Layla
"And who are you?" I turn around at the demeaning sharp curled voice. Blonde hair and blue eyes greet me which contrast my dark brown hair and green eyes. She's stood near the console, hand on her hip and studying me intently.
"This is Layla" Maylock answers for me which annoys me.
"So why is she here?" the woman asks in the same tone.
"Because she is our newest Guardian"
"What? No, she can't be" she shakes her head in dismay.
"Well, I think I am." I bring up my wrist to show off the angel watch.
"But it can't be you"
"Why not? What's so special about you?" I snap and she doesn't respond until I hear a snigger but it didn't come from her or Maylock.
"You just got shut down" someone rises from the stairs in the far corner of this room. His dark braided hair flows over to one side and when his hazel eyes meet my green, I recognise him instantly. He is the Guardian that everyone in Lakeintown knows what he looks like, just not his name.
"Shut up Zack!" My long time query has been quickly answered by the woman.
"Well, It looks like we have another Abbey, hey Maylock" he winks and elbows him into his side. Maylock backs off from his contact. I think he tried to make his retreat look subtle but I still noticed.
"Just start training both of you" Maylock demands. His call mixed with exasperation and order as he rubs his side.
"On it" Zack nods but the woman doesn't move. She's staring at me.
"Go" Maylock firms and she huffs and follows Zack into a room next to the wide stairs I bolted down to leave before. "Finally" he rolls his eyes. "It was lucky that I found you in that house"
"Found me? You were looking for me?" I wonder.
"Layla, you legged it out of here. Of course we were looking for you. The monster was following you"
"And you know this how?" I frown, suspicious because I never saw or heard anything apart from growls and the red orbs of light but then I realise.
Maylock said that the Monster was following me and I only saw those red orbs. That's the monster. My heart skips a beat in shock. I have been plagued by them nearly everyday and they were this mysterious monster all the damn time. I've been running from them for years but this sudden revelation still doesn't shed any light on what the yellow orbs are. Are they real? I haven't seen them in a while so maybe they aren't?
"We track the woods" Maylock answers.
"So, the red orbs are the monster?" I utter in disbelief. "the red orbs are eyes?" Maylock nods, securing truth to my words and a wave of sickness comes from not working this out sooner. "You could have helped me" my voice strains. "What the hell"
"We lost you after some time so where did you go? What did you do?"
"I just ran" I shrug. "I tried to retrace my steps back to you but then I came across that old house"
"That's when we lost you then" I hear a voice and turn to see Zack holding his side, clearly in some discomfort.
"Abbey knock you for six?" Maylock also notices Zack's injury. "That was quick"
"Nah, I don't know what you mean. I'm just giving Abbey a rest" he winks at me. "But we must have lost your trace when you entered that house. It wasn't too long after our fight with Falox that I had a ping"
"From that alert you invented?" Maylock scoffs, annoyed and I gage that this is something Zack does quite often.
"It did its job in alerting us that the monster was around didn't it?"
"But you said it wasn't working. We were using the old tech..."
"...Maylock, I sorted it out" he interjects. "There was interference corrupting the trackers yeah but I used the old tracking technology to link and set the odd trap up and you Layla led the monster into them" As Zack explains it, Maylock's frown deepens. He's thick in thought.
"Traps?" Maylock queries "That wasn't part of the plan. When did you do this?" at his ask, Zack's gaze dips to the floor - guilty, I think.
"I put them up yesterday" he mutters.
"You were experimenting!" Maylock roars in the same shock I am feeling since I was up against the monster just a moment ago.
"I wasn't exactly doing that" he tries to evade the accusation.
"We never discussed this!" Maylock continues to fume. His eyes are glazed with raw anger and his jaw is clenched tight outlining his cheekbones.
"But I now know the problem that caused the interference in the trackers" Zack tries to extinguish Maylock's fiery tone. "The house is far out within the Folklore woods and all of the traps shared a frequency with the trackers which communicated with the console here and my angel. But the more traps I linked with trackers, the less frequency they had. It wasn't sustainable because I didn't calibrate the frequency bond between the traps and trackers correctly"
"So you inputted the data into each trap just hours before Layla was being followed by the monster. You were experimenting Zack; don't you realise how dangerous that could have been?" Maylock's voice is tight with anxiety.
This was a bit of a risk from Zack. I didn't even know that there were traps that deterred the monster. The traps could have failed but I stop myself from furthering the impact of that thought. I am here, away from the monster and fine.
"I know" he looks away to the floor again.
"You should have told me what you were doing" he keeps on at him. "We could have done this weeks ago and had more time to test frequencies"
"It's alright Maylock." I interrupt. "The traps worked, kind of. I'm here because of them. Just be thankful that Zack did something. I am" at my words, I see an instant change in Maylock's stance. His shoulders relax and his jaw unclenches which softens his face. "Thank you, Zack" I meet his eyes and he smiles.
"I'll recalibrate the traps and trackers" Zack states.
"Good idea" while Maylock has physically relaxed, his tone still yields a curl of anger. "Did you see the monster at all?" he then asks me.
"No, just the red orbs, their eyes" even repeating it makes me more feint.
I had been chased by those orbs and they were eyes all that time – eyes of a monster that was real for years!
"There's something else" This revelation spurs thoughts about the yellow orbs.
If the red orbs are defined as the monster then Maylock must know what the yellow orbs are.
"What Layla?" he wonders.
"I have seen yellow orbs of light too"
"Yellow orbs?" he gazes at me quizzed and my hope is flattened. "I don't want to make you more confused than you probably already are with just finding out about the monster but there are no yellow orbs. I have never seen them and I don't think anyone else has" he glances at Zack.
"I haven't Layla, sorry" he shrugs.
"No, its fine, it's good to know" I touch my head. It really was my imagination playing with me. I have well and truly lost my mind.
"Thank you for telling me" I look at Maylock but his smile only lasts a second as I am suddenly barged to the floor.
"Zack, why did you push her?" I hear a gasp and I look up to see the blonde haired woman glaring at Zack but he looks so lost as to why the blame is on him and from that and where he is standing, I easily work out that it wasn't him who pushed me, it was her.
"Hey!" I bolt to my feet.
"I'll be down at shooty" she plays a cocky smile and I head straight for her.
"Layla!" Maylock yells and his hand grabs my arm, pulling me back. "She isn't worth it. It's what she wants"
"Maylock's right" Zack adds.
"I don't really care" I shrug out of Maylock's grasp sharply.
"Well you should because Abbey is the type of girl who would want to fight"
"She's Abbey! You compared me to her?" I point directly at Zack. "How dare you! You don't know anything about me."
"Firstly, Zack was wrong with doing that when we don't know anything about you" he glances over at him and narrows his eyes so that it makes him sympathise and it seems to work as the next word that comes out of his mouth is an apology. "But we will get to that point in a few days"
In a few days?
"So, I'm not leaving?"
"I just said that because we don't know what Lakeintown will be like later on"
"But you didn't answer my question" I snap annoyed.
"Oh my, she is good" Zack speaks up, smiling but it soon sinks when both me and Maylock look at him.
"Just keep yourself here for now. There are bedrooms down there" he points with his head towards the stairs leading down in the far corner. The Guardians live here? Though, it makes a lot of sense.
"Since Abbey is already there, we can make a drill out of it so is anyone up for shooty?" Zack clasps his hands together in anticipated glee which distracts me slightly from the thought of leaving.
What the hell is shooty?