Chapter 24

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Crystal's POV

"I can explain..." Andy looks to the floor.

"You better." Brandon grunts.

Andy sighs and steps back. He opens the door without turning around and just stares at Brandon the entire time.

I stare into the room with Brandon. What happened?

Leaning in, I see that the window is painted black. There's a handprint in the center.

"Johnny..." Brandon whispers. He brushes past Andy and enters the room. He touches the window. "He did this, d-didn't he?"

"That's what we think. We didn't want you to see, you just seemed so happy about being a guardian again." Andy says.

Brandon doesn't say anything.

I walk to Andy's side and wrap my arm around his. "Is there anything we can do?" I say quietly.

"There's only one t-thing we can do. End him for good." Brandon sighs.

~~~~~

After several minutes of sitting on the bed brainstorming on how to defeat this bastard, I feel Andy tense up beside me.

"What? What happened?" I say, worried.

"Brandon, the attack. The girl. I...I've been thinking this for a while now - I haven't told anyone. But I think it may possibly be connected." He faces me. "You hadn't joined us at that time. You wouldn't know about this." Andy sighs. "But basically, about six months ago the Scarecrows attacked. Hundreds of people were killed and injured. There were at least five hundred Scarecrows with guns, bombs and swords." He stops.

"And?" I whisper.

"And none of us can remember why they attacked. None of the leaders. Hell, we couldn't even remember the attack. We only know the information that was given to us by the Runaways. The first thing I remembered after waking up that morning was having cuts and bruises all over my face. I saw dead bodies everywhere and crying Runaways. I had woken up the rest of the leaders, and they were as confused as I was."

Brandon nods. "It was f-fucking weird, dude."

"Dave found Meghan first, and she told us everything she saw. There was a campfire that night, Meghan was roasting marshmallows. A chant echoed through the forest. It got closer and closer, and then Scarecrows showed up one by one. They killed anyone in their way. Meghan pushed one, saying that they couldn't go past the door. The Scarecrow was obviously stronger. He pushed her away and stared her dead in the eye. It chanted the words that she heard in the forest, 'give us the girl. Give us the girl."

"What girl..." I utter.

"I don't know. Some say it was a girl named Claire, but most of them didn't even know who Claire was. When that Scarecrow entered the underground building on our base camp, thirty minutes later he came out with a girl in his arms. All of the Scarecrows stopped what they were doing and followed the him, like nothing happened." Andy sighs. "We didn't even have enough information to ask the IRH to change base camps. The leaders didn't even believe it at first, until we came to the conclusion that the Scarecrow drugged us so we couldn't remember what happened - or who Claire was, apparently."

"Did you ever find out, though? who Claire was?"

"Nope. I don't even know why she's so important. Must've been at least important enough for us to keep it a secret from all of the Runaways."

Brandon nods. "So... W-what're you thinking?"

Andy hesitates. "I think we need to find this girl, and find out why she's so important that even the Scarecrows needed her."

~~~~~

Writing is hard. (´・_・')
-E

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