Once inside the Oakhouse, Austin, making his way into the kitchen, felt as if the presence became even heavier. This time, however, he knew he must be close, seeing as he sensed it coming from above him, in the attic.
He knew he should've warned Zether and Cleo to be careful. He knew they could take care of themselves, but, as he got closer and closer up the stairs to the second floor, Austin couldn't help but to regret not warning the healers to tread carefully.
Pulling out his crossbow, he armed it with his last arrow, the slow but careful walk up the steps felt like an eternity, but, as Austin reached the trapdoor, his joints and muscles shaking with nerves, it felt as if the gravity went up a few levels.
He sensed her before he saw her. With a drawn bow aimed at his head, the glint of victory in her eyes telling him she's a perfect shot, Scarleteye grinned coldly as Austin entered through the trapdoor. "Well, well, well," she drawled out, somehow sounding disinterested and victorious at the same time. "If it isn't the only other owlet in this hellhole… Drop the crossbow, or I shoot. And I'm a deadshot."
"You should drop yours," Austin countered, his crossbow also out and aimed at the girl. "I'm pretty good with a crossbow, myself. I don't miss. And I don't care if you're a girl. You attacked my friends; you gonna feel some pain."
The girl fixed Austin with her cold death stare. It made him feel like a victim of a killer - paralyzed by fear, and shaken to the core by terror. But he held her gaze, fixing her with a stare of his own, defying the same fear he felt before, when he faced her in the Labyrinth the other night. He knew somehow that it wasn't the Voice taking over and that the courage he was feeling was his own somehow - He knew this because he was seriously honest about what he felt for his friends.
"Looks like we're at a stalemate, I suppose," the girl said, not dipping her drawn arrow in the slightest, as drawled on with "But, where you came in here alone, I did not."
Suddenly, movement caught Austin's eye and he became awfully aware of everything again, including his injured friends and the attackers whom had them at weapon's point. Stryker was definitely unconscious, his body a minefield of bruises, cuts, blood and injuries he hadn't had last Austin saw him; Austin also saw a worried Alyssa, an enrage Caesar and a quietly observant Reya - All of whom were kept at bay by five, armed teenagers 𑁋three of whom Austin immediately recognized as the three who attack Austin in his cell days earlier, Feari, Horri and Pannica, with Horri bandaged at the leg from when Austin threw his dagger through the attacker's leg days ago.
The three 'Bane Brothers,' as Reya had called them, Austin remembered being attacked by them before; they wore the same attire as before 𑁋 cargos, tanktops and boots. They were armed with guns, machetes, long, curvy daggers and each possessed at least one pistol; one of them even had an automatic gun. Feari and Paninica had their guns aimed directly at Stryker's unconscious body that Reya had moved a little to protect.
Though neither said a thing, the message was clear: Do anything rash, and two more of his friends gets it.
Austin shifted his attention to the two other youths present and helping in holding his friends hostage: They were two he had not met yet. With the exception of Scarleteye, they all seemed related, so Austin presumed these final two were also part of the Bane Brothers. They possessed the same cold, brown eyes,except one of them; the youngest was maybe 11 year old. She had shortcut hair and a machete in one hand with a pistol in the other. The coldness that were in her siblings' eyes hadn't yet taken over her eyes just yet; in fact, she seemed a bit nervous as she held her weapon in Austin's direction. He hoped it was for the reason he was rooting for.
'Maybe she won't fire'. Austin thought to himself. 'Maybe she'll be reasonable enough'. But Austin didn't dare move a muscle; he figured he better not risk it.
'Not yet. Let's wait'. He heard the Voice say to him.
The boy was older 𑁋 Actually, he had to have been the oldest of the siblings; he seemed to be oldest person Austin had seen in this whole place; he looked to be 20 to 21 years old. Austin initially wonder why the sight of such a "big kid" so close to adulthood caused a memory to surface from the obscuring depths of his memories to come to him: A lesson he can hear the voice of but cannot see the settings of: The human body is truly matured between the age of 21 and 24 years of age. He didn't try to chase the memory given what happened before, but he made a mental reminder to think on that voice again later on. He needed to focus on the present, here and now.
The boy had longer brown hair that reached his neck. He had a fit body that could only rival that of a Scout, perhaps even more Austin notices upon further gazing. He must work out; he had on black cargo pants, a grey shirt and the same green jacket his siblings had on 𑁋 grey, green and black camouflage with a scorpion etched into the back of the jacket, behind two, big, black double Ds. he was the only one that was armed only with a a long machete, but something about his bemused, yet deviously deadly glance at Austin told Austin that he was the leader of the Bane Brothers and he was very dangerous - the most dangerous one there. He didn't need anymore than a machete because, for one, he possessed an atmosphere of sorts that inspired fear in his opponent, and two, where the other of the Bane Brothers radiated a steaming heat, his cold aura by contrast was malevolent and bad news to any who got in his way. His eyes malicious and amused by Austin's paralyzed form, they both knew there was never a stalemate.