Life's A Witch

Chapter Sixteen

"Where were you guys?" a voice rang out across the room as we trudged inside. It was hours after darkness had fallen, and I had no idea who was talking. In fact, I couldn't have been sure at that moment that I hadn't imagined it. The events of the day had been so surreal that I wasn't processing reality very well anymore.

I didn't bother to answer and instead walked straight past the others who'd been at home the whole time and entered the kitchen. I needed to be alone to think. There'd been too much going on at the hospital for me to even begin to sort out what had happened at the mall—who had been hurt and what I'd learned about the Parrishables.

How could they expect me to just talk to them like everything was okay? We'd been attacked and I was pretty sure that our enemies wouldn't have stopped until we were . . . could they have actually killed us? I mean, taking out a bunch of adults was bad enough, but would they really have been able to kill a bunch of kids? It had sure looked like things were headed that way before I froze everyone and got us out of there.

I hated to think about what might've happened if the spell hadn't worked.

I went to the fridge and retrieved a bottle of sparkling water before collapsing at the kitchen table. I took a big swig and stared blankly out the window.

"They're asking questions out there," Fallon said, traipsing in a few seconds later. "What are you going to tell them?"

"Nothing yet," I said.

I didn't even glance up as Sascha joined us at the table. She still had on the same blood-stained clothes from earlier and I couldn't stand to look at the reminder of what had happened to my friends because I couldn't protect them.

"Are you kidding?" Fallon asked. "We were gone the entire day and now we just showed up in the middle of the night looking like extras from a Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie. Jasmine and Jinx are in the hospital and you expect the others not to wonder what's going on? You can't just ignore this and expect it to go away."

The combination of stress, fear, and exhaustion was finally catching up with me and I could feel myself begin to lose it. I was like a rubber band that was being pulled all the way back—I knew I was about to snap.

"What am I supposed to say, Fallon? That our worst nightmares came true today? That the Parrishables really are after us and they're not going to lay off just because we're kids? They'd have filleted us alive today if they'd had the chance. Or maybe you want me to let everyone in on the fact that we're down two people, one of whom is currently fighting for her life! We got away today because we were lucky. And chances are, we're not going to be that lucky again. Is that the kind of honesty you want me to dish out?"

"Yes!" Fallon yelled back. "This is exactly why I took off earlier. You keep treating us like dumb kids, when we're in this thing too. You're not the only one who can handle bad news, Hadley. We all lost our parents back home. We're all being chased by these guys. We all deserve to know the truth!"

"You want to be treated like an adult, Fallon? How about not running off, so we don't have to chase after you and endanger our lives to save yours," I said.

It wasn't what I'd intended to say, but I was emotionally bankrupt and physically drained and once again Fallon had pushed me to the brink.

"I may have left, but you know as well as I do that this was not my fault," he said nastily. "I heard what that guy said to you back there."

My heart began to race double time and I suddenly felt faint as I realized what this could mean. Was it possible that Fallon had heard what the muscle-head and I had talked about at the mall? The noise levels had been so loud and we were all so focused on not dying that I'd figured our convo had been lost to everyone else.