Auras

Chapter 20

Ashley's POV

I knelt beside several of the men. None of them were alive. "Artemis what did you do?!" I yelled. "You killed them!"

She lowered her hand and turned toward me.

"Artemis, don't," Hannah ordered.

"I can't believe you would do that! They're all dead!" I yelled with tears in my eyes. Artemis froze and her face softened. And her eyes... "You're horrible," I stated.

She looked at her hands, which were covered in blood, and her jaw basically dropped to the floor.

"Great job Healer," Hannah said as she turned Artemis around. "Artemis, you're ok."

 "I... I... I killed them, all of them," Artemis managed to say. She grabbed a piece of her hair, which blood was dripping off of, and looked at it.

"Of course you killed them, no one else was here," I said angrily.

"Healer! Stop it! She didn't do it!" Hannah yelled.

"Don't yell at my charge," Daphne said sternly.

"She shouldn't speak to my charge like that! Especially when it was not her fault!" Hannah yelled.

"Not her fault? Hannah, unless you just became blind, Artemis killed these men," Mason said.

"Remember that day her brother died?" Carl asked.

"Duh," Brandon said. Carl raised his eyebrows.

"Oh my g... that's what happened?" I asked as I raised my hands to my mouth.

"Do you think she would do that normally?" Hannah asked.

"Well she did say she couldn't count how many Watchers she killed," Bailey said.

"That was over a span of a year. She didn't kill anyone before her brother died and after she died just about every Watcher that approached her; until her parents died. When they died she stopped killing and hasn't killed anyone since. Until today," Hannah explained.

"I... I... killed them," Artemis said.

"Artemis, this wasn't your fault," Hannah said.

"Yes it was," she replied. By the way she sounded she almost sounded normal.

"Artemis could you tell us what happened?" Bailey asked.

"We were running and I saw Ashley turn around and run back. I stopped her and she told me Zane was falling behind. I went back to get him and convinced him to return to you guys. I had to buy you all time. So I got ready to fight, they surrounded me and commented that they caught me," she began.

"That was stupid," I commented.

"That's what I said. They said that they would kill me and then everyone. Everything else is really blurry," she continued.

"Just tell us what you can," I encouraged.

"They screamed, but I didn't stop; not even when they stopped moving," she said.

"It's ok," Hannah said as she touched her shoulder.

"But I," she began.

"No, you had no control over what you were doing," Hannah said. Artemis sat on the ground and brought her knees to her chest.

"And now this just great," Carl commented.

"Carl, be considerate," Hannah ordered.

"Excuse me, but since when were you so nice to Artemis? I mean you haven't always been on her side," Bailey said.