Ashes of the Future

Chapter 9

With everyone else out anywhere but there, Dan and Cody stay put in the abandoned house that was Nathly's. The two of them had made themselves comfortable, piling cushions around the house, in the shape of football goals. They were making do with using a large bouncy ball as their football, as they horrifically found out football had faded out of culture. To boys who based a lot of their lives around football, the news was sadly as shocking as someone dying.

"It's just us two again, the dos amigas." Cody spoke, kicking the ball flying across the room, Dan gracefully controlling it from hitting anything valuable. He propped his foot on top of the football, while laughing to himself at his friends attempt to speak a different language that was anything but English.

"Your Spanish is embarrassing." Cody had taken Spanish as a GCSE. He failed it of course, even with the desperate help of Dan. However it was the only one he failed, his other GCSE results all being A's or above.

"But look at your English, who taught you that again?" But their attention was taken away from football, when they heard the sound of a phone. A sound they had been deprived of hearing for a few days now. There stood Lela, her dainty hand wrapped around a phone that looked too delicate to even hold.

"I would say sorry for taking so long to get here, but it looks like you boys were having a ball." Cody was confused as to whether the pun she just made was intended or not, but he quickly shook the thought off as Dan threw the ball at him and headed his way.

"We weren't even expecting you."

"Well someone's got to look after you, haven't they." Cody would've scoffed if he knew she was wrong, but she wasn't.

Lela flipped her phone around, leaving Cody and Dan on edge as they watched her messily handle something so fragile. The number displayed on her phone was Nathly's, but the voice was not. She quickly passed the phone over to Cody, mouthing 'it's for you.'

"Get your pretty faces down to Braidn's now." Charlie bellowed down the phone, knowing flattery would be the only way to get Cody out of 'bro time', without actually telling him the reason. A reason Charlie didn't want to state over a phone call.

"You're sounding chirpy, for you my love I'd go anywhere." A smirk cut across Cody's face, while Dan anxiously tried to listen in. That was one thing Dan hated about phone calls, the privacy of them. He was a very open person himself, but he also hated not knowing what other people were talking about.

"Just stop dicking around and get down here, you'll want to hear this." No sooner Charlie said that, he cut the phone call off.

Cody left the phone pressed against his face for a while, the cold glass itching the warmth that bared his skin. He could hear Dan nattering away in his ear, asking what Charlie wanted. But Cody didn't really know himself.

Without a sound, Cody grabbed hold of Dan, taking him out of the door with him.

"Where are you going?" Lela shouted after them, wondering whether following them was actually worth it.

"To Braidn's."

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The room was still as bare as the last time they entered it, with the added addition of Nathly. She had already claimed the bed, laying down fully spread out, while twirling a strand of hair around her finger.

Matt had appeared out of no where, Cody guessing that Charlie contacted him through Avry. If they were all here it must be important.

Braidn began to crack the silence, heading straight in for the truth. "We think your sister may be alive still."