Possessed Soul

Chapter 12

Chapter 12

"Holden just got back." Emma sat down next to me. She was wearing a tank top that exposed more than half of her back and her shoulders were completely bare, save for a thin strap that ran across her shoulder blades. The wind turned her hair into lethal whips that slashed across her face.

"And?" I enquired. We were sitting on the grass, right outside of the abandoned warehouse that we called home. The Warehouse was heavily boarded up, and the only way we could connect with nature was to sit outside. The windows were boarded up with wooden planks that trapped the warm air in, since most days in Croydon were chilly. The place was in dire need of a paint job, since the damp had begun to crack the paint on the walls, making them look wrinkly. The Warehouse wasn't much, but it was enough. There were five of us and plenty of room for a few more recruits, although there hadn't been anyone new since Holden Moore arrived Holden was fifteen when Flynn brought him in, which was surprising since that was quite old for a new recruit. The rest of us had been brought in when we were barely teenagers. I still remember the day Flynn dragged Holden's limp body into the Warehouse. He looked like an oversized rag doll that had been dipped in a swamp in an attempt to clean it. Flynn had just barely been able to save Holden from himself; he had tried to drown himself, for a reason no one knew. We all had secrets here. We had learnt to accept that and not push each other to reveal things we'd rather not talk about.

"I might have told Holden about the thing with Sage," she confessed. "He's pretty pissed off, that you had been so careless. He thinks we should take care of Sage."

Damn! Why does he even care? Flynn trusts me enough to take care of this myself. Well to be fair, I wasn't going to take care of anything. Sage wouldn't tell anyone, that was something I was confident about. Even if she did, she didn't know how to find me. I was safe, unless I somehow ran into her again.

"Kaden?" She poked my cheek with her index finger. "What are you thinking about?"

"Tell Holden I'll beat the crap out of him if he touches Sage," I responded, curling my right hand into a fist.

"You like her," Emma gasped, looking at me with big, doe-like eyes. "I've never heard you sound so possessive before."

I sighed. "Emma, she hates me." That much was true. I had seen the look of disgust on her face when I had touched her cheek before fleeing her house. The last word I had heard her say was my name. It sounded musical on her lips, and I held on to that memory like it was worth a thousand dollars. "And I intend to keep it that way," I added, as an afterthought. It was less painful to keep her out of my life than to let her in. Her heart was precious and deserved to be held by someone who would cherish it. I was a heartbreaker, and I knew that that was my most developed personality flaw.

***

Holden emptied his bag onto the table. An array of coins fell out. I picked one up and examined it. It was pure gold. It had a picture of a man I didn't care to identify on it, , and a large coat of arms on the other side: two swords that crossed over each other. The rest of the coins were similar, but some were spotted with grime. Hopefully Flynn would be able to save them.

"Nice job." Flynn held a few of the coins in the palm of his hand. "Where did you get these?"

"Some old guy who refuses to donate anything to a museum," Holden replied. "He's got a bunch of old relics lying around. I couldn't take everything, but we could go back. I'll take Kaden with me." Holden looked over at me; there was a mischievous glint in his eyes. His eyes were grey, and they looked like they had almost no life; like he had died the day he tried to drown himself. His nose was long and sculpted into a hook at the end. His light brown hair was cropped short, in a way that made me think that he might as well have been bald. He looked like someone who had just escaped from a concentration camp; his white, ashy skin looked translucent under the little light that streamed in through the holes in the walls.

"Take Aaron," I suggested, knowing Holden had some ulterior motive, or I wouldn't have been his first choice. The two of us were civil to each other, but far from friendly. "I have better things to do."

"Like run after Sage?" Holden enquired, his thin lips set in a perfectly straight line. He seemed to have accepted sulking as his fulltime job.

I didn't deny that statement. "Why?" I asked. "Wishing you had the same effect on girls that I have?"

When he didn't reply, I continued.

"If you like I can find you a girl to run after, but alas I can't promise that she'll like you," "You might as well face it, you're doomed to a life of loneliness."

Suddenly my head flew back and collided with the wall behind me. A thick, sticky liquid dripped down the back of my neck: blood. I laughed through the pain that shot through my scalp, knowing I had got to him.

"That's enough," Flynn ordered, as Holden's thin frame loomed over my body. It was a wonder someone so small had managed to throw such a powerful punch. The floor felt like it was going to cave in, with the way I was pressing into it.

"Please." Emma touched Holden's shoulder, and he immediately shrugged her away. Holden stormed out of the room without so much as a backward glance at me.

"You shouldn't have said that," Emma reprimanded me. "You have no idea what he's been through."

"And you do?" I asked, as Flynn pressed a cloth to the back of my head to stop the bleeding.

"I know more than you," she replied, sadly, before heading off in search of Holden. The back of her head was the last thing I saw before slipping into unconsciousness.

***

"Holden is a pain in the ass," were my first words as I woke up and took in my surroundings. I was in my room. Well technically the Warehouse was one big room, but we had divided it up with wooden panels, to give each of us a little bit of privacy. My room was simple- I liked to keep things tidy. A small bed sat in the corner of the room, near a large box in which I stored all my belongings,. I didn't have much, except my clothes, which were all stolen. If you were going to steal, you might as well steal the expensive stuff: it lasts longer; so I only ever stole new clothes when I outgrew my current ones.

"Careful what you say about people." Holden emerged from the shadows. "You never know who's listening."

I swore under my breath and pushed myself into a sitting position. I touched the back of my head, to find that someone had covered my wound with a large plaster. "What do you want?" I asked Holden.

"Flynn's making me apologise for my behaviour," he explained. "Believe me when I say I'd rather be anywhere but here." He looked down at his shoes, so that he didn't have to meet my eyes.

"Was that supposed to be the apology?" I enquired, surveying his form. His body was hunched against the wall and it looked like he wanted to curl up into a small ball. He was thin, too thin. He worked out like the rest of us, so you would expect some sort of muscle, but there was nothing. He was all bones and it made him look sickly.

"Did you want me to directly say 'I'm sorry'?" He sighed. "Because I'm not. I'm here because Flynn wants me to be."

"I don't want your apology," I told him, as civilly as I could manage. "Just stay away from my Sage." I didn't want her to get hurt. The poor girl had done nothing wrong; she didn't deserve to be hurt for a mistake that I had made.

"Your Sage?"

"Shut up," I ordered, when I realised that I had just claimed her for myself, when I wanted nothing more than to never see her again.

"Fine, I'll stay away from your Sage," he said, deliberately mocking me. "Even if she could destroy everything that we've built up so far."

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