Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Revenge at Dawn Ari POV “I’m sorry Will.” Jeb said to Will sadly. “But you’ve been punished for not following your orders. We’ll be punished if we don’t follow ours.” He then looked at me, a look of guilt on his face, and said, “Do it.” “No please! Don’t please!” Will pleaded. I looked at Will’s dad. Could I do this? Should I be doing this? I knew in my heart this was wrong, that what I had just done was wrong. And yet, I found my hand moving swiftly across his throat. I let go of him, and he fell to the floor, next to his wife, dead. I felt sick. I had killed before, but that had been in the heat of battle, when it was their life or mine. This was different. This was execution. This was murder. I looked at my father, hoping he would say something that would comfort me in some way. But he didn’t look at me. He was staring a Will, curiously. I turned my head to see Will, holding his head, and on his knees, thrashing. His head was shaking, his face scrunched up and his eyes closed tight. He began screaming, almost roaring, his head shaking violently. “Dad? What’s he doing?” I asked, worried. “I don’t know.” He replied slowly. “But something tells me we need to leave.” “But he’s in the doorway, how are we-“ I began, but stopped as Will stopped thrashing and shouting. His head was hung back, his hands slumped down by his side, fists clenched, eyes closed, and kneeling. I saw his eyes open, and they moved slowly, looking at the ceiling. He looked to the side, surveying the room. Then his gaze fell on me. His eyes had turned extremely bloodshot, to the point they looked like black dots amongst a sea of blood. His eyes flicked to Jeb momentarily but otherwise stayed firmly fixed on me. “Dad...” I said slowly. “I know Ari. Just don’t make a sudden movement.” He replied calmly. Will, slowly stood up, his fists still clenched, still staring at me, breathing slowly, a dark intent in his eyes. “Now might be a good time to morph.” Jeb suggested. “Waaay ahead of you.” I replied, beginning to fully morph. I didn’t even notice the pain anymore. I was half way through the morph, when Will suddenly came at me with frightening speed. He ran across the room, faster than I’d ever seen anyone move. I instinctively ducked, but Will changed direction at the last moment, and struck my father in the temple with his fist, sending him to the ground. I went to hit him, but he grabbed me by the throat and lifted me high of the ground. I tried clawing at him, but he just batted my hands away quickly and forcefully. “You killed my parents...” he said in a voice a lot deeper and gravelly than his usual. “How do you think it’ll feel to lose one of yours?” he put his foot on my father’s head, who was just getting up, and pushed it into the blood soaked carpet. I couldn’t reply. The squeeze on my throat was too tight. I tried clawing and scratching at his hand, but it didn’t budge. “Will...” I heard my dad croak below me. “Will... Don’t do this. You don’t want to become a killer.” “Yes, I do.” He replied, not taking his eyes of me. “I really do.” “Okay. But your parents wouldn’t have wanted you to. They wouldn’t have wanted to do this.” “You don’t know that.” He replied.

“No, but you do.” Jeb retorted, spitting blood from the carpet out of his mouth. “Look at them Will. Look at them!” My vision was beginning to go now, my lungs were screaming for air. I saw Will’s eyes glance down to the bodies of his parents. His head twitched. His eyes closed, and his head shook for a moment, before he opened his eyes, which were now back to their usual white. He looked down at Jeb, and lifted his foot off his head. Jeb started to say “Thank you” but was cut out as Will kicked him in the face, knocking him out. I thought I heard his nose break too. Then he looked at me and said quietly “I’m not going to kill you. Because I’m not a murderer like you. Yet... And if we ever meet again, I’ll do it in a heart beat.” My vision had almost left me. I could feel my self slipping away. Will’s face contorted with hate, and he suddenly slammed my head against the wall behind me. Once. Twice. On the third, he dropped me, and I gasped for air, just as I slipped off into unconsciousness. But, luckily not death. Angel POV The next morning, we were camped out above the white cliffs of Dover in a small copse of trees. We had flown down relatively quickly, from London but we needed supplies, having left some of our stuff in London. We couldn’t go back for it without risk being spotted by The Erasers. By the time we had bought the stuff we needed, it was getting dark, and although it would take only a few minutes to fly across the Channel to France, we decided to rest up and get an early start in the morning. I woke up before the rest of the flock. I was having a really horrible dream. It was full of blood and murder, a really strange dream. Nothing like I had dreamt before. It wasn’t like a normal dream, just flashes and images. I wasn’t able to make out much of it. The sun still hadn’t risen, and I knew I wouldn’t get back to sleep after that nightmare, so rather than wait for the others to wake up, or eavesdrop on their dreams again, I decided to go for a walk along the cliff top. With the flock’s raptor vision, they could easily see me along the cliff if they woke up to find me gone. I peered out across the ocean as I walked. I could make out France from here easily, and I watched the first ferries of the day trundle across the Channel, towards Calais. The Sun was now beginning to rise now and I looked the other way to shield my eyes. As I did I saw something high in the sky off in the distance. I squinted, and could make out 2 figures, one significantly smaller than the other, both heading in our direction fast. “Will?” I said to myself ludicrously. But as I looked harder, and they came closer, I saw for definite, it was Will, and Emily, flying this way. Quickly I turned around and begin running back to the flock. I was in so much shock, I forgot to even fly. Luckily I hadn’t gone far and was back within two minutes. “Max!” I shouted as I ran into our campsite. Instantly, all five heads jerked up quickly, and alert. “Angel?” she said alertly. “What? What is it?” “It’s Will!” I said, pointing to the sky, about two thousand meters out to sea, where I last saw him. But as I looked he wasn’t there. The smaller figure of Emily hovering in the sky, but not Will. I scanned the sky quickly, and saw him, falling silently toward the ocean, and fast. “Max! He’s falling!” I shouted frantically. “I see him.” She hesitated for a moment before barking orders at Fang and Iggy. “Fang, Iggy come on! Iggy, South by South-West.” Iggy nodded, and then

Iggy and Max then did a run up to the cliff edge and flew out quickly towards Will, who was plummeting quickly. He had been about 3000 feet in the air, and had fallen about a third of that. I then realised Fang hadn’t moved. So had Nudge and Gazzy. “Fang! Quick! You’ve got to help him!” Nudge said, distressed. “No,” he retorted, looking at Nudge. “I don’t.” “Fang, you can’t just let him fall, he’s might die.” Gazzy urged him. Fang raised an eyebrow at him and said heartlessly “So? Rather him than me.” I looked at Fang gobsmacked, as did Gazzy and Nudge. “Fang!” Nudge pleaded. He just ignored her and sat down, watching Max and Iggy close in on Will, who was now half way to the surface of the sea. “Oh for Pete’s sake.” She sighed, and flew off the cliff the same way Iggy and Max had. We watched in silence as Max and Iggy caught Will about 50 feet above the ocean, and began to fly back. Nudge flew past them and went up to get Emily, who was still hovering there. I felt a small bit of pride, as I remembered I had been the one to teach her how to hover. When Max and Iggy landed, they laid Will down on the grass. He was muttering under his breath something unintelligible, and was extremely pale. They were closely followed by Nudge and Emily. Emily stood close too Nudge, staring at Will, concerned. “What’s wrong with him?” Gazzy asked. “Is he ill?” Max put the back of her hand on his forehead. “He hasn’t got a fever or anything.” She replied. “Angel, can you see what’s going on in there?” she said, looking at me. I nodded and closed my eyes, and pushed into his head. “NO!” Will shouted suddenly, trying to sit up. “Don’t! Can’t! Too bad, too horrible.” “It’s okay Will, just relax.” Max urged, holding him down. “No! Don’t make me remember!” he moaned. “What are you doing?” Fang piped in. “What do you mean? There’s something wrong with him, I want to find out what it is, so we can help him.” Max frowned. “Why? He doesn’t deserve our help. He betrayed us, we sent him on his way.” Fang said standing up. “Suddenly he re-appears, and after all that you want to help him?” “Angel, sweetie, do it, find out what’s wrong.” Max said, ignoring Fang. “But Max, Fang said-“ I began. “Angel, just do it!” she shouted at me, frustrated, trying to hold Will down. “Oh, forget this then.” Fang said, turning around, picking something up, and walking away. Max groaned and then looked at me, “Angel please, I’m sorry for shouting, but just do it, please?” I reluctantly nodded, and closed my eyes, and pushed my mind into Will’s. Instantly I saw horrible things. The same things I saw in my dream, but in more detail. Will pleading with Ari and Jeb, Ari brutally executing his parents, Will lashing out, losing control of his ability. Then I saw him washing his parent’s blood off himself, packing his and Emily’s things, waking her up, and flying away, led to Dover by some unexplainable image in his mind, before fainting of the exhaustion in mid flight. I pulled out, as I saw the cycle beginning to go back to the start. I stumbled back, and held my head, willing the images to leave it. “Angel? Are you okay?” I heard Max ask. “What did you see?”

“I’m fine.” I told her. “But Will isn’t. His parents are dead. Ari killed them, right in front of him.” Fang POV I was the branches of the trees, about 25 feet away from where the flock were camped out. I had a clear, yet camouflaged view of them from here. If they happened to look in my direction, they wouldn’t see anything. It was nearing dawn of the day after Will came back. He had woken up during the day, but not said much. I had been watching him all day, waiting for the right time. Will and been tossing and turning all night, and now, he looked to have given up hope of getting to sleep. He stood up, and Max, who was on watch said quietly, “Will? You okay?” “Yeah, I just can’t sleep. I’m going to stretch my legs.” He replied. “You want me to come with?” she asked him. “No, I think I’d be better if I was alone.” He told her, seemingly looking straight at me for a second. I froze, but he walked off into the woods, passing not far bye me. I waited till he was a good distance away from the flock, before taking off. I glided silently over the trees and saw him in a field on the far side of the woods, facing away from me. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the Swiss army knife I had taken earlier. I flicked open the sharpest knife on it, and flew over to him as fast as I could. I barrelled him to the ground, and flipped him onto his front, and put the knife to his throat. He looked at me, for a few seconds, and then chuckled, seemingly unafraid. I frowned, “Why are you laughing?” “I’ve been waiting for this all night, but you never showed. I figured you for the killing stealthily while they slept type, if any.” He smiled. “But I got tired of waiting, thought I would get this over with.” “You knew I was going to do this?” I asked, holding the knife closely to his neck, using my other arm to hold him down. “Well, I wasn’t positive, but after what you said to me last time we spoke, and when I saw you camped out in the trees, I had a pretty good idea.” He replied arrogantly. “And you’re not afraid? You’re not scared?” I said with malice. “Not really. At the moment, I’d kind of welcome death. Go on. Do it. I want you to.” He pushed, looking me straight in the eyes, moving his head in towards the blade. “I’d have done it myself already, if I didn’t have Emily to think about. I’m all she’s got left. Having someone else do it would be much easier.” He stared at me and me at him. We remained like that for a few seconds, before his head fell back onto the grass. “But, you’re not going to kill me.” He sighed. “And why’d you say that?” I hissed, pushing the knife into his throat, drawing blood. “Two reasons. The first, if you were going to do it, you’d have done it as soon as you jumped me, rather than having a conversation with me first.” He mocked. “The second...” his smile faded, and he went serious. “Well, I know what it’s like to have revenge in the grasp of your hands, to be within seconds of ending their life. I know how much willpower and strength it takes to do it. I didn’t have it.” He sighed and said quietly, “I don’t think you have it either.” This was it. If I was going to do it, it was now. I tensed my arm, ready to make the fatal cut. My mind wanted to do it, and was telling my body to do it. But my body didn’t move. I froze up. I couldn’t do it. Will raised an eyebrow at me and said, “That’s what I thought.”

“Now, if you don’t mind...” He pushed me up and off me, and stood up. I stared at him hatefully. “I have some mourning to do.” He turned and walked off, up the slope inland. I could see the light of the sun beginning to shine over it. I just stood there, knife still in hand, watching him walk away. I thought I’d be easy. I had killed before. But they had been Erasers, in the heat of battle. I couldn’t kill someone out of cold blood, or even mercy. Will stopped suddenly as he got to the top of the hill, and I heard him mutter “Shit...” under his breath. “What?” I called to him. “Did you forget something?” “Err.” He said, not looking at me. “You might want to see this.” I sensed something urgent in his voice, but not wanting to go near him in case it was some kind of trick; I took off into the air, and rose upwards, so I could see over the slope. What I saw almost made me stop flapping. About 20 helicopters, and a few hundred Flyboys, all coming right towards us. About a mile east of them, another group of what looked like Erasers, also flying straight towards us. Not to mention the Erasers on foot, running this way hurriedly. I looked down at Will, who gazed up at me. “Yep...” I said to him. “Shit.”