The Tale We Lived

Chapter 3: Part 2

She screamed and panted and called for her friends, who were crying and running after her.

"HELPPP!!!" she wailed.

"LET HER GO RIGHT NOW!"  Syren shouted.

But Carina doubted he could hear her over his own wild pants. She heard footsteps behind her as the rest chased them, some calling to Stevie, some calling to her. Meanwhile she tried to fight off his steel grip on her coat as she was forced to stare at the wet, sloppy dirt she fought through.

"Let me go!!" she cried, trying to bite his hand off.

"Stevie, I don't know if you want to do that!" Ella called, "We don't need to get into more shit—"

"Carina!" Naya cried, her voice cracking, "CARINA HE'S TAKING YOU TO BARDOT!"

"Oh, she did NOT need to know that, you stupid shit!" Syren cried.

Carina let out a high pitched scream as Killian roared with laughter and Naya and Syren begged for mercy.

"What are you going to do with her?" Seth asked.

"Oh I'm going to lock her up inside." Stevie laughed maniacally.

After a while, Carina's voice grew hoarse from screaming and Stevie also threatened to choke her, so she had no choice but to quiet down and listen to make sure Naya and Syren were still behind her.

"We are still behind you, do not worry!" they had to keep saying or else she would get panic stricken again.

After what seemed like hours, they reached the top of the hill, and, from her limited vision above ground, Carina could make out the black burnt walls of the Bardot Mansion in the distance. Stevie finally let go of her and it took her a moment to realize she wasn't imagining. Naya and Syren ran over and helped her straighten her neck.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Syren cried, walking up to Stevie, "You know, I reckon Sierra didn't slap you hard enough."

She raised her hand but he caught it passionately and shoved it back, causing all of her to fall to the ground. He turned to Carina and Naya next, who were huddling side my side, and began to take slow steps toward them.

"Get away from us, psycho!" Naya cried, still rubbing Carina's neck.

"Are you or are you not going to swe—"

He was caught off guard by a tumultuous roar of thunder. It was quite possibly the loudest thing Carina had ever heard. It shook the sky and the ground beneath her, causing her to fall to the floor and cower under her arms. Ella and Naya began to scream and Stevie looked around wildly as the sky lit up with lightning. There was something weird about it's hue. Carina caught Stevie's dumbfounded gaze as he stared at something behind her. She whirled around to notice that packed away neatly in the midst of the snow-white White Forest that led down from Bardot Hill, was the eerie tower that was called the Barlam Lab Unit.

There was always something about the place that made Carina wish someone would just take it out of the town. Something strange and unnatural. It was a pasty, ugly white color and there were countless antennas sticking out of it and rotating all around and Carina could only guess what they were up-to or searching for.

As the sky lit with another flash of lightning, Carina understood where the hue was coming from. The lightning bolt arose from right above the Lab and, dare she say, the color of the bolt was something quite like a deep violet. It lit the sky around it in a deep plum shade and flashed twice more, just in case there was any doubt about the first one.

"What the..."

But Carina couldn't finish her sentence this time around either.

She looked down at her palms to find them there. She wasn't dreaming. For a while, all of them stood there in the pouring rain, dumbfounded.