Into The Tainted Waters

Fleeting Memories

The door flies open, revealing a circular room with a spiraling staircase in the middle leading up to the top of the tower. The guards in the room notice us as we enter, picking up and forming their weapons. "Did we interrupt, we can come back another time" Nate says to the guards. "Arrrrrrrgh" one of them screams, rushing towards us with a hammer of ice. A sharp bang let's out from Charlyse's gun, planting a bullet in his head.

Viktoria and Nate take the left side of the room, slashing and stabbing through the guards. Taylor and Charlyse take the right, riddling the men with bullets. "Well, that was quicker than i expected" I say walking to the base of the stairs. "Come on, we have some work to do" i quip, cracking my knuckles. We walk up the staircase to a trapdoor leading to the top. I open it and climb in to find the the room empty. All of a sudden i feel a hard thump on the back of my head, knocking me to the ground. "What the hell" i say groggily, falling to the wall. "Too slow" i hear Viktoria say, parrying the blow thrown at her by the man that hit me.

The blow made time seem to slow to a crawl, becoming fuzzy in vision, slowly blacking out. My mind's still conscious, thinking about the events that lead to us coming here. I'm laying in my bed, sleeping peacefully, when i hear a knock on my door. "Who is it" i mumble out. "It's me, Nate sent me to wake you up" the knocker says, the voice belonged to Viktoria. "Five more minutes" i grumble as i turn to face the wall. "Better be decent" she said, opening the door. "Come on Jack, it's nine in the morning" she says. "Let me sleep" i say. Viktoria yanks the sheets off of me. "Hey!" i exclaim "Those are mine" i say while turning around to face her.

She was wearing a black T-shirt with jeans and no shoes. "Come, you need to get up, the others want to train" she says standing over me. "Five more minutes and i'll get up" i tell her, rolling back around to face the wall. "Alright, five minutes" she says with a sigh "Any longer and i'll get you up a different way" she said sing songly. Ten minutes pass and she's back. "So, you gonna get up" she asks. "Five more minutes" i say. "It's been ten, come on" she says. "Yea, gimme five more" i say closing my eyes again. She sighs and grabs something that sounded metallic. "Alright, you asked for it" she says, dumping a bucket of cold water on me. "Ahhhhhh!" i yell jumping up. "Hey you're up now" she says smiling. "Oh i'm gonna get you" i say standing there petrified. "Gotta catch me first" she says running out of the room.

I begin to chase her through the corridor sprinting to catch up to her when she turns a corner leading me to slide on the now wet floor, colliding with the wall. "So not fair" i say to myself. I give chase again turning into the banquet hall, catching her and giving a nice big hug to share in the bounty of water she had just deposited on me. "Oh?" i hear coming from Nate sitting in a chair at the table. I put Viktoria down and face Nate "What" i ask. "What's uh, what's going on there" he asks in a sly voice with a smirk and eyebrow raised. "She poured water on me so i was being generous and shared" i say to him. "Uhuh" Nate says unconvinced "Yea just admit that you just wanted to hug a girl, cuz we all know you haven't gotten anything in forever". "Why you little-" i say grabbing him by the collar. "Hey, i just tell it how it is, don't get mad at me" he says laughing.

I put him down as Taylor and Charlyse enter the room with a letter in Taylor's hand. "What's that" Viktoria asks. "It's a note from Thor and Bacchus saying they went to a meeting with some other Sentinels" Taylor says. "I was wondering where they went" Nate says leaning back in his chair. "Where's Caoimhe, i haven't seen her since five in the afternoon yesterday" i add. "I don't know, i haven't seen her today" Taylor quips. "She's probably out killing some bad guys or blowing up butterflies or something" Nate says putting his feet up on the table. "You're just mad she keeps kicking your ass in training" Charlyse jests. "Irrelevant" Nate says quickly.

"Well, i'm hungry, is breakfast ready yet?" i ask Taylor, who had just come out of the kitchen. "Yeah, Ramsay made pancakes" she says. "Ah good" i say walking into the kitchen. I pick up some pancakes and put it on a plate when i hear a knocking on the front door. "What, who could be here, no one knows where we are right" Taylor says in the banquet hall. "Yea, i ordered some socks from amazon" Nate says sarcastically standing up. Charlyse wacks him in the back of the head. "Alright alright, jeez, it was just a joke" he says in defense. Taylor walks up to the door and opens to reveal a well dressed man. "Can i help you" Taylor asks the man. "Yes, i'm looking for a bathroom, can you help me" he asks.

Taylor turns her back to the man for a split second to mouth "Help" to the others when he takes out a knife and presses it against her neck, holding her hostage. "Alright, nobody moves and the girl stays alive" he yells. I stay in the kitchen thinking of a plan. "Only three people here, i expected more" he says looking at the others. "What do you want" Charlyse asks with a scared tone at the sight of her fiance with a knife at her neck. "I want to tell you that we're holding your sentinel girl hostage, and i'll be taking this one too" he says tightening his grip on Taylor. "Yea, i don't think so" Nate says from behind the man before stabbing him in the back of his neck.

Charlyse runs to embrace Taylor while i come out of the kitchen. "Hostage, was he talking about Caoimhe?" i ask. "Probably" Nate says searching the body. "What are you looking for" Viktoria asks. "A cell phone or note or something" he says "Anything that'll provide us a lead". "Quite the detective" i say jokingly. "I try" Nate says. He pulls out a phone and turns it on to find a Google maps route open leading to here. "God damn, does Google know everything?" Nate says inquisitively. "Here, i found where he came from" Nate says showing me the phone. "Alright, gear up and get ready guys, we're going to Carson City" i say before the memory fades.