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ultimaxell · 7 years

Text

Testing Fate

Wordcount: 9892

It was so quiet.

The announcement, brought a sort of end to the screams. A sort of false peace to the air around her. It was calm, soothed for the moment as a hush rose over the school, the only noise she could hear now was the buzz of the air conditioning turning on. The jump of the machine kicking up made her shiver, a tremble running through the length of her spine at the loud vibrations pulsing through the walls.

‘Welcome to the best night’s of your lives! You’ll remember this night forever!... I’m sure i fucking will, mom. Thanks for the warning.”

Her head was still throbbing, her chest still tight, and er breath still came in slow gasp. Ryker wiped at the sweat that was collecting along her forehead as her body tried to wage a war against itself, fighting the medicine tooth and nail as the terror sunk into her bones.

They were getting hunted. Which meant they were going to start going through classes and closet, they were going to tear apart the school making sure that they had taken out each and every student that they wanted. They were just target practice to these students. But she supposed they had to be smart if they had managed to ward off the police for this long. They had to be smart if they had trapped over half of the school's student body into a building and killed the majority of them. They had to be… at least intelligent if able to commit to such an atrocity and actually seem likely to get away with it.

There were no sirens, no distant flashes of red and blue, only a deafening silence. Nobody was trying to save them, no one was trying to make any sort of effort. Because nobody had a clue yet.

But the announcement insured her that they knew, they knew that people were still alive, and insured the hope that sparked in her chest at those words. Nephie and the twins, they were alive, she knew it. And she needed to help them, figure out some way to get to some sort of phone, one that wasn’t cut at the wire, or a window that she could actually get out of.

Because she wasn’t possibly going to be able to do it herself.

Ryker shifted, pulling her high heels off of exhausted feet before standing from the side of the desk. She didn’t bother picking up the shoes, didn’t bother even fixing any of the mess she had just caused looking for her inhaler. What was the point in dealing with a mess that was only going to get worse by the end of it.

Ryker, shifted her hands, pulling the dress up on the sides to allow her feet to hit the cold tile of the school. Her body moving around each of the desk to get to the paneled glass window that was part of the upper door. In the midst of her walk though, she ducked, the sound of shoes hitting the tile reverberated through the hall. The soft click of what sounded like men’s loafers hit the floor. Although she ducked, although she moved just out of eyesight from the window she still moved forward, her hand coming up to press against the fake wood of the door.

It was calm, even the way the shadow of them reflected off the walls seemed genuinely unbothered. His hands were in his pockets, eyes looking from door to door as he passed them, it took a moment. She had to be honest, it took a moment for her to figure out exactly who the man was. But the second she did it was over. His name slipping from her lips in a hushed whisper.

“Arsen?”

‘He’s hurt. He’s hurt… Do something.’

There was blood, and it was like it was the only thing she could focus on, her whole mind taken by the incessant need to pull him to her and make sure he was fine. Which was exactly what she did, her hands shifting to open the door quietly, beckoning the giant into the room, by the time he was close enough to the door her hands were on him, yanking him into the quiet of the classroom.Her fingers were instantly on him, her own body moving to press his against the teacher’s desk. She placed herself, almost strategically forcing the Michaels into a sitting position as her hand came up to the sides of his neck. Her fingers working to find any sort of wound on him. She stood close, closer than she ever really imagined she would to the boy. Her words soft and meant only for his ears. But there was a creep of a smile, all nerves as smoothed her fingers over the expanse of his tanned neck, the only flaw the spray of blood drying to the surface.

“It’s gonna be kinda hard for you to play doctor if i’m the one thats gonna have to suture you up, Arsen.”

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Braithe was no help, ever.

She couldn’t help herself, how did she think for a second that she was going to be able to help Lunthe? The truth… She knew she couldn’t. She wasn’t strong enough, she wasn't smart enough, hell, she could barely take care of herself. How was it she thought she could take care of someone else? She knew she was incapable. Incapable of being anything but trouble to her older sister. Even now, when she knew she should have let go of her sister’s dress, even when she knew she had problems of her own to be dealing with. But still she could not find the strength in her to release herself from her sisters comfort.

That was until her sister was snatched from her fingers, moving from her grip so easily that Braithe did not have a minute to recover. Her eyes and hands frantically reaching back out for her sister. The motions almost an instinct as she did so, something she couldn’t help. Something that she knew she would have done either way, whether it was by choice or not.

But still it was enough just to make her feel crazy. Her mind racing even as Neket moved in on her. His eyes just as demented, crazed as his words, as his actions.

“Lunthe! Lunthe! Neket, please… Please.”

Braithe backed herself into the wall, pressing herself as close to it as she possibly could. Her tear filled eyes taking in the boy that she had once wanted to call her own. A boy that she had dreamt of being with, a boy that had gave her butterflies , a boy she had danced around her room to the thought of more than a couple times and made her heart sing out his name.

Those eyes that she had fallen into on more than one occasion were wild on her, his words forced a shiver up her spine. The truth was she had missed him, she had wanted nothing more than to run back to him the second she had told him to leave. She had wanted nothing more than to wrap the darkling in her arms and soothe all of his problems. She had wanted nothing more than run her fingers through those dark strands and pull him closer to her.

But she had abused him. Had let him believe she would always be by his side, that they were young and eventually she would be by his side. She had said it. Promised him the words would be said one day. And she had betrayed that, turned her back on him in a time that he had needed her.

Neket had needed her. And she had thrown backs his emotions in his face, choosing a boy she wanted little to do with over him.

Her hands lifted, a small gesture to the man that was slowly encroaching on territory he thought was his to begin with. She could feel the possession in him as he moved towards her, his own arms extended. Her head shook, the synthetic brown falling around her shoulders from the now loose ponytail she wore.

“I did, I did miss you. I missed you so much… Neket. Please, i’m scared. I’m scared…”

The words left her mouth, all sobs and pleas as she felt herself sinking down the cold of the brick wall. Her eyes latching onto his as he began to fill a personal space that he had apparently never heard of.

There wasn’t time, not enough time for him to invade a space she was inhabiting, his hand only just barely running over her skin before the lights flickers, before hands were gripping her, ripping her from an emotional hell she had been stuck in. Her screams were wild, and she was already out of breath but Braithe already knew who it was that was ushering her forward. She already knew the fiery spirit who was yanking her and Lunthe to what they could call safety for a moment. Once she started, once her feet hit the ground, she was off, her fingers entangling with her sisters and Nephi’s.

They ran, past other students, past people who clearly had guns, clearly intent on taking someone out. But they didn’t flinch at the girls. Didn’t seem to take any sort of measure to try to even detain the girls. Instead they moved about their own, focusing on whatever it was that they were so infatuated with.

And Braithe wasn’t going to stop to figure out what the hell that was about when she had just found the strength in her legs.

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Drip… drippp…. Drip…. Drippp…

It was slow the light drop of water leaking from a old facet the only real sound she could hear, the echoed memories of gunfire playing in her mind as she sat down on the cold plastic chairs public education could afford, watching as Pratt moved, her hands shifting and moving and creating, all movements Pax could see but not really understand, the science behind her actions lost on the blond as she sat with her arms crossed along the smooth surface of the lab tables, flashing eyes lidded by heavy black lashes as she flickered her gaze downward.

Drip… drippp…. Drip…. Drippp…

That sound was going to end up driving her insane.

She knew, knew that Leaky faucets were the least of her worries, should have been the last thing on her mind as she listened to the rapid fire of gunshots filter down into sullen quite, a reprieve as the school mourned the death of her students, the screams of the dying failing, one by one within her walls. But this damn leaky faucet was something she see, could hear, and the steady drip was enough to send ripple of rage along her spine before she pushed off, moving angrily to try and turn it off, to make it stop.

Drip… drippp…. Drip…. Drippp…

But Pax could not fix years of school budget cuts, the lack of janitorial care, the pure aggressive destructive power of generations of students. At least not without tools, or without making noise, both of which she needed or needed to make.

Pax could feel it, the low hum of static that raced over her skin as she moved her hands, slowly trailing them up her exposed ars, fingers tracing little patterns on her skin as she tried to sooth back some of the fear that was starting to boil just under her skin. It was there, in the sound of her erratic heartbeat the thump against her ribs painful as she flicked her gaze back up, bright eyes flashing as she moved them back to the pretty blond that had her own eyes locked on the project before her, her tiny fingers moving carefully, deftly to build her strange, most likely dangerous concoction. She was focused, whole invested in whatever it was her little hands were working on, and Pax watched her, tilting her head as she took in her best friend for what felt like the thousandth time since she had first heard the gunshots.

Pax was almost jealous of how calm Pratt could be,how the world was falling around her but what did that matter? Pratt was focused on her work, her gaze narrow and hooded as she took in her little contraption, and Pax wished , not for the first time, that she had the same emotional rage that Pratt had. (Outwardly, because god only knew that under all that apathy, Pratt had more emotions than she knew how to handle, Pax the sole bearer of that knowledge, her best friend, the only one who knew Pratt as more than just the schools Ice queen.)

Pax was a prideful girl. She wasn’t the kind who bemoaned her luck and wished she had a diffrent this or a different that, wasn’t one to envy a talent someone else held simply because she didn’t. Pax saw people as… lesser, below her in a sense. They didn’t deserve her envy, didn’t deserve her attention, so why would she give it to them? She didn’t envy others for any talents they might possess, which was what made her strange and sudden thought oddly uncharacteristic of her.

Just enough to spur her on, to break her out of this strange unusual trance she had found herself in. Pax shook her head, closing her eyes as she sucked in a breath.

Just chill, Pratt’s doing her useful horror movie talent, do yours.

She hated how the memories came to her, the flash of nights long past as the lay spread out on her couch, or just hanging out in her room as Pratt tried to help Pax with algebra that she would just end up half assing anyway, conversations in spilled laughter as they debated their stereotypical roles in horror movies. Obviously Pratt would be the survivor, the one that actually ended up killing the killer or getting to the police, and Pax would be the last person to die, the martyr that ended up Dying because they came back to save the rest, the one crippling blow to the killer that would end in her death. It had been funny, just the kind of conversation boredom and facebook quizzes brought up in a teenage girl, but it seemed less funny now, a mantle she chose to wear as her eyes flickered to the smaller form of her friend

Pratt would live through this. She was smart, tactful, inventive and resourceful. She would be back in her house, in her blankets, safe and sound…..

Pax would make sure of it.

Her hands moved to search for something, anything that she might be able to use. Rather unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot that would work well as a weapon, but she managed to find some tools, sharp scalpels and thick scissors that she moved to tuck into the edges of her dress, her shoes. She moved, vivid eyes flickering as she pulled open cabinets and drawers as silently as she could, finally able to find thick steel rod in the lab closest, used for some sort of experiment,

Why do High schools have so much weird shit just laying around?

“Please tell me you’re even just a little bit closer to getting us out of here?”

Even now, some semblance of herself was starting to fall back into place, the drawl of her voice even and unamused as she turned fully back to her friend, returning to her place by her side. Her fingers moved as she crouched, near her smaller friend, hands brushing along her sides to seek and unspoken comfort, to draw from the soothing presence she always had around Pratt.

“This wasn’t exactly how I pictured spending prom with you.”

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He hadn’t been expecting it, his hands resting in his pockets as he moved about the hallways of the most northern part of their school. He walked silently, his thumping heartbeat the only sound he was really able to hear, violet eyes moving over lockers and crude decorations for ‘Spirit week’ still littering the walls and ceilings. He kicked at them now, streamers in his school colors littering the floor as the inevitable destruction teenagers would cause to everything around them had taken it’s toll, the littered pieces of paper and poster being brushed to the side as he made his way back down the connected hallways of his school, his eyes moving to the windows,watching as moonlight spilled along the grounds to light up the rest of the buildings walls.

It was funny, how before he had thought how strange it was the school's architects had essentially made the school one giant building, closing off pathways to make them hallways that interconnected what would have been a simple cluster of school buildings with open air walkways. That Wasn't enough for them it seemed, and Arsen could remember thinking how stupid that had been, as you were essentially closing them off and keeping them completely confined for all hours of the day, forcing them in even closer quarters than they already were. At least with open air walkways he might have found a path that didn’t take him right by his bullies, he might have found a route that he was left completely alone as he made his way to his next class.

He had cursed them, had been angry and irritated by now he found himself amused with the fact that he was almost fond of it, the usual way his school was shaped making it so much easier to trap the people they had wanted inside of it. Of course the plans were not perfect, as with the school set up as it was, there was a good many blind spots that people could hide in and it would take a bit for them to hunt them down. That Was why they had chosen to used guns in the first place, knowing that, while it was possible to take out a whole school with their new found abilities, it would simply take too long, much longer than a single bullet wound at the very least. Now that the bulk of the work was done, they would be able to hunt down the rest to give them the attention they deserved.

Though Hunt would prove to be a rather loose word, as he snapped his gaze up as his name slithered into the shifting shadows, hands coming to rest on his body and pull, yank him off balance as they shoved him into a classroom, the heavy thud of the wood and metal doors reverating as he blinked in surprise, the sight of flashing gold stunning him into a moment of eerie mental silence.

It was her eyes that caught him first, pulled him in as her hands settled about his jaw to press delicate little fingers along his skin. He stilled under her touch, his eyes locked on her as she fretted over him, taking her in as she pressed herself into his hold, her body flush against his, body pressed against the teacher's desk with an almost aggressive abandon. His hands moved, almost subconsciously, lifting from the smooth cold wood that made up the fruiture, hands coming to rest on her hips, hesitant, careful,l revering, as he lost himself in the feeling of her skin against his, the eyes more golden then he could name, a ripple of adoration running over him as he simply lost himself in her, the curves of her hips, the pull of her brow. Arsen didn’t think there was anything, anything in this world that was more astounding than the woman in his arms, as it was he had already seen her, in her prim and proper, absolutely lethal best, and to see her now, hair tousled as she had made her way across the school, her shoes discarded and her cheeks flushed, body hot against his as a fever ran through her, fear making her already stuttering heart hammer that much faster, and he was still struck with her beauty, still dazzled, stunned into mute stillness as he looked at her with a flash of stunned adoration in his eyes.

When he looked at her, his mind stilled, the whole of him and his mind, a part of him that never stopped, ran thoughts even in his dream, wholly fascinated with her and her alone. She was his only reprieve, his oasis in burning scorching mindscapes, like deserts and wasteland. Only she was able to quiet the beast in him, the dark twisting plague that shivered under his skin, in his bones.

His lips pulled into a smile, gaze shifting to fill with adoration for the woman before him.

“Ryker…. Ryker, relax Okay? I’m not hurt.”

His hands moved now, trailing up her body before he wrapped his fingers around her wrist, pulling her restless hands from his jaw to press a kiss on her hands. His eyes moved, violet gaze locking with hers as he pressed a kiss to each of her fingers, one, by one with a soft reverence, before he lowered them, thumbs brushing over her skin as he swooned.

Ryker had been his heart's desire for so long, and to be able to touch her, to press kisses against skin he had only dreamed of holding in his hands, to have her looking over him with worry laced into her features as she fawned over wounds she would never find. He never imagined he’d get the chance to be so close, to get the chance to press his lips against her skin or to have her by his side, and it was only through the fates design that he stepped into a new life that gave him exactly what he desired.

“What are you talking about, Arsen? There’s blood all over you...”

Even the slow realization in her voice, the tiniest waiver of fear in her tone made his heart skip in his chest. Her heart started to flutter, her eyes widening just slightly as he allowed his grin to widen. She looked ready to run, even if she didn’t know it, fighting with herself as her mind raced. She looked ready to take off, to let the flutter of her heart carry her away. His hands tightened just slightly on her wrists, an urge grown, sudden, harshly in his gut. He wouldn’t let her leave… He wouldn’t let her flutter and dance away from him again.

“It’s not my blood, Little Bird.”

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“You chucked me out like I was trash,For that you should be dead— but, but, BUT!”

The low hum followed, filling the silence that was almost deafening in the hallways. Neferox’s laughter spilled into the halls, his chest vibrating as he hummed the next bit of his song. Childish, playful, overacting? Yes, but the newly dyed white haired boy could hardly find it in himself to care. He could hear light thumps, the tiniest hint that there were still people left alive in the ghost town that had become his school, his mismatched gaze drifting easily over classroom doors.

“Then it hit me, Like a flash! What if high school went away instead?”

His hands moved, danced along the air as his voice gave life to the song, Low, burning, his voice a ripple of desire all wrapped up in the worst of ideas. His voice purred, a dark vibration in the air, a low velvet ring spilling from his lips as he jumped, skipped down the tiled hallways. He heard the hearts speed up as they heard his voice, dark, twisted, the musicals song something he knew almost as well as he knew his his own name. The words came easily, flowed past him as he moved through the halls with a jerked elegant ease.

“Those assholes are the key! They’re keeping you away from me! They made you blind, messed up your mind, But I can set you free!!”

The song was something he was sure they had all enjoyed, as he had when he was young and impressionable and catchy songs forever played in his head, the memory darkening as he gave voice to the lyrics of a villain he could remember terrifying his fellow students but he only ever really felt sorry for and related to. His movements were slow, fluid, playful even as he hopped, falling into step before a door that he only grinned at for a moment, lips parting to sing the darkened lullaby to hidden bodies and fearful hearts.

“You left me and I fell apart, I punched the wall and cried— BAM BAM BAM!!”

There was a loud bang, a reverberating crash that echoed around him as his fists collided with the metal of the door, his hands used to the pain and the blood that started to spill over flexed fingers. Pain exploded over his knuckles, having not held back, the bending sound of metal giving way to his hands and whipcrack of screeches that sounded pout familiar and brought memories of rage filled screams in reverberating pain in his chest, but it couldn’t touch him, not now, not as everything he had ever dreamed was slowly starting to fall into place. He listened as a scream was stifled at the sound, his grin only widening as he sucked in a breath.

“Then I found you changed my heart and set loose all that truthful shit inside!”

His eyes were wide, wicked eyes watching as the door swung open, slamming into the wall to make draw a yelp from somewhere in the shadows of the classroom, the muffled sobs as he heard them press their hand to their mouth making his smile only widen more, dark and predatory as his gaze as he moved. He moved into the classroom, hands extended in grand entry, shoes sliding along the tile with a skip and a hop, over dramatic as he allowed his voice to ring out clearly, ripples of repressed rage in all his words.

“And so I built a bomb...Tonight our school is Vietnam! Let’s guarantee they’ll never see the end of their senior prom!” Laughter spilled from him, the tone full of the black intent that ran through his blood. His hands dropped, falling to the wooden desks of the lines of desks they had been forced to sit in, the desks that had been pushed and kicked out of his way, the one that had been shoved into his side as he walked down the halls or had left darkening bruises along his body when he landed on them in yet another fight he had found himself in.

“I was meant to be yours! We were meant to be one! Don’t give up on me now! Finish what we’ve begun! I was meant to be yours!”

His hand moved, clamped around the edge of one of the desks to jerk, his arms flicking to send the desk flying into the concrete bricks of the wall. It shattered, screamed with the rage that had shot violently through him, and Neferox laughed as he allowed his head to roll against his shoulders, eyes wild and bright with fires that could not be cooled, his smile anything but friendly, all laced with malice and hatred.

“So when the high school gym goes boom with everyone inside—Pchw! Pchw! Pchw!”

He moved slightly, turning slowly as the crying got louder, screams pulling from their lips unbidden as he turned, slowly, too slowly, eyes void of anything that had once made him human, vacant and dipped in madness as he locked on to the cabinet he now knew hit the figure of one of the escapees. As he spoke the words, he made little motions with his hand, imitating the gun that was still strapped to his lower back, pressing into him even as his laughter made his body shaking and shiver with repressed rage. He pointed his fingers at the cabinet, his eyes locked on it as he heard the shiver of terror in their veins that made the metal vibrate, their hands probably pressed to their mouth as they flinch with every childish gesture he made. He walked slowly, methodically, unhurried as he crossed the distance, the sharp ring of nails scraping against the metal in wood making his skin crawl.

“In the rubble of their tomb, We’ll plant this note explaining why they died!”

Another step.

“We, the students of Westerburg High-Will die.” He begun, “Our burnt bodies may finally get through-To you. Your society churns out slaves and blanks…”

He paused, turning slightly to look about the room before his grin widened, shaking his head as his fingers danced in little motions.

“No thanks. Signed the Students of Westerburg High...‘Goodbye!’”

He was before the cabinet, and before the person could scream Neferox had opened the doors, their figure crouched in the corner in the smallest ball possible, bright eyes snapping up at the blood soaked Langdon before their lips parted to let the combination scream and sob to slip out before they were trying to tuck away from him.He smile only grew, hands already moving to them to grab handfuls of hair, not caring about the scream of pain they admitted as he yanked, pulled them to the floor in an unceremonious heap. Neferox pulled, yanked them to their feet painfully by the hair, his eyes blazing as he met their tears, whip cracks of lust running through his veins as he breathed his anger into a musical form.

“We’ll watch the smoke pour out the doors.Bring marshmallows, We’ll make s’mores! We can smile and cuddle while the fire roars!!”

Screams and laughter intermingled, the violent sound of bone and flesh slamming into hard surfaces puncturing the screams. Laughter flowed easily as the screams turned into gargles, soft sighs of a memory breathing through ruined lips as he splattered their skull across the tile. Bits of hair, stringing bits of gore shattered against the ground, splashing out to coat the walls, the cabinet, the teachers desk. Red spilled over in waves, vivid and bleak against the moonlight as Neferox blinked, pulling back to reach for the dress that doned them, wiping of his face and hands as best he could. He managed to get himself mostly clean again, thankful for the all black he had decided to wear. The boy stood, glinting fanged teeth flashing dangerously as he turned away from the body.

“I was meant to be yours! We were meant to be one! I can’t make this alone! Finish what we’ve begun!”

Just one more added to his growing body count.

“The Heathers, Neferox? Really?”

Lucian’s voice was a chuckle of amusement, a shiver of disgust as the repulsion flashed in his eyes. Neferox caught the black eyes of the white haired best friend of his brother, watching him as he shrugged.

“It’s catchy! I think I sung it well.”

He huffed, turning his head and straightening his jacket pointedly. Lucian rolled his eyes, his lips pulling into a smirk as he pushed off the threshold of the door he was leaning on, putting his hand to his head to tap his temple, pressing before he let it flick away as he spoke. There was no malice to his words, a lighter version of the affection that was usually present in his voice when he talked about Vaughn or Wheeler, just a hint of playful teasing.

“So you’ve always been a freak. Not really any development from there. Gotcha.”

“Like you can talk, Master Lucian.”

Neferox watched as Lucian's cheeks filled with bright red as he turned toward his brother, his mouth open as he widened ark eyes to lock onto the taller boy. Vaughn smirked at him, Lucian’s mouth parting to try and sputter a response but unable to make one, so he just looked down and crossed his arms, lips pulling into a pout a bit offset by the glowing blush adorning his cheeks. Neferox couldn’t help but chuckle, before stepping forward to Save Lucian from further embarrassment.

“Do you hear it?” His voice was lowered hush as he tilted his head slightly, his body bending just that little bit to add a bit of comical flair to the motion. Neferox made a show of listening., hand coming up to his ear before he grinned, eyes shifting, all predator in his eyes as he looked down the darkened hallway.

“Their hearts… their terror sounds like music.”

He was moving, laughing as he moved to once again practically dance down the halls, his arms spread in grand gestures, his smile never brighter than it was in this moment. His heart raced, pulsed with adrenaline, his mind settled on his mission.

Circee…. Come out to playyy~

“You were meant to be mine! I am all that you need! You carved open my heart! Can’t just leave me to bleed!”

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‘He wouldn’t do this. Don’t be stupid, Ryker.’

It was almost hard to swallow, the lump that had gathered in her throat thickening until she could only gulp in the life giving air. Her eyebrows shifted as her eyes hesitantly crawled their way up in his neck, taking in his lips and nose, his cheekbones, until they fell onto violet eyes. Eyes that seemed too warm for the words that were falling from his lips, a smile that looked more predatory than sincere, they were aimed towards her. Unflinching, and uncaring of the world that seemed to be drifting to a halt around them. His fingers squeezed around her wrist, the flinch that followed was involuntary, an action made more from the surprise of the action than anything real pain that she felt.

‘Arsen wouldn’t ruin his life over being bullied in highschool. He’s smarter than that.’

His lips were soft against her fingertips, those devilish eyes caught her again, the emotions flickering behind them anything but what she thought they should have been. A fly in a trap. It was the only way she could really feel about the situation. Ryker’s head throbbed, her heart lapsing as it tried to keep up with her bodies need.

Her mind was racing, trying to keep up with the words that were flowing from his lips., the words that should have made an automatic connection. But still she stared up at him, trying to think of ways for the words to make sense some other way. There were a lot of people, a lot of guns, blood splatters, maybe he was just caught up in the midst of it all. Maybe he had tried to save someone that was dear to him. Maybe Arsen Michaels was going to be the hero of it all, saving all the leftover students.

‘He wouldn’t hurt anybody. He wouldn’t hurt you. Stop thinking about it.’

Any of it could have made at least a little sense. Any of those plausible. Though the smile on his lips, the shimmer in his eyes, threw her off. No one with common sense would be so happy in the middle of hiding out from some shooters. No one in their right minds would be walking so jauntily down the halls in the first place. Uncaring of the world that was crashing around them to begin with.

But then again, no one in their right mind would have called out to said person. But she hadn’t seen it. Hadn’t focused anything but the pain he was feeling, the pain of a gunshot wound or even the pain of being grazed. Something she easily knew how to take care of.

‘Arsen’s too sweet to do anything like this.’

She could feel his heart hammering against his rib cage, her own heart trying to keep with the pace. Her body leaned, trying to pull away lightly, testing his strength, so to not cause any sort of trouble or seem unkempt by his words. Besides. She didn’t know, not for sure that he was a shooter. The smile she painted on her lips was weary, just a brush over over her expression to mask the utter terror she could feel churning in her gut.

‘It's the fever, you’re delirious.’

The nickname rolled over her spine, causing a tingle to jolt through her system. Even though she could feel the beginning of her expression dropping she fixed it. When had he ever called her that. When had he ever called her anything other than her name? When had Arsen ever been as demanding as he was in this moment?

“Arsen, that hurts,... Let go of my hands… please.”

The lie pulled easily from her lips, her gold eyes shifting to sun kissed skin that was wrapped around her pale flesh. She swallowed again around the lump that seemed forever lodged in her throat. Her fingers curled into the palm of her hand as she yanked down just that little bit more, putting just that little bit more strength behind her pull.

But he did not budge, the smile on his lips unchanging, his eyes still so heavily focused on hers that she couldn’t look back up at him. She couldn’t bring it in her to focus on him, or even give him the courtesy of her eyes. With as much force as she could muster she yanked against the metal hold of his hands, unbending. They didn’t even seem to jolt at the action didn’t move from the exact position she was held in before.

“This is not funny.”

Her breath heaved as she tried, her heart screaming out at her. But she tried to sooth herself, tried to contain what little sanity she was holding in her body so that she could get as much leverage as possible. Her body was tired already, exhausted from the exertion on her body, tired from the sickness that was warring with her. She was just, tired. But she couldn’t give up, Besides she didn’t even know if it was him. She didn’t know if he was a shooter. She did not know if he was a victim.

The most she could do was guess. The most she wanted to do was run, find some sort of safety, and find Nephie and the twins and get the fuck out of there.

‘He did not do this. He could not have. It’s not in him.’

She repeated the words steadily in her head, trying to force them into reality as he sat there watching her struggle against him.

“You’re scaring me. Arsen, please let go of my hands. Please.”

Her words were almost sobs, almost, though they were whispered amongst the quiet of the room. Feigning some sort of pain as she pulled again, her strength nothing to those hands that held her so carefully. But truth be told he was scaring her, the in may have been false, the level of ‘fear’ she was producing, just a show, but the fear itself was real. Built in her chest, to a point of bursting through her.

---------------------------

There was a warmth that was blossoming deep in his chest. A spark over something he could not quite put his finger on. The emotion so foreign on his tongue that there was no sorts of words to describe it as he watched the scene unfolding before his eyes. Sure it was juvenile, sure it was something that anybody else would have called cliche, but honestly, he called it magical. Honestly he could say that tonight was needed. Just as needed as the boys they had taken in.

And it truly was magical, watching these boys turn from someone who no one would have noticed to someone that everybody could not help but notice. No one could help but to be captivated, even their own ‘fathers’. It was magical watching them bloom into the dangerous predators that they had been fated to be. A fate they did not know was so soaked into their own blood, it was etched into their very bones, before the men had even appeared into their lives. A fate that none of them knew anything of, yet. But after tonight, they would learn. Learn what fates were. What they had in store for them. And exactly how important they genuinely were to their new found fathers.

They needed their night away from the world, the night to be about them.

And for now, he would let them release themselves how they had never been able to. He would allow his children and the others one night that they wholeheartedly deserved. Would allow the massacre that they needed to be able to move on from their previous lives, just so that they could let go and freely, willingly walk into their new lives without any reservations.

Not that he thought they would not willingly come anyways.

And he was all too happy to oblige to their night. All too happy to lock all the surrounding doors of the building. All too happy to take out the stragglers. He was all too happy to help the hooligan kids any any way, shape or form he could. It made him feel almost at ease, knowing that he helped brighten the little shits lives just by simply helping secure the building. Yea, it was an accomplishment in his books.

They needed this, just as much as it seemed he did.

There was small cracks, shifts as he threaded his fingers together and arched the back, cracking the knuckles along his hands. The motion one that often times soothed him more than it should have. But tonight, he didn’t really think there was a way to relax anymore than he already had. His hand found their way to the back of his neck, cupping it so that his arms could rest against the walls.

Lights flashed grey and white, dazzling and blinding him for a moment, just enough to make his eyes squint out the grey world that moved around him. Blobs of indistinguishable humans scurrying for their lives, like their screams would help them. Their moans of agony and pleas for mercy getting nobody anywhere.

Not that he thought that they would get anywhere anyways.

There was no mercy in these boys. Just the way he needed it to be, honestly.

Xerxes turned on his heel, his eyes taking in the heaps of blood and fabrics, flesh and flowers that littered the floor in front of him. He watched as some of the bodies bundled, showing their pain filled faces to the ceiling, and watched as other’s eyes accepted their fates, death slowly crawling in on them.

No matter how many times he said it, all he could think of was the same thing.

‘This is so magical.’

It was a freedom that none of the ‘fathers’ had been able to feel even yet. But they would, after this was all said and done, when the fates had brought them what they were waiting for. They would all be truly free. But for now. It was on step at a time. One foot in front of the other as they tiptoed their way into their plans.

No rush.

It was family night.

--------------------------------------

Her eyes were wide, but they saw nothing as she felt her body press against the back wall of the schools janitorial closet. There was a beating, a hard thumping her her chest she hesitated to call her heart, because to beat that harshly, that painfully, would mean that the fears he was trying so hard to beat, to best, would be winning, winning this war inside her head as her eyes saw sights not in front of her, but from barely past memories, the splatter of red and the chorus of screams that had rattled her straight down to the bone.

It was all she could see. Just blood and red and ruined dresses, spilled ink over the floors before her body had responded, her heart in her throat as her fight or flight kicked in and pushed her, threw her into the masses that were sliding past the door before her mind had even made sense of what had just happened right before her. She could remember the gunshots, the screams of people just next to her as they fell, red splattering, warm, hot and vicious over her skin as it landed on her skin. She could remember the feeling of stumbling, feeling something as she bolted past those doors, past the line of sight of the boys who had decided they had had enough of being pushed around.

Even now she heard them. The slam of a door and the strangled scream of someone before it was cut off with a violent slam and dark laughter flickering in the silence it left behind. There was more, whispers of the hell that had been unleashed in her school, a scream here, the sound of footfalls echoing in empty halls as people made that one last mad dash for freedom. The flickering of doors rattling on hinges filled her ears, and Ianthe bent her head, hands coming up to cover her ears as the cries of despair started when they realized they would find no sanctuary.

Their cries would be their death, the last thing they ever did.

Ianthe wouldn’t die that way.

She had to move. That was the only thought that came to mind as she finally found the will to drag her mind back to her body, her eyes closing, shifting as she blinked rapidly, blinking away any tears that may have wanted to spill over.

She didn’t have time to cry. She could cry once she escaped, when she managed to find her way into the wood where she was sure she would be able to lose any pursuers that may have been following her. Until then she had to suck it up, and Ianthe breathed in, taking in the calm that came with the eerie silence.

She just had to get outside.

Calmer now, The dark skinned girl sighed, moving her hands to touch at the tied back black strands that adorned her head. Her hair style had started to fall out, but it was holding at least, a worry she didn’t have to have. She moved now, allowing her gaze to to move over the fully stocked shelves to see if she could find anything sharp, a slight bit of metal or a box cutter that could strip through the cloth of her dress. She just needed movement, something the tight dress didn’t give her, though it had accented her curves wonderfully before, that wasn't exactly something Ianthe was concerned about. She needed to strip the skirt, give her a little more room to move and maneuver, and if she was lucky, get a few strips to wrap around her feet afters he took off these heels, to protect herself slightly from any glass or debris she might step on.

She was infinitely glad her father had insisted on those ‘Survival trips’, ones where he took them deep into the woods and left them to fend for themselves, had insisted that something was coming and that they better know how to fight. Ianthe could feel it, memory that seeped through her veins as she finally stood on shaking knees, her hands reaching to take off the heels that had adorned her feet, once a great accessory but now only a hindrance. She moved, spine steeling as she allowed her Father’s lessons to roll over her, little ticks listing off in her head if she wanted to survive.

Don't panic

Look for an exit

Breath softly

Get rid of any excess you have

Find a weapon

Keep tabs on your enemy…

She moved easily, around the buckets that were caked with grime, her nose scrunching before she turned away. She had to find something, anything But of course, whatever gods that be had already long decided they did not like Ianthe, had long ago decided that they would do whatever it took to work against her, and so she found no such help on the wooden shelves, only chemicals and cleaner staring back at her as she moved her hands, shifting bottles and dirty rags and foul smelling containers as her desperation started to climb again. Her heart started to pounded, her throat closing as she held in a desperate little whine, her hands falling to bunch in her dress.

She breathed, counted again, steeling herself.

Don’t panic…. The moment you panic you’re dead, Ianthe, think of a new plan.

Ianthe crouched as she crept toward the doors, hands shaking as she rested her fingertips on the wood of it, pressing only slightly to try and pry it open. It stuck a little, along a squeak as she pressed it open just a crack, her eyes closing at the ound and her head bowsing as she waited.

She heard nothing.

Okay…. Find an exit. That’s all you have to do.... Is find an exit….

They couldn't have locked them all. There was a hundred different ways to leave and exit this school, there wasn’t any possible way the could have gotten them all.

She just had to find it.

----------------------------------------

It was special. A night to truly remember. A night he knew that he would not soon forget. Not when so much was still in store for him.

“If that isn’t the corniest thing i’ve ever heard you say.”

His voice was riddled with laughter. Simple and joyful as he moved in rhythm right behind the two boys he would give the world to if he could.

There was a hum underneath the madness that Neferox carried through the halls. Something lethal, waiting for it’s turn in the light. Vaughn only watched as his brother, and Lucian moved through the halls, their enthusiasm contagious. The smiles that adorned their lips were unpracticed, pure in their happiness. The smile that Vaughn had been trying to contain was cracking, the corner of his lips pulling as the banter came to an end. Neferox’s attention turning back to the goal at hand, Lucian’s eyebrows rising in some sort of gesture that Vaughn just knew he was not going to respond to. Not to be rude, but simply because there was nothing for him to respond to.

There were a few stragglers, a few people still clinging to the hope that they would make it out alive. But there was no survivors when Neferox was on the hunt, Lucian and Vaughn in tow. Even if Vaughn was simply there for moral support at this point. Nothing more than a spectator to this game the boys were calling a hunt.

Cat and mouse, with the possibility of the mouse winning completely obliterated. There was no possibility, not even a thought that creeped through any of the boys heads. Instead, they knew what the outcome would be, eventually. No matter what the actual events that lead up to them were.

Nonetheless they moved on. Pushing through the few students that had lasted, taking them out just as easily as the last. None of them on any sort of save list. There was no mercy, but none of them were long deaths, none of them suffering for as long as they really should have. All three of the boys minds were somewhere else all together. Truly uncaring of any of the leftovers.

And that's exactly what they were, leftovers. Unwanted. Discarded. Something to be forgotten as soon as they were out of his sight.

As his thoughts swarmed, his focused mind so entangled with visions of blonde hair and green eyes that he barely registered the small words. Unhearable to humans around them. Good thing he wasn’t human. The whispers drifted through to him, small little hums to the air around them. He knew, the second he heard the tones, as soon as her words drifted to his ears, exactly where he needed to be. He knew exactly what he needed to do.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t fantasized about this moment for days now. It wasn’t like he hadn’t been obsessed with her skin against his ever since that one drunken night neither one of them had had the courage to bring up again. It wasn’t like he had dreamed of the way she had fit so perfectly against him, his hands made to be on her. He was sure it was just the drunken state he was remembering.

Those pretty little sighs haunted his waking hours and teased him in he late nights. Those pink lips parting in a sigh of ecstasy something that his head couldn’t seem to de-mystify. Those red coated nails digging into his tanned skin, forcing him deeper into her were only on his mind because he hadn’t been able to properly bring up the subject.

Pax Brown was only on his mind because she was enigma. A person he couldn’t seem to comprehend. On any sort of level.

Someone he had thought, that if he had her once, he would be able to move on. Past his secret obsession with his best friends sister. Instead, she was all consuming, a raging fire that burned his very being until all that was left was her.

He didn’t bother reporting to the boys who kept moving forward, at least from when he was paying attention. His eyes and body moving down one of the halls that Neferox had surprisingly decided was a passable hallway. For reasons Vaughn was sure he knew, he just didn’t care to ask in the moment, his mind completely fixated on the voice that was wafting towards him just in time to bring that fire burning right back in the pit of his gut. Need slamming into him with a certainty.

He moved, silently, keeping his eyes on the door that he knew lead to the girls of his very dreams, the girl that followed him in thought with his every movement. She was still talking, her little friend only responding in tiny little huffs. Her attention and efforts on other things he imagined. But he could hear the sirens call. Could feel the pull of her voice as it lead him forward, creeping through the hall, all though he could still hear Neferox in the distance, could still hear his ‘jolly’ tune playing. It did nothing to deter him. His steps quiet, calculated as he moved.

There was a moment hesitation as his heartbeat began to pick up, his eyes widening in the excitement that was steadily mingling with the sort of elation he had never experienced before. There it was, The door that held his precious toy. The toy that he had become so completely infatuated with that his mind went numb to anything surrounding them.

God, he loved the sound of her voice. The little ticks of emotions that were so stern underneath those tones. So stern but he had heard it before. The softness that that voice could hold.

His fingers grazed the door, contemplating before he finally knocked, slow and hard. Once. Twice. Three times.

“Guess who?”

--------------------------

Circee could hear his voice now, she could hear Vaughn’s. Lucian’s. She could hear the song that was playing so beautifully through the halls. Even if its intentions was to be intimidating. A voice that knew how to carry the words well, a voice that knew how to sing the notes playing off his tongue in a way that once had made her heart stutter in a much different way. A boy that had once made her very heart bleed for him. Neferox Matthews.

But now, she was paralyzed, stricken with fear to the very core of her being. It was him, it was his brother. Their friends. Her own brother. They were doing this, with not a single shred of remorse in them. And why should they? They had pretty much won. They were succeeding in taking everyone out.

She was no exception.

How was it that a person, or a group of said people, could disappear. Completely, not a single trace of where they had gone, for an entire week, the cops giving no sorts of clue to her brother's where abouts and not letting them in on any leads to her brothers friends. How was it they could do all this, just to reappear at prom. Guns in tow. Their laughter and mockery of the entire situation something that she could not quite wrap her head around.

But his song combated some sort of terror, helping soothe it, even just that little bit. Even if she knew it shouldn’t, even if she knew that she needed to make a run for it, she couldn’t caught in a web that was Neferox Matthews voice. Enthralled in what she could only explain as the worse way to possibly be. She was still scared, her heart still racing, her tears burning behind her eyelids but still she did not let them fall.

Neferox sung so beautifully, even in a form like this. He captured her. It was like she could feel his fingers running along her spine, she could feel the heat on her cheek, blooming from the contact with his chest. She could remember the sound of his heart, pattering away as he hummed low lullabies to her. She could feel him winding his way around her heart with each lyric, his voice a promise of protection and something that she could never quite put her finger on. But she knew for the rest of her life she would want to run after it.

She could remember the feel of his lips so soft against hers, taking away breaths she was more than willing to give up for him. His hands were revering, treating her like she was a precious commodity. Her own hands found his with as much adoration as she could possibly muster, stroking over tanned skin, tracing patterns in the freckles that dotted over his features. She could not get close enough, she couldn’t get enough of his hands on her skin.

The whole week he was gone, she missed his voice, the way he would pull her into abandoned closest, the soft words of adoration that made her purr. She missed the way he felt on her. She missed the way he made her heart stutter, the way he could have her breath hitch with only a smile.

He had disappeared before she had got to say anything to him…

She had missed him. She had actually went out looking for him, sent his phone thousands of messages, even went looking for him. But to no avail.

And now it seemed it was too late, too late for her. Too late for him.

Circee let her hands squeeze over her ears as she heard get closer, basically outside the door. Her breath hitched, her eyes turned away from the door, instead she shut them tight, her forehead pressing into her knees. She could hope. She could dream that they would just pass the door, but honestly, did she think she was going to make it through the night when no one else seemed to have?

138 notes · View notes

ultimaxell · 7 years

Text

Testing Fate

Word Count: 9386

“What the hell was that?”

There was a soft click of metal on metal as the stall door shut in place behind her, dark eyes turned to the brunette she called her best friend. Who, in this instance looked just as confused as her. The voice was strong, confident as he spoke out loud. His voice carrying more authority than he really ever had before, or at least more than she had ever heard from the dainty looking Michaels.

Arsen was not a confident man. But the man on the stage? He was. He was confident and proud and was for once standing up for himself. Something she had been saying they all needed to do.

‘Good for him.’

“Lee? Who the fuck is Lee? You don’t just fucking disappear for a fucking week and then come back with a new fucking name. You’re friends are fucking idiots.”

Buster smiled, looking up at Axel through a rim of thick lashes, letting her forearms rest on the cold granite of the sink, brown eyes finding green a little too easily. The brunette only offered her a stoic expression and a eye roll, her lips pulling carefully into a sarcastic smile herself.

They both knew damned well that the small group of misfit loser had become more like family to them. They both knew that the group was like a second home, would either of them admit to the truth? Never. But that didn’t mean it was not true.

No matter how ‘hard’ Buster wanted to pretend she was, her boys would always have a little soft part of her heart.

There was a pause between words though, a shuffle that she couldn’t quite keep up with, instead she turned her attention to the sink she currently had her hands under. The water was warm, refreshing where the air around her seemed frozen. Like it had dropped twenty degrees with no sort of announcement. She knew she was going to get cold. It’s part of the reason why she originally planned on wearing a tux. Before Oberon had said yes to her, that was.

She could feel the sting to her cheeks as she thought about it, a sting of shy that she was nowhere near used to having, crawled its way up her spine. Trickling through her veins until she felt as if her entire body was lite up like a fucking christmas tree.

Oberon fucking Mathers.

Just the thought of him, his name alone, brought a warmth to her chest. One that try as she might she could not squash down.She still hadn’t seen him tonight, though he had left her many instructions. Including taking the damn limo that had got herself and Axel there. To be honest, after a week of no messages or never seeing the familiar faces at the school she had thought they dipped out on her and Axel. She thought they had all decided to take themselves away from the girls.

But she had seen Neket, she had seen Heru and Brahm. Heard Arsen even now. They were here, if the others were. They basically didn’t exist without the little squad.

-----------------------

Axel wasn’t sure who Buster was trying to fool, but it certainly wasn’t her.

The smirk curled along her lips, pulling like the slow spill of ink over a white canvas as she leaned against the counter. Her Eyes flickering toward Buster as she leaned against the counter, that little blush drifting over her features, almost invisible, hidden so well that if Axel hadn’t known her for years, she might actually think that Buster had no cares about anyone in the squad, had no qualms about them and couldn’t care less about what happened to them, like she did for most of the people who had ever come in contact with her. But as it was, there was no one who knew the bond like Axel did, and she would see it, the light tint of pink over her cheeks as her mind drifted, as it always did, to the one one who had managed to wrap the strong willed Xander around his fingers.

Oberon Mathers.

Axel wasn’t sure how the two hadn’t fucked already. It was obvious that the two cared for each other, regardless of the insults that seemed to flow between them like one might give a lover kisses. She had watched her train with him, watched her as she had spoken to him longer than she did most, the soft little motions they gave to one another when they thought no one was looking, how they only continued if nothing was said, the slightest of questions enough to get their guard back up and the curses flying again. There watched each other when the other wasn't paying attention, always seek each other like they had been apart for years rather than hours. The past week had been pretty horrible to watch, watching Xander, her best friend, one of the only girls she could actual claim to love, get her hopes up as doors opened and she waited for a head of platinum blond hair that would never show. Her heart ached, but she kept her mouth shut, her lips sealed from making any comment on it that might embarrass her or make matters worse.

Because she was missing a Blond Haired, Storm Eyed Mathers of her own,and Axel knew first hand the hurt that could be accompanied with a name.

Axel sighed as she looked back to the mirror, running her lips stick along her lips before she pulled back, taking in her whole expression, wholly stoic and free of any emotion besides complete and utter boredom. She watched herself, the vision of a girl with infinitely aching heartbeats and spiraling nerves, a girl she knew too intimately and could hardly guess at. Axel tried to make herself pretty, had learned all the tricks and tips to make her eyes pop, to make her lips look fuller, to make her hair fall in just the right way to bring to mind thoughts of tangled limbs and silken sheets. She had struggled to make herself someone to be seen, someone people wanted to be near… because that was supposed to make him want her, supposed to make him see her. Everyone loved beautiful people. So she became pretty, so that he would love her.

There was a moment of pause before she pocketed the useless thing, not sure why she was even bothering if the boy she wanted to see her tonight hadn’t bothered to show.

Axel wasn’t stupid. Despite how he acted, what he said, what he thought, Inness wasn’t completely heartless. He wouldn’t have left her in the dark if it wasn’t something important,a grain of truth she held onto when night fell and sleep evaded her because her messages had went unanswered, again. He was, at the very least, Her friend, someone she had grown to lean on, to care for, maybe possibly more than she should have. He didn’t usually go this long without answering her, without telling her off for blowing up his phone or for being outside his window, throwing rocks, acorns and climbing his tree so she might just knock on the window to see if he was there. This past week, she hadn’t seen him, hadn’t heard from at all and while this was strange… She knew he had to be here, having seen a few of the members of the Squad, had even caught eyes and waved to Neferox as he slid through the crowd. They didn't go really anywhere without each other, and the squad would not leave the squad behind on prom night. She just hadn’t seen him, and the thought of maybe he was trying to avoid her sprung up, unwanted but possible. She supposed it wasn't anything she could really be mad at.

After all, He had never told her to fall for him. He hadn't told her to be attached to him. He hadn’t told her to want to be around him or talk to him nearly every second of the day...

Axel was just an Idiot.

She sighed as she tilted her head, listening as Arsen spoke up, his voice clear, strong, distant and muffled in the sort of way that she could not really hear what he was saying, more understanding the tone. She smirked as she listened, turning back to the refection in the mirror as she lifted her hands to her hair.

“Sounds like Mr. Valedictorian grew a pair.”

She hummed, before she heard the rumble of confusion and the shriek that followed. There was a sound, something she could not describe before she heard it, the single fire before the screams ripped through the air and footsteps started to roar. Axel’s heart dropped, her lips parting as her eyes widened, her breath catching in her throat as she whipped around to stare at the door.

“Lock the door Buster.” the words were spoken lowly, whispered as she felt her heart sink and slam into her gut, lungs not getting enough air.

“Where’s my phone…?”

-----------------------

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

The words slipped through her lips, barely audible but spoken to Axel nonetheless.There was a mixture of confusion that was swarming, buzzing in her head with enough intensity to throw the blonde completely off. Her eyebrows were narrowed at the door as the screams tore through the gym, shrill and enough to leave a chill up her spine. She could hear Axel’s frantic whisper, eyes wide on the door. Just as much of the confusion that Buster felt was painted over her best friends features.

“Did he say Neket? He said Neket… Neket’s doing this?”

It was real. This was really happening at their high school. Someone had really decided to shoot up their school on prom night. Someone had actually showed up, dressed to the nines and looking more than likely the best they ever had in their life and decided that this was the perfect time to get rid of their problems. And from the sounds that swarmed outside of the door, it sounded like every breathing person in the school was a problem.

It was seconds later and another shot fired through the air, those terrible screams stopping momentarily. All of them coming to halt as she heard the shuffling begin to pick up. She heard the soft click of heels against the wooden floor, the hard clunks of students dragging their feet in defeat. There was a silence again, only the low sobs of distress, and a hollow laugh picked up. Loud and clear through the quiet of the night. Buster’s heart plummeted, dropping until she could no longer feel the organ. A hand pressed into Buster’s shoulder, yanking her attention from the sounds of horror that lay outside the thick door.

Buster let her eyes fall back to Axel, momentarily before Neket’s voice picked up again. Just the sound of his voice sent a tremor up her neck, setting her hair till it felt like it’s ends. He was unhinged, completely lost in some sort of madness that he had found.

“Lock the door….”

There was a hesitation to her moves. They were her friends she thought. Neket, Arsen, all of them. They were supposed to be the boys that had a shit time in highschool but once they were out. You knew they were gonna make it big. She used to say it. All the time. Mabe not in so many words, but they were her boys. They were supposed to be by her and Axel when they graduated. They weren’t supposed to turn on her. They weren’t supposed to turn on Axel. They were supposed to be there when times got too hard for them.

Though from the looks of it, she was never there during their hard times.

“Lock the fucking door Buster!”

Buster moved, launching herself forward until she was against the door, her fingers shook as they turned the gold lock into place, the click louder than she would have liked. But still she pressed her ear to the door, listening to the words that Neket was speaking to the crowd, their cries becoming increasingly louder.

“Get to the window, see if you can reach it. If it opens.”

It felt like a black hole was starting in her chest as she skidded to Axel’s side, who was already turned to the bathroom stalls.

----------------------

She didn’t hear words, didn’t hear really anything as she watched Buster moved, launching herself at the door to lock it with trembling fingers. She watched her as she pressed her ear against the door, her own heart drowning out the words that spilled past her lips, her body already turning, eyes snapping toward the small square windows that lined the bathroom wall. Her hands were shaking, her vision blurring as her breath felt like it was caught in her lungs, shallow pants accompanying the sting in her eyes.

She had heard his voice, Had Heard Arsen Michael's Voice, then she had heard the noises, the screams that had burst and bloomed along the night, to join the cry of the cicadas outside. She had heard it as his voice disappeared, heard the calls of another familiar voice, once that she had last heard a week ago as it mumbled something about needing space and time, the notes to that voice so melancholy it broke her heart. There was nothing of that sorrow now, as his voice rang out in confidence and pride, resounding victory interlaced in every word as she moved through the stall, her hands pressing against the white wall that held the windows, her only chance it felt, at surviving.

She didn’t know what to think anymore.

She thought she knew them. Axel had spent years by these boys side, years spent hanging out with them, getting to know them, growing closer and closer to the boys until she couldn’t imagine a life without them in it, all of them, their differences so vivid and bright, people she proudly, and often proclaimed as her boys. They were supposed to have each others backs, supposed to care about one another, but now, if what she feared was true, they had turned, betrayed them, and Axel was left in the dust now, wondering about whys and what ifs.

Her mind raced, hearing those shots again, every little sound making her jump slightly as she reached, lifted her hands so she might graze at the bottom of the sill. She reached, not able to get much leverage in the heels she had decided to wear, grunting as she reached for something just beyond her grasp.

“I can’t reach it.” the words were strained, tight as she left out a frustrated sigh, her heart hammering as a certain kind of anxiety slid along her spine, making her feel heated, hot, like there was a beast breathing on her neck that might finally catch up to her, jaws snapping against soft skin as she jumped, trying to reach it. She heard her moved, the soft click of her shoes as the screams got louder, her hands finding axel in the dark, the lights slowly, methodically, turning off.

Axel nearly let out a whimper and fear closed around her throat, tightening like solid fingers over her neck as she gasped for air.

Axel didn’t want to die. Her heart hammered with desire, a lightning hot flash of desire to live, the desire for the life she had always fantasized for herself.

Axel wanted to see that new horror movie that was coming out next week. It was supposed to be wicked scary, completely and totally out ranking the old ones on gore and scare, and she was hoping to ask Inness to go with her.

Axel wanted to go to the mall with Buster tomorrow. She had presents she had to shop for, little graduation gifts she wanted to buy her boys and little party favors for the parties she would throw just for them. She wanted to buy Buster those new boots she had been eyeing, wanted to spoil the girl she had come to care so desperately for. She wanted to take her to her favorite places, wanted to hold her hand as she walked down the boardwalk.

Axel wanted to own her own auto shop, a place she would love to hate and love to love and work, placing all her love and interest into a single place, a place she could just work on cars and learn new tricks or just relax as she did what she loved, working on a new car for herself or for him because let's face it, she was a sucker for that half smirk that was more malice than joy and a blond with pretty grey eyes.

She wanted to get her own apartment, realize she hated paying bills and be an adult but still live with it because the house would be hers, the tiny little slice of an apartment would belong to her, and it wouldn’t be much but it would be a place she could make into a home,A Place He could go when life around him seemed to be to hard, a place to call his home away from home, where she could protect him and black out all the hate the world seemed so determined to throw his way.

She wanted to live. She wanted with everything she had to live.

Buster pushed her up, axel’s hands catching the sill of the window. Axel was never a strong girl, fast but weak. Her arms shook as she pulled herself up, trying to fight with the lock on the window as her mind raced and pushed her shaking hands to work faster, her eyes widening as she felt it, the danger creeping up on her and Buster. She shook, but finally shaking fingers had their day, the lock finally releasing as she pushed, the heavy window feeling like it hadn't been moved in centuries.

“Push me up!” Axel spoke, her hiss accompanied by her eyes flickering over the moon lit courtyard of her school. She wasn’t that high up, she realized as Buster pushed her farther up, but it would take a minute to jump down without hurting herself.

“Okay, Come on.”

Axel held out her hand as she shoved herself halfway through, dragging Buster up with her as her body started to slide down.

Just a few more minutes…. And they would be free.

--------------------

It was every where, it was on her hands, across her chest, her neck, splattering across pale cheeks, she could feel the blood dripping off her fingertips as they dangled off the sides of the bench. The droplets hit with a light tap against the floor, barely audible in her ears as she stared out the wide windows of the gym. The world was a haze around her, blurring objects around the edge of her vision, all the while she tried to concentrate on the moon. Tried to take the constellations in but through the slim confines of the tiny windows she could only see the moon and clouds that seemed to be devouring the sky.

Or at least the view. Even the moon dipped, under the cover of the clouds. Almost as if the scene that was unfurling in front of it was too unbearable to watch. Stas peeked from the clouds, dotting the sky in a shining brilliance before receding back into the comfort and safety of the clouds.

“Ursa Major…. Aquila…. Lyra….”

There was a buzzing behind her ears, a dull thump roaring to life just to disappear just as fast as it appeared. There were dull unearthed screams, humming of the tragedy that was her living nightmare. Serving as a dim reminder of what was happening feet away from her. But blue eyes were unphased by the surrounding. Her lips still moved to mumble each of her memorized constellations, her mind trying with all its seeming might to block out the gathering frenzy around her.

The words came out a little louder than before, trembling around each word as it passed her lips.

She wasn’t ok.

“Orion… Scorpius…. Cygnus….. Draco, Taurus.”

Emmy moved her hands, the shaking digits came up to push against the wood that she rested on. But all she did was lean forward, her eyes shifting to the floor, and back to the window.

She wanted to stop trying, she wanted to stop fighting, she wanted to give up. She wanted it to be done with. She wanted someone to take her out already, she wanted to stop feeling. She didn’t want to feel the terrible tremors running through her veins anymore. She didn’t want to feel this deep rooted dread that thrummed evilly through her body.

There was a moment's breath as she stood from the bench, her eyes turning from the window to the wave of people that seemed to be falling one by one. She could see the blood filling the floors, feel it slick under her heels. There were familiar faces, faces she called friends and some she only knew from a meeting in the hall. Some alive,... some dead. Some of them stretched, reached out with blood splattered hands out to her.

But she couldn’t feel it. Couldn’t feel the sympathy to bend down to any of them. She couldn’t find the drive to tell them it was going to be okay. That they would get out of this. What was the point in lying to people who were already dead? What was the point in lying to them when there was no sort of real hope that anybody was making it out the doors alive unless these people so willed it.

“Ursa minor, Pegasus,.... Cassiopeia, …. Persuess.”

Her eyes glanced over one of the perpetrators, his grin alive and crawling with evil, his multi colored eyes grazed over her. But there was not a single reaction, his eyes quickly going back to the task at hand, back to the malevolent acts, that smile unwavering. Others passed her, never even batting an eyelash towards the girl.

But Emmy barely noticed, instead her attention was on the soft clicks of her heels, the sound becoming louder as the screams began to die off, the guns unloading less frequently. She could hear the groans of the people on the floor that were still breathing. But her eyes were on the wildcard blonde that she had once called her kryptonite.

The person that she knew ultimately would steal her life away from her one way or the other. The man that had taken her breath away in whispery kisses and late night conversations. The only person she could truly say if she had lost she would not know what to do with herself. He was her… her friend? Lover?... Possibly killer.

But she couldn’t even really concentrate on him, her eyes shifting back to her feet, her hands were shaking, uncontrollably, her eyes shifting over the little group she had grown to love bit by bit. Even if it was rocky at first. Davy. Derek. Dean. And Kasmir.

Each of them sported a gun, each of them sported the same splashes of blood across their clothes as her and about everyone else in the room. They were lethal, she could feel it in her bones. The way they carried themselves now, each of them different. Physically, mentally. They looked professional, like they did this every tuesday and then went home to sip on jack afterwards.

“Volans,... Leo. Pyxis. Uh,... there has to be more.”

Even her words were shaking now, playing through her mouth with a chatter to her teeth. Wet hot streaks spilled down her cheeks, something she hadn’t noticed until tears began to roll down her neck. She let her hands come up to her neck, wiping uselessly at the tears, her bottom lip jutted as the tears began to build up. Burning behind her eyes. But there was no stopping them when they began to fall, there was no ridding her from the threat of her tears overflowing.

“I can’t remember them all. There’s more. There’s more than that… Maybe. I-i I don’t know…. I can’t think…”

---------------------

He couldn’t do it anymore.

There was only so much that he could take, the wave of nausea hitting him, rolling over his spine as little shivers shook his body. His stomach heaved, jolted in his throat as he turned away, his eyes closing as he sucked in a weary breath... Arsen wished he could be like them, wished he could be like his friends and like Heru, able to reveal in the direct destruction he was able to cause. His body moved, turning away, his lower back resting on the podium as he fixed his eyes on the wall of curtains behind him, his heart pounding out harsh irregular rhythms in his mind as his chest shook with every reverberating beat.

He almost didn’t notice when the principal moved, shifting as they finally let go of the young student president to bury their face in their hands. The old man’s voice wavering as he sob his prayers, words no one would hear, words that meant nothing more than wishing.

“Please God…. please god, no…. Make it stop...”

He could hear the sobs, hear the whispers of running tears and the sniffle of a running nose as the Principal crouched along the floor, huddle in his hands as he shook, blood pooling around him as he tried to gather himself in a ball as small as possible, trying and failing to keep out of the blood. Arsen watched him, and oddly distant look to his gaze as it stilled on him, hardened and cold even as he caught his breath.

“God?” He heard himself ask, his voice smooth, slow, questioning in the heat of screams that smoldered around them. He heard the music sing, the strangely soft embodies purring over the scene around him, mingling in the momentary bloodshed, the slowly quieting screams as one by one by one, they were all picked off, the laughter of his friend echoing off the walls. His footsteps sounded hollow, cheap wood with cheap labor matched fault for fault, as he closed the distance between them, his gaze never leaving the man’s hands, watching them as they shook, every little twitch and clench memorized as he pointedly ignored the bleeding body next to him. He didn’t look, did not allow his eyes to drift from the man before him, the man who looked up with a shivering gaze and a blubbering sob that disgusted Arsen to look at.

“Has he answered you?” He continued, expression hazed over, a strange distant look to his eyes as he bored into the older man’s, “He never answered mine…. Maybe I wasn’t important enough to save….” He mused, mummering quietly to himself as he leaned back on his heels. He tilted his head, looking upwards for a moment before allowing his gaze to fall straight back onto his, a dark burn lingering in his eyes as he watched the man sob.

“I wonder if He’ll save you? Up. Now.”

Arsen snapped the words, The principal jumping as his tone suddenly changed. There was a growl to his voice, a ripple in the tone as he flicked his hand up and stood, eyes narrowing on the man the refused to move. He looked confused, blinking at him with wide bleary eyes, earning only an eyeroll from the irritated boy. He moved, reaching out with strength he should not have, pulling the man to his feet. The smaller man trembled under his hold, the tall boy scowling as he moved, pulling the man along as he made his way over the stage, hallow footfalls leading him to the stairs, drawing them out of the white hot spotlight that filled the stage.

“I don’t have all night, Morath. Don’t waste my time.“ the words were double edged, the blades of which found their mark as Arsen heard him whimper, the memories clear as they sprang to the forefront of his mind, flooding his thoughts and Arsen’s as he took them to relive him seeing a fifteen year old Arsen Sobbing in the chair before his desk, brown hair ripped and pulled, nose clearly broken, his eyes nearly swollen shut. He saw his bruises as The principal had that day, and heard him as he spoke, his tone irritated as he shoved the box of tissues toward the hurt boy and sneered.

“If you're just going to cry about it, then just go home already. Don’t waste my time.”

He had sent him on his way with a kick, the words of an over worked principal who hadn’t heard many of the other stories stinging along the last hope Arsen Micheals had ever held. He had wanted to believe that his school would save him, that this wouldn’t be like elementary or Middle school, where they used the phrase ‘Kids will be kids’ at him enough that he hated the phrase, that they would hold people accountable for their actions.

No such thing happened. High School was just like middle and elementary school, but with more social pressure and raging hormones. People didn’t care about you, people didn’t want to deal with you...You had to deal with your own problems.

Arsen allowed a single quirk of his lips as he pulled the man past Audi, through the hallways that held the rest of the students, the people who had managed to slip by them and the ones who were not to be harmed. He could hear some of them, light panting and hearts that fluttered like a fly in his ear, a low hum, a buzzing in his ear that followed him through the familiar halls, the lockers, the darkened hallways. Up the stair cases he knew so well, along the twist and turns and classrooms before he finally found the front office.

“Open the door.”

The principle let out another whine, only moving as Arsen’s hand pushed, shoving him forward to slam against the door. He brushed his hands off on his suit as the man searched his keys, frowning as he shook his head at the feeling of having touched someone like him for so long. Violet eyes narrowed on the figure, little more than a silhouette in the dim orange light of the street lights outside. He pushed open the door, Arsen’s hand coming up to hold the door as he stepped through. He grinned as he shut the door behind them, his hands falling to his pockets as he turned to look at the Principal one more time.

He was so much more suited for things like this, the parts of the plan that did not involve gallons of blood.

“Get in your office, and turn on the intercom. I want you to repeat after me….”

-----------------

“Attention, all Students! ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS! Congratulations, first, for making it this far. This did not prove to be an easy feat, as the good majority of you now are…. lying dead….. along the gym floor. Oh God Please-”

There’s the sound of a scuffle, the sharp sound of something heavy hitting wood, the sharp cry of pain followed by the slow cries and sobs of a broken old man.

“... For those still alive, The game has Changed. You did well to Hide, But now…. It’s time to Seek. We are going to hunt you down. We are going... to get what we want. ... “ Another sob, more scuffling. The sobs changed, are strained more somehow. There’s a whisper, a hum along the waves that can’t quite be picked up.

“See... if…. you... last any longer than I- PLEASE DON’T-”

SNAP.

There’s a low thump, then silence.

And the intercom shuts off.

-------------------------------------

Kasmir was weak.

This much he knew, without a shadow of a doubt. He was angry before, filled with vivid rage that seemed to consume him wholly, Had spilled from him in the form of a strangle battle cry as he had launched himself at Liam, words flowing from the bastard's mouth that only added fuel to his anger, white hot and painful in his limbs as pain exploded on his knuckles. He knew that it was stupid, that he was already better them him so he didn’t have to prove a thing, but the moment he saw him, Kasmir forgot about the change in his blood, forgot the new legacy he had taken like a crown, forgot everything. He was suddenly nothing more than human, and he was overwhelmed with the hate he could have for the man who held a claim on the woman who had claimed him. He had beaten him, ripped him apart with his own two hands and Kasmir had reveled in it, his grin widening as he laughed, and laugh and laughed, unable to express his fury in any other way.

He was his first kill, and the memory of it was enough to burn in his body like his blood was made of gold the sounds of violence to loud to drown out, the soundtrack that would be his prom now seared into his veins. The other had only watched him, had pulled him off when Liam was nothing more than a corpse, shot full of holes and bean in bruises that bloomed over paling skin. They had been the ones to direct this new found energy into the revenge before him, though that really came as no surprise, considering these boys were the closest he had to a real family, people who cared and loved him completely unconditionally, accepted him in all the ways the world would not. That anger had not dissipated, had not waver for some singular moment, held fast and steady strong as he watched the bodies pile up as the screams turned to sobs, tears of people he would not touch and those he would love to watch die.

Until he saw her.

Kasmir was weak, his will and steel backbone melting as he finally saw her, hands lowering as he turned from Davy to look at that figure he was watching, the silhouette of her fame materializing out of the gloom that had started to settle in with the darkness around him. She moved easily; smoothly, like she wasn't thinking on the blood on the ground or the bodies of the people she knew, but rather was just mildly irritated, a stroll in downtown on a particularly windy day. She moved with a purpose, like there was a mission set in her blood and she would burn from the inside out if she did not see it through to the end. She walked toward him, her eyes flickering from him and his friends to the ground and hands before her, her lips moving but he could not quite make out whats he was saying, the thrum and reverberation of gunshots just too loud to let him hear. As she got closer he could make it out, confusion sliding over his features before he moved, taking a few steps toward her as she neared his friends. She stepped right into his arms, his arms moving, coming out to drop the metal gun in his hands to pull her to him, her face pressed into his neck, free of any blood, as she started to let those tears fall.

Arsen’s announcement started, his words drifting over the dying sounds in the room. Kasmir hummed, before moving his hand, trailing it so that it cupped the back of her head to press her into him, not letting her up as he held her to him, one ear over his heart and his lips near the other whispering soft little words to her so that he might take away some of the fear still lingering in her gaze.

“Shhh…. Shhh. it’s okay. It’s alright Emmy.” His words fell softly, lowly, a soothing hint along the purr as he pressed her into him. He sighed as he heard her speak, her words something that would make no sense to others, to most normal people, but Kasmir’s mind instantly went to the nights he had spent with her on the roof of his house, night spent with a few pillows under their head as they rested on his thickest blanket, comforter pulled up around them, her hands pulled tight around him, for warmth and pleasure. Her words drifted over him, a song he loved and craved as she carved out the figures in the stars for him, her head resting on his chest, directly over his achingly thumping heart, hand moving to trace messages and figures in the night sky with only her imagination. She traced the patterns again and again for him, night after night after night, and Kasmir could just barely remember them, the names she gave and the smile that graced her lips as she pointed them out. Stars were a mystery, fascinating to be sure, but Emmy was just that much more captivating.

It was hard to keep his eyes on the stars above when all he wanted was to count galaxies in her eyes.

He ran his hands through her hair, nails running soothing paths through her brown hair, his heart aching but unable to take away her pain, no matter how much he wished it. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head, brushing his lips over the crown of her skull as he played soothing patterns on her back, in her hair. He held her, pressed her too him, trying for all the world to be whatever it was she needed.

“You don’t need to remember them all…”

Finally the announcement was done, a furrow to his brow as he pulled slightly away from her, not allowing her to look away from him as he moved his hand to her cheek, fingertips brushing, running over her soft skin as he took her in. Her eyes were wide with fear, lost in her mind as he locked his own blue gaze with hers, a drew in a breath.

He could remember trying. Trying and trying and training and failing to count the stars in her eyes, the seas that drew him in and begged him to come explore their depths. He could remember the color of her eyes vividly, but in the past week he hadn’t had that, hadn’t had colors or emotions or anything. He had felt as he had before when he would see her with Liam, almost empty, filled with nothing but rage and revenge. But when he looked at her now, he didn’t have to remember, because the color bloomed to life before him, radiat skies that made his knees weak and his breath catch as he struggled to find himself in her eyes.

She was absolutely the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. H had always thought this, but new eyes took her in, aching, bubbling with all the emotions he had thought she had lost.

More than beautiful, she was his. Only his now.

“She okay, Kas?” He heard Derek speak, his voice turned and twisted, concerned mixed with trepidation. He was worried, that much was sure, But he could see it in the eyes of the other, Dean and Davy that were looking over their shoulder to their little honorary member of the group.

They worried about the Squad. They worried most about their own. Emmy was theirs now, and so their worries over the other bleed straight into their worries about her.

“I have to get her out of here.” it was his only reply, the only thought that did not circle about Emmy. He saw Davy cast a look to to Derek and Dean, catching their eyes to pass a look between them they thought he couldn’t see. Kasmir ignored them as he shifted slightly, leaning so he could speak to her lowly, her heart hammering in his ears.

“Emmy. Emmy, baby, My love, I’m gonna pick you up now, okay?”

---------------------------------

There it was. That steel she had been waiting for, the anchor in the turbulent storms that she called her emotions. Braithe’s words hit her, harshly, and she felt herself dig her teeth into the soft flesh of her tongue, trying drawing vivid blood red to the surface, to fill her mouth as she swallowed thickly around the need to tell her how wrong she was.

Now, really was not the time, and the Purple haired sister cursed as she realized she would have no time to try and dislodge those ideas forming in her mind.

She sucked in a breath, fighting the urge to speak her mind, knowing that every minute she spent arguing was another minute spent in the growing open. She moved, keeping her sister’s hand locked with hers, the feeling the weight of her hand in hers the only thing striving off that fear from taking over her again. There was a mission now, a goal she had in mind,a living breathing desire that she held tightly with her hand as she moved, pulling the girl in the remembered direction of the school bathrooms. She didn’t bother to look around, trying to hide in the shadows as much as possible, screams drifting into an almost non existent shiver over her hearing as she pulled Braithe along.

She had to get out of here, she had to get Braithe out. She crept along the floor, crouching low to the shadows as she pulled them back towards the walls. Her free hand moved, other clenching at Braithe’s fingers like they were a lifeline, painted nails lightly grazing over the weirdly thick paint that seemed to cover all public schools. She crouched, forcing her sister into a low crawl as they crept along the walls, slowly but surely making their way to the only bathrooms in the gym.

She didn’t get to go very far before she heard him, the scuffle of shoes on the wooden floors of their gym stopping her as she heard his laughter spill past his lips. Her heart raced,panic in her blood as she stood slowly, her body rising without her telling it too, before she felt the heavy weight of something cold and silver on her shoulder. She could feel it as her throat closed, swallowing thickly around the lump that had formed as he let out a low whistle, taking his cane off her shoulder as Neket Snow moved, danced into their line of vision.

He looked…good. It was a strange thought, but in a sick, twisted, strange sort of way, Neket had never seemed happier. He looked free, a light to his eyes she had not seen before lighting up the mismatched gaze that seemed to drift, constantly, toward her shivering sister, the girl she pulled back behind her, placing her body between them. He moved easily, eyes shifting back to her, ands he was able to see the worry lifted off his expression, his body relaxed, casual, like he was just walking down the boardwalk.

The smile on his lips practically spread from ear to ear, his shoulders, usually slumped slightly, weighed down by the burdens his life had become, were sight, squared as he moved to swing the showman’s cane until it was resting on his shoulders, other hand moving to catch the other side like one might a baseball bat.

“Well, well, Well Look who it is…. The guests of honor!”

His voices slid uneasily along her spine, her body instinctively moving her and Braithe back a step as he moved forward. His arms spread in grand gesture as he spoke, a pause as he watched her move, the smile only growing wider as he carefully shifted his expression, a clearly mocking look of surprise on his face.

“You’re afraid of me? Oh that’s just fucking HILARIOUS!” His hands moved, cane swinging as he crossed his arms over his torso, laughing heartedly as he bent backwards slightly, black hair falling as he jerked back up. His eyes were wild, untamed as he snapped his eyes back to hers, locking on them as he rolled his shoulders, fingers and hands moving the cane idly, a dangerous ripple of lethal ease sliding under his skin.

“You should know better by now….. It’s me, Neket! Loveable, droppable, dangerously homicidal! … Neket. Now, you know you never answered my Question Braithe.”

It was like she wasn’t even there. His eyes slid past her, moved to her more sullen sister, her eyes wide as she clenched harder to Lunthe. The purple haired girl let out a hiss of displeasure as Neket moved forward, eyes only for her twin sister, his hands playing with that cane, tapping it against his hand, his leg, his shoulder as he swung it up once more. Lunthe held up a hand, fingertips pressing lightly into his chest as she pushed back lightly, trying and keep him apart from her pink haired sister.

“Stop… Neket, please, don’t do this.”

-----------------------

It was fun. This was supposed to be a fun night. And it was. All the fun he could have imagined and more.

Revenge was a foggy haze in his mind as he moved forward, his arm coming up to rest around his brother's shoulders, the other coming up to pull the man closer to him. His lips found Neferox cheek, pressing adoring kisses all over the tanned freckled skin of his big brother, the last one sounded off with an obnoxious pop as his fingers pulled the chin closer to Vaughn cheek. He was happy, what could he say? Something that did not happen very often in Vaughn’s case. But it was a special night. A, to put it into Arsen’s words, ‘night to remember’. Corny bastard.

The smile that broke over Vaughn’s lips was anything but innocent, the sound of Neket’s laughter pulling up the bubbling giddiness that played a twin, running through his veins. He let his cheek rest against Neferox’s, his eyes moving over the screaming students, his fingers unable to keep still, running their lengths over the fabric that was Neferox’s tux.

Honestly, there was not anybody else that he would rather be here with him. No body else that he would have wanted to share these moments with than all of the squad, his brother.

This was what he supposed to be doing. He had always been meant for this. Him and his squad. It suits them well, more than any of them really cared to contemplate over. But he knew, in the bottom of his little black heart that him and his brother. His friends, cousins. All of them, they were born and fated to be kings. It had just taken a little while and a little pain to get to the position they so rightfully deserved. For the world to finally right itself of its past mistakes.

They were happy, truly happy. Beaming, god damn it.

Not an ounce of pity behind those smiles that they wore tonight, not an ounce of self loathing or any guilt that would have wracked them usually. Instead, there was a genuine happiness running through them, connecting them all to one another. There was nothing and no one that could take them on, not with them finally feeling the most alive they ever had. Not when they knew they were on top of the world, above them all.

But the scene was coming to a swift end, the blood that had been flying across the room was fading, instead there seemed to be a gathering lake of it. People who were crawling across the floor, smeared it, uncaring in their state that they were ruining their nice attire. There were plea’s now, plea’s that bleed through the thick air around them, those who were left begging for their lives, hoping that in some way they could possibly have a hope, some sort of escape from their inevitable death.

He felt nothing for them, no remorse, no guilt, not even the vague tingle of shame as he watched them, his grin only spreading as pain filled eyes turned up to the boys. Really the only emotion he could equate for them was the fact that they had been able to do what only one other person had been able to do. Only one other person seemed to flare the ‘emotion’ to life, much like the students littering the floor. Only one other person brought this sort of warmth in the pit of his stomach, blossoming in its heat as he watched. And it was that one other person that could soothe it, the only person he would allow.

“Rock fucking solid, my man.”

He didn’t have to ask Neferox to know he felt the same, he didn’t have to even look at his brother's expression. He could feel it, thrumming through him, feel his cheeks move as those lips pulled into a sadistic smirk. A twin of the smile on his own lips. He had seen some of the actions he had chosen, seen some of the things that he had done to the few students that he had specifically marked as his.

Neferox was marvelous, at his absolute prime. The glimmer in his eyes alive and well as he huffed out the shook breaths that held him. His heartbeat was singing in his ears, screaming at the enjoyment that he had raised from the occassion.

Vaughn shifted, pulling himself apart from his brother, his fingers came down to run his hand over the confines of his slacks, his hand running over his covered dick for a moment, before restraining, pulling his hand back up to the back of his neck.

Just as the announcements began Vaughn shifted, his eyes moving to Neferox and back to the doorway. That Audi was moving from, his eyes on the purple haired siren that he held eyes for. A clear ‘battle’ bubbling as he pushed his way through the mass of dead bodies, his eyes never shifting from the girl, the one who seemed too ready to lay down her life for the pink haired one.

His head dipped, lulling on his shoulder to catch cognac eyes. Vaughn feigned a frown, his lips pulling down in an exaggerated display, but his arms came back up to cross over his chest. There was no denying the fact that he knew the girls, saw them or heard about them on daily basis, thanks to Audi and NEket. But the interest never seemed to stick, their names and faces easily slipping from his memory.

“I can never remember names. Which ones are those?”

---------------------

“She speaks! A little odd, considering. You’re not really the one I saw begging me for anything.”

Revenge was going wonderfully. It was more than he had ever dreamed, the screams of the people who had tormented and robbed him of the life he should have had, the dying light fading in their eyes, the disappearance of which made his heart sting with a memory of watching his own burn out, watching his light fade with every passing year. He couldn’t remember when it had died, just waking up one morning to look in the mirror to see the eyes of a corpse, a dead man walking and talking and breathing, but he was no longer there, a part of him detrimental to healthy human life gone. Their pain made his heart warm, made his body feel light and bright, like his veins were filled with fire. He could still smell it, the blood that flooded the floors of his gym, the salty tang of metal that hung like candy in the air. He breathed in, taking in a deep breath to feel it as the scent filled his lungs, his gaze trying, valiantly, to remain in Lunthe as she pressed her tiny little hands into his chest, like that would keep him at bay.

Courtesy kept him at bay, and only the ties of loyalty saved her from the fate the rest of her classmates shared. Neket didn’t dislike Lunthe, Rather, back when he had still been nothing but a human, he had actually rather liked her. It helped she was Braithe’s twin, easy enough to look at when she looked exactly like the one you desired, save the mismatched colors. They had gotten along, mostly talking over Snapchat or texting when he wasn’t attached to Braithe’s, He didn’t dislike her, But the fact of the matter was, she was becoming a problem, a hurdle between him and his one. And to him, though he liked her, cared for her…. That made her expendable.

However, her saving grace was that she belonged to, not only a squad member, But Neket’s very own newly crowned Lee, the one he would give his life for if it came down to it. She was not his to touch, not his to play with. Lunthe may have looked, a whole awful lot like his, but he knew better than to try and take what was Audi’s.

Neket moved, his gaze never leaving Braithe for long, as he reached out, felt the strenuous tremor of the bonds that connected him to the rest of his Squad now, bonds that connected him and his thoughts and their minds to his with a simple thought, his words drifting, seemingly into nothing but knowing that Audi would hear them, that all of his Squad would hear them as he thought them into the bond. His head tilted, the heavy wood of the cane laying heavy over his shoulder, taping once, twice, as he flicked his duel colored gaze toward the man already shifting through the bodies.

Come get your girlfriend, Tovak. I promised I wouldn’t hurt her, but She starting to get in my way.

There was no malice to the words, only a slight, light warning laced into the tones. He grinned, turning his attention back to the twin girls before him, pink and purple fluffs that hid their crazy colored hair under synthetic wigs, though usually they were far more lively. Neket stepped back, seeming at ease with it all as he cast a wink to Brathie.

“So tell me, my darling, Did. You. Miss. Me?“ He purred, his hands still moving that cane around, this time his fingers circling over it to bends and twist, playing with the thickness, trying to see how much pressure was too much as his hands shook with anticipation.

“Really, i’m just Dying to know…. Not as much as everyone else, but i’m pretty damn close to second.” He amended after cast the Gym a look, his face falling as there was a moment's pause between his words, his gaze narrowing on the sea of bodies next to them as he played with the hem of his pocket, cane on his shoulder again as he turned to face the approaching brunette with a smile and a light filling his eyes. His hands moved, almost like a reflex, his body turning to step forward toward him, his hand moving to reach out and pull the man to him, arms finding their place around his body, hands trailing before finding his cheeks, fingertips on one hand and his palm resting on him as he looked up at the taller boy.

His expression fell as he took in his gaze, took in the features of the face he had come to know so well.

My Audi… Tell me you're okay. The words were there, silent but hanging in the thoughts between them. Neket’s expression fell slightly as he pulled him closer, so that he could lightly bump his head against his, forcing him to look him in the eyes. Neket needed Audi to be okay. He needed it if tonight was going to be anything close to perfect, and he could see the worry in Audi’s face, the slight difference in expression. His eyes flickered back to Braithe and lunthe, who stood rock still in their spots…. Which was smart.

It wasn't as if they could outrun them anyway.

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