Chapter 33: Discovery

When I see him, I'm pummeling his face into the ground.

But what if he's hurt?

Serves him right. I told them not to go in the first place.

I hope they're all alright. I want to find them soon.

I knew I shouldn't have trusted him with Angel and Melody. If they got hurt too, then he's as good as dead.

Between concern and anger, I didn't know which of the two emotions had dominated my mind. It was like a battle royal was taking place inside of my head which resulted in nothing but a stalemate.

It had only been a few minutes since that big fight down at our small hideout, but the wind whipping at my face had cleared my head for the most part. I found that I could now control that oppressive, unnatural force that had shown itself earlier. But now that I was aware of it, it put me on edge. I could feel it just sitting inside of me, waiting for the right moment to rear its ugly head once more. I gave an involuntary shudder at this thought.

Of course the one person that I didn't want to talk to at the moment, much less be close to, had noticed me shudder. He let himself fall back to be by me, leaving Nudge and Gazzy up front, who were bantering about which soda was the best, all while keeping their eyes peeled for something out of the ordinary.

"Are you sure you're okay?" asked Fang.

I nodded, keeping my eyes down to try to see past the thick cover of the trees. My battling emotions shifted their attention toward Fang, more than ready to take out all of my frustrations out on him.

Why does he care anyway? Does he enjoy messing with me to see my reaction? First, he draws me closer, and then he pushes me away. What game does he think he's playing at?

"Why aren't you saying anything?"

I shrugged. He was making it very difficult for me to ignore him.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see him getting closer to me. His right wing skimmed on my left. "Hey… look at me."

My teeth clenched together. Being this close made me want to veer immediately to the right; to gain back that space that was there previously. But I couldn't do that. That would definitely prove that something was wrong.

"Ember, just look-"

"Hey guys. Since the place is swarming with Erasers and Flyboys, do you think that Iggy and them would have seen some sign of them? So maybe they hid in the trees so that they wouldn't be seen. Because they're obviously not up here," began Nudge as she broke off her conversation with Gazzy to look at us. I nodded once and Fang fell silent, but didn't distance himself from me.

For once, I was saved by Nudge. That's a shocker.

Without another word, I dive bombed toward the tree tops, followed closely by the rest of them. It didn't take long for us to find an opening large enough for us to land in, and in a matter of minutes, all of our feet had touched solid ground once more.

"I saw the road up ahead; it's not too far from here. They must be nearby," said Nudge as we brushed off any stray leaves within our reach that had lodged itself in our feathers. I began to walk ahead of them, sidestepping thick bushes and making sure not to get my foot caught in the small holes made by the furry creatures that were no doubt nearby.

A few minutes had managed to go by before I found myself tuning out everything other than the sound of my footsteps against the dry leaves and my breath through my nostrils. The same thoughts echoed through my brain like a skipping record:

I want to find everyone.

I'm going to kill Iggy.

I want to find my sister.

I'm going to kill Iggy.

I want to know where they are.

I'm going to kill Iggy, I'm going to kill Iggy, I'm going to kill Iggy.

My thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a low, dull thud coming from behind me. My head snapped toward the sound and my eyes darted around the area, trying to locate the source. What I saw was Gazzy sprawled out face-first on the ground. He had managed to trip on a hole well hidden underneath plenty of leaves. Without a word, I retraced my steps and walked back toward him, just as Nudge was helping him up.

"Jeesh Gazzy, pay attention. You may just snap off your ankle next time and we definitely don't need that right now; we gotta go find the rest of them-"

"Hey, what's that on your hands?" Total interrupted Nudge's ramblings as he stuck his head out of Fang's backpack and stared at Gazzy's hands.

"What?" questioned Nudge when her attention was diverted to his hands. As she grabbed them and held them out, we all stepped closer to take a better look at them. Nudge stared at the red hand for a few more moments before confusion arrived on her face. "Is that…blood?" she asked quietly to no one in particular. Fang and I both shot a look at Gazzy, scrutinizing him. He didn't look injured; I couldn't see one cut on his body that would cause that much blood to spill.

"There's a trail on the ground," Fang mumbled beside me, and although his voice permeated through my ears, I resisted the urge to glance at him and instead looked for the trail that he had pointed out. It wasn't too hard to find. Most of the fallen leaves and grass blades were coated in the crimson liquid that was on Gazzy's hands. It was a wonder how it escaped our notice.

My chest tightened, and something told me to just turn away and not go any further than where I stood, but of course, my instincts told me differently. Keeping as quiet as possible, we all crept along the bloodied trail, travelling farther away from the roads and deeper into the brush. The sun was sinking slowly, but the treetops cut up the small amount of sunlight like paper-machete, making us look like lost sheep with our heads to the ground. We didn't have to go far to find what we were looking for.

"Hey…there's a hole in that tree," mumbled Nudge after what seemed like ages of us straining our ears for any foreign sound. I looked toward the tree, still on high alert for anything unusual. The hole didn't seem conspicuous at a first glance; it wasn't even bigger than my pointer and index fingers put together. A normal person would have suspected that a woodpecker decided to mark a random tree as its territory and go about its business.

That was a wolf in sheep's clothing.

The hole was cleanly made; it wasn't a ragged, uneven circle made by an animal…it was more like a weapon…

The warning to not look on the other side of that tree was completely ignored; my body reacted all of its own accord and made me step forward, to which I witnessed a sight that would undoubtedly haunt my worst nightmares.

"Iggy…," was the only whisper that escaped my mouth.

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Author's Note: Hola people. It has been a while. ^^ I intended for the next chapter that I released to be one long thing, but then I realized it was a bit too long (yes, there is such a thing), so I'm breaking it up into little tiny chapters.

What that means for you is that you get new chapters more often. Yay! XD So keep reading, and keep commenting, and I'll keep writing. Enjoy! ^^