Nine Lives

"Kellin, Vic, you guys should sit down for this." Tony was the one to speak which came as a surprise for all of us. Austin and Alan looked very sullen as they sat, looking to the floor and Gabe's eyes were tinted red.
"What's going on?" I asked sitting down next to Vic. "Is Gabe alright?"
"Uhmm.. I..." Tony began before clearing his throat "Okay, there's no easy way to say this so let's dive into it. Mike finally surfaced again and let's just say, he hit it really close to home this time.... He took Jessica."
"I... Gabe I.."
Gabe looked up and sniffed "No. Don't apologise. There's nothing we can do now but plan how to get her back."
The others began to hatch a plan as I sat in silence. I began to recall my last confrontation with one Mike Fuentes.
***
"You know, you really should stop with the internal screaming, it's giving me a huge headache." he said tapping his temple.
"Fuck." I muttered under my breath before clearing my throat. "So what exactly are you proposing here because you sure as hell aren't asking me out for coffee."
"Ha! Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm nothing like my brother. I'm just making a small suggestion... That you'd be better off with me than you would my brother or Austin or Gabe."
"I don't even know Gabe." I mumbled "What's so bad about your brother, why do you hate him so much?" I obviously knew about the whole 'It's Vic's fault Mike died' but I didn't know the details.
"You see Kellin, when you come from a family that me and Vic do, family is important. You put them first, you don't betray them. Vic did exactly that and he's no brother of mine. He needs to set his values straight, but he can't exactly do that with a pretty piece of ass like you hanging in the way."
"So you want me out of the picture to get your brother back? That's not going to do anything if he has Austin and Gabe."
"Gabe can easily be dealt with, he's not a threat to anyone but himself. Austin on the other hand, let's just say I have plans for him already." he smirked at me.
"You know you can't kill me or else you die too."
"That's the beauty in it Kellin. Could you imagine the things that could be possible if we joined forced?"
"Skip the Star Wars speech, Mike." I rolled my eyes.
He didn't take to nicely to my comment and he gave me a cold glare.
"This isn't a game, Kellin. Lives hang in the balance of this. It's your choice, that influences their fate. I'll give you two days to think it over." He began to talk towards the door, turning his head slightly when he reached the door "And if you don't have an answer for me by then... the right answer... expect all hell to break loose."
***
Two days.
Two days was up.
Two days was up long ago and I completely forgot and now thanks to me Jessica got taken to God knows where.
"Gabe..." I said quietly, the only person who could hear me was Vic who snapped his head up at me as I stared into space "It's my fault." I muttered "It's my fault she's gone Mike he... two days..."
I began to get flustered and panic and Vic put his hands on my arms to try and calm me down.
"Kellin, relax." he tried to tell me but I wouldn't listen.
"No!" I shouted "It's my fucking fault!" I screamed standing up and looked at everyone.
"Look, when the whole Mike and Katelynne thing went down... He said two days or all hell would break loose I just.. I didn't." I fell back into my seat sobbing.
"You can hate me if you want." I whispered as I covered my face with my hands.
They were all breathless except for Vic who wrapped his arms around me.
"We don't hate you. No one does. This was going to happen... something was always going to happen we just never knew what, but we're gonna get her back and we're going to finish this for good."
"You promise?" I asked, low enough for only him to hear.
"I promise." he whispered back and I turned into him, my face pressed hard against his chest, probably soaking his t-shirt with my previous tears.
It was silent for a moment before Austin's voice pierced through the veil.
"That's it. I'm going to find that bastard."
I looked up to see Austin walking towards the stairs and up to his room where the door slammed and reverberated through the house. Alan sat confused with a worried look on his face.
"I wouldn't try and stop him." Tony said "Him and Mike have a not so good past. His goal in life is to see the guy dead." he said the last line looking at Vic who looked at the floor. He let his arms fall limp to his sides as he sighed.
I knew how sad it made him, the thought of his brother dying again and him being the cause... again. There had to be some other way to do this, without hurting Vic or Mike or anyone.
"I-Isn't there another way to do this? You know just... strip him of his powers or some crap?" I asked
"Only in the movies kid. This is the way the prophecy saw it and it has to be that way. He's death, but he's not the natural death. Death.. he... It's complicated but he's like.. a fake prophet. Sort of like The Whore of Babylon."
"But he's not the goddamn Whore of Babylon, Tony. He's my goddamn brother!" Vic shouted before standing up and running in Austin's footsteps upstairs to his room.
Tony sighed "It hurts seeing him like this."
Gabe silently seemed to have gone upstairs as well because it was just me and Tony left in the room.
"You know... I wish there was some other way... But there isn't. And even if there was, the High Arches wouldn't allow it after everything he's done. It has to be this way, Kellin."