The Rogues

35- When the Alarm Sounds

Celeste

"Somethings not right." I said, studying the inches of steel barbed gate that mounted over my head.

"What do you mean it's not right? We've checked the border a hundred times already Cel." Lani flicked her finger on the steel, and it rang with a clunk.

Dominic would think it looks funny. I shook my head, Stop! Why are you thinking about him?

I had never thought of Dominic before, at least not constantly. Not like This.

Ever since that night in the woods, the night I thought I lost him, he was all that was on my mind, and I hated it. I really thought he was gone that night, and I had so much to say to him, so much to say that I couldn't because I was too shaken up to open my damn mouth and speak. Since that night, I'd started to see him differently, and I loathed it. I loathed that when he spoke to me my chest tingled, and when he lifted up his shirt my cheeks flushed. He was my best friend, It almost felt as if I were breaking a law feeling like this. My whole life I had never perceived him this way, nor any boy.

I was convinced boys were not something I held interested in. But now? Now...I was confused. very confused. But most of all, I was angry. I cursed myself over and over, but the thought of him wouldn't leave my mind.

It's only because he almost died on you. Nothing more.

I pressed my finger to my lip, scanning the fence up and down impatiently. Everything was there, just something seemed off. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on. "Who designed the gates?" I pondered, my gaze still high above my head.

"Kyler did I think." said Lani

"Oh, well maybe it's just in my head." Kyler was an excellent engineer, him making a mistake while preparing his sketches was a rare thing. The gates just didn't seem right. The edges of them were stuck together in an odd way, and the metal intertwined in parts it shouldn't. Ky's just being artsy with his designs.

It was as if I spoke my thoughts out loud, Kylers voice sung in the distance. I turned my head, and he and a little boy latched to his side were bolting towards us. I curled my brows, narrowing my eyes to make sure I wasn't hallucinating from the sun beating on my face. I've never seen Kyler look so frantic. What had happened?

"Is that Kyler?" Lani tilted her head, "And?"

I recognized as they grew closer, that the boy was the curly haired one who consoled me at the courtyard. " Beckett, his name is I think."

What were they doing? And why were they running?

"Celeste!" Kyler reached me, his voice rung in a panic. He was doused in sweat, his breath tired and heavy. His long beige trench coat was tattered with dirt, and above the temples of his forehead, laid gauge of dried blood. Beckett beside him, was also covered in dirt, his mouth hung open, swallowing gulps of air, eyes wide with his back as stiff as a trooper.

I touched my fingers to the blood on Kyler's face, he cowered back. My heart pumped, a sudden strain of nerves flooding through me. "Kyler, what the hell happened?"

My eyes wandered to Beckett, he was trembling, holding tightly to Kylers hand, his eyes swollen with tears, which made me all the more worried.

"Celeste we don't have much time." Kyler turned his troubled eyes to me. I shook my head and held to his shoulders, "I-I don't understand? What happened?"

"Dominic." He said, his voice lingering in an eerie way that sent a chill down my spine.

"What about Dominic?" My heart surged into trepidation. I squeezed onto Kylers shoulder tighter, his gaze fixed on the gate behind me. He opened his mouth to speak, and his words came out in a stutter I couldn't understand. I gave his arms a shake, he broke his muse and blinked his eyes dazedly.