Five: Out of the Pit (Five #2) (16 page)

“Where do you think they are?” Halli asked. “Should we head back to the house?”

I folded my arms around my knees and laid my head on them. The thought of walking another step made me want to cry. Except, I was too tired to cry.

I heard a group of people exit the restaurant behind me. A girl laughed flirtatiously. I raised my head.

“What should we do now, girls?” Alec’s voice drifted to my ears.

I turned toward the sound.

My heart stopped. Alec and Mariah stood hand in hand in the middle of the sidewalk, but that isn’t what made the blood in my veins turn to ice. My lungs ceased to work and the pain of being unable to breathe spread throughout my chest to my head until all ability to think, to move, to
exist
, just stopped.

Johnathan walked out of the restaurant behind Alec, with a bleached blonde girl in tight jeans and an even tighter sweater—hanging onto his arm like she owned him. He dipped his head down to listen as she whispered in his ear. He smiled even as he shook his head and his cheeks flushed red. Time slowed as she went up on her tiptoes, put her hand on his opposite cheek, and kissed him. She kissed him. She aimed for his mouth but mostly missed because of the angle of his head.

But, she’d
kissed
him. And, time ceased to exist. My vision blurred all around Johnathan and the harlot until I could only see the two of them as if at the end of a dark tunnel; surrounded by darkness, the only light shining directly down on them.

I tore my eyes away from the awful scene playing out before me. I bowed my head and tried to breathe through the sharp pain that wrapped around my chest. A barrage of tears sprang to my eyes and there was nothing left inside me to dam the flood. My legs wouldn’t respond to my brain’s plea to move—to get away from there. I didn’t want him to see me. I just wanted to be anywhere but there.

A breath hitched in my throat as I tried to stifle a sob. I clutched at my chest as I stood, wobbling, and took a step backward. Halli grabbed my arm to steady me.

“Paige?” Alec saw us.

I couldn’t speak. My throat constricted and the pressure in my chest threatened to suffocate me. I shook my head and took a step away from them.

“Paige, wait!” Johnathan pleaded. I tried to walk away. My feet wouldn’t obey. I couldn’t make my muscles work without any oxygen getting to them.

“Johnny, who’s that?” the blonde girl asked. “You know her?”

“Yeah. Stay here, ‘kay?”

He stepped up next to me and whispered, “This isn’t what you think. She’s just a friend of Mariah’s.”

I cringed and pulled my arm away as he tried to touch me. I turned to flee, but again, my exhausted legs betrayed me.

“Paige, look at me.”

I refused. He stepped in front of me and lifted my chin. “What happened to you? Are you okay?” He brushed the tangled hair from my face. I jerked away from his touch, causing a wave of dizziness that threatened to knock me out.

Mariah whispered to Alec, “I thought Paige was blind?”

“She was. I’ll explain later.”

Alec joined us. “Halli, what happened to your eye? What the heck did you two get into?”

Halli looked at me, anger and pity all mixed up in her eyes. I stood, silent, with tears falling slowly down my cheeks.

“We need to talk. Where’s Seth? And, Joe?” Halli looked around.

“Seth’s inside paying the bill,” Alec said. “Joe’s at the house, I guess. I’m not sure. What’s going on?”

Johnathan looked at Halli’s face then closer at mine. “Paige, your face is bruised, too. Who did this to you?” His voice filled with anger. He no longer tried to keep the level down where his little blonde companion couldn’t hear him.

“Just go Johnathan. Go enjoy your little date. We’ll take care of this ourselves.” It came out quietly, I didn’t have enough air to speak louder. “Just go.”

I tried to step away, but my knee gave way and I almost fell. Johnathan reached out and caught me. “You’re hurt.”

“I’m fine. Let go of me.”

“Come on Paige, tell us what happened,” Alec pleaded. “You’re obviously not fine.”

“Thanks for talking to Johnathan for me, Alec. You’re a great friend.” My voice dripped with tired sarcasm.

I shrugged Johnathan’s hand off my arm, squared my shoulders and started to walk away.

Halli put her arm around my waist and walked with me.

“Paige, come on. What happened? Tell me who did this.” Johnathan’s voice was menacing. I kept walking.

“Come on, Johnny,” the blonde said. “She doesn’t want to talk to you. Let’s just go. We have plans,
remember
?” The suggestiveness in her voice made me cringe.

“Katrina, shush,” Mariah said. “You guys go ahead and figure out what’s going on. I’ll see you later.” I turned my head in time to see her blow Alec a kiss and usher her disappointed friend back inside the restaurant.

Seth came out looking very confused. “Hey, aren’t you guys coming with us?” he asked.

Mariah nodded toward me.

Seth’s mouth dropped open. He looked from me to Johnathan to back inside the restaurant. He stepped closer to us and his face went from confusion to anger in a flash. “What happened to you guys?”

I shook my head and kept walking.

Johnathan and Alec continued to try to talk to me as we walked.

“Paige,” Alec implored. “I did talk to Johnathan. I told him he was being a big weenie. I thought it might help him… you know… forgive you or something if he went out with someone else. Not like a payback or anything… just, sort of, like a… I don’t know. To even things out a little or something?”

The only thing Seth chimed in was, “I had nothing to do with this. I thought
I
was meeting Mariah’s friend.”

Johnathan stepped up beside me. “It was nothing, Paige. We were just eating as a group. I was thinking about you the whole time…”

It took all that was left of my waning strength to put one foot in front of the other. My vision was blurred by tears that I just let roll down my face, too tired to raise a hand to wipe them away. The aching in my heart made it almost impossible to breathe—so much so that I felt, fleetingly, that death would have been a sweet release. Among the bitter anguish I felt a seething anger. A murderous rage. My broken mind constructed multiple scenarios of painful death to the blonde; but, I couldn’t bring myself to even think about Johnathan’s betrayal.

After several unsuccessful attempts to get me to speak, Alec and Johnathan both lapsed into silence when they finally got the message that neither Halli nor I were going to talk to them.

I didn’t think I would make it up the hill to Trey’s house. I leaned heavily on Halli, who wasn’t faring much better than me. As we started up the incline, she fell to her knees. I dropped beside her. Halli vomited violently into the gutter as I held her hair out of her face. She vomited until there was nothing left in her stomach, and then she dry heaved several more times.

“Is she okay?” Seth asked

“She probably has a concussion. She got knocked out.”

“You have
got
to tell us what happened,” Alec stewed.

“Just help us get to the house.” I sighed. “We’ll tell you then.”

Johnathan stepped forward to help me up. I pushed his hand away and said without looking at him, “Seth can help me.”

Alec helped Halli up. She staggered and put a hand to her head. “I’m super dizzy.”

Alec picked her up without saying a word and carried her up the long hill to the house. Seth supported most of my weight as we trudged along behind them. Johnathan brought up the rear.

When we reached the house, Alec carried Halli into the large family room and deposited her gently on the couch. I slid into the nearest chair. Joe hurried over from the kitchen as soon as we entered.

“Where have you two been?” His agitation quickly turned to concern when he got a look at us. “What happened?”

Halli could barely keep her eyes open.

“Should we try to keep her awake?” a worried Alec asked.

“I think it’s okay to let her sleep,” I said, closing my eyes. “We just need to make sure we can wake her up every little while.”

“What. Happened,” Joe repeated.

I detailed our dangerous encounter.

Joe and the boys were eerily quiet through the whole thing. The only interruption occurred when I told them how Grease Ball had described his
Demon.
Seth said, “That sounds like Brone. Is he here?”

“It sounds like he was using a projection spell. He could be anywhere; he just projected his image to that spot.” Joe shook his head. “He has gotten so much stronger over the years.”

Johnathan kept his head bowed through the entire account. Forearms resting on his bouncing knees, his hands balled so tight they shook.

“So,” I finished. “The question I put before you is, what do we do with them—those that survived, that is.”

“Kill them,” Johnathan growled, still not looking up.

“I agree.” Alec’s voice was deadly quiet.

Seth nodded.

Instead of answering the question, Joe asked me, “What do you think Halli would say? Should we wake her up to ask her?”

“She didn’t want me to kill them. In fact, she stopped me from doing so. She wanted to see what you all wanted to do.”

Joe was silent for a few seconds. “I understand how you all feel. I feel the same rage as you do.” His voice shook, so he took a deep breath. “But, the purpose of the Five is to protect mankind from those from other realms. We are not here to mete out justice to our own. I don’t think we should kill them. But, I don’t think it would do much good to turn them in to the authorities, either. Things might be brought out about us that I would rather keep out of the public eye. We have another choice”—he looked at each of us in turn—“send them to the Netherworld.”

All was silent as we contemplated what that would mean. Ungifted Humans weren’t welcome in the Netherworld and they probably wouldn’t last long there. If we did as Joe suggested, they would learn what it’s like to be molested and abused by those stronger than them.

I squared my shoulders. “I think that’s perfect justice for them.”

The chill of being outside all day had worn off and I unbuttoned my jacket without thinking. As I shrugged it off my shoulders, Seth gasped and looked at the ground. “Uhh, Paige, your shirt…” His face burned red.

I blushed along with him as I looked down at my torn shirt, my bra embarrassingly visible through the tear. I pulled the two sides together to cover myself but not before everyone had looked to see what Seth was talking about.

“Did he… did he do that…” Johnathan stood; he pointed at my shirt with a shaky hand. “Did he do that? Did he…
touch
you?”

I nodded without looking up. Johnathan punched the wall. Hard. His fist went clear through the dry wall and out the other side. “Let’s go.”

Alec and Seth jumped to their feet.

“Wait, guys. I’m exhausted. Halli’s asleep, and hurt. Maybe we should wait until morning. Those men aren’t going anywhere.”

Joe stood, too. “We should go soon. You and Halli can stay here, the boys can handle this.”

“Not in a million years,” I said. “I’m going with you if I have to crawl.”

Joe sighed. “Okay. I’ll stay here with Halli. You all can portal to the cave. Paige, Alec can portal you, you’re in no shape to attempt that again today.”

I nodded my agreement. “We’d better wake Halli and ask her. She’ll be furious if we leave without at least giving her the opportunity to come along.”

I knelt on the floor next to where Halli lay on the couch. “Hal,” I whispered. “Hey, wake up sleepy head.” I shook her a little.

She opened her eyes and mumbled, “I’m not sleeping.”

I smiled. “Okay, Hal. We’re going to go back to where we trapped those men. I know you’re hurt and tired, so why don’t you stay here with Joe, and me and the boys’ll take care of things.”

“No, I’m okay. I’m coming.” She pushed herself into a sitting position and grabbed her head. “Ow.”

“Halli, I really think you should stay here. All we’re going to do is banish them to the Netherworld. No excitement. Stay here with Joe.”

Her face turned a deathly pale and the eruption of puke from her throat was enough of an answer. “I miss… all… the fun,” she said between heaves.

I patted her back. The boys all vacated the room rather quickly as the odor from the vomit, mostly green bile, invaded the room. Boys are such pansies.

Joe gathered some towels to clean up the mess, and a bucket for any future episodes. Halli lay back down and closed her eyes. The color slowly returned to her face.

The boys huddled in the kitchen. After I changed into my one remaining clean and/or un-ripped shirt, I joined them. Some of my energy had returned and I thought it would be a good idea to help it along with some food. The rate at which my energy had been sapped surprised me and I resolved to build strength and endurance by practicing more. I’d been slacking in my practice sessions since losing my sight, even though Joe pushed me hard, I hadn’t been giving it my all. Now that I could see again, and I wasn’t afraid I’d accidentally maim or kill one of my friends, I would put my heart and soul back into it.

I raided Trey’s cupboards, very happy to see he had peanut butter. I gulped down a sandwich and a glass of milk—something I hadn’t been able to enjoy for far too long—then turned to the guys. “Let’s go.”

Alec and Seth had been sitting on the bar stools, anxiously waiting for me to finish, while Johnathan paced, head down, fists clenched. They all looked up, Alec and Seth nearly tipping their stools over when they stood.

“Finally,” Alec said under his breath.

I leveled a steely gaze at him. “Sorry. Not everyone was able to enjoy a nice Italian meal like you and your girlfriends.” The memory of seeing Johnathan with another girl made my heart hurt. I pressed a hand to my chest involuntarily.

Johnathan looked away, his face going red.

“Paige, I’m—”

I pinned Alec with a homicidal look, halting his words. “Let’s go. Portal to the cave, we’ll make a plan there.”

I took Alec’s hand in mine. Before I could even prepare myself, we were sucked into the void and spit out at the designated spot.