Afterlife || irwin

[ 20 ] 2014

[ 20 ] 2014

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"He stopped breathing. Call an ambulance."

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Conrad had done well on his word and Harley could feel a heat coming up from the downstairs floor. It was followed by smoke, which was penetrating every wall of the house. "Calum. We need to get out of here..." She called to him. He was still on the ground, on his hands and knees for what felt like an eternity. His breathing had calmed significantly, but he seemed like he could barely keep himself from collapsing. He looked up at the sound of her voice, his love for her providing him with the willpower he needed. He saw their surroundings, then looked into her blue eyes and finally deciding on pushing all his pain and tiredness away. He would have to deal with it later. He had to do something if they wanted to get out of there alive. He gathered the last bit of his remaining strength and pushed himself back on his feet, swaying a bit as he did so. 

The first thing he did was to check on the door to the master bedroom. He couldn't get it open, no matter how hard he tried. His grandfather had sealed it shut using his powers, and even at a young age like that, Conrad Hood had been one of the strongest shifters Calum knew. 

The house was burning quickly anyway, and he could feel the searing heat coming from the other side of the door, almost burning his finger tips as he touched it. Next he tried the two windows in the room and came up with the same results, but it would have been difficult to get down from there anyway. When he could think of nothing else, he went to the two remaining living prisoners in the room. He went to Harley first and untied her restraints, setting her free. The seventeen year old sprang up on her feet, feeling a soreness in her ankles and wrists from the ropes. But she chose to ignore all of it for the time being. Together, Calum and Harley untied Ashton.

"What do we do?" Harley looked to Calum for guidance.

"The door and windows are sealed." He explained to her, still feeling a bit dizzy and out of breath. The mere act of speaking was almost too much for him. "There's no way out. Unless..."

He trailed off as an idea came to his mind. Harley took one look at him and knew what he was going to say before he even offered the idea. "We can't just leave him here. He'll die." She pointed out. Ashton was at the moment busy checking for a pulse from each of his family members. When he came up with nothing, more tears started streaming down his face. He was paying no attention to the other two teenagers making plans at the moment.

"I never said we'd leave him behind." Calum assured her, then he continued to explain, taking both of her hands in his in an attempt to calm her down. "I was thinking we could just make the jump to the present, and then bring him back here in a few days. That will let my grandfather think he's dead for a while and he won't try to kill him again." Bringing Ashton back to the past in a few days meant it would a be a few months in his lifetime. Conrad Hood would have long since forgotten about him and Ashton could leave town to have a fresh start. As far as everyone knew, he had family in another town and they had money. He could easily stay with them. Calum bit down on his lip nervously as he gave her the last bit of details. "The only problem is...the jump might be too much for his body because we're taking him to the future. There's a chance he won't make it."

Harley thought about their options. They could leave him there, and he would get burnt alive. Or they could make the jump to the present and take Ashton with them. But there was the risk that his body wouldn't make it and he would die anyway. Then again, making the jump still left them with a slight chance that he would survive, which was better than nothing. Leaving him there alone would mean that he would definitely die. Ashton was there too, and she wanted to ask his opinion as well. But given the fact that he was so distraught at the moment, she wasn't sure if he'd want to go with them anyway. What mattered most to her right then was that he would live, otherwise she would have failed.