The Seasons

Chapter 11

After almost two hours, the bar finally started to calm down as people began to leave. When the bell chimed, indicating more people, Autumn inwardly groaned. However, looking up, he scowled. It wasn’t customers, just his friends, and he frowned a little when Summer walked in after them in a t-shirt and shorts.

Goddess, that human would be the death of him one day. When he spotted Wing, he remembered Blue wanted him. “Wing, go to the back. Blue wants to see you. And Thorne, nice seeing you.”

Thorne scowled as he eyed Wing, who left before he turned to glare at him. “Don’t you nice seeing you, me. My best friend was kidnapped, and you never f*****g told me?!”

“In my defence, we didn’t know he had been taken until last week,” Jem said as he walked over to the bar and ordered a shot.

“And we didn’t know you two were friends,” Rosalyn added as she copied her brother and ordered a shot.

Autumn eyed Slaine, who fiddled with the necklace he had not taken off in six years, and he couldn’t help but think back to what Blue had said. Six whole years and they still had little to nothing on the necklace, yet Slaine didn’t seem as bothered with it as he used to be. The necklace was simple, a small bottle filled with something red on a small chain. Yet Slaine never let anyone touch it, and Autumn had often seen Slaine staring at his reflection as he fiddled with the necklace with what appeared to be a ghost of a smile.

When his eyes landed on the government official, he was surprised to see him staring intently at the necklace around Slaine’s neck. Autumn frowned, but Cairo had not taken his eyes off of it. The gears in his mind ticking. He looked away as the group sat in the corner booth, stealing chairs from other tables so they could all fit, and Autumn couldn’t help but stare at Summer. What was he meant to do?

It wasn’t until an hour later when everyone else turned up, and Neo officially closed the shop at 6 am, well, until 8 am, when Grey and Jem took over. Autumn grabbed a chair and sat in the corner to watch Summer closely, who hadn’t spoken much since he arrived.

“Can I just say I’m a kid,” Will deadpanned as he stared at his family. “And you all decided to meet at a bar?”

Rosalyn scowled at him. “You need friends your age. Go to the back room and sleep. Don’t you have school in a bit?”

“Dad said I could stay up.”

Micah snorted. “No, I said you could stay up until the bar closed. It's closed, go to the back room and sleep, and take your brother. You know where the blankets are.” Will looked like he was about to talk back, but when he got glared at by everyone in the room, he sighed and took his brother from Alexander and went into the backroom.

Rosalyn sighed. “I swear he used to be so cute. Look at him now. The little rat.”

“So, Cairo,” Jem said, grinning as he stared at the man. “What’s Rex Superno like?”

Cairo frowned but didn’t say anything. And then Rosalyn started talking about something else, so the topic changed, and Autumn droned everyone out as he focused solely on Summer. His friends’ eyes were slightly puffy and red, and he knew he had probably been crying, and he didn’t know why or what he should have done.

But when he saw Summer scan everyone in the room and then stare at his reflection in the glass tissue box on the table, he couldn’t help but feel useless. He didn’t know what Summer was going through but didn’t want him to suffer alone. He didn’t miss how his eyes glassed over before he quickly blinked them back and laughed when Jem said something that caused the others to laugh.

“So, Wing. How are you adjusting to your now immortal life?”

“It’s awesome. But horrible. I have to attend a meeting on Monday, and I hate formal settings, but if I do okay, and bullshit my way through it, I might be able to stay at uni, which we love.”

“What are you studying?”

“Astrophysics.”

“Oh nice, weren’t you doing that before, Thorne?” Neo asked as he eyed the man sitting next to Wing.

Wing frowned as he turned to stare at him. “Before? Did you change courses? Why?”

Thorne sighed, glaring at Neo before he turned to look at his best friend. “Yeah, I changed courses just after you disappeared. I’m majoring in biochemistry and minoring in chemistry.”

Wing’s frown deepened. “What? Why?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, some things changed, and I wanted to focus on biochemistry more.”

“But,” he whispered, looking down at his hands. “What about our promises?”

“We can still do everything we said we would,” Thorne whispered, placing his hand on Wing’s shoulder. “We just won’t see each other in class as often anymore. And you live next door to me, and if you think I’m leaving you alone with my slag of a father, you’re wrong.”

“Oh, I will fight you, Thorne,” Cairo hissed. “Call me a slag once more. See what happens.”

“Sl-”

“Okay!” Neo said, raising his voice a little and clapping his hands. “As lovely as this conversation is, Thorne. How are you a daywalker?”

“Oh yeah,” Slaine said, nodding a little. “I’ve been wondering that too. I get why I am one and why Wing is. And Cairo is one because of Rex. But how are you one?”

“I was taken too,” he replied, shrugging a little. Autumn didn't miss the way Cairo’s shoulders tensed, and neither did Wing, sitting next to the man. He frowned as he looked up at him but didn’t say anything.

“What?!” Jem yelled. “Why didn’t we know this before?”

“It never came up, and it was years ago. I barely remember it.”

“What do you remember?” Grey asked as he clasped his hands on the table before him and leaned forward a little, frowning.

Thorne shrugged a little. “Not much. They experimented on me too. But I don’t think it was as bad as the others. I was only injected with this one thing and then thrown away. Whatever they injected me with hurt. f**k, I was in pain for a month afterwards, but then I realised whatever they had done had made me a daywalker.”

Wing blinked a few times. “That’s a thing?”

All eyes landed on Elizabeth; she rolled her eyes as she shook her head. “It is not. Or rather, it shouldn’t be. The only way to become a daywalker is to be blessed by Chaos, as many were during the curse. Or to be turned by a purebred, which isn't very common at all.”

“Okay, so what the f**k?” Jem deadpanned as he stared at everyone in the room.

Blue sighed as they ran a hair through their blonde hair. “Slaine, I need to ask because I can’t help you if you don’t help me, but is there something you’re hiding from me regarding Chaos and the necklace?”

“No,” Slaine deadpanned, staring at them. “There is nothing.”

“I was told you were caught speaking to yourself.”

Slaine glared at Wing, who not so subtly slid down his seat. “And? I’m traumatised. It’s how I cope.”

Blue sighed but nodded. “Okay. But can I at least borrow the-”

“No!” All eyes in the bar landed on Slaine as he clung to the necklace with his hand. “You can’t have it. It’s mine. They’re mine. You can’t have them.”

Jem was about to say something but was interrupted by Blue. “I won’t take them from you, Slaine. But I need to speak to them.” Honestly, Autumn was beyond confused about what was happening, and so were the others from the looks on their faces.

“Slaine,” Blue whispered gently. “No one wants to take them from you. You can have them. I just want to talk to them. Ask them some questions. And you know I can’t help you if I don’t speak to them.”

Autumn sighed; no one even knew who ‘they’ were.

“You can’t have it.”

“I know. And I don’t. But don’t you want to know why they gave it to you? Or why do they stay in contact with you even after all these years? Didn’t you ask me to help you get rid of it? Did something cause you to change your mind? Don’t you want to know what all of this means?”

“That was before.”

“What’s going on?” Wing whispered, looking confused.

Wing speaking seemed to bring Slaine out of his little trance as his eyes widened; he looked around the room, his eyes wide, climbed over the table, and bolted out of the bar without looking back.

The room was silent for more than a minute before Blue groaned. “Oh, come on, Wing. I was so close too.”

“I’m sorry,” he groaned.

Autumn’s eyes landed on Summer, who appeared to be in a daze, and he swallowed his fear. Something was wrong with Summer, and he wasn’t telling him what.

~*~