Euriv's Children

Chapter 4

*** Up top is Celia

Ali's POV

"SHE'S NOT ANSWERING!!" I clutched my phone so hard I may have broken it. "Why won't she answer?"

"What did she say?" Celia asked.

"Get back to the school, and then she disconnected her phone." I took a deep breath, sucking in the tears and wiped my eyes one last time. My hands were shaking and my brain was going a million miles an hour. Dad's body was just lying there, covered in blood. I removed the keys from his pocket along with his wallet. He wouldn't need it anymore.

"Wow." Jess said in awe. "She was right. Everyone is dead."

Bodies littered the area where Lucas should have been buried. I looked away, not able to see the disaster without trying to save one of them.

"A black Mercedes? Seriously? Are you guys rich or something?" Jess said indignantly.

"How did you get here?" Celia asked after we had all climbed in.

"Taxi." She crossed her arms, hiding her face in her long dark hair.

"Did you really met my Dad?" I asked, trying to keep my eyes on the road.

"No. Cathan only got letters from him. The last one said he wanted to meet his son." Jess didn't look at either of us.

"And he never did." Celia said sadly.

Why didn't he say anything about Cathan before? How were we supposed to get Owen and Eric back? "Owen. He's one of my best friends and I didn't do anything. I just stood there while that woman froze every atom of my entire being took him away."

"No one blames you for anything." Celia said softly, placing her hand on my arm.

The road went on forever, and everything passed by in a blur. I thought about every mistake I had ever made in my entire life. Owen could be tortured right now. Eric could be dead. Cathan, my brother, I may never get used to even thinking that. I could never get to know him. My overactive imagination went into overdrive. That was, until a giant dark cloud appeared over the horizon.

"Ali, that's the school." Celia pointed.

It wasn't a cloud, it was smoke. Smoke emanating from the school. My foot slammed on the accelerator Sixty, seventy, eighty, I prayed that there were no cops around.

Turns out, there were cops, but all of them were at the school, which was on fire. Well, not the whole school, but it might as well have been. Buildings A and B were being sprayed by hoses and every dorm was evacuated. Students were shouting, crying, and running everywhere, trying to find their friends. It was utter chaos. There were ambulances hauling kids away and coroner's vans zipping up bodies Who was it this time?

We moved through the crowd, trying to find Headmaster Caden. Someone slammed into my shoulder but we kept running.

"There." Celia shouted over the commotion, pointing to a man with a bright Hawaiian shirt and sandals. He was talking to a reporter and camera crews.

"Caden, what's going on here?" I coughed, trying to avoid the smoke. An asthma attack was the last thing I needed right now.

"Ali, just catch your breath. Where have you all been? Mr. Wright has been searching for you three. He said you didnt come back with the rest of the group." He hesitated, looking at Jess. "Where are Owen and Eric?"

"Kidnapped." Celia told him the story while Jess and i added in the extra bits. By the end, Cathan was standing there, rubbing his goatee, thinking it over. It was unnerving how much that man thought things through. Sometimes he claimed he needed a sign just to make a decision. This time there was hope that he was just stunned by what he had just heard to make a hasty decision.