HOWLER

Chapter 29: Execute and Burn

"Well of course I'm here", a deep voice say from the shadows.

The shadow roll back as Daniel and Azarel walk toward us. Looking back to the prisoners, I see Curler walk into a wooden closet, pulling out a heavy looking metal axe. He swings the handle over his shoulder and stands between the two men whose mouths were taped shut underneath the cloth bag over their heads. Did they know the time was coming? Do they understand that it was their actions that have brought them this fate?

As Azarel reaches where both Steven and I stand, Daniel's hands grip my arms.

My eyes stroll up to his face. Red veins in his eyes and dry lines from tears along his cheeks caught my attention as I look at him.

His mindlink opened. When his soft whispers entered my head, the words echoed. Words I have denied for the last hour. I've tried to convince myself, she was still here. But she's never late. She's never absent. But she never replied toy mindlink.

'Austry's...missing', his broken voice shatters every single happy excuse I was making myself believe. My eyes were looking at his, but he turns his face away. Then I realize, I wasn't the only one who heard this mindlink. As my face turns. Steven lowers his glance to the men, prisoners, in front of him.

From the corners of my eyes, I see Curler's grip tighten on his axe. Daniel's face is plain. Lifeless. Dead. Breathing feels foreign.

Azarel takes out a video camera and positioning it to face the prisoners.

"Today we execute-"

"Seriously! Azarel.. you're going to record an execution ...sick bastard", Steven shouts as he faces Azarel.

Azarel chuckles, "What Steven? Don't you think I would need some evidence for this execution. I may hate your guts and the way you run this circus you call a pack but I don't want war with you. Not as much as The Sand Demons, Crawlers, Oak Jaws and Midnight Stalker packs do at least. So I would suggest you not threaten the person trying to help you".

Steven growls before stepping back.

"Good Omega", Azarel mocks, smiling wildly at Steven.

"Well Curler, proceed", Steven snaps, lowering his head to the ground. Curler's blue eyes darken as his arm lifts the giant axe off his shoulder. The prisoners sat still on their knees, making me wonder if they were mentally preparing for what was about to happen. Curler stares down at the axe's head. The silver metallic glow flickers the light onto Curler's face.

He closes his eyes. My eyes turn to Daniel who looked distracted in his thoughts. Breathing seems foreign. Watching feels wrong. The blade glides through the air, breaking the silence in the mines, When the blade begins to slide down, the gushing blood squirts out like fountains. The head thumps loudly before rolling to my feet. Steven's eyes follow the head before looking at my shocked expression. Blood oozed from the edge of the cloth. Luckily for me, the face was covered in that cloth or I would never be able to sleep again. Daniel grbas me quickly from my arms. His quivering hands grip tightly onto my ars but as exacerbating the pain was, my eyes were focused on Curler as he picks up the axe again. The sharp blade rips through the neck of the second prisoner quickly. A click wakes me from the horrendous nightmare.

Azarel bends over, looking at the head of one of the prisoners. He is about to discover the lie Steven fabricated. A loud scream roars behind me, followed by sobs. Steven's face looks toward us, "Daniel what's wrong?".

Daniel sobs louder. His arms gripping my sweater.

'A-alice...I can't! She's not answering the...mindlink!'. Azarel looked unamused by what he saw and grabs his camera.

"Steven. I'll start to head out then", his voice wasn't as excited as I expected him to be. The stern expression he wore during the execution was gone.

He walks toward Steven and smiles, "I'm glad you're finally doing your duties, Steven. Your pack is only a jail, nothing more".

With that, he walked to the lift and disappeared with it.

Two decapitated bodies lay on the floor. Our friend has gone missing. I want to puke, scream and run.

Our legs somehow managed to carry all four of us back to the packhouse. No one spoke. No one made a sound. When Harrison joined us at the house, he was stressed. The bags under his eyes and the messiness of his hair said it all. Loud yells echo through the house.

"As much as I would want to joke about how great it felt to rid the world of those two, my face tells you otherwise..", Steven whispers to Harrison.

I lay on the floor outside their office, looking straight into Austry's room. The door was wide open and dark. The only light was from the window, where the curtain fluttered in the wind.

Red, orange, and yellow glow through the window. My deadface suddenly springs to life as I run into her room and crash onto her bed. The bedsheets fly to the side as my legs crawl to the window. The burning smell enters my nose and my eyes widen.

'Fire...'

"Steven!", I run out of the room.

I pound the office door, loudly. The dark smoke creeps through the open window like a dark spirit and approaches the hall way.

"Steven! Harrison! The house is on fire!", I scream, trying to open the locked door.

Glass shatters from the living room, a small object is inside the house. A gas begins to unleash a smelly odor.

Harrison opens the door, "What!..", he looks around but the glass shatters in the office and another small object begins to unleash more of that odor. Harrison and Steven begin to cough heavily.

'Get Daniel!', Steven commands but my legs were already running toward his room.

When I slammed open the door, he was laying in his bed asleep.

"Daniel! The house is on fire! Wake up!", my hand hits his cheek as his eyes open quickly. The smoke crawling into the room, explaining it all for him because he quickly put his shoes and ran with me.

"Let's go! Now!", Harrison manages to say before vomiting some blood on the floor. Daniel pushes him down the hall as another explosion of glass flies inside Austry's room. The small object I recognized as a gas bomb, I run quickly down the stairs.

Steven tries opening the door but it's shut closed. His coughing intensified as the gas filled the house. My eyes look around to see the windows downstairs were being held down by branches. Steven coughs on his hand heavily but kicks the door off the handles and we all run out into the night.

"Now men! Get that fire out!", a man viking with a ginger beard shouts. He walks us all to Cynthia.

"Oh my god! Alpha ! Beta!",she quickly drags them into the tent. I looked at Daniel to see that he too was not affected by the gas like Harrison and Steven were. A group of twelve men scream a heavy warcry and charge toward the fire with buckets of water and hoses.

The fire quickly dies out in the matter of minutes. I stand there watching it all happen, not knowing what to or say. The men surround me, "Ugh", I say nervously looking at them.

"My men found this apprentice Alice!", the ginger viking shouts in my ear. He hands me a red plastic gallon container.

Like toy soldiers, they march away following the ginger man.

My eyes stare at the container deeply, '...someone tried to kill us back there Steven...and Austry's missing... something is definitely up'