Okay story time!! Cleaning products are the BANE of my existence! I know that they need to be child-proof but seriously I swear sometimes they are like adult proof! I was trying to open the Clorox spray one and really it says pull up, then turn, then pull up again. So I do this. 

What is supposed to happen: the top comes off so you can refill the bottle. 

What happened to me: the pad of my middle finger got caught and sliced right down the middle because the container pulled the skin and crushed it. The upside is that I don't need stitches, it wasn't too deep so they used that liquid bandaid thing to cover it up. 

That is all for story time, enjoy. 

Chapter 59 – Fragments (Samson Conrad POV) Pt. 5

The bar lights dim and flicker just as Rafael pushes the double doors out, but two steps outside of the building, a new group of individuals come to stand before us, Davis, Xan and Sunny behind us. With our abrupt stop, Fatima moves closer to my side, Luca blocking those in front of us from even so much as getting a glimpse of Fatima.

Bouncing over, Xan and Davis much calmer walk to the group, "These are our family, others settled here with us," Sunny says, pulling a light caramel skin tone man with her, a darker man behind him.

I hold back a groan. We went from three people inside to twelve people outside; all eyeing Fatima, but Davis Phillips takes control. "Fatima, these are those that risked their life with Dmitri to rescue you," Davis waves a hand at the group. I frown, but when they take a step towards Fatima, she takes one back, her face unreadable.

"Wasn't she like five or younger when you all decided to rescue her?" Rafael asks confused. No, just faux puzzlement I catch on when the innocence on his face grows.

"I mean, she was five, and locked up, I'm sure she didn't ask you to come to her aid. You were adults that went looking for Fatima, maybe stop acting like she owes you something," Rafael blurts out purposely when the group ignored him. "But, what do I know?" he shrugs.

"I'm just human."

"We aren't – they aren't doing that!" Sunny denies, "We're just all excited, it's been a long time coming," she says looking at the darker skinned man.

Fatima and I follow her gaze.

"Hello dear," the older man says, his eyes on Fatima solely. "I'm Sunny's pops, Bo," he points to himself, voice low rough. Looking away from him, I look at our location, the conversation we were having and the lack of care that we might be overheard. Looking through the window to where we had been sitting, again surrounded by humans. Maybe... did these supernaturals come out to those in the town?

Then again it wasn't like we were shouting or the humans were stopping to openly listen to us speak.

Fatima nods slowly and one by one, the eight people left introduce themselves but hold their spot on the sidewalk. Our truck not too far away, Luca presses the on button, roaring it to life.

"Look we need to get going," he says the five of us moving in unison.

"You're leaving?" the woman that introduced herself as Gloria asks, her accent thick, the 'r's' in her word lingers and even sounds as though it's been carried into the second word. "Have you already discussed the Union and – and where is Dmitri?" she continues peering behind us before lifting her nose in the air and sniffing.

The Union? My heart feels like a horse galloping right out of the gates, hooves pounding the dirt.

"And Fatima is injured," Xan announces, his face a mixture of concern and... overall strangeness.

Imogen snorts, "I'd hardly call a wrist in a cast injured the way you're saying it, as though she's bleeding out on the sidewalk," the words I want to say get stuck in my mouth, the eagerness of these people making me wary.

"Maybe you should let my mother Erma, take a look at your wrist," Xan ignores Imogen.

Can we ask them 'who is Robert Delaney?' I wonder, instantly shutting that down. What if they were all bad, it's like we told Rafael earlier, we have to be careful and really watch the moves we make.

Thoughts all swirled and chaotic, I'm able to pull just one moment from the clutter with great clarity. Maybe these people were Independents, or maybe they said that word to trip up Fatima and the rest of us. The possibilities were endless and while they had information on Fatima and Dmitri to an extent, we had nothing on them. "Loyalists will do anything to get their claws in your, offer you everything, just to gain your trust," Fatima had explained the world she believed to be true to me.

Loyalists versus Independents.

My mouth goes dry and the hand Fatima holds trembles slightly with the force that she is using. "Excuse us," Fatima says with an air of finality, this time she begins walking towards the truck with purpose, not looking back though Luca and I do so. Just as she reaches for the handle of the car I my hand darts out to stop hers at the last minute.

With my back towards the people that were burning holes to the backs of our bodies, I subtly lift my glasses from my eyes, scanning the truck for anything amiss. Even with an alarm in place, taking that extra look could lessen the problems arising should I have not looked.

Everything checking out right, I open the door for Fatima, Imogen heading in before I follow while Luca and Rafael hop into the front seats.

"Okay now that was just a bit disconcerting!" Rafael exclaims. Rolling my eyes I focus on Fatima now. Her eyes glazed over, a far away look as though she wasn't even with us right now.

"We have to get the hell out of here," Luca mutters, scanning the area as he drives, the Bo and Davis guy jumping into their car as we pass them up.

Like Luca's words are a bucket of ice dumped on Fatima she blinks in rapid succession, shaking her head as though trying to clear the mental haze.

"No, I think we should go back to the barn." Luca looks back at us from the rearview mirror, brows pushed together in hesitation.

"Why?" I do what Luca doesn't. Ask Fatima, interested in the way her mind works.

She rests back against the seat, takes a quick glance behind her before resting her head against my shoulder.

"Well..." she sighs, but the tension and stiffness in her body doesn't melt away. "They're going to follow us. We can hold them off by going to the property. All the houses so far have escape tunnels, as does this. We'll have to take it by foot, only taking limited supplies since the little trolley can barely hold much. While they think we're inside, we'll have that head start on them."

I try to hide my smile but when that proves impossible I lean over and kiss Fatima on top of her hair.

"The other option is to drive as far as we can... Bo and Davis got into a car with a smaller gas tank, compared to ours. Eventually they'll have to stop, we can literally drive four to five hundred miles without stopping."

"Shouldn't we do that instead of going back to the barn then?" Imogen presses.

Fatima shakes her head silently not bothering to remove it from my shoulder.

"I know that it's television, and not real. But once Dmitri brought me a movie and there was a car chase scene," Fatima says softly. Sighing as though she was nearly defeated. "The man in the movie is stopped by county line police. They roll out this spikes and when the man drove over them, his car spun out of control."

"I don't think these people want to injury you," Rafael said slowly, peeking back at us. I didn't much believe in immediate changes but for some reason Rafael seemed to have actually heeded Luca and my warning from the night before. "I mean I was checking out their actions towards you," he looks directly at Fatima.

Moving to the mini fridge, Imogen takes out some waters handing one to Fatima before reclaiming her seat.

Rafael's face drops down to a frown, his thoughts or whatever he think he saw bothering him.

"The one guy, Xan I swear his junk twitched," Rafael says and Imogen sprays the sip of water she just took out, spluttering.

So it wasn't just me that found Xan and Davis taking too much of an interest in Fatima?

Giggling, Imogen slaps her knee when soft bells of amusement turn into heavy, gasping, stomach cramping laughter. "Why – why were you looking at his junk?" she asks between peals.

"How could I not, that guy looked like he was ready to mount Fatima in that bar, other patrons be damned," Rafael squeaks. "And his dad," phew, "he's like that creepy uncle no one wants to invite to join the family because he is always hitting on you when he's at your house for holidays."

His words cause a whole new set of guffaws from Imogen.

Upfront, Luca shakes his head at his friend, mumbling 'idiot,' under his breathe.

"Faith," Luca calls, the car slowing at a red light. "The barn or the highway?"

Fatima's' frame molded to mine, I feel the instant tension that keeps her frozen at my side. Is she uncomfortable at having to make the overall decision?

"We've already come this far," I whisper right at her ear, "whatever you decide is fine."

"Dmitri didn't call them when he was dying," Fatima says and I'm sure everyone including Rafael could hear the quietly spoken words. "They think he's alive... however close they might have been, Dmitri did not call one of them. Worse?" I wait for it, not sure how much shoddier this could get.

I was wrong. It does and has gotten lousier.

"I was alone on that mountain. Sure, they helped Dmitri get me, but not I cannot remember not a single one of them coming to visit me while Dmitri left me for months at a time. And – and that Union business..." she shudders.

"Remember I thought you were with Taylor," Fatima lifts her head from my shoulder to meet my eyes. I nod. "Remember I told you? I thought people were matched for replenishing the population, aiming for survivability, and supremacy."

"Was it called Unions?" I ask my mind reeling.

Fatima shakes her head, before resting it against my shoulder once more.

"We go back to the barn and use the tunnels," she says stronger after a few seconds.

The car stars off slowly heading back when Rafael breaks the silence.

"What if there is no tunnel? Or worse the tunnel leads to one of these peoples homes?"

For once I don't want to hit Rafael. He has a good point. The other places had them, but we never tried following one out. Figuring that Dmitri just had them put in place of emergencies.

"Am I the only one who thinks that maybe they aren't bad people but just... excited to meet Fatima? Eager?" Imogen says in a smaller voice.

"I mean... creepiness aside, or the fact that Dmitri never called them when he was injured. What if they're just excited to meet the great Divineness? I mean it's like meeting a celebrity right? As for the Xan guy... maybe he's heard of Fatima so much that he has it in his head to get closer to her? Wants to get her not because he means you harm but because you're you?" Imogen finishes tongue-tied and mouthing what she's just said to her self.

"And Davis? What is his excuse? He wants her too? Despite the fact that his wife was just outside?" Rafael bites back.

"I don't know if they're good or bad... but that only makes it harder now. Wyatt said what to do and so far I'm trusting him... at least what I can remember is him being kind to me," Fatima speaks up, ending the building battle between Imogen and Rafael.

"So are we going back to the barn or are we heading on to the coordinates?"

I glance down when I feel movement, just in time to watch Fatima engage in some singular thumb-war game, as though she hadn't heard Luca ask where to go.

"The coordinates, but we need to be on the lookout... just in case we're being followed." One sharp nod and Luca whips the truck in the opposite direction, Fatima nearly ending up on my lap from the turn. Instead of fixing herself besides me though, she huddles against me, making her self-small and hides her face in my neck.

As we leave the small town in our rearview mirror a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach grows. The change in Fatima alone is enough to do so. Did she see something? Was a memory triggered back there? Each question, thought and worry sends my heart racing. 

Fatima uncurls the hand she had tucked between us, placing it right over my chest, palm flat, able to feel my heart beat, a loud and quick staccato. 

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© 2016 roxann_season All Rights Reserved

thank you for reading, voting, and commenting. I love reading your comments, especially when you readers go back and read what others have commented and join in the conversation. It's uber awesome! 

SO many of you guessed it, Dmitri called WALSH POMME before calling these people to get Faith from the mountain. If he really thought they'd keep her safe or trusted them, he'd have called one of them. Right? 

Instead, he called Walsh and made sure to set Fatima up in Bend SPECIFICALLY. 

Do you guys think they made the right call? Or should they have gone back to the barn and used the tunnels? 

That is all. Goodnight. 

p.s. Many have asked when or where they can find the first book to my series, Unexpected (book#1) since I've taken down the ending since I'm in the works of publishing it.

If you're interested and want to know when and where you can find the book when it becomes available, head to my website:www.roxannseason.com sign up for my newsletter and be the first to know when I'll be dropping that book out as well as future releases such as this book in ebook/paperback/hardcover versions. Thank you all for your patience.