Rise (Camille Bishop Book 3)

by Ravin Tija Maurice

  My anxiety began to prickle up the back of my neck as we ascended the stairs. Hiding my straight up fear in these situations felt like second nature so we all continued on without pausing. Jack and I occasionally made eye contact but that was it.

  Could he see in my eyes how terrified I was?

  I wanted to hold his hand, for us to turn around and run off into the sunset together. I was so over this life. We could run out the back door and disappear; Windsor taught us how to hide. If we really wanted to and made the effort even the great Order of Nevar could never find us. But we’d leave our families behind, which we’d do anyways if we ended up dead.

  We cleared the first room quickly and approached the door to another. Assuming it would be a similar layout to downstairs, we knew the space and its size. I could sense movement beyond the closed door, shuffling and thumping that came with walking around.

  Destiny stood closer to the door and listened. She gestured four to us; there could be more but that’s what she heard. She grabbed a tiny vial from her pocket and clutched it tightly. The stun bombs I made were sometimes helpful but not always. I made sure I held one in my free hand, my gun tightly clutched in the other.

  Destiny glanced at all of us again, raising her arm up to signify time to get ready. When she looked satisfied we were she dropped her hand, kicking the door as hard as she could.

  The door crunched and flung open, bits of splintered wood burst into the air. Destiny walked in, gun drawn, and tossed the stun bomb into the middle of the room.

  I heard the shatter and explosion, and then Jack and I followed her. No time to think, barely even enough time to breathe. As soon as I passed the doorway I threw my stun bomb, going after the first body I saw.

  Clicking and shifting echoed through the room as the enemies moved around us. Not pausing to look for weapons, I advanced. Too much indecision could cost me. I grabbed my branding coin from my pocket and dove on the closest body, which hissed and burned when the coin touched their forehead.

  Hideous red eyes turned to me, saliva dripping from its mouth as it snarled with disgusting teeth. I’d been lucky enough to catch it sitting, using my height and the angle of my arms to keep it down for now. The foam coming from its mouth looked pinkish red, like it fed recently.

  It twitched, a quick movement as it went to try something but I moved faster and shot it three times.

  Two to the chest, one to the head, just like Windsor taught us, and it exploded into dust.

  Moving on to the next one I destroyed two more before looking at my surroundings. We were ok, with enemies exploding left and right. I smiled for a moment.

  A thunderous crack and slam made me jump as a door hidden behind a curtain burst open. An enormous beast of a man, who I knew I’d seen before, trampled into the room like a rhino and headed straight for Destiny. His face looked covered in pock marks and boils, as if the skin dripped like wax. His biceps rippled so big his shirt might rip at any moment.

  I screamed Jack’s name and ran for her, ignoring the gunshots and roars around me. Big man picked up Destiny by her long black hair and grabbed her throat. Her pretty green eyes bulged as she gasped for breath.

  Pulling another stun bomb from my pocket I launched it directly at his fat face with no effect. Without thinking my gun went up and I fired at him, I put four into him including two head shots. Before the second head shot made contact he clenched his fist around her throat, her eyes swelling more as he pulled. With a sickening rip and blood shooting everywhere like a confetti explosion he tore out my best friend’s throat and tossed her body on the floor like a used tissue.

  Running to her, I hit the ground and pulled her into my lap. She stared up at me as she gasped for air; blood poured out from her throat and bubbled from her lips. I took her hand and squeezed it as hard as I could over her gaping wound. Trying to steady myself, I did my best not to hyperventilate.

  “I’m so sorry. I love you.” I sobbed. She mouthed a word at me that I couldn’t understand. I leaned down and managed to hear her say, “Survive” before she stopped moving completely.

  “Kennedy! Kennedy! We have to go!” Jack shook my arm violently as it hung lifeless at my side.

  “I can’t leave her!” I wailed.

  “If we don’t leave right now we're going to die too. You can’t kill Windsor if you’re dead!” He grabbed my arm and pulled me up. “Frost! We have to go!”

  Setting her down softly, I kissed her forehead and stood. We went for the door big man came from, jumping over his body. A quick look around as we slammed the door behind us let me know that Jack and I were the only ones left standing. Several big men came in from other doors, whoever watched the exits sucked balls.

  But that was it, wasn’t it? No one watched the exits.

  We grabbed everything we could to barricade the door, pulling furniture and boxes until we felt confident it would hold long enough for us to make a plan.

  The butt of my gun scratched my forehead as I raised my hands; it felt cold and centered me. When I looked around the room I started to hyperventilate more, and things became fuzzy and I felt a little light headed.

  With random furniture piled around, we must have been in some kind of storage room. The only other exit being a small window about ten feet up.

  “He lied to us again.” I repeated, not loud enough that I thought Jack could hear me.

  “Technically I don’t think he did.” Jack began grabbing pieces of furniture and piling them along the wall under the window. “But we’ll debate that later. First we have to get out of here. That means I need you with me.”

  He grabbed my free hand with his, our guns still gripped in our other hands.

  “Kennedy. I need you to focus. We have to climb up and crawl through that window.” He gestured upwards. “You can freak out later.”

  “How can we just leave her like that?” I blubbered.

  “Just like we had to leave all the others. Because you’ll die! We’ll die! We HAVE to GO!” He screamed in my face. “Can you kick out that window?”

  I looked up, and at the pile of furniture he stacked for us to climb. “Yeah.”

  He popped out the clip on his gun and checked inside, cursing under his breath.

  “What?” I asked. A loud thump shook the door and we jumped.

  “Nothing. Go!” He dragged me over and pushed me up the stack of furniture. With my gun tightly gripped in my left hand I climbed up, and I got close enough that I could grab the windowsill.

  Luckily the window folded open and we could easily pull up and slide through it. I looked down at Jack, who guarded the door with his gun in his hands.

  “We don’t have to kick it. It folds open.” I pulled myself up like doing a pull up. “C’mon. It will hold. Let’s go.”

  Dangling my legs out the window, I slid out until my body hung against the outside wall and my hands tightly gripped the window sill. I tried to look below me and it appeared to be a straight drop so I let go. Broken ankles and getting eaten flashed before my eyes as I zoomed down.

  I got lucky and landed on my feet. Backing up, I stood in the shadows and waited.

  Time seemed like it stopped and I went into full on panic mode. We discussed repeatedly what to do in this situation but I could not remember any of it. My mind went completely blank, barely forming a coherent thought.

  I would wait a few more minutes then go back in and get him. I may not get to choose about her, but I would not go without him.

  My mind raced with all the possible outcomes when I saw his feet and legs come out the window and his body rapidly fall to the ground. His face look battered and his nose started to swell. Blood droplets spattered across his skin, his big green eyes looked wild.

  “I’m ok.” He pleaded as I pulled him to his feet. “That door didn’t hold as long as we thought.”

  “We can discuss
tactics later. Can you walk?” I asked.

  Jack limped forward a few paces. “I’m good. Let’s go.”

  We started towards the open end of the alley where we encountered a row of dark figures.

  “He may not have lied but he sure as shit didn’t do anything to help us.” I snapped.

  Without another thought I held up my gun and started firing.

  Not wanting to waste bullets, I stopped and pulled two large hunting knives out of their holsters at my waist. Jack kept his gun raised as I held my blades in fighting stance.

  Two of the figures came at us so quickly we barely had time to react. I stabbed one, the blade sinking in what felt like jello. Reaching out to grab the one closer to Jack I slashed into it before it touched him.

  He shot it twice in the upper region; we still couldn’t see any faces. I heard one of them say something like ‘order scum’ before they all dissipated as if they were made of smoke.

  Grabbing Jack’s arm I dragged him out into the open. We were back by the front entrance; I saw no sign of Windsor anywhere.

  “Looks like he cleared out. I got a pretty good idea where to look.” I turned and gasped when I saw Jack. His free hand held tight across a huge gash in his stomach. It looked as if some of his insides were hanging out. Why didn’t I notice before?

  Pulling him back inside the alley, I sat him down with his back against the wall. Trying to assess the damage in the dark proved tough, but his fingers clearly were tangled in something. I put my hand on top of his and pushed against his wound. It squirted more blood, coating my hand and starting to run up my sleeve.

  “I'll call an ambulance.” I went to pull my phone out of my pocket.

  “We both have loaded handguns.” He watched me as I fumbled around like an idiot. “And there is a bunch of dead bodies inside.”

  “I don’t care.”

  He laughed. “Yes you do. I'm not worth it.”

  “Yes you are.”

  His fingers to my cheek, smearing it with blood. I leaned forward so our foreheads touched. His skin felt warm.

  “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me Frost.”

  “I should have said it sooner. I should have screamed it from the rooftops.”

  “It's not because I'm dying?”

  I smiled, my vision blurry with tears. “Of course not you idiot.”

  Jack coughed, his face grimaced in pain. His beautiful perfect face. I should have told him all the time how I really felt. My foolish pride stopped me from being honest. I would regret that for the rest of my days. Maybe this would be my last day.

  “I can’t do this without you.” Hot tears started to flow down my face. He pushed his gun into my hands, placing them both above my heart.

  “Take my gun and use it to kill Windsor. Promise me you’ll go and do it now.”

  My heart started pounding, anxiety grabbed hold of me with a vice grip. My mouth felt dry, my tongue like sandpaper. Tears poured down my face.

  Jack coughed again. “Go, Kennedy.”

  “I won’t leave you alone!” I took the gun and put it in my waistband, then sat beside him with his hand clutched firmly in mine. I thought briefly about his Mom, who loved him so much. She should’ve been here. If this moment was destined to happen it should have been somewhere nice, not a dirty dark alley.

  He smiled, and then coughed again. “You have to survive. You’re the one, Kennedy Frost.”

  “How do I do this alone? I'm not strong enough.”

  “Yes you are.” He sputtered. “You are the strongest of all of us. You have to do this for all of us.”

  I leaned over and kissed him softly on the mouth. “I love you so much. I'm so sorry I couldn’t save you.”

  When I pulled away his head fell limply to the side, his eyes blank and empty. My heart broke at the thought that maybe he hadn’t heard me.

  With Jack gone, only I remained.

  My insides screamed. My logical brain kept saying to call an ambulance. Maybe there was a chance. Maybe there was still time, on the off chance I could be the hero and save him.

  It took me a while of just sitting for everything to sink in. I took a deep cleansing breath and my training kicked in. Emptying his pockets, I shifted him so only his beat up Chuck Taylor’s could be seen when you looked down the alley. Moving his head around, I tried to make it so his eyes looked at me. Even if Jack no longer looked back, maybe his eyes could one last time. But it didn’t work.

  His eyes would never look at me again.

  My heart began to hurt in a way I never felt before. Like it was eating itself and leaving a gaping hole in my body.

  Reaching into my inside pocket, I used the bandana I kept for this purpose to wipe him down, removing my fingerprints. I wrapped it around his ring, slipping it off his finger and putting them both back in my inside jacket pocket.

  I stood, putting my gun away and making sure my jacket covered his when I tucked it in my waist band. The cold metal touching my skin felt good. It centered me, and gave me the confidence I needed to walk away. Windsor discussed this with us at great length; even he expressed this would be the hardest thing we would ever do, even harder than killing.

  Keeping to the shadows, I moved slowly and calmly into the night. After about ten minutes I called the police.

  Two guns.

  Nine bullets.

  Two knives.

  One stun bomb.

  Three vials of kerosene and a lighter.

  It would have to do.

  The official headquarters of The Order of Nevar sat under the library of the downtown campus of the University of Toronto. There were many other locations around the city, including my high school, but this acted as ground zero. My group and I discussed the age of the building, and whether they built it with the intention to put The Order in the basement or it came later.

  Most of the entrances were unguarded. Unless you knew what you were looking for they were just ordinary doors, and they didn’t think they needed to guard them. Good for me.

  Keeping both my guns hidden I went in, starting down the winding staircase. I saw no one; the thump of my sneakers provided a rhythmic noise for me to concentrate on over the pounding in my ears.

  Pushing through the big wood doors, I walked into the empty main meeting room.

  All the recruits were dead except me, only the higher ups would be lurking around. If Windsor ran back when shit went south they would all know by now. Hopefully they were having a moment of silence somewhere.

  Carved with ornate filigree and mystical symbols into dark cherry wood, the inner office doors looked like something out of a movie. They made my skin crawl, like I stood before the Temple of Doom.

  Standing outside them always meant something was coming. News, trouble, orders.

  This time, that something was me.

  Channeling the energy of my best friend, I kicked the door open. The big wood panels banged on the walls with a thud but it didn’t splinter or even crack. I wondered how many times this great door got kicked in such a fashion. Windsor and two of his high priestess jumped from where they leaned over the desk, their bare asses exposed to Windsor. The large dark wood surface dominated much of the room; it looked like the set for an old school vampire flick.

  Jack loved every inch of the room. I pushed the ache for him aside.

  Windsor's eyes grew wide as dinner plates. “Frost! I’m…”

  “Surprised to see me?” I grinned from ear to ear. The dried blood smear on my cheek cracked as I moved my mouth.

  “What happened?”

  “What do you think happened? Your intel was bullshit. Again. I think you did it on purpose.”

  He chuckled. “It's not my fault. We staked out…”

  “Yeah, you mentioned that. And you didn’t stick around long enough to guard the
doors.” I stood about a foot away from the desk, hands on my hips. “I think you played us. You got in Destiny's head and amped her up, knowing Jack and I would follow. They tore her throat out first.” I pulled out my gun and cocked it. “Jack and I almost got away until we got jumped in the alley next to the building, after having crawled out a tiny window. An action you could’ve prevented if you bothered to stick around and guard the perimeter. He literally held his own guts in.”

  Windsor sighed loudly, like I somehow inconvenienced him. “I don’t know what you want me to say Kennedy.”

  “Let's start with I'm sorry.”

  One of the priestesses went to move towards me and I pulled Jack's gun from my waist band. “You don’t have to die too.”

  “Listen to me, Frost…” Windsor began, slowly beginning to stand.

  “I'm done listening to you. Consider this my official retirement.” I barely got the words out when out of the corner of eye I saw that same priestess move and I shot her in the head without blinking.

  Everyone else froze when her body thumped to the floor.

  “Now that I have your attention.” I put a bullet in Windsor's right shoulder and he plopped back down in his chair. Two shots meant security would be coming. “I want to hear you say it.”

  “Say what?” His voice sounded panicked. “What do you want?”

  “What do I want? I want my friends back. I want you to say you're sorry they’re all dead!”

  I shot him in the other shoulder. “Two to the chest, just like you taught me.”

  He looked up at me from his seat behind the desk and I saw nothing in his eyes. I knew in that moment no matter what anyone did or said he would never feel anything for the countless numbers of teenagers who died under his tutelage.

  Something inside me always knew, and he never did anything to make me think otherwise.