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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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"So what next?" Jace asked, calling from where he was down the hill.

I looked up at him from where I sat atop the hill, embracing some very cold temperatures.

"Show me the moves you remember!" I called back down, seeing him falter for a second.

It was just over a week since the attack, and I was still healing—though, the wound hurt much less now. We were steadily approaching February, and I feared that we'd start to rust before we began to plan again. Everyone seemed happy here, though, and Sky had even begun to talk to her parents—even if it was detached and less frequent than I did. You'd think that I'm their child.

Starting two days ago, I had begun to train Jace again—or, review what he already knew, and get him into shape whilst I recovered. I had been doing some gentle exercises to make sure I didn't lose my touch, but watching Jace, I could feel him starting to catch up—strength-wise; he was nowhere near to knowing the full skill set.

His one fallback was that he focused too much on getting the moves right. I had told him over and over that he didn't need to get them dead on, just whatever works for him.

I watched him finish. "That's good!" I yelled down at him, watching from a distance as he grinned.

I beckoned him up, waving with big arm moments so that he could decode what I was doing.

Soon enough, he was sitting by my side, albeit out of breath.

"Your kicks were better," I complimented him, feeling him turn to look at me. "But you need to watch yourself on the last move, you nearly threw your body and not just your arm." I told him, hearing him laugh beside me.

"Want me to do it again?" He asked.

I turned to frown at him. "Are you serious? I'm tired."

Jace frowned. "You're tired?" I pulled a sweet smile out of probably my five year old self, making Jace roll his eyes but resign.

"Come on," Jace said, standing up and holding out his hand for me. I smiled up at him, taking his hand and feeling his other on my waist as he helped me up.

We walked back to the house with random conversations floating between us. We had gotten to a stage where we just kind of spoke about whatever—as long as it wasn't completely odd, or out of our comfort zone.

Approaching the house, we saw Elle and Richard exit, their gym gear on. Elle was tying up those famous blonde locks when she spotted us, before smiling.

"Did you have a good training session?" She asked, making Richard look over to see what was going on as he screwed the top on his water bottle.

I nodded. "So-so." I responded, making her smile grow as she nodded. Elle exchanged looks with Richard, before they started their run.

I walked over to the back door, waiting for Jace to catch up. When he didn't, I turned to see him shaking his head at me.

I frowned. "What?" I asked.

"'So-so'." He mimicked, finally reaching my side and holding the door open for me.

We entered the house, the door closing behind us, and as we took our trainers off, I spoke up.

"I would like you to know that I sound nothing like that." I told him, watching him raise an eyebrow at me. He said nothing else, and I left him to go explore the house, looking for friends.

I walked into someone immediately, before looking up and seeing that it was Kim.

"Oops." I said, registering the look on Kim's face.

"I'm going out." Kim said, stalking past me.

I frowned after her, before following her, breezing past Jace—who was just coming into the house. "Where? And for what?"

Kim sighed. "Anywhere. There must be more interesting places around here than this house." I came to a stop, watching her open the back door and slam it behind her. Recovering from my confusion, I tried to act as quickly as possible.

I found the coat rack and pulled on my leather jacket, before leaning down and rummaging around to find my boots.

I left the house quickly, running after Kim. I caught up to her, and out of breath, I said, "I'm coming with you."

We walked in silence after that. I'm a naturally reckless person, but it felt weird to leave the house we were planning to spend a decent amount of time in before, at some point, moving on. The house would be our holding ground, where we'd recover and, this is going out on a whim, grow in numbers.

I always wanted to keep moving; the faster the better. I thought we'd have to dash from place to place, leaving no clues that we were once there; no sillage. But Elle and Richard had taught me the importance of staying in at least one place for more than two days. We needed the time to track the people who followed us, to put together a very well thought out plan. It was not enough to just keep running around England with no idea of what was next.

We reached the end of a road, and Kim stood by the side, holding her hand out for a car to stop.

"It's not like we haven't done this before, but are you sure this is a good idea right now?" I asked, being the first to have spoke since I joined her.

Kim sighed. "Come on, Lexi, you've gone soft."

I stared at her, bewildered, even though she was paying no attention to me. "'Soft'?" I repeated, astounded. "I am barely soft," I said, pushing back my shoulders, "I'm Alexi Abbot."

Kim turned to look at me, an apprehensive expression on her face. "Then act like you are."

With that response, I pulled my hair tie out of my hair and shook my hair out, which fell down in loose curls.

As I heard a car approaching, I walked out into the road, hearing Kim call after me.

I ignored her, and waited for the car to come to a halt in front of me. Thank god it did; I don't think I can acquire anymore injuries.

After a few moments, the person got out of the car.

It was a man, maybe early twenties, who looked infuriated at our interruption to his journey. "I'm in a rush; I've just stolen this car—what do you want?" He asked, angrily, eyes scanning around us.

I raised an eyebrow. "We want to get in it." At this, Kim joined my side. The man looked between us for a few seconds before he rolled his eyes.

"Fine. Why not?"

I shared a victorious look with Kim, who just shook her head at me. We got in the back, watching the man look at us in the mirror.

The man started to drive, and then a figure darted out of the forest that Kim and I had just left. The man pulled an emergency brake, one that sent me flying in my seat, agitating my already stinging wound.

I leaned forward, trying to see what had happened. The man was about to carry on driving, around the figure, but I shouted at him to stop, before jumping out of the car and investigating further.

And lo and behold, the figure that had darted out of the forest and into the road was my Special One. The girl I was meant to be protecting, and she almost just died.

Sky Beaufort.

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Is that the first time someone's referred to her by her new last name???

Nice.

Nicely done Abbot.

'Aight lesgo

Jace and Lexi? Yay or nay??
Are Elle and Richard a power couple yet??
Kim and her grand plan????

FABULOUS SONGS

Songs that played when I was writing this chapter (in order):
Water Water - Empress Of
1000x - Jarryd James
Hanging On - Ellie Goulding
Don't Say A Word - Ellie Goulding
Various Storms & Saints - Florence + The Machine
Blue Moon - Kendal Johansson
Clocks - Coldplay
Just Tonight - The Pretty Reckless
Once Upon a Dream - Lana Del Rey
Swing - Cover Drive
Bad Dream - Ruelle
Frozen - Sabrina Claudio
Wicked Game - Ursine Vulpine (FIRST BOOK VIBES OMGGG)

END OF FABULOUS SONGS

Date written:
07/04/18
09/04/18

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Next update: hmm maybe Monday, but just this once
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CHAPTER FORTY SPOILER:
(wtf how????)

Do Kim and Lexi continue with their endeavours despite their better judgement?

And does Sky join?

+

A lovely, lovely fight between two lovely, lovely boys.

Who's got their knickers in a twist?