Behind Those Eyes [In editing]

Chapter 2: Long Road Ahead

I crash through a second story, pulling the makeshift curtains and a shelf down with me.  I jump up into a defensive position expecting to see others but am surprised and relieved to see that I am alone. Stretching quickly, I walk over to the window and see David looking at me skeptically.

"You missed yet again, how does that not surprise me" he says with a chuckle,

I flip him the bird and tell him to quit stalling and jump already.

"Now or never I guess." he mutters to himself as he backs up to get a running start and launches across the gap.

Some how, he manages to dive perfectly through the busted window, but that's the only thing perfect about his dive. When he landed, he rolled straight into the other wall putting a David sized hole in it. Chuckling, I walk over to him and offer my hand.

"Nice one David." I say with a smirk as I pull him up.

"At least I didn't crash through a window." he says defensively while wiping the dirt from his clothes.

"Yeah, but you kinda crashed through a wall," I say pointing at the hole, " and I'm pretty sure that's more of a fail."

He just sighs and walks out the door, I follow him and we jog down the stairs to find my sisters house. We head out side and we reach the fence to her house. From where we stand I can see my little sister, Gabrielle and Daniel. She's about eighteen years old now, with long flowing blonde hair, and bright emerald eyes. Next to her is her fiancé, Daniel, he has short black hair and light honey brown eyes. I met him back in the Persian war, I told him if we both got out of there alive I'd introduce him to Gabrielle when we got back. When we got back, I introduced the and they hit it off immediately. Shortly after they started dating, Daniel proposed and they were engaged. Their wedding was supposed to be next week actually. David and I jog over to them, I assume that when the bells started ringing they packed what they could, because they both had satchels tied to their backs.

"Please tell me its not happ-" Gabrielle starts but is cut off by an explosion nearby us.

Its had been ten years since the last attack, then it was the Acolyte's, and was because they simply wanted to expand their small nation. But now I don't know who it is or why. The last attack was when we lost mother and father. Gabrielle was only eight then, I was eleven. It was that same attack that I saw Emily and Rayne for the last time. They were both ten, best friends, and captured at the same time. Emily would have been safe, but when she saw Rayne being hauled off she attacked the men with all of her ten year might and ended up being taken as well.

Emily was my best girl friend and David's "girlfriend" at the time, but I don't think she really liked him. And Rayne. Rayne was, no is the most beautiful person I've ever known. She had short black hair that she got mainly because her father told her that "no girl should have short hair", metallic, icy blue eyes and defined features.

Emily is beautiful too, don't get me wrong, but I don't really pay attention to how she looks, I am more focused on Rayne. Emily was tall, with shoulder length dark brown hair, with hazel green eyes and was one a the few people that actually spoke there mind around here. But Rayne, Rayne was different. She stood for what she believed in no matter the consequences or the pain.

I am pulled out of my thoughts by screaming from both David and my sister.

"Snap out of it!" David screams from fighting someone off to my right, water starts to pour from his eyes and he starts to fight carelessly.

I look in the direction of my sister where she is still screaming, and my body becomes boneless as I see whats wrong. A man slowly pulls the sword out of Daniel's chest with a devilish smile plastered on his face. The sword that was meant for my sister, David had stood in front of Gabrielle. Sacrificing his own life for hers.

My mind is on auto-pilot as I run over to the man, and slam my shoulder into him. He stumbles and I kick him in the groin, he groans as he falls to his knees. The sword was long forgotten, dropped when I first slammed into him.

I look at Daniel's lifeless body, then to him. He looks me straight in the eye and smiles. I plunge the sword through his chest, watching as the life drains from his eyes. I pull my sword from him, and grab Gabrielle's hand and Daniel's pack. I call for David to follow us to the stables. We grab two horses, one with Gabrielle and David, and me and the supplies on the other.

We weave our way to the city square, avoiding all conflict on the way there. Gabrielle had stopped talking and wouldn't even look at us .When we arrive my heart stands still, so does time and space it seems. The city had been burnt to the ground. There was nothing left, except ashes and the sound of war raging in the distance.

"We need to get out of here." I say to them, receiving a nod from Gabrielle. I look over at David he is slightly paler than usual.

"You okay?" I ask, gesturing to him.

He looks at me then motions to his sword arm.

I cant believe i didn't notice the medium gash before. I start to panic but stop when he gives a weak smile and says

"Just a flesh wound."

I smile back, remember saying that all through the war at Corinth. I nod, hoping that's all it is. After a bit of searching we finally find the path to the nearest town, Arex. It's about two days time on the regular trails, but we were taking the "abandoned" route used by slave traders. It should be able to get us there in a little over a day. Slavery was outlawed in Ocelot so the slavers' use that trail to get in and out of town quickly, and quietly.

The only reason I know about them is because I was quite the adventurer as a kid. I went exploring one day and ended up finding a slave trader and a large group of slaves, I reported them to the mayor but no one believed me because I was just a child then.

We traveled all through the day in silence, and when we reach about the half way point to Arex, we decided to make camp. David went to gather kindling to start a fire, Gabrielle tied the horses down and helped set up camp. I went to my horse and grabbed the pack Daniel had, and thanked the gods that he had packed some food.

We eat in silence, my mind is going through the past events, trying to find a connection to the assailants. After unsuccessful results, I find some hay and lay down. I try to get sleep but I am haunted by the people I've killed so far, from the first, a man that was trying to kidnap Gabrielle, to the latest Daniel's murderer. I don't know how, but I drift off to a dreamless sleep and am awakened by David. I estimate it's a little past nine thirty by the time I actually get up. We pack up the supplies and grab our swords. Mounting the horses, we continue our way up the trail. We make small talk through out the day, Gabrielle starts to become more social.

When David and I see two men on horses leading a very small group of slaves, men and women, we pull over to the side. As they pass by us, two of the women catch my eye. I dismount my horse and jog towards them. I grab one them by the arm and turn them around. And I know almost immediately who they both are, and they know me as well.