Chapter Seven.
Artemis had eaten some breakfast that she had made while Regan got ready and rang Jason. While the phone call had been short, she could tell that there was a still a great sadness in Regan's voice when she spoke with him. It was something that Artemis herself was becoming used to feeling and hearing in her own voice.
Regan's seemed to have lost a lot more than she was letting on. It was then that Artemis realised that although the house was small enough, there was a spare bedroom. A spare bedroom that was probably not always a spare bedroom. It wasn't hard to miss that Regan spoke little to non of her own family and she was young enough to still at least live with parents or siblings.
Artemis could hear a car pull up outside the kitchen window, the sound of the wheels on the gravel distracting her from her own thoughts momentarily.
She watched as the dark haired boy got out of the car and headed towards the front of the house.
"Tell him I'll be out in a minute" Regan called out as Artemis went to open the front door.
She opened it just before he could ring the doorbell, she caught his finger held out, about to press it. He looked surprised to see her standing there, clearing expecting Regan to have answered the door.
"Hey" he said giving her a smile. "Are ya comin' with Regan into the village?"
"Yeah" she said. "Maybe just for a bit, to see where Wally hung out"
Jason nodded, his smile turning into a tight line.
"I'll show ya where everything was if ya want. Probably best Reggie not go with you"
Artemis was taken apart by his bluntness. She blinked several times, trying to hide her growing anger at this guy. Who was he to tell her what Regan could or could not do? Was he her keeper? Could she not live her own life?
She instead, shrugged her shoulders, deciding it best not to say anything. She thought of the sadness in Regan's voice and the distant look she had in her eyes as she talked about the war. She was disturbed still from the thought of the spare room.
"Okay" Artemis said as Regan walked down the hall calling out a greeting to Jason.
Jason's face brightened up at the sight of Regan, giving the girl a big smile. It was obvious to Artemis then, that he had some sort of a crush or love for Regan. It was nice to see, that even in such a dark time, that people could still fall in love. But at the same time, it tore at her heart, thinking of how many times that people had watched Wally's face brighten at the sight of her walking towards him, thanking him for his help or smiling at him.
She tried to swallow the lump that formed in her throat as they walked towards Jason's old beat up silver Nissan Almera. She got into the back of the car, while Regan sat in the front of the car, chatting to Jason as he reversed the car.
"I'll take her to it" Artemis heard him say. "It's not a big deal Reggie. Just get what you need done in the village. Sure I've my own stories to tell. I knew him too"
Regan sighed and looked back to Artemis, a look of unease in her face.
"Will that be okay?" She asked her. "It's only a few things. Nothing major"
Artemis smiled and nodded. "Honestly I don't want to get in your way. I just want to see a few things. Get a sense of what he did here"
Regan nodded and turned back to the front. The car was silent, other than the sound of Jason's radio in the car, as they drove back into the village. Artemis recognised some of the trees that she and Regan had past on their walk towards the house. She could easily remember her way back if she needed to walk back on her own. She didn't want to stay with Jason long, not liking the atmosphere that he had put around herself and him.
He didn't seem to like bringing up Wally around Regan. She understood him being antsy about the war being brought up due to the lost it had caused to Regan. But Wally? If they were all friends why would he want to cause tension then? She had a feeling she would soon find out when they were alone together.
In the village Jason had stopped the car outside of the small village shop behind another car. Regan got out of the car and looked at both of them, one at a time.
"Come get me in an hour. Not fighting. The tension in this car would cause a war to break out" she said, giving a strange glare to Jason. "Artemis I hope you find whatever you're looking for"
"We'll be fine" Jason said laughing. "You're only overreacting"
"Hmm" Regan said as she shut the door behind her and walked into the shop.
"Wanna sit in the front?" Jason asked her, looking at her reflection in the wing mirror.
"No thanks. I'm good" she replied, horrified at the thought of sitting next to him in the front of the car.
"Fair enough" he said as he pull away from the shop. "I'll take you up to Castlehouse. That's where it all started. If you really want to get a sense of place, may as well take you to where everything went to shit the house"
The car ride was silent again, a growing tension began to build higher as they drove down a long narrow road. The further they drove from the village, Artemis could see that something wasn't right with the seemingly peaceful landscape.
They past cottages, or what remained of them. Windows had been boarded up and grass had begun to get as high as trees. There was an eerie look to them. It seemed like half an hour had past in the car before a tall building appeared over a hill on the horizon.
"That" Jason said. "was Castlehouse, boarding school for the unwanted and home to its owners family"
The way he said owners made her skin crawl. His words were tense, like he was trying to avoid the anger that lay underneath.
"I used to live here" he said as he parked the car in a battered drive that led up to the house. "My family used to own this place. Terry and Sam, they're my twin brother and sister. The only family I have left after this war"
Artemis could hear the hurt and pain in his voice as she looked up at the tall building. The grey bricks had cracks in, the windows had little glass left in the panes. The front door was missing as well as the roof. There were parts of the building scattered in the drive and the long grass at the sides of the house. She unbuckled her seat belt and leaned forward, trying to get a better view of the house.
"I'm sorry" she whispered.
Although she had lost Wally, someone she had loved the most in the world. She still had her family, she had her sister, her niece, her father and her friends. She still had a home to go back to. Jason had lost some of his family, he had lost his home and he had lost some of his friends too.
"Everyone in the village came to Castlehouse. Some from outside too. It was meant to be like a sort of home for others. People like Regan, witches, people with abilities" he said, continuing on as if he hadn't hear her speak. "I was born in that house. Was one of twelve. Out of those twelve, three of us remain. Shouldn't be that way but it is. Wally lived here when he came here. He had a room here before he lived with Regan"
"He lived with Regan?" she asked surprised, looking at him.
When she looked at him, she saw the tears that pricked his eyes and the same distant look that Regan had had that morning in the garden on the porch.
"Yeah, didn't say?"
"No"
He scoffed. "They were team mates. When everything started getting worse they would constantly get together with Terry and plan out everything they could to try and fix things, try to slow the Alpha's down"
The car was silent again as they both watched the house. Jason had begun to bite into his fist, trying to not cry in front of this girl in the back of his car, while Artemis thought of Wally. How he would have lived in the house, how he would have fought. The damaged done to the house frightened her. It looked like bombs had been dropped over it.
"What happened here?" She asked him.
"The Alphas came" Jason said. "They killed everything in sight and destroyed everything"
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So another chapter updated. Finally. I'm so sorry this is a long time coming. I've just had the crazy past few years. Hope ye enjoy this though and if you actually read this. Thanks so much xx