Chapter 9
As promised, wrote this chapter right away! Hahaha. Told you in my previous A/N that i finished chapter 8 at 5:30am on April 28. It is now 11:05am on April 28. I just woke up, and I'm determined to get another chapter out. Making the best of this creative juice.
Eliza will be fine. I promise. :)
Buuuut you might hate me for this chapter.
WARNING: this chapter contains violence. It's the only chapter with explicit violence so I don't think I have to change the rating to M? I'm kind of scared though. Haha.
Have you ever watched the 1995 movie Clueless? It was Eliza's favorite thing in the entire world. She practically had it memorized. There was a scene in that movie where Tai (Brittany Murphy) almost dies in the mall, and she describes the feeling to other people as "right before you die, everything suddenly becomes very clear". Eliza though, couldn't sympathize with that since she was very, very utterly confused.
The moment she found that she couldn't unbuckle her seatbelt, she merely gave up. She knew what a pain in the ass that seatbelt was. Her entire body turned cold and she decided to just close her eyes and brace herself for impact.
Nothing was clear. She thought of this as bad karma, for running away and wanting to escape her father. Maybe he meant well, maybe she just didn't appreciate him. She thought of her sister Emma. She was supposed to be with Emma right now. Maybe that's why this was happening. Maybe she messed up a chapter in the book of her life and now the story was being ended.
Maybe she wasn't meant to share her cab with alien twins and go on a wild goose chase all over Nevada. Maybe she just wasn't meant to save the world.
Eliza felt the impact, strangely enough, from behind her. She felt the hard metal wrapping itself around her and then she felt the sensation of flying, and then falling again. What she was wondering though, was why it was taking her so long to die, and why nothing hurt. Except her leg she got a bit of a charley horse from her body going too rigid.
Then she heard it, the sound of metal being crushed. All the wind was knocked out of her.
More sound of metal being crushed and glass breaking. Still no pain.
Was this what a painless death was? She felt like she was in a straight jacket made of metal as of the moment, but other than that she felt fine.
"Eliza?"
Her eyes snapped open, but she closed them again immediately from the flood of light. Oh my God she was dead, like legitimately she was probably in heaven that's why it's so bright.
At least she didn't go to hell right?
"God?" She asked.
"What?" The tone sounded slightly weirded out. Come to think of it, the voice sounded familiar. Did she know God in her previous life?
"Eliza?" The voice called out again, this time more urgent.
She opened her eyes slowly and let her eyes adjust to the light. She lying on the road int he desert, and she was lying on her side apparently.
"Eliza?" She turned towards the sound of the voice. Seth. Her eyes widened. Seth.
What was more surprising than the fact that she wasn't dead was her extremely close proximity with Seth, and their, um ahem, position.
They were in the middle of the road, Seth had Eliza in a vice grip, like a straight jacket, and she was... Well, on top of him. Mad decent.
She heard the sound of a car door opening and closing.
"Are the both of you alright?" It was Sara.
Eliza immediately tried to get off of Seth, she struggled against his arms and it took quite a while before he released her.
She rolled over onto the sandy ground and looked up at Sara and their surroundings. The two black SUV's hoods were crushed, both were only about an inch away from the cab. The cab was intact.
"I thought you would not get to do it in time." Seth said to Sara as he stood up. He turns to Eliza and helps her up. "Are you alright?"
It's a long time before she finds her voice. She's just gaping at the scene in front of her. Are the people inside the SUV's dead? She'd ask how everything had happened but she knew it was because of the twins' powers.
"Jack?" Was the first thing she managed to croak out.
Seth and Sara turned around to find Jack being held at gunpoint by three, large, bleeding men. "Don't hurt them, they have nothing to do with this." Jack says.
One man punches him in the gut. "Who said you could talk?"
Eliza is horrified. These are her guards. These are her father's men. The man who punched Jack in the gut is Shawn. She's on first name basis with all of these men. They finally caught up to her, now they were dragging Jack into it. He had nothing to do with anything. They were here for her, they didn't have to hurt him.
"Shawn, let him go." She says stepping forward.
Seth grabs her arm, trying to pull her back. "What are you doing?" He whispers to her.
"Elizabeth?"
"Kid?"
Jack and Shawn speak at the same time.
"Kid what the hell are you doing?" Jack asks her. This causes Shawn to start laughing, it was a deep, mirthless laugh.
"This is just too good." Shawn says.
"You know each other?" Jack asks, struggling from the men to try to get a look at their faces.
"Of course Jackie. That little girl right there is Wolfe's daughter." Shawn said, pointing his gun from Jack to Eliza. "And here I thought we were only chasing little old Jack here. Your father is extremely pissed off at you, Persephone." He said calling her by her code name. Her sister was Athena. Her mother was Hera. Her father was *eye roll* Zeus.
"You're Eric's daughter?" Jack asked her, in complete shock.
"I said let him go." Eliza says, stepping forward. She was confused as to why Jack and Shawn seem to be well acquainted with each other and why her father's guards were chasing Jack as well and not just her, but she stood her ground.
"No can do kid, you aren't the only mission here."
She hears the sound of another car rolling up and she turns toward it, maybe it's desert patrol? Do they even have desert patrol?
Her hopes come crashing to the ground when she sees it's another black SUV.
"Oh, look, there's you ride home Persephone." Shawn says sarcastically. "Get her."
There were two more men that she hadn't noticed standing off to the side that were coming toward her. Seth steps in front of her, and punches the man coming towards her. Before the man could retaliate, a gun shot rang.
Seth didn't move.
Eliza gasped. She hurriedly stepped around Seth right into the awaiting guard's arms as she looked him over to see if he had been shot. He wasn't. She looked over at Jack, he was fine. Which left...
"Sara!" She yelled out in horror.
Sara was wide-eyed, clutching her side, and starting to crumple on the desert road. Seth turned around immediately and ran towards Sara.
"Sara, no!" He exclaimed, kneeling beside her.
"Why did you have to do that? I was going to go with you anyway!" Eliza shouted at Shawn, she was already crying.
"Some kids need to be put in their place." Shawn sneered.
The two men holding her try to get her to turn around as the SUV comes to a stop, but she doesn't budge.
"My father will hear about this." She says, trying to threaten them.
"I don't think he cares anymore, Elizabeth." Shawn says.
She glares at him. She hears the SUV's door open but doesn't bother turning around.
"Where are the others?" Shawn asks the person behind her.
"Just me." The person says. She frowns at the familiar voice and before she can turn around to face the owner of the voice, five gun shots ring out.
Eliza's ears are ringing from the loud shots, she looks around frantically to see who else had been shot when she suddenly feels very heavy and slumps to the ground.
She realizes it was because the two men holding her were now crumpled on the ground. Hit the deck maybe? Or have you ever heard of the game Get Down Mr. President?
"Who are you?" She hears Jack ask, but she still can't see the owner of the voice because she can't wriggle out from underneath the two men who have her pinned on the ground. Weren't they supposed to stand up when it was safe already?
"Knight in rusting armor." The voice says. She feels the men get off of her and she is pulled up to her feet and spun around.
The owner of the voice stood in front of her and she couldn't be more shocked. She just stood there for a while before she started crying.
"Why are you here?" She asked, covering her face. "I don't understand what's going on."
"Elle, hey, look at me." Justin says. Yes. Justin. Lab partner Justin. Asking-if-Holly-Kinston-is-single Justin.
"No. No. Not until I understand what's going on. Why are you here? Oh my God, I'm about to lose my mind."
"Ellie, I have no time to explain, get in the car." Justin says.
"Okay, okay. I don't know if I can trust you, but okay." She said, still crying.
"Good."
She whacks him in the arm. "Are you serious? I was being sarcastic! Could someone please tell me what's going on?"
"Eliza, I work for your dad." Of course. Justin who always seemed to call-when-Eliza-was-being-chased Justin. He was calling her so that she could be tracked. Well at least she didn't fool herself into thinking she was safe.
She starts crying even more. "Justin, I trusted you!"
"You haven't let me explain yet."
"I don't want to hear it. You were my lab partner! Your mom gave me cookies! I trusted you and you were lying to me this entire time. I don't even eat cookies! I'm lactose intolerant but I ate the cookies your mom gave me. Oh my God."
"My dad is in the hospital, they were going to kill him, I didn't have a choice. Please, Elle. I didn't want to help them track you down. My job was just supposed to be to look after you in school. Be a peer you could trust."
"So why did you come here if they were going to kill your dad? Or is that a lie too?" She asked.
"He died this morning. Even the best doctors in Nevada couldn't save him." He said, looking up into the horizon. "I know you're mad at me. I'm here to save you Elle, but you have to trust me and you're going to have to get in that car."
There was a long silence as Eliza tried to ingest what had just happened. She looked around her, mortified. So the guards weren't playing "Get down Mr. President" with her. They were dead. All five men on the scene were dead. Justin killed them. She wanted to hurl.
Her eyes landed on the twins. Oh my God, Sara.
"Sara!" She ran towards them, Sara was on the ground and Seth was kneeling beside her.
"Here, let me." Justin pushed past Eliza and ignored the glaring Seth. He took off his cardigan and started wrapping it around Sara's waist. "It's just a nick, it hurts really bad, but there's no real damage. We just have to make sure that she doesn't lose blood. I have a kit in the car, we can fix her up there."
"Kids! I know this is a bad time but we really have to go." Jack calls out. Eliza, Seth, and Justin all look up and see police cars coming in on the horizon.
"Shit." Justin mutters. He immediately gathers Sara in his arms and lifts her up. She groans. "Elle get in the car. Now."
"I still don't trust you."
"Eliza we have to go." This time it was Seth who spoke to her, he didn't even wait, he was already pushing Eliza to the car.
He opened the door for her and helped her in before getting in and helping Justin bring Sara into the car. Jack had already taken the wheel.
"We gotta hurry this along." Jack said, in a slight panic.
The moment the car door closed, Jack gunned it. They were almost flying and Eliza was afraid for Sara. She and Seth were occupying the middle row while Justin and Sara were in the back.
True enough, Justin did have a kit and was already tending to Sara's wound. Sara was looking at Justin while he unraveled gauzes, opened Ziploc bags and dug out tools.
"This is going to hurt." He told Sara as he opened a bottle of antiseptic. Sara closed her eyes as Justin poured the liquid on her wound and she took in a sharp breath.
"I'm going to have to stitch it. Do you trust me?" Justin asked Sara. She paused for a while and searched his eyes. Sara could see from Justin's thoughts that he was, indeed, telling the truth. He meant no harm and he could be trusted.
"Yes." She breathed out.
Eliza faced front before the needle could even touch Sara's skin. She wouldn't be able to handle it. She pressed her hands to her eyes and started crying again. There was just too much that had happened today. She almost died, but then she didn't. Her father caught up to her. Apparently, Jack is affiliated with her father. Sara got shot. Justin worked for her father. Hell, Justin killed people in front of her. She was pinned to the ground by corpses. They were being chased by the police. It was a lot to take in.
Eliza felt Seth's arm around her shoulder. "Relax. If Sara finds that he is trustworthy, we will be alright."
The last thing she remembers is leaning on his shoulder before everything goes black.
So what the hell was that, right? Did you ever see it going off in that direction? Is this too much? Should I change the rating to M?
Please, tell me what you think. Is the chapter fine? Should I take down? Should I replace it? Should I rewrite it entirely?
I love you all. Xx
