15 Chapter 14
Amy and Selene ran to their friend on the ground. While Mark, with a quick step, walked over to Percy ready to knock him out with a punch. But Byron shielded the Keeper before Mark could reach him.
«Are you crazy?! He just hit Haylee, "your" Haylee!»
«Calm down Mark. "My" Haylee is right there.»
«What?»
Byron pointed, with a nod of the head, in the direction of that chained man.
Everyone turned, even Serenity and Jeremy.
Haylee was right there in front of that man in chains. She clenched her fists and held back tears as she watched Kurt's battered body. «What did they do to you… » she whispered.
Her reaction was much more credible than the cold one that had had the other Haylee that Selene and Amy had hurried to help.
But her face was Haylee's, they couldn't be wrong. They looked again at the unconscious girl and then again at the one a few feet away from them.
«Why are there two of them?»
«No, Mark.» Percy answered. «The one on the ground is a very dangerous Keeper.»
Amy stood up and dropped to the ground the girl she had taken in her arms.
Selene was still on her knees on the ground confused. She was still staring at the other Haylee, the one who had just arrived.
The real one.
Haylee knelt. The man was still unconscious, but he was breathing.
With a metal hairpin she opened one of the locks. Kurt finally opened his eyes. He raised his eyelids with difficulty. «What's happening?» he murmured.
Haylee was about to cry. «It's fine, everything it's fine now. I'll free you. They will pay for the harm they've done to you, I promise you.»
«You, who… are you?» Kurt asked doing a great effort, while the girl helped him to rise up, to get away from that wall he had been tied to for all those years.
«Careful!» Josh shouted.
The other Haylee was also regaining consciousness.
Percy grabbed her and threw her against the wall, right where Kurt was tied up just a moment before.
The chains wrapped and trapped her to the wall. Her hair began to turn red from the root and her face suddenly changed. She was the girl Byron had met in the hallways. She was the one who had tried to trick him and get in between him and Haylee.
But he wasn't surprised at all.
Amy, like the rest of the group, widened her eyes. «Isn't that the girl who was around Byron these days?»
«Her name is Cassandra.» Percy answered her, as he stared at the Keeper, unconscious again. «And she's the closest person to Samuel, the High Keeper.»
Mark turned to Byron. «You knew everything?»
«Haylee and I had a plan. When she arrived, we made some changes with Percy's help.»
«So you both got your memory back?» Selene asked.
«I've never lost it.» Haylee answered helping Kurt sit at the foot of a tree. Then looked at Byron. «He on the other hand... he will never remember me. I broke the bottle with his memories. And instead of going back to Byron… I absorbed them. It was then that I decided to give him his real mother's diary.»
«It was you? So you got out of this town?» Josh asked in surprise.
«Yes. I can cross the barrier. I'm immune to Keepers.»
Kurt coughed and the focus shifted back to him.
«Let's postpone the explanations.» Byron said. «Now let's deal with Cassandra and Kurt.»
«Cassandra is no longer a problem. The trap is still active, she won't be able to escape from there. As long as she is tied up she won't wake up.» Percy said. «I'll take care of finding an excuse for her absence, then we'll think about what to do.»
«Are you sure you can do it?» Haylee asked.
«Don't worry about me. Just think about helping Kurt.»
They smiled at each other, but Byron didn't seem bothered. He knew that she was the girl he was looking for, that they were related and that she was kind to Percy only because she was grateful to him for the help he was giving them.
«We need to take him to a safe place.»
Byron helped Haylee lift the man. They put him on his feet and held him up.
«Let's go back to the house in the woods. It's the safest place.»
«But Cassandra will surely have mentioned it to…»
«No Keeper can find it unless invited to enter. Like the vampire thing with the threshold… » Haylee explained.
«But Amy and Josh found us, they went in.» Selene pointed out.
«They… they had already entered it a few years ago. I'll explain everything, I promise. But now we have to protect Kurt.»
They were all dying of curiosity, but they asked no questions. The most important thing was to hide Kurt as soon as possible.
They hurried back to the shelter.
Haylee and Byron helped Kurt, who was struggling. The others were arranged around them, as if to protect them.
Kurt was exhausted and often tripped or lost his balance.
Byron took him on the shoulders.
«You don't have the strength of a werewolf here… »
«Don't worry about me Haylee. I can do it. We will proceed faster.»
«Alright… »
Kurt wanted to ask so many questions, but he was weak and losing consciousness all the time. They had tortured him until a few days before.
When he opened his eyes he was already in that shack.
Haylee's face was the first thing he saw. «Crissie… » he managed to say.
«How can you mistake me for her?» Haylee whispered trying to contain her tears.
The Crissie, Kurt was talking about, didn't look like her at all. Her eyes were the color of the sea and her hair was the color of wheat, but Haylee's eyes were hazel and her hair was black, just like Byron's and like that of the man standing in front of her, lying on a makeshift bed.
«It's you, Crissie…» Kurt insisted, reaching out to Haylee, until he reached her pointy ears under those thick black curls.
«I'm not Christine.» she said. «I'm Haylee, dad.»
