Chapter 11: Drive Me Away
"I told you to be patient
I told you to be fine
I told you to be balanced
I told you to be kind."
-Bon Iver, 'Skinny Love'
Kris paces the room. For the life of her, she can't believe that Time didn't tell her this. What if the Hayat Ruh has already told Lilly of the Situation? They are counting on Lilly's obedience; Time had promised they could lead her like a puppy on a leash. There wasn't supposed to be all of this nonsense, but yet...
Blood. Kris yearns for their blood. She both detests and worships Grandmother Time; she bears a hatred for that family, yet she knows the only route to revenge is through Time's help. If it means Kris may impose an unprecedented amount of suffering upon the Hayat Ruh, then happiness will ensue.
If only the Hayat Ruh had not bonded with the Rand's family line. The Rands are powerful beyond belief- or at least they were in Kris's day.
Willow has already been located. Princess Willow. She can be killed, Kris realizes, without consequence; Willow does not seem to have her sister's abilities. Although if they truly are twins- that would complicate matters...
What about the prince? Lynus. Supposedly, he is hidden. Perhaps he is a Shadow-Walker, wandering amongst the dead. Time should have realized this by now. At least she has enabled Kris to walk back into the past, undoing what has been done, unwinding the future piece by piece. Ridding herself of future enemies and failures.
Smiling to herself, Kris sweeps her hair behind her ear and loads the gun. Her finger resides on the slick golden trigger. The beauty of time travel is their advanced weaponry; with Carlson and the Hayat Ruh lost in this place, they have double the power.
Oh, yes. But first, this boy must die. Who would have ever thought that Sam Alexander would turn out to have a twin brother? Twins, twins, so many twins, Kris muses, playing with the idea for a moment before returning to her task.
The boy's chocolate eyes light up with fear, and he struggles against the bonds. Kris revels in his agony for a brief second, then shrugs and pulls the trigger. She turns on her heel. This child is worthless; scarcely twelve years of age, he is defenseless. A shriek echoes through the chamber.
Well, I guess he figured out how to undo the duct tape, she grins. It will take hours for him to die. The dizzying aroma of fresh blood floods the room.
Nick was fair to me. He told me to get my ass together, or everything was gone. My "friends" (as he referred to them) were, apparently, really messing things up for him.
Of course we all went to school like usual the next day.
I realized that I had to come to terms with what was going on when all that anyone could talk about was the explosion on the edge of the city.
Where were my family? I grew up alone, but now... where did my team fall in this?
I didn't want to drag them into the mess that had become my reality, but at the same time, I recognized that they were already involved. Ava's amulet would be useful to Bereave in any case. Sam's entire Other Team-the one's he was always talking about-were already in a war with Time (a galactic criminal just about everywhere except Earth, ironically). Peter was fortunately oblivious. I planned on him staying in ignorance. Luke and Danny, though, were entangled in this whether I liked it or not. They had always been there for each other. Danny wouldn't leave me, and Luke wouldn't leave Danny, and so Luke and I had gone from accepting one another to risking everything.
There was a sort of mutual understanding between Luke and I. Danny may have been insightful, wise, spiritual, and our fortune cookie, but he was innocent in a dirty world. Certain aspects of the city-well, he was aware of them, but he was protected. Luke had made sure of that. Danny knew suffering, I am sure; nevertheless, it was not the dirty, unhonorable, unfiltered torment that Luke and I had felt. For instance, the drugs. Luke and I had both been exposed to gangs and such. The brief time Luke and Danny spent on the streets together was the only firsthand knowledge of the "rough" side of town that Danny had.
So we kept Danny clean. I wouldn't say we protected him, because we just protected each other from our personal weaknesses in general, yet he was shielded from the poverty. Not to say that he was oblivious (he way Peter was). He knew the power of his vast riches. Oh, yes, Danny knew it was happening; he simply led a separate existence from all of that. Danny was no wealthy playboy, and it was more his purity that alienated him from other teens than his money. If he had wanted, he could have been the popular kid, with the glitz and the glam. That wouldn't have been Danny, though.
Anyways, Ava and I were friends still, I would say. We didn't trust each other, only respected and cared about the other. Both of us were rogues, unpredictable with explosive powers. When it came to acting our parts in front of our peers and Peter, we were experts.
Sam masked himself. Just like I did. Except he hid himself behind jokes and taunts, boasting and bragging.
Do you know that Deja Vu feeling? Yes? That was my entire life. I knew things were happening before they did.
Now I had to accept that maybe my haunting suspicions were valid. Perhaps time had been rewinded, and I was reliving what had happened. Time was so secretive...
I had to find out.
"Dude," Ava interrupted, "Lunch's dismissed." Numbly, I nodded. I gathered my uneaten salad and walked to P.E. in a daze.
Dodgeball. I hated dodgeball. Lucky for me, the majority of the balls were aimed at Peter (maybe others were also annoyed by his untimely jokes?). Then we had an obstacle course. Danny, Flash, and Harry were selected for some contest thing or something the next day. Ava and Peter bickered over 'school-on-a-Saturday'. Luke and Danny rolled their eyes at Ava, gave Peter a thumbs up, and left. I snickered, and followed them out.
The next morning, Peter, Ava, and Danny all left for the contest. I was too distracted to pay much attention, and Danny was dealing with paperwork late into the night.
I rolled out of bed, feeling strangely empty. I yanked my hair into a bun, pulled on a tank top and peasant skirt, and walked to breakfast. The clock read 10:30 AM. Sam was snoring in his cereal bowl at the kitchen table, his black bangs pasted to his forehead.
Sliding into the chair across from him, I munched on a macintosh. "Boy, you look refreshed."
"Mph?" Sam dragged himself up. "Wha-ooph!" He fell backwards off of his chair. Scrambling back up, he stared at me with wide, chocolate brown eyes. His eyes always reminded me of a puppy's, begging for attention.
"Nice," I nodded to the cereal.
"Shuddup."
"You sound like me before my tea on a Monday morning."
Sam groaned, and facepalmed. "Midterm grades arrived today."
"And?"
"Fury's gonna kill me," he mumbled between his fingers.
I slid the mail pile across the table. Shuffling through the papers, I found mine, unopened. For a moment I stared at the pristine white envelope, but then I threw it in the trash. Sam shoved his at me, and I picked it up.
Midterms, Trimester 1
Sam Alexander
American History: D
Algebra III: F
P.E.: B-
Choir: F
Art: C+
English: D-
French: F
Biology: C-
My stomach sunk. I reached across the table and patted Sam on the back, as if that could help. "Hey, it's not that bad. You're only failing french, choir, and math... and who cares about choir anyways? Since when do you take choir?"
"I had to choose an elective. They were in alphabetical order, okay?!" he moaned.
"You're doing really well in P.E. and Art," I offered. "And biology."
"Since when is a C- a good grade?"
"It's better than a D."
"Whatever."
I paused. "Hey, Sam..."
"Mm?"
"Do you want a bit of help, maybe?"
"NO." The words were bold in the otherwise silent kitchen.
I squeezed his hand. "Hey, if it makes you feel any better, I suck at Spanish. The only reason I'm passing at all is 'cuz of Danny, you know."
His eyes peeked around his hands. "If anybody sucks at French, it's me."
"Eh, yeah. But I guarantee Luke's worse at his Spanish than you are at French."
"No kidding."
"He still thinks 'ano' and 'año' are the same thing."
Sam broke out laughing. "Seriously?"
"Well, yeah. We had a conversation day, and there were an odd number of kids, so he was with the teacher-since Danny's in AP Spanish now-and, oh, there were a list of questions to ask... and one of them was '¿Cuántos años tienes?', 'How old are you?", and he pronounced it 'anos'..."
Sam pounded the table. "Priceless. 'How many asses do you have?'" He stood up and bowed as he asked, "So, Miz Emma, how many anuses would you currently have in your possession?"
I grinned at him. Suddenly, my body was wracked with pain. My hands trembled, and I fell to my knees. The cold metal rubbed against my palms and made a loud squeaking noise. Everything was fuzzy...
I manage to stand, my fist aglow. I charge, but he grabs me and the world disappears.
When I woke up, I was breathing hard and sweating. Only a few seconds seemed to have passed, and Sam was crouched beside me, his brow furrowed.
"Sorry," I gasped. "We- we need to get to school. Now."
"Crap."
...
If we had taken the usual route to school, we probably would have arrived around the same time as the majority of the news crews. It would have been too late to help. As if that makes me feel any better.
It was bright and sunny outside as we ran past the buildings. Sam was in a t-shirt and blue pajama pants, while I wore a tank top and skirt; neither of us had even thought to change. Whether that proves that we are both impulsive or very loyal, I don't know...
Let's just say that we ran into some trouble.
As in, Bereave. Yeah, that kind of trouble.
Ava's POV
"Hey, where are Em and Sam?" I said suddenly, as the news crew waltzed away.
Luke frowned. "Uh... I actually don't know... I mean, dude, I didn't actually realize that anything had happened at all until I glanced up at the TV at the gym and saw the 'breaking news'... You'd think the bucket brain'd rush here to get his face on the media..."
"Yeah, Sam skipping out on a chance for attention? Something's definitely wrong there." Peter raised his eyebrows.
Danny crossed his arms thoughtfully, like he knows something we don't. "She should have sensed us..." he observes softly. "I was channeling my Chi."
My eyes darted over to him. "Maybe she's just not as sensitive?"
He didn't bother to answer me, just walking away.
Back at the Helicarrier, we started searching for them.
Peter followed me through the bedrooms while Luke and Danny tried to find Fury. "Whose room is this?" He jabbed his finger at the plain bed frame. "Kinda shabby."
"Shuddup." I glared daggers at him, hoping he'd sense my anger. The message gets through. "Not everybody has an aunt to look after them." Especially not Luke.
"Well, uh, I don't think they're in here."
"Whatever."
After a quick runthrough of the living area, we met up with Danny and Luke.
"Nothing?" Peter asked. They nodded.
"Oh, schnitzels."
"Wait," Danny murmurred. "I should show you this."
\./ L_l –l L M =l _l \/ M \./ _l l= L –l M \./ =l L -l
"Who's it from?"
"Someone named Lilly."
My eyes widened. "Oh, fuck."
"What? Has she told you something about this?" Danny looked concerned.
"Yeah." I paused. "She gave me a book to throw away, some old journal or something like that, and this letter fell out, from someone named Lilly... someone related to her or Danny or something, the subject of this big prophecy thingy..."
Danny's eyes narrowed. "And that is why you should never read one of Emma's journals, Ava. They tend to be about the future. And it is never a good thing to know the future."
M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.M.
A/N: I must now thank everyone for their support! I understand that this is rather confusing and makes sense... the next chapter should start to explain things a bit (FINALLY!).
THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS:
DannyLover99: :) :) I'll try! No offense taken, don't worry. I need feedback like yours to make sure that I'm not completely failing at writing...
leggo lover 99: :)
TheOnyxDragon12: 1. An awful lot. 2. Yes- EXACTLY! 3. Thank you! :) :)
Latara Hanu: :D Thanks so much! Glad you like it!
Nerdy-Tomboy: Bittersweet. As the story progresses, though, I'll start putting up polls on my page to see who you guys want dead and such... (I'm getting some input from certain readers to kill Danny...)
ALSO, BIG THANKS TO ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE PM'ed ME AND GIVEN ME EXTRA SUPPORT & FEEDBACK THROUGHOUT THE WRITING:
Galaxyrider35: Thankyouthankyouthankyou for all of the ideas! :)
TheOnyxDragon12: I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH!
Nerdy-Tomboy: Thanks for all of the help :) :)
I should be updating again very soon; things shall be explained!
Thanks for reading,
-FFS