Chapter 25: Chapter 25

Brandon grabbed the pizza he’d ordered and hurried out of the trainee apartment building, back to his own, but he kept an eye out for Cassidy the entire time he was walking, hoping he didn’t run into her again—literally or figuratively—since that had been one of the most painful experiences of his whole life. He couldn’t believe how far downhill their relationship had gone in just a matter of days.

Back in his apartment, he dropped the pizza box on the coffee table and went to the kitchen to grab a soda and a napkin. While he felt a little like a loser eating pizza in his apartment by himself again, he didn’t want to go to any of his friends’ places because he didn’t know if Cass would be there. And since most of them were her friends first, it seemed a little bit wrong to make her be the one who couldn’t hang out anymore.

He had a seat on the couch and picked up the remote, contemplating whether or not he could handle a whole large pizza by himself and figuring he could, when the door opened, and he figured he wouldn’t get a chance to find out. “Hey,” Elliott said, taking off his jacket and launching it into the same chair he always tossed it in. “Pizza again, huh? I think this might be a rerun.” Brandon didn’t know what to say, so he said nothing. Elliott glanced around the room. “Where’s the gang?”

“Uh, not here. You wanna slice?” Brandon opened the box, knowing his dad would never say no to a fresh pizza pie.

“Sure, sure. Just let me go wash my hands.” Brandon raised an eyebrow, and Elliott laughed before he sat down next to his son and grabbed a piece, taking a huge bite before he asked, his mouth half-full, “Why aren’t they here?”

Brandon’s mouth was full, too, so he finished chewing before he said, “I figured it’s not fair to have our mutual friends over here when Cass won’t want to come. I don’t want to make anyone have to choose between us.” He shook his head slowly. “I sort of wish I’d never taken your advice.”

“My advice?” Elliott repeated before finishing the slice. “What do you mean? We’ve been over this, son. I never told you to break up with her.”

“I know, but you said to give her some space. So I’m trying to do that”

“Right, I got that, but my advice wasn’t to lock yourself in here by yourself. I meant, just let her know you’re here if she wants to talk, but otherwise, stop hassling her to tell you what she’s upset about, act like everything’s cool. You know, a little bit of space. Not a freakin’ hallway’s worth of space.”

“No, I know. I guess I knew that, anyway. But when I went to talk to her about it, to tell her she could have some time or whatever, we ended up having an argument. And then, when I went to make it up to her, she really seemed like she didn’t want to have anything to do with me.” Brandon shook his head, frustrated at the thought of what had happened next. “So that’s when I ended up breaking up with her.

Elliott was staring at him like he had two heads. “And now you’re trying to blame me?”

Brandon shook his head. “No, I’ve just got to figure out what to do next.”

“That’s a whole hell of a lotta space, man. Not sure what you can do except wait her out.”

He nodded again. That was all he could do.

Elliott’s head wagged back and forth like a teacher’s finger when the class was too loud. “I don’t know how to respond to the fact that you thought I meant break up with her, Brandon. I guess I need to be careful what I say to you from now on if you took give her some space to mean break it off.”

“No, I didn’t. But... one thing sort of led to another. I guess... I was sort of trying to call her bluff or something.” Brandon shook his head for a moment before adding, “She must be happier this way. I just saw her leaving the basement over there, and she didn’t want to talk or anything. She hardly even paid any attention to me at all.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, man. I thought the two of you would’ve patched things up by now.”

“I did, too. I guess even the most solid relationships can crumble under enough pressure.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Elliott reached out and squeezed his shoulder, and Brandon didn’t blame him for not knowing what to say.

“You won’t... get in the middle of this, will you?” Brandon asked.

“Who me? When do I ever get in the middle of anything?”

“Oh, I don’t know. It’s not like you died just to get Aaron and Cadence together or anything.”

Elliott scoffed. “Please. I’ve learned my lesson on that one. Not worth it. Seriously, though, I doubt I’ll have to do anything. The two of you might need a little more time, but you’ll get back together. I’d be willing to make a hefty wager on it.” He pulled himself up off of the couch but stopped to give Brandon a reassuring smile.

“I sure hope so because I miss her—a lot, Dad.”

“I’m sure you do. It’ll be okay.”

Brandon nodded and managed a small smile as his dad walked out of the room. Part of him appreciated the fact that the situation had led to a couple of heart-to-hearts with his dad, though it wasn’t enough to fix the ache inside of him. He hoped Elliott’s wisdom came through this time because it hadn’t even been that long since he and Cassidy had broken up yet, and he already had a hole in his heart bigger than an entire large pepperoni pizza.

Cassidy did her best to shake off her encounter with Brandon, but even after a quick sprint on her treadmill, she still felt wrong about the whole situation. She wanted to reach out to him, to call him, to let him know she was sorry for keeping secrets from him. Maybe she should’ve told him what Alex had said, or about what Christian was up to. She knew the biggest strain on their relationship had been the fact she wasn’t telling Brandon everything, and her own experience told her how unsettling it was to know someone you care about is keeping something massive from you.

It was too late to go back and tell him now, though. And if she let him read Alex’s letter, he might be even more mad at her than he was already. As for Christian, she needed to check in with him. It had been a couple of hours, and there was a chance he was ready for her to get help.

Still dripping sweat from her sprint, she sat down on the couch and closed her eyes. “You okay?”

“Well, I’m still in a hole in the ground. I can’t see a damn thing. Oh, and a psychotic Vampire showed up a little while ago and called all of my weapons rudimentary.”

“Wait—what? Daunator showed up? Did you kick his ass?”

“Yes, I did. That’s why I’m on my way home right now instead of still stuck in a hole in the ground.”

“You could have kicked his ass and not be home right now because you are stuck in a hole in the ground, smart ass.”

“No, Cassidy. I did not kick his ass! I emptied an entire clip into him and tossed a grenade his direction, and absolutely nothing happened at all, except for maybe a pithy amount of smoke.”

Cassidy was quiet for a second, not sure how to respond. She knew Christian had been counting on those weapons to at least weaken him enough so that he could use his knife or some other secret weapon he’d concocted to take the monster out. “Is it time for someone to come get you now, then?”

“No. Not yet. I need to try again.”

“Christian....”

“Cassidy, don’t. I will find a way to defeat him. Something in my arsenal has to be useful against him.”

She had no idea why he would think that had to be the case, but she could read his moods well enough by now to understand there was no point in arguing with him. “All right. Well, is there anything I can do?”

“Not that I can think of.”

She hated leaving him in that position, but if there was nothing else, she had other things on her list, like telling Eliza that Heather was no help with her minions. She could go talk to Schmitz or someone else about them. “All right. I guess I’ll go then. I’ll check in on you soon.”

“Okay. Oh—one more thing, Cassidy. I’m not alone.”

She had been just about to leave his head when he spoke again. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, there are other people down here. I can’t see them because it’s too damn dark, but I could hear them. And Daunator mentioned them as well.”

“Can you walk to them? Could you find them that way? How many? Who are they?”

“That is a shitload of questions, none of which I can answer. I don’t know who they are or where they are, and I’m sure as hell not going to go wandering around down here in the dark. For all I know, I could end up falling into an even deeper hole.”

The idea that there were other people down there was both intriguing and terrifying to her. “All right. But do you think they’re people? Are we talking a few or a couple dozen?”

“I don’t know!”

“Could you make a reasonable guess?”

“If I had to, I’d say a hundred. Maybe more.”

Cassidy’s mouth dropped open. She hadn’t expected him to say there were that many. “Okay.”

“All right. Talk to you later.”

“Yeah.” Cassidy got out of his head since he clearly wanted to be alone, but the idea that there were at least a hundred other people trapped underground by a monster the likes of Daunator was unsettling to say the very least. She didn’t know how much longer she could go without mentioning this to someone, but she had a feeling it wouldn’t be long, especially since it seemed like Christian wasn’t going to be able to handle this on his own.

* * *

Hannah went back over the footage Mila had sent her one more time before she determined she needed a second, or third, opinion on what she was looking at. She desperately wished Aaron and Cadence were back. In all of her years as a Guardian, she’d never wished to be the leader, not even once. How she’d gotten to be second in command was still a fluke to her. She’d always thought it should’ve been Jamie. But she was the one everyone answered to, at least for the time being, so she decided to call in the rest of the leadership team, the three that were there, and see what they could determine.

Luckily for her, the others weren’t busy and said they’d be over shortly. Unluckily for her, with there only being four of them in the room, the uncomfortable situation between Elliott and Aurora would be impossible to avoid. She really wished the pair of them had never gotten together in the first place, and while she could use her powers to make Aurora calmer than she would normally be around Elliott, she couldn’t persuade him much at all, not since he’d come back from the dead.

Jamie arrived first, a smile on his face that indicated he’d been with Ashley most of the day, followed by Aurora, who looked almost as nervous as Hannah was concerned, and Elliott sauntered in last, trying to look nonchalant.