Cloud - Chapter 40: Chapter 40

"You got to be fucking kidding me!" Cale shouted angrily at us, seeing that we were all not talking. "Calum did not betray us! He's not a traitor and he's surely not the one who removed Cedric's chains!"
"Hey calm down, we did not say anything about betrayal," Rain said and then he added, "But nothing is sure at this point. We need to think about it clearly."
"There is nothing to think about," Cale exclaimed in disbelief. "My brother has always been loyal to you, more than I ever was. He fought for you multiple times and he has always followed your orders. There is no way in hell that he would be associated with someone like Cedric."
"Then how did Cedric escape?" Cloud asked him. "You said so yourself, Cedric couldn't have removed the chains on his own. Someone must have surely helped him."
"That someone is not my brother!" Cale protested and no one really knew what to tell him.
"Well, it doesn't make any sense," Nicolas said surprisingly, "If Cedric wanted to escape, he could have did it from the very start. Instead, he attacked us and got himself locked up only to escape later on."
"He simply used us," I spoke for the first time, "Those people who kidnapped me, they thought that I was Cedric. They were pretty angry at him. Cedric must have surely thought that they would kill me and that he could get away easily. He planned it all." I paused briefly before asking, "What happened actually after I disappeared?"
"Estella came back without you," Cloud replied, his voice as hard as his eyes as he looked at Estella. "She actually thought that you returned home without her so imagine her surprise when she came back here and found out that you weren't there."
"Listen, Cloud, I already told you that I was sorry," Estella said in exasperation. "I was trying to feed and that boy kept on bothering me. If I had knew that some people were planning on kidnapping him, I would have never left him alone. Besides, I was gone for twenty minutes maxi."
"Do you even hear yourself?" Cloud asked her in disbelief. "You know that the Vins are searching for him and you, you left him alone for twenty minutes. That was completely careless of you. What would have happened if Nicolas did not succeed to find him? Those people would have killed him and that would have been your entire fault!"
"Cloud, enough," I intervened and I turned to face him, touching his cheek, "I'm okay now so no need to be angry at her anymore."
He did not seem to want to calm down but when he looked into my eyes, he let out a sigh and nodded, letting the subject go. I smiled at him and leaned forward to peck his lips. We had more important matters to talk about than fighting among ourselves. Cedric succeeded to get away and Calum was no where to be seen. We needed to make sure that he was really the one who helped the replica escape.
"Cale, you are connected to Calum, right?" I asked him and I seemed to bring him out of his shocked state. He slowly nodded in confusion.
"What's your point?" he asked me in return.
"You can see what he sees and hear what he hears. Do your thing and find out where he is," I told him and his face immediately lighted up at the new found idea.
"Yeah, you're right," he said and he immediately did as I said. Though, as the seconds passed and as we waited for Cale to give us some good news, the expression on his face started to decompose into a bad one. He shook his head, saying, "No, I can't reach him. I can't feel him. I don't know where he is."
Rain sighed, "Damn it."
"Maybe there is another explanation to all of this," Nova said but she did not seem to believe her own words. I knew that she wanted to believe that there was another reason to explain Calum's disappearance, we all wanted to believe it but Cale instantly guessed what was going on in our heads.
"No, it can't be! No, no, no!" he exclaimed. "Calum did not do anything wrong! You have to believe me!" Cale walked to me, looking at me desperately. "You know that he would have never betrayed us. He protected you so many times and he has always defended you. Now you need to do the same for him, Luffy. You can't accuse him without knowing the truth."
"I'm not accusing him of anything," I told him honestly, "I really want to believe that he is innocent but how to explain that Cedric got away? Why did Calum disappear so suddenly without telling anyone where he was going?"
I knew that it was hard for him to hear my words but I was telling the truth. Of course, Calum was my friend and Cale was right when he said that his brother had always defended me. Calum had always been on my side when it was needed for. I wanted to do the same for him but I just did not know how.
"Fuck it," Cale said before running out of here. Everyone just let him go but I decided to do something and I went after him. He was quick and it was difficult for me to follow him, considering the fact that I was still regaining my strength.
I ended up losing Cale in the long run and I stopped in my track. I looked around myself, wondering where he could have ran off to. God, I did not even know where his room was. Having no other option left, I continued to follow the path that I was originally following and just my luck, I heard a door slam.
I went in the direction of the noise and found myself in a hallway that I never went in before. I found a door at the very end and I walked to it, opening it to find stairs. Curious, I walked up the stairs and ended up on the rooftop of the house.  Cale was there, staring in the distance. I made my way to him and stood at his side.
He did not look at me but I knew that he knew that I was there. I looked at him but he continued to stare straight ahead. I hummed, deciding not to speak until he did so and soon enough, he opened his mouth to say something.
"Calum has always been the stronger one," he said and I listened to him attentively. "He is more intelligent than me, he is more kind and people obviously like him more. I trust him more than anyone else on this earth and that's not just because he is my brother, it's also because I know that no matter what, he will always have control and he will always make the right choice. Then, why did things have to turn like this?"
"I'm sure that he is innocent," I reassured him and he let out a laugh.
"No need to lie to make me feel better, everything is against my brother," he said, "He told me that he was staying here and the others thought that he was coming with us to rescue you. He was the one who chained Cedric and just when the replica disappears, he disappears along with him. That's pretty suspicious if you ask me."
"There has to be another explanation then. Maybe Cedric forced him to free him or something," I tried to find another reasoning. "Or maybe he didn't even help Cedric. That ass must have forced him. I mean, why else would Calum help him to escape? What good would it bring him? It doesn't make any sense."
"Well, we need to find Calum," Cale stated, "I don't know where he went but one thing for sure, I'm going to kick his ass once I get my hands on him."
I nodded in agreement, "I won't stop you."
We both laughed and we remained here for some more minutes. After awhile, we both decided that it was time for us to get back inside but just before we went, Cale told me something:
"I'm sorry," he said and I was confused. "I'm sorry for the way that I treat you. I was really an ass to you at times and I need to admit that I shouldn't have tried to kill you."
Well that was unexpected.
"Don't worry about it, you are already forgiven," I smiled at him and he nodded, relieved. We went back inside the house and made our way back to the others. We found them in the living room. "We need to find where Calum is," I told them at our entrance, capturing their attention. "Until he is found, we won't make any assumption about him or about his innocence."
"What are we going to do then?" Rain asked me, tired. "It took us a lot of time to find that replica and he succeeded to get away in a matter of hours."
"We are going to find both of them no matter what it takes," I assured him. "Though, for now, I think that we need to concentrate on finding Cedric first. If that's okay with you, Cale?"
"Yeah, alright," he agreed.
"Okay, Nova, can you help by doing another locating spell?"
"You want to try that out again?" She asked me in surprise and I nodded. "I thought that you never wanted to do it again."
"That's our only option," I told her. "Whenever you are ready."
She smirked, "I'm always ready for some witchy spell." She stood up from the couch that she was sat on and walked to me. Though, just as she was coming closer, something flashed through my eyes. I stepped back immediately and Nova looked at me with a frown. "You okay?" she asked me in confusion and I nodded.
"Yeah, it's no-" I stopped in the middle of my sentence and my body froze. Another image passed in front of my eyes, it was a blur at first but it suddenly became clear. I fell on my knees and I raised my head above as more images played in front of my eyes.
There was Alexandro. He was in an apartment but he wasn't alone. Cedric was there along with other unfamiliar faces. Though among that group of strangers, one was familiar. It was a person standing in a corner of the apartment. It was Calum. He did not look hurt or anything. There was no emotion on his face. Suddenly, Cedric turned to him and gave him a nod. The guardian smirked before disappearing.
"Luffy," I heard Cloud say, bringing me back to reality life. He came at my side and knelt beside me. I looked at him but before I could reply anything to him, other images played in front of me.
Alexandro got attacked and even though, he tried to fight back, he ended up being overcome by the number of his opponents. They grabbed him and forced him to his knees. Cedric walked to him and gave him one punch that knocked him off instantly. He fell to the ground, unconscious. The replica mentioned for the others to take him and they took Alexandro's body before disappearing with it.
Cedric remained there, not doing or saying anything but then unexpectedly, he looked up and somehow his gaze met with mine. He gave me a smile and whispered a few words that I knew were meant for me:
"Prepare yourself. The final chapter of the book is closed and I have a feeling that you are losing."
"Luffy!" Cloud exclaimed as he held me in his arms and this time, I returned to the real world for good. I took in a few breath as I tried to process everything that I just saw and heard. "Hey, Luffy, reply to me."
"I'm okay, I'm okay," I told him and really, I couldn't believe what I just saw.
"You don't seem okay," Cale said and Nicolas agreed with him.
"What happened? You were completely absent for a few minutes," my guardian said and I paused, thinking of what I was going to say.
"I saw them," I started really slowly, "I saw Calum and Cedric."
"Excuse me?" Cale said in disbelief. "You saw Calum? Where is he? Where did you find him?"
"He-" I was cut off by the ringing of a phone. Everyone looked in the direction of Rain as he took out his phone.
"It's Frederick," he said as he took the call. Instead of bringing the phone to his ear, he put it on speaker to reply. "Hey, Fred-"
"Help!" we heard a shout at the other end and that was enough to get my full attention. "Help, Rain!"
My eyes widened and I pushed Cloud away from me to stand on my feet. In a matter of seconds, I was standing in front of Rain and I snatched the phone out of his hand.
"Frederick, it's Luffy, what's happening?" I asked my cousin.
"Luffy," Frederick exclaimed and he seemed to be panicked as well as out of breath. "I'm being chased! I think that it's the Vins!"
My heart skipped a beat at his words and everyone in the room seemed to freeze in place. I tried to find the words to say but I felt the fear slowly beating itself inside of me. My hands started to tremble and this time, the phone was snatched out of my hand by Rain.
"Where are you?" he asked Frederick, "Tell me where you are."
"I don't know," he exclaimed and he let out a groan of frustration. "I ran off in the forest near university and I lost my way."
Hearing that, Rain gave me back the phone before disappearing into smoke.
"Fred, just keep running, Rain is coming," I told him and I glanced at Cale who was just standing there without doing anything. "Cale, do something, damn it! You are supposed to be his guardian."
"I can't," he said and I looked at him in disbelief. "I can't feel Frederick. Something is blocking me from reaching him."
No, this couldn't be happening, not now. Things were going too fast. I heard the others shout at the phone for Frederick to continue to run but I couldn't say anything. Time seemed to go by slowly but I could not process anything happening.
Then, suddenly, among all those shouts, I heard a specific name.
"Calum," I heard Frederick say and my hand tightened around the phone. "Calum, you're here."
"No, Frederick, run, get away from him! He's not with us! Run!" I shouted but before I could get any form of reply, the line went dead.
The call simply ended.