Survive Or Die

Chapter 16- War

He pulls away and everything seems to come crashing back. I wince as I realise the cold, the hunger, the pain and the nagging feeling to get out of the water that soaks my clothes. But I can't.
Instead I grin.
"Celia!" I hear a voice call. I whip around, fear coursing through me, to find a boy, Will I think his name was. I sigh and give Carl a 'I'm-sorry' look before trudging out of the lake, wringing my clothes and hair.
"What is it?"
He twitches nervously on the spot. "We have guests," he blurts and bites his lip.
Shock leaves me speechless. Guests? We don't get guests? "Who is it? What do they want?"
He looks at the floor with his head hung low. "I think you'll want to see that for yourself..."
Now I'm simply curious so I follow him to edge of our borders. And I freeze. Standing there, looking oh so mighty with war paint of her face and weapons hanging off every inch of her body, is Aria.
She spots me and smiles, her smile resembles a snake going for the kill. "Hello, Celia. Long time, no see," she says each word slowly and drawn out. She beacons four people from the shadows. I don't recognise any of them except for Collin who looks rather scared to be standing here.
I turn to Will. "Get me four guards, ASAP," I order and turn to Aria with a straight face. "What do you want?" I reply coldly.
She seems taken aback but quickly regains her perfect posture. "I want supplies," she answers hesitantly.
I take to fight back a laugh. "Supplies? Thats what you came all the way here for?"
Her eyes narrow. "How's Issy? Still annoying?" She hisses.
Sudden anger hits me like a wave and I grit my teeth to stop from snapping at her and tearing her limb from limb. At least until the guard arrive. She seems to notice that she struck a nerve and smirks. "How's Jay? Still condescending?" I snap back.
Hurt crosses her features than rage. "I have something you may want," she suddenly offers.
I roll my eyes as my guards roll up. "I don't want anything from you," I spit.
"Not even a cure?"
Her words take me completely by surprise, and cause me to take a step back. "W-What? Impossible."
She shrugs easily as if she is indifferent to the subject. "Okay, tell that to my arm." She pulls up her sleeve to reveal a jagged bite mark... but it's covered with soft, pink flesh. A scar.
"Where did you get that?"
"Doesn't matter."
"Are you really that selfish as to let my best friend die to feed your thirst for control," I have to strain to keep my voice even.
Her hands roll into fists as her face falls into anger. "Don't you dare call me selfish!" She suddenly yells, taking everyone by surprise. "I have given up everything for Gonplei and I refuse to have it taken away by some pretty pink princess!"
Then she relaxes slightly as if she realised something. "Tell me when you hear from Hayden... if he's even alive that is." She goes back to being a snake. A wicked, cruel, manipulative snake.
"What did you do to him," I say through my teeth.
Her raises her chin and her face becomes a hard mask of indifference. "I released him." She registers the hurt on my face and continues, "this is war, Celia. And we won't lose."
"Give me the cure."
"Give me the supplies."
"No."
"Then have fun watching your best friend slowly turn into a Fleshy." With that she turns and struts away through the forest. I stand there a few minutes more with rage still coursing through my blood and clouding my vision. "Uh Celia?" Will gingerly says. "We should go. It's getting dark."
"I want her dead," I say, surprising even myself, "even if I have to do it myself."
"Oh woah okay, remind me not to piss you off. Well we are just gonna head back... see you later I guess?" And they hesitantly wander back to the laughter behind us.
I sigh and follow, slightly unwillingly. Arias words echo in my mind, This is war, Celia. And we won't lose.
War? Is that what this is? I clench my fists by my side. As long as Judith remains safe and unharmed, I don't care what happens.
You just declared war, bitch. Get ready to loose.

"Celia! Celia! Celia!" Is Judiths' worried voice.
She runs up to me and jumps into my arms. I swing her around before placing her carefully down. "Hey, baby. What's wrong?"
Her small eyes are wide and her eyebrows are pulled together in a frown. "Who was it? Are you okay?"
I smile softly. "It was just-" I stop myself, "it was no one. And yes I am perfectly fine. How's... what's his name? Charvi?" I quickly change the subject and hold her small hand in mine as I lead her back to our small house.
She grins and lurches into a description of our new housemate and his dietary habits. "And did you know that they need to eat rice and lentils and- Celia? Are you even listening to me?" I snap out of my thoughts and look down at her to see her small face is scrunched in frustration.
"Uh yeah. You were talking about the... um..." I smile sheepishly.
She rolls her eyes and sighs. "We need food for the Chevi."
"And we'll get some," I promise and run my hand through her greasy, knotted hair. "When was the last time that you had a bath?"
She grins, showing off her teeth. "A while considering the fact that we have no baths." She giggles and skips along but I gently grab her shoulder.
"Let's go full blown caveman. Get the buckets." She scrunches her face again is distaste. "Meet you at home."
She does an exaggerated sigh and runs towards the tool shed.
"Hey Princess," Carl says, jogging up to me. "What was that all about?"
"She was just telling me about the bird. It eats rice, lentils, seeds, and a few other bits and pieces. Where do you think we could get them? I'll have to organise a raid. You'd be good to go on that right?" I find myself rambling in a poor attempt to change the subject.
"Woah woah woah." He raises me an eyebrow and gives me a doubtful look. "You know what I was asking. Who were our little 'guests'?"
I relax my body and force my face into a hard mask as I have many times before. "It was Aria. She decided to declare war. Also, she just happens to have the prototype for the freaking cure to this mess. So yeah, we're at war now," I explain as calmly as possible.
He stares me in shock with wide eyes and his mouth hanging ajar. "Is-Is that all she said? Nothing... cruel?"
"She wanted supplies." I leave out that the odd visit left me rattled and shaken. My face remains a cold mask.
He smiles softly at me, his eyes turning to molten honey. "Don't take anything she says seriously, Celia. She's just jealous."
I frown, doubtful. "Jealous of what?"
He smirks and grabs my hand, pulling me close to him. He plants his lips on mine, holding the back of my head to deepen the kiss. When he pulls away I'm panting for breath. "Of this. Obviously she is incapable of love," he jokes and rolls his eyes.
I laugh and push away from him. "Whatever you say. I have a very smelly seven year old to give a bath but I'll see you later." I grin and job back towards the small house that I've begun to call home.
Judith is waiting for me beside the small bathtub in the small house. "What took you long? It's cold," she whines. I ignore her and grab a bucket that she got from the tool shed. I tell her I'll be back and leave the house with three large buckets. I make it to the lake and start filling them. As soon as I'm done I'm forced to carry all three of them back home. I somehow manage to make it with only spilling enough water to drench my shoes. I call for Judith and helps me carry them to the bathroom. Well, one of them.
She sits on the edge of the bathtub and dangles her legs off the side. "What are the buckets for?"
I smirk and start filling the tub with water. Her small face pales as she realises that it's about to get a whole lot colder. After only an hour, I'm able to force her into the water. I start running it down her hair and begin to wash her, trying my best to be quick. Goosebumps rise on every patch of bare skin.
"I-I wa-wanna get o-out," she whines.
"This is only until we get the water running. It'll be warm baths and hot tea in no time." I give her one of my most convincing grins but she merely narrows her eyes at me.
"I'm not stupid, you know," she snaps.
"Tell you what," I continue, running water through her dirty hair and soon filling the tub with leaves, "I'll get someone to help me out tomorrow? Tomorrow night you can have a warm bath. Sound good?" She hesitantly nods and lets me wash her hair with minimal complaints. The second I'm done, she's out of the tub with an old towel wrapped around her. I manage to get her into some slightly cleaner clothes to try and stop the chilly autumn air. "It's only gonna get colder from here," I say and place a soft kiss on her forehead.
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My apologies my faithful readers.
I can not apologise enough for my lack of publishing. After a few weeks ai tend to stay out of wattpad to kind of post pone the guilt from my nonexistent chapters. Obviously it doesn't work.
I now have a friend who seems to enjoy my story and she is at my school so that'll probably help me stay on track.
It has also come to my attention that the longer the wait, the more people get bored and leave.
Celia- 26
Aria- 27
Also, stay tuned for the next chapter when something exciting happens hehe.
Sorry again and I love you guys so much...