Reversal (Camren/Norminah)

Chapter 53: To Turn Darkness Into Light, Turn Evil to Good

LIII.

I'm angry too. I muttered silently, addressing the elegant force of nature that had so graciously shared its power with me. Trust me, you have no idea.

She may have looked terribly crippled, but I quickly discovered that Lauren still possessed a far superior strength and stamina when compared to the rest of us. I took the liberty of leading the group back towards the outskirts of the town, the prospect of getting our retrieved teammate to safety the only thing on my mind.

The edge of the foggy expanse came into view, and I came to a slow stop, turning around quickly to face the others.

"Bring Lauren home." I demanded. "I'll handle everything here."

"Camila, we're not leaving you." Shawn countered breathlessly as Lauren's eyes grew wide with fear at his side. "We got what we came for, let's leave the rest for another day."

"There isn't going to be another day." I grabbed my knife, separating the blades and lighting them both from handle to tip. "I came here for a reason, and I'm not leaving until I get what I want."

"Camila..." Dinah took a step forward, just narrowly missing a large crack in the cement. "We're not going to let you do this by yourself."

"I need to!" I cut her off with just as much vigour, letting my gaze rest on Lauren. "I have something to prove now."

The girl just looked away.

"We'll split up." Normani said, her voice tense. "Shawn, you and Ally take Lauren and those bags back to the underground and get her patched up. Dinah, the two of us will go with Camila." She looked at me, her eyes challenging as if she was looking for me to counter her proposition. "I've got a vendetta with this place as well. I can remember being muzzled and stuck with needles more times than I can count."

Looking from her to Ally, I saw that the smaller girl had fire painted over the expression on her face. She was nodding, albeit more shy and shrunk back than Normani, it was a good affirmation. As the other three turned away, I met Lauren's eyes for only a split second to see that she was watching me, clearly hesitant while being uttered soft words of persuasion from Shawn.

We split, and I moved with the girls back to the heart of Centralia. It was eerily quiet, the only sound coming from the the orchestra mother nature had made of it's wind and trees.

"That fire that's burning underneath." I mumbled, turning my body towards my teammates. "What if we could find a way to get the heat to amplify and spread so the ground caves in. It's supposed to happen one day anyway, what if we just sped up the process?"

Normani met my gaze. "How would we amplify the heat?"

Dinah was quiet, standing a number of feet away and looking down at the steamy crack in the cement. "Dinah Jane, what are you thinking?" I asked, taking a single step towards her.

"Just thinking." The girl shrugged. "How much heat do you think we're going to need?"

Parting my lips to reply, I was cut short by a dark voice vibrating from somewhere in the trees.

"Don't bother."

Lucy made her appearance once again, her dark hair fallen from it's tight confines and now spilling over her shoulders. One of her arms was coated in a fog of darkness, her other featured a closed fist. Looking just behind her, my throat tightened at the sight of dozens upon dozens of slow, lumbering creatures, both female and male that were all once human.

"I'm not afraid to kill you if I have to." I told her, moving forward to stand between her army and my friends. The lightning coating my weapons blazed brighter as I spoke.