WARRIORS HIGH
ISLAND OF THE LOST
CHAPTER TEN
TRAUMA (PART I)
"Look at you."
Seashell was quivering on the ground, holding her exposed, bleeding stomach and groaning, crying in pain.
"You really thought you were strong, did you?"
"Please…" rasped Seashell, "Don't...don't do this…"
"What's stopping me?"
Seashell reached forward for something to grab, but found nothing.
"Your brother couldn't save you."
Her blood now seemed to douse her quivering body.
"Your boyfriend couldn't save you."
Seashell felt her sobs and breaths more and more shallow and weak.
"And you couldn't save yourself even if you wanted to."
Seashell felt the barrel of the gun against the side of her head.
"Say your prayers, you bitch."
She heard the click of the gun being loaded.
"It's judgement day."
"NO!"
BANG!
Seashell was awake at once, sitting up in bed with her eyes wet and her heart beating as if she had run a marathon.
"Hey, hey hey," said Coalstrike, sitting up next to her as well and squeezing her hand, "Deep breaths. Deep breaths."
After a good fifteen seconds, Seashell wiped her eyes and flopped back down onto the mattress, trying to calm herself down while Coalstrike wrapped her in a big hug, nestling his head into her neck.
"Was it the nightmare?" he asked.
"Yeah."
"It's been a while since you've had it.'
"I don't know what triggered it."
"Do you want to take-"
"No," said Seashell automatically, "I'll get over it."
The couple lay in silence for a couple moments.
"What time is it?"
"Five minutes to three."
"Shit."
"You wanna try sleeping again?"
"No. Let's take a walk."
The couple got up, stretched and bundled up in sweats and hoodies. They snuck downstairs, took one of the extra keys next to the knives in the silverware drawer and headed out. They walked down their street for a while, holding hands tightly before they turned and walked to the park about a mile away. It had rained earlier that evening, and the air was thick and wet with mist and fog.
After another ten minutes of walking, they found a bench and sat down, the only light illuminating their surroundings being the sole headlight to their right covering a large section of the park in faded, orange ambiance.
Seashell leaned on Coalstrike's shoulder, feeling herself starting to cry again.
"Why can't I just forget him?"
Coalstrike bit his lip. This wasn't the first time she asked this question and he still didn't have an answer.
"I...I know the things he did to you were horrible…" he squeezed her hand, "But look at how strong you've become! You've grown...we've grown so much! Let's be real, when he…uh…"
Coalstrike trailed off when he realized he wasn't helping at all.
"Do you want to forget him?"
Seashell straightened up immediately. "What?"
He almost completely regretted saying that. "What I mean to say is...we've been together for five years. We've been through hell on earth together. You could have walked away after all the stupid shit I do. So what's stopping you?"
She clearly wasn't prepared to be so blindsided. "I…you've been completely different than him. That's not a fair question."
"Maybe not. But you clearly wanted to end this after the doctor's visit."
Guilt burned in Seashell's stomach. "Coalstrike, you're not being fair to yourself."
"But you have," he said, looking her in the eyes, "Why?"
They sat in silence, both searching for some sort of answer.
The holdout lasted until Coalstrike's watch alarm went off. It was four in the morning.
"We should head back."
"Let's."
The two walked together, making it to their street before Seashell noticed Coalstrike looking down with a disheveled look on his face.
''Keep your head up, soldier."
Coalstrike looked up to see Seashell smiling for the first time in a while.
"We've got a war to fight."
"Well, you look miserable."
It was nearly seven in the morning, and Daffodil had come down to the kitchen to see Seashell draining her cup of coffee and get up to get another one.
"How long have you been up?"
"Since just before three."
"I swear. We need to get you a melatonin perscription."
"I'm fine," said Seashell in between huge gulps of coffee.
Daffodil rolled her eyes before grabbing a banana and sitting down next to her. "Was it another nightmare?"
Seashell nodded.
Her friend sighed. "We need to get you a therapist."
"I've already had a therapist. Besides," she sipped her coffee again, "We have a war to focus on."
"It's kind of hard to do that when you can't sleep at night. You think ARS will not shoot at you if you faint of exhaustion in the middle of a shootout?"
Seashell only rolled her eyes.
"Listen," said Daffodil, grabbing her hand, "He's in jail. He's still got, like, ten years on his sentence. He can't hurt you. So why don't you just focus on allowing your body to sleep?"
Seashell wanted to fight back, but she was too tired. "Fine. I'll try."
"Will you?"
"Maybe."
Daffodil sighed as Seashell finished her coffee, got up and headed to her room to change into her workout clothes. She was always worried about her friend, but she had been getting worse. She didn't know what to do.
But watching on the second level, Mallowleaf decided to check on something.
"Jaywhisker!"
"What?" he said, closing whatever he was working on.
"I need you to look up something.'
"What am I looking up?"
"The Lindisfarne criminal record archive."
Jaywhisker did some typing and password-breaking, soon pulling up a website with thousands of rows of folders containing every arrest and warrant for citizens of Lindisfarne since their "independence."
'Who am I looking for?"
"Garrett McLaughlin."
"Why him?" asked Jaywhisker, raising an eyebrow, "Doesn't he still have ten years left?"
"Just search him, please. I need to confirm a hunch."
Jaywhisker hesitated, giving her a weird glance before searching "McLaughlin" in the search bar.
There was only one folder. Jaywhisker clicked and pulled up a pdf.
And they both froze.
"No…" murmured Mallowleaf.
Right at the bottom of the file was a line that gave a status of how much time the prisoner had left in jail.
At the bottom, a line read "STATUS: TRANSFERRED"
Slowly, Jaywhisker clicked on the line, pulling up another pdf, this one with the insignia of the Forrestlake Justice Department.
"STATUS: BAILED, PARTIAL PAROLE"
The basement was silent.
"Jaywhisker?"
"Y-Yes."
"This...remains between the two of us. If you tell anyone about this, you're on a flight back to Lindisfarne."
Jaywhisker was now very scared. "Y-Yes, ma'am."
Mallowleaf stormed out of the basement, now very, very worried.
Seashell could not find out about this.
One. One two three. One two. One kick one two three.
The conversation they had that morning played in his head over and over again.
One two three. One two. One two. One two three four. Kick one two kick three.
"You're not being fair to yourself."
"But you have. Why?"
One two. One two three four five six SEVEN. ONE TWO THREE!
His fist went clean through the punching bag, sand splashing all over the room. He sighed in frustration, sitting down on the side of his bed and groaning into his open hands.
Why did their relationship have to be so...complicated?
Why did his life have to be so complicated.
Oh, how nice it would be to be able to just take Seashell out to a nice restaurant. To just have a normal relationship. To just feel normal.
But being normal doesn't win wars. And he had to win this one.
"You done moping?"
Coalstrike huffed as Ashtooth entered the room, not even turning around to acknowledge him. "What do you want?"
He turned around at the sound of something hitting his mattress.
His fighting gear.
"Foxleap called. He's got a job for us."
"ARS?"
Ashtooth hesitated. "Not exactly."
Coalstrike only hesitated a couple more moments before he grabbed his stuff. "Get me some whiskey. I'll meet you outside in five minutes."
Ashtooth smiled. "You got it, partner."
The control room remained silent as Bone's video cut away, returning the screen to the endless amounts of green flatlines.
Garrison was the first to move, punching a table and leaving a fist-size dent in the surface. "DAMN IT! WE NEVER SHOULD HAVE TRUSTED HIM!"
Sky remained still in the back, arms crossed and face obscured by the black mask she had on.
"WELL?!" said the commander to the captain, "WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO NOW?!"
Sky remained silent, but before Garrison could completely lose his shit, she spoke.
"They got cocky."
"W-WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY 'GOT COCKY'?! THEY EXECUTED A HUNDRED OF OUR PEOPLE!"
"Bold move, isn't it?"
Garrison remained silent as Sky pulled out her phone, texting one soldier that had what she needed.
"Garrison, wanna go show Rock we still have the upper hand?"
Garrison made a mental note to stop questioning Sky at all.
"Greetings, Rock, Bone."
Five black-masked figures stood motionless behind a chair, where an unconscious man wearing a bloodied white shirt, red tie and a black bag covering his head.
"I know that we haven't been on the best of terms lately, and I apologize for my part in our...rivalry of sorts. But we remain allies. Both of us agreed to it, so both of us should honor it."
"So while you were busy 'demonstrating,' we came across something you've been searching for. Something you told us to search for when we became allies."
The figure on the far left pulled off the black bag.
It was Jack Graves.
"I believe you know this man."
"He will remain in our care as long as we are allies. If you agree to set aside our differences, he remains alive, and in our care. All you must do is allow me to command my own soldiers once again. You will continue to have influence over them, but I like to be able to keep an eye on my own men."
"However, if you decide to break the alliance…"
The figure on the far right cocked his gun, and held the trigger. Incendiary flames blasted from the nozzle.
"...you'll have some difficulty locating his ashes."
"We are on our own timetable as well, so either you make the decision within 24 hours of your receiving the tape, or, if the time runs out or another of our men dies, we will do it for you."
"So what'll it be, Rock?"
"The choice is yours."
"End tape."
"Okay, nice work," said Sky after the tape ended, "Take him to the medical wing and retrieve his mask. Get me the tape within the hour. Everyone else, back to work!"
Garrison followed after the captain. "Don't you think using a decoy of the man needed to detonate the bomb both of us want is a bit risky?"
"Absolutely? But this is a pretty suitable ego check, don't you think?"
Garrison nodded.
"Now we just hope he doesn't call our bluff."
This is the beginning of an arc exclusively involving Seashell, Coalstrike and Garrison. I plan for it to be spread out through the following chapters, as well as for it to be the darkest arc of the book.
Next chapter, more with Dusty and Axis, and a look into the mind of Russetleap.
Also, Ashtooth and Coalstrike are now under Jay's control. Keep an eye on New Era if you wanna keep up with them.
Now, I'm left to hope Rock is more angry/terrified than smart.
Fingers crossed.
Best,
~Res