[ 35 ] 2014

https://youtu.be/UpHeMawgNC4

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"You're a good guy, Ashton. Good guys always find a way to make things work in the end." 

-

Another day without the two missing girls had passed and their friends were beginning to get as anxious as Paúl. Calum was especially in a bad mood, snapping at anyone who so much as glanced at him. With Harley gone, Michella was even more insufferably clingy towards Calum, and he often found himself mixing into the crowds in the hallways to avoid being seen by the pesky first year student.

The school day had finally ended after what felt like agonizing hours and Calum was on his way out to the parking lot. It was the fourth time he had missed football (soccer) practice that week, and he knew he would get a warning from the coach sooner or later. He had been easy on Calum for the last few weeks because he was the team captain, and he also knew of many personal issues that Calum had. But there was also so much he could let slide. Calum didn't care for any of it. He had only joined the football team because everyone at St. Gen's had to join a club or a sport, and if he had been named captain, it was the coach's choice, not Calum's. He often left everything up to his co-captain Dirk anyway.

He was halfway across the parking lot when he heard someone calling out to him. It was someone who had never talked to him before.

"Hey Calum!" Billy Quinn called, and he wasn't exactly sounding like he wanted a friendly chat either.

Calum stopped in his tracks and turned to see Harley's brother walking towards him with Cindy in tow. His eyebrows were furrowed into a look of anger that was directed at Calum. The boy with raven hair soon fond out what the blonde wanted. 

"Someone told me what you did to Cindy the other day." Billy informed, standing before Calum fearlessly. He had no way of knowing that Calum would be able to defeat him without even lifting a finger. 

"What did I do to Cindy?" Calum asked, looking from him to Cindy for a hint.

"Billy, don't fight someone over me. Let's just get out of here." Cindy begged, tugging on the sleeve of his red school blazer.

But her boyfriend refused, pulling his arm away from her grip. "He called you dumb, Cindy. I'm tired of people calling you dumb just because you're blonde, and you're a cheerleader. From now on, whoever calls you dumb will have to suffer the consequences."

"That's really sweet, babe. But I really don't care what anyone calls me." She assured him.

Knowing the way the populars were always bent on spreading gossip around St. Genevieve's and how the majority were loyal to Luke Hemmings out of selfish interest in their social standings, Calum figured one of the cheerleaders had gone to him with the story. She had probably told Luke and then Luke probably told Billy, likely twisting the story so that it sounded much worse than it really was. He knew Billy Quinn was head over heels in love with Cindy and would try to start a fight with Calum to defend her. That way Luke got what he wanted without lifting a finger. It was the power of the populars.

I think she's dumb because when we went to a museum field trip in primary school to see the Santa Ana exhibit, she thought we were going to see the Santa Clause exhibit, not because she's a blonde cheerleader, Calum thought to himself. But Billy was already angry enough as it was. He didn't want to make things worse, especially not when he was Harley's older brother and she would probably never forgive him if he were to hurt Billy.

Calum sighed. "I really don't have time for this. I have to get home right now. And I don't want to fight you, mate. You're Harley's brother."

"Don't use the fact that you're dating my sister as an excuse to get out of this." Billy said to him. Even Billy was part of the people who had heard the rumor that Calum and Harley were back together.

Now Calum gave a shake of his head. "Its not an excuse. I would fight you any day if you were anyone else. But she would kill me if I fought you, and her opinion matters much more to me than anyone else's." Looking to Cindy, he offered an apology, "I'm really sorry for calling you dumb, Cindy. I was just really frustrated that I couldn't find Harley and you weren't really helping."

Billy scoffed. "Luke was right. You are a coward. Come on, Cin." He took her hand in his and she sighed in relief upon seeing that there wouldn't be a fight between the two boys. They walked together to the parking lot where Billy's car was parked nearby. Cindy wouldn't be staying for cheerleading practices, she had math tutoring with her boyfriend at her house.

While they were still within earshot, Calum called after Billy, "Hey wait!"

Billy turned, and Cindy did too, fearing that Calum might have reconsidered and would decide to fight him. 

Instead of agreeing to a fight, Calum said, "If you want some advice...You think Luke is your friend, but he really isn't. He only cares about himself."

"Funny. Luke said the same thing about you. He told me you guys were best friends and that you stopped when you dated Cindy, broke her heart, and then betrayed Luke by sneaking around with Kylie behind his back. It sounds like the only selfish person here was you." Billy informed him, adding, "And tell my sister its time to come home now. Mum and dad said she has spent too much time at Paúl and Dempsey's."

After Cindy and Billy left, Calum hurried to his car and left the school parking lot. Across the street from the school was where the residential areas began and there were houses right across from the school parking lot. Calum was going to take a right turn and head to Niall and Andrea's place, but he paused when he saw Paúl's car parked on that street. He was keeping his head low inside the car, but his eyes were vigilant and trained on the parking lot as though he were getting ready to follow one of the cars that would be leaving the school.

Luckily for Calum, there was a parking space on the street near Paúl's car and he took it. He got out of his car and walked along the sidewalk to the passenger side window of the hunter's car. Normally, Dempsey would have been sitting there with him. But both she and Harley had been missing for days now.

Calum tapped on the window to get Paúl's attention. Inside the car, Paúl jumped, startled. With lightning reflexes, his hand gripped his Diamond Rose out of its holster where it was safe and secure, and he aimed it at the passenger side window where Calum was now leaning over to look inside the car. With his arms up in defense, Calum complained with an amused smirk, "You hunters are so fucking paranoid."

Paúl shot him a small glare. "Not paranoid. Just prepared."

He unlocked the car and Calum climbed in. "Who are we waiting for? I'm assuming this stake out is to follow someone home."

"Right." Paúl nodded in affirmation. "I know that chemistry professor knows where they are, and my mind tricks won't work on him because of that stupid alma mater ring he wears. My last resort is to wait until he and his daughter leave campus and then we follow them home." He then grabbed a stack of files from under his seat and handed them to Calum, "Check these out. I did some research on this guy, and he doesn't have teaching credentials. The ones he used to get hired here are fake. But also, he works as a top secret scientist for the United States Government at Area 51."

Calum looked at all the files with pages and pages of information, but none of it meant anything to him. "What does this have to do with us finding them?"

"Have you never heard of Area 51?" Paúl asked him.

Calum shook his head. He lived in Australia and the Unites States was an ocean away--the largest ocean away. He had heard of the place before, in movies, but he never actually cared to learn what exactly it was.

"Area 51 is where it is rumored that the US Government experiments on foreign species, species that are foreign to humans. If he knows about all of us-"

With that information he had just gotten, it suddenly clicked in Calum's mind. "He wanted Dempsey for his experiments, that's why he was so desperate to see her after class. And Andrea was right. Harley must have seen it, and they took her too. Michella was lying and she knew all along. I'm gonna fucking kill her when I see her."

"Do you see why I wanted to murder her the other day?" Paúl asked.

Calum nodded his head. Knowing that Michella had been lying to him about Harley's whereabouts made him feel murderous. Harley meant everything to him, and he wasn't going to lose her without a fight. He got his cellphone out of his pocket and opened a text message for Niall and Andrea. He only needed to message one of them, seeing as though they were always together. "I'll text Niall and Andrea and ask them to come back us up. We need to get them back today." He added rather begrudgingly, "I guess Mirror Boy can make himself useful for once too."

Paúl placed his hand on Calum's phone to stop him. "We can't do it today. It would have to be tomorrow at the earliest, when Dr. Barnes is at school."

"What do you suggest then?" Calum asked.

"We'll find out where he lives. Then we'll break into his house during school hours. We'll need to go in there armed and shielded." The hunter explained. All those hours without finding the girls had given him time to devise a carefully thought out plan to bust them out of wherever they might be. "Since he knows about our powers and clearly learned to neutralize them, his house will probably be a neutral zone, so don't expect this rescue to be easy. It'll be like regular humans breaking out of a prison."

Calum nodded. "I'm sure he'll be expecting it, even if he's not home when it happens."

"Today we just have to focus on finding out where that hijo de puta lives." Paúl said.

-

The two boys followed the chemistry teacher and his daughter to their home. It was five thirty by the time the two finally emerged from the main building. After Cindy kicked Michella off the squad, she had been forced to join a club. Her father gave tutoring sessions to his students until five thirty.

They lived a good fifteen minute drive from the school and they lived in one of the nice neighborhoods in town. It wasn't too rich, or too poor, which kept people from talking about them. On the outside, they thought the house seemed to be nothing special. It was a modest size with a white picket fence surrounding it. But both Calum and Paúl felt it the moment they parked their car across the street. There was something about that house that made their heads ache like a drill was pounding through it. 

It was the effect neutralizing their powers as long as they were inside or near the house. Calum jotted down the address in the note pad of his phone and they drove off. They didn't know how long the headache would last as long as they were there, but they would need to learn to ignore it in order to get the girls out of there.

Paúl dropped Calum off at the school, their headaches now gone, and Calum headed for Niall and Andrea's place. This time, they were gathering there and Paúl arrived minutes later with his information. He had Niall help him bring in a black trunk that was sealed shut with his powers and only he could open it. Inside were weapons, but not the special ones he and the other hunters used on the shifters. They were real guns that they were willing to use on Dr. Barnes if he was unwilling to cooperate and let the girls go.

"What's all this for?" Andrea wonders, placing her hands on her hips as she looked at Calum and Paúl. She was more than willing to use a gun, but she needed to know what she was getting herself into first.

"We're not going to school tomorrow." Calum informed her.

She nodded. "I assumed as much."

Opening the trunk, Paúl grabbed some guns and handed two to each of them. He also handed them bullet proof vests they would have to wear underneath their clothes. "We're going on a dangerous little field trip to Dr. Barnes' house tomorrow."

"And why do we need guns?" Niall asked, observing the gun in his hand like he had never seen one before. With the powers they had been born with, it was likely that he had never needed a gun.

"He knows what we are." Calum began explaining to them. He told them exactly what Paúl had told him. "We followed him to his house yesterday and we got killer headaches because of some magnetic field he's using around his house. He uses it to dull our powers and protect him against us while he's in that house. Outside the house he has that alma mater ring he always wears and it has the same effect."

"We'll just shoot the ring off his finger and problem solved." Andrea grinned.

"He won't be at the house, niña." Paúl reminded them with a roll of his eyes. Andrea was more excited about shooting a gun than she was about saving Harley and Dempsey. "He teaches at St. Genevieve's during the day, which is why we have to skip school to do this."

Andrea's smile dropped slightly. With a shrug of her shoulders, she said, "I'm still in. I actually kinda don't hate Harley Quinn as much anymore. I'd like it if she were okay so that I can push her into a volcano or something, and get the job done myself."

Niall teased, poking her cheek, "She's your best friend, admit it, Andy."

"She is not." Andrea puffed up her cheeks, denying what Niall had said.

Appearing in the middle of the room from thin air, Ashton's hazel eyes found Calum. There was only concern in his expression as he asked, "Do you have any news of Harley? She hasn't called for me and I have searched everywhere for her." Even if they had broken up and he had agreed for her to send him away, Ashton loved her and wanted nothing more than for her to be okay.

"Yeah. Well, not exactly." Calum replied, for once not taking a hostile tone against Ashton. He knew the ghost was feeling the same amount of worry that he was feeling, even if there was a chance it was all an illusion. "We know where Dr. Barnes lives and we're going to break into his house tomorrow to search for them."

"I'll go with you." Ashton offered, determined.

But Calum shook his head. "He has a magnetic field around the house, product of his fucking science. Magnetic fields are made to neutralize our powers, but they were also made to repel spiritual entities. Harley would be upset if something happened to you. We can't let you come with us."

Ashton's hand balled up into a fist. "I feel so fucking useless." He said to them, and a feeling of powerlessness radiated off him. Calum almost felt sorry for him--almost. He couldn't imagine being in his situation, knowing that Harley was in danger and not being able to do absolutely anything to help her.

Paúl walked over to Ashton, genuinely feeling for him. Placing a hand on his shoulder in reassurance, he said, "We'll find her and bring her back. Even if you can't go with us, she'll know you tried to help, and she'll appreciate it just as much." Patting his shoulder, he added, "You're a good guy, Ashton. Good guys always find a way to make things work in the end." 

Paúl didn't dislike Calum, he had grown accustomed to him, and he had noticed how Calum's arrogance and bad manners had been smoothed out by Harley Quinn to the point where he was more tolerable. But he liked Ashton more as a person. He thought that once people had a hint of darkness in their hearts, it only got bigger. He thought that was the case with Calum despite the fact that he seemed to be experiencing changes in the opposite direction.

"Trying and doing are not the same thing." Ashton muttered, upset.

"Its really the thought that counts." Andrea offered her own words of advice, though her words didn't exactly sound reassuring. 

She and Niall were rooting for Calum.

Everyone was.

-

finally an update. it took me a bit longer to post one because i let my sister borrow my laptop last week and she didn't return it until around yesterday when she said she only needed it for one day. i felt so fucking naked without my baby. 

anyway, i hope you all like the update. we are just about halfway done with this book and it makes me sad bc i want it to continue forever. but all things must come to an end one day. so here's the qotd: do good guys really find a way to make things work in the end? don't you think calum is a good guy too though? who will prevail in this love triangle of life and death, lol. dramatic little me.

in the media section is a vid of my bae antonio briseño (his nickname is el pollo, which translated to the chicken) who i chose to represent paúl in this story. im obsessed with him rn, he is my baby. this is from when he did the ice bucket challenge a while ago. his voice is sooo cute too. ignore herculez gomez making noises in the background lol.

have a great week everyone! i'll try to have another update posted on friday :D

-clary xx