Don't You Come Crying When They're Rippin' Out Your Throats (Sequel to AsHollow)

4 - Laughing Dead...

Screams. Screams coming from every angle. 

Figures were standing all around the man in the middle as he tugged at his brown hair - all jeering and throwing various objects at him. Even if he tried to lift his hand to defend himself they would go through them, as though he'd been doing nothing in the first place, and then hit his body.

Words couldn't be made from the mess that was all around, not one voice standing out from the rest of them. Everything blurred into one. There was something he was meant to do. Someone he was meant to protect. But for the life of him he couldn't remember. Small darts of images appeared in front of him to give him clues as to who it was that he was meant to protect.

Brown eyes... Dressed all in black but with a blue blazer... Slight stubble... Black eye make up... Hair just covering his forehead and a little bit of his eyes... Ebony hair...

Laurence. 

I jumped awake again and looked round the room - nothing had changed since I last saw it. Laurence was still wrapped up in his duvet on his side, the arm he wasn't lying on in a sling and bandages going all round his torso. He hadn't woken up for a while now, but when I glanced at my watch I saw that only five hours had passed since we got him back into his bed... I only fell asleep twenty minutes ago. Drew and Barrone were downstairs. Kier was asleep just across the room on a large arm chair, wrapped up in a blanket after freaking out from the moment Laurence finally hit his bed till the moment his exhaustion took over and that was him out for the count. No one had the heart to wake him up when Laurence hadn't woken up either.

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. I should have just agreed with Laurence when he told us his suspicions about The Cardinal being back, and not just dismissed them so quickly. Now that I thought about it, there wasn't actually that many people in Grandomina that would send human hearts to people, so why did I question it?! It seemed really stupid when I looked back on it now.

Another sigh escaped my lips as I stood up and stretched, looking at Laurence before deciding that he wouldn't wake up for a while and it would give me some time to speak to some people and go for a little walk.

I walked out and downstairs, motioning for a few of the guards that were on duty and telling them as I walked past to gather a bunch of them and meet me outside. After that I didn't waste much more time and stalked out to the courtyard of the palace, sitting on the wall opposite the large patch of grass that was lined up with various training equipment for the palace guards and soldiers.

About five minutes later thirty palace guards were around, speaking between each other and asking if they knew what was going on - the answer always being that they didn't. A few more moments passed before I stood up and approached them all.

"Alright - listen up," Every single one of them turned their attention to me and stood up straighter. "By now the news about what happened to Laurence has more than likely reached you all and you'll have probably have your suspicions about who did it. I'm telling you right now that it was The Cardinal, and we all have our fights to pick with that bastard, but I need everyone to work harder than you ever have before. No one has the chance to get distracted this time, not while he's alive and looking for revenge all over again.

"We lost people in the fight with him: friends, brothers, sisters, parents, neighbours and even children... There's not a lot that can be done now I'm afraid... And now that I've said that out loud I realise how harsh and cold that sounds, but right now we have to defend and protect those that are alive and breathing right now. The city needs defending so that something like that never happens again, and the next time he tries to take over the city and more than likely tries to kill Laurence and everyone else again.