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Solace

Chapter 9: Solace

"So you're telling me that you just blacked out, yea plain simple, and now you remember stuff?!" Damien yells as he walks up and down in complete bafflement as I try to explain to them what happen. I just go into us running from cops and Damien -Dami- starts freaking out.

"Will you shut up for one darn second, Damien?!" Tabs yells as he shushes. Jeez, she has some mystical power or something.

"Yea, Dami!" I say, and freeze as I see him freeze too. After a few seconds, he starts running up and down, muttering 'what' and 'how is this even possible' and other stuff.

"Okay, so basically. You blacked out correct?" Tabs interrogates and I nod.

"No nodding or shaking of head. I want yes or no." She instructs.

"Yes." I say, trying to recall more.

"Okay, can you tell me more of what happen?" she asks, writing down in her little notepad.

"Okay...so we were in some..forest I think? And then there were cops on patrol and I think they heard us or something because they started running and we ran the other way because-"

"'We' meaning you and Damien, correct?" she says, glancing up from her notepad as I mouth a 'yes'.

"As I was saying before I was oh so rudely interrupted, because we were running away from home." I say, as I start running through my mind, searching for more.

I notice Dami finally sitting, but Jack has his hand clasped over Dami's mouth, but I can see him mutter things.

"So we hid under a bush and eventually the cops went-"

"Thanks to my quick wits!" Dami cheers, as everyone shoots him a glare.

"Stop interrupting, please, Anyways, the cops went and then we decided to have...

"A barbecue." Dami says, as everyone looks at him. "Chicken-"

"Mushrooms and capsicum." I finish, as we nod at each other.

"Then we...get into some personal talk." I say uncomfortably, not wanting to share the depressing talk we had.

Tabitha shifts one of her long legs over the other. "Can you elaborate? 'Personal talk' isn't descriptive."

"I...well..um..." I mumble, and I can feel my cheeks turning red. "We.."

"Sorry Tabs, but it's really none of your business. And trust me, if it were important, we would've told you." Tabs and Dami share a look for about a minute before she nods her head and looks at me.

"At least tell me the last word you remember." She begs,and I look straight at Dami, before whispering.

"Promise."

His eyes widen again, as he bites his bottom lip.

Tabs nods as Jack and Whitney have a hushed conversation. I sit next to Damien, and sigh.
"The family thing, right?" he murmurs and I nod, looking at the pebble that's caught my interest.

"Yea." I say, before looking around (finally).

There's only really one word to describe it:

Empty.

There's nothing as far as I can see. Only boulders, occasional cacti and nothing else.

"I ask again, where are we?" I say,and they look at me before sighing.

"Bella Romana." Whitney says, and I look at her in confusion. "This once used to be a cheery place, I think it was called Rome or something but then-"

"War." Jack says, and I understand now.

"So..where do we go from here?" I ask, as Tabs finally looks up from her notes.

"There's a town outside the O Zone, called Metaplasma. We'll stop there for a bit, pinpoint the centre of the O Zone, and from there it's war." She says and silence falls upon us.

"Is there really no other way? War isn't really very pleasant." I say, but none of them seem interested. Instead, they all look at me weirdly.

"Don't you want like, revenge? They freaking kidnapped us all!" Whitney snaps, and it's not something I ever want to see again.

"Well, yea I'm mad, but maybe they have a good reason." I shrug as Tabs laughs humourlessly.

"Yea, we are nothing but bait to them, Azure. They just want the witch or us to come, they don't really care about anything else." She give some a hard look. "You'll get it after your memory comes back."I shrug and nod.

She sighs and after a few seconds, all of stand in sync.

"Okay...yea we are all definitely siblings. That was creepy." I say, in completely dumbfounded. They all look confused, but only Damien seems to get it and grins.

"Telepathy, I guess." He say, laughing.

"Okay, so here's the plan. We will walk for about eight hour-"

"EIGHT HOURS?!?!??!" I yell in disbelief, as Tabs nods.

"Yea, eight. And that's not even halfway, by the way." She remarks as I bury my head in my hand and groan.

"Oh, wonderful." I mutter under my breath, groaning in exasperation.

"We should start now, before it's nighttime." Jack informs, as all of them take a bag.

Unfortunately, I don't have a bag, so I stand there awkwardly while they grab the supplies.

"Oh, here." Tabs says when she notices I don't have a bag. She hands me a turquoise bag, that's pretty heavy. "It has ample food and other necessities." she informs, as I smile and thank her gratefully.

And then the journey begins.