Book One: Day Five

Sadly, Cameron was proven right faster than he had expected. Drake's team caused Ashton to find a friend only a few days after the Coates kid's arrival.

It all started when a group of children, including Parker, had huddled around Bette. She was performing a "magic trick" as the crowd had called it, but Parker and I knew better. Little lights were coming out of her hands, attracting every child in the Northern side of town.

Including Orc.

Orc and two other thugs made his way into the crowd. All of them had bats. In seconds, I had Parker out of their line of fire and away from the crowd.

They went after Bette and only Bette, hitting her on the head with a bat. I shielded Parker's eyes from the blow. Immediately she swayed as if she were about to pass out. Then, very slowly, she made her way to the firehouse.

Anger swelled up inside of me. No matter how many times those boys picked fights, how could they hit an innocent girl? Leaving Parker to wait with another child and a boy my age, I ran to see what was happening.

It seems like Sam did, too. He raced over to confront Orc, a losing battle if you ask me. Rushing into the mix, Sam put himself into a sticky situation. Sam dodged Orc's bat, but after a few swings, Edilio took the offensive route and rammed into Orc, which surprisingly knocked him off of his feet. Finally, one of Orc's thugs reacted, going after Edilio.

People were crowding now, yelling nasty things to Orc. One voice cut through all the others.

"Nobody move," Drake said, a twisted smile on his face as he looked at Bette.

Orc took this opportunity to pound Edilio senseless. Sam leaped to his rescue, but Drake was faster. In one motion, Drake grabbed Orc and hit him in the nose. Orc eventually got back up, but Drake was already prepared. He took one of the baseball bats from thug number one. Repeatedly, he hit Orc with it. Once he was done, he turned to Sam.

"How about you tell me what's going on, Mr. Fire Chief."

Sam went on to tell him that Orc had hit her; Drake went on to not care. He turned to ask thug number one, a boy named Chaz, what had happened.

"She was using the power." He pointed at Bette almost casually.

I gasped. Automatically, I brought Parker over with me. Was what he was doing enough to get your skull opened? I reentered the conversation at Edilio.

"You have rules against doing magic tricks?" he sounded almost sarcastic, almost really pissed off.

After more arguing, Drake handed Sam a list of all of the rules. They continued to pass angry comments, and soon Drake left. Sam followed his lead shortly after.

I however, needed to know something. It took all of my energy and willpower to approach Drake.

"May I have one, too?" I felt like crying. His face was so cold, so full of hatred.

"Whatever." He shoved a piece of crumpled paper into my hand, just as he had Sam. Before leaving, he looked down at Parker and smiled.

"Nice to see you, Caine will be happy to know you're here. Here we thought you'd made it out before the walls came down." Drake turned and left with the other three boys. A shudder shook my entire body.

On our way home, I noticed Sam walking Bette home. I hoped they had at least taken her to Dahra or something. I'd been concussed before, and it wasn't fun.

Book One: Day Six

I awoke today to find a second grave.