Chapter 12
"Francisco?"
The Italian teen glanced up, his blue eyes brightening when he saw Katerina and Alyson watching him expectantly. Then he noticed Katerina's expression.
"Ve~ Is something wrong?" he asked slowly, his brow furrowing in concern.
Katerina hurriedly shook her head, her cheeks flaring a dark red as the other teens glanced over in their direction. Alyson smirked and threw her arm around the Russian girl's shoulder.
"Kat here wants some advice," the American sang cheerfully.
Francisco grinned and leaned forward, his eyes brightening with interest. Alyson winked at him and inched closer, pretending not to notice the way Cielo, Achilles, Saichi, and Marc were watching their exchange with interest.
"What kind of advice?" Francisco asked slyly.
"Well~" Alyson began.
"IwanttotellMagnusthatIlovehim," Katerina broke in quickly, her blush deepening to a fantastic tomato-red.
Francisco beamed and clapped gleefully, earning himself a smug smirk from Alyson. Behind them, Marc groaned and wearily rubbed his hand against his forehead, not noticing the amused glances that Saichi and Cielo were sending his way.
"Dieu (God)," he grumbled.
"Don't listen to him, Kat," Alyson giggled.
Katerina nodded mutely and glanced at Francisco, who was still smiling at her gleefully.
"S-so... w-what do I d-do?" she asked timidly.
The Italian chuckled and reached out to gently pat the younger girl on top of the head.
"Ve~ Don't worry, I-" he began, only to be cut off by a dull thud from down the hall.
Marc frowned and moved towards the sound, his frown deepening when Saichi and Katerina followed him silently. Francisco pouted before following them as well, leaving Alyson, Achilles, and Cielo behind. The three remaining teens exchanged uneasy glances, never noticing the eyes that watched them, waiting for a chance to strike...
Marc motioned for Katerina and the others to stay behind him as he edged into a darkened room, his violet eyes struggling to cut through the shadows that draped across the room.
"...Are you sure that the sound came from this room?" he murmured.
Saichi nodded silently behind him, the palm of her hand pressed gently against his shoulder blades. She paused, her green eyes zeroing in on a large lump that had been sprawled in the middle of the room.
"Marc," she whispered, nodding in the direction of the lump.
The Canadian frowned and started to move towards it, only to be pushed out of the way by a suddenly-frantic Francisco. The Italian sank to his knees, his trembling fingers reaching out to brush against a limp curl.
"F-fratello?" he whimpered. "Dio... Marc! Fratello is bleeding!"
Katerina sucked in a sharp breath and shoved past her brother, her eyes widening in silent horror as Francisco gently pulled his brother's limp body into his shaking arms.
"W-where?" she gasped. "W-where i-is he b-bleeding?"
"His head," Saichi told her quietly. Katerina jumped slightly and shot a worried glance at the Japanese girl.
"H-how can you t-tell?" she asked.
Saichi shrugged and joined the three teens on the ground, Marc following close behind her.
"Achilles and I have good night vision," she murmured. "He says it's because of cats..."
Katerina chuckled despite herself, her pale fingers tentatively reaching out to grasp Magnus's limp hand.
"Will he be alright?" she whimpered.
Saichi nodded and offered the younger girl a sympathetic smile.
"Yes," she assured her. "He should be-" She broke off suddenly, her moss-green eyes widening in shock and horror.
They never heard the gun shot.
They only saw its consequences.
Alyson never heard the screams.
She had caught sight of Tink hovering near the end of the hall only seconds after Marc, Saichi, Katerina, and Francisco disappeared from sight. She frowned and slipped away from Cielo and Achilles- Achilles was too busy trying to hug a swearing Cielo to really pay attention anyways- her frown deepening when she saw the worried expression on Tink's face.
"Hey," she greeted quietly. "Something wrong, Tink?"
The fairy trembled and fluttered closer to Alyson's face, her delicate features twisted with fear and apprehension.
"You need to get to the meeting room, Aly," she whispered. "Hurry. There isn't much time-"
The low slap of soft footsteps against a bare floor, the rise of gooseflesh across the skin as the body sounded its first alert. Alyson stiffened and glanced over her shoulder, never seeing the look of horror that spread across Tink's face as the teenager was sent sprawling onto the floor by a well-aimed blow to the jaw.
The fairy trembled and flew away from its companion, its tiny hands pressing against its ears as more screams erupted from farther away, only to be cut off by eerie silence before they could really reach their full volume. A loud cry in Italian mixed with furious Spanish pierced the air for a few final moments, only to die abruptly as the first few countries began to barrel out of the meeting room.
Tink only whimpered and slowly floated down towards the floor, her miniscule face buried in spindly fingers.
It was no use, nothing could be done.
They were gone.
Yeah, this is a bit shorter, sorry about that. I promise that the next chapter will be longer! And possibly extremely painful for all involved but I'm sure you all don't care about that at all~
Anyways, please review, let me know how you think, feel free to yell "vodka" "tomatoes" "Herr Schtick" or "beer", you are all awesome, etc, etc...
Love you guys~!
