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T h e   H o l l o w s   I n
O U R  F R E E D O M
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I stared at her, dumbfounded for a few moments, before I became outraged.

"What the hell are you doing out here?" I asked her, voice hard.

She crossed her arms over her chest. "I could ask you the same thing." Was her response, as she gestured to the car I had just gotten out of.

"Go home." I told her, turning to walk away.

"No." She responded, making me halt. "You'll either have to take me with you or go home with me, because I'm not walking back on my own." She continued, making my anger grow.

I sighed, having been cornered. "Fine. But you tell no one I did this." I wasn't looking at Sky, but I could almost just feel the accomplishment radiating off her.

I let Sky get in first, sandwiching her between Kim and I, who gave me a look upon entering. The look said something along the lines of 'what the hell?'. I would've responded, except I didn't want to in front of the mysterious man, so I just shook my head and left the subject.

We had been in the car for only twenty minutes before Kim decided that it was time to leave. I wasn't quite sure where we were going. I think I let Kim take leadership of our little outing because it was her doing anyway, but also maybe because she was the oldest here. Having graduated five years before Jonah and I, she was a year above Jameson, and older than the rest of us.

We watched as the car disappeared into the distance.

"This is not a good idea." Kim said, not even looking at us.

I turned to her. "She'll be fine—unless you're saying you can't fight."

Kim rolled her eyes. "You shouldn't have come anyway, Lexi."

I huffed, storming away.

"Where are you going?" Kim yelled after me. I didn't answer, and instead continued walking. I found a main street and stopped, turning to see the pair hidden behind trees, but making steady progress over to me.

"It would kind of be helpful if you didn't walk off." Kim quipped as they caught up.

I ignored her, and instead turned to Sky. "Are you okay?" I asked her, observing her.

She nodded, rubbing her hands together with a grin on her face. "What are we doing first?" She asked.

"Let's find out." Kim said, striding away in the direction of the town centre. I shrugged at Sky, before taking her hand and dragging her along so that we were following behind Kim.

We spent a good hour loitering around the few shops that the town had—none of us had a great deal of money, so we didn't buy anything, but the freedom was nice.

"Come on," Kim said, as it was nearing three o'clock, "let's make a start for home—it'll be dark soon."

I was surprised that she was actually thinking logically, since, when I have an outburst and run away, I'm nothing like this. Most of the time, I just get lost and almost die—but we'll talk about that another time.

We found the entrance to the forest again, and I saw Sky yawn out of the corner of my eye.

"Today was–" Sky began, but she didn't get the chance to finish as suddenly we were joined by someone else.

Kim and I immediately tensed. The person was dressed in all black.

Warning signals rang in my head as Kim launched herself at the person. I turned, feeling the presence of someone else behind us. But it wasn't just someone. There were three people. Four in total.

We were outnumbered.

I turned to Sky, grabbing her by the shoulders. "Run." I told her. I knew she could run—if there's anything she had over anyone else, it was her speed and stamina.

Sky didn't pause, I think it had something to do with her past encounters with these kind of situations, and so she sprinted away into the distance.

"You really just messed up." A voice behind me taunted. I clenched my fists, and then threw one at the owner of the voice. The person fell, and then the others started on me.

I was outmatched, but I had been in worse situations. So I fought. Kim eventually joined my side, and took one whilst I took the other two.

I feel like she was overestimating me slightly.

Despite this, I took on my two rivals with confidence.

Until one of them punched my side. The side that held my stab wound. I swayed, almost crumpling to the ground, but one of the attackers steadied me, holding me close to his chest.

"Alexi Abbot, you fool, we were never after the Beau—just you."

In shock, I wasn't too sure what happened after, but Kim grabbed onto my wrist and pulled me along as she ran.

Together, we dashed through the forest, finding Sky at the clearing, who I heard faintly tell Kim that she had been trying to stop cars.

I felt as Kim peeled my top away from my skin at my side, before I was tucked away into a car.

"Lexi." I heard someone say as they shook my shoulder. I came to, seeing Kim trying to tug me out of a car. Having recovered, I slipped out of the car, recognising where we were.

"Are you okay?" Kim asked, and I looked behind her to see Sky looking just as worried.

"I'm fine." I responded, focusing only on my sore side.

"It's all good," Kim said, seeing me looking for any blood. "I checked it when we were waiting for a ride, you'll just have to be careful."

I nodded, and we turned to start for the house, but being stopped in our tracks when Richard, Elle and Jameson appeared from the edge of town.

We watched them approach us, disapproving looks on their faces. Jameson went straight for Sky, and he couldn't hide it; he was angry at her—he was angry at us.

Elle came to my side, observing that my palm was pressed over my wound.

"What were you thinking?" Richard asked, scolding us. Jameson soon joined him in doing so.

I rolled my eyes. "That your goddamn house is as boring as hell." With that, I pushed past Elle and trudged away.

As angry as anything, I stomped through what was left of the snow, beginning to approach the house. Getting closer, I found Jonah by the back door.

He didn't question me, he just held his pack out to me, "cigarette?" He offered.

I didn't even hesitate; I plucked a cigarette from the packet and ripped his lighter from his pocket.

We just stood in silence for a while, seeing the others in the distance start to make their way towards us.

"If you're not careful, you'll become just as an addict as I am." Jonah said suddenly.

I stared out into the distance, removing the cigarette from my mouth. "Do you really think I care?" Was my response, puffs of smoke escaping my lips as I spoke.

Jonah didn't respond to this, and so we continued to smoke in silence. When the others began to get closer, I disposed of my cigarette and made my exit—or rather, entrance—into the house.

I was dwindling around in a random room, wondering where to go next, what to do next—because, yes, I do get a guilty conscience. Unlike popular belief.

I heard the floorboards creak behind me, and I turned to see Jameson behind me.

I sighed. "Look, Jame–"

"–have you absolutely lost your mind?" He asked, his voice raised. He shut the door behind him, so that our conversation was private.

I paused, my lips parted as I decided what to say in response. "It was hardly on purpose."

Jameson clenched his jaw. "She could've been killed." He seethed.

"And I understand that," I watched as he was about to object, but I intervened. "No, I do. I wasn't trained to be her Guardian for 10 years for no reason. Also, I know it might be hard to believe, but I don't think they were after Sky anyway." Jameson's face scrunched up into disgust.

"Do you really think that that is at all believable?" He asked in response. My jaw fell. Why wouldn't he believe me?

"Jameson, I–"

"–no, Alexi, I don't think you understand, do you?" He asked, taking steps forward and suddenly becoming defensive. "She could've died."

"I know that Jameson, but what you don't understand is that I could've died too." In a flame of anger, I watched as Jameson lost it in front of me, jolting forwards as if he was going to hit me.

I fell backwards, slamming against a wall. I grunted from the impact, and then registered the further pain from the wound on my hip. Crap, the wound.

At this moment, I was also aware of someone joining us. I tore my attention away from my hip for one second, and saw that the person was Jace.

It took him only a few moments to put together what happened.

He approached Jameson, fists clenching, but then unclenching. "You hurt her." He observed, but did not sound lighthearted.

Jameson rolled his eyes. "Get out, Jace, this has nothing to do with you."

Jace did not retreat, though. "It does when you probably just tore the stitches that I closed the wound with."

I watched them, confused and baffled. They seemed like two lions who were becoming territorial. It was something that surprised me; I had never seen either of them so riled up than now. In fact, I don't think I knew anyone who annoyed them more than each other. It's weird.

"Get out." Jameson repeated. And again, Jace did not retreat.

"Guys stop, just stop it." I said, trying to calm the storm before it ripped us from this room and threw us into a whirl of despair.

The pair of them barely spared me a glance.

And then they lunged for each other.

In complete shock, I started screaming at them to stop it—but it was no use.

Soon enough, everyone came running, but the first to enter was Sky.

She too was shocked, but when she shouted at them, they came to a halt.

Both of the boys were out of breath and a mess, but they froze in their places, looking at Sky as if she was some godsend. I looked away, not wanting to admit that Sky had made them stop fighting. I didn't want to admit that Jace listened to Sky and not me.

She surprised me, though; I expected for her to just rush to Jameson's side. Instead, she cut through the pair of them and grabbed onto my hand, pulling me out of the room and paying the boys no attention.

Confused, I asked, "what are you doing?"

She glanced at me, raising an eyebrow, before responding, "repaying you for saving my life earlier."

In a moment where I think Jace broke my heart once more, all it took was for Sky to burst in and literally bring the sun with her to make me feel better.

You shouldn't underestimate the strength of a best friend.

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Especially when her name is Sky Beaufort

She a strong girl

#DangerousWoman
#GodisaWoman

Anywho

Kim, Alexi and Sky? A cool trio??
Um, the creepy people ??
JAMESON WTF BRO ???
Jace you're a love <3 (??)
Sky 😌 (??)

Um

Yeah really

-really?

FABULOUS SONGS

Songs that played when I was writing this chapter (in order):
Wicked Game - Ursine Vulptine
Slip Away - Gabrielle Aplin
Madness - Ruelle
Losing You - Aquilo
I Could Fight On A Wall - Aquilo
Thin - Aquilo
Ghost - Aquilo
Six Feet Over Ground - Aquilo
Who Are You - Aquilo
Love Is Red - Ed Thomas
Devil Side - Foxes
I Have Questions - Camilo Cabello
Hurricane - MS MR
Summer Air - Glades
One Last Time - Ariana Grande
The Writer - Ellie Goulding
Paradise Circus - Massive Attack

END OF FABULOUS SONGS

Date written:
09/04/18
10/04/18

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Next update: Friday
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CHAPTER FORTY-ONE SPOILER:

Sky attempts to heal wounds that are fracturing relationships, yet Alexi is still defiant.

With her new independence, Alexi dives back into the disaster that was the New Years Ball—with the help of a warrior ship.

Get ready, because, it seems that, if you're not, you are thrown into a blitzing fire after a celebratory ball.