Guardians 1: Ashes

Chapter 29: Reveal

Cory's POV

I woke up and had no idea where I was. I looked around and I was defiantly not back at the old house with the others. I remembered something about skeletons, a ton of skeletons. I got out of bed and shuffled around. My mask was still on, so that was a good sign. I creaked opened my door and began to walk through the hall way. I had no idea where I was. I came to the exit of the house I was in. Turned out, it wasn't a house, but a carved out room in a mountain. I wobbled down some stone stairs. I felt really dizzy and sat down on the stairs. I tried to recall what had happened, but couldn't.

Then I heard foot steps behind me. I turned around and it was Shelby smiling at me.

"Hi." I said.

"Hello." Shelby replied." Did you sleep well?"

I just shrugged in response. Shelby than sat down next to me on the stairs. I yawned.

"Where are we." I asked.

"We are in some sort of base in Nero." Shelby replied. I nodded.

"Now that I have answered your question you answer mine." Shelby said with a grin.

"Seriously." I whined.

"Yess... So Uni had said something about kidnapping, and Nick and Sky tried to cover it up, so I knew it was important... so what is it about?" Shelby asked all at once.

I had no words to say I didn't know how to reply about it. All I did was give a long sigh and cup my head with my hands.

"I swear Uni, you are dead to us." I muttered.

Shelby's smile just got bigger as she realised that what ever Uni had said was actually important.

"I told you, we don't like talking about it." I said.

"That is why you are talking about it." Shelby said.

"I don't like talking about." I said frustrated.

Shelby just made puppy dog eyes and made her lips quiver while looking at me straight in the eye.

I grunted, "I-uhh- you- uhh - I don't want to." Is all I got out.

Shelby grabbed my hands. "Maybe if you share and stop acting stone cold, it will help with your nightmares."

For some reason I began to feel obligated to tell her. I didn't know why, but it was just this feeling. I than opened my mouth, then looked around. Once I was sure no one was listening I spoke calm and quietly.

"When we were smaller... me, Uni, Nick, and Rex had been playing one of our favorite games, hide and seek... Nick was a seeker at the time, the rest of us were hiding. I was in a tree, I had no idea where Rex and Uni were, but soon I heard yelling. At first I thought it was just them messing around, ya know, arguing about something little. But as it continued I noticed fear in their voices. I jumped to tree to tree and saw a guy carrying Nick, I saw Uni on the ground with his hands tied, and I realised Nick had a ragg stuffed in his mouth. I did what I thought was the best thing to do, I jumped out the tree right on top of the guy. He dropped Nick, but than slammed me against a tree. Wow... that hurt a lot. He then began to kick me on the ground, I saw Rex run at the guy but then was punched and knocked out cold..." I paused for a while then began to speak again.

"The guy then picked up Uni and Rex, I didn't see Nick anywhere. They were out of sight for a good while. My head was spinning, the world was spinning." I laughed. "Than the guy came back..." Shelby than squeezed my hand giving me a reassuring nod. I nodded back, then continued.

"H- he had a knife in his hand now an-and- and he... Well he, brought it to my face and began to... slowly cut away I remember screaming in pain and fear. It stung when he had finished. I had cupped my face with my hands leaning over, but than he just kept... stabbing me in the back." I could feel my vision get blurry as tears filled my eyes. "Honestly, I thought I was going to die, but no, Nick found me a day later in a hollow tree. He than brought me back to the orphanage and, well, they patched me up. I never saw Uni or Rex again, until now."

I finished my story and Shelby was silent.
She than brought her hands slowly to my face and gently pulled off my mask. When my mask was fully off , I looked away from her and dug my face into my arms. She then put her arm around my shoulder and hugged me.

"It's okay. It's okay." She whispered over and over again. I could feel tears run down my face, but I refused to make a single noise and just let Shelby hold me.

She then pushed me away and looked at me straight in the eyes. I could tell Shelby was trying to remember every detail of my face as if not to forget.

Shelby's POV

I now new why the others were so reluctant to tell me. Thier life was terrible. Uni, Rex, and Cory being orphans, Uni and Rex being abducted, Cory hating himself for not being able to stop it. I now understood why. I understood why Cory acted the way he did being so evil, lost all the good in the world when he was so young, his parents, then his two best friends. How would that have felt? That explained Nick's panic attack as well, being put in the exact some sercomstances as the abductions with him being the seeker, alone in a forest, and then seeing that hollow tree. I could only wonder of how terrible Cory looked. How scared Nick would have been finding his friend practically dead in a tree. I shivered and Cory looked at me.

His eyes were surprisingly blue. He had a scar on the side of his face going down to the side of his eye to his chin. He looked very concerened.

"Are you cold?" Cory asked me.

I simply nodded and we both stood up and headed inside. I was still holding Cory's mask. We sat down in front of my room together. I looked at the mask and traced the outline with my fingertips. Cory watched as I did. I then handed the mask back to him. He sighed and he was about to put it back on, but I stopped him.

I gently then kissed him on the cheek and he just stared at me. He then leaned towards me as if he was going to do something, but then stopped himself and began to put his Mask back on.

"I'm sorry Cory." I said. And I looked at him in the eyes.

"Don't be, you didn't do anything wrong, you were just... trying to help me." Cory said then walked away.