It Wasn't Real

Chapter 15

They walked back to the group; everyone turned to look at them as they entered. Newt self consciously shrank into himself. Minho grabbed his arm and walked into the room towards Thomas, Arthur, Chuck, and Brenda.

"Hey." Minho greeted.

Chuck turned towards the two with tears in his eyes. He ran to Newt and hugged him. "I thought you left."

Newt stiffened for a second before awkwardly hugging back. "I was going to, but Minho talked me out of it." He chuckled, making Chuck laugh as well.

"Well I'm happy you're staying. Like I said earlier we would be lost without you." He then looked worried. "You are staying. Right?"

Newt nodded. "I'm not going anywhere." He winced and looked at Arthur. "If that's alright with you."

Arthur nodded smiling. "Stay as long as you like."

Minho scoffed. "As if we'd let him leave. I mean he nearly died twice in a week. Someone needs to look after him." He said, playfully punching Newt's arm.

Arthur chuckled. "Okay, let's get out of here."

"What are we going to do with all the information from the experiments?" Brenda asked. "We can't let them fall into the wrong hands."

"We are going to burn them along with this building and the experiment sites. Luckily they thought it would be too risky to store the results on any of their technology." Arthur replied.

The group agreed and quickly left the building, Arthur stayed behind to plant the explosives. When he returned and everyone was a safe distance away, Arthur pulled out the remote to detonate the bombs.

"Not so fast." Bryon said. He walked to the front of the group, pointing his gun at Arthur.

"What are you doing?" Arthur asked.

"Finishing what my sister started." He replied. "Now put the remote down."

"And why would I do that?"

Bryon sneered and grabbed Chuck, aiming the gun at his head. "Because if you don't you might as well say bye-bye to Chuck."

"Leave him alone." Thomas said. "He did nothing."

Bryon scoffed. "He killed my sister!"

"She was trying to kill me!" Newt said. "Just because she was a bloody traitor doesn't mean you have to be!"

Bryon looked shocked for a second, then began laughing loudly. It reminded Newt of the Cranks back at the Crank Palace. "You have no clue do you?" He said still laughing. "No, of course you don't. Celia always was a good actress."

Newt looked taken aback. "What?"

"She never wanted to betray this group. Never wanted to hurt anybody, but when her little brother came to her begging for help she couldn't say no."

"She seemed pretty serious to me when she aimed a bloody gun at my head." Newt mumbled.

"Do you really think that if she wanted to shoot you, you would still be alive?" He scoffed. "No. Chuck didn't save you, she hesitated. If she really was a traitor you would both be dead."

"Why are you telling us this?"

Bryon shrugged. "Guilt I guess." He said hardly sounding guilty. "I never meant for her to die, but oh well. Sacrifices have to be made."

Arthur looked shocked. "Bryon, why are you doing this? You have abilities too."

"They said they would take away my ability. You think I wanted this- this curse!?" He shouted. "My parents are dead because of me! Because they couldn't handle my power! If I can get rid of my ability then they will finally love me."

"They do love you!" Newt said.

"How would you know?"

"Your sister told me. As I'm sure she told you a thousand times. This is not the way to silence your bloody guilty conscience."

"Shut up! You know nothing!" Bryon moved to aim the gun at Newt.

Chuck grabbed the hand with the gun, twisting it so Bryon was forced to drop it. The gun went off, shooting a hole in the ground a few inches away from Chuck's foot.

Bryon spun on him, growling. "You little brat!"

Arthur aimed his gun at Bryon. "Not so fast." He said making Bryon turn to him. "If you take another step I will shoot."

Bryon smiled. "Do it. I would rather die than live the rest of my life a freak."

Arthur looked hesitant. "Please don't do this Bryon. No one blames you."

"But I blame myself. In a way isn't that worse?" Bryon took a step closer to Arthur, pulling out a knife. "Shoot!" He screamed. "Just shoot!"

Arthur shook his head. "Bryon this isn't you. I've known you all your life. I raised you. Please don't do this."

Bryon ran closer holding the knife. "Kill me or I'll kill you! Do it!" He said raising the knife.

Arthur lowered his gun and closed his eyes. "I can't."

Bryon brought down the knife. The sound of a gunshot and a body falling to the ground made Arthur open his eyes. Bryon was bleeding from a bullet wound to his head. Newt was standing behind the fallen man, still holding his gun up.

"Are you okay?" Newt asked. Arthur nodded. "I'm sorry. I know you two were close but I couldn't let him kill you."

Arthur shook his head. "No need to apologize. You did the right thing." He sighed looking at Bryon and pressed the button on the remote, causing the building to alight. "I'm sorry I was such a coward. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you or your sister like I promised."

A/N: Thank you AG2000 for proofreading!!!