Army of True Salvation

John embarrassingly smiled at the teenagers around him. "I'm sorry that you had to witness all of this," he said as he scratched the back of his head. "I called you all for a meeting but this suddenly happened," he added and the teenagers looked at him.

"It's okay. We understand. We'll leave for a while to give you three a moment," Isobel spoke for them and the others nodded quickly, not wanting to be dragged in their family affair.

Tyler suddenly spoke. "Kreiss is Dannie's cousin." Everyone's faces looked like it had a eureka moment.

So that explains it! Kreiss is Dannie's cousin! He must've done something awful before for them to act angrily towards him.

"Dannie told us about Kreiss. Dannie said that she kind of knew that Kreiss was the one who kidnapped her because the address of the place in the photo was familiar. So that explains why Dannie walked out when she saw him. They clearly have issues," Tyler added and Sheloah hugged both of her knees.

They were suddenly diverted to another topic when Shannara suddenly spoke.

"Kreiss loves Sheloah."

Everyone right now looked curious, except for Sheloah, Veon, and Shannara.

"How," Isobel asked, completely intrigued. Sheloah then sighed in exasperation. They need not know this event.

"You don't have to know. What's important right now is what we're about to do," Sheloah said then everyone looked at her.

"Kreiss was the one who kidnapped Sheloah, right? If he loves her, why kidnap her," Isobel asked, taking them back to the topic.

"He couldn't state his reasons," Veon answered, making Sheloah look at him. For how many hours, he finally said a lot of words. It wasn't even a good one. "He kept provoking me, asking me if I like Sheloah," he added and Sheloah sighed, quite annoyed.

"I don't want talking about this," Sheloah said sharply, giving them a warning. But then Shannara gave her a stern look.

"Why? Was it because of how Veon's treating you right now? Are you scared," Shannara said, surprising Sheloah with her sudden change of attitude.

"Why are you like this? What have I ever done to you," Sheloah asked, feeling wronged. She didn't understand why Shannara suddenly acted differently towards her.

Shannara raised a brow at her. "Why do you act like you don't know anything? Don't act as if nothing happened," she said then she scoffed. "Just because a handsome boy like Kreiss likes you and that you have an advantage when it comes to winning Veon over, you act all innocent now," she added and this made everyone look at her, surprised.

'Now that certainly hurt,' they thought in unison.

Sheloah couldn't say anything but she felt incredibly pained by the treatment she's been getting from Shannara and the coldness she's been receiving from Veon. Even others are starting to look at Sheloah weirdly now.

Why is Shannara like this? Was it because she liked Veon and he did not reciprocate her feelings, is that it? What is her intention by telling all these information to them?

Sheloah hated herself right now because she did not know what to say in order to protect herself.

"Shannara, whatever it is, I'm sorry," Sheloah apologized, not knowing what to say but Shannara gave her a smirk.

"You're doing the easy way out. I know you don't know what to say to protect yourself," Shannara said then suddenly, Sheloah became quiet, her eyes teary.

"Shannara, stop."

When Veon spoke, everyone looked at him.

"If you don't like Sheloah because of what's happening, you don't have to drag everyone else in the situation. Aren't you also doing something wrong?"

Now it was Shannara's turn to be silenced.

"I…" Shannara avoided everyone's gaze. "Sorry," she added and everyone kept silent until Tyler spoke.

"Well," Tyler trailed off as he scratched his head. "I looked at the map and Dannie's father and I talked about the plan. We might stop at Pampanga and get some resources for our stocks. Then we proceed to Manila," he said then everyone nodded, not saying a word.

Tyler obviously wanted to change the topic because the situation was becoming intense.