Ashes of the Future

Chapter 15

No one had noticed Avry went missing that night, all too intoxicated to care. They didn't drink this much before, before it all started, but now they drank to drown away the pain that each death struck inside them, another cut yet to come.

"Where the shit is Matt at?" Cody was the first awake, chugging down glasses of water one after the other, his words spat in between. He had fallen asleep in between Matt and Dan, too annoyed with Charlie to be near him, yet he didn't wake up with Matt next to him. He began to pull everyone's covers, pillows, anything they had slept with in a frantic manner, waking everyone else up abruptly.

Dan could barely open his eyes to see what Cody was doing, but before he knew it Charlie was holding Cody back, him crying hysterically. Dan shot up, the pain in his head being overridden by his worry for Cody.

He was going back to his old ways, the twelve year old Cody that was cautious, on edge all the time, full of fear. Dan watched as Charlie tried to pull him in for a hug, but Cody just continued to fight him off, Dan frozen with pain as he realized what was going on.

"He's an early bird, Matt's probably been awake since 6am." Nathly piped in, stretching her arms out, unaware of the situation at hand. The shocked expressions on the rest of her friends faces told her something else was going on.

"What time is it now?" Charlie had broken away from Cody, his hands shaking from seeing him like this.

"10." Nathly spoke, but then noticed someone else was missing. Avry. Elise explained that they must be together, the two 'love birds', but Dan denied it, again and again, insisting they go out looking for the two of them separately.

Elise was the one to make them hangover food this time, Vykter assisting, while Lela and Nathly tried to help Dan talk to Cody.

He had curled himself up in a ball, in the corner of the room, rocking back and forth like a ghostly spectre had just passed through him, chilling his body to the core. But it had, the ghost of his sister. She was dead, she was gone, she was never coming back. Yet here she is, all the memories, all the initial emotions flooding back, taking Cody back to square one.

The familiar sound of an iPhone was what sent a chill through Dan however, the ping ringing into his ears as he traced the sound back to Charlie, his hand filled with the phone he'd always had.

"How does your phone still have charge?" Dan quizzed, his expression matching the confused one of Charlie's, as they both knew there was no way of his phone even working in this time, even if it had charge.

"Portable charger case thing, it works." He wiggled his phone in the air as he said so, attempting to show off the case while not taking his eyes of the message he had received.

"How is anyone texting you anyway?"

"It's Kecia." Her name was enough to make Cody pay attention, "She's here."

"What do you mean she's here?" The news had shocked Cody out of his state, Lela carefully wiping away his tears as he surfaced back to reality, seemingly unaware of what just happened, like it was a different person.

"I mean she's come looking for us, seen the note and ended up here. She even sent me a snapchat of her, Malerie, Aurelia, Yousef and Che." Charlie twisted his phone around to show Dan and Cody, Lela and Nathly inquisitively leaning over to see the photo.

"Who are they?" Lela began to worry as she started to put the pieces together, hoping Nathly would understand what she was thinking. The more of them, the more danger that followed. But she didn't get a reply, Dan and Cody too taken aback by the news to even speak.