Deserter - a KotLC Fanfiction (Completed)

.Chapter 8.

-Edaline's POV-

Grady collapsed to the ground, twitching slightly. Alden comforted him, his voice calm yet his expression terrified. A loud noise from upstairs suggested Sophie had lost. 

There was noises from the house as the prisoners ran down the stairs, emerging from the door battle-ready. Yet there was no one to fight. Grady was incapacitated, Alden was occupied, and Edaline was... frozen. 

The force field around the small group of children flickered out, then back on again once the two new children joined them. One was laying on the ground, skin once golden-brown, now ashy and pale. Her eyes were open, yet her expression bleak and full of pain. 

Edaline's breath hitched. She stepped forward, but there was nothing she could have done. The small redheaded girl told everyone to step back, and placed a gentle, shaking hand on the girl's forehead. She withdrew immediately, her expression somber. 

Edaline knew what she was going to say before it was said. But then it was, and all the children looked... bleak. 

The first one to sob was the redheaded girl. She was the youngest, could barely have been twelve. Her frame was small, too small to experience this much grief. 

A sob caught in Edaline's throat, yet she pushed it down. They hadn't noticed her yet. But when they did, she would have the same fate as that girl. 

No--she wouldn't. The children hadn't killed the girl. They were friends with the girl. 

Who had killed the girl, then? Edaline had been trying not to watch. 

It took her a moment to remember that it was her side. The people she trusted--the person she loved--had killed someone. A little girl, no less. One that could barely be fifteen. They had made a twelve-year-old girl collapse into tears. 

Edaline had tried to save her daughter. She recognized how young the girl was, how irresponsible. But then she'd met this other group, of equally-aged children, and attacked them. Killed one of them, devastated the rest. 

What was she doing?

A stab of guilt tore through her heart, leaving a scar Edaline knew would never heal. She fell to her knees, eyes slamming closed. 

What were any of them doing? They were on the side of evil. Nothing good could come from this. 

Edaline stumbled over to her husband. His arm slowly extended towards her and she took it, taking him in her arms and her in his. They held each other, for what else could they do?

Nothing, was the answer Edaline knew. They could do nothing about a girl they killed.