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T h e H o l l o w s I n
O U R F R E E D O M
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I stared at him for a few moments, watching him raise an eyebrow at me, my heart racing in my chest.
"Yes we did, I timed everything to the second; we left the Ball at quarter to, and we started to leave at 11:42." He explained, even flipping the sheet around and pointing to the times to prove his point.
I frowned, "but...why did we do that?" I asked him.
Like me, his expression suddenly turned thoroughly confused. "What do you mean?" He asked.
I shook my head, taking the sheet with the mission timings on into my hands. "Why did we leave at that time? We weren't supposed to." I was mainly just talking to myself, but Jace responded nonetheless.
"I think it was more of a natural thing—you gave Jameson and Sky this look, and then we started moving."
I stared at him. "Because it was twenty to. We left at twenty to midnight, I know we did."
Jace shook his head, pointing to the sheet. "Not according to this, which by the way, was perfectly timed." I stared at the words on the page, hardly even listening to a word he was saying.
When I remained silent, he asked, "how did you know it was twenty to?"
Still frozen, I responded, "my watch."
"And are you sure your watch was correct?" He asked, making me discard the sheet instantly and throw him an annoyed glare.
"Of course it was! Do you think really think I'm that stupid?" I rose my voice, channeling my worries into anger and mushing them up into a ball and firing it at Jace.
"Well one of us is wrong." He said, leaning back in his seat. After a few moments of silence, he asked, "were we supposed to leave at 11:40?"
"Yes!" I replied, almost ripping out my hair. I reached out, shuffling through the papers and producing the plan, shoving it in front of Jace.
He glanced down the page, and then his expression turned grave.
"We left at the wrong time."
I couldn't control myself; I let out a string of profanities, having no idea how it comforted me. I guess it was like how some people scream to let out their emotions—I just swear.
I grabbed the plan and the real timings from Jace, comparing the two.
"We were five minutes out." I began, "we were five minutes late...to everything following that moment. Meaning..."
"...meaning that we were five minutes late to the house."
I gulped. "Shit."
Jace placed a palm on my arm, and that's when I realised I was shaking.
"At least now we know–"
"–yes, Jace, now we all know that I'm a complete moron who can't read a watch!" I burst out of my chair, pacing around the quaint library, which wasn't remaining very quaint during my outburst.
When Jace didn't respond, I filled in the silence. "Sky and Jameson nearly died because I need my fricking glasses."
"Stop pacing." Jace ordered from where he sat at the table still.
I threw him a glare, "stop breathing." I think I saw his lips upturn, but I was too busy pivoting on the spot.
My response was, of course, a repeated remark, used first when Jace, Jonah and I got to the hospital earlier this year. I have no idea why, since that was the moment I could've lost both Sky and Jameson, but those seem like simpler times now.
Jace left me to pace for a few more minutes, before he finally spoke up. "Lex..." what got my attention wasn't the fact that he trailed off; it was the fact that he had called me by his endearing nickname 'Lex'—and then trailed off.
With my eyes on him, Jace continued. "This still doesn't make sense."
I huffed, trudging over to him. "Why not?" I asked, watching him beckon me around to his side. I leaned over his shoulder to peer at the document he was holding.
I frowned at it, narrowing my eyes to read it. Jace glanced round, observing me. "Maybe you really do need glasses." I shoved his shoulder, rolling my eyes as I listened to him laugh.
I understood Jace's uncertainty now. Our 'distraction explosion' was supposed to go off at 11:59, but according to Jace's timing, it went off at 11:55. Four minutes too early.
I sat beside Jace once more, taking the sheet from his hand as I did so. "So if I was five minutes behind, that means I thought it would've been ten to midnight, meaning I thought we had nine more minutes."
"But it was actually 11:54, meaning you had only five more minutes." Jace said, filling in the gaps I left.
I felt as a huge weight lifted off my shoulders. But I also felt as something sinister crept across my body.
"The explosion went off early. It wasn't just the timing that messed it up."
Jace shook. "Your timing didn't mess it up at all," he said, producing the plan and showing it to me, "the explosion was supposed to happen at 11:59 when the cars were ready, so we would've all been far away from the house at this point, never mind the fact that it was supposed to be a slow fire."
I swallowed. "Okay, so we know now for sure, if we hadn't before, that someone tempered with our explosion," Jace nodded. "But who? And how would they know about our plan?" There were many more questions to be asked, but I could only surface two.
"Was it automatic?" Jace asked. I hummed in question. "Was it set up before, or was someone supposed to start it?"
"Oh. Harry had programmed some sort of–"
Jace caught on when I did.
"Harry." We said at the same time.
With this new revelation already chipping at my shoulders, I jumped up from the desk, leaving Jace startled, and ran into the main part of the building.
The majority of our team were lounging in the 'cinema room', enjoying their film night, but a select few remained in the sitting room. Including Elle and Richard.
I thrust the necessary documents into their hands. Confused, the pair stared at me. Richard seemed irritated that I had interrupted their conversation, whereas Elle just glanced between me and the papers I had given them both.
"What is it?" Elle asked, observing my body language and facial expression. Much like Jace usually did, actually.
I gestured to the papers. "Read them."
Elle ducked her head, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear and glancing down at the papers she had on her lap. Richard, however, started reading his documents much more reluctantly.
As the most intelligent Guardians I know right now, it didn't take them long to figure it out, and with the addition of my extra knowledge about my lack of knowledge on how to tell the time, they came to the same conclusion that I had.
Elle frowned. "So it wasn't an accident?" She asked, voice low as she was wary of Avery and Bria, who were having a quick catchup on the sofa. Cassie was also wandering around with her baby somewhere.
I shook my head. "Dismissing the fact that Jace and I had different timings, which, can I say, is also suspicious—since I'm pretty sure I know how to tell the time—the explosion was still early."
Elle nodded, absorbing this information.
"And guess who helped us program the explosion?" I said, crossing my arms over my chest.
"Harry Wiscombe," Richard said, before acknowledging mine and Elle's confused glances. He raised his paper, "it's here."
"Right. Exactly."
I watched as they both comprehended this, somehow communicating silently.
Elle eventually cleared her throat and glanced up at me, "this is a breakthrough, Alexi, and it's definitely given us more clues, but it's too early to say for definite."
My smile fell.
"What?" I asked.
"What she's saying," Richard said, holding out the documents that I had given him towards me. "Is that we don't live on speculations."
I stared at them both, more hurt that Elle would turn me away like that. I watched her control her expression, even if I saw it crack behind her eyes.
With a clenched jaw, I said, "just because Sky wasn't proclaimed dead, it doesn't mean we denied her Elle's blood. Just because this is all based off speculations, it doesn't mean that we won't all end up dead."
With that, I ripped the papers out of their hands, startling Elle slightly, before spinning around and stalking out of the room, faintly aware of Jace's eyes following after me as he stood in the sidelines.
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Well then
What a fire that was
Ha
Ha ha
Haha ahaha
Too soon??
Shouldn't be
The sequel ended–
Wait when did the sequel end
-when did the sequel end? - the forth book in the 'Hollows' series
HOLD UP
Jace and Lexi?? (cmon)
Jace?? Just Jace??
Elle and Richard?
Elle?? Just Elle? 😂😂
-laugh
FABULOUS SONGS
Songs that played when I was writing this chapter (in order):
Curbstomp - Meg Myers
Motel - Meg Myers
Hurricane - MS MR
Wish I Stayed - Ellie Goulding
Go Your Own Way - Lissie
Which Witch - Florence + The Machine
Bela Lugosi's Dead - CHVRCES
Feet Don't Fail Me Now - Foxes
Settle - Vera Blue
Wonderwall - Ryan Adams
Various Storms & Saints - Florence + The Machine
Broken Strings - James Morrison
Adore - Cashmere Cat
END OF FABULOUS SONGS
Date written:
17/04/18 (I still can't believe how long ago this was)
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Next update: Friday
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CHAPTER FORTY-THREE SPOILER:
Lexi becomes invested in finding ways to escape the house she is now confined to.
It seems that our team is never entirely satisfied.