Life After Death

Chapter 24

The echoing silence was all that lingered after the metal door was shut, and the clicks of the locks passed. All of us still stood up, staring at the door, as though we were somehow in disbelief. Or maybe we thought we were delusional enough to think we could use some sort of telekinesis and open the door from the inside.

Minutes later, Nathaniel slumped down against the wall with a thud. The first of us to make any movement, and this prompted us all to snap back to it. Jade and Jace immediately embracing one another, as they both were just thankful the other wasn't dead - something it turned out Jade had been told.

"Your hair," I mentioned, as a sort of question, to Whitney.

Her once long black curls, were now only to her chin. Even shorter than Jade's own hair, which had grown, and now went to nearly her shoulders.

"They cut it all off when we wouldn't say anything, it wasn't what they wanted to hear," she said bluntly.

"She's being modest, she was trying to stop them from beating me anymore, so they turned to her," Jade interrupted, speaking over Jace's shoulder as they still clung to each other.

Whilst sometimes we forgot it, Whitney, Axel, Javon, and Reid were all at least ten years or more older than us. And as we spent more time together, it became clearer that they felt protective, responsible, to a certain degree. Especially Whitney and Axel, and Dahlia of course had too. Perhaps it was down to their old jobs. Whitney had been a bartender, and I was certain that often came with trying to help people out when it came to drunken thugs. And Axel a school coach, his whole job had once involved being responsible for teenagers and keeping them from getting injured doing something.

"And clearly hair wasn't at all enough for them though," Jade said, pulling away from Jace and raising her hands "They were eager to get our fingernails too."

We all squirmed and recoiled as we saw their fingers. Now reduced to just bloody and ripped lumps of flesh.

"It's alright," Whitney sighed, "Now that they're at least scabbed, they could hurt far worse than they do now."

"And did anyone else get those... carvings? Of the scythe," Jade asked, raising her trousers to show a bloody ankle.

Both me, Axel and Jace nodded, rolling up sleeves, shirts and trousers to show each other the marks, brandings.

"Well, I did get it," I looked at Nathaniel as I showed everyone the bled through bandage, "But Nathaniel basically cut it off me," I said, and I explained the whole scene to them.

"What about Javon?" Axel now asked.

"We saw him yesterday, he was heavily bruised, but alive none the less."

Axel instantly, and visibly, became less tense at the words. If Javon had been dead, that would have meant that only two people remained from their own group, the one before they met us.

"Brooke?" I asked, although I knew it was fairly hopeful.

She was quiet for a few beats before telling me they hadn't seen or heard anything about her, which was the answer I had been expecting if I was honest with myself, just not what I wanted. The responsibility I gathered they felt for us, was what I felt for Brooke, especially since she reminded me so much of Amalie.

"That could be good though!" Jade said, trying to be the optimistic one, like usual, "I mean, they seem to enjoy torturing us. If they killed her, they'd make a show of it at the least."

"If they were telling them that they were dead," Nathaniel said, nodding his head towards Jace and Jade, "Then they'd have definitely told you if Brooke was dead, if they intended on killing her."