Return ↠ Argent [2]

33. Follow Your Arrow

"Woah, what do you mean I'm stuck here?" I breathe, holding my hands out. I wasn't sure if I heard her right. "There has to be a way back. My friends-"

"They can fight this battle without you," she says, her tone still emotionless. It made me furious how calm she was about this. "You were lucky enough to escape death the first time around, Corey. But a second time? We can't allow it."

I clench my fists. "Take me back!"

She's still calm. "We can't do that-"

The next thing I know, I'm punching her. My hand is smacking against her cheekbone as her head flies to the side, but it didn't look normal. It looked as if I had just punched a dummy. She stays still for a moment before slowly bringing her head back to where it was, staring at me as if I hadn't done anything. Her eyes were so emotionless, it gave me the chills.

"You seem to forget that I'm not an actual person," she says, her eyes distant. "Pain won't hurt me."

I fling my wrist, my knuckles still hurting from the punch. "I don't care what you are...I have to go back!"

She readjusts her folded hands. "You need to know the rules."

"Why in the hell do I need to know the rules if I can't go back?" I counteract, wanting to see some type of confusion or panic in her eyes, but there was nothing.

Jennifer stays perfectly still. "You need to come to terms with why you're still here. You're a weapon Corey; you are capable of more worse things than you can imagine. You being here protects your friends; don't you want that?"

"The only way I can protect them is when I'm there," I snap back, taking a step away from her as I place my hands on top of my head. I start to pace out of frustration, thinking of a way to come back to them. To come back to Allison.

Jennifer watches me closely. "Let me show you."

My eyes flick back up to her. "Show me what?"

"Show you why you're here," she nods, lifting her chin as she outstretches her arm for me to take. "Only if you want to understand."

Of course I wanted to understand. I wanted to know why my conscious was trying to tell me what to do and how to follow the rules. I wanted to see what I was capable of. The only thing I was scared of was losing my motivation to get out of here. I worried that whatever she was going to show me would change my thoughts about leaving.

I weighed the pros and cons of the situation before taking a step towards her, my heart racing out of control. My small hand reaches out and grabs her own before I'm plunged into darkness again, something I was growing used to by now. Visions dance in my head before one of them sticks, feeling as if I was watching a movie, only Jennifer was right there with me.

"What is this?" I breathe. We were standing in the chemistry room, watching Cora, Lydia, Stiles, and I play with a ouija board. I recognized the situation; this was when Deaton was taken and we needed to find him before he was sacrificed. I wasn't sure why this had anything to do with me being here.

"Remember this?" Jennifer says to me, watching the four of us with close eyes as I take a step towards us. "This is just one of the many situations that I was talking about."

Many situations.

"What are you talking about?" I ask, looking back at her as I step up in front of the table, watching Stiles hand me a pair of keys—Deaton's keys.

Jennifer stays still. "A banshee's scream enables a seer to see farther into the future at a direct time, but you already knew that. What you didn't know was that every time you looked at the future, you altered the time line."