Faith [4]
Rising Moon
Ririe
Faith woke to Taylor’s screams. She shot up, Eli jumping to his feet.
His eyes were wide, and he looked as if he’d bolt at any second.
“Something doesn’t smell right,” Eli hissed.
“No shit!” Faith snapped back at him, getting to her feet and shouldering her cream jacket on as she hurried over to the kitchen. The bedroom door by the kitchen door burst open, Aster came running out, carrying a violently shaking Taylor in his arms.
“What the…” Faith began, before Aster shouted, “Clear the table dammit!” And so she did, sweeping away the vase with a single sunflower and table-runner and onto the floor. Aster lay Taylor on the table, squirming and thrashing like he was having some kind of fit, and he screamed, over and over as he sweat profusely. Aster managed to pin him down, Pierce, Sonny, Cash and Colton raced downstairs, Pierce helping him hold Taylor down.
“What the hell happened to him?” Pierce asked, calm but stern, despite Taylor thrashing like a mad man beneath him.
Aster stared down at Taylor, his blue eyes wide and clouded with concern, “I don’t…I don’t know…”
Sonny backed up, and then disappeared into their room. Faith’s attention was snapped back when Taylor let out another horrifying screech, and Aster held Taylors face in his hands, trying to hold him still and look him in the eye, “Taylor…Taylor!” Aster said, desperation making his voice shrill as Taylor’s eyes rolled to the back of his head as he convulsed.
Oh, fuck…what the hell is happening to him? Last night, Aster…what was he doing?
“I don’t know, but neither of them smell right,” Eli whispered beside her.
Faith tried her best to face forward, and not look to the boy beside her, invisible to the others.
You can…hear me?
I feel though as this is an invasion of my privacy. Have you always been able to hear my thoughts…also, was that you, in my dream last night?
“You were dreaming of me last night?” Eli smirked.
Before Faith could think to reply, Sonny bolted out of the room, carrying what appeared to be a dead, albino snake.
“What the fuck is that?” Colt exclaimed, putting his hands on Cash’s shoulders and drawing her back, away from Taylor as he continued to scream horrendously.
“Excalibur, what do you think it is dumbass?” Aster snapped, crouched by the low-set table, still holding Taylor.
“An albino snake, how is it that thing got into the apartment?” Cash pondered.
“Quick, look for a bite mark!” Pierce commanded.
They searched him, over and over until they came across two needle like marks on his upper thigh, red and pulsating.
“The fuck are we going to do?” Sonny exclaimed, staring at the snake.
Aster stood, staring down at his slightly shaking hands, “I’ve…I’ve got a guy, we’ve made dealings for medicine before with him. We’ll just…we’ll just radio him,” He said, retrieving a navy coat and boots from his room.
“Radio him?” Faith muttered to Pierce, still crouched by a now unconscious Taylor, who breathed now shallow, rapid breaths.
“Yeah, there’s an old radio tower just on the outskirts of town, we’ve got a contact we can use to get the anti-venom. Go with Sonny and Aster, I want them to keep an eye on you,” Pierce said, pressing a damp cloth against Taylor’s forehead. Faith sat on her haunches by him, and took Taylor’s cold hand.
Pierce leaned a tad closer, and put a hand on her shoulder. She started slightly, surprised by his sudden touch. Faith only then noticed the sleep still in his eyes, the dark rings below them, tussled hair and crooked glasses as he kept rubbing his eyes. He wore a black sweater, one which Faith doubted he ever washed, or that he wore anything else to bed by how much it smelt like him.
“And…I want you to keep an eye on them,” Pierce muttered softly into her ear.
~ ~ ~
Just outside the eastern wall of Ririe, were fields of green and a lonely road that winded and led off into dense woodland. Just by the woodland there sat a lone radio-tower, slightly rusted and dressed in vines. They followed a brook that led out to the tower, cluttered with mud and guck from the town.
Aster stalked far ahead of them, stony-faced and his icy-eyes utterly frozen as he marched on. Sonny walked silently by Faith’s side, itching at the scabs on her arms. Eli walked by her other side, for once, for once unsure of what to say. Almost out of place, Faith noticed an old, rusted car sitting beneath an old tamarind tree. Strange.
“So, what’s your big plan?” Sonny said, not bothering to look to Faith.
“What are you talking about?” Faith asked.
“I’m talking about your big plan. Wait, let me guess. Step one, you trick Pierce into thinking your some wounded lamb so he takes you back to our apartment, filled with resources and people to exploit. Then, you somehow poison Taylor to split us up,” Sonny looked to Faith, hatred in her dim eyes.
“Watch it,” Eli said casually, hands in his pockets.
Without warning, Sonny delivered an uppercut, sending Faith sprawling into the ditch, crashing into the mud and water.
“What the fuck!” Faith snapped, struggling to get to her feet. Sonny leapt down after her, using the gravity of her descent to slam Faith back into the mud. Her face a single inch from Faith’s, cold fury burning bright in her reddened eyes.
“You’ll hurt them. You’ll hurt Colt. You’ll hurt Cash. You’ve already hurt Taylor, and…you’ll hurt Pierce!” Sonny growled with feral ferocity, her pupils shrunk, showing the whites of her eyes.
Faith’s heart thudded wildly, deafening her ears to only the thundering of blood running through her body and racing heartbeat that drummed to her fear. Hesitantly, Faith extended a yielding hand, saying, “Please…I don’t-I don’t remember anything-” She was cut short when Sonny punched across her face. Faith took a second to recover from the shock, spittle of blood spraying from her broken lip.
Faith struggled, but she was still weak, and Sonny was over her, pinning her down.
“Wait-!” Faith cried. Sonny ignored her and unsheathed a blade from her belt, and swung it down directly at Faith’s chest. Acting on instinct, Faith stopped the knife an inch from her heart by grabbing the blade itself with both hands. They both shook, Sonny pushing down whilst Faith felt the blade glide through her flesh, crimson snaking through her fingers, dripping down on her face.
Sonny pressed down further, the very tip of the blade kissing her tanned skin.
“I won’t let you hurt them. I won’t let you hurt him.”
Faith let the blade cut deeper, if it only meant it kept away from plunging into her heart.
I’m not scared…I’m not even scared of you…I’m just…angry.
It might have been the adrenaline, or the loss of blood, but…Sonny was almost not herself. Her hair seemed longer, blonder and her eyes a wide, amber instead of a subzero cold. And seeing her face…Faith found herself wanting to reverse the blade and send it into her eye. It felt as though some lock had been broken, but a single, lonely lock in a city of cages inside her. It wasn’t her troubled, memory-robbed mind that guided her then, instead, whatever had escaped that cage commanded her sun-mark to glow a neon purple, and crackle with a strange form of electricity that danced and arced up her left arm. The same arm Faith removed from the blade and pointed palm-first directly in Sonny’s face, sending a strange blast, or disorganized bolt of neon lightning at her, throwing the psychotic blonde up and out of the ditch.
A black lightning-strike mark sat on the opposite wall of the ditch, smoking.
Oh…oh geez…what…what happened… Faith thought, panting. The sunrays glaring at her eyes were disported, and she raised a hand to cover her eyes as she stared up at Eli. With his knees on his hands and eyes squinted, he smiled.
Eli jumped down into the ditch and crouched by her, taking her hand to pull Faith to her feet.
“Good of you to finally join the club, Songbird,” he said, clapping her shoulder with a laugh. That was when Faith realized his eyes were no longer green, but the same color as the mark on her hand that had slowly begun to revert back to black.
“Songbird?” Faith coughed, her knees shaking as she lent against Eli for support.
Eli just smiled, and helped her out of the ditch. When Eli wouldn’t reply, Faith brushed him away in frustration, and stumbled over to Sonny who lay a few feet ahead, smoking rising from a wound on her shoulder. Faith collapsed atop of her, and picked up the bloodied knife beside Sonny, and raised it high.
Weak and exhausted, Sonny tried to raise her head, “Wait…” She croaked.
Faith bared her teeth, and…slammed the blade down beside Sonny’s head. She leant in close, turquoise eyes glowing.
“I won’t ever hurt Pierce…but if you try to hurt me, you’d best believe I won’t hesitate to hurt you.”
And Faith stood.
When they returned, Pierce sat both of them down. He was irritated to say the least, but had wordlessly bound bandages around the cuts in her hands that were far shallower than they should’ve been, and around Sonny’s shoulder.
“We haven’t got time for this, we’ve got to get that antidote,” Pierce muttered, adjusting his glasses, looking to the boy on the table. Taylor was still unconscious, but his breathing had evened out.
Pierce, Cash and Colton were all dressed and ready to head out, with backpacks on their back and armed. Cash kept a bronze-plated revolver at her hip, Colt had two yellow-bolt pistols sheathed on his back and Pierce kept his black shot-gun strapped to his pack, and a sheathed machete on his hip.
All Faith possessed now was a purple kitten curled up on her lap, an invisible boy laying next to her inspecting the roof and purple lightning she wasn’t quite sure how to use. Faith winced when she met Pierce’s eyes, expecting disappointment, but she wasn’t quite sure what she saw in his eyes.
“Well, we can’t exactly leave them here to kill each other, Aster can’t babysit them,” Colt pointed out, loading a clip into one of the yellow pistols.
“And we’ll need as many hands as we can get if we’re gonna make it through the orange zone,” Cash added.
“The orange zone?” Faith asked, puzzled. Pierce replied by reaching into his pack and pulling out a map, unrolling it out onto the kitchen bench. They all gathered round, save Sonny who hung back, holding her wound tenderly with a pout.
The map it seemed was of Ririe, and the much larger city of Octobers Crossing.
Pierce pointed to the city, “This is where I was scavenging and I found you,” He indicated to the innermost section of the waste-land city, highlighted with red.
“The red is the most dangerous section, as it’s the most highly populated with Ashlings. The orange zone around it is the largest of the three zones, where the Ashlings generally roam on their lonesome, that’s the area where we generally scavenge for any resources we can sell. The yellow zone is the smallest, around the outskirts of the city, it’s really just a warning zone filled with broken down barriers and trenches.”
Pierce shifted the map around and pointed to the west of the city, “Our meeting spot with this guy is in a large building, a concentration of shopping departments designed by a guy named Frendrikz Hans. We’ll be meeting him at a fountain at the center, so let’s head out now.”
Pierce wore the same clothes he’d worn the day he’d saved her. The same as him, they all wore gasmasks as he led them out of Ririe and across the lowlands, Octobers Crossing rising high above on a hill, casting a great shadow of the woodland to their right. They all kept lost in their own thoughts as they waded through the long-grass that brushed their upper-thighs. Colt held a gadget that he stared down at unflinching, beeping in intervals of a minute. The silence and long-walk left Faith to her own thoughts…and Eli who walked beside her, his hands in his pockets once again.
Faith plucked a grass stalk from the ground and twirled it between her fingers.
“You’ve got a lot to answer for, Eli.”
“Hmm, and what questions might you have?” He asked.
“You called me Songbird, why?”
“It’s our name, you know. And the name of the mark on your hand,” Eli said, taking her hand and rubbing a thumb around the bandaged palm of her hand.
“You. The Songbird mark. My memories. My healing abilities once I used the lightning. They’re all connected, and you know how, don’t you? No, you are the connection!”
Faith glared at him, and Eli just smiled sheepishly.
“Always here to help,” He offered.
“Always here to help? You were pretty casual, and pretty late on that warning earlier with Sonny, how is that helpful again?”
Eli shoved his hands back into his pockets again.
“Yeah, sorry about that. But it was needed, trust me. You needed to awaken that power on your own, and, in pretty extreme circumstances, tch, I knew you wouldn’t die,” He punched her shoulder playfully.
“Well…how do, you work exactly? When I lent on you before, did it look like I was just leaning against air or something?”
Faith tugged at the bandages on wrapped around her hands, and tried her best not to itch the quickly healing wounds. She glanced at him, almost nervous at what his answer might be.
“I think an example might be appropriate,” Eli tilted his head up, eyes closed with a smile.
Faith stopped, and looked to Eli, only to find him gone. She began to spin around, only to be knocked down into the bed of grass. He loomed over her, a hand either side of her head.
Faith looked at him blankly, eyes narrowed.
“Elijah?” She said as he pulled off the gasmask covering her face.
He just chuckled, and lent in, saying, “See, if I was to do this…”
Eli didn’t quite kiss her neck, but it was somewhere between one and a bite with needle-like, one he trailed down her neck. Despite herself, Faith gasped, a mix of shock and a strange warmth in her chest. He drifted his nose up the center of her neck, lips to her own nose. His now violet eyes glistened like a foxes might when it finally cornered its prey.
“They wouldn’t see a thing. Only you, laying in the grass like a crazy-person,” Eli said, returning to his normal smile.
That was when Faith noticed Colt, standing over her, looking both curious and cautious.
“Y’all right?” He asked.
Faith chuckled nervously, and took his hand to help her up.
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, don’t worry,” She said, brushing her pants off.
“Right, well, try and keep the gasmask on.” Colt said, shrugging the behavior off.
“Right.”
When they finally made it to the broken-down defenses of the city, half-buried in the mud, one thing was clear. This city was dead. The soul had long been drained from this place, and all that remained was a husk, a hollowed corpse of what had once been. Greys and blacks washing together chased the color and sun away, shadows slithering and slinking in the fissures in the cobblestone and dust and gaping alleyways. Crumbling gargoyles sat on their haunches, still watching over their buildings that reached only forty-stories high.
The light sun-shower trickling down turned the dry ashen waste to a fickle black, squelching and crunching under boot. Pierce led them uphill in single file, twisting through the streets and alleys. As they made their way deeper into the city, following a rusted railway track, Colt’s device began to beep more irregularly, and every time a higher-pitched blip would sound, Pierce would divert their course slightly, but always make his way back to the tracks.
After a while they made their way to the department center, the bronze statuettes of beautiful women outside its doors dressed in nothing but the overgrown ivy. Faith had been placed in the middle of their little formation, with Colt in front of her, Cash behind, Pierce in the lead and Sonny taking up the rear. They rested on rusted benches inside the centers entrance, removing their masks for a moment for fresh air. Faith escaped to one of the disheveled bathrooms, if only to escape Sonny’s obvious glares.
She’d carried a brown leather backpack Cash had given her, a water canister, ration packets and flare gun. The flare gun had been given to her not if she was lost, but to shoot as a distraction if cornered by Ashlings. The gun worked more like a grenade, with a timer once the trigger was pulled, Colt had explained. Pierce had actually modified normal flare guns, he explained, as the Ashlings were attracted to sources of heat and light, such as fire and flares.
Faith rested the backpack on the bench and fished through it, pulling out a water canister. Faith poured the tepid water over her hands and washed her sweaty face.
“How is it a genius engineer like you ended up at the end of the world?” Faith asked, bracing her bandaged hands on the basin rim.
Pierce had appeared behind her, thinking himself stealthily but quieting his footsteps didn’t silence the oaken stare that made the hairs on the back of her neck rise.
“Coming from the said genius engineer, you didn’t come across as one for compliments,” He smirked, his back lent against the bench.
Faith began unwinding the bandages from her right hand, slow and careful-like.
“Can it really be a compliment if it’s the truth? You create mechanical, prosthetic fingers and are able to casual mod a flare gun on a whim?” Faith shrugged, using her teeth to tug the bandage free, the bloodied wraps falling into the sink.
Pierce tsked, saying, “You’re saying compliments are just lies?”
That was when Faith paused from flexing her healing right hand, and looked to the cracked mirror in front of her.
It was like looking into the past. As if Faith was looking at her past self that contained the burgled memories. Like being face to face with a ghost.
Because it was certainly something else, a memory perhaps, that said, “Maybe not all of them are lies, but they may as well be right?” The ghost through Faith laughed half-heartedly.
Pierce looked to her, eyebrows slightly furrowed and dark eyes curious. His arms were folded, and his head was angled in such a way that it almost reminded the ghost of how a black sparrow would peer curiously, but cautiously at a human.
“It may not be the intent, but the context is dishonest. When you compliment someone, it’s assumed you’re doing it to appease them, to make someone you care about feel good. But…that really just isn’t true. I’ve found a life perspective one might find cynical, but by Haine, it takes away the guilt in protecting someone you love. As most perspectives, I was never taught this, but I learnt that everything we do is inherently selfish. We protect those we love so we can hold onto that feeling they give us, we kill those who would harm those we love so we protect that feeling. Just the same, we compliment them so they think better of us. Though of course, maybe I’m just too cynical, maybe I just over-analyze these things but…it really removes the guilt,” The Ghost through Faith explained, a hand placed on the mirror, nails digging into the glass as if she might break through to the barrier between her and the memory reflected.
Pierce clicked his tongue thoughtfully.
“It’s a very general perspective, but one that leaves you open to choose what path you take. Whether you wash away your guilt for the actions you take to protect, or consciously choose to do the right thing, despite being so damn self-centered. Quick question though…” He said.
“Yeah?” Faith replied.
“Why are you telling me this?” Pierce asked.
Faith dropped her hand from the mirror and clutched her hands to her chest.
“That wasn’t – that wasn’t me, just…a memory?” She said, brushing her ashen hair behind her ear.
Pierce looked to her, and put a gloved hand on her wrist.
“You remembered something?” He said, unwrapping the bandage from her marked hand.
“No…it, just…it spoke through me,” Faith said, holding his sleeved wrist for some kind of support. He threw the bloodied bandage into the sink, and washed away the blood from her sun-mark.
Faith sighed, “Before, Cash said you knew I was a friend from the mark…how?” She asked.
“It was a while ago, it almost felt like another life-time. One day, I was in a tavern when a silver-haired woman who seemed to be looking for someone approached me. She sat with me and we drank for a good long time. I couldn’t tell her much, but she made for good drinking company at least. At some point in the night, right before she left the tavern she stopped to give some advice, saying, to whomever carries this mark will be a friend,” Pierce explained.
“Maybe she was looking for me?” Faith wondered, noticing Eli leaning in the mirror, realizing he wasn’t standing in the bathroom to cast the reflection. He watched them both, neither curious nor angry, just watching.
“No doubt about it really, I doubt there’s anyone else in the New World with a tattoo of a sun on their palm,” Pierce pointed out.
He sighed and adjusted his glasses.
“At any rate, we need to get going. We’ve got a lot of questions, you and me both, including who, and why the hell Roth tried to kill you. We’ll be meeting the tradesman in a few hours so we need to cross the mall, in here you won’t need your gasmask but you will be needing this…” Pierce said, pulling out the same revolver he’d given her when they’d gone back to back killing Ashlings.
Faith peered at him, intrigued by this decision.
“You’re trusting me?” She asked, placing a hand on the revolver.
“I haven’t got much a choice, in all honesty. Besides, I’m not going to be responsible for you if things go to shit. But, once we get the anti-venom and get back to the apartments…I’m willing to help you at least try to get your memories back somehow, I think I at least owe you that for knocking you out with a frying pan,” Pierce chuckled almost guilty, his thin-shaped eyes squinting as he scratched the back of his head.
Faith took the gun, and tucked it into the back of her pants, saying, “Well, you did make me pancakes, so you’re half-way there to making up for it.”
They traversed the crumbling center of marble, rotting timber and moth-eaten drapes that filled the stores and hallways. Cash and Pierce took the lead, discussing things of trade that was lost to Faith. Eventually they came across a section where the mall split into two way around a balcony overview of the floors below, revealing the first floor to be flooded, dotted with islands of furniture and overgrown reeds. Where the floor split around the opening, both had crumbled away given the two fallen pillars in the waters below.
“So, any bright ideas o-wise one?” Sonny said dryly to Pierce, her sarcasm bleeding clear through her mask.
Faith folded her arms and inspected the surroundings.
Hmm, the gaps between the floors are too wide to jump and even if we found something to cross it with, it’d probably be too unstable. But…up there on the roof, that metal frame, maybe it won’t be too rusted?
“Hey, what about that frame up there, it spans across to the other side?” Faith said, motioning to the roof. Pierce stared up at the frame, “Judging from the black growth on the metal it seems to be the same type they use on the airships, so it’s designed not to rust or deteriorate for a long, long time. And this place was abandoned when the war reached Octobers Crossing about forty years ago, so I’d say it’d be stable enough to cross and bear our weight at least one at a time,” He explained thoughtfully, strapping his shotgun to his back and tightening the straps. The others did the same, and then paused.
“So…who’s going first?” Cash said, all of them looking to each other, the cogs turning behind their eyes.
Faith looked to Eli standing silently beside her, who merely shrugged and walked off the edge, disappearing.
She sighed through her nose, with hands on her hips and said, “I’ll go first…I mean, I’m the most expendable, right?” Faith glanced to Sonny who had taken her mask off.
Colton was a good guy, but seemed only concerned for Cash’s safety, so he didn’t object. Cash knew it wouldn’t be much use to try and convince Faith otherwise, and knew Colt wouldn’t allow it. Sonny may as well have cheered her on, but Pierce stopped her as she went to the leaning railing.
He held her upper arm and leant in close.
“You don’t need to play the hero,” Pierce muttered.
“I know, I’m not playing the hero, I just know my place, that’s all,” Faith replied, mounting a foot onto the railing.
With a quick motion Pierce undid the straps of her pack and slung it around his shoulder.
“Try not to die ok, I hear there’s sharks in those waters,” He said.
At that, Faith felt her palms begin to sweat. Then, she made the mistake of looking down. Even if she hit the water instead of the numerous islands, who knew what creatures and spikes ready for skewering lay in those dark waters. Her heart beginning to steadily pick up in pace, Faith took two rungs of the frame and twisted around so she faced the others, helplessly dangling over the drop. Taking in a deep breath, feeling her weakened muscles scream in protest, Faith used her own weight to hook her feet up into two other rungs. Faith was grateful to Pierce, as without the weight of her pack it made things much easier. Rung by careful rung she gripped her hands and hooked her feet, the blood slowly thumping to her upside down head.
Her hands became slick with sweat, and it became harder to get a grip on each rung. Eli walked above her, his boots always an inch from her reddened fingers.
“Now would be a really bad time to need to go to the bathroom, wouldn’t it?” Eli joked, looking down at her.
Shut up, just shut up. I think…I think I might be afraid of heights…
When she reached the end of the frame, Faith slipped her feet from the rungs and swung, using the momentum to land where the ground met behind her. Pierce, Colt and Cash applauded her acrobatic skill, whilst Sonny slowly clapped. Cash then crossed, followed by Colt, then Pierce. Finally, Sonny crossed, but just as she was across, the frame let out a grating whine.
“Sonny, don’t move!” Pierce cried out, and she froze.
“You’re gonna have to swing and get across, but the frame will probably fall when you do!” Cash called, her voice echoing as the metal began to screech. The whole frame shook as one of the screws came loose.
‘F-fuck, my foot is stuck!” Sonny said, panic plain to hear in her voice.
Faith grated her teeth and thought, mounted the railing and then leapt atop the frame. Her sudden weight sent another screw flying away and the frame leant unevenly forward. Faith’s eyes met Sonny’s, which was filled with suspicion at what she’d do. With too much enjoyment than she’d care to admit, Faith smashed the metal rung trapping Sonny’s foot, leaving her to swing over onto the other side, falling into Colt’s arms. The frame began to fall, leaving Faith to run and leap…only to miss.
She began to fall her stomach flying to her throat…only for Pierce to catch her. The force of her fall yanked her arm, causing a flurry of pain in her shoulder and back. There eyes met, and Faith wasn’t quite sure what she saw in those oaken depths.
There was…pain, and not just because of the bearing of her weight but there seemed to almost be a hesitation, like there were two warring sides that tossed and tussled furiously as to what he should do. With her flailing arm Faith gripped Pierce’s sleeve, and looked to him pleadingly. The muscles in his jaw tensed… and he pulled her to safety.
They met the tradesman at an empty fountain. Before the fountain, the railing guarding the drop to the flooded floors below had fallen away, leaving it open to the trees growing up the three floors. When they got to the meeting place, they found him sitting atop the fountain, smoking a cigar, dangling his feet.
“Tradesman,” Pierce said, nodding. With a cowl hiding his face, the Tradesman donned a gasmask, throwing the cowl back and flicking the cigar to the side.
He hopped down from fountain, a leather satchel at his side.
“You have the anti-venom we asked for?” Pierce asked, taking what seemed to be a cloth wrapped device from his backpack.
“I see you have the pack,” The Tradesman said, his voice muffled through his mask.
“I’d say he’s in his forties,” Eli said indifferently, one arm folded across his chest and the other pinching his lip.
What makes you say that? Faith thought, not bothering to look at him.
“The way he holds himself, the fragments of greyed hair from behind his mask,” Eli said.
The Tradesmen opened a tin box filled with syringes filled with a strange, glowing yellow substance.
“Wait, how do we know it’s legitimate?” Pierce said cautiously, withdrawing the clothed pack.
The Tradesman paused, and within the blink of an eye, pulled something from beneath his coat. The others didn’t even move to react, but Faith moved on pure instinct, the second she saw the mini-crossbow in his hand. She glided her way in front of Pierce, the blue dart meeting Faith’s shoulder instead of Pierce’s heart.
Pierce looked down at her, shocked and clearly taken aback by her speed and why she had stepped in. Faith held her shoulder, instantly feeling the poison take effect she stumbled, hunched over slightly.
Fuck, I need to get the antidote, now.
The Tradesman nonchalantly tossed the tin box with the antidotes across the marble floor, the tin sliding close to the edge of the drop. Within another blink of an eye, he did the impossible, flickering like a shadow from by the fountain to Pierce, where he snatched the pack from him. Faith stumble/sprinted over to the antidotes whilst the others searched wildly around where the Tradesman had gone. Kneeled by the edge, she went to pick up one of the needles, only for the Shadow Man to flicker before her, a pistol in hand. He kicked the tin off the edge and into the waters and raised the gun, aiming at her brow quicker than the others could react. Faster still, Faith leapt after the tin, crashing into the waters.
Yet, she had underestimated the poison of the albino snake. It spread through the right side of her body, numbing and running her blood cold.
Great…I’m gonna drown…because I decided to take a bullet for some idiot that’s weighed the options of killing me twice now… life decisions…going great
Faith drifted deeper and deeper, giving into the darkness and cold until she felt her left arm begin to almost, zap. She looked to her marked hand, finding the mark to be glowing the same neon purple as before. Glowing, it provided a light that showed the antidote needles spread about in a crevice a few feet before her. Eli, by her side took her glowing hand, his eyes glowing the same purple as he helped her over to the needles. Quickly running out of breath, without much aim Faith stabbed one of them into a vein in her wrist, instantly feeling its effects. Desperate for air, she grabbed another two needles, stuffing them into her jacket pocket and surfaced.
“Did you get the anti-venom?” Cash called down to her, motioning to a cable dangling from the highest floor down into the waters, opposite to where the others were.
“Yeah, yeah, I used one of them and grabbed another two, where’d the shadowy guy go?” Faith called back, her white hair slicked to one half of her face and black buzz-cut itchy.
“He just took the battery pack and disappeared,” Colt replied, a hand on Cash’s shoulder.
Faith continued to tread water, and squeezed her nose to rid it of the water.
“I’ll get up there and find a way around to you!” She shouted. Faith swam over to the cable and used it to climb up the two floors with quivering muscles still recovering from the poison.
When she reached the top floor, Faith stood there in the hallway, hands on knees with ragged, uneven breath.
“When we get back…I’m…going to have a bath…and curl up on that fucking couch with a blanket…and they’ll have to supply me with bowls of food every few days…fuck this,” Faith panted.
Eli patted her on the back, and then said, “Faith, he’s here.”
“Who-?” Faith was cut off when she was forced to duck the incoming punch from the Shadow Man.
He swung again, and she danced back, further into the hallway behind.
“What do you want, you’ve got that damn battery and fucked us over with the anti venom, what, you just want to kill us now?” Faith snapped.
“Step to the right and give him a kick right where it hurts,” Eli commanded.
She followed his instructions, channeling her frustrations into the kick to his groin. This served to slow him down, a painful groan sounded from behind his mask.
Wish I knew how to use the lightning right about now.
“That’s up to you to figure out,” Eli shrugged.
“Now, use your gun and blast this bastard back to hell,” He added.
Faith reached behind, surprised to find the gun still there, pulled the hammer back and squeezed the trigger in time with her breath, and…click…click, click.
“Empty?” Faith hissed aloud. She could almost see the old dog smiling beneath his mask at her inconvenience.
Why would he give me an empty gun, unless…he was testing me?
Faith looked to him with a flat look, flicked the gun round so instead she held the barrel, and swung it at full force across his head. This only seemed to agitate him more. The next punch he certainly meant, hitting Faith square in the stomach, sending her sprawling to the ground.
“Use the force of your drop to roll backwards and get your bearings faster,” Eli said, leant against the wall, hands in pockets. Faith did so, landing on shaking feet. But The Shadow Man just simply flickered forward, and swung a mighty kick that threw her head against the wall.
Laying there, bleeding as the Shadow Man kicked her over and over, Faith felt the electricity crackle through her veins.
“You monster, fucking monster…you’ll be the death of them…you’ll take what you want then get them all fucking killed you fucking cunt. Meant to keep the peace between the peoples? Fucking horseshit.” He squatted close, enough to breath his ale-soaked breath into her ear.
“I’m gonna find your master, but not before I kill all her dogs. You may think me blood-thirsty girl, and to kill you is a shame. But, I’m only here to kill him.” The second The Shadow Man finished that final word, he looked directly to Eli, who looked the most afraid she’d ever seen him.
Then, almost against her own accord with an energy no English words could describe, Faith shot to her feet, faster than The Shadow Man could process her doing so, the neon purple electricity crackling in her wake. She raised her fist, meaning to send the same bolt of purple lightning straight to his heart, but, before Faith could fire, he pulled out a fistful of silver looking powder, and tossed it into her face. The powder burnt like ash, forcing her eyes closed and the bolt of lightning to strike above at the roof, sending a shower of dirt and rock down on both of them.
By the time Faith regained her sight The Shadow Man was gone. Her arm smoked like a spot where a lightning strike had hit it, the heat coursing through her body caused Faith to skip over the rubble and dust, and roll out into the buildings antechamber the arched, glass roof above overgrown with ivy letting slip rays of light onto the trees canopy and white marble floor.
She stood, and looked round, trying to spot the slithering, shadowy snake of a man.
“Damn it all,” Faith growled beneath her breath.
~ ~ ~
When Faith returned to the group, Pierce dismissed any chance of trying to hunt The Shadow Man down, besides, they’d already taken too much time as it is and needed to get back to Taylor and Aster. And so they did, keeping an even paced jog that by the end, made Faith want to simply throw up and die in a corner.
Leaping up by two steps at a time, Pierce took the two needles from Faith and ran ahead into the apartment. The others took a breather, rested against the walls. Eli had disappeared, off to wherever he went to. Yet, when Pierce’s shouts of curses and rage sounded, and the sound of smashing vials against the wall, they all sprinted into the apartment. Yet what they found, was what Faith lest expected.
They were gone, simply gone, with only a note in the place of where Taylor had once lain. They’d even had the good manners to place the table runner and flower vase back on the table.
The note read;
Dear Pierce, Cassandra, Colton, Sonny and Faith. I’ll be blunt, since none of you will clearly understand the weight of what I have to do. It may be Autumn, but before the nigh of Winter there is someone I must kill, and Taylor has sworn to help me. You needn’t worry, he’s in fine health. Forces have begun to move that haven’t shown their faces in almost a hundred years, and if you want to stay safe, I suggest you might want to consider moving to the most remote place you can think of because soon nowhere will be able to escape Winter’s Grasp.
Try to stay alive,
-A
That night, no-one shared their meal at the table, or played a game of cards. Neither did anyone go near Aster and Taylor’s old room, leaving the door close. Sonny didn’t even have any glares left for her, and like Colt and Cash went upstairs to crawl under the sheets in exhaustion.
Faith sat on the giant round window, her legs up beside Eli’s who sat opposite to her. For the most part of the evening, she’d watched the sunset and the moonrise; her head leant against the glass. It was only whilst the others slept, and the town was sound asleep that Faith looked to Elijah, meeting his violet eyes.
“Elijah…who was that man, did you know him?” She asked so softly he couldn’t have heard.
“I don’t know who he is, but I know what he is. One of them, a Warden,” He replied, silken moonlight flirting through his brown waves and caressing his features.
“OK…next question. What are you?” Faith said, letting her attention drift to the streets below.
When she looked back, Faith was almost not surprised by what she saw.
His eyes were nothing but glowing purple, the same neon of his irises had taken over the whites of his eyes, and cracked like a mirror down his cheeks in multiple fissures. From his shoulders, arms and head it seemed like ashes slowly floated from his body, yet it did not seem like he was falling apart like it should have. Instead he just looked to her, electricity twisting playfully in his cupped hands like he knew how to control it, his canines sharp, ears pointed and eyes glowing.
“Songbird, I’m a daemon. I am, your daemon,” Elijah said, almost like a promise.
Faith lent in closer, and began to say, “Then why did that Warden want to kill you, to kill us-” She was cut off when she spotted Pierce walking the streets down below, wearing his over-sized black sweater, off to some mysterious place. Faith left the sill, shrugged on her cream jacket and was off to follow the strange boy.
She tailed him through the mostly-empty streets, only inhabited with alley-cats, all over-sized rats compared to the likes of Maverick, and drunkards looking for a comfortable slab of dirt to fall asleep on. Pierce seemed a million worlds away, staring at the ground, his hands shoved into the sweater pockets.
Finally he vaulted over a chain-link fence and out of the town, headed uphill until he made to the cliff-face overlooking the blackened beach and ocean far, far below. He sat there, legs dangling over the edge staring up at the moon. Faith, wordlessly, sat beside him. The moons gaze enveloped them both in its silver threads.
“I promised to protect them. To protect all of them….but, that fucking snake, convinced Taylor of some suicide mission…and now they’re gone. And it’s my fault,” Pierce’s voice actually shook, clenching his hands tight.
Faith laughed. Pierce looked to her as if she’d gone insane.
“I’ve…realized at lot of things today. I can shoot lightning from my hands, I’m not completely in control of myself and – I don’t think I ever was, I need to get better at combat, and…you’ve proven yourself a good leader. You care about them, at least that much is clear…” Faith admitted.
Pierce smiled. “You proved yourself too, taking a Haine damned poison dart for me,” He said, then laughed, adjusting his glasses.
“Suppose I owe you more pancakes then…”
“…Oh yeah, about two months worth. Every morning I expect you to be awake at the crack of dawn, and when I wake eight hours after everyone else, I expect them warm and bountiful,” Faith smiled.
“Have to admit, I never heard anyone describe pancakes as bountiful…” Pierce trailed off, leaving a moment of silence between them.
Faith drew her legs close, resting her face between her knees.
“Well, what I’m trying to say is…they might be gone…but I’ll stick around at least. I won’t leave if you don’t want me to,” Faith said.
Moments of silence stretched on, the two of them staring at the silver shadow of the moon over the sea. After a while, Faith stood and began to walk back down the hill.
Yet as she left, Faith could’ve sworn she heard him mutter, “Don’t go.”
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