✖ Chapter 19 ✖
THESE PEOPLE WERE seriously still stuck in a previous era. That much became clear when the tall gallows came into view. Daniel had jinxed us after all, and he seemed to catch onto that by the muttering I could hear over in his direction.
The ropes were beginning to chaff my skin around my wrists and around my neck, but I hardly noticed the burn with the thoughts of death circling my mind. I had never been one to want to end my life, but somehow I found myself praying I'd be the first to go.
Looking back on it, everything seemed to be my fault. And if it wasn't, my clouded state made me desperate to think it was. I even persuaded myself that I should have never stopped Rose in the woods, that I should have let her keep going. She would've been killed on her own, no doubt, by starvation or straying guards or even animals. But no, I had done this to her. She was here because of me, wasn't she?
I screwed up everything, I realized. I was the reason we all had nooses around our necks right now. If I hadn't lost my temper, we could've all settled down for the night and went to sleep. But no, I took it to far.
Everything was my doing.
"No!" shouted Megan, her worried eyes darting to me. "Harry, do something!"
I gave her a blank stare before ducking my head, letting the man behind me shove me to my knees.
Megan looked bewildered and absolutely confused. "Wha--you're just giving up?" she yelled.
I didn't answer her.
"Harry," Daniel muttered, eyes searching mine, worry laced with shock in his tone.
I didn't have time to answer, nor would I have anyways. The bald man had regained his senses, walking around to glare at all of us. When he got to Marcus, Marcus was stupid enough to spit in his face. Could none of them see that this was the end? Why were they so reluctant to the promise of peace?
"This one goes first," the bald man spat back, jerking Marcus forward towards the gallows.
Three men drug Marcus over while the rest lined everyone else up beside me, all of us on our knees and at their mercy. Any of us could lash out and take them all out, but they held back. Whether it was because I was holding back or it was their own choice, I did not know.
Rose was planted next to me in the dirt, her eyes wide. "Harry, why aren't you doing anything? Your father is about to be hung!"
I hardly glanced at her, my mind in its own world, one yearning for peace. "He's not my real father," I said, attempting to find a just reason for not wanting to stop this. "He never cared for me anyways."
She gaped at me. "What about Daniel? What about me? Are you going to let us dangle in front of you too?"
My jaw clenched. "I'm tired of this, Rose." My voice was hardly above a whisper, and I wasn't even sure she heard me due to the silence that stretched on afterwards.
Marcus actually laughed from in front of me, but I didn't look up at him. And right when Rose looked like she was going to step in, it was too late. The gasps that surrounded us were enough proof to say so. He was gone. Or slipping away. Either way, it was too late.
I was blinking unintentional tears from my eyes when Rose spoke again. "I know you're tired of running, Harry. I know. I know you don't want this kind of life, but you can't just toss it away either." She was speaking hurriedly, and I peeked to see they were waiting for Marcus to stop breathing before they grabbed another of us.
The scene made my chest constrict, and the tears dripped faster, but silently. "I can't," I whispered, squeezing my eyes shut and shaking my head. "And if we do survive here, whose to say we won't die tomorrow? Or the next day? I'm ready to go, Rose." Just saying her name struck pain through me.
Her bound wrists rose until her soft hands were on my cheeks, forcing me to look at her. "I'm not ready, Harry. I'm not ready for you to die, I'm not ready for me to die, I'm not ready for anyone to die." She tried not to look at Marcus' now limp body, and when she did, she blinked faster.
I was utterly pathetic right then. Maybe it was because I thought I was so close to giving up, or maybe it was just because I had never truly opened up. But the stupidest and most childish were kept spilling from my lips.
"I just want to be with you without all this other stuff getting in the way. I love you so much, Rose, but it's hard to keep using that as fuel when you keep getting shoved in the dirt. I want a future with you, and hell, even with Daniel. But I can't have that. That kind of luxury is nonexistent to me. I wouldn't know what a family was if you told me. But I want one. God, I want something that normal so bad." I shook my head, kept shaking my head. "But you and I both know it won't happen."
"Set us up for another demon!" the bald guy yelled, but his voice was far off. All I could hear and see was Rose.
And she was even smiling.
"We could have that," she said, her hands still on my face. "We could have a future, and we could have a family, and we could have a semi-normal life." Her smile was a sadder one now. "But not if you throw your life away and ours. Not if you give up."
The silence stretched between us as I tried to drill her words into my head, the possibilities that were endless for us. I tried to convince this other side of me that there were still plenty of chances, that we could keep cheating death if I only followed her words.
Shockingly, Aiden's soft voice drew each of our attention. "I have a plan."
The townspeople, too focused on removing Marcus' body for one of ours, paid no mind to us. Except a small little girl with dark hair and a wild look in her eye. She was standing right next to Aiden. Raven.
"I know you're not a monster," she whispered to me. "I'm sorry for getting scared."
I almost laughed, but then she threw her arms around my neck, taking the people's distraction as her chance to do so. And I'm not sure why, but those small arms around my neck made me imagine what it would be like to have my own child's arms tight around me. Not soon, no. But the future.
Raven was already ducking behind each of us and unwinding the ropes around our wrists. I kept my hands behind my back while the others tucked theirs between their legs since they had the luxury of having their hands tied in front of them.
"Okay, I'll distract the big ugly man," Raven said.
Aiden nodded, all of us remembering his four words. He still seemed incredibly shy, eyes lingering on Megan for a moment before they fell to the ground. "There's too many of them to try to run, so while Raven distracts the big guy, we could..." He was stammering now, nervous and I realized I had never even heard him speak so much before.
Jessie rose an eyebrow, thankfully still his normal self. "What, convince the people we're nice demons?"
Aiden looked like he wanted to glare at Jessie, but was too sheepish to do so. "Kind of, yeah."
Megan pursed her lips. "How do we do that?"
Daniel shook his head. "This plan is ridiculously childish."
Rose butted in. "Hey, stop knocking on Aiden. He's at least trying, right?" She gave me a short but pointed look with her words.
I swallowed, my mind whirling in a hundred directions but my decision made. "We don't do anything."
Everyone turned to me, and Daniel even smirked. "Welcome back to reality. Took you long enough."
"What are you talking about?" asked Megan, eyes narrowed. "You were willing to die two seconds ago and now you just don't want to do anything?"
I rolled my eyes, a bit of my old self finally sinking back in. "Think about it. We get up and go sit in front of the gallows. They can't kill us for just sitting there, and I know at least three people that will speak to our defense."
Raven nodded, pointing to her mother and Fay, who were stuck in the crowd. "My momma likes y'all. And Aunt Fay is awful nice."
Before anyone could say anything further, the bald man was back after disposing Marcus' body. That hit me then as well--my father, real or not, actually being gone. And it was because of me that he would now rot in the dirt. Sure, he wasn't the greatest human being, but I had done that to him.
"Who's next?" the bald man asked, still looking wary of us but trying to look tough in front of his lackeys.
Without so much as a glance to the others, I stood. Everyone shrank back, but I kept my eyes forward and walked in front of the gallows, turning to sit. Rose was next to follow me, then Daniel, then Jessie, and then Aiden and Megan together. We took the nooses off our necks, but other than that, made no movements.
"What is this?" the bald man hissed. "A peaceful protest by demons?"
Raven was right on cue. "Those aren't demons, you potato! Those are friends, and you can't hurt friends." She stomped over and sat beside me, tossing me a toothy grin.
Jane stepped forward, finally out of the crowd. "Those people have done nothing but ask for shelter and food. Even protected me. And if you harm them, y'all ain't nothing but cowards." She sat beside Aiden on the other end.
Fay scampered over, giving us all smiles and placing herself in between Rose and Megan. She even patted their knees, giving them reassurance.
Honestly, I had not expected such a thing to work. Nonviolent acts were typically not my way of obtaining justice. But one by one, villagers came to sit by us, all of them tossing dirty looks to the bald man when they had encouraged him only minutes ago.
Such a turn of events seemed impossible, and yet it had happened.
But even a bigger turn of events was about to occur.
The bald man, the one Raven had called a potato, was laughing. Hysterically laughing as if someone has just told him the funniest joke in the world. Tears leaked from his eyes from his laughter, his hand clutching his gut and it seemed as if he had gone completely mad.
But things slowly shifted into place--and I mean that literally. His bald head was soon flowing with blonde locks, all the way down to his shoulders. His eyes were no longer small and slanted, but wide and bright blue. His bulky shoulders shrank, his stomach sank in, and everything else about his appearance was completely changed.
A shapeshifter, obviously, but I had never seen this man in my life. And why he was still laughing like a hyena was beyond me.
Even the townspeople were staring, terrified. Raven tucked closer to me and I instinctively sat up straighter. I was grasping my wits again, and I'd be damned if I let someone take them away from me again.
When his maniacal laughter died down, he cleared his throat and started clapping. Slowly, as if we were all supposed to clap along. But then he stopped, straightened the suit jacket he was wearing, and looked down his nose at us.
"Aren't you all adorable," he remarked, his voice even a higher pitch than before. "And to think I thought she was joking when she said how senseless you all actually were."
"Who are you?" I asked, raising my voice enough for him to hear but also raising to my feet. I no longer needed to sit when this man seemed like a potential threat.
His lips formed a lazy smirk. "Does my identity really matter to you?"
The rest stood beside me, Raven still cowering behind me. Children are the best judges of character, I reminded myself, but it did not take a genius to know something was very off with this man.
"Only if mine matters to you," I retorted.
"Fair enough." The man shrugged, tucking his hands in his pockets. "If I'm being truthful, I hadn't expected to get away with a single murder, let alone your father."
My chest tightened again, but I swallowed. I was already beginning to feel the remorse, no mater how hard I tried to tell myself he didn't matter to me. And maybe he really didn't, but it was still my fault.
He folded his hands behind his back. "I really did not want to interfere with her silly little games, but I just had to see the infamous Harry Styles and Rosalie Parker for myself." He tilted his head at us. "I still don't understand what all the fuss has been about."
I was seething now, my personal life feeling invaded as this... jackass shows up and tries to joke. He was being anything but comical. Severely frustrating, but not comical.
"You have very limited time to tell me who you are or I swear--"
He grinned. "Temper, I see."
I exhaled angrily. "At least leave these people alone. They have nothing to do with any of this."
"Oh, but don't they?"
Confused, I glared at him, but then remembered Jane had said the Council controlled these lands. They had everything to do with this. Even if it weren't by choice, they were stuck in the middle of a war. And they had no idea.
Satisfied, the man smiled before waving his hand dismissively. "But enough chit chat. At least for now. A certain someone has been really invested into finding you lot, which is why I'm here, but I'll let her take over now."
Of course, none other than Cecilia Larkin stepped out of the trees, a sickly sweet smile on her lips. "Oh, how I've quite missed you all already. Shall we catch up?"
(omg, I'm so so so so sorry this is a crappy chapter and I haven't updated in 248793865 years. to let all of you who didn't know, know, I had to have surgery because some weird way I got gallstones at fifteen. crazy, right? but I'm better now and really trying to get into the swing of things. again, sorry this took so long. oh, and another thing you guys will probably hate me for, is that this book is ending very soon. I have a way to end it, don't worry, but I just really don't want to drag it out.
thank you all for supporting me all this way and bearing with me through my non-updating spurs. you really do inspire me to keep writing. i love you all & I'll update again much sooner this time x)
p.s. sorry for the typos--I was in a hurry! also, edit/cover above was made by meeeeee :D xx