I'm thankful for that. Most of these I came up with myself. Why, you interested in medicine?"

"Well, I kinda wanted to be some kind of medicine person, maybe a doctor when I grew up. Before all...this happened," Her eyes brighten slightly.

"I'll teach you about my meds in here, and how to make them, and how to use them, and all that good stuff, yeah?" I offer with a small smile.

Gemma grins,"If you could, yeah!"

I wink and give her a smile. She beams. 

I turn to Phoebe, "What did you want to be?"

"I dunno really. I kinda sorta wanted to be some sort of secret agent or something, because I'm pretty good at recognizing patterns, and I have really strong senses. I think." She shies away, blushing as if embarrassed.

I grin at her, "Well, you did know we were being followed and I didn't, not until you told me. I'll bet you'd make a great agent. Mind if I interrogate-I mean, talk to Isaak for a bit?"

The twins nod. (A/N I fixed some stuff in the other chapters, like fact mix-ups and stuff). They head to the other room. Once we're alone, I punch Isaak in the stomach. He gasps in pain, clutching his stomach.

"What the *BAD WORD*?!?" Isaak seethes trough clenched teeth.

"WHY ON EARTH DID YOU NOT TELL ME THAT YOU WERE WANTED BY SOME CULT THAT WOULD KILL US BECAUSE YOU AND YOUR GRANDPA KNEW SOME STORIES?? AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! I MIGHT JUST KILL YOU FOR THEM!" I all but scream at him. "GREAT. NOW MY HEADACHE IS COMING BACK BECAUSE YOU'RE MAKING ME SCREAM AT YOU. WHY MUST YOU BE SUCH A WORD THAT I CAN'T SAY??" I pinch the bridge of my nose, and take some deep breaths, trying to restrain myself from killing him, or throwing him out to the Beasties. My head now pounding again, I sit back on the single worn out mattress (if you can even call it that).

"Sorry. Guess it must've just slipped my mind...I DIDN'T KNOW EITHER! Would you tell the person you were trying to hunt down that you were coming for them? No, you wouldn't." He crosses his arms against his chest, pouting like a two-year-old who didn't get his cheerios.

I roll my eyes, "A ten-year old knew we were being followed before you did."

"She knew before you did too,"He retorts.

"Yeah, but at least I did something. You just cowered away from everything."

"What was I going to do? Throw a chicken at her? Maybe a word or two?"

"Don't you dare be sarcastic with me. I'm the only one who gets to be sarcastic in this argument. And heyyy, did you happen to see any rocks around? I mean, if you didn't it's fine, it's not like we're in an apocalypse completely surrounding by rubble...oh wait. We ARE. Or do you just have worse aim than a baby who just came out of the womb."

He puts on his  female dog face (except, that's not the word she's actually using). 

"I'm done arguing with someone who can't form a valid argument," I shake my head in frustration. "I have no idea why I thought you'd be useful." I check my watch. It's about 11:30 p.m.

I call the girls back into the room. "We'll sleep for now, get our strength back. We'll figure out what's going to happen in the morning."

We all get ready for bed, and lie down. Phoebe and Gemma on the "mattress", me with some blankets on the floor next to them. Isaak is in the other room.

Right before I fall asleep, Phoebe whispers to me,"Stella? Are you okay?"

I close my eyes for a moment and turn to look in her direction. "Yeah, I'm okay." I add, under my breath, "For now."

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Heyyyyyyo! I finally updated! 

I also fixed up some facts and mix-ups in previous chapters, so if you want to check that out. For example, I made Phoebe and Gemma the same age again, I forgot I made them twins. I also fixed the picture of Stella (forgot I made her blonde). Hope you enjoyed this chapter, see you next time I update!

Oh, and by the way, I need a nickname for you guys...help me come up with some?

Love you guys! Thanks for all your support!

-Kaitlyn