House of Forbiddens [COMPLETE NOVEL]

12: Killed by the Ringtone

Audrey

I kept my eyes fixed on the tracks etching the world around me, making a route through the woods. I moved quickly, almost running, eager to knee these monsters in the groin as revenge, and Ian and Riley followed steadily until dawn was just breaking, and Riley said, "Audrey, you're bleeding."

I'd noticed that once I'd left the house. In fact, by now my entire arm felt like lead, but I wouldn't let something like this dissuade me from my hunt, so, of course, I denied it. "No I'm not."

"Yes, you are, it's obvious." He gripped my arm around the bicep where my poison-infected cut ran from my shoulder to my elbow, and I couldn't help but shriek in pain before biting my tongue to mute the sound as he forced me to a stop. "Look at this!" He pulled his hand away and it was dripping with the dark, crimson liquid. "You're whole arm is soaked with blood! Let's stop and get a little rest, at least bandage you up, and Ian can make the antidote."

"I'm fine," I almost growled. How could they want us to stop when there was something this serious going on?

Resolutely, Riley picked up his phone and Ian took over:

"Come on, Audrey, what would Jack want you to do?"

Without hesitation, I stomped on his toe (with only half as much power as I could muster, seeing as he's a friend). "How dare you bring my love life into this you incompetent paradoxical adolescent male!"

He jumped around on one leg, nurturing his injured foot, and I felt no sympathy. It was bad enough that I was worried about Christine, but at least there was something I could do about that. The entire night I had been pushing the thought of Jack going through the poison, too, out of my head. It scares me to death to think that, depending on where Apollo is right now, Jack could be in much worse pain than me, and there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, which scares me even more. Why must the most frightening things in life always be the things we can never control?

Riley looked up and shook his head. "I tune out the rest of the world for a few seconds to focus on grammar, and you two decide to go all UFC on each other."

I was tempted to shout He started it! but instead I brushed it aside and asked, "So who were you texting?"

"Kaden," he said, "I was telling them about you. Now, sit down, and we'll-"

"No!" I cut him off, "We need to keep going for Christine, we've wasted enough time already."

"Audrey, you will be much more help to Christine in good shape."

I sighed and, grudgingly, sat down.

Riley smiled. "Good choice. Ian, go get the antidote."

Ian disappeared into the surrounding woods, seeming happy to get away from me (understandably), and Riley knelt down to slowly peel off my jacket.

I guess this would be a good time to explain that the antidote could only be made from a flower that grew in the underworld, and was hard to find even than. Thankfully we had Ian who could grow that stuff, and turn it into the antidote.

"Oh, you should probably turn on your phone," he said.

"It is on... it's just on silent."

He laughed a little. "Well, then turn on the volume."

"Fine." I pulled out my phone with my good hand and turned up the volume to the maximum level as he began cutting away my sleeve. It seemed I'd be destined to a day of submission by a scrawny roman dude. Piffle.

He started trying to clean the blood off, but it was useless with all of the new blood replacing it constantly.

Ian appeared from within the trees at the edge of our line of sight, and I wondered why he was back so quickly. It took me a moment to realize that there was two forms standing behind him, still within the shadows of the grey night surrounding us.

I sprung up, but almost immediately doubled over from pain. Nope, moving quickly was not the best thing to do with Cyronics acting up.

The two figures moved closer, I could hear their footsteps, but I didn't look up to see them. "Turn around, slowly," a woman's voice addressed all of us.

I didn't remember anything after that. I woke up suspended in a net trap, tangled amongst the limbs of my fellow unconscious friends. I felt like a balloon had replaced my brain and was slowly being blown up, pushing my skull outward. On the bright side, my poison seemed to be clearing up a bit.

"Finally, the last one's up," the woman said, and I realized she was referencing to me.

Before us were two middle aged people sitting on a log. They had matching wedding rings, tacky clothes that screamed I'm an aging parent! and an assortment of weapons decorating them (thought they certainly were not just for decoration). Everything but our clothes were piled on the ground next to them.

"Who even are you guys?" Riley asked. It took me a short blonde moment to realize that his voice sounded morphed because I was squishing his face. I tried to move, but that only made the situation worse, so I eventually gave up.

She stood and paced around us, as if contemplating what to tell us. "People who cause discord in the world must pay Eris a due. And we did something very, very bad. Our due was an eternity of servitude to her."

Riley opened his mouth as if he were about to talk, but a loud sound stopped him from doing so. In fact, it vibrated the entire pile of our belongings.

The man thrust his hand into it and withdrew my phone. It said that there was a call from Kaden. He moved to answer it, but the woman rasped, "Don't answer it, you idiot!" His hand froze in midair.

They waited for the ringtone to stop, and then listened to the voicemail. "Hey, Audrey, this is Kaden. Call me when you get the chance, Christine and I are coming to meet y'all, wherever y'all are. Hope you're okay."

She looked up at us with a snarl. "So, the girl's still alive..." she turned to the man and snapped, "Set a trap, and we'll wait for them to walk right into it."

By: Elizabeth Pallan