Relapse to Instinct

Chapter 35

She's dead.'

Really, there was no way Prue could be alive after that. She would have screamed, or made some type of sound other than the desperate gurgling he had heard.

So John wasted no time, turning again and leaping up the stairs, darting into his bedroom at the end of the hallway and slamming the door shut.

Pushing the dresser in front of the door, John spun around, looking out of his window.

He was only on the second storey, but it wasa long drop, and there was nothing beneath him to cushion the fall.

However, as Kieran began to pound on the door in some type of demented knocking rhythm, John decided to take his chances against the garden, pushing the window open and levering himself into the gap, jumping out into the nothingness.

"Blake? Hey, kiddo, stay awake, yeah?" Andrew had Blake clutched tightly in his arms having carried his little brother back through to the lounge, their mother whispering nothings into his ear and holdingtightly to Andrew's t-shirt he'd offered to be used on Blake's bloody shoulder.

He had another deep slash across his thigh, and Andrew kept his hand that wasn't supporting his brother's head there.

Matthew was stood by the doors, gazing out of them and waiting for the other's to return.

Sean had left to go after them, but they hadn't heard anything from him since the yelp a few moments ago.

Andrew prayed that his family was safe, but realistically, with a monster roaming thehouse and his brother bleeding out in his arms, he knew that the probability of this was low.

Very low.

Sean burst back into the room, startling everyone and barely dodging the knife that his father swung at his head.

"Prue - She - She's dead."

"What? My baby girl! What do you mean 'she's dead'?" Matthew was, needless to say, in shock. They all were.

"I went after them, and they were cornered by that thing by the front doors, and it was going for Johnny, but I threw the knife at it, and they ran away, up the stairs, but it got her, dad! It got her, by the th-thr-th..." Even though Sean couldn't bring himself to say the word, they all knew what it was he was trying to say.

"What about John?" Jane had silent tears pouring down her face, their salty tracks looking wrong against her complexion in the torchlight they'd set up around the room.

Sean shut the doors, leaning against one while their father mirrored him against the other.

"I think he got away. That beast was distracted..."

Andrew so desperately wanted to go and find his little sister - confirm what Sean was saying for himself, or, failing that, embrace his brother and tell him that it was going to be okay, even though it wouldn't be.But he couldn't leave Blake; didn't want to leave Blake. Sitting here, trying to keep himawake and holding pressure on his wounds Andrew could allow his mind to focus on thetask.

Reality wasn't exactly something that deserved contemplation at the moment.

Jazz awoke slowly to a nagging in his brain that he barely managed to understand through the pain invading his head.

Why was there a voice in his head chanting his name? Was it his subconscious, worried that he would've forgotten? The lump on the back of his head certainly attested this idea.

Pushing himself up with a groan, Jazz looked around, the sight of the mansion bringing the events of the last day to the forefront of his mind.

Standing quickly, Jazz pondered between staying, or finding a better place to lurk where he could wait for Kieran and the family would be sure not to find him in.