track #07 in gwyneth thalia anderson

enhypen // just a little bit

TRISTAN AND I walk along the path to the main city of the Adelaide Woods after concealing our identity with thick scarves over our faces and heavy padded clothing. In this weather, no one will notice. Our shoes form clean footprints on the fresh snow – the crunching sound of our footsteps are like music to my ears.

Once we reach Jason's house, we already see two pairs of shoes at the doormat – one men's, and one women's. It's funny, because Jason's parents are past retirement and stay at the house all day long, and he doesn't have any siblings. The aforementioned winter boots also are eerily practically the same size as Trissy's and mine.

We exchange a nervous look; I stay where I am while Tristan walks forward and presses on the doorbell – slightly after, Jason comes to the door, swings it fully open, and frowns at the sight of him. He almost slams the door into Tris' face, but I show myself, and Jason sighs, keeping the door open.

"What do you two want? Seems like you've moved on pretty well from Ava's death," Jason chuckles. "Got yourself a girlfriend, I see."

I fight to answer back – "We're not-", but Tristan once again gets there first.

"None of your business, Jason. Seems like you're the one who's got a new girlfriend here," he replies sarcastically, kicking the slightly smaller pair of boots with his own. "Ashley, right?"

I begin to feel like I don't belong here and shouldn't have come, because not only is this none of my business, I don't even know who Ashley is – or if she is even here.

Well, it seems like I'm wrong, because one second later, a girl from inside the house yells, "WHO CALLED MY NAME?" and emerges into the foyer.

At the sight of Tristan's feet on her shoes, she screeches and immediately rushes to pry them off – Tris merely smiles. "Nice to meet you, Ashley. Also known as, Jason's rebound."

"Hey-" the girl shrieks, but Jason pats her back, kissing her forehead lightly – which paints a frown on both our faces.

"I'll take care of this."

I guess if I said I didn't expect this, it wouldn't be an exaggeration. As Ashley goes back into the house, cradling her boots, Jason immediately lunges at my friend and they throw punches between each other, each strike threatening to rip the other's throat out.

"STOP!" I yell at the top of my lungs – Tristan stops, but Jason doesn't, and I have to practically kick him in the stomach for him to turn to me boredly. "You tricked us. Why'd you do that?"

"Ava thought she was gonna be enough. No, she wasn't," he drawls. "It's also none of both of you two's business, so please kindly get the hell out of my house."

"DON'T TALK ABOUT MY SISTER LIKE THAT!" Tristan screams, dragging out every word. "Correct me if I'm wrong – you were the one who courted Ava in the first place. You were the one who begged her to give you a chance. And now you're saying she wasn't enough for you? If that's the case, then why didn't you just not pursue her? Jason, you're a sorry excuse of a son for your parents."

"I didn't," Jason replies blankly.

Tristan takes his phone from his bag, opened to the same screen he showed me at home. "Oh yeah? Get lost, Chrysallis."

"W- how'd you get this?"

"Twins share everything in their life, Jason," Trissy smirks, and I smile at it. "Why, I got it from Ava. You wanted me to believe I killed her, didn't you?"

We both laugh out loud a bit at Jason's 'felon face', which is just a blank stare into space, proving that his plan has been exposed.

"Well, you failed. I found out what Ava meant for me to find. She had always been on my side. Your loss, hundred-percent."

Jason kind of gawps, mouth dropping open. "What- get out of my house. Now."

"You see, it's Mr and Mrs Chrysallis' house. Not yours, since you don't even deserve to be called their son. Just admit it, Jason. You wanted me to think I was to blame for my own sister's death. You cheated on her, lied about loving her. If you can do that to someone who truly loved you, I don't even know what you can do to someone who doesn't. I don't want an explanation."

Ava's old boyfriend leaps over the doorway – fist heading straight towards Tristan's face.

"Hey-" Tristan ducks under Jason's arm just in time.

"We saw what you did," I say, pulling Tristan away from Jason's next upcoming punch.

"YOU DIDN'T DESERVE AVA," Tristan yells over his shoulder as we make our way back down the path leading to the Chrysallis residence.

"I guess I shouldn't have doubted him," Tris shakes his head, walking next to me after pulling the huge scarves up to cover our faces. "Everyone's changing – I just don't get why he would've wanted me to think I killed my own pregnant sister. Was that to cover up the fact that he cheated, or to make me feel guilty because Ava was supposedly pregnant?"

I smile, staying in silence for the rest of our walk home – as we approach the dirt path leading to the secluded opening of our home's new location, we see someone coming from afar, too. And it doesn't look like any of our friends.

"Psst," I drag Tristan's shirt sleeve, nodding with my head towards the man who's coming towards us. "There."

He seemingly understands what I mean, and we immediately duck into a bush, waiting for the man to come. As he approaches, I gasp, realizing who it is. James. Again.

"What the heck? Why is he here," I whisper under my breath, and Tristan tenses up against me, too.

But it's not just James here – a huge car follows him, and as I catch sight of the giant black car that Laine had previously described to us in so much detail, the feeling that something not as good is going to come.

"I SEE YOU, ANDERSON AND HALE," he yells as he reaches somewhere not even near where we're hiding.

"Do we go out or not," I nudge Tris with my arm.

"Depends. If his plan is to intimidate, then we'll go. If he's here to confront, we'll stay hidden. I think he wants to kill us, though-"

"Done deal," I say, already hoisting myself up with a hand, and offering my other one to him. We stay crouched in the bush, though.

James shakes his head to himself. "Do you really need me to prove it to you? Fine." He then takes large strides towards the door, and I pray for no one to be home and for no one to answer. Hopefully then he'll leave us alone. James knocks on the door with raps, and Tristan curses under his breath when we hear a flurry of action from inside.

Laine appears with disheveled hair, James chuckles. The smile on Laine's face immediately turns ashen as soon as she realizes what she's done. "Can you two come out now? I hate people not following the rules."

"I guess we got no choice," I say silently, pulling Tristan out of the bush with me.

Laine puts a hand over her mouth as she makes eye contact with us from across the pavement. I shake my head. She slowly lowers her hand.

"What do you want," I say, letting Tris' sleeve drop to the side.

"We don't want anything from you, Gwyneth Thalia Anderson," he grins an evil maniacal grin that makes my blood run cold – Tristan puts a hand on my shoulder to reassure me, but I shrug it off after I see the look James is giving me. "Except we want you to realize who's in power here. Come out, guys."

Three workers emerge from the black car – I recognize one of them as Ava and Anson's killer. The other two faces are foreign to me, but they all look menacing as always.

"Do it," James commands.

Once again, Tristan, Laine and I watch as the whole block of unoccupied houses in front of us is set on fire. Red, burning flames that roar and screech until all that's left is ashes – not the kind that slowly licks at your marshmallow until it's soft and tastes perfect.

"You see, this is what's gonna happen if you don't let us take the reigns. You said you won't go down without a fight. William, Thalia and Johanna, you know we don't want to fight. Can we just be civil for once?" he mocks us, but the words sound acidic on his tongue.

"Why aren't you stopping the fire? You can't. You know you can't. So are you just going to pretend and fight while the world burns down in flames – or keep the lives of innocent people? Your choice."

James' words are headed straight towards me – as is his stare, burning straight into my eyes. I look back at him, head high and almost empty of fear, but my veins are throbbing, blood running cold at what this means.

"I got this," Tristan says, taking a step forward and meeting James' gaze.

"You don't need to-"

"I do."

"You say it's civil, but no part of this is civil. War isn't civil. Torturing innocent people isn't civil. We aren't going down without a fight. Burning down a block of unoccupied houses isn't going to do anything for you, James. If you said we should've surrendered, why don't you open fire? We're gonna have to bow down to you then, don't we?" he continues in what seems like a monotone voice, mocking James, too.

"Tristan is right," Laine says, stepping closer to me. "You don't want the Adelaide Woods to burn down, so when eventually you get the power you have been pawning over for ages, it'll be the best it'll ever be. Unfortunately, you can't get the best of both worlds."

A smile hints at the edges of my lips – but all I'm thinking about is how James could've found our new location. Would one of our friends have betrayed us and our cause? But who would that be – I can't, and don't want to believe one of the other six is doing this. It's definitely not Tristan – Laine has no reason to do so, so does Zoey; Eunice wouldn't do this to me, would she? Aiden and Kun... they wouldn't either. Maybe he just followed us back. Maybe we weren't careful enough. Maybe it's just a coincidence?

I burst into awkward laughter, successfully directing James' gaze back to me. "Either it's the crown that infuses your veins with darkness the moment you put it on – or surrendering your supposed power to a better world. Trust me, you don't want to burn the Adelaide Woods down – and neither should you want to do anything to any of us. If you want to open fire, do it. We're in check until we find a better move, then it's game over for you, James."

I nudge Laine for her to go back into the house, but she stands her ground.

"Useless," James scoffs, moving his gaze over to her.

"If we burn, you're going down with us," I say after a while, watching the houses across us smolder. Smoke wafts up in bunches, the grey fumes racking up a cough in both Trissy and I.

All the suspicions I had for someone betraying our cause are all gone as I stare at everything burned down to ashes. I shouldn't have had expectations of any sort for James, because we all know he's just trying to keep us under his control.

"I guess it's time to relocate our house again," Tristan sighs, as I take one last look at the previously pristine white houses, now turned into nothing but smoke and debris. The fumes of poison were simmering, but who was the one who would eventually succumb? 

a/n: i am INCREDIBLY sorry for the delays i do not know why this writing slump has gone on for so long 😭😭 also i might rewrite/heavyedit the checkmate series this summer - tell me what you think LOL