Enjoy the chapter! Also thank my beta reader, TooBitter.

Chapter 24

"There are many logical reasons why I would have a hoof print on my shirt. All of which I will not tell any of you," Alfred said easily as Feliciano and Kiku mixed the bowl of potion on the dining room table. Alfred reclined on the floor, after an hour of interrogation his friends still wouldn't let up.

"What could you have possibly done to a cow to make it attack you?" Matthew wondered aloud. Alfred just shrugged, thinking that maybe they were finally ending the conversation.

"Cow? More like what could he have possibly done to a bull to make it mad," Lovino finally spoke up, after being silent for so long. Everyone paused, thinking with their brows furrowed, while Lovino smirked and Alfred fumed.

"Oh my god..."

"Alfred you didn't..."

"He did."

They laughed. Even Kiku who was still sitting on the floor was laughing as Alfred turned from his normal ten complexion to a nice shade of rose. Feliciano held his sides, which were beginning to cramp from all the laughter.

"I'm telling Arthur!" Matthew cried out. He was still chuckling, Ivan next to him was nodding in agreement.

"I hate you all so much."

The words only set them all into another fit of laughter. Eventually Alfred's mother came down to see why they were so loud, and what they were laughing about. Although at Alfred's insistence, they didn't tell her much of what had happened earlier that day.

"Fine, keep your secrets, I have a date tonight anyways. There's money on the counter for pizza!" Ms. Jones shouted as she retreated from the living room. Everyone else bid her a good night, but Alfred was chasing after her confused.

"You're going on a date? With who? Why wasn't I told?" He asked, causing his mother to send him a reproachful look.

"I've been talking about this all week, I'm sure your friends know."

They did. None of them would say a word on the subject. Alfred pouted on the floor, even though his friends said it was revenge for him not saying anything about him and the bull.

As soon as Ms. Jones left, they turned together. The potion had long been simply sitting and waiting, but they wanted to make sure that Ms. Jones was nowhere near when they made it. She had been nice and everything, not very questioning, but the fact they had to get blood was still a little daunting for all of them.

"Okay I guess it's time to begin," Feliciano started, but his voice waivered, showing how nervous he really was. Everyone else gulped, trying to get rid of the lumps that seemed to have formed in their throat.

Kiku slowly plucked the berries from the vine, and seemingly they didn't seem to change color or anything, but they let out a great perfume of honeysuckle. Kiku wrinkled his nose at the smell, from sitting right in front of it he was almost overwhelmed by the perfume of it. Everyone else didn't really mind, the nice smell was different from what they normally smelled.

Easily he picked up the glass of lukewarm milk, and poured it in, watching some of the berries float to the top. No one moved for a moment before they turned to Feliciano, who looked eerily calm and understanding of his position. He held out his hand expectantly, waiting for someone to do something so he wouldn't have to do anything.

Kiku picked up the small knife he brought from his own home, the sharpest one he had, and quickly sliced open the skin of Feliciano's palm. To Feliciano's credit, he didn't flinch or cry, just a sharp intake of breathe from the male was the only indication that he felt anything. Kiku held his palm over the bowl, letting three drops fall before he let go of Feliciano's hand so he could cover the cut with a band aid.

The mixture of blood into the milk didn't even change the color from white to pink. There simply wasn't enough blood for it to really change anything of the appearance. Ivan took the bowl from Kiku, feeling a bit left out, and quickly mixed the contents with a spoon. He crushed the berries easily, and soon their 'potion' looked like nothing more than a pale purple paste.

It was ready. They had something tangible to try, that deep in their hearts they didn't think it would work, though they felt the need to try anyways. Heck, they didn't even know if their centaurs could actually swallow the potion, but not one of them said they couldn't, so they at least had a chance. And if this didn't work, at least they could go and try other things.

They placed their potion in the fridge, before gathering what they needed and heading out. There was nothing left to wait for, they might as well go out before it became too dark to be able to see their feet on the ground. Alfred carried the potion, insisting on it actually, and no one argued with him. The small weight of that bowl was a lot to carry, it bore a lot more than what they could imagine.

'They're trying it tonight, everything will end!'

'Oh hush, nothing will end. In fact we will grow stronger. Remember we still control the land, the boys can do nothing more than watch as we finally end the miserable existence of the centaurs.'

'That's what you said last time when we killed that boy, but look at what happened! Years and years of silence, nothing to talk to, nothing to understand. And they still lived, nothing more than fixtures, but they still lived and put us in silence!'

'Quiet! We have a weapon this time remember? The girl, the girl who is nothing more than just a girl. We will make her powerful, we will make her us, she is the key, she will be our escape, and she will be the end to those centaurs and their rulings!'

'Oh yes, the girl, the girl is everything, the girl is the key…'

Bethany slept soundly, for the first time in a while at least. School was nothing more than a boring endless routine now. She was constantly going to and from classes, looking for Alfred while failing to gain his attention. She tried to take Ivan's advice, but she couldn't wear those kind of clothes, something deep down wouldn't let her change out of the new attire she was wearing now. The less skin she had exposed the better she felt, even though she could hear the whisperings in the hallways about how she looked like an Amish woman who popped right out of the hills.

'Girl, wake,' the voice in her head commanded, the one she came to come the conclusion is the leader. She only heard two of them, but she could obviously tell who the leader was. Bethany snapped awake, breathing hard and a bit annoyed that she was awakened from the first peaceful slumber she had in a while.

"What?" she snapped back, ignoring the discomfort in her limbs that was telling her that the voice wanted her to go someplace. She held her place in her bed though, ignoring the itchiness in her hands and feet that made her want to jump up.

'You must come it is time,' the voice replied.

"Time for what?" she didn't wait for a reply before she was speaking aloud again, "You said if I listened to you I would get him. But he doesn't even look at me… I don't even know if I want him anymore," Bethany sighed, curling into herself on the bed. It felt like half of her brain was trying to get out of bed and the other half wanted to lay there, forgetting everything else.

'Girl that is enough! This is the night, when everything changes, this is all it. You will get your boy and everything will be great. Now rise and head to the woods, tonight is the night!'

Bethany couldn't help the snaps that echoed through the room at her joints cracking as they suddenly rose to the order. Her limbs were moving on their own, moving her out of bed in a rush and quickly towards the door of her bedroom. She couldn't even reach for her coat to protect herself from the cold night air she was sure was outside.

'That's right girl. Tonight is the night, when everything changes, you will get your boy and we will rise, tonight is the night!'

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