Ashes

Part Ten

The girl stood completely still with her hands in the air and only moved her eyes as she looked around. I too looked around and that was when I saw him.

Jaden. He wasn't in my dreams or nightmares anymore, he was here! standing completely still, frozen by Crystal's command.

"Jaden?" I asked as was I barely able to move my mouth, "Cassie!" he responded in shock and also was barely able to move his mouth. "Do you know her?" asked the blonde girl beside him, almost as if she was offended by it? "Yes, she's my ex" replied Jaden and looked back at me.

"Ok now, everyone go back to normal!" commanded Crystal as we all were able to move again, "You know her?" asked Crystal as she made her way towards Jaden to confront him.

"Yes, we dated a couple years back" Explained Jaden and didn't really make eye contact with anyone. "Crystal let's talk about this privately" said the blonde girl beside Jaden and protected Jaden from whatever wrath Crystal had in mind for him.

The three of them walked off, but not before Crystal commanded her soldiers to keep us inside the camp and to not ever let us leave!

We all walked back to our tents and watched as the other kids and teens give us ugly stares. "What do we do now?" asked Harry and finally was on the same page as the rest of us, "We leave tonight" replied Rubie and aggressively quenched her fists and sat down in one of the chairs we had by our tents.

"What is the plan then?" asked James and adjusted his glasses, before he looked around to see if anybody showed interest of spoiling our plans. "We leave at dusk, probably around midnight or so?" explained Rubie as she looked around to see what entrance wasn't heavily guarded by Crystal's soldiers.

"There!" said Harry and realized what Rubie tried to look for, "Thanks" uttered Rubie and drew a small map of the camp with the dirt on the ground and a stick.

She drew the fortified walls and the three entrances the camp had. "We knock out the guards and leave through this entrance" explained Rubie and pointed with her stick to the weakest area of the camp.

Rubie further explained her plan but got silent when she noticed the blonde girl from before slowly approach us, "The commander wants to you" said the blonde girl and pointed towards Harry.

Harry looked in shock at us all before he walked off with the blonde-haired girl.

We all looked at each other like all the plans we made had been busted, but we weren't too sure either.

"Hey Cassie, can we talk?" asked Jaden from behind me and tapped me on the shoulder, "Yeah, sure?" I replied and walked off with Jaden.

"How's everything going?" he asked and walked with his arms crossed, clearly trying to toughen up in front of the other kids so they wouldn't do something stupid. "You know fear doesn't help these kids right?" I asked and chuckled as I forced his hands from each other, "Sorry!" he said as he also started chuckling.

"What happened to you? After the day I was taken?" asked Jaden as we sat down by one of the benched someone had made, just outside the walls and just by the almost clear barrier I clearly hadn't seen before.

"A lot" I replied and gave him an assuring smirk before he manipulated the shadows around us like he did before. "I never went to the facility" said Jaden as he manipulated the shadows around us to tell his story, "I was taken in a large truck with other changelings" Jaden continued.

I remember feeling the road being extremely bumpy, like we were driving down a road where we weren't supposed to go. I was stuck together with some extremely young kids, maybe around eight or nine-year-old boys and girls? They were scared, so everytime we drove past some sunlight I would always make some shadow figures with my hands, since I was given a collar and couldn't use my abilities.

They enjoyed it, I made them smile and even giggle a bit. Though it all stopped when our truck got attacked by someone, the ground started shacking sending the truck rolling down the roadside. The kids I got to laugh were now crying and screaming, horrified for what was going to happen to them, but that was when we got rescued.

"Recued by who?" I asked as I looked at the image he was showing me on the ground, made from shadows.

Crystal busted open the door and helped us all out from the truck, removing our collars and informed us that we were safe. She showed us the way to her small camp that she and a few others had made from some boulders and rocks one of the guys could control. It didn't take long before we all made a group, rescuing other kids and teens from Prune's grip.

"I can see why you are so respected by the others" I said as I watched the sun set, not even realizing that I had completely forgotten about Rubie and the others.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that I'm pretty liked here" said Jaden as I abruptly jilted of my seat and I started walking back towards my tents, "Hey! Where are you going?" asked Jaden and ran after me.

"I'm sorry, I just have to talk with someone!" I yelled back and watched as he stopped and walked away.

I ran back to our tents, where Harry had come back from his talk with Crystal. "Hey!" I uttered as I was about to sit down, when Harry said that he wanted to talk with me.

Harry grabbed my wrist and dragged me to a little more private area, where we sat down to talk.

"I just wanted to say that, I really care a lot about you" said Harry and grabbed my hand, slowly lowering the temperature in his hands, while I turned warmer. "See, we're almost perfect for each other!" said Harry as steam started forming from our hands, "Yeah, I guess?" I replied and got control over my temperature again as I stuck my hands down my front pockets.

"What did you and Crystal talk about?" I asked to tried not to give in to the silence around, "Oh, we talked about the camp and how everything works" replied Harry and looked at the sunset's magical colors.

"Ok, let's go back to Rubie and the others" I said as I grabbed Harry's wrist and walked with him back to the others.

I looked at Rubie and James and they looked back at me as we all secretly packed our bags once again, making sure nobody saw what we did. We later in the evening went inside to our tents after having a large dinner with Crystal and some of her best guards.

Janice, Rubie and I in one of the tents, while Harry, James and Sam were in the other one.

We all sat and waited for everything in the camp to go quiet and that was when we went into action! We quietly zipped open our tents and lurked by the other tents, trying not to get any attention towards us. We had given Sam a mask, to make sure that he kept his mouth shut.

We kept looking around, making sure we weren't drawing to much attention towards us. "What do we do?" asked James as we were right by the exit, where the guards hardly moved or spoke.

"Give me a toy" mumbled little Sam from Rubie's back, "What?" asked James as he leaned in closer to hear what Sam had to say. "Give me a toy!" mumbled Sam again, just louder this time.

James quickly grabbed Sam's small backpack and opened it to find a small robot, just like the one he had back in the prison. James grabbed a hold of its arm and threw the toy in the middle of the road where the soldiers could easily see it.

Sam reached his arm out and took control of the little robot toy, making it walk and say the usual phrases like "I'll destroy you!" and "Fire! Fire! Fire!". The soldiers were amused by the little robot, even chuckling as they got close to it.

Sam gave out a large grunt before the robot exploded in the soldiers faces and Rubie ran out from hiding and punched them in their faces, "Now!" she yelled and ran for the exit. James grabbed a hold of Sam and ran, while Janice grabbed James's backpack and ran.

"Come on Harry, let's go" I said as I reached my hand out for him to grab, but it wasn't Harry that I talked to... His eyes shifted and got up from the ground and started yelling and screaming. "Crystal they're getting away!" and grabbed my wrist and didn't want to let me go.

"Let me go!" I yell and tried to get loose from his grip, "Harry! Let go!" I yelled and made my blood boil, feeling his grip slightly loosen up. "HARRY, LET GO!" I yelled for the last time and finally burned him enough to let me go, but only to see Jaden standing close by in shock as he hadn't seen what I could do with my abilities.

"Goodbye" I said as I saluted and fired up the ground between us and left the camp.