Twisted

Chapter 16 ~Hansel

Chapter 16

Hansel

I swirl my coffee with the end of my spoon and suck off all the bits of melted chocolate. Across from me, Gretel sucks loudly on her strawberry smoothie, the thickness of the liquid struggling to make it up the straw. My eyes casually flick up to the waitress two tables over, and when Gretel glances away, I nab a little bottle of rum from the bar next to us and pour it into my coffee.

Gretel notices, unfortunately, and eyes me critically.

“That’ll sure as hell wake you up.”

“Yeah.” I wince as I move my injured arm. I tear off a strip of cloth from my old shirt, which I’ve stuffed in my bag, and soak it in the second half of the rum. Then, lifting up my jacket, I press it against my crossbow wound and tie it off. Gretel watches pityingly and eventually sighs.

“Give it here.”

I frown and lay my arm across the table, shrugging off my jacket. Gretel closes her eyes and places one hand on my shoulder and one on my elbow.

“Watch the break...” I groan, as Gretel pushes on a bit of bone.

“Oh, man up you wimp.” She grins.

I watch as Gretel begins to stroke up and down my arm with both hands. Pale blue light begins to leak from under her eyelids. I smile. Gretel has Spirit. No doubt we inherited it from our healer mother. I groan slightly as I feel my bones start to knit back together. A bead of blood drips from my crossbow wound as the skin creeps together. It closes up until its just a cut, and while my arm feels extremely stiff, the bone isn’t in about three pieces anymore.

Gretel drops her hands and swallow. Breathing heavily, she sculls the remaining half of her smoothie, then leans across and steals my coffee.

“Spirit...Tires me out. Haven’t used it in a while.”

Wordlessly, I reach out and grab her hand, wincing at a slight headache.

“Thank you.” Then I grimace. My headache got worse.

“Headache.” I explain in reply to Gretels questioning glance.

“Hardly surprising. You just downed half a bottle of rum, immediately after the effects of your first joint of weed wore off.”

“Weed?”

“Marijuana. Its a drug from Kiaras world, theres a group of smugglers who managed to get hold of a relic, so they buy it in bulk and sell it over here.”

“So thats what Hood gave me.” Then I wince again. There's an aggravating whine in the cafe.

“Can you hear that?” I ask. Gretel shakes her head, frowning. I wiggle my finger in one ear. The whine increases in volume until its more of a buzz.

“Dammit! What is that?”

hansel...

Standing up, I glance around. Who said that?

hansel...

“What...Who is that?”

Gretel shushes me. “Hansel, people are staring!”

hansel...

Stumbling forward, I push my way to the street, ignoring aggravated grunts.

“Who's there! Come out!”

Hansel!

“Gaah!” I fall over backwards with the volume of the shout. Then I realise.

“Kiara...”

I pull myself to my feet and start running. The voice in my head gets louder, but softer, more desperate. I hear Gretel yelling from behind me, but I ignore her. I keep running down the street, then take a left down a side alley. Damn. Dead end. Without stopping, I jump and scramble up the wall to the roofs.

The sunlight glances across my face as I reach the peak of a thatch roof. I spin around in a circle, searching for anything. Surely, Kiara isn’t still at Lusts tower.

“Kiara!”

I turn and shout again and again, all the while the voice in my head growing fainter.

“No...No! I can’t believe it! It isn’t fair...” I can hear Kiara growing weaker by the second. I have to do something.

“Kiara, if you can hear me, give me a sign, dammit! I can’t help you if I don’t know where you are!”

I stare around, and start to make towards the marketplace where Kiara was sold. That's where she would have gone, I’m sure of it. I jump between roofs and vault over chimneys, and eventually reach a church. I scale the steeple and balance there, staring over the marketplace with Lusts tower behind me. Where is she?

 

Almost a mile away, Kiara stares out over the city, shivering and mumbling. She watches as a grappling hook sails over the side of the roof. She kicks it off. Thats the third one so far. But even as Kiara repels one attack, she doesn’t notice a pair of enormous men clamber up the roof behind her. She barely registers them, right up until one of them grabs her around the neck.

Kiara screams, but there’s no one to hear. She yells and struggles, but shes only one girl against two heavily armed men. In one final act of desperation, Kiara manages to gather enough control and magic to send a single beam of light into the eyes of one of her attackers. The man laughs and stuffs a sack over her head.

Kiara struggles and coughs into the coarse hemp of the sack. Then something solid hits her in the temple, and the world goes dark.

~

I draw a knife and hold it by the blade, ready to throw at a moments notice. I’m still staring out over the city, when a flash of light hits the reflective blade. It blinds me momentarily and I almost lose my balance. When I turn to see where it came from, the light dims, but before it dies completely, I see its source.

 

And the men attacking her.

 

“Kiara, I’m coming!” I yell. I gather my magic, drawing on every last source and well of power, and blast air and fire out of my closed fists. I wrap myself in a tornado of flame and jump off the steeple.

I ride the maelstrom like a surfboard, dodging towers and all the time, making my way upwards. As I get closer to the tower, I see men leaning out of windows with rifles all the way down it, shooting upwards. As I near, several of them start shooting at me. Panicking, I swerve and loop, but I can’t avoid them all. One bullet I manage to disintegrate with my magic, another leaves a crease across my temple. I swoop down and burn one man with my whirlwind, then kick his friend out the tower and catch his rifle. I smack one man, who was trying to climb up to the roof, with the butt of the gun, and finally release my whirlwind mid air, bringing the gun round to bear. I fire one shot at Kiaras attacker.

It should have hit the man in the forehead.

It should have split his skull, and his lifeless corpse should have tumbled to the courtyard below.

But it doesn’t.

Because at the last minute, the man heaves Kiara into the air, and the bullet, my bullet, smashes into the sack that I know contains Kiaras head.

 

Inside the sack, something solid hits Kiara in the temple, and the world goes dark.

Kiaras lifeless corpse tumbles to the courtyard below.

                                                *~*~*~*~*~*~*

A/N: I'm sorry, so sorry, don't kill me. I'll run away now....

Love ya xoxox Madi xx