Stonebrook High School

Chapter 25

Lukas sat Jesse down in the passenger seat and then sat himself down. Closing the doors, he drove out the parking lot and started driving to Gabriel's fortress.

As he drove, he bit his lip as he thought of Petra still lying inside her room at the hospital. Should he have taken her? The Withers might get to her before he did.

He glanced at the side mirror. The Withers were awfully close now and were right next to the hospital. How had they gotten there so quickly? He didn't want to go back to get her.

He was scared to do so.

Lukas knew it was cowardly of him, but his body refused to turn the steering wheel around. It was as if he was on autopilot.

The boy next to him let out a small groan as he stirred.

"Jesse?" he said quietly.

The brown-haired male opened his eyes slowly and ran his fingers through his hair, wincing. "Lukas? What... Where am I?"

"You're in my car."

"What happened?"

Lukas pointed at his leg. "When the first Wither broke down, some of the rubble fell onto you and injured your leg. You went unconscious from shock. We called an ambulance for you and I went with you. After they bandaged you up, Gabriel tried calling your phone."

The blonde carefully turned right around some swerving cars. "He told me to call Olivia and Axel and tell them to come to his fortress. He told me to take you, too. You know why?"

Jesse blinked. "Uhh... why?"

"Look at the side mirror."

The green-eyed twin looked at the side mirror with sudden dread. He gasped.

"Lukas, why the hell are there eight Withers?! And why are they fused together as some sort of gigantic monster?"

"I don't know why to both those questions, but I'm sure Gabriel knows."

"Lukas."

The Ocelot leader tried raising an eyebrow and raised both instead. "Hm?"

"Where's Jess?"

Lukas's eyes instantly flickered back to the road. "I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" Jesse said with a dangerous, low rumble in his throat.

"I think she's with Gabriel because she last was with him. By the way, she told me to follow you to the hospital. If I had known eight more of those weird Wither things were going to show up, I would never have left her."

"Get to the temple as fast as you can. I'm not fucking losing her today."

Jesse looked at Lukas who had a face of surprise and shock. "Oh," he mouthed. "Excuse my French."

~*Ω*~

"I took some crutches for you," said Lukas as he curved around to the back of the car. Pulling them out the trunk, he gave them to Jesse. "Here, now let's hurry inside. It seems the Withers have already been here."

With Jesse limping on the crutches, they got in slower than they expected but still managed to get down to the bottom chamber. There was Gabriel, sitting against the wall with one hand gingerly rubbing the lights.