Sorry it’s taken so long for me to update!  I got inspired to write a new chapter after creating the video trailer for this story (which if you’re interested in watching, say so in the review and I’ll give you the link!).  Enjoy the chapter :)

Chapter Quote:
"In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you."
~Deepak Chopra
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Chapter 4: Commotion

Lux 

If I hadn’t been so pissed at Scott, I might’ve actually felt bad for the things my brothers did to him.  I didn’t want to question how they didn’t caught doing these things even though Scott swore up and down to the commanders that it was them.  But my brothers are extremely good liars.  The only people who don’t fall for it is anyone in our family.  I don’t know how Will and Jem do it, but since they were helping me exact my revenge on Scott, I didn’t question it.  Percy was irate over the whole ordeal but he’d been rather temperamental ever since the episode with Shiloh having lunch with Axel Bernitz.  I don’t know why my sister did it, but she was typically good at judging people.  I trusted her on this.  To be honest, I think Percy had a soft spot for my sister, if not a crush.  I was pretty sure Shi had one on him, but she hadn’t told me.  Probably worried I’d try to hook them up.  In my defense, I’d only do so if I knew he liked her back.

But back to my brothers and Scott.  The pranks went on for a week.  The first being they put a dye in Scott’s shampoo which caused his hair to turn into this obnoxious Osean blue color.  Then when my ex went to complain, they put itching powder in his sheets.  He was scratching all the next day.  Next Will and Jem baked chocolate chip cookies with a lot of chili powder in the dough; arranged neatly on a plate with a note that said “Dear Scott, I’ve had the biggest crush on you and I’ve heard that you’ve been having a rough time lately so have some chocolate chip cookies :) Sincerely, your secret admirer.”  With Scott’s room being right next door to my brother’s they could hear him yell in pain from the spiciness and the water in the sink running.  Will and Jem apparently literally rolled on the floor in laughter with that one.  However, the base commanders started having men patrol the hallways, particularly ours, to make sure no one pranked Scott anymore.  This was much to the disappointment of my brothers.

Currently, Shiloh, Isabelle, Charlotte, Tessa, and I were pretending we were the Spice girls and singing “Wannabe”, each pretending be one of the singers.  I was Scary Spice; I’ve always been her, maybe because I have a temper.  Shiloh’s always been Baby Spice since she’s the baby of our entire family.  Isabelle was Sporty Spice since she was the only one out of all us girls to do an actual sport (cross-country in case you’re wondering).  Tessa was Posh Spice.  I mean, the other girls and I cared about looks, but Tessa had the best wardrobe of any of us.  She always looked perfect, whether she was sick, pissed off, or any other time you can think of.  Then finally, Charlotte was Ginger Spice.  We forced this on her one year after she dyed her hair red because she’d just seen the Little Mermaid and wanted to have the same hair color.  She regretted it instantly but we’ve never let her live it down since.

“You should start your own group,” a voice laughed from the doorway.  We shut up instantly, facing the intruder.  It was just Percy, but he was grinning. “Listen, the boys and I are going clubbing tonight.  Y’all want to come with us?”

“You know what?  I’m in.  I want to party.  Meet a new guy.  Screw Scott,” Lux declared.

“I was gonna say something, but considering the mood you’re in, I’m gonna pass,” he remarked. “Girls?”

“I think we’re all in.  Ooh!  Shiloh, you should tell Axel to meet us there.  I want to meet him after you told us what he looks like!” Charlotte exclaimed.

“How about no?” Percy muttered.

“Perce, you need to get over this,” Shiloh said. “Seriously, what are you going to do if I invite him to meet us there?”

“I won’t let you go out.”

“And how could you stop me if you went out?”

“I’d stay here and guard your door.”

Shiloh walked up to Percy and lightly scratched the back of his neck.  His reaction was immediate.  He hunched his shoulders up to try and stop her, but as he did so, she slid past him and outside into the hallway.  Once she stopped tickling his neck, he turned around.  She was smirking and said, “I think I could get past you.”

“Fine, fine, invite the guy.  We’ll meet you girls at ten thirty at the twins’ room.  We’ll leave after that.” Percy left, leaving four of us excited and my sister ticked off.

“I don’t get what his problem with Axel is,” Shiloh muttered.

“Maybe he thinks he has competition,” Tessa joked.

“You’re on crack,” my sister replied.

“It’s not that far-fetched,” Isabelle chimed in. “I swear he always sits next to you when we’re all together.  He’s always been protective of you-”

“Probably because I’m the youngest in the family.”

“Semantics.  Come on Shiloh, you’ve never been good at realizing guys like you,” Charlotte pointed out. “I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen guys staring at you.”

“Enough!” Shiloh finally exclaimed, exasperated. “I don’t want to hear any more about this.  I’m going to my room.”

Charlotte, Tessa, Isabelle, and I stared after her, wondering why she’d gotten so upset.  It was rare that my sister lost her cool.  When Isabelle started to go after her, I grabbed and shook my head. “Let her cool down or else she’ll rip your head off.”

“What do you think caused that outburst?” Tessa queried.

“I think she genuinely likes Axel as a friend and let’s face it, she’s never been good with us telling her what to do.  Percy trying to stop her from inviting Axel pissed her off more than we know.  She’ll be fine.  Come on, I have to find a smoking hot dress because I intend to look damn good in pictures and I’m going to make sure Scott sees them so he can see exactly what he just lost.”

“You are just like your mother.  A guy pisses you off?  You don’t get upset.  You get even,” Charlotte said.

“You don’t achieve anything getting upset.  But getting even?  There’s nothing sweeter.”
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Will

At ten thirty, Jem, Percy, Alec, Henry, Simon, Liam, and I were waiting downstairs for the girls.  We’d invited Liam since he was good friends with Simon.  I’d never really met him before, just knew of him.  But it turned out that we had a lot in common.  In fact, a lot.  He and I got in a heated discussion in concurrence over the fact that we both thought Marvel movies were better than DC ones.  We knew it was just a matter of opinion though, and we respected those who thought DC movies were better even if we couldn’t rationalize it.

“Hey guys,” Tessa chirped, sliding next to Jem.  He wrapped his arm around her, greeting her with a kiss.

“We all ready to go?” Alec questioned, looking around.

“Yep, all ready.  Let’s go have fun!  First off, who’s the responsible one tonight?” Lux decreed, grinning from ear to ear. “Because I fully intend to get drunk tonight.”

See, the drinking age in Belka was eighteen.  Since we were all eighteen or older, all of us could drink.  There was no way I was going to be the responsible one.  I mean, I don’t need to get drunk to have fun, but some of the drinks they have taste incredibly good.

“I’m oldest.  I’ll be the responsible one,” Percy volunteered. “Hang on, we’re missing someone… where’s Shiloh?”

“She decided to skip going out tonight.  Didn’t elaborate, just was adamant in not wanting to go out,” Lux said.

I noticed a tic in Percy’s jaw.  He and Shiloh had been avoiding each other, but neither Jem nor I had asked anyone what was going on between them.  Now I wanted to know.  They’d always been close.  What happened?  Lux would know.  In fact, all of the girls would.  They seemed to know everything before us guys.

“I’ll go talk to her,” I said.

“Me too,” Jem added. “We’ll meet y’all at the club.  Get going.  We won’t be far behind.”

“She may castrate you,” Charlotte warned.

“Blonde’s in a mood,” Tessa added.

“You’re blonde,” Henry pointed out.

“Seventy percent of us here are blonde.  That could mean any one of us blondes could be in a mood,” Sophie remarked.

“You’re not blonde anymore.  You dyed your hair light brown,” I said.

“I’m still blonde at heart.”

It took some coaxing to get our group to leave without us, but we convinced them after a few minutes of debating about it.  Jem and I went up to our sister’s room.  We could hear music playing from her room- it sounded like Kelly Clarkson getting adamant about… something.

Jem knocked politely.  It was promptly followed by our sister shouting, “Lux, if you knock one more time, I’m going to tell Scott you forgive him!”

“I think she might actually murder you for that,” I responded.  There was some shuffling on her end before she opened the door.  Her face was settled into a curious frown.  Shiloh didn’t need to say anything for us to know she wanted to know what the hell we were doing at her door. “Lux told us you decided not to come.”

“We wanted to make sure everything was okay,” Jem said.

“Everything’s fine.  Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Because I’m pretty sure you’ve scared all the girls from speaking to you for a good week.  What’s up?  Percy said you were all coming and then you changed your mind.”

“First off, he’s ticking me off, and second, the girls kept going on and on about something which I won’t go into detail about and they wouldn’t shut up about it so no, I don’t really want to be around any of them.”

“So invite your new friend, what’s his name… Axel!” I told her.

“That started the whole argument between me and Percy in the first place,” my sister retorted.

“What’s he got against him?”

“He didn’t tell you?”

“That he’s Bernitz’s son?  No.  Lux did.  We thought you were off your rocker at first, but then your kind sister pointed out that you’ve always been good at judging people.  She said we shouldn’t question you this time either.”

“I’d rather have Percy get off my back about this whole thing, and inviting Axel would not help that goal.”

Jem grinned. “Then you don’t invite him.  Let us.”

“What?” Shiloh raised her eyebrows.

“You come out tonight, we invite Axel.  Therefore, Percy doesn’t get mad at you, you get to hang out with your weird friend, and the whole group gets to have a night of fun.  Come on, what do you say?  We’ll wait for you to get ready.”

“You’re not going to take no for answer, are you?”  We shook our heads, which elicited a groan from her. “Fine.  I’ll hurry as fast as I can.  Use my phone to talk to Axel if you’re actually serious about inviting him.”

Shiloh tossed us her phone and disappeared into her bathroom.  Jem and I sat on her bed.  We grappled over the phone on who would do the texting, but I won out.  In fact, I decided to call him.  He picked up the phone on the second ring.

“Hey there, Shiloh,” Axel greeted cheerfully.  Jokingly, he added, “Long time no talk.”

“When was the last time you talked to her?” I laughed.

Dead silence ensued on the phone for a good ten seconds before, “Uh, who is this?”

“Name’s Will.  I’m her brother.”

“Her oldest, correct?”

“Ah, I see she’s told you about me.  Hopefully all good things.  Listen, our group and I are going out clubbing at the Vic.  Well, all but me, my brother, and Shiloh are there because someone didn’t want to go at the last minute,” I said.  Shiloh yelled at me to shut up; Axel laughed. “You and your friends want to join?”

“Sure, we’re actually in town already so we’ll meet you there.  Thanks for the invitation!”

“Of course man.  We’ll see you there!  May be a while.  Shiloh’s taking an extremely long time getting ready.”  At that moment, my sister came out, glaring at me with perfectly curled hair.  She growled, “You’re going to have my stiletto embedded in your foot if you say another word about me.”

“If I’m not at the club Axel, it’s because Shiloh murdered me.  See you soon!” I hung up as my sister chucked her slipper at me.  I narrowly avoided it.  After another thirty minutes, my sister had done her makeup, put on her dress and shoes, and readied her purse.  She still looked about ready to kill me and Jem for making her go out, but it was worth it.  We knew she’d be fine once we got there (hopefully).  We hopped on the free night bus to get into town; luckily for us, one of the bus stops itself was practically right outside the Vic, which meant Shiloh didn’t have to walk far in her heels, something she was quite happy about.  Once inside, the three of us made our way to the bar.  Percy was there, drink in hand, chatting with Sophie and Tessa.  When the girls saw us, they grinned.

“You got her to come!” Tessa exclaimed.  She ran up and hugged Shiloh; Sophie followed in suit.

“Oh, you hug your friend first but not your boyfriend?  I see where I stand now,” Jem jested.

“I’ll make it up to you,” Tessa promised, winking at him.

“Smile, Shi!  Have some fun tonight!” Sophie encouraged.

“I want a drink,” my sister stated bluntly.

“Let’s go get you one!” Sophie dragged my sister away.  Tessa went with them.

Once they were out of hearing distance, which being in such a loud club, it was a pretty short one, Percy inquired, “Find out what was wrong?”

“She’s just in a foul mood.  I do recommend not speaking to her tonight though unless spoken to.  She’s already threatened to impale my foot to the floor with her stalactites or whatever they’re called.”

“Stilettos, Will.  They’re called stilettos,” Jem said.

“They both impale things.”

“Just because they both impale things does not mean they are the same thing.”

“Sure it does.”

“It does not.”

“Does too.”

“Does not!”

“Would you two put a sock in it?” Percy interrupted. “She ended up inviting him?”

I followed my friend’s gaze.  Axel was the result.  He was a buff, blonde guy with sharp blue eyes; he had the stereotypical Belkan look.  He was talking to Shiloh, and her whole demeanor had changed.  My sister looked happier already.

“Actually we did,” Jem said.

“You what?”

“We invited him.  We don’t trust him, but we also know that Shiloh is good at judging people’s character.  If she trusts him, then we want to meet him to see why.  We had our reasons for inviting him.  Will and I see your side in this, but we also see hers.  Tonight, we’ll decide whose side we’re actually on.”

Bartlett’s son sighed. “Fine.  I’ll be polite, but I won’t be friendly.  I don’t trust him.”

“Is that because he’s Belkan or is it because you like our sister?” I teased.

Percy choked on his drink.
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Percy

My distrust of Axel went deeper than him just being the son of a Grabacr fighter (and the small fact I liked Shiloh).  It was him being the song of a specific one that irked me.  It was the fact that he was the son of Grabacr One, Ashley Bernitz; the fact that his father had once been friends with mine but with just one word from his superiors, had put my father as a target meant to be killed, not even neutralized; the fact that he was the one to shoot down my father in the Belkan War and had tried to shoot him down again when he rescued the Prime Minister of Yuktobania with my mother.  If it weren’t for the Razgriz, my parents may well not have been here.  Hell, I wouldn’t be here.  So no, I didn’t trust him.  I didn’t trust him to be a ruthless machine like his father.  I’d heard the stories about him during the Belkan and the Circum-Pacific wars.  We all had.

So why did Shiloh trust him?

I tried to rationalize it as I followed Will and Jem over to Bernitz’s son so we could introduce ourselves.  Nothing came to mind though.

“Hey y’all,” Will greeted, resting his head on Sophie’s shoulder and eyeing the group.

“Which one are you?  Wait, wait, wait, let me guess,” Axel started. “You’re Will?”

“How’d you know?”

“Because you’re Sophie’s boyfriend.  And Shiloh also said that Jem always looks the calmer of you two.”

“Hey!” Will protested, glaring at Shiloh.  She smiled.

“And you’re Percy.  I remember you from the café.  How are you doing?  How was that movie you saw?” Axel asked amiably.

“It was good!  Scary but good,” Shiloh answered.

“I’m wondering if you even saw any of it since you watched half of it through your fingers.” Jem nudged her.

“At least I didn’t throw my popcorn like Henry,” she snapped back.  They proceeded to talk about horror movies in general and deciding I wasn’t interested in the conversation, slipped away without any of them noticing.  I went far down the bar and ordered a drink.  It was some sort of black vodka drink, but it was pretty good.  I scanned the crowd to see if I could find any more of my family.  Lux was easiest to spot with her blonde hair bouncing up and down from dancing.  She was already drunk and having a blast.  Seeing how much fun she was having, I started questioning my decision on being the responsible one tonight.

“Percy!” Lux shouted.  I jumped from surprise.  I hadn’t even seen her come up to me. “What are you doing by yourself?  What happened to Sophie and Tessa?”

“They’re with your brothers and Shiloh and Axel,” I said. “Want me to bring you to them?”

“Yes!  And stay with us!  Chat!  Let’s get you drunk!” She grabbed my hand, jumping up and down as she led me through the crowd.  Lux pulled her sister into a bear hug.  I tried not to laugh at Shiloh’s expression but I failed.

“Hi, Lux.  You okay?” Shiloh queried, putting her hands on her sister’s shoulders to force her to stop fidgeting.

“I’m wonderful!  Is this Axel?” the oldest Davenport girl eyed him, a sparkle in her eyes.

“Yes, uh, Lux, this is Axel.  Axel, this is my older sister, Lux.”

“Pleasure to meet you Miss Davenport,” Axel said, going in for a handshake.  Instead, Lux pulled him towards her and kissed both his cheeks.

“Pleasure to finally meet you too.  Sis, I approve.  You were right; he is handsome!”

Shiloh shut her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose.  Her cheeks were flushed from embarrassment.  Axel, while unable to hold back a grin, managed not to laugh.  He commented that he was glad they found him attractive.  He was mid-sentence when I heard a very distinct ‘boom.’  It didn’t sound normal.    Only Shiloh and Axel seemed to give any indication they’d heard something as well.  Since no one else reacted, I dismissed it as someone accidentally crashing into something.

“Hey, hey guys, I have a joke!  What did one butt cheek say to the other butt cheek?” Lux asked.

Sophie shook her head, as if knowing what was coming. “What?”

“Don’t talk to the middle guy, he’s an asshole!” Lux fell into hysterics.  Will and Jem grabbed her by the arms and forced her to sit down.  At that moment, I heard another boom, and this time, I wasn’t the only one who heard it.  The club went silent.  A few seconds later, screams erupted from the street.  Everyone’s head snapped in the direction of the door.  Smoke started floating in front of the windows.  It wasn’t from our building, one from somewhere else, but it started sending everyone into a panic.  I couldn’t stop myself from getting caught up in the wave of people trying to exit the venue.  All I could do was grab Lux and help her along.  Axel joined me.  Jem had grabbed a hold of Tessa and Shiloh’s hands.  Will and Sophie were a few feet to my right.  When we got outside, we hung near the façade of the place so we could grab any more of our friends and family.

“What’s going on?” Tessa asked, stretching her neck.  Even in her heels though, she couldn’t see anything.

“Wait a minute, where’s Shiloh?!” I demanded.  Just then, gunshots rang out over the cacophony.  I hadn’t thought it could get any more hectic.  I’d been wrong.  People ran in every which direction.  Screams echoed through the streets.  I trusted that Henry, Alec, Isabelle, Charlotte, Lydia, Liam, and Simon had managed to stay together.  I knew my group was still where I left them, meaning my foremost concern was finding Shiloh.  I yelled her name over and over, hoping she’d hear me.  More gunshots were fired.

“Percy!” A familiar voice screamed.  I whirled around to my left.  The sight was welcome until I saw the terror etched on her face.

“Shiloh, thank god!  What happened to you?!”

“Go!  Just go!  They’re right-” she was interrupted by someone, an old man, collapsing next to us, clutching his chest.  Blood seeped through his fingers.  I stared in horror as I realized he’d been shot.  Shiloh and I dropped down next to him.  He lifted his bloody hands to our faces and smeared the liquid down our faces and down onto our chests.  He barely managed to say, “I can’t… save myself, but I-I can save you.  Act dead.  Act… dead…”

The man looked away and he took one final breath.  If it hadn’t been for Shiloh yanking me down, I would’ve been shot, because less than three seconds later, men with rifles walked towards us.  I was peering through my eyelashes, just enough to see what was happening.  They fired at more civilians, and I scarcely avoided cringing when I heard cries from victims being struck.  One stood directly over me.  I tried to figure out what or who he was.  My eyes narrowed in on an insignia on his gun: a dark grey iron cross.  I didn’t recognize what group it represented, but I knew it was a symbol for who they were well enough.  Now if I got out of this alive, I intended to find out who they were.

“Ich habe dir gesagt keine Belkans nicht zu töten!” the man above me said. I told you not to kill any Belkans! That’s what the man said.  It was times like these when I was thankful I was fluent in multiple languages.

Continuing their conversation, another guy said, “We didn’t- ah shit.  Boss won’t be happy.”

The guy above me knelt down, lifting Shiloh’s face.  How she remained calm, I’ll never know. “She’s still warm.”

“Just means it was a fresh kill.  Ignore it.  We won’t tell the boss.  What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.  Come on, police will be here soon.  We need to get out of here.  Let’s get the others.”

The two men left, but I still didn’t move.  I didn’t know if there were any more nearby.  I didn’t want to find out.  Hours seemed to pass before I heard police sirens.  Hours seemed to pass before I was shaken out of my act by a jarring scream.  Hours seemed to pass before I could move my aching muscles.

“Shiloh!” Will and Jem shouted hysterically.

“I-I’m okay…” she responded. “Percy, where’s Percy?”

Groaning, I propped myself up on my arms. “I’m here.”

“We need to get you two medics.  You’re covered in-” Sophie began.

“It’s not ours,” I said, explaining what the man had done for us before he died himself.  Shiloh glanced over at him before lightly brushing her hand over his eyes.  When she removed it, his previously open eyes were closed.  Will and Jem stared before pulling their little sister into a bone crushing hug.  Lux, who had apparently sobered up, threw her arms around my neck.

“God you scared us to death!” she murmured.  I returned the hug.

“We’re okay, that’s all that matters,” I said.  She pulled back. “Where are the others?”

“They’re helping victims that survived.  They’re all okay though.”

“Over here!” A voice called out.  We turned our heads.  Axel was jogging over to us with about five medics behind him.  Upon seeing the blood that covered me and Shiloh, his face paled. “What happened?”

Shiloh explained the story this time.  Meanwhile, three of the medics took care of the dead body next to us.  The other two took care of me and Shiloh, making sure we sustained no injuries.  Except for a good scare, we were unharmed.  They gave us towels to wipe the blood off.  After getting the red liquid off of ourselves, we handed the towels back to the medics.  They got up and left; Axel went with them, telling us he had to continue helping.

“How long have y’all been searching for us?” Shiloh queried.

“You’ve been missing for about an hour.  So many people are dead.  So many…” Tessa trailed off.

“They’ve been able to count twenty in the street so far, but there were bombs in two buildings.  They don’t know how many perished from those,” Sophie added solemnly.

“SWAT teams are going through every building on the street, making sure there’s no more bombs.  I don’t know how we’re going to get back to base.  It’s probably locked down tight,” Jem said.

“Just let Alec and Tessa do their charm speaking and we’ll be fine,” Will commented. “Let’s go see if we can find a ride.  You two stay here and-”

“No, I’m coming with you.  I don’t want to get separated from any of you again tonight,” Shiloh stated firmly.  A feat considering how exhausted she looked.  We all got up and made our way towards the ambulances.  The rest of our group found us about halfway there.  Shiloh and I gave a brief explanation about what happened.  No one really questioned us afterwards; maybe they saw how tired we were.

“Hey guys, have you found a ride yet?” Axel questioned, coming up to us.

“No, not yet,” Shiloh replied.

“Listen, I have a Yukon that can fit eight of you.  I can give you rides back to base, but I won’t be able to take all of you at once.”

“Take the girls and Percy home.  The rest of us guys will stay here,” Will ordered. “Thank you, Axel, for helping.”

“It’s my pleasure.” Turning to the rest of us, he said, “I’m parked just a block away.  I can’t drive it down here because of all the ambulances and cops.  Do you mind walking?”

“Not if it means getting home.  Show us the way,” Lux encouraged.  The walk didn’t take long, and the ride itself only took ten minutes.  I could barely keep my eyes open.  Shiloh had given up and slumped over onto Lux’s shoulder, sound asleep until Axel pulled up to the gates to the base.  Like Jem had predicted, the base was on lockdown, and it took quite some convincing on Axel’s part to get them to let us in.  I was grateful for him at that moment.  Finally, we arrived at the doors to our accommodations building.  We filed out slowly, thanking Axel for the ride.  We all dragged out feet upstairs and to our rooms.  I took a shower, making sure I scrubbed my face and chest well, trying to scrub off the lingering sensation of the dead man’s blood.  After brushing my teeth, I literally fell onto my bed and closed my eyes, falling asleep within minutes.
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I know the chapter started off slowly but hopefully I ended it with a bang?  Who do you think the men were?  What did you think overall?  Be sure to check out the trailer for the story!  Review please :)