The Runaway

Chapter 39

All thirty-nine of the injected were dead. If one were to fly a drone above the scene, they would see bodies piled on each other, oozing in complete blackness.

Colette screamed in pain as the tar-like substance burned within her, tainting the remaining red in her veins.

"What's happening?" Aiden questioned, snapping back into reality. He dropped to the floor, realizing the consequences of his actions.

As Colette continued to squirm in her own pool of blood as Colton and Delsin ran to her side. The pool crept to their toes and what was once red now appeared black as charcoal. 

"Why isn't she healing?" Delsin cried in terror. He turned to Colton. "Get Phoebe."

Moments later, Phoebe arrived at the scene with a hoard of her own witches and warlocks. They all gazed at the blackened field with mesmerization. Phoebe grinned at the sight of the dead bodies until her eyes met Colette's twitching body. Annoyed, she stormed towards Aiden and clasped her fingers around his neck, lifting him slightly. 

"You caused this," she growled. He did nothing but grunted for air until she let him go. 

She spotted Delsin, Colton, Violet, Em, and Riley in the scenery and sighed. "Thank god everyone made it." Glancing at Colette again she muttered, "Well, most of you."

"What happened to her?" Delsin asked. His eyes stung in fear for the answer.

She looked down upon him in disappointment. "It's obvious. She's become an injected. Their  blood is running through her veins. She's lost all of her past abilities since their blood nullified my spell."

"You're saying their blood can turn others?" Colton interrupted briefly. "There's no way."

Everyone stared at Phoebe in dismay. She nodded towards her group of assistance. "Take Colette to our place. Thank you for your work today." They looked like a flock of ravens in their feathery cloaks when they bowed to her and then disassembled, carefully lifting Colette out the forest. Everyone watched their friend's dark blood splatter across the ground as she was carried out. Phoebe furrowed her brow and shook her head in frustration. "My question is why didn't they turn more people if they knew they could expand their posse?"

"Maybe they didn't want anymore people like them. They wanted to be special," Riley chimed in. 

"Or what if Victor didn't even know it was possible?" Delsin cut in, "Colette could have been an opportunity for him to test his theory."

Phoebe hushed them. "Whatever it is, they're all dead now so there's no way of knowing. Our next target is the Silvers. Stay focused on the mission." Colton began speaking but she cut him off with a wave of her hand. "We'll figure it out. For now rest up, you guys look terrible." She scanned each of them again and paused. "Where's Violet?"

Everyone's heads turned towards the van. The crossbow sat on the grass unarmed and no trace of Violet was left.

"We have to find her," Colton ordered hurriedly. 

Again, Phoebe stopped him. "No! We cannot waste anymore time. If she's gone, then good riddance. She never belonged with us anyway." She continued sternly, "You are to set this place on fire and incinerate all evidence before leaving. I'll look after Colette and will contact you guys soon." 

After her departure, everyone broke into distress.

"Where the hell is Violet?" Colton cried. He sprinted to Aiden with a forceful shove. "You dumb ass. This is your fault." Another shove. "Why can't you keep your head out of everyone's asses, huh?" Aiden's focus was stuck on Ace's body, ignoring Colton's remarks. Another shove. "Always having us pick up after your mess. Not everything's about you."

Em pushed Colton's hands off of Aiden. "Ace was one of us too." She took a huge breath. "He had every right to be angry."

Delsin was infuriated that his own sister had sided with Aiden. "Are you kidding me? Look at what he did to Colette. He should be the one who got stabbed. That fucking prick."

"He didn't do it, that was all Victor," Em argued.

"Well if he had been paying attention, none of this would of happened," Colton scowled.

Riley shouted, "Stop it!" She dropped besides Ace's figure and her voice broke. "I don't want to do this anymore." Seeing her dear friend's empty corpse drained all the color in her face. 

"Do what?" Colton asked. 

She nodded at the pile of dead bodies. "This." She sniffled and walked towards the van to grab bottles of gasoline. Throwing it at each member, she suggested, "Maybe the cure isn't real. Phoebe's scamming us." She tripped over blocks of wood and returned to Ace's body. The cap of her bottle flew off before she dumped all the contents onto her old best friend. "I'm sick of killing. Why don't we just quit this?" A sob escaped her as she threw a match at the body. "I'm done." 

Aiden caught a sight of the rising flames. He couldn't face it. Throwing his bottle at Em, he turned his back from the scene and wandered off. The rest of them stood in silence, watching the fire grow taller and taller. 

"We made it this far. We can't quit now," Colton mumbled to them. He unscrewed his cap and poured the gasoline on the remaining areas followed by the others.

The entire forest lit up with smoke. The greenery faded into a crisp brown and slowly burnt into black ashes. All hell had let loose but in an odd way, it was so beautiful.

In the back of the trunk, Violet couldn't see or speak. Her eyes were blindfolded with her mouth taped shut and limbs tied down. The last thing she recalled was watching Colette scream in pain as Phoebe arrived at the scene. Midway through Phoebe's speech, a pair of hands grabbed her from behind and pressed her mouth shut. Now she was in the back of a car going 75 mph to an unknown destination. 

Was she about to die? 

Violet could feel heart racing but deep down, she knew she was ready for whatever was about to unfold. She hated the term vampire, let alone being grouped in that category. It was inhumane what they did, so what was there left to lose? If she died, she wouldn't have to live with her new body and the rest of the group would have less to worry about. 

It will be okay.

Just as she thought this, the car screeched to a halt and her head hit the trunk's surface. Two doors from the front opened and slammed shut. The pit in her stomach deepened as she listened to the footsteps inching towards the back of the car. 

The trunk opened but she heard nothing. There was shuffling here and there until she felt several rough hands yank her out into the cold air. Her bottom plopped onto the wet cement with a thud and the blindfold was pulled off her head. It took a moment for her eyes to adjust in the dark but finally, she could see the two people clearly in front of her. She glared at them but said nothing as they stared blankly at her. 

Of course. She wanted to laugh maniacally but the duck tape prevented her from doing so. Strangely, she also wanted to burst into tears at the same time. Of course.

They untied her hands and legs and eventually ripped the tape off her lips. Her lips burned with excitement to speak.

"Finally, you caught up to me."