I would like to thank the guest who left a review, they inspired me to get this chapter out so soon after the first on. I hope you enjoy reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. :-)
Gregor talked with his friends on the way to school, almost allowing himself refuge from thoughts of the underland, but like a dormant virus he knew it was destined to reawaken and infect him. Angelina kept sliding closer to him, causing him to move away. Sighing heavily he slowly began to realize that he was largely disinterested in the topics his friends liked to converse about. Chess and who likes who just did not capture his attention any more.
"What do you think Gregor?" Asked Larry. He had not been paying attention for the last bit of the conversation, and had no idea on how to respond. So instead of answering incorrectly he shifted the topic.
"How are you doing in math?" Gregor asked Larry watching his eyes light up at the mention of his favorite subject.
"Its great!" He answered excitedly "currently we are learning about inverse differentiation". He began to expound on the subject, and from the look on Angelina's face he could tell she was getting bored of his explanation. Thankfully they were both saved by the bell so to speak as the bus abruptly skid to a halt in front of their school.
"See ya later Larry, can't wait to hear more at lunch" he said in a friendly tone vaulting over the seat in front of him and landing in the central isle of the bus.
He made his way to his first period class, history with Mr. Jolly. He was not looking forward to this, his teacher talked so quietly that Gregor was not even sure if he was teaching at all. He walked through the door just beating the bell by no more than a few seconds. He slid stealthily into his seat in the rear of the classroom, watching as the other students slide there desks away from him.
He suffered through the class and just when he thought he might die of boredom, he heard the melodious sound that signified the end of class. He made it through the uneventful day until after lunch when he went to chemistry. He had just entered and taken his seat next to Angelina when he heard over the loud speaker the president of the school announce "there will be a temporary lock-down due to a shady character walking around the school".
Angelina whispered to Gregor "I'm scared". He could visibly see her shaking, he put an arm around her shoulders to comfort her.
"Everything will be alright" he said. Not two seconds preceding his encouraging words there was a sound that chilled him to the bone a single gunshot rung out in the hall.
Screaming came from every person in the room as a foot slammed into their door. His eyes widened as he watched the door fly open, creating a small indent in the wall where the door handle hit.
"Nobody moves...nobody gets hurt" he said in a menacing deep voice. Gregor moved a little toward him accidentally. The assailant caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and pointed his gun at Gregor "this is what will happen if you don't do exactly as I say". Time seemed to go into slow motion as the intruders finger pulled the trigger. He watched helplessly as the muzzle of the pistol flashed. Even with his rager abilities he could not dodge a speeding bullet.
Gregor closed his eyes and awaited the imminent impact of the bullet, but it never came. He slowly peeled his eyes open and stared in front of him at the shocked expression on the shooters face. Gregor followed the path of his eyes to the floor, what he saw made his heart stop. Laying in front of him Angelina had a clear bullet hole in her chest. It had obviously penetrated her heart.
He stumbled towards, her his knees threatening to give way below him, and leaned down next to her. Tears streaming down his face her rolled her onto her back holding her in his arms. "You didn't have to do that for me" he said, his voice almost catching in his throat.
"Yes...I...did" she struggled to respond her voice slowly fading "because...I...love...you...". As the last word came out he saw the light inside of her eyes disappear, as death claimed her.
He bent his head down and cried for a few minutes, thoughts of everything they had done together. Suddenly his eyes dried completely as he allowed rage to overtake his soul and mind, losing consciousness. He stood up slowly began calculating the distance between him and his target along with other technical factors like the position of the weapon, he stood only five feet away from the perpetrator. He found the exact position that he needed for an optimum chance at taking him down. He watched as he pointed the gun toward the other side of the room, creating the opening he had been waiting for.
Completely riding on his instinct he vaulted forward, performing an impressive spin kick that slammed the villain in the side of his head, before he could even realize that Gregor had moved from his previous position. The gun fell from his hand as he flew back a few feet, slamming into the hard ground. Gregor quickly snatched up the gun and pointed it directly at his head. "Why" Gregor at first whispered, then gaining in volume and anxiety he screamed "WHY!".
"I needed refuge after robbing the bank up the street" he responded nonchalantly. Gregor's grip on the gun tightened noticeably, as his hand stopped shaking. He was even angrier now, he had done all of simply for economic gain. "What are you going to do...shoot me" the nervousness was evident in his voice.
"No" Gregor said staring him down "death is too good for you". Faster than lightning he angled the gun downward and fired off a round that hit him squarely in the knee to disable him. A small smile played at the edge of his mouth, he began to come back from his rager side, after realizing what he had done he was horrified. "The justice system will take care of you" Gregor said with slightly less confidence walking away from the body behind him crumbled into a tight ball the pain evident on his face.
He saw the horrified looks on the faces of the other students, one of them was talking to a 911 operator. He knew he had lost control due to his rager side but he would never admit it. He set the weapon on the counter behind him and stooped to pick up Angelina's limp body. The wave of grief that hit him made him fall to his knees still cradling her lifeless body.
The police came shortly after that entering to see the disabled perpetrator, and Gregor rocking back and forth holding Angelina. They handcuffed the villian and took him out to the police car, never to be seen again by Gregor. An ambulance pulled up in front of the school and doctors came in and carefully removed her body from his arms. They took her to the hospital to check if anything could be done, but he already knew that they could not do anything. A member of the police bent down and began to ask Gregor a series of questions concerning the incident. He felt alone even with the police officer on the floor next to him until his mother came and sat next to him, laying an arm around his shoulder. This brought about a whole new round of sobs. She had been briefed by a police officer outside on what had happened. All the death he had seen occur in the underland during the wars seemed minimal in comparison to this one death.
"You could not have done anything" his mom tried to reassure him "it happened to fast" she began to cry with him. Gregor just continued to sit there completely silent. "Come on, it will be better for you to be at home". She helped him up and over to the car where his father was waiting as well. They had already picked up both of his siblings. On the trip home he stared out of the window, letting his mind drift to all the happy times they had together. It was not long before they were pulling into their drive way.
Thirty days later, he had gotten over the shock and gained back most of his functionality even though he was still quite saddened from the incident. If her death had hit anyone harder than him it had been his best friend Larry, he seemed like a totally different person now. That was when he realized something was wrong, a flash of movement was see-able through the window of their house. Pushing his saddened thoughts aside Gregor said "wait...is anyone suppose to be in the house". He was prepared to protect his family from anything, he would not fail again.
"Not as far as I know" his dad responded, "it was probably nothing, I am sure that we are safe" his dad thought he was suffering from paranoia. They all walked in with Gregor bringing up the rear of the group. As he was about to turn to shut the door, he felt eyes laid squarely on his back, watching his every move. Calculating the figures exact position using echolocation, he saw that the figure had what seemed to be five knives in each hand. He quickly shifted his feet to the left and jumped toward the wall. He could see that the figure seemed unfazed by his skill. As soon as his feet connected with the wall he reversed his course and flew toward the cloaked figure, preparing to deliver the knockout blow. Far faster than Gregor the figure raised one hand, no wait it looked more like a paw, and deflected the force of his body easily throwing him to the ground.
"Come on boy I thought I taught you better than that" he could now see that the face beneath the hood was not human. Ripred. He laid on the floor in shocked silence for a few seconds watching the obvious smirk on the rats face.
"Is that really...you" he managed to get out.
"The one and only" the rat replied with a slight chuckle. Then he saw Ripred's eyes narrow and stare past him. His father had grabbed a gun and was pointing it straight at Ripred. "Don't worry pops" he responded eyeing his dad and removing his hood "its just me".
"Ripred" Lizzie squealed running past her dad and enveloping Ripred in a giant hug. "I missed you so much" you could see in the rat's eyes that he had a soft spot for her.
"I missed you too" He replied in a soothing tone. Then he turned back to Gregor who had gotten back onto his feet "We need to talk". Gregor could tell that he had some horrible news.
They all gathered around the kitchen table, except Boots who had also been ecstatic at seeing Ripred, and Lizzie. "Okay...It started two days ago" He began to explain picking his words carefully "We had originally thought that we had weakened the stingers to a point where they were out of the picture. Not to mention that they seemed largely unintelligent at least compared to the cutters. I was patrolling the borders of Regalia, just to ensure their safety, and that is when I came upon a patrol of twenty stingers. I was able to fight them off rather easily but then I saw another patrol of fifty coming my way. I killed them all with some difficulty, and traveled in the direction they had come from. I traveled for two hours and there I found there stronghold, crawling with the monsters. I stayed out of their sight, but could still overhear there conversation. There numbers have increased to a nightmare level, and they are planning on attacking Regalia, to exterminate the killers." He ended.
"What do you want me to do" Gregor asked, even though he already knew the answer.
"It is an impossible task for the Regalian army, and one rager, but with two ragers we might just stand a chance against there numbers. "I have come to bring you back to the underland to help us destroy them, if you are up to it". His parents did not miss a beat in responding.
"No" they said in unison. "you are not Dragging my baby into another war" Grace said moving towards Gregor defensively.
"But mom I have to go, all my friends are counting on me in the underland" Gregor responded pleading with his eyes.
"We came so close to losing you last time, I wont allow that to happen again" Grace responded to Gregor "you can see your friend to the door" There was no room for negotiations, so he led Ripred to the door.
He leaned over to the rat, who had been surprisingly silent and said "I will sneak out of my bedroom tonight".
"I took the liberty to assume that much" Ripred replied "that is why I did not argue the point further with your parents". Ripred exited and Gregor carefully shut the door. He turned toward his bedroom it was already late, 10:00 PM. He yawned and got into his bed.
This may be the last adventure in the underland Gregor thought to himself. After this his mom would probably make there family move for sure, if he survived. And on that happy note Gregor closed his eyes and fell asleep.
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