Caine & Diana || ˢᵗºʳʸ ºf ᵘˢ

CHAPTER FOUR - 257 hours, 59 minutes

DIANA CAME TO HIM that morning, alone. Caine wasn't really a good one with the sense of romance, which made him generally awkward around girls. But never like this. Diana was different.

She was better.

And Caine was probably in love with her. Not that he'd admit it.

Diana had come and asked what they were up to. What he was up to. Caine had acted all innocent - he hadn't wanted her to know that he was...

What was he?

Charming? Yeah.

A sociopath? Possibly.

Evil? Maybe....

Anyway, he had lied about who he was, and she found out. So they didn't talk.

Not for a while, for sure.

So Caine was left, his hands rubbing his head tiredly, leaning over his desk - actually, the principles office.

He considered himself leader of Coates. There was no way Drake could stand up to him - not yet.

As he sat there, thinking, he wondered whether Bug had got to Perdido beach.

He wanted a status update. But no, that creep would take his time.

Caine's fingers thrummed on the desk, and after a while, he reached for the school's year book and examined the students, recognising most now that he was leader. He let his feet rest on the desk as he read through, sighing tiredly.

When Bug returned with info, he'd go up and take over. Because why not?

Bored, Caine searched through slips of paper, eventually discovering a map of Perdido Beach. His eyes lit with interest. If he knew Coates would be desperate soon, then of course this town would be having trouble sooner or later. They had no one to help them.

But Caine knew who could.

He left the room in search for Bug, a sly grin on his face.

***

Bug wasn't scared. He was fascinated. The dazzling green light was worth looking at, but unfortunately, he couldn't stay long.

After watching a heroic incident, he discovered a number of things.

1) This kid named 'Sam' had weird powerful green fire powers that shot from his hands; 2) people looked up to him; 3) he was nice, and seemed like a hero - a leader; 4) Caine would not like that.

Luckily, Sam was out of town with that pretty blonde and two other guys with an angry bully crew after them (currently).

So Bug had to return about now.

He stumbled up the highway, hungry even though he'd stolen a packet of crisps from a random abandoned house. As he came across Coates, he turned visible and shoved open the double doors. Caine, surprisingly, was waiting for him.

Bug felt a twist of fear knot in his stomach.

"Hello, Bug." Caine said, grinning cruelly.

He trembled. This couldn't be good.

***

Diana was almost over being angry. After all, she rather liked Caine. He was sweet - but.. there was obviously something bad about him. Not that that wasn't was alluring.

But...would he choose her or his power?

Tempting choice.

Diana laughed and watched as Caine organised kids into BMV's, barking orders like, "Hey, hurry it up!" or "No! Do not wreck that car!"

Drake prowled around the kids who were practising for the big entrance at Perdido Beach, snarling a threat in case they got tired. Plenty of BMV's were parked around and kids desperately attempted to drive.

One guy named Mallet caught Diana's attention. He hid behind a car and was hugging his knees. Frowning, she ducked down beside him. "What's up?"

"I don't want to do this... Caine is going to ruin the kids' lives over there. He'll make this strange world worse!" he choked, with fearful eyes.

"Caine is trying to help and guide us." Diana countered, but the words came out with uncertainty. Was he really?

Or was he just using us to take over the messed up, adult-less world?

Mallet whimpered and backed away before she could stop him.

"Hey, who's behind there? Get to work."

Diana froze at Drakes order. He stormed around the car and grinned when he noticed her...alone.

"Oh, it's the witch."

"Shut up, Drake." she snarked, managing to stop the wobble of her voice.

His eyes narrowed and turned icy cold. He held a wicked gun in his hands, and he looked very ready to pull the trigger.

"I won't kill you yet," Drake snarled in a way he probably thought was soothing.

Diana blinked, secretly suspicious, "Who said you would?"

"Don't get sassy with me," he snapped, "I mean, I'm going to save you for later."

Diana frowned, "Save me for- ?"

"Later. Instead of killing you like BANG," he motioned a gun with his hands and pulled the invisible trigger at his head, "I'll make you suffer."

"Good luck with that."

He glowered at her, obviously not pleased at her lack of fear.

"You'll see someday, Diana. You'll see..."

As he stormed away, yelling orders, Diana crossed her heart and prayed to God, if he was still out there.

She prayed for him to get her out of this new world of terror.

Of course, God didn't deign to answer.