Ashes of Affection (Rough Draft)

Chapter four

"Amara, are you crazy? There are people out there who clearly want us!" Jack hissed.

"I understand that, but I also understand that Sage is out there and is severely injured." I snapped back.

"No! They aren't! What you saw was a nightmare, not a vision or whatever. You just need sleep and when you-"

"No! When I wake up, they won't be here. You can stay here but I'm not waiting any longer."

I brushed past him and stormed outside.

"Amara! Wait!" He sighed.

"I've waited long enough!"

He quickly caught up to me with two jackets.

"At least put this on." He said, holding out one of the jackets. I reluctantly took it and put it on. I hadn't realized how cold it was until I put it on. "So, where are we going?"

"There's a valley a while back, Sage jumped from it after they ran off." I knew he wanted to argue but he went along with what I was saying.

"If they jumped, wouldn't the people have already gotten to them?"

"Someone not in that group jumped after them but couldn't catch them in time. He got them out of the water."

"Who?'

I sighed, knowing he wouldn't believe me.

"A phoenix."

He stopped in his tracks, now pissed off.

"Hold up, so you're telling me; we're leaving Kai alone and going into the forest while we're being hunted just because you had a nightmare that you think is true because a phoenix-guy told you it was?"

"Jack, please I need them back, they're my family."

"So is Kai!"

"You don't have to come with."

He hissed a breath.

"I'm going back."

He turned and walked towards the cabin but I looked to my left and panicked.

"Jack! Don't go back!" I hissed, trying to remain quiet enough that the figures wouldn't be able to exactly hear me.

"Make up your mind!" He grumbled and turned back to me. I gestured for him to be quiet. "Sage has had a truly bad influence on you-" He froze when he saw the people.

"If you go back, you'll lead them to Kai." I whispered as he crept over to me.

"What should we do?"

"We have to lead them away from the cabin then when we're far enough away, we run." He nodded and we cautiously started walking. As expected, they followed us. I really didn't want to know what they wanted with us. We picked up pace the farther we got from the cabin till we reached a dense part of the forest. "Run!" We both took off running as fast as we could. We tried to stay together but it was surprisingly difficult. Fast footsteps raced after us. I dared not look back but unfortunately, that got me lost and when I finally stopped, Jack was nowhere to be seen. "Jack!" I called, but there was no response. My lungs burned as I couldn't control my breathing. I couldn't fight the exhaustion anymore and just collapsed, unconscious.

When I opened my eyes, I was on a cave floor. My gaze scanned the cave till I saw Sage and the man. I got to my feet and approached them. Something was wrong, he was holding on to Sage with visible stress.

"Are they...?"

"Their heart stopped just ten minutes ago, but they're still alive." His voice was quiet.