Kingdom Come
Page 28
“You never forced me to do anything. You did give me a good scare, though.”
He shrugged and hesitantly wrapped his good arm across my back.
“K9 got hurt so many times because of the crow … s-so many times…” He whimpered and bit his lip. “Have to run, have to hide, don’t want to meet you on the other side…”
I ran my hand through my hair as he looked at the stars. “Not yet, anyway.”
After a few minutes of silence, he swung his leg over the branch and rested his back against the trunk. I could hear his jacket scratching the bark as he sighed, his blue-black hair shining in the moonlight. Did he even care that he was the strangest man I had ever met? Strange could be very elegant and beautiful in the right light. I wondered what was going through his head…
Slowly looking back at me, he offered a nervous smile. I pulled myself closer to him and grabbed his hand. “Tina said you used to tell her stories. What were they about?”
Soul tilted his head and shrugged his shoulders. “Warriors … exaggerations of what would happen. C-can’t … tell her anymore… Too — too hard to put…” He squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, repeating that he couldn’t tell them anymore. “Mm … no more stories…” He chuckled but I could see his eyes watering behind his dark hair.
“I’m sure she’d like some of your poems,” I responded, letting him play with my hand again. “You tell stories through them, too.”
He nodded and looked up again. He was tired, and his arm was probably in much more pain than he was letting on. He still looked hurt that I left him, but I didn’t know what else to say. I’d apologized already but I still felt like he was conflicted or angry — and he had every right to be.
“Soul, I—”
“She loves me
She loves me not
Once I’m buried
Why bother be sought?
No one loves me
Except she who rots
But even then
She had to be bought
With flowers and a kind word
That was learned by the bird
Even though it was completely absurd…”
Soul’s hand left mine, and he tugged me closer to him as he shivered from the cold. I could hear him sniffle slightly, but he continued his poem.
“It was a lie
Told by the boy
That had played me
Like I was his toy
She did not care about
Such petty joys
She only loved me
Because what I destroyed
Was the remains of a place
That hurt a pretty face
And thought she was a complete disgrace,”
I watched Soul wrestle with conflicting emotions. He started to shiver even more, keeping his eyes fixed on mine for a moment before his cheeks took on a pink hue and he stuttered. He looked down and licked his lips, which were starting to get chapped in the cold air. The poor man was starting to feel the result of his injuries, combined with the cold. He intertwined his fingers with mine and smiled to himself, looking innocent and content, and ignoring his pain.
“She was so beautiful
She’ll never understand
All the sadness that I felt
When I couldn’t hold her hand
She told me that I shouldn’t
And it wouldn’t be so grand
I told her she was wrong
And I’d take her to a safer land
Where all we’d be is her and me
And she’d never ever feel so free
And all I wanted was us, and she …
But the boy hated every second
Of not having her alone
So he wanted to kill us
And threw a great big stone
She laughed at his misfortune
And we ran all the way home
But he followed us there
He didn’t want to roam
He lit the place on fire
‘Please tell me why?’ I did inquire
‘Because it’s she he did desire’
And then he threw me in a tomb.”
Soul clung to my hand and continued to stare into the darkness, refusing to look at me or let me go. My stomach was tense and my throat was starting to feel dry, but the best way for me to put this is that I felt a little bit … struck. I might have been delirious, but even in the middle of a battleground, he made me feel safe.
“Soul, was that like your stories?” I asked quietly.
He nodded and spun a ring around my finger. “J-just thought — because the worm… H-he wanted my K9. He said I’d never be lucky enough to have my K9! He said you would fall for him and the bird would be alone … because no one could love a … a broken toy.”
Pins and needles in my heart. I sadly placed my hand against his cheek. “I always did like to pull the heads off of my dolls.”
“S-still scared the dog will leave…” He leaned into my hand and closed his eyes. His lip shook as he sniffled again, despite his small chuckle.
“Soul, I’m afraid that losing people we love…” I paused as my voice caught and I had to take a breath. “Losing people we love is something that happens far too often. The ones worth loving don’t leave —”
“No … they are taken.”
“I’m not going to be taken, by anything. I swear I’m with you until the end.” Satisfied with my quick comeback, I nodded and gave a soft smile, watching my breath swirl in the air in front of us. My attention was brought back to my partner as his body shook. Tightly holding my hand, he shook his hair out by shaking his head vigorously from side to side.
“C-confused by my feelings, certain about others… The crow knows he is yours but he doesn’t know why. Certainly don’t want to be alone again,” he muttered as he held his shoulders close. He grimaced and grunted as he struggled to hold his arm in place, but denied my help.
“I know. I don’t want to lose you either, but I’m very afraid I might.”
He shook his head, gritting his teeth. “Never.”
Thirty
I felt like my fingers were about to fall off.
I sat up and looked around with a groan. Frost covered the trees, and my hair was frozen stiff. Soul was lying against the tree trunk, shivering. I poked him and he snorted as he bolted up. He blinked repeatedly and looked around.
“Nice nap?”
Scowling, he looked away from me and started to rub his arm. After a few seconds, he made an effort to slide from the tree. He hit the ground and started to stretch his spine out with a grunt, so I followed him and checked my weapons. We started to walk through the forest, back to where Ignatius had told us to meet him and the rest of our friends yesterday. I held Soul’s hand tightly, partially to reassure him but also to keep my hand warm. At least he had pockets in his jacket.
“Eighteen warriors left!”
My eyes shot to Soul, who was trying to hide a small grin. I shook my head and looked through the trees, hearing dogs howling and crows calling. Nature is dangerous around here, and I didn’t know much about most of the wildlife … but it was kind of nice. If, you know, we weren’t being picked off one by one. Again.
We both spun at the sound of rustling bushes and footsteps. Soul’s first instinct was to free his axe and step in front of me, blocking my view, which was not helpful for me.
“Whoa! Relax, big guy!”
I peeked around Soul’s large body and saw Ignatius holding his arms up in defence as Aggy and Greg ran up behind him.
“You never showed so we got worried,” he said.
“Sorry, we got a little caught up —”
“H-hey … pretty boys and their toys…” an unfamiliar voice sneered.
Cringing, we all whipped around as fast as possible. There was a very pale and sickly-looking man with hunched shoulders and red eyes. He looked like he had gone insane a very long time ago and was only seeing the world now. I really didn’t feel like getting in h
is way, so I stepped to the side as he raised his machete to Soul, who dodged him fairly easily. Ignatius and Greg pulled their knives out, but the lunatic didn’t seem to care about them. He went straight for Aggy, catching her across the chest. There was a long tear in her tunic, and her blood seeped through, soaking her clothes. I watched her gasp and fall to the ground as the man laughed and made a face at her cousin.
His sickly outline was prominent in the green-and-white forest. He was dressed in red and black armour. I recognized it from a couple towns over from Lilithia; they’d always seemed so tame in previous years. Things change, I guess. He continued to taunt us until I swung my left fist at his nose and he stumbled back. He started to shriek and curse, taking a swing of his own and reopening the tear in my cheek. The ground was cold when my shoulders hit it. Greg leapt up and deflected another swing of the machete away from me. The man turned on Greg and thumped him hard on the head. Greg collapsed in a pile, apparently unconscious.
After the man turned back, trying to take another shot at me, Ignatius grunted, then made one quick slash at the man’s back and struck him down.
“Agatha…” I stumbled towards her blood-soaked figure. I tore her jacket up and wrapped it around her as best I could, but blood still soaked through.
Ignatius knelt at her side, giving a pained look.
“What do we do now?” I asked.
“Agatha, hang in there. I’ll get you help.” He turned to look at me, his normally bored expression given over to worry. “She’s out of the game, and I can’t leave her like this alone. Good luck, you two.” And with that, Ignatius wrapped his right arm around his red-haired cousin while taking a firm hold of Greg’s belt. He lifted them both, and they walked away.
Soul gave a small, uncertain wave as our ally started making his way back to the entrance. My brother’s voice faintly rang out in the distance, letting us know there was only sixteen people left, us included. I sighed and shook my head. I was starting to feel sick again and I missed Johnny. I should have visited him more often.
“K-K9 … okay?”
I absentmindedly nodded at my crow and let him grab my hand as he started humming.
“Burn to ash
And crumble to ember
You get what you give
And don’t deserve to live
You wreak havoc
So reap what you sow
Your time will come
And you’re completely numb.”
I smiled slightly and swung our hands as I looked back up at him. His breathing was shallow, but he was content with just holding my hand and watching the sky. Looking back down at me, he took a quick breath, his bottom lip shaking slightly.
“A group of three
That had hired thee
Has gone down in flames
But I’m still not happy
Burn to ash
And crumble to ember
I could learn to forgive
And just be positive —”
Soul stopped dead and slowly took his hand from mine, once again reaching for his weapon. I did the same and grimaced when twelve men and women stepped out of the woods, led by Jekyll and Hyde. They had waited until our friends had gone, apparently. I wonder if the lunatic was their idea too.
“But you wreak havoc
So reap what you sow
And what you’ve done
Will be your Kingdom Come…”
Soul raised his weapon but I stopped him; we needed a plan. He stuttered angrily for a few milliseconds before listening to me.
“Soul, we should split up —”
“No.”
“I know I said I wouldn’t leave you again, but we can both handle a seven-on-one situation, right? We’re better than them. We’re Lilithia warriors! If we let them all go at once, we have to worry about them and each other. They’d overpower us; we don’t know how to work as a team. Just … just go.”
After a second of glaring at the group and scowling at me, he reset his axe in its place. Then — without looking away from the group — he walked a few paces backwards and started to run, Jekyll shouting for Hyde and his team to follow. The rest stayed and stared at me as I drew my swords.
Jekyll ordered everyone else to make a move against me. They each took shots, one after the other, but I dodged enough that they kept hitting each other instead. Eventually, I had to retaliate by slashing and shoving, using more energy than I would have liked to. This would be a long fight.
I had taken three down when Jekyll jumped into the fight. I started to panic and jump away from him as much as possible, but I only succeeded in cutting my arms and torso on branches and other sharp weapons. My left arm defended my face while the other worked as offence, though still keeping a distance from the Irishman. The most impressive part of all this was that I managed not to step on or trip over my cloak even once.
Fifteen minutes later, I had taken out all but one of Jekyll’s warriors. The last woman left standing, who was horribly scarred and burned, looked desperately between Jekyll and I, terrified.
“I can help you. I know he threatened you. Help me and you’ll live…” I offered darkly — desperately.
She nervously shook her head, contemplating my words as I tried kicking at Jekyll. His grim, grey eyes followed like a hawk’s. His mouth was twisted into an evil grin. It was a grin I wish I never saw, one that will be burned into my mind for the rest of my life.
“Don’t listen to her! She’s a killer and a traitor!”
I glared daggers at him and kicked his accomplice out of my way before sticking my sword deep into Jekyll’s forearm. I stood up and looked at the woman as blood shot in every direction. She looked horrified, but Jekyll wasn’t going to give her a chance to decide and ripped her throat wide open with a small dagger he plucked from another fallen warrior’s hand. Blood and bone spilled onto the ground, something else I will never forget.
Her body fell and Jekyll chuckled. “You shouldn’t have left your boyfriend, Vixen…”
This entire situation was paralyzing and depressing; the human body is still so weak for all we put it through. Instinctively, I started to run in the opposite direction, mumbling Soul’s poem to keep myself in the right mind.
“You created me
As long as you live you’ll never be free
But I’m a busy girl
So dead you’ll have to be.”
I grabbed a tree trunk and redirected my path, but Jekyll was still close behind me.
I stumbled over myself and hit the ground with a curse and a grunt. My armour bounced against my jaw and I started to bleed, frost forming around my mouth. I sat up as Jekyll ran over and pulled me off the ground. My mind was getting hazy from the previous concussion, which he and his brother had caused last week, as well as from the one I just took. I half-heartedly tried to kick myself out of his grip as the brush behind him began to rustle.
“Give up and I’ll let you live — with a catch, of course,” he snarled.
He looked over my armour and unhooked the buckle across my shoulders. I spat copper-tasting liquid at him, and I started to recite once more, this time meant to distract him.
“Burn to ash
Crumble to ember
Isn’t it all so provocative
By how short we may live?”
He dropped me onto the ground, landing on top of my armour. He kicked my ribs as he aggressively wiped away blood from his face, growling and shouting as he kicked me again. I started to bleed even more as I whined. I made sure I had all my weapons, then slid across the ground and away from him, kicking up dust and frozen dirt as I did so. A moment later I heard heavy footsteps and grabbed a tree branch to pull my aching self up. I waited and watched for who it could be, praying that it was Soul.
Luckily for me, it was.
Unluckily for Jekyll. Soul looked angry. He didn’t even give Jekyll a chance to move. He walked straight over and used the blunt end of his axe to knock him down.
“Run.
”
I stuttered and looked around as I grabbed my head, bitterly snapping back. “Wh-why? There’s no one —”
“Run!”
Soul snatched my arm and pulled me out of the clearing as fast as he could. He didn’t let go. I was forced to follow him through the forest, his hand the only thing holding me upright. A gunshot rang out and a nearby tree splintered. That was more than enough to motivate me. We both started to pick up the pace, tripping over each other and feeling the sting of twigs and the frost on our faces.
After a few moments, we could hear Johnny with the announcements. “Four warriors left. This has to be the quickest a tournament has ended. The remaining warriors are Benji ‘K9’ Keanin and Soul ‘Crow’ Ravin, both from Lilithia Heights; James Utterson, otherwise known as Jekyll; and Howard Utterson, otherwise known as Hyde, competing for Bell Hearst.”
“Oh god…”
Soul pulled me into a clearing and looked around. “N-need to … to hide…”
He rested his hands on his knees as he tried to catch his breath.
“Fighting them is going to be an effort, I don’t know if we can —”
“Not leaving you!” he shouted, incredulously.
“Soul! Listen to me! We will fight for as long as we can, but if we can’t — if we get too tired — I want you to run as fast as you possibly can and I will do the same, okay?” I grabbed his shoulders and he glared at me, hurt and confused.
“Not going to leave. Not again… You promised!” Soul shoved my hands away and stood to his full height.
He was much taller than me and still very intimidating. If I didn’t know him, I wouldn’t want to get on his bad side, even when he looked as miserable as he looked now.
“We have to!”
“No, we don’t!”
Soul was going to stand his ground, and I felt like he’d take them both on himself if he had to. At that thought, my anger took over. I smacked his chest and shouted, “Why don’t you listen?!”
He calmed down slightly and looked down, still very conflicted. The sudden bitterness in his voice hit me almost as much as what he said did: “You were a mistake…”