Golden Leaves

Why Must I Be Here

"You know, I'm starting to get the feeling Dad's avoiding us," Five stuffed his hands in his pockets and frowned.

All four of us stood in a near perfect line and watched Reginald Hargreeves drive off in the exact opposite direction. The entire reason we came here, seemingly our last hope, drove off without even sparing us a passing glance.

"What gave you that idea?" I inspected a few cuts on my arm, "The glares or the driving away?"

"A bit of both, actually."

Lila pushed back her hair and stepped in front of us, "I hate to be the boring one of the lot, but we really need to get the hell out of here."

"And when you say 'we', who exactly are you referring to?" Five smiled at Lila in the way he always did when he was onto the person locked in his gaze.

Lila glanced at me as if asking if I was going to do something, and I just shrugged. Before this party, perhaps I would have defended her, but after seeing her lunge to help Five and me when Diego was fighting alone, there was nothing left to defend. Five was right, she asked too many questions and she knew how to fight way too well. If she truly was here for Diego and Diego alone, she would've helped him, not us.

"There is a lot of ambiguity in that sentence," Lila's voice dropped two octaves as she shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot.

Diego refused to even look at her as Five took a step forward. Half of my mind was focused on them, while the other half was searching the lawn. It didn't pass me by that the Twins had vanished just as quickly as they had appeared. One could make the argument that they ran before law enforcement could arrive, something which we should be doing, but I sensed something deeper. They had come for a reason and I doubted they would leave until they fulfilled their mission.

"Look, I don't know who you are or where you came from," Five spat, "But I'd advise you go running back posthaste."

"I just saved your life you kindershit!"

"A completely unnecessary action, believe me."

I crossed my arms, "There were two of us against one, and you chose to help us instead of Diego, who was facing two assassins alone."

"You are children," Lila sneered, "You can talk big all you want but that doesn't change the fact that you are very small people!"

"That doesn't excuse the fact that you fight like you know what you're doing," Five accused.

Lila wrinkled her nose, "Oh, so what, because I can handle myself, I'm the bad guy?"

"You're in my way. If I see you again, I will kill you."

Diego stepped forward, diverting my attention behind the group. My eyes moved to the nearby grove of trees just as a car drove by, shining its headlights on the area. On the patch of brown grass, a single bright green speck stood out. I slowly moved towards the grove of trees as Diego spoke, "Five, we have to go."

I crouched in the grove of trees and slowly picked up the small clover perfectly resting on the grass. The stem was clipped, someone had cut it with scissors, leaving a perfectly straight line just an inch down the stalk. There were only three leaves, and it was green enough to have just been plucked.

"Five!" I shouted.

A few hurried footsteps proceed Five standing just above me, "Clove, we need to go."

"Look at this."

I handed the clover up to him. As he inspected it, I stood, my eyes scanning the surroundings. Diego was talking to Lila nearby and she looked equal parts frustrated and shocked, but not confused. Most of all, she didn't look upset.