Chapter Two-Hundred-and-Ninety-One
3rd Person POV
There had to be at least a hundred zombies crammed between his mother's cell and himself. They had caught him unawares. He had not known that there were this many inside here. There was no time however to do nothing. He drew out his sword and began hacking as many as he could but he was just one person and there were many. Besides, he had been fighting for a while now and he was beginning to feel exhausted. Yet he pushed himself to continue fighting even though he could hear the faint voice of his mother shouting for him to run away.
All of a sudden the fighting stopped. The zombies had just stopped fighting and appeared to be running away from something. It was quiet once more and he walked to his mother's cell.
He searched his body for the keys to her cell. He had taken them from Thomson's pocket before he had turned.
“RUN!” his mother cried to him and he saw for the first time that the cell she was seated in had caught on fire. He tried to work faster—there were a dozen keys in the bunch but he knew that one of them would set his mother free. He could not afford to give up at this point.
“Run! Neither of us will make it… please, please, I won't have a peaceful death knowing that my son died trying to save me when he has done nothing wrong,” Irvette pleaded with her son. But Harlin had inherited her stubbornness and his mind was solely focused on opening the cell door.
“Harlin? Please listen to me? Huh?” she pleaded.
“How do you think I will live my life knowing that I abandoned my mother to her death?” was his response. Irvette wished she had a good rebuttal for this, she wanted to convince him… she screamed, and the flames had begun to smoulder her feet.
Harlin heard a click.
“Harlin…”
“It's open…”
****
Harlin woke up several hours later to the sound of an argument over him.
He opened his eyes wide but shut them quickly as a piercing headache threatened to split his head in two.
“It was the stupidest thing the three of you have ever done till date,” it was his godmother’s voice, Emily. She had not followed them to the vampire land which only meant that they were in her pack. He moaned his displeasure; he loved his aunt but, sometimes she was a bit excessive. Not to mention she was the disciplinary aunt. She knew just had to punish them.
“It was for his mother. Aunt Em, you would have done the same,” returned Charlotte passionately in a tone she reserves only when arguing with Aunt Emily.
“Would I?” Emily shot back. “Would I risk my life for a lost cause?”
“She’s his mother,” Charlotte argued, stepping forward, her body tense.
Emily let out a sharp breath, her patience visibly thinning. “And what if he had died trying to save her? What then, Charlotte? Would you still stand here justifying it?”
Charlotte’s fists clenched at her sides. “He didn’t.”
“But he almost did,” Emily snapped. “Do you think that justifies this recklessness?”
Kade, who had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, finally spoke. “It wasn’t my call to make.” His tone was neutral, but there was an edge to it.
Emily turned to him, her frustration shifting. “And you? You let them go through with this insanity?”
Kade sighed, shaking his head. “You know how Harlin is. You think I could have stopped him?”
Emily scoffed, rubbing her temples as though their stupidity physically pained her. “I swear, you three will be the death of me.”
A groan interrupted them.
Harlin.
Charlotte was at his side before the others could react. “Harlin? Hey, take it easy,” she murmured, her voice softer now.
Harlin, who was still feeling weak, tired and burned out sighed. “Can everyone stop yelling? My head’s already trying to kill me.”
Charlotte placed a hand on his forehead as if checking for a fever. “Sorry, it's the... Excitement? Plus you scared the hell out of us so we're just..."
Emily folded her arms. “He scared the hell out of us? Oh no, Charlotte. You and Kade scared the hell out of me when you decided to follow him into that death trap.”
Charlotte bristled. “I wasn’t going to let him go alone.”
Emily shook her head in disbelief. “Of course not. Why think rationally when you can throw yourself into danger for sentiment?”
Harlin exhaled harshly, struggling to sit up. “Enough, Aunt Em.” His voice was hoarse, but his glare was steady. “I did what I had to do.”
Emily’s eyes flashed. “No, you did what you wanted to do. There’s a difference.”
Silence hung between them, heavy and suffocating. Harlin could still hear the crackling of the flames in his mind, still feel the searing heat on his skin. He had fought through hell to reach her, to free her.
His throat tightened.
He had freed her… right?
He clenched his jaw, shoving the thought away. Now wasn’t the time.
Kade broke the silence, his voice even. “Can we argue about this after he’s had something to eat? We nearly lost him, Emily. Let’s not act like we already have.”
Emily pressed her lips into a thin line before sighing. “Fine. Eat first. Then we talk about the consequences.”
Charlotte rolled her eyes. “Of course there are consequences.”
Emily gave her a pointed look. “Of course.”
Harlin groaned and flopped back against the pillows. “I should’ve stayed unconscious.”
Kade smirked. “We thought you were dead for a while. Didn’t think you’d make it out of that fire.”
The words struck a nerve. The fire. The suffocating heat. His mother’s screams. Harlin’s stomach twisted violently, but he didn’t let it show.
Charlotte’s grip on his arm tightened. “You did the right thing,” she murmured.
Harlin swallowed hard. He wanted to believe her.
He needed to believe her.
But the guilt in his chest told him otherwise.
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