Saviours

Skip this chapter. Seriously. You don't want to find out what happened.

Let's skip forward a bit. We'll start around when we were walking up to the farm, with Arex laughing at me.

'Could you shut up! It's like you want them to find us.' I said, shaking my head.

'Sorry.' He stopped laughing. 'But seriously, most people pay attention to when others tell you not to leave the house.'

'Yeah, and most people don't get attacked by headless horsemen. How was I to know they existed?'

He shrugged. 'Intuition? Or the fact that's exactly what the people inside said.

'I thought they were joking!' Anyway, back to seriousness. 'Are we there yet?'

Arex smiled. 'No idea. I never pay attention to geography. Or any lesson, for tha...' His voice trailed off when we saw the scene in front of us, just over the hill we were on the top of.

Tina and Carter were standing there. Only, Tina wasn't trying to get away. And Carter wasn't trying to hurt her. Tina was smiling about something, as was Carter. But it wasn't Carter's evil smile. He seemed..... Happy. Like, genuinely happy. Like something was good, instead of something being dangerous. Carter was up to something. We needed to get Tina away from him.

Arex and I ran down the hill, Arex with his spear in one hand and me with my gun in my right. Carter turned around, and spotted us. He stopped smiling. His picked up his sword from the ground next to him. How did we not notice he was armed? Tina wasn't though. She was standing there, smiling once again, this time even larger than before. Had Carter brainwashed her or something?

Arex looked over his shoulder at me. We were almost there. 'I'll take Carter. You get Tina out of here.'

I nodded. 'Be careful.'

We were at the gate when I said that. We pushed right through it, and we split. Carter was already getting prepared for battle, and Tina ran off to the other side of the paddock. I ran after her.

'Tina! What are you doing? We're here to rescue you!'

She laughed coldly. 'Funny. That's what Carter said to you, and you ignored him. Why can't you see you're in the wrong? Leave the Saviours. All they want to do is kill. At least Carter has morals.'

'Mass murderers have morals? Carter's tricking you, Tina. He's a demon.'

She laughed again. 'What does that even mean? Demon doesn't mean evil. It means 'not human'. There are evil demons, and evil humans. There are good ones, like Carter.'

'He's a murderer!'

'He's not! Stop lying! Ditch the Saviours. Come with us. I'm not lying when I say that Carter doesn't want us dead.' She stopped moving. We'd come in a big circle, and obviously she was tired. Tina had never been enthusiastic about running. Or any sport, for that matter.

Arex's fight was not going well. Carter was spinning and slicing and stabbing, and Arex was just trying to parry the shots. He had heaps of scratches all over his body, wounds from the blade. Carter was unblemished.

Carter looked at Tina mid-fight. She nodded. What, they could read minds now or something? Before I could finish contemplating this, I was knocked over by a horse. Yes, you heard that correctly. A horse ran through the paddock, and knocked me over. It's a farm, isn't it? Then the horse disappeared. Okay, apparently the farmer breeds phantom horses or something. When I got back up, Tina was next to Carter. And he was holding his sword to her throat.

'One step, and she dies.' He said. Now the evil grin turns up.

Tina was smiling, as if she knew something we didn't. Only, I knew what she was thinking. She was thinking that Carter wouldn't hurt her, that she was safe. I think that's why I did what I did. Because I didn't want her to be wrong. I wanted to believe that there was still good in the world.

So I stepped forward.

Look, can I not say what happened next? Because you've probably worked it out. Carter ran, carrying Christina's dead body, and I collapsed onto the ground. I couldn't run. Not after this.

Arex looked at me. 'It's not your fault. We'll bring him down, I promise.'

I promise. Two words, more trustworthy compared to trust me. And yet, I still couldn't believe him. Because it was. Tina was dead. And it was because of me.

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So, um wow. That was a complex chapter, and one I've been planning for ages. So, ta-da. It's nearly over, and then, the sequal. Yes, it's a series. Anyway, if you have any questions about what's happened in this book, please ask. I would love to hear some feedback.

Ciao from the master of cliffhangers.

-@Marethyu2

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