Forced into the Game

Ch.10 All Kinds of Wonderful

Disclaimer: I don't own Astral, but I do own my blue stapler!

~Taylor~

I had no idea why James had just exclaimed this, but honestly, I didn’t care. All I wanted to do was curl up in a ball in his arms after my near-death experience. James walked calmly over and embraced me in his warmth.

"What the h*** was that about?" James quietly, dangerously threatened our boss. She had appeared around the corner and was staring at the dead body, shocked.

"What was that about? That was me testing. Taylor" I looked up just in time to see our boss out her hands on her hips. "And it sure looks to me like you just killed one of my best testers." She  shot daggers at James, and my spine stiffened. No one but I was allowed to mess with James and blame him for my mistakes. "Excuse me, miss Jesinon, bug something went wrong with your little 'tester' or whatever." I smiled sweetly at her, but evil tinged the smile. "If this is your way of seeing if I’m good enough for the job, consider us all done here. Maybe we don't want to be teenage assassins anymore!? Ever think of that? Ever think that maybe, for once in my life I want to try to be normal?" I looked her in the eyes as I said this, begging her to understand me. My hands clawed the air as my eyes filled with fake tears. I didn't want to be  a teenage assassin anymore, but I certainly didn't want to  be normal. I knew what was right and what was wrong for me, and a girl with a million-dollar salary going to a school that she already knows every answer to? Not going to work either. I wanted to travel the world... this time, not as a teenage assassin on a mission. Delilah stared at me in surprise, as did the other members of my team.

~Delilah~

I stared at her. I mean, I know that those tears are fake, but still, she made a very convincing show. Then, something that her boss had said hit me.

“Wait! Tay didn’t kill the tester, I did! So, if anyone deserves to be punished, it’s me!” Everyone look at me like I was crazy. They all knew that the punishments at any training camps are terrible, let alone the most prestigious. The lady frowned at me, studying my longbow, then the arrows in my quiver. Then, she crouched down and rolled the body over, gasping at what she found. There was a black shafted arrow protruding out of her side. The arrow was identical to the ones in the quiver. Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at me.

“You killed her?! She was my daughter! Come with me! Now!” I had never seen anyone this angry before. It was quite frightening. I felt a sudden tug on my sleeve, then we were in a dark room alone.

I felt quite alone as well. My mind link with Astral had been broken. I was alone, even the lady was gone. I broke down in a fit of screaming and crying as sudden past memories came to my mind.

~Taylor~

“Astral? What’s wrong?” Astral mumbled something incoherent, tears streaming down his face. His arms reached up and tore at his hair. “Astral? Astral!? Get off the ground and stop tearing at your hair like King David!” Astral looked at me like I was a madman.

“How. Can. I. Calm. Down? She’s. Gone.” I looked at him weird. They had a mind link. She couldn’t be gone, not really.

“No, Astral... You have a mind link. She couldn’t be gone.” He glared at me.

“No. She is gone; I can’t hear her, sense her... Nothing. She. Is. Gone.”

~Delilah~

*flash back*

“MOM!” I screamed, running towards the burning building. Something had gone wrong, terribly wrong. This was my first mission as an assassin, and my mom decided that she would come with me. I was meant to set the bomb, but she insisted that she would, and now the place is on fire, with my mother inside.

I ran towards the burning building, only to be held back by my boss, who had suddenly appeared.

“No, let her go. We’ll get her out.” I looked at him, absolutely distressed.

“Mom... no...” She was gone... gone... forever...

*End Flashback*

~Taylor~

“What? No, no... That’s not.... That can’t.... What?”I was absolutely confuzzled.  Delilah couldn’t be gone... Just like that. Dimly, I felt myself sink to my knees. I hadn’t known Delilah for long, but in that short amount of time, she had become one of the best friends I had ever had. Of course she was my best friend, she was the only friend I had aside from James and Astral. I also dimly recognized James’s arms wrap around me, protecting me from the outside world, while Astral, still stomping around like a madman, was scaring all the newbies. I heard James’s voice. “Astral,” he soothed. “You need to calm down before someone gets seriously injured.” I felt a glare surround me, it was bad. Feeling quite sleepy and upset, I snuggled further into James’s grasp and fell asleep.

~Astral~

My mind was in overdrive as I tried to figure out what had happened to her. One minute, I could feel her, then the next, I couldn’t. I mean, we were talking and everything! She was telling me how the lady... Oh!

I froze as it donned on me. I had lost connection with her right after the lady took her! James seemed to notice my sudden silence.

“Did you get your connection back?” I slowly turned to face him, then I explained my thoughts.

~*~

He had set Taylor down by now.

“So, you’re saying that she was taken to a place that breaks mind-links?” He sounded dubious. “Ya... At least that’s what I hope...”I trailed off, trying not to think of the alternate. James paled at my words.

“You mean she might be...”

“Dead. Y-” My voice broke there. And then, I just kinda, collapsed.  A sudden pain ran through my body. It was more of a distressed pain. I heard a screeching noise, and it went on, and on, and on. It was me! I had one thought before I blacked out(De: yup, mister “I can’t sleep blacked out! XD As: Hey! It’s not my fault! It’s De: :P You can’t tell them!): The pain was from Delilah. From our mind-link. She was alive, and wherever she was, someone was hurting her.

~AN~

'Kay. I'm sorry it took so long! I've been cazily busy with school, and I'm not in my writing class right now, so it's gonna take longer to get the chapters out. We'll try to get them out faster. Thanks for your patients! - horse9107