Onyx (Completed)

Chapter 14: Dark Magic

Rigel really did not like this man. He's been charming his way into the group and no matter what Rigel tells them, Cassius always finds a way to flip it into a joke. Rigel scowled as he watched him charm Enzo up ahead.

"I went to the lady and told her she was crazy, he would never show up." Cassius looked around mischievously before saying, "She waited there all night, and he showed up the next morning with another woman!"

Enzo snorted into a laughter then looked back at Rigel thumbing at Cassius. "This guy!"

Rigel rolled his eyes.

Neo stopped causing everyone to bump into each other. "Aren't you supposed to be up front Cassius? I thought you were tracking."

Cassius looked back at Rigel his eyebrows raised. Rigel ignored him. "Neo, my friend, it's difficult to track someone without having a personal item of theirs."

Neo nodded his head and continued moving forward. Rigel looked back at Reno and saw a stormy expression on his face. Slowing his pace he moved closer and asked, "Is everything alright? You seem off."

Reno grunted. "This man is strange."

Rigel nodded his head. "I agree, I don't trust him one bit. We've been walking in this forest for hours gaining no clues. I'm not even sure if he knows how to properly trac-"

Cassius held up a hand causing everyone to freeze. He sniffed the air—odd—until his eyes locked on the ground. He bent down touching the crushed leaves. "Look. Someone's been here before. You see those tracks? The crushed leaves? Looks like someone was in a hurry. They didn't even bother trying to erase their tracks."

He followed the tracks to the end of a tall cliff. The tracks stopped. Cassius rubbed his chin. "If it is who I think it is that stole Onyx, it's quite likely she jumped from this cliff."

"That's impossible," said Neo. "The cliff is too large for that little girl to jump with a whole other person."

"There's only one way to find out."

Cassius slowly made his way down the cliff with everyone in tow. Just as predicted the tracks continued on the ground until they reached a large rock, that was big enough to seriously injure a person, but small enough to pick up. Cassius stilled. Curious, Rigel stepped forward.

The rock was covered in blood.

Neo gasped, and Enzo gagged. Reno was silent.

"I suspect, this was Onyx's. Is this her hair?" Cassius held up a strand of white hair. Rigel felt sick and nodded. Cassius scrunched up his face. "Those bastards."

Neo shook his head. "How can we be sure she's even alive with a bashing like that?"

Cassius shrugged. "There's no way of knowing really. I don't think the wound was too deep though, or else the blood would have traveled to the ground."

Rigel felt dizzy. The thought of his sister being dead or seriously injured was maddening. "She has to be alive, we need to keep looking. Do the tracks continue?"

Cassius analyzed the surrounding area. "No, they disappear."

Enzo scratched his head. "That doesn't make sense. They couldn't have just disappeared."

Something dawned on Cassius. "Maybe they could..."

Rigel was confused. "How?"

Cassius looked at him as if he wanted to say something, but thought otherwise. "I'm not sure...the sun is setting. Let's call it a night and discuss this in the morning eh? I'd imagine our brains are a bit muddled after a long day of travel. We need renewed minds to solve this mystery."