Etched In Stone

Chapter Nineteen

Serena's words and her admittance of fear weigh on his mind for the rest of the night. He knows that there's no way out of it - they're going to have to fight eachother whether they like it or not. Why it bothers him so much, he doesn't really know, but all the same it does.

Sure enough, they're the first two people called the next morning.

Despite the words of encouragement and confident smiles she receives from Saren, Chris and Claudine, and the gentle push forward from Ian, Serena looks genuinely scared. She makes no effort in masking it at all and Opal seems to take pleasure in it, standing with her hand on her hip and a smirk gracing her lips. Dislike for her starts to form in Jake's mind when he sees her smug expression and for the first time, he understands Serena's hostility around her.

So that's why he makes the stupid decision that he does next.

"I'll do it."

The words are out of his mouth before he even gives them a second's consideration.

Every pair of eyes turns to him, looking confused.

"I'll do it." He repeats, "I'll fight Opal."

"Are you...sure?" Ian asks, raising an eyebrow skeptically. He folds his arms across his chest.

"Jake, you were pretty brutally beaten less than twelve hours ago." Saren says to him quietly, shooting Tristan an evil glance over her shoulder. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

He glances at Serena briefly, her expression conflicted, and then back to Saren.

"Yeah," he nods, "It doesn't matter. Serena doesn't want to and I'm going to have to fight

someone else anyway so I may as well do it now."

"Aaron?" Ian turns to his friend, "Can he do that?"

Aaron shrugs, "Don't see why not. It's all the same to me - as long as two of you are training I don't care who it is." He jerks a thumb over his shoulder, "Out you go, then."

Jake makes his way to the same place as yesterday, but this time, he is facing Opal, with that same, smug smirk on her lips.

"Go easy on me?" She asks him, almost mockingly. He doesn't answer - simply waits for his order to start.

He is expecting Opal to make her move as quickly and as cunningly as Tristan had the day before, but she just stands completely still, feet spread apart and planted firmly on the ground. Her hands simply hang by her sides, however, and she is still smirking at Jake, as if she knows something that he doesn't.

Slightly taken aback by her leaving her guard down, he hesitates and then moves forward, raising his hand and letting his palm ignite with scarlet fire. It curls up his wrist, across his fingertips and straight towards her - but all she does is sidestep casually out of the way. Jake goes for it again and the same thing happens, with her avoiding his attack.

The third time, he goes to hit her, and it looks as if she's not going to try and dodge this time. But as soon as he gets close enough, arm raised, he hesitates. Opal is staring at him intensely and the smug smirk on her face not one moment ago is gone - replaced by wide-eyed fear.

"You wouldn't hurt me, would you?"

And that is the exact moment that she vanishes from view.

Jake looks around him wildly, confused. Out of nowhere, he hears screaming; blooducurdling, piercing screams that shock him to his core. His head snaps around, looking for the source, and he realises that, somehow, everything around him has changed. He is no longer standing in the middle of the roughly marked out field, and all his friends are gone. Instead, he is standing in the middle of an eerily silent street and the sky has grown rapidly dark, and rain is pouring down so heavily that he can barely see through it.