Reign of the Reapers

Chapter 10

The next morning, we gathered in our supply room/dining room for a 'meeting'. I sat at the head of the table. Yuno took a seat next me, with Mark on the other side of me. Nate, Steph, and Mat were placed on the opposite side of the table. We had let Taryn stay in Sean's old room and she still hadn't woken up. We chose to have this meeting without her.

After a bout of silence Yuno shouted, "So where the hell were you?"

"I was taken in the middle of the night by a man who had been watching us." I said briefly, with obvious irritation in my voice that Yuno had decided to jump to the conclusion that I had left on my own.

"And you allowed this? Why didn't you kill him on the spot and who is that girl you brought?"

"That's Taryn, she helped me escape"

"And you didn't stop to think that maybe it was trap? She could be the reason he was here waiting for you."

"She's not! And stop yelling it's getting on my nerves. She's been helping me since the beginning and I think it's safe to say she's part of the group now."

"Absolutely not!" Yuno demanded, "We can't trust her."

Mat decided to chime in, "Listen, Yuno, we could at least give her a chance."

"And let her kill us all in our sleep? I'd like to live, thank you very much!"

It was at that moment that Taryn herself came in shyly, "Maybe I could have a say in what I do?"

"Um.. Hi, you must be Taryn... I'm Steph, let me grab you a chair." Steph nervously walked off to get her a chair. Yuno gave me look of outrage. I stared back at her with irritation. She just had to trust me. With Sean gone we could use someone as resourceful as Taryn on our side.

Taryn took a seat, "Listen, Phoenix, you need to tell us where the safe haven is so that we can pick up Scott and Alli and then head there."

The room erupted with questions and overlapping conversations.

"Absolutely not!"

"Who are they?"

"What's the safe haven?"

"Settle down, everybody!" I yelled, but even I was shocked that she suggested taking them. I had no idea what they could do. I looked over to Taryn so she could begin speaking.

"Alli and Scott. They're my friends. They were in Gavin's group but they..... they weren't on his side. They helped me get you out of there, Phoenix! They distracted Gavin. They're worth saving."

The others in the group looked to me for confirmation. I thought about it. They had never actually done anything bad to me, they were only Gavin's pawns. Maybe Taryn was telling the truth. "I agree with Taryn."

"And what's this safe haven she was talking about?" Steph questioned.

"It's this place I never told you guys about. I thought we were safe."

"Well where is it?"

"Ontario, Canada."

Everyone stayed silent. "......I knew it." Mat said softly.

__________________________________________________________________________

"So Canada?" Nate said.

We sat across each other on his bed, with only a small candle lighting up the room. It had to be sometime around midnight by now. We had decided to come to his room after dinner. I didn't really wanna go back to Yuno right now, she was pissed at me for siding with Taryn.

"Yep."

"Why's it gotta be so far? Who knows how long that could take?"

"We can do it though. It's worth it." I pleaded. I really had no idea, though. We could have been way better off staying where we were. I just owed it to them to try.

"It's not gonna be easy."

"Nothing good was ever easy"

"You're right. We need to do this, I'm with you."

I was glad, but part of me wanted him to not be with me. Part of me wanted him to say, "Phoenix you're crazy. We're safe here, we can't leave," so that I could agree with him. What if we left and found that nothing was there anymore? What if we found that they were barely surviving? But what if we found exactly what we needed?

"Hey I have a question," I said, he looked at me, waiting for a response, "how did Yuno handle herself... while I was gone?"

He thought for a minute about how to explain this, and I knew that the answer wasn't good. I couldn't blame her for being mad at me, for all she had to go through.

"Not good. Not good at all. She got really angry and depressed at the same time, but now that you're back, I'm not sure what she'll do."

"She seemed pretty pissed at me when I came back with Taryn. I think it's safe to say that nothing's changed."

"Well, we can only hope for the best... at least you're back, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so," we sat in silence for a moment, looking at the bed.

"I really missed you, you know," he said, glancing up at me as he talked, "It wasn't the same without you here, and not just Yuno's freak-outs. It was hard for me too."

"I missed you too." Even after what happened between us before, I still couldn't help but have missed him. Maybe Taryn was right, maybe I did have feelings for him.

No, that couldn't be right. Don't get attached, you'll get hurt. "Maybe I should head out."

"Wait!" he said quickly. He thought of an excuse for me to stay. I kinda wanted to, anyways. If Yuno was awake she'd probably want to argue with me or something, and I wasn't in the mood for that. "What if someone comes after you? What if Taryn isn't who she says she is? Maybe you should stay here... for safety reasons?"

I pondered his offer for a minute. Don't get attached, you'll get hurt.

"Good idea."

Despite the fact that his room had two beds, I found myself under the covers next to him. The candle burned out and we were in the dark. For a while we layed there. I mindlessly moved his arm over me, and he pulled me closer.

It wasn't long before I had drifted off into a dreamless sleep.