nineteen
we were about to knock.

"SHE'S COMING?" THE twins frown at each other a couple of hours later as them, Isabelle, Hope, Jed, and Kaleb get ready to go. Rafael is also there to say goodbye, but MG is nowhere to be seen.

"Look, I know we're not all best friends at the moment," Isabelle states, casting a shaded look at Hope, who glances away guiltily. The pair are still walking on eggshells around each other since Hope is the reason Rafael is having control issues. "But we need to put our issues aside, so we can go save Landon."

Rafael then looks at Jed questioningly. "Why is he going? He hates Landon."

"I don't hate Isabelle," he counters, earning a friendly smile from Isabelle. "And she needs my help, so I'm going."

Rafael glances between the pair, the jealously clear on his face as Kaleb ignores them, looking around for his friend. "Where's MG at?"

"He's on his way," Hope replies, a duffel bag in hand. "Let's load up while we wait for him. Come on."

The entire group except Rafael then go out of the school to pack the car, only to run into a group from Triad. They're armed, and look as though they're about to attack. Their leader smirks at them. "Oh, sorry. We were about to knock."

"Who the hell are you?" Lizzie asks their leader, clearly as mad as Isabelle that they're here.

"Name's Burr," the guy quips, before stating the obvious. "Triad Industries."

"I put that one together by the big logo on your shirt," Isabelle motions to his shirt, before Hope calls out an offensive spell.

"Propellere."

The spell, however, doesn't work. The teenagers exchange worried glances before Kaleb shrugs off his backpack. "I got this."

He then goes to attack Burr, but he stops when his hand burns in the sun. He grunts in pain, retreating back to the shaded area.

"What you don't got is magic," Burr retorts, unfazed by them. "Which is why your daylight ring won't work. And what we have are stakes, wolfsbane, and other things. So I think you should invite us inside."

Not seeing any other options, the teenagers head inside with Triad. They then gather everyone in the student lounge, and Isabelle finds herself between Jed and Rafael, who both seem like they're ready to attack any Triad members who come towards her, whether they have powers or not.

"We're looking for an artifact known as the Chalice of Arimathea. We have reason to believe it's part of your school's collection. Now, you know this place a lot better than we do, so the sooner you help us find it, the sooner we'll be gone. Triad thanks you for your time."

The Triad people hand out copies of a picture of the chalice, but Isabelle has never seen it before in her life. She then drops to the floor, crawling out of the room unseen. Once she's alone, she makes a beeline for Alaric's bedroom, and once she gets there, she ransacks the place, searching for one thing; Alaric's handgun. She finds it under the floorboards, along with a box of bullets. She stuffs as many bullets as she can into her pockets and in the gun, before discreetly hiding the gun in the back of her pants, where she'll be able to quickly grab it if the need arises.

But once she returns to the student lounge, she feels her powers return. And after a moment, she feels a hand on the small of her back. She turns to see that it's Jed, and he leans down to whisper in her ear. "We're making our move. Remember the opening play from the Wickery championship game last year?"

Isabelle nods, a smirk forming on her face. "How could I forget?"

Jed matches her smirk before they both hear MG yell. "Salvatore Stallions! Let's ride!"

Chaos then breaks out, consisting of the teenagers fighting off the Triad workers with a golden football and their powers. The people from Triad then raise their guns at them, but before they can do anything, Isabelle glares at them, silently using her powers to make their guns freeze and shatter in their hands in a matter of seconds.

But what she doesn't know is that Burr is behind her. He grabs onto her roughly, and she feels the barrel of a gun pressed to the back of her head. She struggles against his grasp, but he's easily three times her size and is choking her. "You're a monster, just like your friends, and all of you need to be put down."

Not seeing any other options, she bites down on his arm, easily drawing blood. Out of shock, he jerks away from her, and it buys her enough time to get out of his grasp and pull the gun from her back pocket. But he quickly manages to compose himself, and pulls his gun on her. And now, it's just the matter of who pulls the trigger first.

UNEDITED