Faults

Chapter 40: Aydin

Just as Archie presses his lips to mine, there's a loud knocking on the door. He pulls away and groans. "Now?" I ask.

"I can't wait until we can actually relax," Archie grumbles as I get up from the bed and walk to the door.

I open the door to see Aster, Klaus, and Dakota. "Hey, guys. What's going on?"

"It's the market. It's on fire," Aster says, trying to catch his breath.

"On fire?" I ask, growing concerned.

"We saw Taylor, Trey, and Marshall running away..." Klaus pipes up. He hesitates for a moment, his eyes darting around. "...With Christian."

"What–? Are you sure?" I say, shocked. The three nod, confirming it. "Archie!" I yell.

He comes running out of the bedroom and sees the three guys in the doorway. "Well, this can't mean anything good."

"We need to go right now," I say, tugging Archie out the door.

Aster, Klaus, and Dakota begin running in the direction of the village with Archie and I in tow. I explain what's going on to Archie as we run. As we near the village, I can see the smoke rising up into the twilight sky. It's only been a week since we killed Christian. Or since we thought we killed him. How the fuck is he alive?

"Are you sure the people you saw were Taylor, Trey, Christian, and Marshall?" Archie asks Klaus.

"Positive," Klaus responds.

Archie heads for the woods. "The guards will take care of the fire. The four we're after are most likely heading back to their shack.. I think we can catch up to them if we start running now."

We all follow him and as the sky gets darker, it gets progressively more difficult to see where we're going. Eventually, a faint glow of what looks to be fire becomes visible ahead of us.

"That has to be Taylor," I say, thinking out loud.

The rest of the crew mumbles their agreements and we speed up to catch Christian and his cult. I pull out my dagger, preparing to get into another fight with them.

"Trey, what the fuck?" Aster yells.

Christian and his team stop, turning around to face us. We stop as well, squaring up.

"You left me there to die!" Trey fires back.

Archie scoffs. "We left obviously-placed trail markers for you, but you were just too stupid to notice them. You're just making an excuse now."

"Well, I was always the one that nobody explained anything to. You all left me to be confused," Trey says grouchily.

"That's such bullshit," I say with a groan. "You didn't know when to stop asking. But to be honest, we never needed you anyway."

Christian speaks up, glaring at Trey. "Would you stop your bickering and attack them already?"

Trey and Taylor lunge for me and I step to the side, sending them each a thought, I should stop. They both obey the command and I rush towards Trey, shoving the dagger into his gut, sending him falling face first onto the ground. Taylor wrenches out of my mental grip and throws a bit of fire at me. It lands on my foot and I yelp, bouncing on one foot.

I practically trip over myself, stepping on my own foot as I try to pat down the fire using my other foot. Taylor wastes no time as he rushes toward me, fire ignited in his palm once again. I run backwards, trying not to bump into anyone. "How the hell are you still alive?" I ask my brother.

"Trey," he replies simply.

"Oh, gods. Fuck him," I grumble.

Aster appears behind Taylor and pulls him back. He winks at me as he punches Taylor in the side of the neck. My brother turns around and grabs Aster's arm, burning him for a second before Aster becomes transparent.

I think we can take them down this time. Trey is dead, his body is spilling blood on the forest floor.

One down, three to go.