by Nicol, Andy
“So much for the devil’s night and demons sing.” I said, sighing and unsheathing my weapons. I walked backwards, preparing for a running leap to the roof of the next building.
“Don’t do it.”
I stopped dead and turned to see Randy at the top of the fire escape. “You can’t make that jump. Maybe you should thank me by dropping out.”
“I very well can make that jump.” I sneered back at him. “The only way you’ll get me out of this competition is by defeating me fair and square.”
“So be it.” Randy sighed and tugged his whip from his belt. I swung my swords, then stepped forward, knowing that I can’t leave Soul for very long with Jekyll and Hyde on the way. He was terrified of them. And rightly so.
Randy and I circled each other until he was where I was just standing. He lashed his whip, wrapping it around my arm and leaving a little red welt on my cheek where the leather hit. I slipped it down to the hilt of my blade, and then I ran. The wind pushed my hood back, and I kicked off as far from the edge of the brick as I could, not only making it to the next building but also dragging my bandaged foe after me and leaving him hanging over the side of the brick wall, gripping his whip, which was still wound around my sword. This building was far shorter than Soul’s, but Randy was still terrified to fall. He’d probably break at least a few bones.
“K9, come on. Let me up! Fight me face to face!” He spoke tough, but his voice shook.
I smiled sweetly and waved as I angled my sword downwards and let the whip slide free. He screamed as he fell, hitting the ground roughly and crying out.
“I’m going to kill you, K9! You’re dead!”
I nodded as I walked away. “Okay! Let me know when all your bones fuse back together first, though.”
“Randy ‘the Mummy’ Curio has been eliminated! Eleven warriors left!” I heard the smooth voice of Robert Harold call out over a speaker as I grabbed the ladder of the fire escape and slid to the ground. In seconds, I was running out of breath and still some distance away from where Soul had been.
Our more rugged enemy’s voice boomed through town in deceiving echoes. “Find the damn boy!”
His accent made me cringe. It’s not that I don’t like Irish accents; it’s just that I don’t like theirs.
“If it comes down to us and the girls, you best believe I’m taking you down,” his gruesome twin snarled. I don’t know how close to them I was, but it made me nervous to pass open streets or alleyways. I slowed my steps and tried to breathe as quietly as I possibly could. Hearing heavy boots stomping the ground towards me, I tried to slide into the darkness of an alleyway.
A soft hand suddenly slid over my mouth and the other around my stomach, pulling me farther into the shadows. I struggled and tried to swing my sword back, but my grip was loose and the arm over my stomach was also holding my hands to my sides. Panic struck me as I kicked my legs up and tried once again to break free, but then it hit me. If this were a threat, I would probably be dead. Letting my boots rest on the ground once again, I settled enough that the person holding me back rested his head beside mine and whimpered softly. I could identify that whimper anywhere.
Soul let his hand fall from my mouth and sighed. When I turned around in his grip, he had his eyes closed tightly. Leaning against him, I ran a hand through his dirty hair
“We should go.”
He nodded, then stepped away. I started to panic as I faintly smelled the scent of blood. I checked my arms and then grabbed Soul. He had a long gash down his chest, but it wasn’t very deep and shouldn’t be a problem. That being said, I was still worried about it.
“Here, birdy, birdy, birdy…” Hyde sang mockingly.
I started to push him farther down the alley and into a back street, which was a little too open for my taste. After a shared look of frustration and anxiety, we took off towards the wooded area near the entrance.
When we hit the treeline, I fell to my knees, gasping for air and holding my stomach. I wasn’t completely healed yet, and each breath pulled at my skin. I tried desperately to steady myself, but I was hardly given a chance since, a second later, Sugar and Carmel jumped out of the darkness.
Standing and stretching out my back, I threw my arms up. “Are you kidding me?!”
I got my sword ready with one hand and held my wound with the other. Sugar and Carmel shared a look and started laughing.
“Aw, is the doggy hurting?” Sugar mocked.
“Just think about how happy Jekyll and Hyde will be when we knock you two out of this competition for them.”
Happy? They’d be ecstatic.
I half-heartedly swung and knocked the grenade out of Carmel’s hand; then I turned to Sugar. She was a bigger threat. She had skill with her metal staff, but she lost all the colour in her face when she heard Soul unhook his axe from his back and clamp his left hand firmly on the handle.
She shook. Her shaking hand took Carmel’s and the two whispered to each other. Sugar kept looking at Soul with his axe in his hands, then looking at me and flinching.
“You can’t leave! We have to do this,” Carmel declared. I looked at Soul and he shrugged his shoulders, just as confused. Suddenly, Sugar tossed her friend away and struck her with her staff. “I don’t want to fight someone else’s battle! I will not fight Crow. Think about what they must be going through, think about how sacred you were yesterday! I can’t do it, Carmela. I don’t want to get hurt for them.”
“B-but…”
“I quit! I’m out. I’m leaving. This is a sick game!” She turned to us and tossed her weapon down. She stormed off with Carmel, who was reluctant but seemed pretty grateful to go. A few short moments later, I heard Robert announce that they had left the competition as well.
“Wait here,” I told Soul as I started to climb into a tree in order to get a better idea of where the other contestants were. There were only nine people left, with seven to be eliminated, and I didn’t want to be one of them.
“Hey, birdbrain, you want to take another shot at me? Here I am. Go ahead!” a familiar voice shouted.
Scowling, I dropped to the ground. “Dracula,” I said, greeting Jeremy, who was limping towards us from the forest path.
“Maybe I’ll even get to impress your girlfriend when I stick my blades into your heart,” he taunted.
“Nothing about you is impressive, Dracula,” I said flatly.
Soul stepped towards him. I knew I didn’t have to worry about him being on his own; he was very good and very intimidating.
“Eloise ‘Dolly’ Bentley, and Frankie ‘Scene Fest’ Gent have both been eliminated! Seven warriors remaining!” I smirked and stepped back as Soul swung at Dracula. They exchanged blows for a few moments before I heard someone else heading towards us. I prayed it wasn’t Jekyll or Hyde, but I noticed the rattle of a metal-plated, pleated skirt. At least that eased my mind.
I held my weapon tight but allowed her to walk through the trees and stand by my side.
“Who are you rooting for?” Chrissy asked jokingly.
I scowled at her. “Who do you think?”
She smiled as she watched the two now-aggravated men try to kill each other. “I’ve always liked crows more than bats anyway,” she said, scratching her head.
Jeremy missed his one last swing and was whacked on the head by the blunt end of Soul’s axe. He dropped to the ground like a wet rag, out cold. Soul had won.
I sighed and looked at Chrissy. “I guess this means it’s our turn?”
“It’s seems so. Just try to stay away from the face.” Chrissy was already looking tired, but she lifted her arms into a defensive position.
“Where’s your crossbow?”
“Jekyll caught Angel and I in a lock-up, so I had to ditch it. Choked Frankie out with my bare hands though.”
I raised an eyebrow; that was one way to win, I suppose. I left my sword in its sheath and sent a punch towards her. She dodged it and fell straight onto my knee. I started to fall back, but instead I
leapt onto a low-hanging tree branch. I scampered up the tree and swung into an open window beside it.
“K-K9?”
“It’s okay, Soul, I’ll only be a minute!”
I knew Chrissy wouldn’t be able to make the jump from the tree to the window. That was the disadvantage of her curves and her short stature; she was strong but her centre of gravity was lower. She couldn’t throw herself around as easily as I could. I finally found the upside of having shoulders wider than my bony hips.
I watched her land on the ground on her back. She struggled for a minute, unable to breathe. Eventually, she let out a sigh.
“You win. I quit,” she said shakily. “I’m going home to sleep. You need this more anyway.”
I let out a laugh. “Thanks for helping us out!”
She waved her hand in the air before pressing both palms against her temples and walking off. I jumped back out the window and hit the ground again, biting my lip to keep from crying out. I gritted my teeth as I stood and looked at Soul, ready to start moving again. He was staring up into the trees, so I stepped over and followed his line of sight. There was a crow sitting just above him, watching us. It cawed, then dropped onto his shoulder. Soul looked nervous for a moment but quickly relaxed and held out his hand. The bird jumped onto it and cawed again.
I hesitantly petted the feathers on its neck, and the bird stretched out, tilting its beak and blinking. It walked up Soul’s arm and settled on his shoulder again, making itself comfortable.
“A crow … imagine that.” I smiled at Soul. He still looked nervous, trying to shoo the bird away.
“Go … not safe.”
The crow decided to emit its protest by shrieking right in Soul’s ear. Turning his head, he grunted as the bird settled again.
“They can recognize faces. Maybe he’s seen you before,” I suggested.
My friend looked like he was hit with a sudden realization. “Y-yes … but really? Y-years ago — bird was caught in a net…”
“You pulled him out?”
Soul nodded.
“Their memory is better than a human’s,” I said.
The bird got my attention again and I looked at its eyes … a soft brown, like most crows’, but it was different somehow. Kinder maybe. Pretty small too, maybe it’s a juvenile. Soul tried to shake it off again, but the bird just latched onto his jacket. Sighing, he accepted our new companion.
“We should track down the others now —”
“Angel ‘Beauty’ Lannister, Chrissy ‘Bobkat’ Bokitski, and Jeremy ‘Dracula’ Vamp have been eliminated! Four warriors left!”
I think my heart stopped for a few seconds. I had been looking forward to procrastinating on fighting Jekyll and Hyde, but it looked like that was out of the question. I could feel my face drain of colour. I scowled.
“We should finish this, now. C’mon, my birdies.”
Seventeen
We managed to make it back to an old warehouse without being caught by our foes, though we could hear them nearby. I rattled the padlock that held the two large wooden doors closed, but it was securely fastened. I turned and ran a hand through my hair. Soul was staring at the ground and a shadow covered his eyes.
“I know that look,” I started. “This place was used by underground fighting rings. This was where it happened, wasn’t it?”
He turned his head slightly and inhaled slowly. His little bird left his shoulder and started picking at the lock. I could sense how angry Soul had suddenly become. He ripped his weapon off his back and cried out as he brought it down on the lock. The crow cawed loudly in surprise as it fluttered backwards.
Soul’s large form was seething as he pulled his axe out of the metal. I glanced at the bird as it jumped on my shoulder.
“S-Soul? We don’t need to —”
“No. Need to see where it happened, where it was all taken f-from him,” he stuttered, seemingly preoccupied with pulling off the lock. After he did, he shoved open the heavy doors.
Our crow seemed to share a look with me before I stepped forward and followed Soul inside. There were still bloodstains and barriers up, but the most disturbing thing was the pipe and wire still lying in the middle of the floor. There were scratches in the dirt near them, like someone had tried to drag themselves out of a fight. I had to look away. The incident with Soul must have been the very last thing to happen here … and nobody had bothered to clean it up.
I was dragged into my memories, a place I was not fond of. I felt pathetic and angry for letting it get to me, but I could still feel the razor wire wrapped around my arms and across my chest, gradually getting tighter. I grunted as I bit my lip and tried to bury the thought again. All I wanted was to get rid of the men who did it so they could never do it to anyone else, but more than that, I wanted to make them feel the same pain. I wanted to make them suffer for what they did, make them live the nightmare that plagued me for years, and then end it. Once and for all.
The crow cawed in my ear and brought me back to reality. Soul was staring at the bloodstain, the grip gradually getting tighter around his axe. Inhaling, I decided it was high time we shoved back: play dirty and cheat. But first, I had to bring Soul back to his senses.
Almost silently, I strode over to him, then reached around, placing my hand on his forearm. He quickly brushed it away.
“Get out.”
“What?”
“Get out, leave. Hide. They’re going to die today. K9 doesn’t need to get caught in the middle.”
I scoffed and crossed my arms, speechless for a moment. After finding my words again, I roughly spun him around to face me. “I want to kill them. I want them dead. I want to go to battle with them. I will cheat and I will slaughter anyone who gets in my way. You aren’t going to get in my way … are you, Soul?”
He stood over me and snarled, “K9 needs to go. Crow’s fight today. Going to kill, going to bleed, it’s all for naught if the K9 can’t lead —”
“Stop it.”
He froze and tilted his head, looking slightly angry and slightly confused at the same time.
“Wh —”
“Don’t. Don’t play your little poems with me; we’re both fighting them. Whether it’s as friends or enemies is up to you, but don’t tell me this doesn’t concern me. They’re my doing anyway.”
I tugged the band around my chest slightly lower and showed more of the scar on my chest. He looked at the ground, then back at me, frustration shining in his eyes.
“N-no! Need to go… Can’t let K9 do it!” he shouted.
“Why! Tell me why!”
I didn’t need to look down to know he was clenching his fists as he mouthed something to himself. He pulled his hair back hard and took a deep breath, trying and failing to calm his nerves.
“The crow is already a monster! Y-you shouldn’t be one too!”
“Too late, birdy! It’s been a long time since I was the one to step back from a fight!”
“C-can’t!” His voice cracked as he gave a high-pitched shout, pacing back then stepping up again. He roughly grabbed my shoulders and stuck his pointed nose against mine. He gently let go with one hand and pressed it against the side of his head, looking like he was dealing with some internal turmoil. Sighing, he dropped his hands to his sides.
“Th-think … I … l-love you!”
He stared at me intensely, trying to fight the regret seeping across his gentle face. After an agonizingly short moment, he dropped his head and started to grind his teeth and pull his hair, obviously trying to keep himself from sobbing. He let out a whimper as he tugged at his black mane. His chest rose and fell quickly; he appeared to be having a hard time breathing. He was whining and whimpering every few breaths.
It felt like he was playing a cruel joke on me, but I tried to work through how it could ever be possible as I picked my jaw off the floor. Soul — he couldn’t … right? Out of everyone we knew … me? It’s not true. It’s only because I was the first real contact he’s probably had in years
. Right?
My breathing was shallow, and I was feeling light headed — probably out of hunger more than anything. I pushed my hair back and tried to swallow the lump in my throat.
“Y-you don’t mean that…” I stammered.
“I do! I meant it! D-don’t want to lose my K9!”
He still had his back to me, but I knew his hands were covering his face, fingers buried deep in his matted hair. I kept staring blankly at the ground in front of me. I started to tug at the tape on my top and bit my lip. I’m not good with my feelings — anyone could tell you that — but maybe … I don’t know. Maybe…
I internally groaned. What am I feeling? I’ve never felt like this before. I don’t think I like it. It’s confusing — and stressful. Soul seemed to strike my nerves the first day we met, and since then, maybe I’d developed something, some kind of feelings for him too? And just maybe … I was okay with that?
I wrung my hands and looked back at my friend, who was wobbling back and forth now, biting his knuckles on his left hand. Quietly stepping over to him, I pulled his hand away from his face. He resisted at first but then let me, keeping his eyes fixed on the ground and his bottom lip tucked under his teeth. He looked like he was traumatized by what he said. Gently, I kissed his knuckles, tightly holding his fingers between mine.
“I don’t want to lose my crow, either.”
He let out a huge breath, almost as if he’d been holding it since he’d said … what he’d said. Biting back a smile, he managed to regulate his breathing again. It was the only sound I could hear aside from my own, but it was almost rhythmic. My cheeks were hot, and I didn’t want to meet his eyes, but I smiled to myself anyway.
“I’m not letting you do this alone.” I grabbed his chin and perked up again. “Soul. Okay?”
He smiled brightly as he threw his head back, pulling his face from my grip and then rubbing his forehead against mine. “My K9.”
