Shattered Legacies: Book 1, Holo Change

💠Chapter 25: Eyes of silver💠

The sky was blue and clear, the summer sun was bright and there was a slight breeze rustling the trees overhead. By all accounts, it should've been a nice summer day. Unfortunately, what they were here to do squashed the peace from their minds.

"And you're sure you know what you're doin'." Catalina's voice asked with some trepidation, walking behind the two boys as they marched through the forest. Her skin crawling and gut twisting inspite of the gorgeous greenery and warmth of the sun through the trees. "No offense, but how do ya even know where the crime spot is anymore? Surely the rain washed away the blood." She didn't want to overstep, but the question was one that made sense. It had been months and the weather had changed several times in that time, even if you could see blood with a black light it wasn't going to stick around through rain. Was there some kind of shrine to her placed down? "... energy residue." Zeke answered bluntly, which wasn't a complete lie... but he didn't exactly want to tell her he'd been back to the spot several times over. Didn't want to tell her or Alex how many times he'd gone to the crime site as if doing so could bring Nara back. He didn't need or deserve their pity. He was the reason Nara went missing after all, if he'd just kept his mouth shut...

Alex om the other hand, was still trying to remain chipper through the situation. He had hope that this would work, "It's worked better recently, so doesn't it make sense that it would work even better if we try a contact connection spell at the last place she was?" his voice a little bit too cheerful for comfort as they came to a stop. In his mind it made perfect sense, and if there was any way to make the spell work more and get a better rate on her whereabouts, it was worth a try. Weaver stuff was weird, energy stuff was weird, light and dark stuff was weird - but you never know until you tried. "I...I guess.." The elf girl replied, her voice still hesitant.

Eyes glancing around the tree lined area, taking in the almost eery silence around them. Tree limbs on the grass, little wild flowers, acorns, a big rock that seemed to stand as tall as them a few feet away... and that was it. It was just the woods, a small spot in the forest outside town that was unremarkable unless you knew what happened here. There wasn't even a candle, or a stuffed animal, or a picture of Nara...her blood was gone from the grass but the fact that she'd possibly died here made Caroline cross her arms in discomfort. It was like standing in a graveyard. And she wasn't the only one feeling like that.

"Let's just hurry it up." Zeke chimed in uncomfortably, his eyes falling to the ginger beside him in charge of the spell. Although his tone was harsh, a little bit impatient and possibly rude, making Caroline glare at him, Alex felt a pang of sympathy. Or empathy. Whichever one was the one where you could put yourself in someone else's shoes. The spot was starting to get to him, the thought of how scared Nara must've been laying in her own blood at the hands of a stranger made him sick with guilt. What he'd give to exchange places with her. This place didn't make Alex uncomfortable per se, he felt bad about not going after Nara when she ran out of the house crying, but he knew Zeke must've been beating himself up over the incident. But what stung the most standing here, was the fact of a missing tribute. Her mother hadn't even hung a ribbon on a tree in remembrance. If she had, it'd still be here because when a vampire pays tribute there's always a binding spell to the item, keeping it in place.

And thus without thinking about it beyond knowing it's what his heart wanted, "Zeke, you got a hair tie on you?" he looked out to the dark haired boy. "Uh, yeah." Confusing him for a moment, taking a black felt coated rubber band out of his pocket and handing it to the ginger. However, once watching him step carefully around the area, holding a free hand out as if feeling the very air for something, it clicked in his head.

He wasn't a vampire, and it wasn't a holy ribbon, but it was still something. It still felt right to leave something, he didn't believe she was dead, not for a minute. But no one else who considered her dead had bothered, and that didn't feel right, plain and simple. He was sure that her family had a reason but he didn't really care, he wanted to do this and since the item was from Zeke, with him doing the tying, it felt like it was strong both of them. Once at the tree where the residual energy of fear and power was the strongest he stood on his tiptoes to get the closest branch he could and tied the hair tie around it. As tight as he could. It probably wouldn't hold for long but it was something.