Turned To Stone

Chapter 15 - Connor

[A/N little warning, there's some aggressive stuff at the beginning, y'know fight scenes. Yeah. I'll italicize all of it so if y'all wanna skip past go ahead]

Connor yanked his beanie off and tossed it behind him as he tackled two Skinwalkers, letting his snakes free. One turned to stone as they locked eyes, then the second was trying to claw his face and he had to slam one hand down on the center of its forehead.

Its skull crunched in with a horrifying sound. 

"Connor, move, there's one behind you!" Connor leapt off of the Skinwalker body, diving to the side and rolling to tackle the other one as it tried to claw him. He slammed its head into the asphalt and then brought his elbow down on its throat.

The last creature panicked and scrambled away from him as Connor stood. Or at least Connor thought it was running from him.

Evan basically flattened it to the one crashed car, cracking the thing to pieces.

"Zoe, are you okay?" Connor asked weakly, keeping his eyes down as he looked for his beanie.

She threw her arms around his shoulders. Connor could feel her shaking as he awkwardly hugged her back. "Hey hey hey, are you alright? What happened?"

"I was- just trying to- to help-" He realized she was sobbing and looked up at Evan, who was now standing off to the side awkwardly. The gargoyle shrugged, being as clueless as he was.

"You're fine, I've got you. Everything's okay." He finally promised quietly, even though as far as he knew the world was turning upside down and a lot of people were going to die, if they hadn't already.

Zoe sniffled and finally pulled away, wiping her eyes. "I don't know what happened..."

Connor gritted his teeth. But he didn't know what else to do, so he told the truth.

"It's my fault... we ran into a demon-fae in the woods... what did he say, Evan?"

Zoe turned, noticing Evan for the first time. She sucked in a breath and wiped her tears hastily.

Evan's hands were shaking a little bit, but he signed the last thing the creature had said to them. 

'Turned the world upside down, returned mythology to its original form.'

Zoe's eyes widened in horror. "That's a curse-line."

Evan frowned in confusion but Connor's eyes widened. "I knew I recognized it! Does Mom still have that spellbook in the attic?"

"That one and about a dozen more. We need to get home and warn them though, with the way our house is warded there will be creatures banging down the doors."

"Well they'll figure it out, right? All those creepy crawlies all over the place?"

Connor shrugged nervously. "Dad's gonna kill me."

"Not if we get to you first, little boy." Something hissed from the bushes.

All three teenagers froze, looking around wildly, but they heard the sound of creatures retreating after a few oments. Whatever these things were, they weren't going to attack right now."

"We need to move." Connor darted around the car wreck. "Zoe, can you move the cars?"

"I can." Evan said quickly. The Murphy siblings glanced at each other.

"Alright, go ahead." The two of them got out of his way and Evan went over to the edge of the one car, taking a deep breath.

He gritted his teeth and they heard the sound of grating rocks and metal as the whole wreck began to move.

Connor whistled lowly as Evan dragged the two cars to the side of the road. 

Zoe went over to the car and got in. "Alright, losers. We're the band of misfits this horror story needs to fix it, so lets get moving."

"Does that make me the suave leader of the group, since I'm arguably the most lethal?" Connor snickered. One of his older snakes nipped him but he ignored them.

"No," Zoe said flatly, leaning out the window of the car. "If anything, you're the idiot sidekick that everyone keeps around because we feel bad for you."

"Gee, Zo, I was thinking you might actually be okay with my presence for a little bit."

"C-Can you - could you- stop fighting!" Evan finally spat out. The two looked over at him to see his upset expression.

"We're in - stuck in the- in the middle of the- t-the apocalypse! Get- get it together!"

"Okay, fine." Connor finally huffed, walking over to the car. "You sit shotgun then so she doesn't hex me."

"Like I'd waste time and attention on you." Zoe rolled her eyes.

He got into the backseat, crossing his arms and slouching in the seat. For just a second, he'd thought that they would be able to get along for once.