Chapter Seven: The Taken

And so the plot begins!

            “Do I have to go?” Cori moaned as she tried to get her dress on correctly.

            “You’re already in your dress,” Torin pointed out as she gave herself a quick once-over in the mirror. “Kind of. Let me help you,” she offered as she tried unsuccessfully to hold in laughter.

            “Fine,” Cori surrendered, raising her arms above her head. “But for the record, I never agreed to this in the first place.”

            “Oh, cheer up,” Torin said as she zipped up the back of the olive green gown and tied the bow at the waist. “You look beautiful. Besides, you wouldn’t want to disappoint your date,” she smirked.

            Cori rolled her eyes. “Rill and I are just friends, T,” she answered as she watched the redhead turn back to the mirror to fuss with her already flawless hair. “Do you have to take so long?” she asked, resting a hand on her hip.

            “I want everything to be perfect,” she explained, tucking a curl of hair back behind her ear. This was the first time she had been to a ball, or anything this formal for that matter, and she was determined to make it a perfect night.

            Less than a minute later there was a knock on the front door; Kye and Kyrill were right on time. Giving her reflection one last quick glance, she swept out of the room, the azure skirts of her dress billowing out around her as she moved.

            “You look nervous,” Cori pointed out, following behind.

            “I know. I haven’t exactly been to a ball before,” Torin responded, opening the door to reveal two very well dressed half lycans. Almost immediately, Kye’s emerald eyes seemed to grow, trying to find words but failing miserably; unfortunately his tongue was tied at the moment, and he couldn’t get anything out but a few small noises that seemed to have no apparent meaning.

            She blushed at his reaction and Cori rolled her eyes before walking over to Kyrill. “When do you think they’re actually going to get together?” she whispered, making sure the two didn’t hear.

            “Knowing Kye, not any time soon,” he responded, looking at his brother practically worshipping Torin. He cleared his throat. “Can we go now, you two?”

            Both Kye and Torin blushed, snapping out of their trance, and started on their way towards the ball.

            “You look beautiful,” Kye whispered to her as they walked behind the other two.

            She smiled up at him. “You don’t look too bad yourself.”

            “Well, I try,” he joked, wiggling his pointed ears.

            Torin rolled her eyes, trying to hold in laughter. “So what’s it like?” she asked suddenly.

            “Being this handsome?” he countered, raising an eyebrow; he liked to play this game.

            “No,” she said, playfully punching his arm. “The ball.”

            “I wouldn’t know.”

            “But I thought you said it was a yearly thing.”

            “It is. But I haven’t been to it before.”

            Torin turned to look at her best friend. “Why not?”

            He shrugged. “Never had anybody to go with.”

            She flushed, not knowing what to say; instead, the two opted to stay in a comfortable silence for the rest of the walk, which was fine by them. Sometimes silence can say more than words.

            The ball was held in a field on the northwest side of Dritton; a little area surrounded by trees, which had been strung with tiny lights that twinkled like fireflies. The whole area was open to the sky, which was just beginning to darken with the promise of a clear night.

            Cori turned around to look at Kye and Torin, placing her hands on her hips and staring at them defiantly. “This is so not my style,” she moaned, blowing a strand of dark hair away from her face.

            “Oh, cheer up, Cori. You can be such a buzz kill sometimes,” came a voice from behind her.

            Cori smiled and turned around “Nia!”

            A tall girl stood behind her, smiling largely. She closed the space between them for a hug. “I didn’t think I’d see you here.”

            “Me either. I was kind of forced,” she responded, turning to half-heartedly glare at Torin.

            Nia laughed. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your friends?” she asked, violet eyes scanning across the three of them.

            “This is Torin and Kye,” Cori began, both waving in turn at Nia. “And this is Kyrill,” she said in a much different tone than she had used when introducing Kye and Torin.

            “Is this your date?” she asked, looking to Kyrill, who promptly turned a deep shade of red.

            “No, I’m a friend,” he said quickly, trying to maintain his tough and seemingly uncaring appearance.

            Torin looked up at Kye, who raised an eyebrow at her. Was Kyrill actually embarrassed? This was new.

            “So, Kyrill,” she started, emphasizing his name. “Do you want to dance?”

            He looked up at her, staring into her violet eyes. “Dance?”

            “Dance,” she repeated, her long silver hair blowing slightly in the wind. She stared at him for a few seconds before she took his arm and pulled him out onto the floor.

            Cori turned to look at both Kye and Torin. “You guys saw that, right?” The two nodded, and Cori shrugged, heading off in a sweep of green skirts to go in search of the food tables.

            “That was the weirdest thing I have ever seen in my life,” Kye announced, still watching his brother dance with the silver-haired beauty.

            “Why don’t we join them?” Torin asked, raising an eyebrow.

            “What?” Kye inquired, heart threatening to jump out of his chest.

            “Let’s go dance,” she smiled, taking his hand and leading him into the crowd of formally dressed mutants.

            Kye smiled, feeling his pulse quicken; any faster and he thought he would die. His hand was in Torin’s and she was leading him to the middle of the dance floor; before he knew it, her arms were around her neck and his were around the soft fabric of the dress she wore, a blue similar to the color of her eyes.

            The music played quietly in the background, the soft humming of stringed instruments flowing through the air. The two swayed under the warm summer breeze, letting their minds wander. Of course, their thoughts didn’t go far from the ball. Torin was reveling in the moment, just being in Kye’s arms, and he was trying to keep from picking her up and spinning her around in happiness.

            One song after another, they stayed there, not wanting to leave unless they absolutely had to. Torin could see Kyrill and Nia out of the corner of her eye, and Cori was off near the trees talking with a boy. Everybody seemed to be having a good time. But that only lasted for so long.

            The music stopped abruptly and multiple dark figures rushed out from behind the trees, beginning to snap up people one at a time, silencing them and their mutant abilities quickly. Torin looked on in fear, noticing one of the taken was a girl she had met over the time she had been at Dritton, somebody that couldn’t have possibly done anything to deserve this. What was happening?

            She looked up at Kye, who had pulled her as close to his chest as he possibly could, trying to keep her from being one of the taken. He looked back down at her, his emerald eyes flooded with terror.

            “Do you know what’s going on?” He whispered. She only shook her head in response.

            Everything went silent as one of the tall figures walked up to the end of the dance floor, staring down at the terrified civilians, who unexpectedly found that they were unable to use any of their supernatural talents to defend themselves.

            “Well it looks like I have your attention,” it spoke, a man’s voice, very deep and gruff. “You may wonder what is happening here. You may continue to wonder, as I am not going to tell you. The smarter of you may already know,” he paused, and began to study the room. “But it doesn’t matter. You won’t see your friends again.”

            Whispers began to spread around the field, everybody beginning to speak at once.

            “Quiet!” the man shouted, instantly silencing the crowd once again. “You’ll find out soon enough when we come back for the rest of you miserable little creatures. And don’t even think about a rebellion,” he commanded, his voice echoing off the trees. “We will find out, and you will be stopped. But there’s no reason to worry. We’ll be back.” And with that, he promptly disappeared into the darkness of what had been a peaceful summer night, leaving confused teenagers in the midst of a ball that nobody wanted to continue.

Author's Note

Let me know if there's anything you want to see done differently with this chapter. And as always, let me know what you think!
Dresses (for the curious-I like having a visual aid)
Torin's: http://www.newyorkdress.com/Sherri_Hill/7208.html
Cori's: http://www.newyorkdress.com/Tiffany/56214.html
Nia's: http://www.newyorkdress.com/Allure/Q259.html

Reviews

[Skye]

I am loving this! can't wait till the next update! Those dresses are so pretty xD

[T. Logan]

Thanks! The title might change (i have a blog post on possible titles) so look out for that.

[Skye]

Will do!