"Mathias."
"Hm?"
"Where are we going?"
That was the third time Lukas had asked the Dane that question in the past twenty minutes. My leg was blazing with pain by then so I was relying heavily on my brother to be able to walk. I could tell that because of the fact that I was so obviously in pain I had to resort to touching him (fun fact: I usually hiss when my brother touches me), Lukas was growing extremely irritated.
As soon as the rain had truly begun, Mathias had lunged into the trunk of the car and dug out our rain gear and some heavy coats. Sadly, we had no waterproof bags to carry anything other than what we could wear without it being ruined. So, we were forced to leave behind a lot of useless personal items -all that couldn't fit in a coat pocket- and most food or drink we had brought with us. Though, I did shove some licorice in my pocket when no one was watching. The car wouldn't serve as any kind of shelter now, seeing as the shattered windshield and tiny skylight were letting in the copious amount of rain. Every seat was soaked in mere minutes. And so were we.
Berwald had initially suggested that we follow the road back to town, which was the idea I personally agreed with; at least we knew there was shelter and medical help there. Yet, for some reason, Mathias had insisted that we go into the woods. Every time one of us asked why or where he was taking us he'd come up with some bullshit, half-assed excuse. His chosen reply this time was, "We're walking here because the trees shelter us better from the rain."
Lukas scoffed loudly, making sure Mathias could hear him over the downpour.
"We could have walked along the road and still have been under the trees." He countered.
"Uh, yeah, but it's dark and someone could have been driving down and accidentally hit us"
"That is completely ludicrous."
"Your face is ludicrous!"
It was my turn to scoff. "You probably don't even know what 'ludicrous' means."
Mathias gasped incredulously. He turned around to look at me with a hurt puppy dog expression.
"Emil! I do too know what it means! You wound me so..." He cried out.
"Drama queen," Lukas muttered, then he got serious. "And really, Mathias, we need to get to a hospital. My brother is hurt and Tino is probably in critical condition. Are you trying to kill us?"
"Psh, as if! Cool horror story idea though." Mathias chuckled thoughtfully. "One man lures his family into a secluded area and slaughters 'em all, one by one. For sport."
"Quit it." I groaned. I was already starting to grow paranoid about our situation, what with a car crash and no phone service. It was exactly the kind of set up for a scary movie. I shivered, and it had nothing to do with the cold. Mathias smirked at me.
"What, you scared, Em?" He giggled maliciously. I scowled and looked away. I wasn't about to admit to the fact that my heart was beating much faster than it should have been.
"Mathias," Lukas growled. The Dane stopped smiling in an instant. "You changed the subject. Stop the tomfuckery and tell us where the hell we're going."
It took a lot to resist the urge to 'ooh' like a middle schooler whenever someone got called down to the principal's office.
"I... Um..." Mathias faltered, he tugged the edges of his raincoat hood farther past his head to hide from Lukas's death glare. He cleared his throat awkwardly.
"M'th'as." Berwald's gruff voice startled me. He hadn't spoken a single de-voweled word since we had started off into the forest. Whenever I glanced back at him, he would be staring down at Tino (who was wrapped protectively in extra coats), frowning. "'xplain."
Mathias sighed, expelling a cloud of white mist. "You guys are going to think I'm crazy, but please don't be mad."
"Too late for that." Lukas said, continuing to scowl at the Dane with a passion.
"Okay... I saw a light."
I blinked. "A-A light?" He couldn't be serious. Mathias shrugged.
"I saw a light in the distance and I thought that it would be closer than town and we could get help."
Suddenly, I felt myself swaying to the left. It took me a moment to realize that Lukas had left my side and was now grasping the front of Mathias's coat. We had all stopped walking.
"You mean to tell me," he began in a tone that would make Elsa shiver, "that you passed up the opportunity to get back to town quickly while dragging us along with you, in this freezing cold shitstorm, while Tino and Emil, your family, are injured because you saw a light?"
There were three stages to Lukas's anger: Stage one: minor annoyance - he'll glare at you, but stay relatively quiet-. Stage two: irritation -he will start to argue and his frustration is more evident-. And stage three: you fucked up -he won't hesitate to choke you. You know you're at this stage when his voice is completely monotone.-
Mathias always managed to get to stage three. And he had yet again.
"Y-Yes..." Mathias squeaked out. He put up both of his hands in a "dude, chillax" gesture. Lukas did not chillax. I could almost see my brother's blood boiling.
"And, why, pray tell, did you think that this was a good idea?"
Mathias opened his mouth to speak, but one hardened look from Lukas had him quiet.
"Don't answer that. I already know why. It's because your brain is the size of a button and you lack any sort of common sense."
Was it just me, or was it starting to get colder? I pulled my coat tighter around me, but it did nothing against the chill.
Something I could only believe was a whimper of fear came from Mathias. Lukas glared at him even harder (which was somehow possible) before re-adjusting his hair clip and releasing the terrified Dane. He stormed over to me and grabbed my arm.
"Hey! Lukas, what-" I yelped as he started to turn me around, taking care, despite his rash anger, to keep me off of my broken leg.
"We're going back." Was all he offered as an explanation. I turned my head around to look at Mathias. I could tell from one glance in his eyes that he was really regretting his decision, as he should be. I wasn't mad at him, though. Not as mad as Lukas at least, and I couldn't really tell if Berwald was mad. He was still gazing down at Tino as if the whole scene that went down in front of him never happened.
"Lukas, wait!" Mathias called after him, but my brother didn't even acknowledge his words. I don't normally try to express sympathy for my family considering how insane they all are, but I felt bad for Mathias. I shoved Lukas off of me, accidentally kicking his shin with my broken leg.
"Oh, FUCK me! God damn sonuvafuckingbitch!" I screamed and collapsed onto the wet leaves. It was hard to differentiate between my tears and the rain. I balled my hands into fists and clenched my teeth together to keep from shrieking any more. The searing pain made me feel so light-headed that I thought I would pass out. I didn't notice Lukas standing over me until I was suddenly scooped off of the ground.
"Lukas." I hissed when I was confident that I could speak past the blinding pain. "Put me down."
"No." He deadpanned.
"Emil! Hey! Are you OK?" Oh. Mathias seemed to have materialized in front of me. I could have sworn he was still standing a good ten feet away mere seconds ago.
"Yeah. I'm perfectly fine." I mumbled. "Lukas is totally overreact-" Wait... What the fuck?
"Hello? Earth to Em?" Mathias waved a hand in front of my face. "You're staring off into the distance there."
I slapped his hand away. "Shut up. I saw something."
Mathias followed my gaze. Even Ber looked up from his "wife". I guess he was listening.
"Lillebror, there isn't anything... there..." Lukas trailed off. There it was again. Far off in the foggy distance, a blue light shone through the rain.
"Mathias."
"Yeah, Lukas?"
"I'm sorry for doubting you."
A/N This story is not sponsored by Geico ;P. Gonna get serious now, boys. No more fucking around. OK, maybe a little bit of fucking around. In the future. I'd like to give a shoutout to my beta reader who made an account just because I asked. Also, RIP in the chat for me at the beginning because I still think it sounds like Lukas is mad at Emil but he's not DX!