shadows - lashton

Chapter 30

*Luke's P.O.V*

The wind swept through my hair and my boots thudded against the ground when I ran. I looked briefly to my side, seeing Calum, Michael and Ashton sprinting next to me, their faces showing a mixture of fear, anger, and determination as we headed towards the vampire we were planning on destroying.

It wasn't going to be easy. That's if we even stood a chance, which seemed fairly unlikely right now.

I shot them a "let's do this" look before turning back to Marcellus, who chuckled darkly and rubbed his hands together before letting them fall to his sides.

Unsurprisingly, Calum reached the head vampire first, and dived straight in despite Michael's attempt to restrain him. But Marcellus brushed him off like he was a grain of sand on his clothes, and Calum went flying backwards, hitting Michael on his way to the dirty ground.

Ashton immediately stopped running, as did I, the defence having been so strong and sudden. We watched as Michael pulled Calum quickly to his feet, a few groans escaping his lips on the way up.

If Calum couldn't even cause the smallest amount of damage, then how were we supposed to win this?

Marcellus stood there patiently waiting for another attempted attack, but instead of doing so I grabbed my friends' arms and pulled them into a huddle. After a minute or so of awkward silence besides heavy breathing, I sighed and began to talk to them on how we had to go about defeating Marcellus. Well, I tried to at least.

"We have to do this logically, we'll never get anywhere with this if we just attack him straight on. There's four of us, if me and Ashton take him from behind and Michael and Calum from in front, I doubt he'll be able to take all four of us on at once if we have him surrounded. Understood?"

They all nodded, except for Ashton.

"Ashton?" I asked him, my tone much softer and kinder this time, "what's wrong?

He closed his eyes briefly before he opened them again, his sad hazel ones meeting with mine. "What if we can't do it? What if he wins? What will happen, Luke? You're the only one that truly understands what's going on, the only one who ever read that diary. Please don't lie, I want the truth."

Before responding, I glanced quickly at Calum and Michael, who nodded in agreement.

But, I didn't understand, I was confused just like them. I tried to gather my thoughts, think of a way of explaining things to them, but my mind was a mess. Certain words and memories kept appearing and then dissapearing again, not staying long enough for me to interpret or understand them.

However there was one that stayed.

What seemed like forever ago, I stood in an abandoned house with Jake, having been lead there by him after seeking information on Victor Humberg. I held an ancient scroll in my hands, the memory so strong I could almost feel the roughness of the paper against my skin. The words that were carefully written out kept circling around in my head, the things I hadn't and still couldn't quite get my head around.

'To risk everything for those that he loves.'

That was the last visible line, the actual last line having been ripped off.

And that lost last line was the line that would answer all of Ashton's questions.

I considered for a moment how to tell that to Ashton, but before I had the chance to open my mouth, Marcellus spoke.

"And to die for what is right."

I frowned and pulled away from the circle. "What?"

"That's the last line of the scroll," he said bluntly, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a small strip of old paper, releasing it from his grip as the wind swept it towards me. I grabbed it as soon as it was in reach, my eyes falling to the words that did indeed say what he had told me.