Devil's meadow

Chapter 12- Intel classified

We stood by the door for five minutes, hoping that the person in there were would come out and keep the door open. I desperately wanted to bust the door down, but the look Blaze gave me told my mind that it wasn't smart to do go ahead with that plan. I slipped my body around a corner, which my love, swiftly followed soon after. We quietly glanced at each other and kept our mouths shut. After what seemed like forever, the person in the room walked out, but they didn't lock the door behind them, giving us a window of opportunity. As the door carefully closed, I clutched Blaze's hand and walked over to the smoothed down door, and pushed myself into it. It creaked relatively loudly, so we sped up the pace. We entered with caution, someone could still be inside, but after realising that the room was empty, we got to work.
"So what are we looking for?"
"Answers."
"What kind of answers?"
"The type of answers that we need in order to find out why the lounge room was shaking that violently."
"Well that's specific."
"I know!"
My head was racing, I didn't mean to shout, but, i wanted to know why. Blaze stumbled backwards, in surprise and fear.
"...sorry."
"Don't be. I can tell this is stressful for you."
"I just..i want to know why we were chosen."
" i do too, but we can't just shout at others and expect answers or reasons. They might not want to tell other people why these things happen."
"Which is why we're in here."
Draws were pulled out, revealing vanilla cream folders, with pieces of intel sprawled inside, some with paper clips, others with sticky notes attached. With my mind preoccupied, i sifted through them, flicking my fingers inside each one.
Come on, give me something...anything.
Blaze reluctantly watched me, whilst glancing back at the door we had just came through, trying to see if anyone was there.
"What are you doing."
"Being a watchmen."
"Why?"
"Do you want to get caught?!"
"No..?"
"Then let me watch the door."
"Fine."
His eyes narrowed, he didn't want to miss any type of movement, and as i kept going through each document, i had a sneaking suspicion that i was getting closer to the answers we rightfully deserved. The door we entered had shut fully, and as my love kept his eyes out, i found a peculiar looking folder, that was different from the others.
"Umm...Blaze?"
"What..?"
"Come take a look at this."
"Ok..."
He came creeping over, barely making a noise, and as i stared blankly, his shadow was cast over the desk.
"What's that?"
"I think we just found something we shouldn't."
The folder that was placed on the desk had a huge red stamp on the front which read 'classified' in bold letters. As i moved the cover onto the first page, Crystal's information about her childhood and her parents had been revealed. I glanced back at Blaze, who was stood like a statue, and watched his hair fall onto his porcelain face. His eyes narrowed, to the point where it was like he couldn't even see properly, and slowly walked backwards.
"I think you should put that back."
"Agreed."
I slipped the document back into its slot and shut the draw carefully. I looked through other files, until i came across one that read, 'patient logs.'
" 'patient logs?'. Why does this have that on the front?"
"Open it."
After opening the folder with caution, my eyes widened precariously to the point where it felt as if they were about to pop out. I dropped the file in shock and creepily twisted my head round until i locked eyes with him.
"It's on us..."
"What do you mean?"
"Come and take a look."
Blaze came over, a when he realised what i had seen, he looked startled.
"Uh...why does that have my last name on it?"
"That's not the only thing I'm concerned about."
"Blood type, fingerprints, professions, possessions, siblings, and parent names."
"This is so weird."
"Again, why is this here?"
"Do you think they're trying to do something to us?"
"I don't know, and I don't want to stick around to find out."
"I don't like this, at all."
The door that was closed was slowly being pushed open, not by Blaze, but by someone else. In a state of panic, i rammed the folder back into the drawer, slammed it shut and whispered to my accomplice.
"Hide!"
We both scattered behind the door, and hid in a desperate attempt not to be found. He hide behind the desk, whilst i hid inside a cabinet with my legs tucked into my chest. We remained still and silent. Whoever was in the room was taking a long time, and their raspy breath with audible even from my distance. They searched, slammed draws and eventually sat at the desk Blaze was hid under. The sound of their hands smacking the keyboard was loud and it seemed aggressive. It finally stopped, and as the they left, they slammed the door, almost blowing it off its hinges, and stormed off. Blaze crawled out from under the desktop, and as he began searching for me, i pushed the cabinet open with my hands. He happened to notice, and looked extremely confused.
"How did you get up there?"
"I panicked ok."
"Smart."
"Are you ok though?"
"Yeah. The floor is not a comfortable place to be."
"Dust i bet?"
"No. It was cold as hell."
"Oh."
"We should probably go before we get caught in here by someone else."
"Good point."
We both scuttled our way out together, accompanied by our footsteps hitting the ground, and as i was walking, Blaze tugged my shoulder.
"If anyone asks, just tell them we were enjoying the view from outside the alter."
"Gotcha."
Crystal stopped us and she seemed a little upset.
"Where were you two?!"
"Enjoying the view outside the alter, why?"
"My cousin just told me that you were inside my office, looking through folders."
"We never went in there."
"Cameras exist for a reason, Ashbury."
"You have cameras in your office?"
"Yes, to make sure no one snoops in there so I'll ask you this, why were you in my office?"
" *sigh* we were looking for answers."
"I already told you, I wouldn't know anything."
"That's not what we saw."
"You went into the patient logs folder?!"
"Yes, we did. We just wanted to know why the king is after us."
"You probably angered him."
"To the point where he's trying to kill us. Yeah cause that makes sense."
"That's not how you talk to a captain, Blaze."
"Well maybe if we got what we wanted, he wouldn't talk to you in that manner."
"This is why we don't get visitors, because they always poke around someone else's business."
Whilst we were arguing, the lights on the ceiling turned off by themselves. As we all looked up, Blaze and i knew what was about to happen.
"You brought HIM here?!"
"No, he must've followed us."
"I hope you two know this is your fault. If my colleagues realise he's here, they'll panic like crazy."
"We've heard that sentence multiple times."
"What sentence?"
"This is your fault..."
"That's not my problem, it's yours."
Black smoke filled the hallway, blocking our vision almost completely. As we stepped slowly backwards, the menacing laugh of an adult male swallowed our surroundings, and the screams and shrieks of other souls echoed around the figure forming in front of us, saying ' you're dead.'
"What a surprise."
"What do you want?"
"Nothing much, just your souls."
"You can't kill what's already dead."
"But i can kill you a second time, can i not? See, the thing is, i was patiently waiting for you two to realise that i was the one who made the lounge room violently shake, i was the one who followed you through the abyss, and i was always watching you, even as you travelled through the alter. I witnessed the ceremony, i watched Crystal look after you two, and i will always be watching, even during your execution."
"Like i said, this is your fault."
"Fine. You win. Take us away..."
"Hunter, what are you doing?!"
"Blaze, don't."
"That's better. Treating the king with respect. This is what happens when you obey commands, you don't need to fight."
"Yes, your majesty. However I don't obey orders from someone who tries to kill another individual for no reason."
"Go on, I'm intrigued."
"I won't follow commands from a close-minded foolish type of amateur who expects a certain feeling or goal from your so-called 'subjects' as you like to call them. I don't understand why you're so mad about the things we've done, let alone trying to say seeing us all together is 'surprising' as you said. I won't let you do anything to Blaze or Crystal, they have nothing to do with this. All if this is my fault, no one else's, so if you want to try and take me away, do it."
Everyone was silent, not a single word was said, not even from the king.
"Standing up to a royal? You're joking?"
"Am i laughing? Let me tell you something. I don't care, nor do i give two sh*ts about whether or not you're royal. Heck, I don't think anyone stood here cares. Last time i checked, you're not blind nor deaf, so I don't know why you didn't understand me the first time. So, do us a favour and get the f*ck out of our faces, before i do something i might regret."
He had turned pale at the sound of my voice. He realised i was being serious and stumbled backwards, but before he could say anything i sternly replied.
"If you dare come up to us again with your pathetic excuse for a weapon and your sh*tty brown a*s hair, i will chase you till the end of this place, and stab you so hard, that you'll have nightmares about it, and you'll feel every tiny bit of pain crawling up your spinal cord as you recover."
His expression said it all. He was too afraid to back-chat to the point where his eyes shrunk to the size of pebbles. They were no longer red as they had turned black.
"Now, i want you to do us a favour, and f * c k o f f."
He hastily teleported away, and as Blaze and Crystal glanced at each in shock, i started walking towards the main entrance, keeping my head drooped to the ground.
"H-Hunter?"
"About what you said, about this whole thing being our fault. It's not our fault, it's mine. This whole entire thing has been my fault. I dragged you both into this."
"Non of this is your fault. It's my fault too."
"Regret is your biggest fear. But fighting against the king and defying him, was the best thing that you could've done."
"You say that it was the best thing that I could've done, but to me it's like talking to my mother."
"Hunter.."
"No."
"What do you mean it's like talking to your mother?"
"She- uh- told me that i was the reason why she left."
"Continue."
"I was told by her that the reason she left was because she couldn't handle looking after a someone who couldn't face the facts that he was a mistake. When she left, i was left with father and my sibling, which made me depressed about it, to the point where I didn't want to live anymore."
"It got that bad?"
"..."
We all remained silent. I wanted to leave, but couldn't. My darkest desire was to have a stable family relationship, however nothing i tried worked.
Thanks Crystal, for everything...
"So, what now?"
"I'm going past the gateway."
"Without me?!"
"No, i would never."
"I take it to a guess, you can't stay here?"
"Unfortunately."
"I give you two the best of luck."
"Thanks."
Blaze ran after me, a was already ahead, and as we both turned over our shoulders, Crystal gave us a wave, and then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"I hope she'll be ok with us leaving."
"Don't get attached."
"I wasn't going to."
As we carried on with our journey, clouds rolled overhead, in colours of red and orange. Our breathing remained steady, but something seemed off. There was a ledge that wasn't connected to the back of the alter, so we jumped across it. Blaze nearly fell, but regained his footing. As we continued on with our journey, he couldn't help but sigh. I looked over to see his eyes focusing on the ground instead of in front of him.
"Blaze?"
"Hm?"
"Are you...ok?"
"Um...yeah. I'm fine."
"You don't sound it."
"I just...I'm scared."
"What of?"
"I'm scared of permanently forgetting about you. What if we never see each other again?"
"Hey, it won't end like that. Let me tell you something."
"Ok."
"There comes a time in everyone's life, where choices have to be made. There's a place we go at the end of our time, a door, if you will, that opens once in a red moon. One day, the lock to that door will open, connecting the dead and the living together. Where the brave shall live forever."
"What does that mean?"
"It means if we get separated, we'll always figure out a way to remain connected."
"O-oh."
"That's my moto for you."
"Oh, well your moto, is valid."
Still my cryptic idiot.
We kept going until we came across an ash covered mountain, with the clouds collapsing over our heads, shifting from red to grey every minute. It calmed my nerves, and left a little tingling sensation across my body. And as we continued up the mountain, the sky darkened in colour.
Is it...about to rain?
"Hunter?"
"Yeah?"
"We should provably get in shelter."
"Why?"
"It's going to rain acid."
"WHAT?!"
"Yeah. We should...RUN!"
We started sprinting until our legs gave out. A small camp lay in front of us and we sprinted for it. But here was one problem. A deep ditch cascaded, blocking our way.
Sh*t.
Sh*t.