HOWLER

Chapter 24: Tell me or I'll punch you

"Somethiing wrong?" I say as I unplug my earphones from my ears and stuff them into my sweater's pocket. Daniel hasn't said a single thing since we left the Lunar Blue pack, that's very unusually for someone who can start a conversation about anything.

He slightly looks at me before shaking his head and returns his glance back to his feet. We're walking the two "prisioners" back to Dusk Hunt, but I still can't swallow the fact that Steven would just let them die. 'For someone who talks about freedom, I must say Steven is faced with a very scary opponent', I think to myself.

My hands grip tightly as I realize I can't do anything to help these men, if Steven was powerless against that Alpha then I worthless.

"Hey! I mean...Please don't break my wrist..you're holding me to tight", the guy I was holding yelped.

"Oh ...sorry", I say loosening my grip. Curler looks in my direction before continuing to walk his way. The Lunar Blue's forest is sure eery to look at, almost like sleepy hollow's background. The trees look rigid, old and green from the moss growing on the side of the trees. The floor is muck and slimy, 'They sure don't want visitors'.

My mind soon returns to the subject of the two men who were going to execute and my teeth clench, "Owww! Ma'am you really are going to break my wrists!", he shouts but his screams are muffled by the black cloth he has over his face.

"Alice. I think I should hold onto him so you don't keep hurting him", Daniel whispers. I wanted to say "Fuck off" but something held me back. Maybe it's the fact Curler is here and he would probably judge but I don't really give a damn anyways. Then I realize it was because Daniel was so odd that I didn't want to hurt him, for once.

I slowly step to the side as he gently grabs the man's hands. We walk a few more minutes before I see the bright golden leaves on the top of the trees.

When we walked past the trees, Curler clears his throat.

"Would both of you...ummm... Prisoners? Like us to remove the cuffs and cloth?", he sounds more like he was asking a question. Then the man in front of Curler voice's cracks,"S-sir, why would it matter? We are going to die anyways...", his voice tears me up inside, it is full of sorrow and hopelessness I felt like socking someone.

I took the time to look at both of them, they remind me of bums. They wear ripped up clothing with holes, decolored clothes mostly a nasty shade of plain tan and green. They smell like mud, dirty and sweat. One of them has a laceration wound on his neck.

"You're not going to die", Curler said sighing and smiling slightly. 'Wait.....What!', I felt a smiling forming but immediately covered it up with a frown, 'This bitch fucking lied to me..HE LIED TO ME!!!'.

While I was having a mental breakdown, who only Daniel notice as he stared down at me because I was breathing heavily, the two "prisoners" look in the direction of Curler. Curler slowly and carefully removes the cuffs off of his prisoner, "What is your name?", he asks caringly.

"B-brian Hudson..Sir", the man replied as he rubs the cuffs, his wrist are red and bleeding, I look over to see that our guy had the same injury. 'Where did they get those from? The cuffs? Oh! They must be made out of silver', I think to myself.

Curler looks at Daniel and nods, guessing he means to do the same as he was. Daniel removes the cuff and the guy again rubs his wrists.

Curler removes the cover gently as Daniel mimics his movements.

Curler then turns to the guy in front of us as Daniel stands next to me.

"And your name is?", he asks.

"Jeff Watson..sir", he looks down.

"Enough of this sir nonsense", he says, "But like I said, don't worry about the execution. Steven has a plan to properly give you both a chance to redeem yourselves without Lunar Blue finding out you are in fact not dead", he says proudly.

My eyebrows furrow in suspicion when he says these words, 'Why did you have to freaking lie to us! What you don't think we can hold in a secret BALDY!', I rant in my head as I dig my nails into my palms. But I turn to Daniel to see him still acting all moopy. Daniel is someone who just won't stop talking especially if it's about anime or some game he is obsessed with. I would expect him to shout "hurray" or "yay" to the fact these men are no longer going to die.

He was very disturbed earlier yet he still acts like a totally geek, this isn't him.

'I'll have to ask Austry to use her superpowers to force the information out of him. She will probably know what's wrong'.

Jeff and Brian talk to Curler as they chuckle, 'Well they're getting along nicely'.

"So what will happen?", Jeff asks in a low voice, almost inaudible.

"Steven will properly inform you Daniel and Alice were unaware of Steven's plan just in case Azarel tried to interrogate any information out of them", he furrows his eyebrows as he clenches his teeth.

When Curler said this, Daniel looks away from Curler and immediately to the ground as his walking pace slows down.

Daniel is still quiet as we get closer to Dusk Hunt. It's getting on my nerves that he refuses to tell me when it so obvious something is wrong!

His hands are in his short's pockets, he is dragging his feet and slouching so much it looks like it hurts.

'What's wrong?', I ask trying not to sound annoyed but in fact I was on my last nerves, I was going to punch him if he didn't tell me.

'Nothing. Honestly', his voice sounds normal enough through the mind link, slightly happy but bored.

'Are you sure..? You look terrible, emo almost', I replied looking into the sky.

'Yeah. No problems at all', he says.

'Guess they don't trust us enough to keep a secret', I roll my eyes as we walk shortly behind Curler, Jeff and Brian.

His chuckles erupted in real life before I see a small frown but it disappear quickly, 'Yeah. I guess so'.

Our mind link becomes silent again as we walk through the forest. We can hear Curler's thick and heavy chuckles as the three continue to talk as we walked behind them.

"Alice..", Daniel whispers quietly, avoiding my glance as I look up at him. We were walking slowly for my usual pace but I honestly had no intentions to make it early to the camp, it was training day today and I was feeling lazy today.

"Yeah"?", I replied.

"Do you ever get a heavy feeling that something bad will happen?", he asks warily before looking into my eyes.

I push back my glasses as I think for a bit. His anxious face had this tired look as he ran his finger through his white fluffy hair.

"Of course", I pat his back, feeling my own back stiffen as I immediately felt uncomfortable. My mouth scrunches as I think about what to say. I open my mouth but no words come out as I shove my hands into my jean pockets.

"Don't let it stop you from enjoying your life though", I say looking up, "We're a family and you know that no matter how hard Steven may want Austry to be away from us, she will always find ways to join with us".

I look back to see some tears fall onto the ground but then see Daniel's arm quickly wipe them away as he smiles brightly at me.

"Race ya back to the camp", he runs past me.

'Yeah......right..I think no', I sigh and yawn. I start walking behind as I see the bushes shake from him running into them.