Spark/Fawn 12

“When can we stop?” Twilight complained breaking the silence “I have to go to the bathroom.”

I sighed while shaking my head “We just stopped two hours ago.” I looked back at her in the rearview mirror. She sat there picking at her nails. “Two hours is a long time.” She whined

Aaron hit his head on the passenger window. I was sure he was feeling the same way about Twilight right now as me, along with Tavin and Amber. The entire time that we had been driving we had been listening to her whine about everything. If it’s not “I’m so bored.” Or “Can we change the radio station? This one sucks.” Or my favorite “Are we there yet?”

“She has the bladder the size of her brain.” Aaron mumbled

I had to stop myself from laughing however Tavin wasn’t smart enough to do that himself. Twilight gave Aaron and Tavin a sickened look. Unfortunately for Tavin he was closest to Twilight. She hit him hard on the arm “Ow!” he yelled trying to scoot as far away from her as possible.

“You guys are jerks!” she exclaimed then paused a moment “So are we stopping or not?”

“I guess.” I replied picking up my cell phone and dialed Sonic.

After exchanging a few words I replaced the phone beside me and waited for the nearest rest stop. I knew one thing for sure we’re trading Twilight for Fawn. Even as stubborn as Fawn is she couldn’t beat how annoying Twilight could be. Just the mere thought of Fawn made me want her near me. I often miss when it was just the two of us. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankfully for having the others… even Twilight. They are my family. It seemed complete when we are all together, but once Fawn left I felt almost lost. I never told the others because that show weakness and that’s one thing they didn’t need at the time. They needed someone to look up to. So even as badly as I wanted to run after Fawn, I just couldn’t. I tried to convince myself it was for the best with Fawn leaving. I thought I had until the one day she came to me.

When she left the other day to go the parade I didn’t know what to do. I thought the Retter was going to catch her and kill her. If it hadn’t have been for Noah she’d be dead. He not only saved her once but twice. He still gave me the feeling of unease. I find it strange that he had a tunnel underneath his house just conveniently there to allow an easy escape. When I asked he merely replied that the house had it there when he bought it. He had just somehow ‘stumbled’ upon it. The story just didn’t fit together. Fawn seemed to believe him though. I had to force myself from being jealous of Noah, the way Fawn treated him wanted to make me pull my hair out.  I couldn’t be jealous of him!

“Turn left.” Aaron said breaking my thoughts. I put on the blinker and turned to the left, making sure Sonic saw me turning.

“Sparkkkkkkkkkkkk, will you hurry up?” Twilight whined

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. We were definitely switching her with Fawn. Actually I’d take a rattlesnake over her any day. I heard Tavin chuckle behind me and knew he had heard my thoughts. Maybe I’ll leave him for the rattlesnakes too. Tavin then became silent and looked away. “That’s what I thought.”… literally.

I brought the car to a stop and waited as everyone else got out then did the same. I leaned against the van and closed my eyes. Unease filled my body because even in a place like this there should be people here or even animals. There was just nothing here; I want to get out of here as quickly as possible. Before I could go speak to Sonic I felt arms around my waist. I recognized those familiar arms and opened my eyes seeing Fawn grinning up at me. I looked to see if any of the others were around to see us but was thankful I didn’t. Fawn removed her arms and gave me an angry look. “What?” I asked

“You! You act so worried about the others seeing us!” She exclaimed

“Fawn.” I said taking her hand in mine “I just don’t think it’s an appropriate time to say anything.”

She bit her lip and pushed back a piece of falling hair “I guess you’re right… they still don’t like me.” by they she meant the group

“Just give them time Fawn. They’ll come around.” I said trying to reassure her. I put my free hand on her neck and began to kiss her when we both heard the screeching of tires flying towards us. She gave me an unhappy look “Retter?” I nodded my head and ran towards the others.

Emerging from black vehicles at least 30 Retter came out of their cars. I put my hand towards one of the Retter and instantly he was hit with lightning. A few years ago this would have made me pass out but now I can at least stay up and fighting. I had to wait and let myself ‘recharge’ before I could send another strike. I swore as I looked around us and saw we were completely surrounded. I felt Fawn step behind me “What’s the plan?”

 “You all are outnumbered. You might as well surrender and make all of this easy.” One of the Retter interrupted as they all stalked closer to us.

I knew well enough that we were out numbered. “Kill them and get the hell out of here.” I replied

 Fawn nodded then exclaimed changing into her black leopard form attacking the closest Retter. “In hell we will!”

I grabbed a Retter man who began to shoot his gun at me. The man’s eyes rolled back into his head and fell to the ground. One thing I would never get use to is the smell of electrocuted flesh. I heard a yelp and twisted my head to the side and saw a Retter standing over Amber who had been knocked to the ground. I tried to go help her but was surrounded by three Retter. All of  sudden the Retter that had Amber brought the gun to his head and shot himself. I almost stopped fighting from surprise. When did the Retter become suicidal? The Retter around me seemed just as surprised. I then realized Tavin was standing a few feet from Amber. Maybe I wouldn’t give him to the rattlesnakes after all.

I began to attack the next Retter when a giant wall of flames split us apart. The Retter wailed out in pain as the flames covered him. I turned away and saw Amber was trying to put the flames out with water from a drinking fountain but was being unsuccessful, while Tavin was beside her trying to put out a flame on his jacket. Where was the fire coming from?

I watched as the surviving Retter jump into their cars and drove off. Then the fire abruptly stopped. We all exchanged looks of confusion. That’s when I noticed a woman with long brown hair looking at us. As she approached us I saw that one of her eyes was brown while the other was blue. “Well she’s hot.” Aaron said breaking the silence

Fawn let out a growl that would have been her sighing if she were in human form. “Who are you?” I asked

“My name’s Bryn.” She replied seeming to ignore Aaron’s comment

“Well Bryn.” Aaron started “How the hell did you do that?”

“I’m like you guys.” She merely replied

“Show us your mark then.” I said before she could come any closer

“I don’t have a mark like yours.” She replied coolly

I noticed Fawn had disappeared, I assumed to change back to human form. “Then what are you?” Aaron questioned

“It doesn’t matter.” She responded stepping closer “What does matter is that I just saved your guys lives.”

“We would have been fine by ourselves.” Fawn said as she walked from behind the restroom building. She was now dressed in white basketball shorts and a black tank top.

“Yeah, I’m sure you could have.” She replied sarcastically “Never mind that though.”

“How did you find us?” Sonic asked

“Oh I’ve none about you, all of you, for a very long time.”

“How?” I say

She shrugged her shoulders “I guess I have to tell you eventually. I used to be part of the Retter.” We all exchanged surprised looks but turned our attention back to her “Yes I know it’s quite strange. But remember I was part of them, but I’m not anymore, not ever since they tried to kill me.” She must have noticed our confused expressions “About a year ago when I was with them I agreed to let them experiment on me.”

“What kind of experiments?” Chem asked seeming to be quite interested

“I wasn’t always this way.” She said extending her hand where a small flame danced across her palm. “I used to be normal and by normal I mean normal by Retter standards. Which would involve me hating all the Chosen. Last year was when the Retter first reached a break through with their research, but with research they need lab rats. I was more than willing to do whatever they asked.” She paused a moment, looking at all of us, then continuing “They needed someone to test their new protocol.”

“Which was?” Fawn asked with rising annoyance.

Bryn gave her a not so happy look “I’m getting there… They needed someone to take the powers of a Chosen.”

“How?” Chem asked

“I don’t know..” she replied almost sadly “At the time I didn’t care, all I knew was they would take the power straight from the Chosen and give it to another, and the another was me…”

“What happened to the other Chosen?” I asked though I had a pretty good guess what the answer would be.
“They killed her. A Chosen can’t live without his or power, it’s there life source. The girl was only 15 and at the time I didn’t care, I was more than willing to do whatever they asked. That poor girl was so scared, I think her name was Sara…”

We stood in silence for a moment. I didn’t understand any of this. If the Retter had the technology to do that last year, I couldn’t imagine what it would be now. “What happened next?” Tavin asked breaking the silence.

She looked at him and nodded her “They tried to kill me, my powers were out of control, they weren’t use to my body, my skin felt like it was going to melt off. When the Retter couldn’t control me they tried to ‘deactivate’ me as they call it. I managed to escape though and I later met Sam…” She said lowering her voice “He’s the one you are coming to find.”  I began to ask her another question but she continued “We met and he helped me control my powers. We were in search of finding anyone like us but a week ago we got split up… I don’t know where he is and I need your help. The Retter had talked about you often; all of you were a giant thorn in their sides. When I finally found you I followed you all a few days making sure to stay out of site until now.”

“Why stay hiding?” Fawn asked still seeming unconvinced by this mysterious girl.

“I had to make sure you were the right ones. You of all people should know it’s not easy to trust just anyone.”

We all nodded our heads except for Fawn and Aaron. Fawn crossed her arms “Exactly why it’s not easy to trust you.” That when I realized Noah had disappeared, I searched around the area for him, he had just been here a moment ago.

I half listened as Bryn replied “I wouldn’t have come for help but since I don’t know where Sam is I need as much help as possible.”

“I don’t know.” Aaron said “I agree with Fawn. What about you spark plug? What do you think we should do?”

I was still looking for Noah and missed his question “Spark?” Fawn said nudging my arm

“Oh sorry, of course I think we should help her. Besides it will lead us to another one of us.”

“I agree.” Sonic added

 “Me too,” Tiny chimed 

As did the others, except for Aaron and Fawn. “Let’s go then, Bryn can come with us.” I said ushering Bryn towards our car

“No!” Aaron and Fawn yelled in unison

I exhaled loudly and took Fawn’s arm leading her away from the group “She helped us, if it weren’t for her we’d probably be dead, or worse part of the Retter’s experiments.”

“How can we trust her? Fawn demanded shaking her red hair.

Her cat like green eyes stared at me as I replied “She just saved us Fawn…”

“We would have been fine.” She spat

I placed my hand on her bare shoulder “No Fawn, we wouldn’t have.”

“But she was one of them!” She replied tossing my arm away

“If you by chance don’t remember we had this same conversation just switched around. We allowed Noah in after saving you. Why not allow Bryn? Who saved all of us?”

She knew I had a point “Fine.” She gave in and began to head towards Noah who had finally reappeared. He had a large cut across his cheek but otherwise looked unharmed. I sighed shaking my head and headed to the car when I heard a cry for help. I immediately went towards the cry but only found Tavin jumping around as if he were dancing, Amber watching him and Chem laughing hysterically.

“Oh come on Tavin it’s only a little bull snake.” Chem taunted

“Get it off of me!” Tavin exclaimed frantically running his hands through his hair

Amber tried to calm him down “Tavin stop! Jumping around like this will only make it madder!” When he didn’t listen, I heard the sound of water from a nearby drinking fountain and sprayed Tavin across the face. He stopped instantly and gave Amber the opportune to pull the snake from the inside of his shirt and tossed it into a nearby bush.

“Thanks,” Tavin panted

“No problem.” She said with a grin on her face.

 I decided to intervene “If you three don’t mind we need to get going.” 

Chem let out one last chuckle and headed for Sonic’s car. One thing was for certain about Tavin and that was his fear of snakes.~

I closed my eyes and tried to block out the sound from the TV. We had stopped in hotel for the night allowing us to rest before going to the apartment that Rick told us about. Bryn had instantly fallen asleep as soon as she was able to lie down. I felt bad for her, who knows the last time she actually rested. I could not get my head wrapped around the fact that the Retter could take our powers and give them to another. Chem, who was sitting across from me at a small table was writing things on sheet of paper and would often grumble something and toss the paper behind him into the garbage can, which was piled high with crumpled paper balls.

I slid my chair back and stood up making my way towards Amber, Tavin, Anna, Twilight and Tiny who were sitting on the floor watching a movie on the television. Sprawled out on a recliner sat Aaron who looked very unenthused by the movie they were watching. “Jack? Jack wake up?”

“Is there nothing better on?” Aaron complained

The five looked back at him and in unison “Shhhhhhhhhhh!”

“I’ll never let go Jack. I promise.”

Aaron groaned “I can’t believe you watch this crap! I mean the girls maybe, but Tavin? Seriously man you have issues.”

“Shut up asshole.” Tavin snapped. He got a surprised look on his face for actually speaking his mind.

I grinned at Aaron’s facial expression “You wanna go there Sparkles?”

“Not really.” Tavin replied softly turning back towards the movie

“Oh no,” Aaron started lifting himself from the chair “We’re not done here.” A moment later I saw the dark shadows surround Tavin and lift him from his feet.

“Hey! Knock it off!” he yelled trying to push the darkness away.

Aaron grinned “Not to powerful are you Sparkles?”

I saw Tavin’s fist clench “I don’t sparkle…”

“Oooo I’m so scared. What are you going to do? Make me watch the whole Titanic movie again?” Aaron taunted

Out of nowhere Aaron’s knee’s buckled under him. Aaron struggled trying to get himself to his feet without any luck. “One,” Tavin said stepping closer to Aaron “Titanic is a classic. Two, you can’t have everything your way.” He then knelt down in front of Aaron “And three, don’t call me Sparkles.”

As Tavin stood up Aaron smirked “Whatever you say… Sparkles.”

Before Tavin forced Aaron to shove a fork into an electrical socket I put myself between the two of them and mumbled in Tavin’s ear “As much as I enjoy watching this I don’t want him dead. Besides the other guest in the other rooms will start to wonder what’s going on.” Tavin nodded his head and walked back towards the others.

Aaron stood up quickly once Tavin’s control ended, his legs shaking slightly. “That kid will pay for that.” He said while wobbling back to the recliner. He closed his eyes and mumbled something that I couldn’t catch.

 I nearly jumped when I heard a low chuckle behind me. I turned and saw Noah standing there; I hadn’t even seen him standing in the shadows. He had been very quiet this entire time here. “Is this how it always is?” He asked

“It’s how it used to be…” I replied thinking about how different life in the group used to be. Back when the Retter didn’t have the advanced technology that they have now and before Fawn had left leaving me in charge alone, until Sonic took her place.

“Looks like Master of Darkness isn’t all he’s cracked up to be.” Noah chuckled causing Aaron to fly to his feet. Within seconds Aaron had Noah pinned to the wall. Noah surprisingly stayed quite calm as if had to deal with this daily. Noah gave Aaron a cheesy grin “Oh come on man, you sure are emotional. Maybe you’re the sparkler.”

Aaron rose his fist towards Noah “Don’t push me Noah. I wouldn’t be afraid to break that pretty little face of yours.”

“Oh I am just so scared of you Aaron. It’s nice to know my face is pretty.” Noah replied sarcastically

“You should be asshole.” Aaron growled while ignoring the last part of his comment

I rolled my eyes; this had gone on long enough. “Knock it off you two.” I said pulling Aaron away.

He glared at me “Why did we let him come along anyways?”

Everyone (except Fawn) even Casper broke his watch out the window, were now watching us “You know why Aaron. Now lower your voice, people will start to wonder.”

We turned our heads when we saw Fawn come out of the bathroom wearing a white robe. “What the hell’s going on out here?”

“Aaron and Noah just got into an argument. It’s fine now.” I reassured looking at Noah who nodded his head then to Aaron who continued to glare.

“No actually it’s not finished, once Noah has a broken nose then maybe.” Aaron snapped

Tiny stood up and walked beside Fawn saying “Aaron you need to not be so violent…”

“What do you know? I’m not even one of you! I shouldn’t have to listen to any of you.”

A second later Sonic stood face to face with Aaron “Don’t talk to my sister like that!”

“Or what?” Aaron questioned “What are you or any of the others going to do about it?”

“Just leave then!” I yelled “We don’t need someone causing us more problems.”

“Fine!” Aaron replied shoving past me “Don’t plane on me being around to save you guys.” And with that Aaron was gone.

We all hesitated a moment until Fawn said walking past me “I’ll go talk to him.”

“No!” I exclaimed not realizing I had said it out loud

“He’s angry Spark, someone needs to talk to him before he does something stupid.” She replied staring at me with her cat like eyes

“He’s made his choice Fawn. He’s gone and I think it will be better if he just stays gone.” I responded

But she ignored my comment and just like that she was gone, running away from me yet again. ~

Fawn:

“Aaron!” I called out as I ran down the hallway of the hotel, not caring if anyone heard me or not.

“Go back Fawn!”  Aaron replied over his shoulder continuing to walk away from me

It only took me seconds to catch up to him. I grabbed his arm as he walked out the exit door. “Aaron stop for just a second.” I pleaded

He tried to not look into my eyes “What difference does it make? I cause more trouble than I’m worth. Besides I’m not listening to Spark’s stupid rules.”

“Aaron, I know from personal experience that Spark’s rules are ridiculous. That doesn’t mean you can just go storming off,”

“Like you?” he interrupted

“Sure I ran away and look where it’s gotten me, but you’re the one running away now!” I replied.

 We stood glaring at one another both us were too stubborn to give in. His green eyes were shining from a nearby street lamp. Aaron took my arm and said “I don’t care. I’m leaving.”

“Where will you go?” I asked even though I had a feeling where

“It doesn’t matter.” He replied releasing his grip and turning away from me.

I sighed and said as he walked away “You go back to them and they’re in danger.”

He stopped and looked back “How did you know where I was going?”

“It’s obvious. If I where you that’s what I would do… If you return you will put your brother and his family in danger because the Retter will know they are your weakness. You need to stay with us and let them think you ran out on them again. Even as hard as that may be you need to leave them for their own good.” I could picture his small nephew “They Retter will take them, do you want that to happen to Brandon?” Aaron’s eyes hardened but I continued “How will you feel if they use him in their experiments? Knowing it was all your fault.”

Aaron had me pinned against the wall “Don’t talk about my family. You have no idea.”

“Let go of me.” I said trying to stay calm. His grip continued to tighten on me. “Aaron stop it now… Please Aaron you’re hurting me.”

He shook his head and gave me a panicked look which changed back to anger. He released his grip “Sorry.” He mumbled then turned his back to me

I didn’t run after him this time as he left. I only stood and watched as he disappeared into the shadows. A truck drove past me and I saw a few men stick their heads out the window and whistle at me. I shook my head I had forgotten I was wearing I was only in a bath robe.  I shivered as a cool breeze hit my bare legs. I decided to go back inside before the others thought I had left too.

As I walked back to our room, I felt almost relieved but also as if I could have done more to stop Aaron. I hope he wouldn’t go to see his family. Aaron is not one to be easily persuaded.  His stubbornness will be his downfall… Should I really be talking though? I am just as stubborn… [

The next morning we let the hotel early to go to the apartment Rick told us about. I had an unpleasant feeling about it though. If the chosen guy, Sam, had really been there chances are he won’t be there assuming the Retter really did find him. Everyone else seemed perfectly content with Aaron being gone. I of course acted like I didn’t care. Part of me didn’t either, but the other part of me did care. If Aaron wanted to leave that was his choice. His own stupid choice…

The apartment complex was very old and worn down. One simple shake from the ground the whole place would tumble down. “Tavin, Amber and Anna stay out here.” Spark ordered before we went into the apartment.

“And Tiny.” Sonic added getting a disapproving look from his sister. Sonic shrugged his shoulders “Someone needs to watch out for those three.”

“I’ll stay instead!” Twilight exclaimed “No one’s making me go anywhere near that building! It’s disgusting!”

“Fine Twilight you stay Tiny come with us.” Spark said

Tiny gave a triumphant grin to her brother and walked up the steps into the apartment. Spark followed behind her with the rest of us behind him. I saw how Bryn was becoming more and more agitated as we went inside. Noah was in front of me but remained close to me. He remained quite calm throughout all of this that made me curious of his past.

The inside of the apartment was even worse than the outside. It was damp and smelt of mold. The wallpaper was peeling and there were even holes in the wall. I’m surprised they haven’t bulldozed the entire place down! I don’t know how people could live here.

I slowed my pace to examine the building more. The others were already a ways a head of me not noticing I’d fallen behind.

I suddenly stopped when I felt a hand reach out for me from inside of a room. I yelped and tried to pull the grasp off but was pulled into the room. I stood face to face with an elderly woman with silver hair and whose skin looked like it had seen too many sunny days. “Um, let me go. I need to catch up to my friends.” I told the woman

“Listen to me child,” she began

“No, I think you have the wrong person.” I tried to explain

Her grip tightened “Listen to me.” she repeated. I stared into her brown eyes “You are in danger. Don’t trust him, you can’t trust him.”

“Who? I can’t trust who?” I asked

“Do not trust the dark haired one. He’s dangerous, beware of him.”

“Lady, who are you talking about?”

“Watch for the one with bright eyes! He’s not your friend.”

I placed my other hand on the woman’s shoulder “Who are you talking about? I don’t even know who you are!”

The woman released my arm and began to ramble uncontrollable. “Are you okay?” I asked shaking the woman’s shoulder. When she continued to talk as if I weren’t there, I shook her a little harder. The elderly woman stopped talking then and gave me a confused look “Do I know you?”

“No…” I replied “Who were you telling me about?”

“Are you okay?” The woman asked “I don’t know what you are talking about… Why are you in here anyways? Get out!”

I jumped back and ran out of the room as the woman continued to yell at me. What the hell? What dark haired man was that woman talking about? Two guessing came into my head… Aaron and Noah.[

“Fawn? Come on we found the room.” Spark said from the other end of the hall. The woman’s words still rang fresh in my head. “Watch for the one with bright eyes!” “Fawn come on!”

I shook my head and jogged towards the group “Sorry…” I mumbled

Noah tried at the door knob “It’s locked.”

“We’ll just break it down.” Sonic said beginning to brace the door.

Tiny sighed and pushed past her brother “Or, I can do this.” She said shrinking so small I could barely see her.

Sonic shook his head “That works too.”

Moments later we heard the click of the lock and saw the door open. I instantly smelt burnt… well burnt everything. We all entered the apartment and began our own searches. “It was started by arsenic.” Chem said while examining the remains of a couch.

“How do you know that?” Bryn asked from the small kitchen

“The smell, the way everything’s burnt and how it only stayed in this part of the apartment complex.” He replied

We continued to explore when we heard Spark’s urgent voice yelled from the bedroom “Guys come here now!”

I was the first one in the room. “What is it? Oh my…” A body of a young man with bright blonde hair laid on the floor. I assumed it was Sam. He had the Retter mark cut into his neck.

I turned my head and saw Bryn gazing at the body. I couldn’t tell what she was feeling, her eyes seemed to full of many types of emotions. “How did the police not find him?” Tiny asked breaking the cold silence.

“He must have made it out of the fire but came back.” Spark answered

“But why?” I wondered out loud

“We’ll never know.” Spark replied “But we need to take care of his body before someone else finds him.” Spark’s eyes then went to Bryn who finally spoke “We’ll take him somewhere and burn his body. That’s what he would have wanted.”

Spark nodded his head then looked at Sonic “Me you and Bryn will handle it.” He then looked at the rest of us “You all go back to the hotel.”

Not in the mood to argue I merely nodded my head.  The others did the same.

Once we were outside Tavin and the others ran to us “Did you find him?” he asked

I nodded my head and they could all tell that he was dead. “Bryn, Spark and Sonic are taking care of it. We have to go back to the hotel.”

“Mind if I come along?”

We all turned and saw you know who approaching us, Aaron with his dog beside him. He had obviously gone home “Yes,” I spat not trying to hide my anger. “You can get your ass out of here.”

“Now that’s not anyway to talk to a friend.” He grinned.

“Come on guys lets go.” I said turning my back away from Aaron “Chem, you and I will drive, the rest of you sit wherever.”

“Come on Fawn don’t be like this.” Aaron said

Noah exhaled loudly “Didn’t you hear her? She wants you to go away, and I’m sure the rest of us wouldn’t mind.”

Aaron’s fist clenched “No one asked you!”

Before any of us could argue Aaron ran for the car “Shotgun!” he yelled after opening the back door for his dog.

I shook my head “I hate him!” I then looked at Chem, who was obviously thinking the same thing as me. “I get the other car!” he said

“No way! I am not riding with that dog!”

“What about Aaron?”

“That’s who I meant…” I replied through gritted teeth. “So I get that car.”

“No can do.”

“Or what?”

“I’ll spit on you.” He replied with a smile. Had that been coming from anyone else I would laugh. Since it was Chem though I knew he won.

“Fine.” I mumbled walking to the car with a drooling animal waiting for me and I didn’t mean the dog.[