Neither of them have time to react as the door is shoved open. Darius can’t catch Veronica before she’s thrown to the ground.
“Fuck. Sorry sis.” William pushes the door back into place, helping Veronica up. He stiffens at the sight of her face. “We need to leave before this gets any worse,” he tells her, ignoring Darius entirely.
She pushes William away from her. “No, I’m done being a complacent coward. And what about Luna?”
Darius recognizes the name.
He had met the FBI agent Jane Franz more times than he cared to remember. Learned of the woman’s daughter early on. Of what most likely had happened to her.
But it hadn’t been his sole focus.
That was Sunday.
“Fuck! And what happens when you end up killed?” William exclaims before turning his wrath on Darius. “If only you could have left us all well enough alone. Then you wouldn’t be here! Then Sunday wouldn’t be here!”
Darius’s nostrils flare in anger. “Then more girls and boys and everyone in this town could be raped and murdered! It’s not our fault this town is evil! It’s not our fault that nothing is ever brought to light,” he whisper-yells, jabbing a finger at William’s chest. “That would be your dear old dad’s.”
William opens his mouth to snap back, but Veronica steps between the men.
“Shut up! This isn’t helpful!” Veronica barks, throwing her hands up in the air in exasperation. “We need to hurry. William, you know how to get downtheredon’t you?”
William screws his eyes shut. After an eternity, he finally confirms, “I do.”
“Good. We’ll wait for his brothers and then we can go and find her–”
A distant bang echoes out from the woods. It’s from the general direction Darius would assume Sunday is in.
A gunshot.
All three of them jump.
“There isn’t time. We need to get to her,now.” Darius rubs his chest, a deep stabbing pain was present when he woke but now his heart throbs and aches in a way he has never felt before.
The sensation intensifies.
His knees shake as he looks down at his heart, expecting to see blood or some injury he had somehow overlooked, but there isn’t anything there.
He stares a bit longer.
A light shimmers. A deep dark violet.
Darius blinks and it’s gone.
What was that?
The wish he made so long ago flickers to the forefront of his mind.
I wish to knowbeforeshe's in danger.
Before he can put any more thought behind it, William draws his attention.
“Fine, we’ll go now,” William agrees uneasily, cutting through Darius’s confusion. “But we’re going the back way, I don’t want to stumble on any of Thorne’s men.”
Darius isn’t sure if he trusts William.
But he has faith in Veronica. In every timeline she always looked out for Sunday. For his brothers.
“Okay.” Darius reaches out a hand to shake William’s, but when he does, there’s another shimmer, except this time it’s crimson. Dark and bloody.
