Running From Darkness

Failure

The next two weeks passed quickly for James. The volunteer last year mission students left to a round of applause and high fives from every student. All of the staff members had wide smiles plastered onto their faces but they didn't reach their eyes and James knew why. They didn't have as much faith in the leaving students as the rest of the institute did. After they had left people trickled away to training and James forgot all about it for 2 weeks. He trained with Shadow Wind and Coach Grey and became fitter and more able to wield his powers. As well as doing purely physical in Grey's sessions, James was also taught how to use a panoply of vicious and deadly weapons. From bows and arrows to swords and maces to shotguns and pistols, he tried them all. He had a good time with his friends on the Sundays and Emily also came with them (she had become really good friends with them over the time they had been there). Everything was great until one fateful Tuesday afternoon. All of the student were assembled in the dining hall for lunch when a grim-faced Ben Grimes came to the head of the staff table and clapped his hands together loudly. Everyone fell silent. This had never happened before. What was it about?
"Hello Trainees! As I'm sure you all know, a group of students went to the Evil's lair to try and defeat the hordes and stop them from releasing his spirit. It is with great sorrow that I am here to tell you that they failed. We received their bodies earlier today, a flock of banshees carried them to the outskirts of the perimeter and dropped them. They had fought well and killed many monsters but it was not enough. We leaders have decided today that no more expeditions are to be led to the lair to try and defeat the hordes. We will let the Evil come to us and destroy him on our doorstep. We shall avenge the death of our comrades by wiping out this plague once and for all!" he roared to the students.
"For our fallen comrades!" the students roared back, slamming their knives and forks onto the table in unison. With that Ben sat down and the proceedings. That day, James and his 5 friends decided to meet together in James' room for a meeting. They had a plan.

James, Emily, Sam, Nathan and Joseph sat in James' bedroom that evening. James and Emily were sat on the bed, Sam and Joseph were sat in the two available chairs and Nathan stood leaning against the wall.
"So," Nathan began, "let's hear this 'plan' of yours Emily,"
"It's pretty simple really, in a couple of nights we leave the institute and go and fight the Evil and then-"
"Wait a minute! You're saying that we just 'go and fight the Evil'?! It's not that simple! Our powers aren't even fully developed yet!" Joseph interrupted.
"Me and Sam have both been on missions before," she told them, pointing at their purple shoulder piping and belts, "so we know what to do. Plus you have been practicing with your trainers and it doesn't take that long to become competent at wielding powers and weapons!"
"But we don't want to be competent of we're fighting the be all and end all of evil!" Nathan exclaimed, "We want to be excellent, I'm sorry but I vote out."
"Joseph?" Sam asked.
"You know I love a good adventure guys, but this is just too much. I'm with Nathan on this one," he sighed.
"Well, me and Sam are both in. Right?" Emily asked Sam.
"Yeah, we are. So it comes down to you James, you're the decider," he imploringly said. James sighed and looked at his friends one by one. Both Nathan and Joseph looked worried but tried not to show it and Sam and Emily were looking at him with expectancy written all over there faces. He took a long deep breath and said,
"I'm in. What do we do?"
"Awesome!" Emily jumped off the be and high-fived Sam. She then ran over and hugged James, whispering, "Thank you," surreptitiously before looking at the other two boys who had said no. "What do you say guys? You're not going to let us go on our own are you?" She fluttered her eyelashes at them. They looked at each other and Joseph nodded. Nathan rolled his eyes and huffed,
"Fine! We'll go too. But only to make sure you idiots don't kill ourselves!" He laughed and Sam punched him lightly on the arm. They were all buzzing with excitement.
"Okay then, when shall we leave?" Joseph asked.
"Well I can raid the weapons room because I can get my dads keycard and I'm sure Sam can get us some rucksacks. All you guys need to do is get lots of food for us to take. We might be on the road for a long time."
"Ok then," James finished, flinging himself off the bed, "it's settled. We go in three nights. That should give us time to get everything we need. You guys ready?" He shoved his hand out into the centre of the circle of friends. No one joined him.
"Ok then, just me?" he laughed and the others joined in. They all left James' bedroom after that. All of them except Emily. She stayed in one of the corners of the room and then when everyone was gone she stepped back into the light.
"James?" She asked,
"Yeah?" He answered warily,
"Thanks for being the decider vote. One of the volunteer final year students was my older bro-" her voice broke and she started again, "one of them was my older brother," she murmured. James looked into her eyes and saw a sheen of tears glistening on her eyes. A droplet rolled down her cheek and dripped onto the floor. James didn't know why to do. Should he go and hug her or should e just give her time to grieve. He opted for the former (since he thought that would be more comforting) and hugged Emily lightly. She cried openly into his shoulder, sobbing and making his jumpsuit sodden.
"Shh," he whispered, "don't worry. We'll get them back for what they did to your brother," and in his heart he knew that he really did mean what he said