Fifth Avenue
Chapter Seventeen

The feeling of being trapped in your own body, being able to think and see things the way you normally would, but the way your body moves is out of your control. This is the way Justin had been feeling since he woke up.

He stood guard outside a metal door, just as Candii had instructed him.

“Just stand there and look pretty okay, make sure nobody leaves that room other than Reaper” She speaks to him like a three-year-old, he was pretty sure he was older than her by about 2 years so he found it demeaning, but his body craved her presence, if she asked him to do something he could never say no.

Justin heard a noise from the inside and he found himself pressing his ear against the door, there was lots of shuffling, some crashes and a scream, followed by another and another. Why was someone screaming he found himself thinking?

“Please I’m sorry” a female begs “I-I can’t take it anymore, please, please just stop” and soon enough it clicked, Hartley was the one screaming, who else could it have been?

He pulled his ear away, his pulse began to race, slowly Candii’s spell began to fade off and what he had done finally registered. He had given the bad guys Hartley and now she was being tortured, he had turned her in.

A scream comes echoing through the room and down the many empty hallways making him flinch, his stomach knotting in overwhelming guilt. He took off down the hall which headed to Wisdom’s office.

He looked through the window to make sure it was empty, slowly he opened the door and snuck in, he had to replace her keys get in and get out, no matter what he couldn’t leave Hartley, not again.

He searched but could replace nothing, her office was filled with boxes of files, on her wall were pictures of Hartley, information everywhere, he had to look.

He saw a couple holding a little girl with brown hair, they were all smiling at the camera, there was another photo, he had to move a sticky note so he could see the whole thing, this time there were two couples, the two from earlier and then Wisdom and Doc hugging happily, further down there was a news article, ‘2 dead in tragic car crash, child missing’ to the left was a photo of Hartley as a child, she looked around 12, there was no smile and her hair was blue.

He followed the papers, seeing Hartley growing up and he paused as he found another article ‘Bodies of recent car crash tragedy, possible conspiracy?’ he gulped.

The door swung open and he turned quickly to see Wisdom standing at the door “What are you doing in here?!” she screamed “I told Candii she should have killed you the moment you got here” she launched herself at him in a fit of anger but he quickly teleported out of the way.

He was going to leave the room but the look of the key hanging off her belt caught his eye, she saw him looking and smiled “I’m sorry Justin, but there is no way you can save your girlfriend” she pouts.

He teleports behind her and goes to grab it but she swings around stabbing him in the chest with her pocket knife, he gasps holding his chest and teleports to the other side of the room removing the knife.

“Don’t be an idiot boy, run while you can, leave the girl” Wisdom coax’s grabbing her sword from a hidden drawer in her desk. She hums a song and Justin teleports beside her kicking her real leg and going for the keys again but she catches him in the arm with the sword.

He hisses and disappears from her sight “I know you are still here” she sings happily “Justin, Justin, Justin where could you be” she swings around almost hitting him but he dodges it finally taking the keys from her.

“Not that easy” she laughs throwing Candii the sword, Justin turns but not in enough time, Candii stabbed him through the side of his chest driving the sword the whole way through. He coughs feeling weakened and gave Candii a brief smile before he teleported outside the big silver door.

He collapsed against the wall and pulled the sword out of his chest, which probably wasn’t the best decision he had ever made as blood began to spill from both sides of the wound. He could hear the shouting from down the hall and quickly he teleported into the room where he found Reaper who stood over Hartley’s shaking body, she was pale, so pale.

Justin cleared his throat and Reaper looked to him, his eyes darkening “You don’t have permission to be in here boy, go back and play guard while the adults talk” with the sword in hand Justin ran at Reaper as fast as his current weakened strength would allow him to, Justin tripped during the run and fell to the ground driving the sword through Reapers thigh causing him to shriek and fall back clutching his upper leg, which oozed an odd looking coloured blood.

Justin moved to Hartley and the look she gave him broke his heart in two, the look of fear but he could see she was too weak and too in pain to move away from him. “I’m-” before he could finish his sentence he heard banging on the door, he turns back and opens her shackles “Hold on, I’m going to get you out of here” he whispers.

They didn’t get far Justin was too injured to get much further than a town away. Now they were in a desert in the middle of nowhere, Hartley was cut everywhere but they had begun to scab over, Justin however tried to act strong, but he had lost a lot of blood.

“Here take this” he says taking off his jacket and putting it over her shoulders. She nods thanking him, but replaces herself unable to talk. She didn’t trust him, he may of have saved her but if he hadn’t turned her over in the first place she wouldn’t need the saving.

“I’m so sorry” he says, his voice cracking as he does “I swear, I didn’t mean to and I know you’ve heard this from me over a hundred times but you don’t understand, Hartley the girl who was pretending to be Candice was Candii, I mean now that I think of it like that it was obvious, Candii’s powers is to make anyone who she touches fall in love with her” he stops “I thought I was in love, I couldn’t not do what she said because I wasn’t thinking clearly”

Hartley holds up her hand not wanting to hear any excuses, her entire body still hurting, her hair was grey, her skin was a pasty white and her eyes showed no emotion, she was finally broken.

Justin went to say something else but paused, coughing blood spilled from his mouth and his head collapsed onto the hard desert ground. Hartley sighed and took off his Jacket tearing the sleeve off, she murmurs some nonsense as she tied the jacket around his chest and the sleeve around his leg.

She pulled his head onto her lap and brushed her hand through his hair, the light movement of his chest was the only thing keeping her calm in that moment. As he slept Hartley tried to get into contact with Bullet, closing her eyes but she couldn’t replace the concentration in which she had in the torture chamber.

“I’m sorry” a little voice whispered and Hartley looked down to see a barely conscious Justin looking up to her “I swear I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you Blue I really didn’t” by this point small amounts of tears began to roll down his cheeks, his arms too weak to wipe them Hartley had to.

“Shhhh” she whispered brushing his oiled hair from his face “Just rest”

Justin shook his head stubbornly “I can’t, I hurt you, I just keep hurting you and I don’t mean to it’s just can’t seem to stop doing it” he takes in a deep breath “You know I’ve just wanted to protect you from the moment I saw you at that church, but I failed and I just keep failing” he says and Hartley pauses.

“Justin, you’ve lost a lot of blood okay, your delusional, just stop talking” he opens his mouth to talk again “Please”

He pouts but doesn’t speak, slowly his eyes shut and his breathing becomes calm. Hartley closes her eyes and lets out a shaky breath.

“Bullet, Bullet please get this” Hartley begs before thinking of the surroundings she was at now, the dirt, the signs they had passed, Justin weak, she thought of everything she could before she fell back, exhausted.

Bullet hadn’t slept, she couldn’t, and every time her eyes closed she saw Hartley and the pain she was suffering, her brother handing her over to the association.

“Hey” Shooter said in a croaked voice “It’s time to go” he says taking her hand and leading Bullet away from the cliff where she sat.

Bullet remained silent, leaning on Shooter so she had the strength to remain standing, Doc leant against the car door and Kit was curled into a ball sleeping in the car. Doc nods but says nothing, everyone to tired and to worried to even bother with words.

A wave of dizziness came over Bullet and she falls onto the grass shaking “Alecia!” Shooter shouts running to her, he grabs her shoulders but she wouldn’t stop shaking, her eyes rolling back into her head. “WHAT IS HAPPENING?!” Shooter yells to Doc who still remained calm.

“I think Hartley’s trying to tell her something” Doc says “Hartley doesn’t have this ability so for her to use to will be hard and painful for both parties” Doc pushes himself from the door and presses his hands onto Bullet’s temples, slowly she stopped shaking and sits up breathing heavily.

“I know where they are, but we need to hurry” she sobs hugging Shooter.

Hartley awoke before Justin, her head throbbing and every part of her body ached. The sound of a car could be heard in the distance and Hartley looks up to see a cloud of dust heading straight towards them, her immediate thought was that The Association had found them, but that thought was quickly diminished when she saw the mustard colour of the car and Shooter waving like a mad man sticking his head out the window.

Mertle pulled to a stop beside them with a nice skid, everyone jumps out but before anyone can celebrate they look at the passed-out figure in Hartley’s lap “His breathing is getting slower” she sobs “Please help him” Shooter and Doc load him into the back seat, resting his head on Doc’s lap as he does his magic.

Bullet and Kit help Hartley up and assure everything is okay while also expressing how happy they were to have found them.was