•| Nefarious |•

21

The big black figure followed us through the long ended road,

"...There's no way any of our lights are strong enough to do any real damage to that thing.."

Tyler spoke quiet, scared of a loud noise making it jump for us. Logan's hands trembled against the gun as his face was towards the mutant phantom running towards us,

"Should I try to shoot it?!"

He panicked.

"No! Not yet it could attract more."

I placed my hand on his arm lightly attempting to calm him down, his gun pointed away from the figure and back to facing the floor. Rock pillars came into view, more scattered around it. No more trees, no more grass only stone.

"Ashlyn! We need to turn around! We're going to end up lost or run into more of these things!"

Tyler's voice shivered with fear, even he was worried about our situation.

"I know! I know!"

"The pollards look wide..."

Ashlyn gripped onto the steering wheel tighter making her knuckles turn white,

"...If I were to circle around one, would it be enough to block the phantom while we turn?"

"It's getting closer!"

I yelled seeing its head coming straight for us before I could say anything else Ashlyn yelled

"Screw it!",

and took a sharp turn around one of the pillars. A leg, or spike, from the phantom hit against the side of the car closest to Tyler causing the door the bend and brake.

Ashlyn increased her foot on the gas finishing the turn and making our way back to where we came from,

"Is everyone okay?!"

"The door is banged up pretty bad, but none of us are hurt!"

Tyler called back to her wrapping his arm around Taylor to protect her, he looked back at me and gave me a reinsuring smile, telling me everything would be okay through his actions.

The car bounced against the uneven road, a tree branch came into view but before Ashlyn could swerve away from it our tires hit it causing the whole car to move. Ashlyn quickly straighten out the car but a click was heard follow by a gush of wind.

My head turned to see the one and only Tyler Hernandez reaching out for anyone, anything, to grab as he slowly fell out the car. It's like it all happened in slow motion, Taylor yelled out his name to try and go after him but Ben held her back.

I couldn't focus anymore, the one person who told me no one would get hurt, the one person who went to great heights to protect me just rolled out of a car and I couldn't do anything to save him. I should've tried to grab him but I was frozen in place, I couldn't do nothing or say nothing, all I did was stare at him falling.

"Go back Ashlyn! Go back!"

I heard Taylor yell to Ashlyn but her foot made the car go faster down the road while her shaky voice called back,

"I can't! We need to survive first!"

My heart raced, my hands trembled and my eyes watered up. Ashlyn drove away from Tyler who is out there, alone and probably getting attacked by phantoms. I turned my head to see a second mutant phantom join the first one into chasing us.

Its giant body turned and slammed into the back of the car making me and Logan trust against the seat. The jeep turned and turned but I had no idea what was going on, I just felt my self being throw around the trunk along side Logan.

I heard the breaks screech along the ground swerving the back of the jeep straight into a tree, my body flung back into the glass window of the back of the car. I launched out of the car, flung across the ground.

Glass scattered my chest and my throat, blood dripping from the impact. 'Get up! Get up!' I yelled out trying to get up but I couldn't, the pain rushing through my body was too much.

I heard the car try staring up again but didn't budge, a loud slam came from the front seat from Ashlyn slamming her hands into the steering wheel. Everyone piled out of the car, Ben running straight towards me with worry, his hands frantically moved above my body not knowing what to fix first.

Aiden ran over and slid onto his knees next to me.

"Shit shit shit! Y/n we have to get you up, you're going to be okay."

Aiden hoisted me up slowly, blood spewing from my mouth with every cough. Aiden held one shoulder while Ben held the other.

"We have to find Tyler..."

Ashlyn murmured, her face full with shock looking at me. I knew guilt was probably eating her alive but it could've happened to anyone, she did her best to try and save us.

While everyone was looking around trying to find Tyler, Ben stayed beside me picking out the glass pieces and patching them up the best he could.
They looked everywhere, behind bushes, all around trees but no sign of Tyler. We ended up going into the gas station we saw earlier to get away from phantoms who could be wondering around.

Taylor sunk to the ground sobbing into her hands, I wanted to do the same but I couldn't. My body burned with pain and Taylor has had Tyler in her life for her whole life, she has an excuse to cry, he's the most important thing to her.

But I'm just a girl who they met a couple months ago, a girl Tyler became friends with, a girl who he said he liked but probably didn't mean it. I'm just a side character to him so why should I be able to break down because of him?

Everyone wrapped their arms around Taylor trying to calm her down, I slowly made my way to the back of the store sitting alone in a room, trying to collect my thoughts.

A slight knock was erupted through the door and Aiden's head peaked out from behind it, he gave me a small smile before joining me in the room.

"Why aren't you with the others?"

His voice was soft and quiet.

"You shouldn't be alone with what just happened, you're still bleeding and who knows if you're patched up right."

"I want to be alone, Taylor needs you, you should probably go back."

I spoke, my voice horse. Luckily no glass pierced my vocal cords so I could still hear my voice.

"You know it's alright to have emotions and cry? You shouldn't hold it in, it's really bad for you."

He raised a hand to my back, being weary of my injuries, and slowly rubbed it trying to calm me down.

"Why should I have the right to cry over him? I'm just a girl he knew, Taylor is his sister who he loves very much and I get why she's crying but I need to just suck it up and be there for her."

I spoke out, my voice breaking with every new sentence. Aiden let out a sigh and slowly wrapped an arm around my shoulder,

"You're allowed to have emotions for him and trust me you are not some girl he knew, the way he looked at you when you weren't looking would send anyone into a spiral. He really does care for you, when I saw yall on the bus I heard everything. He really does like you and he really does care for you, he would go great lengths to protect you. So you can cry for him, you're allowed to cry for him because he loved you. I promise I will try my best to find him and bring him to you and Taylor safely."

His speech alone made my eyes feel heavy, wet streams fell down my face as I broke. I couldn't hold it in and Aiden was right, I care for him so much and hate to see this happen. I laid my head onto his shoulder and soaked his shirt with my tears. Tyler was gone and we had no idea where he was at.