For the briefest moment, when Jules woke up on the couch at the Wilder's, she thought the whole night had been a bad dream. Then the pounding headache returned along with the throbbing of her throat and reality hit her. Somehow someway she had managed to throw a boy who was twice her size across the room without even moving her arms.
How do you even do that?
As she made an effort to roll off the couch, a very ecstatic brunette ran over and helped her up. At that point, Jules knew she still had to be dreaming. There was no way on the face of the planet that that all was really happening right then.
"Molly?" Jules groaned, refusing to take her eyes off of the girl as she tried to figure out what was real and what was fantasy.
"Shhh," Molly murmured comfortingly. "Don't stress too much. Chase said someone drugged you at the party and that you should take it easy."
Drugged? That would make sense, Jules thought. Though she didn't remember drinking anything. And she couldn't think of any drug that gave someone the ability to move people with your mind. Still, Jules went with it because it was more comforting than the alternative.
As their dynamic duo wobbled their way out of the living room they had been in and toward the guest house where their ex-friends— friends?— were gathered, Jules watched Molly out of the corner of her eye. Out of everyone the youngest from their group had probably changed the least over the past two years. Other than the height jump— though she was still shorter than Jules by a few inches— the girl hadn't changed that much. She still had her rambunctious curls and her infectious smile. Her attitude seemed to be similar as well. She still appeared to be kind, energetic, and, well, innocent. It was comforting for Jules to notice that. It made her feel as though not everything had been completely thrown away, that pieces of her childhood, of who she was, still remained. She and Molly had a lot in common as well. Or at least they had one thing in common: no parents. Which made knowing they still had each other even more comforting.
The two teenage girls could hear the group before they saw the group, or at least more specifically they heard Alex and Chase.
"-a party?!" Was the last part of what Alex had said, and the first thing they heard.
"She wanted to go, Wilder. Don't try and blame it on me." The familiar harsh voice of Chase Stein quipped back.
Jules could picture the scowl that would come across Alex's face at that comment. His eyes narrowed and his dark brows probably furrowed in disbelief. He was probably thinking that there was no way Jules, his Jules that he knew so well, would ever willingly go to a party. Except she had, and suddenly she felt like she had betrayed him.
"How long have they been going at it like this?" Jules asked Molly. She did the best she could to keep her voice hushed
Molly shrugged in response, "Since they got here." The older girl's heart plummeted at the sound of that. She hated when people argued, especially when it was about her. You never knew when your last conversation with someone would be, so she preferred not to fight with people.
The moment they could, the two girls made their way into the room with the others, silencing the argument the two boys were having in an instant. Even not have being in the room, you could tell that there was tension between the boys so thick that you could cut it with a knife.
Alex stood to one side of the room. His hands were gripping the arm chair in front of him. The predictable scowl had consumed his features.
Chase, on the other hand, stood on the other side of the couch. His arms were crossed in a frustrated manner, not even flinching to fix the semi-gelled hair that had fallen into his face. His hazel eyes were fiery with an angry passion.
The three other girls were scattered throughout the room. Gert was lounging on the couch, an annoyed look— that Jules felt like Gert wore a lot lately— rested on the girl's features as she watched the boys. Her fingers were tapping on her knee as she entertained herself.
Nico Minoru, a guest that actually caught Jules off guard, sat in another lounge chair across from the one Wilder stood behind. She appeared to be impassive to what was happening around her. Her dark makeup making it hard to read her expression even if it had changed. She looked to be studying each boy as they threw points back and forth at each other almost as if she had expected it.
Karolina seemed to be the one who was the most upset about their argument, other than Jules of course. The church girl's blue eyes were wide in shock; her lips formed the shape of an "o." The leather of the seat she sat in was crunched under the grip of her fingers as she seemed to have the desire to jump up and stop them; however, she never did.
Instantaneously all five heads in the room were on the two intruders, making Jules want to crawl out of her skin. For a moment, they all just remained like that. It was Karolina who broke the silence. In two long strides, the blonde girl had her arms wrapped around Jules in a tight hug. Jules was so caught of guard that it took a moment to even react to the girl's hug by hugging her back.
"I'm so glad you're okay," Karolina whispered into Jules's ear before stepping away.
Alex soon followed as soon as Karolina released her, wrapping his arms so tightly around Jules that it was almost hard for her to breathe. He didn't say anything though, but his actions spoke louder than his words. As he pulled away his fingers traced the bruises she was sure were already forming on her neck; though his touch was delicate, Jules still winced at the pain that shot through her. The look of pure anger that consumed Alex's features as she did so sent chills down Jules's spine.
"You let them hurt her?!" He snapped at Chase in a way that Jules never saw out of Alex. She tried to grab his arm to will him back, to urge him to stop, but he kept going. "How could you let this happen?"
Chase's face flushed bright red in anger, "You think I wanted this to happen? Maybe if you weren't such an insufferable los-"
"ENOUGH!" Jules screamed at both boys. "If you brought everyone here just to argue Alex, count me out."
"No," Alex sighed, "I'm sorry, Jules." As the silence continued, Alex plopped down into one of empty arm chairs, causing several of the other's in the room to stiffen.
"What are you doing?" Molly grumbled. "That was her chair."
Everyone in the room's head turned toward the one person in the room who really could have a say in the matter. "Sit wherever you want," Nico Minoru said with an impassive wave of her hand. "She's gone."
Jules watched Alex's face contort in uneasiness. He obviously handy even realized that. Jules could tell that he felt like he was being intrusive, like he was stepping on Nico's toes as he shifted in the chair. Eventually he just stood again.
Chase broke the second silence of the night. "This is too weird."
"Maybe we just don't work without her," Karolina suggested.
Any onlooker could see the ever rising tension in the room. From the nervous quirks each of the kids displayed— Karolina crossed and uncrossed her legs; Gert twiddled her thumbs; Jules's eyes that kept darting around the room— to the deadly silence, someone who didn't know better would think that this was a room of strangers, not a room of ex-best friends.
"Yeah, I'm outta here," Chase grumbled, briskly turning toward the door. He couldn't seem to put enough distance between the himself and the insufferable room. Jules couldn't blame him either, if she didn't live there she would have left long ago.
"No, come on, guys!" Alex called out, putting himself in the way of Chase's escape. "Listen, we can't blame Amy for the fact that we don't hang out anymore."
Chase shrugged at the nerdy boy, "Fine. I blame you."
Jules's heart plummeted in her chest. She knew exactly where this was going. "Come on, Chase," she urged him to stop, but he ignored her, his eyes flaming with pent up emotion. Emotion that he had obviously been holding in for years.
"You didn't come to the funeral," he seethed.
"Everyone grieves in their own way," Karolina intermitted.
"At funerals with your friends," Chase told the girl as his eyes narrowed. He motioned to the people around him with a wave of his hand as he stepped back from Alex.
Gert, who was resting her head on her hand, returned Chase's harsh glare. "Yeah, who would ever do that," she quipped, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "not show up when a friend is expecting them?" As a silent look passed between the two, Jules knew something had happened that she didn't know about, that Chase hadn't told her when he picked her up earlier.
"I'm just saying," Chase replied with a sigh, "Wilder not showing up was the first crack in the wall." Behind Chase, Alex shifted uncomfortably.
"That wall was always coming down," Karolina added. As she spoke her eyes shifted to the various faces around the room, pausing for the slightest moment as she made eye contact with Jules. "We were friends because our parents were friends. We were just kids. We were always going to grow apart."
"Plus, it's kind of hard to stay friends with someone when all they care about is being the perfect church girl." Gert gave Karolina a shady side eye as she spoke, putting Jules on the edge of her seat. Jules knew she was going to have to step in soon, the two had never been the best of buds, but it had seemed to have gotten especially bad lately.
"Better than the insufferable social just warrior," Karolina retorted.
"Or the dumb jock," Alex glared from his seat up at Chase.
"Yeah, or Molly," Chase complained, drawing a confused look from the youngest of the group. "I've got nothing against you," Chase ceded. "You're really nice."
"Why can't you all just knock it off?" Jules asked, her brown eyes turning golden in frustration. "This is ridiculous, cutting each other down like that."
"Don't try to act all perfect," Gert snapped. "With your family's track record, we all know you're the furthest from it."
As the room grew silent once again at Gert's comment, Jules embraced it. It wasn't the first time she had heard something like that, and it wouldn't be the last. Quickly Gert seemed to realize that she had crossed a line and her face grew deathly pale.
"I-I'm sorry, Jules. I didn't mean that," she backtracked.
"It's okay, Gert. You have a point," Jules admitted, doing her best to keep her head held high. "I shouldn't have said anything."
"What about me?" Nico asked, rising from her hidden spot in the corner.
"Nico," Alex warned, his voice apologetic.
"Whatever I am now, it's not Amy," the girl continued anyway. "Sorry to let you all down."
"What? No, come on," Alex protested. "Nobody's thinking that."
"Great party, Alex. Thanks for all the pizza and sadness," Chase muttered as he collapsed down onto the couch.
"Yeah, for once I agree with Chase," Gert added. "What are we doing here? We'd all moved on. We were doing fine."
"No," Karolina snapped, "none of us is fine, and I, for one, am sick of pretending that I am." The blonde girl rose from her seat and crossed her arms as she looked at her friends. "We need to sit together and talk this through."
Jules's eyes darted around while she watched all of her friends faces as they processed what Karolina had just said. Though none of them seemed to dare to admit it, at least not right away, they all seemed to agree.
After a few moments, Chase spoke up, "Fine. Then I'm going to need some alcohol."
"What?" Alex asked. Confusion was evident on his face due to his narrowed eyes behind his glasses. As Chase stood and made his way out of the guest house, Alex was quick to follow him. The others were behind him. "Hey, where are you going?"
"As I recall," Chase turned toward his friends to speak as he walked backwards across the lawn, "your dad keeps a bottle of Pappy Van Winkle's in his study. I've been sipping on it since I was thirteen."
"Yeah, but they're in there now, having their meeting!" The geeky boy exclaimed. However, before the jock could reply Nico pulled Alex aside, leaving Jules to wonder what the two could be talking about. She chose to follow Chase into the house though, instead of staying behind to intrude.
As Chase made a beeline straight for the liquor cabinet, Jules stuck her head out of the door, noticing that Nico and Alex were still talking. "Alex!" She called. "They're gone."
She went back into the room and sat down at one of the bar chairs, spinning back and forth as she waited for the others to enter. They made their presence known when they came in, or, at least, Alex did.
"Don't touch anything," Alex said. He seemed tense that they were in there, not that it surprised Jules. In her opinion, Jeffrey Wilder was a pretty intimidating man, and Alex wasn't necessarily one to stretch the rules.
"Too late!" Chase quickly called out, poking his head up from behind the counter, a smile on his lips. Jules smiled slightly to herself at the sight of his dimples. She had always loved his smile.
"Dad says there's no reason to be in here when he's not," Alex continued, ignoring Chase's comment.
"Why is my mom's purse in here?" Nico asked holding up the bag in question.
"Where are they?" Gert added, taking in the massive room.
"I don't know, and I don't care," Chase replied. As he spoke Molly took a seat next to Jules. "All right, he must've moved the good stuff." He pulled out whiskey from one of Jeffrey's many glass bottles. "This'll do."
"Bourbon on the rocks," Molly said with as much authority as a fourteen year old could. "Shaken, not stirred."
Chase made eye contact with Jules as the two shared a grin. "I don't think so," they told the youngest in unison. Jules broke off, "Though I will take some." As she finished she took the glass of liquid confidence out of his hand, downing it in one gulp as she made her way across the room toward a boy with glasses who she desperately needed to talk to.
"Alex, can I talk to you?" She asked, pulling the boy away from his self-proclaimed position as overseer. "I just wanted to talk to you about what happened earlier tonight."
"Yeah," he said, though she could tell that she didn't have his full attention as his eyes kept darting around the room.
"It's just," she paused, gathering her thoughts, but before she would get the chance to express what she had felt, Alex darted across the room.
"And a coaster," he said toward Gert and Chase. His hand grabbed one of the coasters off of his father's desk, but as he did so something clicked in the wall behind Jules. A strange rumbling sound brought the teens attention to the door that suddenly appeared in the wall.
"Holy shit," Chase exclaimed from across the room, "what just happened?"
"You mean other than a secret passage way opening?" The light hearted tone to Alex's voice was lost as he stared in disbelief. As they all stared in disbelief.
"Where does it go?" Nico asked.
Gert offered up an answer, "Bomb shelter?"
Chase, with his one track mind, offered up another possibility. "No, a kick-ass wine cellar, definitely."
"In the past when religions are being persecuted, sometimes believers would build secret temples to worship," Karolina suggested.
"Yeah, but this is Brentwood, not Bethlehem," Gert interjected.
"This is some Narnia shit," Alex concluded, his eyes still wide in amazement.
"Well there is only one way to find out if this is the portal to the other side," Jules said with a wink before rising from her seat and walking toward the new door. "I say we investigate."
Alex nodded, "Let's do it." With a small smile, Jules followed the boy into the entrance, the others closely behind her. "How long has this been under my house?"
"Longer than your house has been over it," Karolina responded as the teens walked down the stairs. Jules had to agree, the walls were covered in faded patterns that definitely didn't go with the modern style of the rest of the house. By the musty smell as well, it was obvious which structure had been standing first.
"I'm cold," Molly complained. "Houses in L.A. they don't even have basements."
"I'm not sure basement is how I'd describe this," Jules replied, tracing her fingers along the patterns as they walked. It was strange to even comprehend that this had been under where she had been living for the past ten years of her life, she couldn't even imagine how Alex felt.
As they rounded the corner they found themselves on a balcony with arched windows that overlooked a large, chasm like space. The arches and old patterns continued throughout the room below, and in the distance appeared to be shelves of a library. A crystalline chandelier lit up the room. But that wasn't even the most surprising part, in the cavernous room that the teenagers watched over were their parents, or at least most of their parents— of course Jules's and Molly's weren't there. They were all dressed in red robes as they stood around a large, rounded black coffin. Or at least to Jules it looked like some sort of coffin. She couldn't really tell you exactly what it was.
"What the hell?" She murmured, captivated by the strange sight below her. It looked like some sort of ritual, like all of their parents were a part of some sort of cult?
"What is happening?" Alex asked, drawing out each of his syllables as he also looked on in disbelief. Karolina quickly shushed him, though it was useless cause as Jules reached out in front of her there seemed to be some sort of barrier between their parents and them. "I don't think they can hear us," was all she said as her hand bounced back toward her.
As the scene in front of them unfolded, the teens couldn't seem to come up with an explanation for what they were watching.
"What kind of charity meeting is this?" Chase asked, as if what they were witnessing really was a charity meeting. Jules was certain at that point that this was the furthest thing from what they had previously thought it was.
As one of the red-robed adults brought out a young girl dressed in all white, Karolina drew in a sharp breath. "Wait, guys, that's my mom!"
Molly's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, "Who is she with?"
Karolina drew in another sharp breath, "I know that girl."
They continued to watch as the adults forced the girl in all white to drink out of some sort of chalice. As the girl did, she seemed to grow weak in the knees, collapsing into the arms of the people who surrounded her. The next thing Jules knew the adults were removing the white robe from the girl, and Jules couldn't look away. She could barely breathe.
"Okay, the creep factor just went up to, like, eleven," Gert stated as she began to shove Molly behind her. "Molly, you can't unsee this."
Jules was almost oblivious to the feuding semi-siblings beside her because of how strange the scene was. The black box opened as a light filled the room. It was a light so bright that Jules almost had to look away, but she didn't. Instead she kept watching in horror as the adults lifted the girl into this box-coffin thing and shut it. However, as the faces of those around her showed the horror they all felt at witnessing their first murder— sacrifice?— Jules kept hers expressionless. Her mind was racing. The bright light. Was that the same bright light she saw the night before in her dream? Where was the man then? Was it one of the men in the room below? Was this how her mom died?
She was so distracted that she didn't notice the flash of Molly's phone. She didn't notice those around her running back up the stairs. She could only see the bright light and the silhouette of the man from her dream. It wasn't until Alex was practically pulling her away that she realized what was going on and how desperately she needed to get the hell out of there.
A/N
So sorry it took so long for me to update this! For some reason, even though I was really looking forward to writing this part of the story, I just couldn't seem to get the words out. Anyway, here it is and its extra long to make up for the wait. (You can thank the snow day I had today)