Young Writers Society

Catherine

I didn't really pay attention to the girl, except for the fact that she was Lorei's cousin. I was looking at Emmett. He looked like he was about to die. I felt so bad for him. Why did that girl have to say that Lorei was dead?! She might not be! We were still trying to find her, but now Emmett might give up. Things were definitely not going well.

"Emmett?" I asked, putting my hand on his arm. "Are you okay?" He didn't answer, he just looked forwards, through everything in front of him. A tear ran down his cheek, and I couldn't help but cry too. Seeing him like this was terrible.

I hugged him, and no one noticed. They were all talking to the girl. I wasn't listening to what they were saying, until I heard a strange voice.

"Natalie, come..." It was broken off. I figured whoever it was had just spotted us. "Mages!" he said in disbelief. Yup, he say us. The really bad part...was that he recognized us.

Carter

The girl babbled on and on, until the door to the house behind her opened.

"Natalie, come...Mages!"

Oh crud! I thought. Cutter stared at the man in the doorway. I could tell he was thinking about what to do. He grabbed all of us, ready to teleport.

"Wait!" the man called. Cutter was motionless. "Don't go!"

"Dad, they have to leave. We could get in serious trouble!" Natalie said. We were all just staring at them. We knew this was bad.

"What should we do?" I whispered in Cutter's ear. He didn't reply. He was still thinking. This wasn't good.

Eep, fell behind a bit...

~Emmett~

I wipe my cheek of the tear that had fallen, silently cursing myself for reacting so obviously to the mere mention of Lorei. It was stupid to cry; she was still alive, and I knew it. I could still sense her... she had to be alive, right? I send a weak smile to Catherine, who looks pretty upset too. Great, now I was making other people miserable.

"You know Lorei?" I blurtout accidentally, unable to control my curiosity. Both Natalie and her dad look kind of bemused at my outburst, glancing at each other before the girl warily speaks.
"She is... was... my cousin. She died. Or at least - No. She's dead, okay?" She swallowed thickly after speaking, eyes shining with brimming tears.

"She's not-" I start to answer hotly, but Cutter lays a hand on my shoulder, holding several of the others and sending me a silent, single thought. >We need to leave. Now.<

I nod, holding onto Catherine and Liara gently, giving them a meaningful look. They both pick it up pretty quickly and get ready to teleport, but Natalie looks confused and steps towards us. "What? You knew her? How?" She reaches forward and Cutter tenses, sending a frantic, quick thought - the word >Clearing< - to me and teleporting away. I follow his lead as soon as I get this thought, leaving before Natalie has a chance to accidentally get involved in the teleportation.

We arrive back at the clearing, and Catherines grumbles quietly about the uncomfortableness of teleportation travel, scowling jokingly as I laugh at her. Then Cutter's voice calls out, an uncommonly dangerous edge audible in his tone.

"Why did you bring the girl?"

Cutter,

This is all going WRONG! We were supposed to end up in an abandoned area, but no, instead there's not just one, but two other people there. When I notice that she looks quite like Lorei, it gets even worse. The wound that has been healing ever so slowly gets reopened. I clench my jaw. Emmett is hit worst of all. Before things can get any worse, I sent a message:
>We need to leave. Now.<
He nods, and despite Natalie's protests, we teleport.
Except that she's still with us.

"Why'd you bring the girl?" I say with unintended iciness.

Everyone looks around. Natalie is standing with us, shaking.

"What was...what...wa-a-s that?" she says, trembling.

"You just teleported with us. Mind telling us why? Thinking of tipping off the Magekillers?"

*Guys, I'm just going to go ahead and drop out. Sorry; you can still use my character if you want.*

Sigh, I'm the only Magekiller, oh well.

Dakota

"Anything new, captain?" I ask, walking into his office.

"No, nothing. We have been watching..." He was cut off when Arnold ran into the room, almost knocking me over.

"S-Sorr-y Da-da-ko-ta." Arnold turned to the Captain, still shaking a little, "Mages, transported, near some woods. We don't know where they are. But there were some."

"We knew that, you idiot. Of course there are Mages! You are so useless! Jess could always tell us where the Mages were, but she left us..."

"Well, I'm sort of knew, and yeah..." He said, mumbling pathetically.

"I swear, the help these days, what am I going to do?" I say to myself, and brush past him out of the room.

Just a note, Natalie doesn't like Lorei too much....

Natalie

"What was...what...wa-a-s that?" I ask, looking around.

"You just teleported with us. Mind telling us why? Thinking of tipping off the Magekillers?" the boy asked.

"I didn't know, I didn't think it was possible, I had no idea." I shake my head. I find myself more calm, suddenly, despite what had happened, "Does anyone have a plan? Before we go the same way as my stupid cousin." She had gotten herself into that mess, and she was paying the price.

When it came down to it, who cared about fancy cars? It had gotten her into her own grave, and I knew it was her own fault.a part of me, a little part, wanted to cry for my cousin. Dead, gone, forever, but I wouldn't. She was running with the wrong people, and I knew it. Know, here I was, running with that same crowd.

"Lorei isn't..." A boy started. I noticed he spoke as if she were still alive. I knew the truth, though, she wasn't. No one the Magekillers took lived.

"You think you knew Lorei better than me? Granted, I haven't seen her for two years, but before that we grew up together. I know Lorei better than any of the rest of you, and I wish I didn't. I'm sorry she's gone, and I'm sorry it's hurt others, but I'm not going to cry over it." I fold my arms across my chest. "Now, does anyone have a plan?"

Liara

I watched the entire scene with wide eyes. I wanted to run, back through the forest, out of Rossain, return to my old life. I backed up to a tree, running my hands up the bark, familiarizing myself with it. I turned around cautiously and slithered up it, manipulating the wind to boost me up a little.

I was halfway up the trunk when Cutter shouted, "Get back here, Liara! You're not getting out of this!"

I narrowed my eyes at him. Oh, I'm not? "Says who?" I yelled back. Ah, there I was. Welcome back, Li. You have been dearly missed. I smirked to myself and continued climbing. Cutter yelled that I would regret this, and I resisted the urge to blow a raspberry. I knew I was being childish, but this wasn't my problem. I didn't know Lorei; I couldn't fight her battles.

And if the original group had a problem with that, so be it.

Cutter,

I am shocked at myself. I don't care what Liara does! She can run away from all of this, go back to her old life. But my mouth won't say it. It's like...something else is controlling me. And with this realization, everything is made stunningly obvious. The Magekillers must have new weapon, maybe even magic based, that can get into our minds, make us do things. I stumble backwards and collapse.

"Cutter!" Catherine says worriedly, kneeling beside me, "What is it?"

I just shake my head, unable to speak.

I see Cutter fall. Immediately brought out of my rebellious streak, I jumped from the top of my tree, almost forgetting to use the wind to break my fall. I ran over to him, eyes wide. "Cutter?" I ask, patting his torso. His lungs were fine, so... Oh. Oh, no.

I scanned the trees and spotted someone racing away. I wanted to chase after them, but decided against it. I refocused myself and felt his head. "Cutter, if you can hear me, nod once." He nodded.

"Kay. If you can speak, please do." He shook his head. I could see the panic in his eyes. "Um, just keep... calm?" I said, slipping a little water down his throat. I knelt by his side, rocking back and forth. "Okay, Cutter, I was just trying to stay out of it, kay? I wasn't going to leave. I can't... not now." I told him, teetering on the edge of blabbering. I stared into the trees.

This changes everything.

Catherine

"Okay, Cutter, I was just trying to stay out of it, kay? I wasn't going to leave. I can't... not now." Laira babbled. I pushed her aside.

"That's not the problem. I know Cutter, and I know that something's wrong. Something's really wrong." I said a little angrily. I tried to keep myself together, but it was awkward for me having new people around. I was so used to my old group.

"Cutter, what is it?" I asked.

"The...the." He stammered. "The magekillers..."

"What about the magekillers?" I pleaded. "What are they doing? Can you hear their thoughts? Are they close?"

He shook his head.

"Well then what?!"

"A...a new...we-weapon." There was silence.

Oh Crud!

Liara

I fought back tears. I had been apologizing, trying to sort things out... she just didn't like me, I figured. I let fire run over my hands, trying to let the heat distract me. Don't think, don't think, don't think. I tried to force my mind blank and forget myself until everything simmered down, got better.

When I forgot to tend to it, the fire switched to water, then sheets of wind, then thin green vines. I swallowed and tried to sort out my thoughts, not noticing when the vines spread to my elbows, then turned to ropes of wind, then flame. I zoned out, staring at a tree branch that got progressively blurrier with time. Water lapped at my shoulders, and I still paid no notice.

Don't think, don't think, don't think.

The fire receded to my wrists, then flared to my jaw, this time as dark mud.

Don't think, don't think, don't think.

The mud slipped to my elbows, and from there was water swirling around my shoulders.

Don't think, don't think, don't think.

For a split second, my entire body burst into flames.

Don't think, don't think, don't think.

And then I blacked out, unnoticed by the rest of them, the last wisps of fire curling into my palm.

Carter

I turned around, only to see Laira on the ground.

"Oh my gosh!" I said, rushing to her side. Catherine turned.

"She unconscious!" she said. Tears welled up in her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry. This is all my fault. I didn't mean to...I just wanted to get to Cutter and..." she stammered. "I'm sorry, Liara. I wasn't trying to be mean."

I just stood there, not knowing what to do.

Finally, Liara woke up. Catherine was right by her side when she did, hugging her and apologizing. I was sitting by Cutter, making sure he was okay. I really hoped it wouldn't be this dramatic all the time. Drama was really the last thing we all needed.

Catherine

I looked at Liara with tears in my eyes. I didn't know her well, but I hated seeing her like that. She was already family to me, but I had been mean to her. Why did I always mess stuff up?!

"I'm so sorry, Liara." I said, giving her a huge hug.

"Wha--it's okay." she said. I couldn't stop crying, though. I was so angry at myself for being such a jerk. I never was good with people.

We talked for a while as we helped Cutter. I was glad that she wasn't too mad at me, though I knew this might make it harder to befriend her. Although, for some reason, I think it might have actually helped with our relationship. We talked a lot and really got to know each other. I was happy she was okay.

Liara

I woke up to a teary Catherine, apologizing and hugging me and...

WHOA.

I had not been hugged since I was, what, four? Wow. That's pretty cool.

I hugged her back, trying to calm her down. My passing out happened rather often, admittedly not as abruptly, but things had been changing since I joined this group. I poured a little water over Cutter's face and rubbing little circles into his back and telling him to relax.

I talked to Catherine, mainly about how I lived alone since I was seven. She seemed to be appalled at this, so I guess it wasn't as common as I thought. She told me about the group, and I knew she was borderlining on saying something about Lorei.

Right when she was about to, I would cut her off, not wanting her to get upset. Eventually, catherine stopped talking and started paying attention to what me and Carter we trying to do, which was get Cutter back fully. I was still working away with the water, and if it got desperate, little sparks across his skin. Not enough to burn, just enough to wake. I had done that to myself countless times after passing out or getting severely tired, and it seemed effective enough.

True to its reputation, my system -and Carter's- got Cutter back on his feet and thinking within ten minutes. He was explaining- ranting, almost- about a new weapon and Magekillers and how, most of all, we needed to find the truth.

Well, looked like things were starting to speed up.

Good.

Carter

I was glad when Cutter was back up and going. Liara and I exchanged high-fives and got a compliment from Catherine. It felt good to finally do something right.

Once Cutter was conscious again, he told us about the magekiller's new weapon. Catherine listened, but she was talking to Emmett, too.

At least things were starting up again. They were beginning to move faster, and that was good. The only problem was thinking about what to do about the magekillers and their new weapon. I hated thinking. It hurt my brain, but I still did, only because I knew that it was a matter of life or death.