EUNOIA ━ diego hargreeves

10

CHAPTER TEN

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"WE SHOULD'VE taken him to the hospital," Allison said as Freya held open the door, allowing them to carry in an almost unconscious Five. He'd passed out in Harold's house, and they quickly discovered that he had a wound in his side, one big enough to make him pass out onto the floor.

"A kid with a shrapnel wound might raise some questions," Five mumbled, his voice barely audible.

"Yeah, well, so does the murder shrine in Harold Jenkins' attic."

Freya hurriedly cleared some space on the couch as they laid the smaller boy down onto it, and he grunted in pain. She stepped back with a slight furrow in her eyebrows, her expression darkening with concern.

"He's still losing a lot of blood," Freya realized, gently pulling his shirt up, revealing his stomach, which was soaked with dark red.

"So what do we do?"

"We've gotta get the shrapnel out," Diego informed, straightening up. His entire body grew tense as he stared at something in the distance, and Freya followed his gaze to see Grace strutting about the house. Her jaw literally dropped, and Diego quickly went to trail after the woman he called Mom.

"Diego?" Allison called after him in confusion, but Freya shook her head, silently gesturing to let him go.

"I can handle this," she announced, glancing back down to Five whose eyes were squeezed shut in pain. "I'll be able to pull out the shrapnel by using the air currents, so we don't actually have to get our hands dirty, but I can't guarantee it won't hurt. Do you want something to bite on?"

"Just do it," came Five's reply.

Allison backed away from the couch as Freya took a deep breath. She raised one of her hands into the air, almost directly above his wound. The leaves on the plant set in the far corner of the room began to rustle as Freya's concentration became more intense. Clenching her jaw, Freya used the wind to yank out the shrapnel in his stomach. Five's loud groans of pain filled the room, but the item flew into her outstretched palm, and she caught it.

"Holy shit," she mused, a grin appearing on her face. "I actually did it."

Freya leaned against the door frame that led to Five's bedroom. Diego was stood next to her, watching Grace was patch him up. "You did good today," Diego muttered, and if she weren't so close to him she wouldn't have heard it.

Stunned, Freya turned to look at him.

"Did you just...compliment me?"

He waved his hand, scoffing. "No."

Smiling, she lightly punched his shoulder. "You did! You complimented me!"

"No, no. No I didn't. I don't give compliments."

"Well, news flash, Princess, you just did."

Diego rolled his eyes as Allison approached them. "I don't think Nancy Drew was ever this annoying."

"There was no answer at Vanya's place," Allison responded, ignoring the scowl Freya was shooting at Diego as she crossed her arms over her chest. She lowered her voice to a whisper. "And, the receptionist at her music school said she was a no-show for her lessons today."

"Vanya missed a lesson?" Freya repeated, shaking her head. She'd never been the closest to Vanya, but there was one thing she knew about her: She loved that violin. "Something is definitely wrong."

Freya caught a frown on Diego's lips, before his expression went back to being blank, and he nodded. The two girls shared a look, before Allison reached out to grab his arm, stopping him from walking away. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Diego shrugged them off, but he met Freya's narrowed gaze, and sighed. His eyes flickered back in the direction of Five's room. "I don't know. It's just so surreal seeing her. I just wanna tell her that I'm sorry—" He awkwardly cut himself off, his eyes widening as if he just revealed some dark secret, before he turned his head so he was no longer looking at either of them. "We don't have enough time. We've gotta go."

"I don't know, Diego. Five is laying unconscious. We need him."

"She's right," Freya agreed. "We all died last time without him. There's no point in trying anything if he's not here with us."

"I'm thinking I should go back to see Claire—"

"You can't run from this, Allison. That's what started this whole mess in the first place." He paused, "Luther was right."

Allison glanced back at him, wide eyed. "I didn't think I'd ever hear you say those words."

Diego chuckled. "Yeah, well. We gotta stick together."

Allison looked between the two, before nodding her head. "Okay. Where do we start?"

"There is no other addresses on the file," Diego began. "But there is another relation listed. Jenkin's grandmother. She lived near Jackpine road."

"You think he took her there?" Freya questioned, following after Diego as he walked down the stairs.

"It's a good enough place to start."

The three of them quickly made their way out of the house, Freya took the lead as she began to walk over in the direction of Diego's car, until a strong hand gripped her arm, and pulled her the opposite way. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Nope," he said, gesturing to the two cop cars creeping up on the street. "This way."

"But the car is over there," she argued, confused.

He was still gripping her arm. "Trust me, okay?"

Her brows shot up in suspicion. "What the hell did you do?"

"Nothing! Okay? Nothing."

"You're the shittiest liar I've ever met, actually."

"Freya, I didn't-"

"Diego, if you're being chased by cops, you clearly did something."

"What do they think you did?" Allison asked.

"Murder," he answered.

"Oh great," Freya commented. The cops's sirens suddenly blared behind them, making the trip freeze in their tracks. "Perfect."

"We're not stopping," he said in her ear. Freya had to swallow in order to ignore the weird tingling feeling in her stomach. "We need to split up. I'm in charge. Vanya needs you, Allison." More sirens blared in the distance, and cop cars appeared from around the corners as Allison began to jog away. "Freya!" He whisper-yelled. "Go!"

Reluctantly, she nodded, but grabbed his hand and squeezed it reassuringly, before she quickly followed after Allison. She crouched behind a tree, watching the scene unfold in front of her. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but Diego raised his arm in surrender as the cops gathered around him. Diego was led into a cop car, and she moved to another tree as the vehicle sped away into the distance.

"Shit," Freya muttered. "So much for sticking together."

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authors note:

rewritten as of 2/6/22