Traveling Souls

Chapter 25

Ignoring everyone around me, I scrambled from my place to get up and jumped at her. We both hit the ground and I burst out laughing, holding her tightly. "Oh my god, Brinnie, you're alive. Why did you never tell me--how did you find us?"

She shook her head, a smile on her face as she stroked my hair. "It's a long story." She buried her face in my hair. "I missed you so much, Lu-lu." she leaned back on her elbows when I sat in front of her. "You've grown, certainly."

I shrugged, still ecstatic that my sister was alive and here, right here in front of me. "Please, how did you find me?"

"Shush, shush, I'll get there eventually. I want you to meet someone special first, though."

My eyes found their way to Brinley's heart, that was a light purple glow. I covered my mouth, tears prickling my eyes. "Who..?"

"Awh, Bri, shut up. Not in front of Kate."

I turned my head to look at the blonde standing over us, Killian clinging onto his arm. "You're Griffin, aren't you? Griffin Scheff?"

Both Griffin and Brinley looked surprised as Griffin helped her up.

"Yeah, Griffie here is Kate's brother. He's lucky I found him or he'd probably be dead." she said, shooting him a playful look.

"So you guys are...soulmates?" Killian said, and they both nodded.

"Kate..?" I trailed off before remembering that Killian's name is Kate. "Oh, right, Killi."

"Killi?" They both looked at Killian, and she waved awkwardly, still not removing herself from her big brother's arm.

"Yours' still work?" I exclaimed, confused out of my mind.

She nodded looking just as confused as we did. "Yeah, weird, right? They might have just not shut off, but we're pretty much in the clear now since anyone who sees us see the hearts." she says cheerfully. "Honestly, I believe they still work. I doubt they even throw you out. They just don't give us enough time, I say," she said, wagging a finger. 

"So, this is great and all, but, where's Charlotte and Quinn?" Dustin piped in, twisting his head to look for the two girls.

"Right here?" Charlotte yelled confused, waving her hand. Her other was entwined with Quinn's. They were further off, sitting away from our discovery.

"Come around, little children! Auntie Brinley has a story to tell you guys!" Brinley shouted, being as exuberant and cheerful as ever.

We all sat around Brinley and Griffin. I looked around the circle, and couldn't help but wonder where Talon was, and why he wasn't here yet. I pushed the thought away as Brinley started to talk.

"Alright. So, after Halton took me away, he ended up letting me go a few miles away from Rose Central's station. Don't ask why, he never told me himself. Anyways, I met this group with this cutie here," she paused to point to Griffin, then smiled at Killian. "He had his little sister with him, Kate, or, Killian?" she scrunched her face to think before shrugging. "I was in a different group. We passed by each other frequently, though."

"I was familiar with Brianna and Diana, they were, what was it, the," she paused for a moment before speaking again. "The Ruthless Twins, I think they were called. Not too sure. I thought they were only rumors till I heard about them taking the group of Griffie." she tapped Griffin's shoulder, letting him take the rest.

"Anyways, Killian became 17 back in December. So then Brianna and Diana came, took over, and forced us to do these raids. Fast forward to the night of July 18th, and Killian was sent out to do this raid alone. She was forced to leave the group after failing the raid, and it was either me or her." he shuddered as if reliving the memories of the group.