Star Crossed Liars ✔

Chapter Thirty Three

The ground beneath me seemed to swallow my feet with every step I took. The packhouse was slowly coming into my vision, though the anxious feeling lingering on my nerves seemed to only intensify. The closer I got, the more I could see two figures leaning against the door.

Ivy and Lia.

They seemed to have the same shell-shocked expression that I was most likely wearing on my face. I didn't slow down as I ran up the stairs, stopping abruptly as I finally reached the doorway. I took a moment, bending down on my knees to take a short break, allowing oxygen to fill up my lungs.

"Nope, no time for a break, we need to get into the bunker." Ivy said, leaning down and trapping onto my arm, yanking me forward and back into motion.

I nodded my head, my mouth still open and face still red. The only thing I could hear was my own breathing and the poundering of our footsteps against the wooden floor. Lia stopped at an ajared door, pushing it open fully. It led down onto a large set of stairs, the room dark excluding the almost medieval looking lamps.

"Go down," She gestured, "I need to lock the door,"

We took a few steps down, waiting as Lia locked up the door and then started doing up padlocks, along with about ten other ancient forms of locks.  She gave us a small nod when she was finished, and then we began to run again. As we flew down the stairs, I could feel the underlying fear that I would fall as I rushed down them, obviously going much faster than I was supposed to.

When I finally reached the bottom, going from creaking wood stairs to a hard, concert platform. There was another door, this one much larger. Ivy flew forward and started ferociously rapping at it, mumbling a few words through a tiny keyhole.

She then stood back, just as the locks in the door started to twist and turn before coming undone.

An elderly, unrecognisable woman stood there, her eyes widened, "Come inside, we were starting to get anxious... quickly!"

The three of us got through the door, hearing it slam behind us the moment Lia got through. Then, the slow ticks of the locks reconnecting.

I looked around the room.

A tall, completely cemented room, accompanied by plain walls and a chilling frost. As Orion had said, the room was filled with the elderly and young children. The oldest would have been 11, the youngest being only a newborn, lying peacefully in the oldest's arms. My heart ached. I knew that they had the pups training extremely young, but how young for them to be able to fight at around twelve, an entire year before they would even be shifting. How many innocent children died during these sort of things. Though, I suppose, It was how they were raised, to fight and defend. I just had to hope that they stayed near and adult at all times. I didn't let myself dwell on it too long.

There wasn't too many elderly, probably less then ten, and all in wheelchairs or having some form of walking aid next to them, their faces decorated by sagging wrinkles and greying hair. Their heads went down in respect,

"Luna Althea, Beta Magnolia, Gamma Ivy, thank the goddess you're hear," The lady that had opened the door said. She was easily the youngest adult in the room, maybe in her sixties. I wouldn't know why she wasn't fighting, though I had to assume that if their wasn't a good reason, it was to make sure that we were able to be sorted out.

I bowed my head, "Please, Althea is fine. I assume that everyone here is fine?"

She nodded her head eagerly, "We managed to get everyone in here rather quickly. The pups aren't holding out great, but we were hoping that you three youngsters could help look after them?"