“Run!” a nameless human cried
out, a shadow that darted by me.
Run where
, I wanted to scream back. Instead, I squeezed my eyes
shut, and tried to pretend I was anywhere but there in that crumbling building.
Why couldn’t that mind-numbing darkness come now? But no, I was left with only
cold, harsh reality. I gripped the hilt of the sword tighter. I’d hide until
they left. They wouldn’t make it down here, this far into the building. Will
would stop them, wouldn’t he? Another cry echoed down the hall. I cringed,
sweat breaking out across my forehead. The scream was closer. Too close.
The beautiful ones had arrived,
and they were headed my way.
The sudden pounding of footsteps
had me pushing away from the wall, sword gripped tightly in front of me. Jim
burst from the darkness, followed by five other children.
“Hurry, Jane,” he panted, the
look of terror in his innocent eyes almost my undoing. “We’re headed to the
children’s ward to hide. Come with us!”
But he was gone before I could
question him further, the other children following his lead, melting into the
shadows toward some unknown destination. They’d done this before, they knew
where they were going. I knew nothing.
“Wait!” I called out, but my cry
was lost within the screams of those from the great room.
Terror gripped me in its icy
clutches and wouldn’t let go. It took all the strength I had to move, my legs shaking
so badly I thought for sure I’d trip and impale myself on the sword. I didn’t
know where the children’s ward was located and could no longer hear their
footsteps over the cries of those dying down the hall, but one thing remained
first and foremost in my mind…if they were headed into a room here with no windows
and only one exit, then they were as good as dead if the beautiful ones broke
through Will’s defense.
“Go!” Kelly suddenly appeared,
grabbing onto my arm and pulling me down the hall. She looked as frightened as
Jim, and her terror disturbed and terrified me all at once. I had counted on
them to lead the way, to know what to do, but I was left with the disheartening
realization that Kelly, Will, all of them, weren’t any more prepared than I
was.
“We have to hide with the
children.”
“But, Kelly…”
She ran too fast and my weak
body couldn’t keep pace. My hand slipped from hers. She didn’t look back, but
raced ahead after the children, assuming I’d follow. Using the wall as support,
I somehow managed to stumble forward, moving in a daze. But my muscles trembled
from disuse, and my mind was beginning to shut down, the light fading, that
blissful numbness calling to me.
I turned the corner, hoping my
legs wouldn’t give out. The group was gone. Two long, dark halls remained. Panting
in indecision, I merely stood there, the sword hanging heavily from my
fingertips. I could hide. It would be easy…so easy to fall back into that world
of nothingness, a world without pain, without fear.
Shouts rang out, startling me.
The noise came from nowhere and everywhere at once. Left and right, it echoed
against the stone walls so I wasn’t sure which direction they were headed.
Dropping the sword with a clang,
I pressed my palms to my ears and squeezed my eyes shut. “No, no, no.”
A place to hide. Rationally, I
knew I needed somewhere to hide. Shoving aside the numbness, I scooped up a
lantern in one hand and the sword in my other. There was still a tiny kernel of
fight left within me. I needed to try, at least, to live. I shuffled down the
hall, searching the darkness, hoping to find some hidden door where the real
world couldn’t penetrate. The further into the bowels of the skyscraper I traveled,
the softer the sounds became, giving me hope. Maybe the children were right to
come this way, maybe they would be safe deep within the earth. Holding the lantern
high, I turned a corner and paused. There, on the ground, a body lay sprawled
across the corridor. I recognized him as one of Will’s men, but didn’t know his
name.
“Hey,” I called out in a harsh
whisper. “You need to get up!”
He didn’t move.
Gingerly, I inched toward him,
his pale hair shimmering in the lantern light like the golden necklaces I’d
seen the beautiful ones wear. Surely he couldn’t have been sleeping through the
attack. I knelt and reached out, pushing on his shoulder. No movement. Strange.
I grabbed the lantern, bringing it closer and it was only then that I noticed
the dark red pool of blood surrounding his head and shoulders. Surging upright,
I tripped over my own feet. The beautiful ones had made it to the children’s
ward.
My heart leapt into my throat,
my mouth going dry. Frantically, I searched the area, attempting to decipher
man from shadow, to hear the sound of unwelcome footsteps over the rapid beat
of my heart. But I could barely hear anything and my mind refused to think.
Go! Run!
My instincts screamed at me.
Stumbling, I stepped around the
body, not daring to give it more than a glance. Some sort of metal desk blocked
the hall. Clutching my sword, I sat on the discarded furniture and scooted over
the top, making sure not to cut myself on the rust. One cut and the injury
could become infected. I’d seen it happen more than once. Not that it would
matter if a beautiful one found me.
Where had the children gone?
Were they already dead? The sound of laughter, a merry chuckle, floated down
the hall. A beautiful one. The constant fear I’d felt fled. I had to find Kelly
and Jim before it was too late.
Like the very world mocked me, a
high-pitched scream rent the air, a terrifying wail that sent chills over my
skin. Searching for Kelly and Jim would be suicide. Stupid. And I’d never been
stupid. I slumped down against the wall, hidden behind the desk. I would survive
this. I had before. I would hide here until they left. Besides, even if I
wanted to leave, I couldn’t. My body was trembling so badly I wasn’t sure if I
could move, let alone run or swing the sword. Still, I clasped the hilt like it
was my only link between life and death.
“Fire!” someone yelled.
Fire? For a brief moment my
confused mind couldn’t process the thought. Then it hit me…they were going to
smoke us out. Tom had done it before with the rabbits when they were eating the
crops. Sure enough, moments later I smelled the telltale scent of smoke drifting
down the corridor. Clutching the sword, I lowered myself to the ground where
the air would remain fresh. There was no choice, I had to find a way out. Gingerly,
I slid the sword into the back of my shirt, using it as a makeshift sheath, the
cold blade resting against the skin between my shoulder blades. On my hands and
knees, I started crawling away from the desk, hoping there would be an exit
ahead.
“Leave her alone!” Jim’s voice
pierced through the surge of cries, a tiny voice within a sea of monstrous
growls.
“Jim?” I whispered.
“Help!” the boy screamed, as if
sensing me. “Help us!”
I glanced back, hoping to see
Will charging through the smoke, but I was alone. Utterly alone. I forced my
legs to hold me and stood, pulling the sword from my shirt and stumbling toward
Jim’s cry. As much as I was loathe to admit it, the cowardly part of me wished
I could run the other way. But the children were being attacked and no one was
coming to their rescue. Racing down the hall toward Jim’s scream, I realized in
the deep recesses of my mind that I was most likely running toward death. My
footsteps slowed. Sally had died alone because I’d been too much of a coward to
help her—I would not make that mistake now.
At the end of the hall I paused
for a brief moment to catch my breath. The smoke, at least, had not reached
this hall yet. Taking in a deep breath, I peeked around the corner and studied
the children’s ward. Not quite as big as the great hall, but it was a wide,
open space with cots and lanterns for the children. They’d done their best to
make it a home. And now it was a trap, a coffin.
Kelly stood in front of the children,
a useless dagger in hand as she tried her best to protect them. A tall man with
long, dark hair and clothes of colorful silk had them cornered. My fear gave
way to anger. What had Will been thinking to send one person to protect a group
of little ones?
“Please,” Kelly whispered, her
wide eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “They’re just children. They aren’t
ripe. You have no use for them, let them go. Take me instead.”
I pulled back, hiding behind the
wall, and staring up at the dark ceiling in indecision. Could Kelly and I take
the man together, or was he stronger than even the both of us combined? I
closed my eyes, sucking in a reassuring breath. They had saved me. They had
brought me here. Fed me. I owed them.
“Shut up, cow,” the beautiful
one growled.
I opened my eyes, my hands
tightening around the hilt of my sword. How I hated him. Hated that perfect face
and fine clothing. Hated that he controlled whether we lived or died.
“Not today,” I whispered.
Today I’d save Kelly and Jim
even if it meant giving up my own worthless life. I swiped the sweat from my
brow. If I raced into that room and attacked, he would most likely end up
killing us all. My body was too weak to fight him. But maybe…just maybe I could
lure him away until Will and his friends got there.
I focused on the area around me.
Something. I needed…
A piece of cement lay only a few
feet away, a chunk that had fallen from the decaying walls. Determined, I drew
back my leg and kicked the small rock. It went skittering across the floor, hitting
the wall with a
ping
. Not loud, but
loud enough for the beautiful one to hear.
I didn’t wait around to see if
he followed. If I wanted any chance at all to survive, I wouldn’t have time.
Using what little energy that remained in my body, I raced down the hall, into
the darkness. The sound of my own exhausted pant made it impossible for me to
hear if he followed. Part of me hoped he did, the other part, the cowardly
part, hoped he hadn’t.
As I turned the corner I dove into
a wall of smoke. Lanterns that had been left behind gave the corridor an eerie
yellow haze, only adding to the nightmarish atmosphere. I coughed, covering my
mouth and nose with the neckline of my shirt. At the end of the hall I turned
left, away from the smoke burning my eyes and choking the air from my lungs. Seeing
that familiar desk, I dove over it and fell to the ground. The body of Will’s
friend lay just a few feet away.
Terrified, I huddled behind that
desk, clutching the sword against my chest, and waited. As the minutes ticked,
I had the unsettling realization that the screams had stopped. Silence meant
one of two things…either the beautiful ones had killed everyone, or Will and
his men had won. Sweat trailed down my forehead, stinging my eyes, but I didn’t
dare move to brush it away.
“Please, please let them be
alive,” I whispered.
“This way, I’m sure of it,” a
man’s melodic voice echoed down the hall.
Not Will or any of his friends.
No, this voice was too perfect, too beautiful. I cringed, biting my lip to keep
from whimpering. The man from the children’s room. A beautiful one. He had
followed me after all. Elation fought with terror. I gripped the sword with
damp palms.
Cut off his head. Cut off his head.
Will’s words of wisdom repeated
over and over through my mind and I almost laughed at the absurdity of it all. Right,
I’d merely attack him, cut off his head, and then we’d all live happily ever
after.
“Roman, you idiot, you’re just
hearing things,” another man muttered.
I stiffened in horror. Two
beautiful ones?
Footsteps thudded against the
floor, vibrating the very hall. I was going to die. Sally flashed to mind,
beautiful in her white gown right before the beautiful ones had attacked and
murdered her, draining her blood…
“I can smell you,” Roman said,
chuckling as if it was all some game.
The acidic taste of bile surged
up my throat. He knew I was here. The idea of a surprise attack fled just as
quickly as it had come.
“It’s all right,” Roman said in
a soft, kind voice that mocked the horror of my situation. “Everything will be
fine. Just come out. We will forgive you.”
His friend started laughing, the
joke apparently highly amusing. Just like that my fear gave way to anger, a
burning hatred that pulsed through my veins. My grip tightened around the hilt,
and the urge to jump to my feet and swing that sword overwhelmed me. But I
wasn’t trained to fight, and so I would have to use my brains instead.
“Come, my dear,” Roman’s friend
called out. “The waiting will only make it worse.”
How little he knew. The waiting
was all I had. His sweet scent floated toward me and I realized just how near they
were. Their footsteps thudded close. So close that dust and debris fell from
the ceiling, pattering to the ground at my feet.
“She’s here,” Roman whispered.
“I can smell her.” He jumped atop the desk with a thunk, a dark shadow that
suddenly hovered over me. “Hello, my love.”
I didn’t scream, I didn’t cry. Instead,
I grew oddly calm. As he leapt from the desk I did the only thing I could—I lifted
the sword. The entire world seemed to slow down. Instinctively, I closed my
eyes as he fell upon the blade. I could hear the swoosh of the steel going
through his torso and then suddenly he landed atop me, flattening me to the
ground. Shocked, for a long moment I merely lay there under his weight, the
hilt of the sword digging into my gut while his warm blood poured down around
me, soaking my silly ruffled shirt.
“Roman?” his friend cried out,
followed by the thunder of feet.
I used what little strength I
had left to push him off me. He rolled onto his side, my sword still piercing
his torso. With my heart hammering wildly against my rib cage, my body and mind
screaming at me to run, I pressed my feet into his chest and pulled the sword
free. It was as the blade was back in my hands that I heard him groan. I froze
for a split second, realizing he still lived.