Chapter 4
When I wokeup, I had messy hair and dried drool on my chin. Sirius was snoring next to me, his head was rested against the window. Regulus was looking out the window, wired headphones in. Rain was slamming against the window loudly, it was kind of calming.
I stretched upwards and saw that Remus was reading a novel, Peter was eating crisps whilst on his phone, Pandora fell asleep with a hairy, massive turantula rested on her arm and a snake around her leg. Lily and Frank were playing uptown girl quietly and singing along together.
"You good?" I asked Regulus, and he took out a headphone in order to reply.
"Yeah, thanks." He answered, coldly.
"Water, kind of like shark boy, right?" I joked, trying to keep the conversation going.
"Okay lava girl." Regulus remarked snidely, before offering me one of his earphones. I happily agreed, and we had to go closer as they were wired. He was playing Apocalypse by Cigarettes After Sex.
I looked down to the rucksack by my feet and took out my phone without moving too much so that the headphone stayed in. I checked my messages, turning off do not disturb.
My mum had messaged me with questions. I had told her last night about the sorting, so obviously she was confused. As I had texted her at around two in the morning, she replied at seven.
After responding to her I opened Snapchat. Mary had sent a snap of her tongue out for streaks. Marlene had sent me a mug of her which I saved and responsed with crying emojis. Lily, who was literally in the same car as me, sent a picture of the view from an hour ago. Peter had sent me a picture of me sleeping, messy hair, glasses falling, a double chin and drool on my chin. The weirdest thing about that snap was that Regulus was looking at me with a smile at the side.
"You looked stupid." Regulus said from my side. I playfully nudged him under the seat. The song then changed into There is a Light That Never Goes Out by The Smiths.
"I love the smiths!" I exclaimed, and Regulus smiled his small little smile.
"Me too, best breakup band ever." He commented. "Can you do anything with you know, your powers?" Regulus asked, his smile faded. I thought for a second.
"I practiced a bit last night," I started, thinking back to that empowering feeling of fire shooting from the palms of my hand and bending at will. "Here, let me show you." At the tip of my finger, a flicker of light that resembled a lit candle appeared. Regulus watched, emotionless. I went to blow it out, but I made it bend into a heart instead, beaming with pride and grinning widely.
"Idiot, why would you make it a heart?" Regulus mummbled, covering his face for whatever reason. Once he had composed himself, he looked up at me with those grey, alluring eyes. "How would that help us?" He asked, and I shrugged in response.
"We won't be perfect, it's our first day with these abilities, we're trying our best." I said, and Regulus went quiet.
Frank pulled into a petrol station and hopped outside, warning us not to move. He walked inside the building, leaving us all alone to talk.
"Lily was having fun with Frank, huh." Peter commented, and Lily turned around to smack his leg.
"Shut up you tosser." She angrily said.
Suddenly, a loud thump on the roof startled us all, awakening Sirius as well. I immediately knew that I should go out there. I reached over to the door on Regulus' side before he grabbed my wrist.
"What are you doing, stupid?" Regulus shouted over the sound of the stomping.
"Opening the door, genius!" I remarked back.
"You are not climbing over me." He demanded.
"We're both boys who cares?" I asked. Regulus' face dropped slightly at this, but I couldn't put my finger on why.
"I care!" Regulus bit back.
"Fine, go out with me then." I responded, slyly.
"Whatever, stupid."
We both climbed out of the car, only to see a strange being. It wasn't exactly human, nor was it a beast. It had a fully black body, skin so translucent that the skeleton was clear, bloodshot eyes and a human-yet-inhuman face.
"What do we do?" Regulus shouted in fear. I looked around for some answer, maybe something that could help, but found none.
"Leg it." I responded.
I climbed onto the roof with the being, and allowed fire to spread around my palms. I aimed them at it's face, and like a flamethrower, they shot out. The being screamed in agony, before falling backwards onto the floor in front of Regulus.
"Kill it!" I shouted down at Regulus, who looked at me in slight fear at first.
Then, he did something that I would be never expected. He lifted up his right arm, and a beautiful trident appeared in his hand, suddenly. It was seaweed green with ocean blue details along with some pearl white gemstones. Regulus pointed the trident towards the creatures face before stabbing it down.
Blood oozed out of the being, except it was a shining silver rather than a deep red. He continued to stab the trident into the creature, crushing the bones and mushing up it's brain. By the time that Regulus was finished, it was unrecognizable. He was panting and looking down at the silver blood which coated his trident, and his soaked-in-blood clothes.
I jumped down from the roof and had to take Regulus' hand and guide him inside. He was clearly shellshocked. We decided not to stick with the seating plan, and I let Regulus sit in the middle seat so he could rest his head on his brother's shoulder.
Frank entered the car minutes later, and not a word had been exchanged between any of us.
"Hey guys, I got everyone some food." Frank said upon entering, passing everybody a Greggs saussage roll, pack of prawn cocktail walkers crisps, and a fanta each. "It's not much, but we've been on the road for five hours, I figured you were hungry. Woah why do you all look shaken up?" Frank asked, glancing around I'd assume.
"D-Did you not s-see that thing?" Lily started, her British accent very obvious when she was shaken up.
"Huh?" Frank questioned, looking perplexed.
"There was like, a half human thing that was banging on the roof and, and, James and Regulus killed it!" Peter exclaimed, clearly terrified as well. Weird as it was, their voices were like closure for me, that I wasn't crazy.
"Guys, you're hallucinating. There was nothing there, and how would Pandora sleep through it all." Frank replied, gesturing towards Pandora, who was in fact still asleep with her animals. The ruffling of Frank's clothes as he gestured showed me exactly what kind of man he was.
"We know what we saw!" Sirius shouted, running his fingers through Regulus' black curls.
"Calm down." Remus started, trying to appear calm but was clearly worried as well.
"Let's just go, you guys need naps, clearly." Frank sighed, starting up the car and heading on his way. I didn't have an appetite so I put the food inside my bag for another time.
Lily, Peter, Remus and Regulus all joined Pandora in slumber after thirty minutes at most. I stared out the window, watching as the rain turned into a storm, thunder turned to lightning, and driving turned into parking inside a random forest, pulling out the duvets and setting up the seats as beds.
I looked to my side as Regulus continued to sleep, I saw a single tear trickle down his rosy cheeks, his tired eyes and long eyelashes. Weirdly enough, I didn't say a word to Sirius, which is super unlike me. I don't know why, but it felt disrespectful to speak to him after I forced Regulus to go outside with me.
At nine I began to sleep as well, thunder and lightning crashing around us as we dozed off. By the time I woke up, it was six in the morning, and some had already woken up.
Regulus, Pandora, Frank and Lily were outside, laughing happily. I pushed Sirius' leg off of me before opening the door and joining them. Regulus' smile faded, but his eyes lit up when I walked outside.
"We're getting back on the road in an hour tops. We have to drive until one of you sense that we're close." Frank told me, offering me a cup of coffee. I thought that it was weird how he had brought a whole coffee machine and mugs but I didn't ask questions, I just graciously accepted the coffee.
Pandora suddenly stood up and walked to the edge of the forest, staring into it.
"Panda?" Regulus called after her, and I ran with them as he followed her.
"Do you feel that?" She asked us, reaching her arms out towards the trees and closing her eyes. As she inhaled, flowers and vines crept around her legs and formed around her arms in a green glow. As she exhaled, a green trail appeared in front of us, and immediately, she followed it. Regulus went after her, and when I went to follow them, he stuck his arm out to stop me, but I refused.
"Stay here, stupid." He said with a slight smirk.
"Not a chance, genius." We both followed her closely, trusting her aura to guide us in the right directions. We went around a lot of turns, through some caves, and even through a gorgeous flower field before we arrived at a crack in the wall of a cave.
"We can fit if we go sideways." I stated, and we all unanimously agreed that it couldn't hurt to try. As we slipped through, I couldn't help but notice how Regulus' breathing became erratic, but i couldn't blame him. The tightness of the Rocky walls felt as if they were closing in on us.
Finally, we came to the end, and it was the most beautiful sight ever.
There appeared to be a stunning Meadow which stretched on for miles. It was full of daisies, roses, tulips and sunflowers. The sun shined brightly in the sky, which didn't physically make sense but I ignored that. There was even a stunning well, with coins galore for wishes. They weren't actual money, otherwise we would've stuffed our pockets, they had faces of fairies on them, that appeared to move and talk as you held it.
"I wish to know how this will end up." Pandora whispered, just loud enough for us to hear as she threw a wish in the well. It splashed delicately onto the water and a beam of green energy shot up softly from the water.
A nymph-like voice began to speak from the water, and none of us had expected for it to say that. "You will face trials and triumphs, but also losses. Some of you will survive, and some will not. Love will be found where you least expect it, and betrayal will be shone when you least need it. That who you trust most will be your worst enemy. The outcome will be a success, but in who's eyes? Your abilities will assist you. Use them for your soul and others."
We were speechless, to say the least.