The group sat on top of the graveyard walls; their bodies clad in black, missionary-style suits. Dominique had her hair tied back into a plait and a focused expression on her face. The lights for the graveyard had arrived about a week ago and they had stashed them underneath the busses to hide them from prying eyes while they decided on their places over the walls.
Dominique's suit clung to her skin in a comfortable fashion. When Aiden had asked for her measurements randomly at the cafeteria table Infront of the group, she blushed and looked away, not wanting to answer the question. The suit was slightly tighter around her chest then it should've been, but she didn't care - Aiden had done a pretty good job at eyeballing her measurements, which made her mind wonder about how he managed to get them so accurate. But she shrugged it off in the end.
She kept tugging at the fabric around her chest, trying to loosen it to fit her more comfortably. She rolled her eyes before looking at Aiden, a playful, lazy smirk on her face as she taunted him.
"Geez, dude. Couldn't have given me a bit more room to work with?" She remarked, pulling at the fabric wrapping around her upper body with a grin. Aiden quickly looked away, blushing at her suggestive remark and flipping her off over her shoulder. Dominique laughed lightly, slapping Taylor's thigh beside her and throwing her head back at his reaction.
The group had been taking a while to put the lights up around the walls, switching between putting them in the best places over the walls and charging them back at Aiden's place. They had discovered that their battery could transfer between the dimensions, which they were all incredibly grateful for.
But Dominique's smile soon dropped as she spotted the phantoms straying away from the light plastered around the walls. It unsettled her greatly that they were adapting to their defences quicker then she had thought they would. The worst part was the light didn't even kill them, it just caused them to sizzle horribly and alter the forms they seemed to be taking.
And even better, the amount of light the graveyard was producing now had turned their hideout into a beacon for the phantoms to know exactly where they were. It was annoying; and Dominique had no doubts that the numbers around the graveyard's walls were only going to increase.
"Are we going to be able to deal with that?" Taylor inquired, her voice quivering lightly as her eyes raked over the amount of phantoms waiting for their next moves. Dominique pulled her close by her shoulder, shielding Taylor's eyes away from the sight as she quivered lightly. Dominique looked down at the girl with sympathy, knowing that she would never want to kill any of them- for the guilt would eat her alive. Thankfully, Dominique didn't have that problem anymore.
"Most of them will be distracted by the traps set up and we'll have Dominique clear any stragglers so we can run for it." Ashlyn piped back to her, her eyes resting on Dominique's form as she sent her an affirming smile.
The group knew that Dominique was the most capable of defeating the most phantoms then the rest of them. They knew that with the plan they had developed, not all the phantoms would fall for their decoy. So, it was decided that Dominique would charge first, eliminating any straggling phantoms so that the rest of the group could get to the jeep as quickly as possible. They would have Logan covering for them too from atop one of the busses in the graveyard in case anything got out of hand.
Dom would join them in the jeep a couple moments after the group arrived there, and they would floor it back to the graveyard.
Dom sat atop a bus opposite to the concrete walls they were on prior as she spun a different bo-staff in her hand. Aiden had been kind enough to get her a new one while he was online shopping for the lights. It was sleek, slightly thinner than her previous one with sheathes on either side to cover dual blades on the ends. The best part, however, was that the blades could be separated with the push on a button in the middle of the metal. The two sides de-attach from each other and they would turn into dual-staffs - which Dominique could wield easily and fluently.
She had replaced the blades with her old phantom tooth and a new one she had taken from a phantom that had bit down on the metal off her staff when she had tried to peacefully knock it out. The tooth had fallen on her face as it was hovering over her. It was safe to say she thew up slightly.
Now, they were carved thinner and flatter by Dominique's hands, their blade fine enough to cut paper. She had tested her improvements when she asked Tyler to pelt an apple at her randomly. With no hesitation, he threw the food at Dominique with a smirk over his face.
But it was quickly wiped off when she unsheathed both ends of the staff and spun it between her hands just Infront of her nose. The group gulped when the apple was sliced so finely that the pieces blew away in the wind like leaves, lightly sizzling thanks to the heat from the phantom teeth.
After that, she jokingly pointed her staff at his throat, making a slicing motion as he paled.
"Alright, lets go over the plan one more time." Ashlyn spoke from the ground, looking to the group around her as they climbed down from the walls. Dominique swung her legs childishly over the side of the bus, her heels thumping lightly against its windows. She looked over to a hesitant Taylor, who sighed out and jumped from the ladder, scuffing her heels lightly on the ground as she cleared her throat.
"Are we sure about this?" Taylor spoke, Dominique's eyes widening lightly at her question as she stopped swinging her legs over the bus's edge. Ashlyn looked over in shock, glancing at Dominique who replied with an equally confused shrug.
"What...?" Ashlyn spoke, confused, as she crossed her arms over her chest, looking toward Taylor with a small scowl.
"I mean- staying here isn't so bad, right? We can hull up in the graveyard until the seven hours are up and just abide out time here!" Taylor mumbled, her voice getting caught in the back of her throat as she looked up to see Ashlyn's angry gaze stuck to her figure. Logan made a noise of agreement, climbing down next to Taylor and pensively rubbing his arm; a regretful look over his face.
"Are you serious?" Ash spoke out, her voice resounding in disbelief at their sudden cold feet. Her gaze landed on a guilty-looking Tyler- As he, too, locked his field of vision to the floor. Dominique looked between the three in slight shock, not expecting the sudden resistance in a plan that had been discussed over weeks.
"I just- it feels wrong to put Dom on the front lines by herself." Tyler stuttered out, too embarrassed to look up to Dominique's incredulous gaze.
"What? Do you not think I can hold my own?" Dom spoke up, jumping down from the bus and walking towards Tyler, who stilled lightly at the sound of anger lacing her tone. He didn't say a word, keeping his gaze locked to the floor. As Dom got closer, she jabbed a finger in his chest, looking at him with hurt swimming in her eyes.
"I'm not some fragile little girl, Tyler. This is the best chance we have at getting out of this shithole and you want to throw it away because you think I'm weak?" She spoke, jabbing her finger deeper into his chest with every word she spoke. Her voice raised slightly as rage started to seep into her being. She looked toward Logan and Taylor, her eyes wide as her shadow started to bubble to life on the floor behind her, a wicked grin rippling to life on the outline of her head.
"And you two. Do you think the same?" She asked, her fist starting to swirl with shadowy-like essence. They started at her, parting their lips to speak but held their tongues, gluing their gaze to their shoes as they shuffled unsteadily. Dominique scoffed, Aiden coming up behind her and putting his hand on her shoulder.
"Dom, you need to calm down-," He started, getting cut off by his hand being coldly shrugged off of her shoulder.
"Don't you dare ever tell me what to do." She spoke, her vision boring into his as he took a step back, shocked at unbridled rage swimming in her eyes. Dominique hated a lot of things. Like Barron. But if there was one thing that she hated the most,
it was people telling her what to do.
Ashlyn came up beside Dom, pointing a finger in Aiden's direction with a snarl.
"We wouldn't be in this situation if you hadn't pushed me so hard on going to savannah! At least Dom had the common decency to just suggest it and not smother me with the idea!" She snarled. Ashlyn's anger was seeping into Dominique's and the shadows around her fists were reacting to it; growing darker and darker as her shadow's grin stretched wider- in a way that it shouldn't.
"Why are you getting so worked up about this? You appointed yourself as the 'leader' when nobody asked you too!" Tyler exclaimed, his eyes rolling concededly at Ash and raising his fingers to mock quotation marks. What he didn't expect, was for her to let out a cry of anger, her hands furling around her hair.
"Because nobody else would ever take on that roll! I only have Dominique's help- but ultimately you all put pressure on our shoulders! We're scared, just like the rest of you! Its my responsibility to get you all out of here and its Dom's responsibility to protect us from those things because she's the only one capable of it!"
Everyone stood in a stunned silence at Ashlyn's outburst. Dominique's head was drawn, and a shadow covered her eyes. Nobody in the graveyard could get look at her face or what she was thinking. Ashlyn was huffing, her breath gone as her throat dried, realising her outburst was unnecessary.
As she parted her lips to apologise, someone else beat her to it.
"I'm sorry. I didn't realise you were carrying that all on your own." Taylor spoke, her apologetic gaze glued to Ashlyn's figure. She bowed lightly, her face paling as she raised a hand, scratching at the back of her scalp in embarrassment as she waved her other hand frantically.
"Just forget what I said earlier. In the future, lets talk about this type of stuff before it all boils over like that." Ashlyn's figure stilled as she looked over to Taylor, who sent her a smile and a thumbs up in encouragement.
"I still think there's too many out there. But I suppose they will only increase as more of them realise where we are." Tyler spoke, guiltily avoiding eye-contact with Dom as she turned her back to the group.
"Agreed! And Ben, Logan and Aiden don't seem opposed to the plan anymore either!" Taylor cheerfully exclaimed. Aiden just deadpanned, raising the blade Dominique had given him all those weeks prior as he replied.
"Honestly, if you guys don't hurry up- I'm just going to climb the wall myself." He said as he made a stabbing motion in the with the blade in his hand. Ben nodded next to him; his arms crossed over his chest with a blank look over his face.
Now, everyone looked toward Dominique.
However, they were alarmed to see the staff in her hand swirling with shadows, the phantom's teeth glowing brightly it response to the uncanny aura Dominique was producing. Dom spun her staff in her hand, a wicked, illuminated grin overtaking her features as her gaze raked over the enamoured eyes of the group. She laughed with adrenaline, her voice coming out slightly distorted as the darkness around her started to latch to her figure. She grinned, her heart thumping in her ears as she parted her lips, looking over her shoulder with manic eyes.
"Just tell me when you're ready and I'll slaughter anything that comes between our path."
She raised her finger toward a stunned Tyler, her voice growing slightly serious as she dipped her head toward him mockingly.
"And, i'll show you the only one who needs protecting here is yourself."
fin.
2111 words
just quickly! ive had some ideas about posting specials with some characters for milestones on the book. can i just say; thank you so, so, so much for 7k reads. Im honestly so shocked that this silly little fic has managed to gain that amount of recognition.
so, let me know who you'd be interested in reading w/ Dominique/yourselves (if thats what you prefer) under this paragraph!! you can also pitch some scenarios that you'd like to see, too! im open to (mostly) anything!!
-HALO