The Colour of Your Aura (Enoch O'Connor)

Chapter 14

"What's going on?" I asked, stepping forward. My eyes flickered between the two Jake's and Emma looked torn. She wasn't sure which one to shoot and Enoch looked as if he was at the point where he would gladly shoot both of them.

"I came in here and they were just standing like that. I can't tell which one is which. You're related to him, you decide," Emma thrust the crossbow at me and I took it unwillingly, one hundred percent sure that I was holding it the wrong way.

"I haven't seen him since we didn't even know how to walk, how the hell am I supposed to recognise which is Fake Jake?" I hissed, thrusting the crossbow back at her. It was a game of back and forth, saying reason why we thought the other should decide.

"You know him better."

"You're his cousin!"

"You spent more time with him!"

"You're his blood!"

"You fancy him."

"I do not!"

"Do too!"

"Do not!"

"Would you two just be quiet and concentrate!" One of the Jake's exploded, glaring viciously at the two of us. He stood up straight and his hands were held in front of him, imitating the perfect posture.

The other Jake slouched over, his eyes flickering between the four of us in fear. His orange aura flickered dimly around himself and I gasped as I never realised how it was possible for me to be so stupid.

I looked back at Fake Jake and I concentrated on finding his aura. Instead of the bright orange aura that usually wavered around Jake's form, his aura was light grey and it was so dim that it was barely visible.

I was about to lift the crossbow and shoot him on the spot but movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I tilted my head to the side slightly as I watched an invisible creature, outlined by a charcoal grey aura, stumble out from the shadows.

I caught the real Jake's eye and nodded discretely at him, inclining my head a little bit to the Hollowgast that was steadily making its way towards him. His eyes widened as he saw it and he gulped in fear, before he plastered a fake smile on his face and turned to Fake Jake.

"I can prove that I'm the real Jake," Emma and Enoch leant forward slightly to listen to his argument. He raised an eyebrow towards the Hollow and took a step back as to stay out of its way. "I can see the monsters."

Fake Jake paled as he felt a tentacle snake around his neck and before he could open his mouth to scream, the Hollow picked him up off the ground and spun him around.

I had never seen my Mother and Father get their eyes taken. All I knew was that one minute the Hollow had them in its slimy grasp, and the next they were lying on the floor, lifeless, with their eyes gouged out.

I watched as two more tentacles came out of the Hollow's mouth and buried themselves in Barron's skull. He thrashed around like a fish on the end of a wire, shifting back to his true state in mid-air.

But, suddenly, he just stopped moving. The Hollow dropped his limp corpse to the ground and it turned towards us. Jake levelled the crossbow at it and with one bolt to the centre of the forehead, the Hollow collapsed to the ground beside its former leader.

"I bloody hate those things," I shuddered and Enoch put his arm around my waist, pulling me back from the corpses. Jake's eyes flickered between his arm and then to me and I smiled weakly at him, not up for another fight. "Please not now. I'm too tired." I groaned, throwing my head back.