Chapter Thirty-Four （Siblings）

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR (SIBLINGS)

HAZEL

I leapt up the basement steps two at a time and burst onto the top floor. A bunch of zombies screamed and scrambled like I was the Grim Reaper.

Fuck, where was Baz? Bree's room? I had no idea where that was. I saw someone up ahead and zeroed in on them. It was a demon with a red mohawk. Hadn't he tried to get me to join Infernals? I took off like a bat out of hell. He heard my stomping boots coming fast and turned around with bugged eyes. Then he screamed and ran.

"Stop running!" I yelled.

"Stop chasing me!" He yelled back. The chains on his pants jangled as he sprinted. People hiding in their rooms, popped their heads out like weasels, wanting to watch the fight.

"I'm not going to kill you. I just want to talk!"

"I wasn't born yesterday," he hissed before tripping over a dead orderly sprawled in the middle of the hallway. He face-planted on the linoleum tiles. Without hesitation, I leapt on top of him and punched him in the face. My knuckles ached and a smile spread over my face. Blood gushed from his nose. He groaned and reached for his injury.

"You said you weren't going to hurt me!" He shot me a hate-filled look.

"I said I wasn't going to kill you. Where's Bree's room?"

"Don't you know?" He asked. I punched him in his ribs. He hissed and jerked.

"I fucking hate your family. It's there," he pointed at the door we were next to. It swung open, and Baz looked down at us. His green hair was held back tightly and his body was covered in black from neck to toe. He tapped the doorknob with his gloved hand as his green and red eyes looked down at us

"Oh," the demon said, looking up at him in awe. "They said you were ugly." Baz gave him a judgemental look and then gave me his attention.

"Why are you beating people up outside of Bree's room?" Baz asked. I climbed off the demon, and he ran off in a hurry. Doors slammed shut down the hallway the moment they heard my brother's voice.

"We need to leave Verfallen," I said. It was the wrong thing to say. His eyes widened and then he slammed the door in my face.

"No thanks!" Baz called out. I blinked at the door. I had known he didn't want to leave Verfallen. I was even willing to stay here with him before the whole mindflayer boyfriend thing blew up. Now there wasn't a choice. It was time for my baby bro to grow up and join the real world.

"Did you fix your boyfriends?" He asked from the otherside. His shadow moved under the door's gap. I heard the hinges give a groan as he leaned against the door.

"Yes, and it's time to go," I growled. I stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what I could say to convince him. But I wasn't very talented at persuasion. No, what I was talented at was fighting. I took a steadying breath.

"Fuck," I mumbled under my breath I lifted my hand above the door a basilisk was leaning against. My fingers shook before I made a tight fist. I didn't want to kill Baz, and I was pretty confident he didn't want to kill me either. Everyone had been telling me that from the start. Gonzo said Baz made his friends play nice. Orson said he made his pet werewolf keep an eye on me. Bree said he'd been a nervous wreck since I arrived, scared of accidentally killing me.

It was time to test that loving brother theory in the dumbest fucking way possible.

I swallowed my fear over his venom and banged on the door. He sputtered, and his shadow disappeared from the bottom gap.

"Don't do that!" He hissed. "My venom can transfer through objects." A smile spread over my face. Gotcha fucker, you do care . I tried to keep my dumb smile to a minimum as I kicked the door open and stomped in. His whole crew was here—Bree, Orson, and Nemo. They all looked at me with raised eyebrows. Baz's eyes bugged, and he flung himself backwards.

"Come here, you little shit," I hissed, and he balked.

"Get away from me!" He gasped, holding his gloved hands up. "Even with the clothes I can kill you."

"I'm not leaving this place without you," I said. "So stop being whiny and pack your metaphorical bags."

"Like Hell I will." He climbed up on the bed and scrambled over Nemo's back.

"Ow," Nemo grumbled. "Why the rush?" He asked me.

"Gonzo might blow the place up." They all stilled. Then Orson got a big smile on his face.

"Time to get out!" He clapped his hands together and reached for Bree, pulling her to her feet. She grimaced.

"Yay," he said lifelessly, giving a pathetic cheer.

"I am not leaving," Baz insisted. I lunged towards the bed. He yelled, flinging himself behind Orson and Bree. He gripped them with his gloved hands. I eyed where they touched. The jealousy never came though. If we could touch then I wouldn't get to terrorize him like this. And this was way too much fun. He looked absolutely panic-stricken and I was taking sick delight in traumatizing him. He had it coming. He'd lock me in a wardrobe with venom-filled corpses that I hallucinated looking like my parents.

Yay, we all had trauma! Time to poke at his like any good older sibling would.

"Are you fucking insane?" Baz hissed at me.

"No, are you ?"

"You both are most definitely insane," Orson said. I grimaced at the therapist, then darted around him to lunge at Baz. Everytime he yelled and pure terror flashed in his eyes, I had to admit it made me happy. Baz really did care for his big sis. I laughed with joy and they all looked at me like I was crazy.

"Good God, woman!" He flung himself towards the door and ran through it. I turned back to his friends, eyeing each one. Orson was the only one who looked excited about leaving. Bree looked grumpy, and Nemo looked apathetic.

What was wrong with this group? Shouldn't freedom inspire a bit of excitement?

"Alright, that was fun. Can one of you catch him now?" I eyed Zero's watch on my wrist. I hadn't taken it off since he gave it to me—minus bath time.

Orson ran off faster than I could. A moment later, I heard Baz loudly complaining as he was dragged back and flung at Nemo's feet.

"I wanted to come back to the room anyway," he snapped, getting to his feet and marching over to the mask he'd left on the bed. He pulled a Venom mask down over his head and pulled the laces on the back tight. He looked over his shoulder at all of us, then made a dash for the wardrobe. I guess his grand plan was to lock himself inside.

"Oh no, you don't," Nemo growled, grabbing him.

"You're supposed to do what I say," Baz seethed at him.

"Not when you're being a dumbass," Nemo said. Baz seemed too baffled to talk as he was dragged from the room. They followed me into the hallway and we stood in a circle.

"Well?" Orson asked. "Which way?" I flung my thumb over my shoulder and opened my mouth to say Coral's room. Then I snapped my mouth shut again and my eyes bugged.

"The cat!" I gasped.

"The… what?" Baz asked.

"The little ginger cat! Shit, he's got to be around here somewhere." I ran off towards my room. They grumbled and dragged themselves behind me. As soon as I opened the door I ran in and dropped to the floor, looking under the bed.

"Jesus, we should have tried fucking Doctor Stein. This room is nice ," Baz said.

"Don't you have a mask that muffles your voice? I don't want to listen to this," Nemo grumbled. I got back to my feet.

"Bad news. I have no idea where the cat is."

A loud boom shook the floor. Pieces of ceiling fell down around us. I looked out the door and saw red mist sneaking through the halls. At the same time the speakers came to life, hissing loudly. People began running down the hallway past my room. Nemo and Orson eyed each other and started to move out of the room.

"Wait! The cat!" I grabbed my hair and began pulling on it.

"Are you having an anxiety attack?" Baz asked.

"Maybe?" I said looking up at the group in panic. "Does an anxiety attack make you want to kill everyone around you?"

"Yes," Baz said.

"No," Orson said at the same time. Bree let out a long groan and then she raced off faster than I'd ever seen any vampire ever move. We stood there staring at each other.

"Did she just leave?" I asked.

"No, it's more likely she went to eat people. She gets very grumpy when she's hungry," Orson said.

"Why do you want the cat so bad?" Baz asked.

"Zero gave it to me," I groaned, flopping on the bed.

"He gave you a kitten?" Nemo asked in bewilderment.

"I don't even like the cat but I made Zero think I liked him better with a lobotomy," I groaned, dropping my face in my hands. "So I can't leave his cat here."

"Yikes," Baz said. Bree showed back up, sliding a pair of round red sunglasses on her face. Some blood dripped from her mouth. She thrust the cat at me.

"It was in the hydrotherapy room, licking the water from the bathtub." She pulled her sunglasses down to look at me. "The bathtubs with the corpses in it." I snatched up the cat and shoved it under my arm where it apathetically allowed me to carry it into the hall.

"Are you ever going to explain the plan?" Bree asked.

"Oh, yeah." I stopped and turned around. The cat blinked up at them.

"Can I pet it?" Baz whispered.

"No," Bree grumbled, slapping his reaching hands.

"We need to convince the leader of Hex to help us."

"Coral?" Bree asked. "Why?"

"Uh…" I looked at each one of them. "How much do you hate Zero?"

"A lot," they all said.

"Well in that case, there's a magic spell surrounding Verfallen that is keeping all the inmates trapped inside. We can't escape unless she helps us break it." I smiled at them.

"You are terrible at lying," Orson said with an eye roll.

"Rude," I grumbled. "Okay Zero is the only one trapped here by a spell but he's currently finding an exit so all of us can escape."

"Are you saying he's sacrificing himself?"

"Yes," I responded. Nemo looked baffled again.

"Don't worry. We'll help you," Baz said.

"You will?" I asked.

"Of course. You're my sister."