Project: Neverbound (A Double Life AU fanfic)

18 - The Moon

So there was only one thing he could do.

"STOP!" He cried out, staring down as many of the Watcher's eyes as he could. That alone started to draw its attention away. "I'll go with you, just- just don't hurt them!"

As soon as Pearl's barrier was on its last few legs, the Watcher seemed to take Grian's offer, raising its hand from crushing the two below. Pearl panted as she let up her magic, her energy being zapped from her body. It just now dawned on her what exactly her brother had done.

But she didn't get the chance to fight back. She didn't even get the chance to argue. The giant Watcher reached for Grian, picking him up by the wings like he was an insect, which compared to this thing he basically was the size of one.

One of its 8 wings behind a massive eye on the edge of it, and that wing took the centre of attention when it flashed its signature bright purple. Both Grian and Pearl knew this spell all too well; a Watcher's power to manipulate memories. As easy as it was to recognize, even if you could, it would already be too late. She and BigB began to feel lightheaded, and the last thing she processed before she passed out was the sky clearing up to its light blue once again, and the Watcher flying off with her brother.

No. She never knew that blonde. She was the only child in a normal, average human family. A bunch of Watchers coming down just to kill kids? What a load of nonsense.

No matter what the night will bring

—

She knew better now, of course. Pearl placed her trust in a giant build of marble, and now she remembered all of it. All of her Watcher tendencies, all of her childhood with Martyn.

But most importantly, she remembered Grian. She remembered him being her brother. Up until now, he was a stranger to her, just another face in the small crowd of 14. BigB too. She knew next to nothing about either of them, and now they suddenly meant so much more to her than ever before.

And neither of them knew it yet.

She could get to them later. She could convince them to ask the fountain another time. For now, there was an obvious problem up north, and she and Martyn were running towards it.

Flames licked the grass around, smoldering the walls of the house and crinkling the now burnt paint that coated it. Smoke rose from the orange death, covering the outside in a veil that was near impossible to see through if you could even keep your eyes that open around it. They were right about it being too far from Impulse and Bdubs's and too close from the Ranch.

It was Jimmy and Tango's house that was going up in flames.

Impulse and Bdubs were already stood outside, watching the house like they wanted to do something, but were clearly powerless to do so. Martyn and Pearl ran up to them.

"What's going on?!" Martyn asked, his voice raised above the crackling of the fire.

"I don't know!" Impulse admitted. "We saw the light from our house so we came out here to see if everything was alright, and we haven't seen Tango or Jimmy!"

"Isn't that them over there?" Pearl asked, pointing towards further down the road. As if right on cue, Tango and Jimmy came bolting towards the 4 of them, Zedaph also right behind the duo.

Jimmy looked like he wanted to ask something, but was far too out of breath to speak, so he instead took the time to heave as heavy a breath as he could to regain what little energy he had. It was Tango who spoke up, though he had about as much breath left as his boyfriend.

"What... the hell... happened?!" The creature asked between breaths.

"We thought you two were burning alive is what happened!" Bdubs yelled.

"I just wanted to talk about the ranch!" Jimmy explained, finally caught up with himself. "We went to Zed's for a while, and it got late, and we were going to come back when we just see our FUCKING HOUSE BURNING DOWN!"

"This isn't a normal thing, is it?!" Impulse asked, turning to his goat friend.

"No! Absolutely not!" Zedaph answered. "The last time I've heard of a building burning down here was an article from 30 years ago where someone left the oven on at a restaurant in the centre! Places don't just combust here!"

A piece of the roof cracked under the fire, sliding off of the top and into the grass to set more of it ablaze. If the houses weren't as spaced apart as they were, the partners would've been just as homeless.

Suddenly, Jimmy gasped, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes in fear. "Did any of you see Norman?!"

Pearl looked to Martyn as Bdubs looked to Impulse. They didn't even need to say it out loud for the blonde to know they hadn't.

He was about to do the dumbest thing he'd ever done in his life, and that was talking about the same man who let his twin sister convince him to pick up random snakes from outside.

Jimmy didn't even hear Tango calling for him before brought his sleeve to his nose and ran through the wide open door of the burning building.