Chapter 37
-Pax-
It had been a month since Farley was kidnapped and taken to the tunnels. It had been a month since our first kiss. It felt like time was moving too slowly and too quickly at the same time. I wanted to treasure each moment, but then I wanted a time where we didn't need to worry about being attacked at any moment.
The days were just like they had been before he was kidnapped. He worked some days and studied the others. Iris and Rowan were spending more time studying, but Clementine and I had joined in. I found it fascinating what people studied in schools, even though they didn't go to one. My favourite subject was maths, as I found it the easiest to understand.
I still went to the gym with Farley, but Caspian joined us. It was very amusing seeing the differences between when Caspian was and wasn't there. Farley was much cheekier and more energetic. He told me that it was as though the gym was his territory, so he had power to say whether or not Caspian could be there and what he could do. Of course, that wasn't the case, but it was a nice thought.
All six of us were sitting in the living room around the table. We had a board in front of us and rolled a dice in order to get our characters across the board. Board games were amazing things to do when bored, which Rowan said is why they're called board games. I didn't believe him, but it made more sense in a way.
"Back to the start!" Rowan exclaimed as I felt the air in front of me shift. I was sitting next to Farley, very aware of our bare knees touching each other.
"You go back to the start," Farley retorted but moved his piece anyway. "Pax, it's your turn."
My piece was near the other side of the board, so I gingerly slid my hand across the smooth surface until I found the person-shaped piece of plastic. I rolled the dice with my other hand and let it fall onto the table. Using the same hand, I trailed my fingers over the diamantes, which Clementine had placed over the dots. I counted and shifted my person five steps.
"A ladder? That's not fair," Iris said. She acted far more like Rowan when it came to games. "You're nearly near the end," she informed and dragged my hand up the board.
"It's beginner's luck," Farley stated. "It has to be."
"Don't you go blaming that for you losing," Caspian said. "This has to be my last game, anyway." The bumping of the dice signalled that it was his turn. "And I may as well leave now."
Clementine scoffed. "We have no chance," she said and rolled the dice. "Or maybe we do."
The conversation about how the game was going helped me to follow it. The first time we played something like this, it was a slight disaster. I kept moving the wrong piece and got frustrated as I forgot what was happening. In the end, it was an enjoyable experience.
A knock came at the door. Everyone held their breath. The person on the other side of the front door knocked cautiously, they didn't bang on the door like many others would have, such as some postmen I had the pleasure of meeting.
"I'll get it," Caspian whispered and stood. His slippers barely made any noise as he stalked towards the door. We hadn't made any adjustments to the house in the past month, none which were relevant to our security anyway.
Caspian sighed and opened the door. "At least you learnt to knock," he commented.
"Not for your benefit, dear," Lana said and stepped into the house, she always tripped over the door frame when she entered. "How is everybody?"
"Not bad," Caspian replied. His response made me jump as I hadn't noticed that he had returned to the table. "Yourselves?"
"Can we answer for us, please?" Rowan asked cheekily. "I think I'm not bad, thank you. How are you two doing?"
Brin chuckled. "That's no way to talk to your alpha," he scolded. "But I'm glad you're doing well."
"We've had a bit of a cold recently," Lana explained. "Something rather common at this time of year."
"Oh, it's that season?" Clementine asked. "Lovely." Her tone was utterly sarcastic, but I've come to the conclusion that it was just her tone.
"Yeah, with schools going back soon. It's always around the time when universities open," Brin said. "Speaking of education. How's yours?"
"Dad, I've got a job," Farley informed. I'm assuming that Brin had looked over. "I'm going to be increasing my hours soon as well."
"Yes, but you don't want to be doing that your whole life," Brin reasoned. "It's just a thought."
"I know," Farley said.
The room became awkward. Farley's education and occupation was a topic frequently brought up by his parents, especially since the tunnel.
"We'll get him through his exams," Caspian reassured, as he always did in this situation. "They're not until December."
Brin grumbled, but the conversation was dropped.
Iris rubbed her hands together. "I'll go make some tea. Maybe Brin and Lana would like to see if they could beat Pax's beginner's luck."
I shuffled forward closer to the table, so that Iris could get around me comfortably.
"I sphere a specific reason you came by," Farley asked.
A moment of silence fell between us before Lana cleared her throat. "We think that Daphne and company have made their first move."
My fingers halted in their tapping.
"What makes you think that?" Rowan asked. Some part of him hit the table, as he groaned after a bang sounded and the furniture vibrated. "We've not heard anything."
"Well, that's why we're here," Brin said with a chuckle. "It was a personal message, passed from Mary, who had heard it from one of the previous members of the Fearmast pack."
A shrill scream came from the kitchen, everyone else jumped to their feet and hurried. I carefully stood and stayed in the doorway of the living room, listening for what could have happened.
Growls filled my ears; the smashing of glass and ceramics was ear-piercing.
A hand clamped around my wrist, and I was pulled out of the room and out of the front door. Mint and Coffee infiltrated my nose. This situation felt all-too familiar.
My shoes hit the pavement with the rain that was hammering down. The seasons had changed dramatically over the past few weeks.
"This wasn't expected," Farley said. He probably wasn't expecting any sort of answer.
We ran through the streets, taking random turns. I didn't know where we were, but I trusted Farley to take us to wherever we needed to go.
There were still noises of growling behind us, starting to lag behind. Their noises were muffled by the noise of the rain and drowned out by my heart.
We ran up a ramp and entered a building. Farley rang a bell as we shut the door behind us. I had my hands pressed against the door, in case anybody tried to ram it down.
"Here," Farley said and a piece of wood touched the back of my hand. "Put that in the door handle, a little further."
I did as he said, tracing the line of the door with my fingertips and making sure that there was wood on both sides.
It wasn't exactly a safe house, the abandoned building wasn't exactly safe from collapsing, but it was safe from wolves' claws. It was a secure, cement, aconite-laced box, which made it a good cell so that nobody could get in or out.
We hadn't worked on the getting out part yet; it was still in development. Karim Thompson had come by to help us make it. Apparently, he had been stuck in a situation like this one and was tortured there.
I didn't know what my surroundings looked like, but it smelled like damp and rain. There were metal beds pushed against one corner and lockers against another.
"They should give up shortly," Farley said and placed a hand on my shoulder. "Come on, you don't need to hold the door."
We walked to some of the metal chair which were in the corner. Even though they'll rust eventually, they won't rot like fabric would.
"Who was that?" I asked in a whisper. "Did you recognise them?"
Farley made a low noise of denial. "They might have set us up." His foot was rhythmically hitting the floor. "You know, with my parents coming to warn us."
I nodded and we fell into a semi-silence. Bashes came from the door, which vibrated throughout the old building. My breaths were unsteady, even after attempting to calm them.
They gave up after Farley's 582nd tap. It didn't feel like a long time but at the same time, it felt like years.
Paws dug into the pavement away from the building.
"I don't think it's safe," I told Farley. "They could easily fake that."
Farley hummed and stood up, his footsteps leading to the beds. Metal scraped against concrete. "I don't trust it either." He sighed and the metal scraped against the floor again. "We should wait for a friend to come."
Hello everyone!
I hope that you're doing well :D
I'm not sure if I've asked this question before, but do you play any instruments?
I used to play violin when I was in primary school, but I stopped when I left school. The reason I'm asking this today is that I played the guitar for the first time yesterday, and I had a lot of fun.