Hostage

Hostage

(Chapter 12)

*

[<<]

"God-God-God-God please. I SAID I was SORRY. I'm genuinely SORRY. God…*whimper*…aren't I your child too! Help me!" He starts to struggle again.

"{I'm sorry Amitha. I have to make sure that mom is safe.}"

"{Don't you dare do it! I don't want even a drop of his blood to touch me. If you really wanna kill him, use. something. else! Can you hear me?!}

Our hero drops Amitha and sets his hands on a giant cleaver, thick enough to slice through bone, perfect for the job. He swings it around to his rear end so he can swing it down with the full possible extent of momentum to decapitate him. It even makes a large dent in the wooden floor boards. He cracks his fingers and psyches himself up.

"You hear that? I think it's time to say your final prayers."

[>]

[Veteran]

Our blonde female finds herself peering out the window of the carriage. The ride has been quite a boring one, and she's resorted to counting the stars for amusement. Alexander notices and tries to bring up some chit chat.

"Sis, you DO realize that our expenditure is WAY gonna exceed our pay for this right?"

"That's exactly why I said we should walk or trot or—whatever. There's nothing we can do about it now."

"But your safety is our priority grand dad. Remember that you haven't written your will yet." They all laugh out loud.

"If I don't watch out she'll be the one ta kill me." They laugh. They make nice conversation along the way; that is of course, until the carriage stops.

"Driver, what's going on?"

"B-B-B-Bandits!"

[Valentina]

She's walking home, to Laura's. Her mind's obviously elsewhere as she treads the cobblestones beneath, her slow, shuffling gait suggests. She's thinking critically about what mom told her earlier. The story holds water but there are many unanswered questions.

"{I wonder if it's really true…[<<]

(Taking it from where mom left off earlier)

"During his DaN…we laid out junk before our child, our mistake. It wasn't that we didn't intend good for him; we didn't expect much from him."

"Well I see why."

"Tina… After being doused he reached out for a wand with a blue mana crystal. He almost had it in his hands, but then, as if startled, he turned aside. Something drew his attention; I think a call that all of us failed to hear.

The longer a baby spends after dousing, the more prone it is to Mana-Corrosion. Where the corrosion starts can't be predicted and as such could be lethal. He was our long-awaited firstborn baby, and we wanted to end it as quickly as possible. So his father, Guillelme, put his hand to the wand. That's when the tragedy began.

In the blink of an eye, his hand was shut and sealed by a magic circle, the origin unknown. It glowed in fact. We tried our best to open his hands but our efforts proved futile. We could only exert so much pressure on the fingers of our newborn baby. We never got to name him in fact.

We were very worried. It didn't take long for the mana corrosion to affect his scalp. The result is the flaky, crisp hair you see right now, like the texture of feathers. That wasn't our major worry. If babies who didn't try to walk ended up invalids for life then what about our baby who could barely even crawl to begin with? What was worse was the fact that the longer we waited, the higher the chance of his hands growing vestigial.

We tried all the help we could get but nothing could get rid of that glowing circle on his wrists. Then finally, at the end of the first six months I noticed something, a life changing discovery. When I started to move in a certain direction, the glow fluctuated for a split second and the symbols around the ridge of the circle started to disappear one after the other. The circle grew smaller! That direction was none other than that of the place you call The Evil Forest." [>]}"

"Valentina—" Ms. Laura starts just before Valentina bumps right into her. "Ow!"

"Sorry! I wasn't—Ms. Laura."

"I told you two to stop calling me that."

"How cute. What brings you all the way out here?"

"I had a life before I met you, you know?"

"What I meant was this late at night."

"I realized that I needed to get my mind off some things and so I went to a friend's place."

"You've still been crying."

"What makes you say that?"

"You look terribly pale and you're developing bags. I can only conclude that you've been crying your nights away."

"It's just. It's just. It's just"—her eyes begin the waterworks and she can't help but let it rip—"I miss my baby."

Valentina gives her a nice warm hug, rubbing her back. "It's not even been a week so why did I expect you to have healed up? Let's go home so I can give you a nice massage. It'll make you feel better"

"How can it make me feel better when it won't bring my baby back? You don't understand what I'm feeling right now. None of you do."

"I can't say for sure but"—she puts her hands to her cheeks—"I also have my fair share of pain."

"This is different."—she knocks Tina's hands off—"She came outta MY WOMB. I had her in here"—rubs her tummy—" for nine months, alone. I had no man by my side. I had to take care of her by MYSELF. I was happy to make every sacrifice in the world because my baby was the most important thing to me. I named her Laura because she was more important to me than my own life. She was all I ever cared about."

"That's precisely why she wouldn't be happy to see you cry like this when she looks at you from all the way up in heaven. I know you want to take your life, but could you live for the sake of what you haven't lost?"

"It's like you didn't hear me. I don't have anything! Anything," she sobs.

"Well me neither so you're gonna have to keep me company." Tina hugs her forcefully.

"What?"

"I never had a family. I never had company, or friends or anything of the sort. I never had sunny days or starry nights. I never got the chance to gallop across beautiful flower meadows like the ones from the books I read, nor did I get to have fun picnics. It's been hard for me too so I'm sure if I haven't suffered more than, I have at least suffered as much as you. So YOU be my cushion and I'll be yours."

"I didn't and don't want to be an insensitive person right now but you're the last person I'd want to be around me right now."

"Why do you say that?"

"…"

"Tell me so I can fix it."

"Fix it? You're like the spitting image of my daughter. If you don't die by the end of the year I'll be glad, but don't come into my life just to hurt me."

Valentina is rendered speechless. She had totally forgotten about that days scare. That's a fate that she would never like to accept. She's frozen speechless.

[Veteran]

It's cold out and they're surrounded by a band of not less than thirty. The bandits are armed with awful looking weapons. There's zero possibility that those jagged blades and axes can give you just a scratch. They'd normally come out in smaller groups so what's up with today? The bandits demand that they all get down in the middle 'a nowhere.

"Driver. You got something priceless in there?" Mr. Alex whispers.

"A package."

"What'll we do grandpa?"

"It would be unwise to try and overpower them. We better just give them—"

"Hey! Who's the leader here?"

"…I think that'll be me. What do you want?"

"We want the cargo."

"I'm not sure we got much to take."

"Well you get what you get don'tcha?"

Mr.Alex looks at the driver, seeking confirmation on what to do. Although the merchandise seems a little precious to him, the driver nods yes without much delay.

"Wait! I think the toll just increased."

"Because?"

"You're wasting our precious time. You'll give us that cute girl as well. She'll be better off with us."

"Sois prêt.(GET READY.)"

"Oui," the twins reply.

"Hunh? What was that?"

In a split second, Mr. Alex, who is taller than everybody present from the shoulder upwards towers over the thug. His palm finds his face as Alexandra jumps up onto the top of the carriage with her brother and the driver. The overwhelming strength of their grandpa's fingers crushes his skull like a grape underfoot. The real fight has begun.

[Eris]

Hasn't even been a day long but she's bored as hell. It brings me back to what you feel on a hospital bed. I can tell you one thing for sure. It ain't the medicine that heals ya. It's that urge to just get off the freakin' bed that forces your body to co-operate. Erin gets home.

"Ma gyip(pronun-jip)." He gives her a nice warm hug.

"I'm bored. It's worse than I thought."

"Awwwww. Don't worry your head about that. I wanted you to stay put for a while."

"Why?"

"I don't get to spend time with my sister nowadays. This is a total upgrade." She punches him in the gut.

"That's not funny."

"Owww. That doesn't change nothin'. Glad to have you back!"

She means to hit him again but she's bound to her bed. He could tease her from any corner of the room and she couldn't do anything. Or at least that's what he thought. When he gets close enough she leaps from her bed, disregarding the damage she would sustain because she planned to do more. She sinks her teeth into his collar-bone leaving him begging for mercy.

"I SUBMIT!!!"

[Veteran]

They've thrown caution to the wind. The only hindrance to themselves was themselves, and they got themselves outta the way. That said, their upper hand was their unannounced strike and they utilized it wisely. They'd get in the way of each other if they were all confined to the same region so why not split up? No one's been this daring before. The bandits must be in for a real surprise.

Mr. Alex bashes another two in the face with his giant fists, they flinched. Before the bandits can even think of adjusting, the driver whistles and the carriage takes off. The horses are dangerously close to him and he loses track of the enemy as he narrowly evades the accelerating horses that come whooshing by. He sustains a scratch but not a small one. One of the jagged-edged axes missed his jugular by an inch or two. His shoulder starts to bleed.

The remaining bandits divide themselves. That is only after the sudden boosting off of the carriage. Three were incapacitated: one of which was permanent. About nineteen of 'em pursue the carriage leaving about 17 more to Grandpa alone. This only means Grandpa is in a tight predicament.

[/]

"What're you doing?" Alexandra barks at the driver.

With his left hand bracing his right, Alexander charges up a fireball. You'd think he was gonna shoot it at the ones pursuing them. It torpedoes straight for Grandpa. He caught the signal and barely evades the explosion. Alexander flicks his head back stylishly.

"That should help him to survive."

"You show-off."

"You have made a terrible mistake!" the driver draws out.

"Brother! Two o'clock!"

He dodges the assault barely. There's a reason why these bandits have gone unapprehended all these years. It's because they're good at what they do, and now they're pissed.

Axes come hurling at them and Alexander drops to the roof of the carriage, pulling his sister down as well. Just before the I.M.Us hurl the axes, the E.M.Us whip up a gust to obscure your senses. You could never tell where they were coming from because they'll be too close for comfort even at the instant you notice them. That's what has wounded the two Alexanders today.

"Stay down!" Alexander yells. "I'm not gonna get another opening! Just pray and hang on tight!"

Yeah. He gets loud enough when there's danger. They can't work anything out within the small breather and so they follow what he said, laying low till it blows over. That doesn't work out either. The assailants launch steel lances into the fore wheels of the carriage and it throws the twins backwards and up into the air.

"AAAH!!! BROTHER!" she reaches for him mid-air but she fails to grasp him. The carriage somersaults as they are flung forward at high speed. Let me remind you that they were laying in the opposite direction so they're flying blind. Maybe she could have braced herself for impact if she wasn't so preoccupied, thinking about how her brother would land.

"CRASH!!!" the carriage lands, crushing one of the horses beneath. Most of the wooden structure is dashed to pieces. The cargo must be in disarray as well. Forget about that and take a look at the frail humans who were onboard. The three of them look so disheveled. Alexandra didn't recover fully and got just a little hurt. The driver is probably under the wreckage, and as for Alexander, he musta banged his head real hard. He comes to in a few seconds though.

"{What's going on?}" he looks right and left. "{Sis. Where are you? What-What happened? We. Crashed? They were- they're gonna kill us. Think fast. Think Alexander. What to do? But I'm blurring out. I've gotta give it my all. I have to try something—}" Before he loses consciousness, he sets the wreckage ablaze with all the cargo in it. That was all that he could muster up and he leaves the rest in his sister's hands. But where is she? Isn't she also on the ground?

[Guillelmus]

"You hear that? I think it's time to say your final prayers."

"… You're the one listening right now. I promise that I won't even hurt a fly again if you so choose."

"I don't believe you. I'm definitely not letting you go. If you stay here… this is gonna repeat itself every day. Just accept your fate."

"… It's not mine. If I have to go through hell here with the chance that you'll let me go someday I'm willing to stay."

"I never said I'd let you go."

"Then I'll work for you if you'll let me, so that I can buy my life back."

"{Elmus, I'm begging you too… I've never felt so bad about hurting someone before…}"

He hesitates and after taking a critical look at the miserable thing he decides not to do it and drops the cleaver. The young Harmonie sits on the ground, resting on one arched knee. He reconsiders as well.

"{This should be the right thing to do.}"

"…Alright then. Didn't wanna kill you anyway."

"…Thank you. Thank you so much," he sobs.

"Don't confuse things up. I'm not gonna show you care. You will never feel the sun on your skin, and even if I decide to kill you after all… you're gonna have to comply."

"But I can be useful for more than that. I can pledge my allegiance to you here and now."

"*laughs* Hey. Did the torture actually get to you? 'cuz if that's what it takes to repent I'm gonna take up a job at the tribunal."

"It's not that… The way you defend your mother. It reminds me of what I used to live for… I don't have her anymore. I don't have anything… What does it make me? Homeless? Aimless? Lifeless?"

"… No… it makes you my hostage."

-------------End of Chapter 12--------

Chapter 13 Teaser

When will Tina's armor finally be ready? The Dark Alley, the Emerged… there are even more threats out there. Can Porto Novo hold 'em all? Will the veteran die tonight? Well it's your job to find out.

To be continued…