Shadowstruck

Chapter 7 Part 1

Noah and Cooper had disappeared into the woods a few minutes ago, right after that howl rang out.

It gave April a horrible feeling, almost like she was falling, and she didn't know why. She did know that she wanted to go check on them, but from the angry voices and mutters coming from the trees, it probably wasn't the best idea.

Which left all of them pretty concerned when Noah and Cooper came back, the first one with worry etched into his face and the second on gripping his blood-soaked hand.

Koko leaned backwards, almost falling off the log. "Whoa. Are you guys okay?"

Noah sidestepped and let Cooper walk over to the girl. "He got hit. Which is technically a good thing."

Sean raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

Noah shuffled over and sat down, head in his hands. "I feel incredibly stupid for not noticing earlier, because now it's painstakingly obvious." He looked up. "Remember two weeks ago where April and Cooper both got hit?"

"Yeah?" Sean glanced over at his brother, who was wincing as Koko fixed his hand. "What about it?"

"I think he also got hit with some type of memory block." He shrugged. "He said he could see what he was doing but had no control."

"Since when?"

Cooper looked up. "Two weeks."

Sean glanced back and forth between the pair, thinking. "Do we know who it was? That was controlling you, or whatever."

Cooper shut his eyes. "I - sort of? Everything's kinda foggy."

"I think I might know." All eyes shot to Noah, who avoided eye contact. "The smoke or...whatever it was, I could see through a gap in it." Silence. "There was someone standing there, I think they were a teenager, I couldn't really tell, but they had red, glowing eyes."

April took in Noah's words. "Do you think they're behind what happened to the castle?"

"They're the most likely candidate, yeah. I don't know who else could."

Quietness washed over all six of them.

Cooper stood up, checking his hand. Whatever Koko had done, it had worked, and worked well. The blood had stopped and there was only a faint half-healed cut there instead. "Well, then why don't we go to the castle and check?"

A smile erupted across Noah's face and he started to laugh. "Are you joking?"

He kept a straight face. "Nope."

"So you're saying that we walk into town - "

"Sneak, actually."

" - that we sneak into town, get inside the castle, and, what, just - fight them?"

Cooper nodded.

"That - " Noah laughed again. "That's not a plan. That's an idea, and a bad one at that."

"It's also the only one we have." Cooper crossed his arms. "You saying you got a better one?"

Noah shook his head. "No, but - "

"We have to go back sometime." Cooper bit his lip. "We don't know if people are being hurt or not."

Noah thought about it. "That's fair. But if we're gonna do this..." He glanced around at everyone. All five nodded. "...then we need a legit plan." Cooper opened his mouth and Noah put a hand up, smirking. "'Sneak into town and fight', as much as I hate to admit it, is not a good plan."

"Goddamn it."