The Demon Inheritance

TWENTY-FIVE

So there were four of us left.

Oliver helped me up, and Dillan rushed to my side, his hand around Nahara's. The two flanked me, helping me push through the wreckage. We had to get out before the engine caught fire, and before anyone arrived to help the survivors. I limped towards the gaping hole towards the front where the actually truck part had went back and gashed through the box from the impact. Oliver fought not to fall to his knees, fought to make the muscles in his legs work for me. I could tell by the way he shook. Dillan and Nahara both seemed to be okay, except for some gashes in their flesh that didn't seem to be too fatal. Together, we pushed through until we got to the part connecting the truck and the cargo. We jumped down singularly from there. First Dillan, then me, than Nahara. Although I was in no condition to do so, I caught Oliver when he forced the jump so he wouldn't hurt himself any worse than he had.

I set him back on the ground gently, and when I looked up at him, he had tears in his single showing blue eye. "Did you hurt yourself? What's wrong?" I came off a tad irritable. This time, I regretted it.

Oliver shook his head stiffly. "I failed... You got hurt..."

"Fango and Delta are in more danger than me right now. And Mary, too." I limped to his side so he could lean on me, putting an arm around his shoulder. "We have to go..."

I looked up. Chills shook my body when I saw Dillan. He had given in and was on his knees, choking on sobs. Tears ran hot down his face, and his purple eyes were open wide. There was a sort of weakness in seeing a strong person collapse on themselves that was impossible to fight again. I turned my head the other way, clutching Oliver even more surely.

"Do you think... that..." Dillan sniffed deeply and choked on a few more sobs before wiping his eyes. "Fango and Delta got hurt?"

Nahara tugged him up, then kissed his cheek. "We need to go. Quickly!"

Oliver and I limped against each other, forcing ourselves to make a quick escape of the wreckage. None of us stopped, even after we had passed the grass. Even after we had passed the road. We never stopped, until we entered the cemetery. Then we collapsed, and cried all we wanted.

***

The parade started too near to the cemetery to even be respectful.

I shook in place, hunched back against the other side of one of the cross tombstones. My eyes burned, and I saw as a droplet of salty wetness fell onto the smooth palm of my hand. Why am I crying? I took a deep breath, dipping my head enough to hide my face with a curtain of curly blonde hair. I wiped my blurry eyes with my thumbs, trying to drown out the sound of Dillan sobbing with the sounds of the parade nearby.

I barely knew Delta and Fango... And I know they are okay... Why am I crying? Is it because... Dillan's crying..? I took a shaky breath, knotting my fingers into the grass.

I felt a hand touch my shoulder with a much different force than Oliver had. I jumped at the strange feeling, just to realize that it was Nahara. I glanced up at her, lifting my thin eyebrows in surprise. "What do you want?"

"Do you always have to be such a hard-ass?" the she-angel smiled gingerly, then turned to the tombstone that I leaned up against. Her fingernails went over the chipping stone, and her eyes narrowed solemnly. "What exactly are you fighting for?"

"You should be comforting Dillan."

"He will be taken care off. Oliver is with him, and the guy is like a teddy bear... But we need to talk, little sis." She stopped for a minute, and I turned to look over her. Her wide, icy blue eyes skipped over the grave the way a stone did over a river. Her fingers slipped over the stone, and my emotions flared, causing the breeze to lift her brown below-the-waist-length hair. "Listen, Emma... What are you fighting for?"