'You can't do this.' He whispered.
'I can. I have to.' I said.
He smirked. 'Do you really?'
My voice got lost. I looked at my doll which was totally destroyed now. Her hair were burnt and her eyes and face was scribbled on. Her one hand hung loosely and her one leg was no where to be seen. And all of my toys that meant so much to me shared the same condition as my doll. Tears welled up in my eyes and soon started rolling down my cheeks but he either didn't notice or didn't care.
Why did I have to do this? I asked myself. I was cruel to do but thinking of the loss, I slapped him across the cheek too hard. The deed I knew I'd regret later but it felt right at that moment.
I snapped my eyes open and sat up. That didn't help so I dropped my legs off the bed and stood up. It still didn't help so I started pacing around. It was still useless. And so my breathing started becoming shallow. My mind dissolving into the whirls of worries. I held my head and started breathing loudly. But it only weighed my chest more.
The dark seemed too dangerous as if it'll swallow me at once. I closed my eyes. I needed to breathe. I needed it.
'Jewel?' Leo called me and I looked at him. He was up from his sleep and had propped himself up to his elbows.
'Leo... help...I ...can't...' But I didn't need to finish my sentence as he rushed up from the bed and ran towards the window and threw it open. He ran back to me, picked me up in bridal style and helped me sit gently on the window sill.
'Hey listen, it's gonna be okay.' He said as I placed my hand on my chest. 'Breathe. Just... breathe.' He rubbed his thumb on the back of my hand for soothing.
I looked at the moon. How perfect of a circle did it seem? How it managed to shine in the darkest of times? I asked myself just to relax my breathing and it did. Second after second. The dance of wind on my face as it swayed into the illuminated world though still full of dark helped me. The rays of light that journeyed through the longest of time to reach me, the tingling sensation of Leo's touch , the calmness and sense of soothe of nature relaxed me and soon I was breathing normally.
'I'm sorry I didn't mean to wake you up.' I said but Leo raised his head up to protest but I carried on. 'It's just the fear of tomorrow. I feel like I'm so wrong for the duty. I feel like I'll lose that our plan won't work that maybe the map, Stella provided could be a total fraud and we built our whole plan on that particular map. What if she was trapping us? What if it all fires back? What if we lose?' I poured him all the questions that had captured my mind since we finished our work and decided to get some sleep but I really didn't feel like it.
'Ok remind me of all the options we had?' Leo answered in a question.
'I don't know.' I said quietly.
'Yeah. You don't know. So do we.' Leo said. 'You can't know the future. It's always changing. No matter how many infinite stones you wear or how many times you're predicted. It'll change every day, every second. All we can do is to plan with the given circumstances guessing the coming situations. That's all we can do.'
'What about Stella?' I asked him.
He looked at me and stared at me for a while before speaking. 'It takes too much guilt to take your enemy to hospital and save her friends and make them aware of her enemy's condition despite the fact that they could hate you and even throw you out.'
I nodded. He didn't knew about the little quest I gave Stella and she passed. None of them knew it. And yet I held my doubts against her. I knew it was wrong but in this world where cheating and deceiving is a common practice, trusting on the other hand has become quite a difficult task.
We sat in silence. The silence which helped me rewind all the moments , all the memories I created here and may be able to create more or never. Maybe we'd never come back and die along the way, maybe we lose the battle we were predicted for decades ago. Maybe we would just lose it all. But in all the maybe's , in all those doubts , their was a tinge of hope that shone behind the clouds, under the folds, along the dark—but it still shined.
▪️▪️▪️
'Leo can you just give our foreign agents another call for help and also try for Liam?'
'Sure.'
'Austin and Justin, you guys packed all your necessities?' I asked the twins who stood firmly just against the door.
Justin nodded but Austin appalled. 'What's wrong?' I asked Austin.
'Ohmygod!' Austin paled and ran upstairs in a speed of bolt.
'What happened?' I yelled at him from behind but he disappeared in his room. I turned my head to Justin. 'What's wrong?'
But Justin simply rolled his eyes. 'You'll be surprised once you see it.'
I furrowed a bit decided not to waste my time and turned to Stephen. 'Stephen did you alarmed Dr. Madison?'
'I still couldn't make contact with her so I sent her a letter.'
'A letter?' I arched my eyebrow.
'It was the only way!' Stephen exclaimed.
I huffed. 'Okay. Let's pray it works and Chloe, the map?'
'Got it.' She replied.
'Good. Where's Greg?' I asked.
'Here.' A petite voice came from behind Stephen and I found Greg who was on his phone playing games.
'Greg, put your phone down please. Thank you and Stella...' I addressed Stella who was lost in her thoughts.
'Yeah?' I walked up to her.
'What's with you?'
'It's just that... Lauren...' she trailed off and heaved a sigh. 'I just wanted to meet her for once but when I got in the police station, they said that she was not here and I asked where would she be and they said that they have no idea. I know Elsa you don't like her and she doesn't even deserve your kindness but... her sudden disappearance is what bothering me.'
'We'll look for her after we make it through.' I placed my hand on her shoulder and smiled. 'Yes?'
Her eyes lit up and she beamed brightly at me. 'Thank you.' She said excitedly and that extended my smile.
'I still can't make contact with anyone.' Leo appeared from behind and informed.
'Try letters.' Stephen suggested.
'Yeah right. Let's start writing em. Stephen why don't you do the colourful borders?' Leo retorted.
'And you'll do the stamps. Yippee!' Stephen retorted.
'I'm back guys!' Austin came rushing out of his room waving his...
'Austin I'd humbly like to say : What the fuck?' Leo said.
'What? I need it.' Austin informed.
'Why would you need it?' Leo asked.
'Just because.'
'Because?' Leo insisted.
'Just because I do.'
'Austin Vela Christopher. You need a fucking pink flowery underwear on a journey to save the world?' Leo explained and his choice of words let a laugh escaped from my lips.
'Yes...' Austin said shyly and tucked in his underwear.
'Told you you'd be surprised.' Justin said.
'OK dark hunters. Listen up!' I called everyone's attention. 'Last minute discussions are done and so are our packings. We'll stick to the plan, remember that. And make sure you don't kill they influenced. I don't know if we'll be able to be unite like this again, but it's our unity that'll win us our war.
'This war, is not for the stone neither it's for killing Hades. It's a revenge for our lost ones. Your parents he took away from you, your siblings—' I referred to Jenny and looked at Leo who looked away to hide his tears. '—Your loves ones and Dave—' my voice broke at Dave. 'It's for him. It's for them, it's for all of us. So Dark Hunters, brace yourself to be one and let the world have some light, let's free them of dark.' I finished my pep talk and everyone smiled instead of Austin.
He started crying.
Tears rolled down his cheeks and he walked up to me and hugged me a little too instantly. 'I missed my mommy and my grummy.' I patted Austin and looked at Justin to explain me what Austin just referred to.
'His pet lizard.' Justin explained. I chuckled and soon everyone wrapped each other in a last hug.
▪️▪️▪️
'Greg. Now.' I sat against the wall and waited for Greg to take action. I lifted myself up, enough to see if Greg has done what he had to or not. Greg took out a piece of cloth and placed it over the guard's face and dragged him into the bushes while Stephen on the other side did the same.
They looked out and raised their two fingers , gesturing us that path is clear and so we followed.
They gave me the lead which I nervously accepted. I crouched and chloroformed a guard. His weight on me increased and so I tilted backwards to drag him into the bushes. Just as he laid down, my eyes landed onto a card, tagged on his pocket.
Porter Walker
The coder
House I
I slid his card into my pocket and raised my two fingers to the dark hunters. I jumped off a broken and a shattered cupboard in front of me from the house destroyed by those madders. The city was empty and partly only a dog howled.
Our footsteps thumped and our guns rattled but we kept on. I still had my chipped gun on which twins mostly fixed but they need to work on it more and the chip won't came out, so I placed that gun in my inner pocket only for emergency.
We crossed the path that lead us to where Louis will be waiting for us in the helicopter but it didn't seem that easy as a group of sectators were walking hand in hand , ideally towards us.
I raised a fist in the air and the dark hunters ducked and hid to the nearest places. A sectator said something to the other and they both shared an ugly laugh. Third one was simply playing with a sharp knife in his hand. Suddenly that knife unbalanced from his hand and it flew in the air.
My breathe hitched and I blocked my breathing for a minimal second to prevent to flinch as that knife stabbed in a wooden board unfortunately right over my head.
That sectator started looking for his knife here and there while the other two completely ignored him. He ducked in , sat and stood up. I , as slowly as I could started crawling away. The rustling of bushes stopped and I peeked just to see the sectator had his eyes on me.
But his eyes didn't affect me like they were supposed to.
The madness that reverberated with the tinge of mischief sent a familiar sense. I stared into them and they stared back but they weren't focused. The whites in his eyes had turned a mixture of white with a little yellow and his pupil had grown darker and narrower.
He grinned and his yellow teeth shone in the moonlight. I didn't dare move cause I felt that he didn't see me. He started moving and leaves crushed beneath his shoes and using that sound, I started backing away enough to find myself a good hiding place.
He held the knife , forced it out and held it up to see if it had any dent or not. I slid my leg and hit him right beneath the knee. He stumbled and another kick from me on behind his leg made him fall onto the ground. I kneed beside him and chloroformed him while receiving a few awful kicks and punches on awful places on my body but soon as his body started going numb, he gave up.
Through all this process, the dark hunters had already taken down the other sectators. I left him there and stood up to move forth.
We journeyed through the broken aisles, under the noses of alerted guards (or they thought they were because they were feeling drowsy as we jinxed the drinks and food of every guard doing duty on our way). The most difficult were the sectators already fed Augmen. They were weird and anything could be expected from them. One time they'll notice you and the other time they'll simply ignore you like you're a stone on road. One time they'll attack you so fiercely as you're their old enemy and the other time, they won't even touch you.
So we stayed away from them as much as we could.
We reached the spot where we decided to meet with Louis. How we made contact with him you ask?
We sent a prisoner that Leo once met who told him about Hades' weapon—to Los Angeles with a promise that his Execution will be terminated and in return , he'd have to transfer our two messages. One to Louis and the other to Dr. Madison. He failed with giving our message to Dr. Madison as he was caught by some of the guards that found him suspicious but somehow, he managed to give Louis our message containing the location and time , we'd want to meet up with him and our demand for some weapons.
We could only hope. He didn't respond nor could he. But we simply couldn't sit at home for it. If Louis won't be there, then we'll steal a helicopter from the sectators. It won't be easy, but It'll be worth it.
We reached the helipad on our old hospital. There was no sign of him. It was already 11:15 pm. We gave him time for 11:20. Five minutes were left. If he wouldn't show up, then we'll turn to plan B. We couldn't stay here longer than that. There were changing of duties and surely the guards would troll on the roof too.
I gazed around everyone's faces, no one seemed to be prepared for to take on Plan B.
Stephen and Chloe were on the look out. We were standing around the helipad. Three minutes were left.
Twins were on the look out. We started pacing around. Three minutes had passed. Two were left. He didn't show up.
Twins were still on the lookout. I started rubbing my temples. One minute was left. A uncertain groaning sound came from inside the building. The footsteps thumped against the metal. A fierce laugh escaped from someone's mouth. The same laugh from the bushes. The footsteps were getting heavier as if people were in a large number. They chanted and laughed madly without a rhythm.
I looked up at the sky and shadows started forming on the doorstep. They were coming nearer. Last thirty seconds were left. Everyone looked at me for order. I lifted my eyes up to the sky once more. The steps were getting louder, the laughs started horrible.
Fifteen seconds had passed and only fifteen were left. Those fifteen were too less to escape but we'd be able to at least. Everyone was scarier. The plan B was quite a difficult one but I was glad we made it. But what now? Should we wait for more? Should we just go?
Ten seconds were passed in my thoughts. It was incredibly less time for our escape especially frames of sectators started appearing from the doorstep.
Only five seconds were left. I raised my three fingers and though sacredly, they all nodded. Leo took the bomb out... I looked at the sky once more...Leo unclipped it... I looked at the coming sectators ... Leo raised his hand ...
One second was left. Louis didn't show up.
oOo
Hey my Dark Hunters! How's things going? How did you like the chapter?
What do you think will happen next?
What do you think about Louis? Will he show up?
How much confidence do you have on Stella?
Don't forget to vote if you liked this chapter and comment me down your reviews. I love reading them.
I'll see you soon. Till then , stay healthy and lovely. Love, huzaila