𝐍𝐎 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐒, ꜱʙɢ

26

Ashlyn and the group dashed away from the onslaught of phantoms starting to circle around them. As they neared the house, Dominique noticed a couple phantoms closer to the banner household than themselves, starting to run towards the group with jeering grins.

Dom looked toward them, throwing her staff and piercing two through the head, watching with cold eyes as their body's slumped to the ground. Ashlyn sent a thankful look back to Dom, clicking a button on her vest and setting off a light trap to catch the rest of them. Logan, from above the bus, commented that there were a couple coming from the east side of the house, which was the direction they were running in.

Dom held her hand out, her eyes flashing as her staff reacted to her, throwing itself to her outstretched palm as spun in slightly, slicing a phantom through its midsection and splitting another's neck in a powerful swing.

As the group arrived at the jeep, they let relived relieved smiles slip past their lips; Taylor shouting happily at the fact that they hadn't tragically failed in their mission.

But- it seemed she jinxed it.

As Ashlyn pushed her finger down to unlock the jeep, it didn't budge, causing her to pale slightly.

"I thought you said you left the keys inside!" Tyler shouted, stressed at their current situation as Ashlyn run her hand through her hair.

"I did! One of my parents must've grabbed it or something!" She countered, slamming her hand onto the side of the car in defeat and cursing slightly.

Logan reached for his walkie-talkie, informing Dominique that the group seemed to be having problems getting inside the jeep. As she peered over, she noticed Ashlyn pointing a finger toward her house and gesturing to the rest of them; saying that they would be going inside.

Dominique swung back around from the abode, focused on picking off as many phantoms as she could to buy the group as much time as possible. Deciding for efficiency over style; she spilt her staff back into two halves, running through the phantoms and using the shadows around her to add strength through her swings. Right now, she wasn't aiming to kill them. She was trying to incapacitate as many as possible to stop them from reaching Ashlyn's front porch.

A couple moments later, Dominique had finished slashing through a phantoms legs before her walkie revved to life, static cackling lightly through it as Logan's panicked voice rang through.

"DOM! THE ROOF! I CAN'T GET A CLEAR SHOT!"

Dominique whirled around in panic, her eyes seething as she gazed over a phantoms figure, straddling a barely-conscious Ashlyn as Aiden collapsed on the porch, holding his ankle in pain as he desperately gestured to the roof from Dom to see.

Dominique's hand reached behind her, her eyes flashing as she fired a blast of shadowy energy from her palms, knocking the rest of the phantoms back into the light of the graveyard, watching as they screamed and disintegrated.

Dominique kicked into a sprint, twisting the two halves of her staff back together and swinging it over her head. As she neared the house, she slammed the blade of her staff down on the ground, firing energy into the glass and launched herself into the air, shadows pushing any looking phantoms back from around her as she landed on the roof.

Stabling her footing, she raised her hand, twisting the staff through her fingers and setting her eyes on a struggling Ashlyn.

"DOMINIQUE!" Ashlyn pleaded, her sight switching frantically between the phantom above her and a wide-eyed Dom. Steeling her nerves, Dominique ran up the roof's tiles, keeping her gaze on her incapacitated friend.