Chapter 188: 188-All They Do Is Lie
Clementine:
"Bring her back! We’ll open the door for you!" Oriana yelled, closing the door quickly. I didn’t think she had done anything wrong.
I wouldn’t have been comfortable leaving everyone outside because I chose to go after Jessie, but I was able to catch up with her as she ran forward.
The Wendigo was now leaping from roof to roof, side by side with Jessie. As she sprinted ahead, I rushed up and grabbed her arm, pulling her back.
The Wendigo jumped down, hissing and snarling. The moment she landed, I grabbed Jessie and leapt to the left, escaping the Wendigo’s attack and landing in the space between two houses. The Wendigo screamed as she hit the ground.
Now I grabbed Jessie’s hand and began dragging her back toward the mansion, jumping through front yards and small gardens. The weather was worsening.
Suddenly, Jessie tripped over something in the overgrown bushes of one yard. She grimaced, and I helped her up, but she started to protest, noticing what she had fallen over.
"Come on, Jessie, go. Get up!" I pulled her harder.
She snapped at me, shrugging my hand off and almost crawling back into the bushes. That was the weirdest thing she had done.
Then my eyes landed on the Wendigo. It was right in front of me. The way she hissed and snarled, her smile widening, it was like she was mocking me.
The next thing I knew, she was jumping on top of me. I fell back, but suddenly she screamed when something burning hit her.
I turned my head to the left, following the fire arrows, and saw three of my squad mates running toward her, attacking.
She squealed louder, trying to step away, but her skin seemed almost like a black cloth, a little tough, but catching fire. She suddenly ignited and began thrashing wildly.
"Yorick!" I shouted. He rushed forward, placing his hands under my armpits to lift me away before she could land on me.
She screamed in pain for a while, then fell to the road, taking her last breaths. Soon, she began turning to ashes. We watched everything unfold.
The others had also come out of the mansion. The Wendigo’s screams had scared the fleshmingos away. I guessed it was because they relied on their hearing.
The deadly noises from the Wendigo scared them off, but we knew they wouldn’t stay scared for long, so we had to retreat.
We were still concerned about Jessie. Now that the Wendigo was dead and my squad mates were present, Oriana returned to see what had happened.
We turned to look at Jessie. She was behind a large bush. Haiden stepped forward, pulled the bush aside, and we found her sitting on the ground, sobbing.
"What is going on?" I asked, moving closer, and then I saw what she had tripped over. I gasped, covering my mouth, almost gagging at the sight.
I turned away to take a deep breath, trying not to inhale through the corpse. Both Troy and Yorick grunted when they saw it.
"What is it?" Troy questioned, reaching closer, and then he fell silent.
"Oh no," he whispered. "How is this possible?"
Jessie began to cry, staring at Valerie’s dead body, almost rotting. It didn’t seem like she had died today, maybe a few hours ago.
I noticed a blood trail dragged from outside the mansion’s door all the way to this spot. Jessie got up, inspecting it hysterically, her gaze shifting to Oriana.
"It happened because of you," Jessie suddenly pointed at her. "You are the reason my sister died. If you hadn’t left her behind on the train that day, she would be with us right now."
Jessie began screaming, drawing the attention of the fleshmingos. I grabbed her arm to pull her away, but she struggled violently.
"I’m not leaving her alone!" she shouted, pointing at her sister. "She must have been so scared, so lonely all these days. And now she’s dead. She’s gone. And you want me to leave again?" she hiccuped, sobbing.
"Okay, Jessie, we are all with you on this, but you need to get inside. Oriana will be in the mansion too. You can scream all you want at her." Haiden didn’t try to reason with her, because I could tell the fleshmingos had started to come out.
They were only afraid of the Wendigo’s cries, not ours. They were attracted to us.
"No, I’m not leaving my sister alone. She needs me," Jessie cried, turning toward her.
At this point, I had to glance at Haiden, because Jessie could get herself into a lot of danger, and I wasn’t going to leave without her.
They had no other option but for Haiden to grunt and suddenly rush at Jessie. She was shocked when he lifted her over his shoulder, holding her tight as he began running toward the mansion. I followed with Oriana and the others.
Once we were inside, we set her down, and she began fighting Haiden, hitting him on the chest with her fists. I could tell he was barely affected.
"What is going on?" Suki came out of the room. I noticed she had been in the room with Jack, and when he came out, he was fixing his pants.
"Seriously?" I grunted at her, and she turned pale, like she had been caught off guard.
"What? We were just resting," she instantly tried to make up an excuse, but our attention shifted back to Jessie.
"My sister is dead. She’s dead," Jessie cried, hiccuping loudly. This time she turned to look at Jack.
"You?" she pointed at him.
"What about me?" Jack asked, grunting.
"You said you watched my sister run away alive, but the blood trail shows she was dragged from this very door into the bushes and killed there."
Jessie had put two and two together after I had. When I saw the blood trail, I realized Jack had lied.
He proved that they would never change. The White Squad was such a messy group of people. None of them seemed able to stop making the same mistakes or being careless.
I had just caught them together in the bed. It was obvious he lied.
Jack noticed all the eyes on him and was left with nothing but to grunt.
"Yeah, so what? I did it so that this kind of shock is prevented," he yelled, causing my squad mates to crack their knuckles.