"Adelina! Wake up! Come eat some breakfast before you head to school." I heard my dad call from downstairs. I sat up and lazily rubbed the sleep from my eyes before calling back, "Coming." I pushed my blanket off of me and got out of bed, getting enough energy to fight the urge not to crawl back into bed and fall asleep. I walked out of my room, ready to get today over with. I was so tired.
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After I got dropped off at school, I walked into the building and felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist. "Hey babes," Lucas said coolly, pressing his chest into my back. His voice sent shivers down my spine and I felt the heat rush to my cheeks. 'Wow, Adelina. You're too easy to make blush,' the disembodied voice taunted. I ignored the voice and looked at Lucas, "Hey you." I kissed his cheek and felt Lucas give a deep rumble of pleasure from his chest.
"Does today seem a little off to you?" Lucas asked. Why would today feel off? "Not really, why do you ask?" I started thinking of the many different ways today could be different from any other day.
"Look around," Lucas said. With that, I looked around at all of the bustling students. It looked pretty normal, if anything, it felt less crowded in the hallways than usual. "A lot of students are missing today. I haven't seen Ginger or those three football players yet. I haven't seen Chase either." Lucas was right. Many faces I normally see in the busy hallways of the school aren't present. "Weird..." I mumbled. It's normal for like three or four students to miss a school day, but for over 30 kids, Ginger, Chase, and the Three Stooges to not be there? It was odd and set off all kinds of alarms.
"I think we should keep our guard up. Ginger might be up to something," Lucas whispered into my ear. I nodded my head in agreement. "Just act normal. C'mon, let's head to our chemistry class." I took Lucas' hand and led him through the hallway and up the stairs. It was unnervingly quiet on the second floor of the school. I looked around, seeing only a few students here and there. 'I don't like this,' the voice stated. 'Neither do I. But, we have to act like nothing's wrong if we're being watched,' I responded. The voice didn't respond back, so I could only assume that he understood. I felt more and more on edge as we got closer to our classroom. Lucas tightened his arm around my hips.
"Don't think too much about it, Liner. You're shaking," Lucas said in a reassuring tone. I took a deep breath to calm myself down - it didn't help much. But, it was going to have to be enough. 'We just have to make it through the school day, that's all,' I reminded myself. 'It's going to be a long day,' the voice said to me.
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School took longer than usual to end. The day had dragged on longer than any other day. Both Lucas and I were tense, we barely spoke the whole day. When we did speak, it would only ever be about Ginger. We were both worried that she would do something during school hours that would both catch us off guard, starting an unfair fight, and expose our Nao secrets to our families. Luckily, nothing happened.
Lucas and I walked into the woods in a tense silence. I gripped my arm tightly, preventing it from shaking. I looked at my hand to see that my knuckles had turned white from me gripping my arm so hard. Lucas didn't say anything, he just held my free hand in an attempt of comfort - but I think it was more to comfort him. I didn't mind it either way, I was just on edge as Lucas. We continued walking until we reached a field on the other side of the woods. It wasn't our usual meeting place, but we could never be too careful now.
"There you two are," Kiel said as we approached him and Teotwawki. I looked around and saw Kiel's Demon army and our pack members talking amongst themselves. I assume they were getting acquainted with each other. "I finished the necklaces, but I didn't get a chance to test my theory," Teotwawki stated as he handed me a gold chain necklace with five small peridot gems strung on it. I took the necklace from Teotwawki and looked over the gems. "You made the two stones into pendants?" I asked. I looked at Teotwawki as he nodded his head.
"Yes, Each necklace has five shards of the original stones. Since us four and Damien were closest to the Bijous, we have the strongest bonds with them - which make the Bijous' powers stronger. So, the five of us will wear these necklaces with our proper stones." He explained as he handed two necklaces with small garnet shards over to Kiel. "Let's hope this idea of yours works, doll." Kiel said. 'Doll? Oh brother,' the voice in my head grimaced.
I put on the necklace as Teotwawki handed Lucas another necklace that matched mine. "At least we have some hope," Lucas mumbled as he put the necklace on. "It's better than not having any pieces of our Bijous," Damien's voice said from behind us. Usually, I would be startled, but I've gotten used to Damien sneaking up behind me. Lucas and I looked at Damien as he made his way between us and over to Kiel.
"That's true," Kiel handed a necklace to Damien before putting on his own. "I know this was risky, but only 2 of us having the Bijous would've been worse," Teotwawki said. He adjusted his necklace so the peridot gems sat in the middle of his collarbone, I did the same. "You know something? This entire time that we knew Ginger was gonna attack us, we haven't done any training to defend ourselves," Lucas stated.
In that moment, a flurry of white came crashing down in the middle of our field, creating a small crater. All of the Demons and pack members backed away from the crater as Kiel moved in front of us in a protective manner. Lucas wrapped his arms around me as I backed into him. Damien glared at Lucas, "You just had to say something, didn't you?"
"Oi! Shut it!" Kiel demanded. Immediately, Damien stopped and looked back at the crater. I looked at the crater and saw three Angels climb out of it - these were some of the missing faces in school today. I knew their names, but I didn't know much about them, they were just faces in the hallways . After them, Ginger had floated out of the crater and smiled an evil smile at us. "Surprise!" Ginger taunted in a sing song voice as her feet landed on the ground without a sound.
Our pack members had shifted into their Lycanthrope forms as Kiel's Demons began to show their true Demon eyes. I moved away from Lucas and glared at Ginger, "You really want to start this now? You seem a little outnumbered," I smirked at Ginger. But her reaction caught everyone off guard - her smile grew wider, showing her Royal Vampire fangs. Her eyes started to glow red as she gave a small giggle. Her small giggle then turned into a crazed laugh. After a couple minutes, she snapped her head back at me with a sickening smirk.
"Oh, believe me Mutt. The only one outnumbered here is you," Ginger threatened. Before I could respond, Ginger gave an inhuman screech. Her screech was so ear piercing that everyone - Lucas, Kiel, Teotwawki, Damien, myself, and our Lycanthropes and Demons - had to cover our ears. When Ginger was done screeching, two Vampires walked out from behind a large tree with another person in-between them. The third person had a burlap sack over their head, plucked and clipped Angel wings, and it looked like the Angel had their hands tied behind their back. The two Vampires walked over to Ginger, the injured Angel struggling between them and making muffled noises. Ginger pulled off the burlap sack and I gasped in horror.
Chase's face was so bloody and beaten, he was gagged with what looked like a rag that had soaked in red blood, and Chase's wings had a glittery gold liquid dripping down them. Angel's bleed gold, and Chase was bleeding heavily. I felt a pang in my heart seeing Chase like this, and I know Lucas was becoming enraged. "I had a feeling that you would do something, Adelina," Ginger said as she moved her gaze over to me. "I knew you were getting information about my plans. I made sure to find out who, and look what I found!" She said with a chirp as she grabbed Chase by the back of his neck and made him kneel. Chase winced in pain as Ginger grabbed his hair. "I found a traitorous rat." Ginger said in a harsh tone.
Lucas snarled behind me, "Let him go!" Lucas took a step towards Ginger before she held up one of her fingers. "Ah ah ah, you haven't seen the best part," she taunted in her sing song voice yet again. One of the Vampires by her side had turned to the woods and gave a high whistle. Several snarls rang throughout the field as at least ten Fallen had emerged from the tree line. Each Fallen was on a chain being held by an Angel.
"Chase is a traitor to his allies and his own kind, I see it only fit that he serves his punishment right now," Ginger said as she smirked at me.
"What are you going to do to him." I demanded. But, I regret how I had said that.
"I won't be doing a thing to him. I won't lay another hand on his pretty little head," Ginger said coolly. She then looked at one of the Vampires holding Chase and nodded her head. Without a word, the two Vampires dragged Chase over to the Fallen.
"No! No no no!" Chase cried as he struggled to break free of his captors.
"Don't do this, Ginger!" I yelled.
"You twisted psychopath!" Lucas growled before running over to Chase. But three Angels landed in front of him, cutting of Lucas' path to Chase - it was the three football players.
"Chase!" Lucas and I yelled simultaneously. From where I stood, I could see that Chase had given up. His shoulders slumped forward and his beaten wings dragging on the ground, leaving a gold trail behind him. Chase looked back at us, his tears shinning in the moonlight. "Lucas, Adelina, look away!" He yelled to us. "Just don't look! Don't look at me! Cover your eyes! Look away, please!" The Vampires threw Chase at the feet of the Fallen, who were trying to lunge at Chase. The chains around their necks looked like they could break at any moment.
"C-chase," I choked just saying his name. I wanted to help him, but he was too close to the Fallen now. "Chase no!" Lucas screamed. We were about to watch our childhood friend die at the hands of monsters. Chase's tears were falling faster.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry for everything! Please forgive me..." Chase bowed his head in defeat. The Angels let go of the chains, releasing the Fallen to rip Chase apart. They all kneeled down around Chase and grabbed at him, tearing into his skin and ripping his body apart. His blood-curdling screams rang off of every surface, Chase's blood flying into the air before staining the grass with glitter.
"No!" Lucas pushed through the football players and began to run over to Chase, but Kiel ran to him and grabbed Lucas before he could. He struggled against Kiel as his tears streamed down his cheeks. "Let me go! You have to let me go!"
"I can't... I'm so sorry, pup." Kiel said as Lucas sank to his knees. Chase's screams died away as the Fallen stood upright, the Angels quickly grabbing their chains again. All that was left of Chase was a puddle of gold. I ran over to Lucas and kneeled next to him, wrapping my arms around him in a tight hug. I tried not to cry, but I couldn't hold back my tears. Lucas buried his face into the crook of my neck and cried quietly. My ears were ringing, it was like I was hearing white noise - until I heard Ginger's laugh.
"That was so entertaining, it's such a shame it ended so quickly though," Ginger laughed again as I glared at her through my tears. "You deserve to burn in Hell!" I shouted, to which Ginger laughed like and insane person would. "Aw, Adelina, if I go to Hell then I'm dragging you down with me," she smiled evilly.
"You little red-headed twat!" Kiel yelled. "You'd have to kill us before you touch Adelina or Lucas." Teotwawki said in his familiar serious tone. I looked at them and Kiel's eyes were a very deep red, not like they eyes I saw before when I had first met him. "You'll pay for what you've done," Damien said, stepping up besides Kiel. His eyes were all black. Lucas lifted his head and began growling at Ginger, shifting into his Lycanthrope form. Lucas' beige coat was reflecting the moonlight, giving him a pale blue glow.
"Well, enough talk. Let the games begin!" Ginger smirked before giving off another one of her ear-splitting screeches. At her call, more Fallen had emerged from the woods and began charging at us.