Chapter 6

When I woke up I found myself wrapped up in Derek's arms. I smiled as I looked up at him. His soft dark brown hair had fallen into his face and his lips were taut. It was raining heavily outside, I could hear it pounding on the roof. As I moved, trying to get out of Derek's embrace without waking him there was a small knock on the door. I got up and opened it, trying to stay as silent as possible.

I opened it to find Simon looking a little worried. I gave him a confused look but he just grabbed my hand and pulled me into the hallway. I closed the door silently and turned to him.

"I'm guessing it went well considering you slept in there with him." he said as a grin spread across his face.

"Yeah, everything is fine now. It probably wont stay like that for long though. We always run into problems." I sighed.

"Yeah you do, but you always find a way through it." He smiled at me and pulled me into a hug. We walked downstairs to get breakfast and I checked the time. It was 10 in the morning, this is the first time I've slept in since we've been with Kit. Simon opened the fridge and frowned.

"Nothing good?" I asked as I poured myself a glass of water.

"Nope. Kit really needs to go shopping." he said and poured himself a glass as well. We stood talking in the kitchen for a bit when Derek came down rubbing his eyes. He smiled when he saw me and walked over.

"Morning beautiful." he whispered into my hair as he hugged me. His voice was rough, and honestly, it was sexy.

"Morning." I said blushing. He kissed my forehead and went to scavenge for food.

"There's nothing good." Simon said and Derek sighed.

"I'll go wake up Kit." Derek muttered as he stalked back upstairs. Not a moment later there was a huge crash and Simon threw himself onto me. I couldn't see anything and honestly I didn't want to. I heard the glass of the kitchen window shatter and Simon winced. He was crouching over me his arms on either side of me. I tried to move so I could see what was happening but he pushed me back down. I could hear the wind more clearly as it howled through the shattered window. The rain came through as well pelting Simon. Soon enough he was drenched and Derek had come running down the stairs. He yelled for me and Simon yelled back that I was fine. I could hear Derek cursing and other voices yelling. I looked up at Simon and he tried to smile but something hit his back as he did. He fell on top of me cursing as his hand pressed against the ground, he pulled it back up and I saw that there were shards of glass stuck in his hand. He tried to get back up but he was struck in the back again. I had my head in my hands, crouching near the ground, now with Simon on top of me. I looked up and saw glass shards littering the ground. I tried to lift my head higher but Simon pushed me back down.

"Stay down." he screamed at me. There was one last crash and Simon let out a howl. I reached up and felt his back. His shirt had been ripped and when I pulled my hand back it was covered in warm liquid. Blood.

"S-Simon, you're bleeding." I had to yell over the wind and rain. There was a crash of thunder as he tried to answer.

"Chloe." He yelled and I looked up at him, straining to hear what he was saying. He pointed to his right and yelled but I couldn't hear him. I started crawling in that direction, once I had made it past him I could see what had happened. Pine trees from outside the house had fallen, destroying everything in their path and a few of them ended up in the kitchen.

I struggled to keep crawling but I had gotten glass shards in my hands and knees. I started to crawl again but let out a cry as the glass dug into my hands. I had made it to the first tree and tried to pull myself over it but there was another crash as another tree fell. It was shorter than the others but still grazed my thigh. I winced and snuck a glance at my thigh. Big mistake. It had ripped my jeans and left a jagged cut that reached down to my knee. I stared at it, not moving. I couldn't hear that Simon had come up behind but he placed a hand on my back and motioned for me to keep going. His gaze followed mine and saw the cut as he let out another string of curses.

He pushed me onwards but as soon as I crawled over the log the lights flickered and then went out. I whimpered and Simon placed a hand on my back. Even though it was only around 11 in the morning dark, luminous clouds hid the sun from view, leaving the room almost pitch black. He moved until his mouth was to my ear and he yelled that he was going to take the lead. I grabbed onto his ankle as he struggled to find the next tree. I was struggling not to think about what was happening to Derek and Tori. I knew they would be fine, but I still worried about them. I let my mind wander as I followed Simon through the Dark. My thoughts went from the storm to the graveyard in the woods to Derek.

Simon yelled that he had found the next tree bringing me back to my senses. As I followed him a horrible stench filled the house. It smelled oddly familiar but I was struggling to think straight. I couldn't place the smell but as soon as I felt a bony finger graze my leg I knew what it was. A body.

And that is when I screamed. I couldn't see anything but I could feel the bones as they wrapped around my ankle. I tried to kick it away but I couldn't see where it was. I felt another hand on my on mine and jumped crawling away from it. It grabbed me and I could feel the warmth coming from it. Dead bodies don't give off heat. My mind said to get the hell away but my gut told me to head towards it. Following my gut I found the source of the hand and yelled Simon's name. He yelled back and I let out a sigh of relief.

Moments later he bony hand was back around my ankle, pulling itself up to me.

"Stop!" I screamed as I tried to kick it away but my voice was drowned out by the wailing wind. Simon pulled me towards him and yelled in my ear.

"What is it."

"A body." I managed to yell back at him as I tried to kick it off. Another crash of thunder sounded and then a flash of lightning, lighting up the room enough for me to see the body. It was covered in tattered rags and partial flesh. The skull stared up at me and even though the wind was too loud, I still imagined the chattering that the teeth made.

"Stop!" I yelled even louder this time. The body stopped moving. It's head swung in my direction, it's arms bent in the wrong direction, and it's bony fingers had little pieces of flesh still hanging from them.

"Back away." I said, scrambling from it's hands as it's grasp loosened on my ankle. It obeyed and backed away. I focused on releasing it as Simon rubbed circles in my back. When I was finished I sighed and leaned into him. The storm was dying down a bit enough for us to see a bit better. Simon led the way again and he yelled that he was out. I heard other voices too, I'm guessing he had found Derek and Tori. I was fumbling around in the dark trying to find my way out as well but I couldn't tell where I was going. I turned in a circle feeling around, trying to feel for the tree but I couldn't find that either. Now I was thoroughly confused and not pointing in the right direction.

I sat on the ground trying to figure out which way I had come from. I tried to follow the sound of the voices but they were being drowned out by the wind.

I jumped as I felt arms go around my waist, hoisting me up. The arms were warm and I was too tired to fight them. Whoever it was could see much better than I could and maneuvered around the fallen trees and branches.

I was placed on the couch a few rooms over, and a few moments later Tori came running over to me with a lantern.

"Thank god, you're okay." she said. Yelling was no longer needed due to the wall between the kitchen and the living room. She placed the lantern on the table and sat next to me.

"Derek was going crazy." she started. "He wouldn't shut up about you not being safe even though we all knew you would be." I started to say something but let out a small scream instead. My adrenaline levels had gone down and the pain of all the cuts and the glass started to kick in.

Tori yelled for Kit and he came scrambling into the room with a lantern of his own and hurried over to where we sat.

"What is is?" he asked and then glanced down at my leg. The blood around it had dried for the most part but more was still dripping out. He let out and 'oh' and told Tori to take me to where Simon was. I asked where Derek was but no one acknowledged me. Tori handed me the lantern and slung one of my arms around her shoulder and helped me to Kit's office. We found Simon in there resting and I sat down next to him. I placed my hand on his but he didn't respond.

"He was out cold when Derek went to get you." she mumbled. She told me what she had found when she came downstairs. She had woken up to the noise and had found a large tree and 2 smaller ones in the kitchen. She said they hadn't just broken the window but ripped apart that whole side of the house and did a considerable amount of damage on the inside. At least we were all safe.

I started to doze off as Tori went on about how this was caused by a hurricane and that we were going to have to move. I curled up next to Simon and rested my head on his shoulder and fell asleep.