Shattered Relations | Aru Shah AU |

IX

RUDY
His heart pounded, as if rushing blood to his brain would change the scene he was seeing. A gun. It couldn't be. 

The denial made him stumble, as he stared in horror at the firearm. He doubted people casually took their weapons out for a stroll, in an under-construction building compound. 

Rudy slowly slipped from behind a pillar, and silently leapt to change his hiding spot to a pile of construction debris, where he could get a closer look at the person, who he realized was a man. 

He had a long coat, and underneath, he was wearing the typical jeans and shirt. His face was partially hidden by shadow, but, through the flickering lights, the gun seemed more ominous than it should have been. Rudy squinted harder, and he managed to faintly catch sight of light blue eyes behind sunglasses. 

Shouldn't anybody have noticed that a man was wearing sunglasses in the evening--an act that was very suspicious?

He shook his head slowly, and decided to focus on the matter at hand. The man's hand, the hand which had its fingers upon the trigger of the gun, was unfortunately, very steady. He didn't know how good the man would be at shooting a moving target, and, honestly, he didn't want to find out. 

He glanced around, looking for Mini, but it was pointless, since it was already very dark, and the weak light from the lights wasn't helping. 

He shifted slightly, trying to get a better view, but, inadvertently, he shifted a piece of glass.  

The man had supersonic hearing, and he trained his gun in the direction of the noise, which, obviously, was Rudy. 

Through the gaps in the discarded material, Rudy could see the man's shiny shoes come closer... and closer... he could hear the echo as the man undid the safety on his gun.

He held his breath, when a crack distracted him. Both, Rudy's, and the gunman's gaze turned toward the direction of the sound, where... yolk dripped off the walls. 

Egg yolk, a voice whispered in his brain. He knew where it had come from. 

He shifted his eyes from the dripping egg yolk, to the building where it must have come from. All darkness.  

The man growled, and pointed his gun at the building, at a rickety steel beam. His heart pounded.... if he shot it, it would topple...right onto the building she had thrown the egg from.  

NO! his inner voice screamed. WHAT IF SHE'S STILL IN THERE?! His limbs froze in shock, and fear. 

He attempted to lunge forward, do something, but the loud bang of the bullet crunching against the steel seemed to be deafening, and momentarily paralyzed him. 

A huge dent was in the beam, as Rudy breathed a sigh of relief. It was still standing. 

The man said, in a husky, wheezing voice, "That was just a practice shot, Miss Kapoor-Mercado-Lopez. Believe me, you do not want to find out how accurate my aim is." 

His eyes widened, as he scooted away from the debris, and began craning his neck to look for Mini, his heart beating more frantically now. Was she still in the building?

He had to change his hiding spot. His eyes went to the grid of bamboo poles surrounding the unfinished building, which workers used to construct the higher floors. 

Rudy slowly put his left foot on the bottom-most rung, and heaved himself up, repeated this, until he found himself pressed against the side of the building, diagonal to the gunman. 

He peeked out, covered by the large strips of green cloth that hung from the top of the building--why it was there, he didn't know, but it was convenient--and saw that the gunman was beginning to search all the buildings. 

He climbed a bit higher, his fear guiding him. The gunman's light hair came into sharp relief, as he turned around, to inspect one of the other buildings. 

As the gunman's back was turned, he saw a flash of black run from one building to his, and hide behind a pillar underneath him. Mini. 

She glanced up at him, and gave him a discreet nod, and he slowly climbed down, to hide behind the pillar with her. 

He was going to do it anyway, if he had stayed any longer, and the gunman had found him... it wouldn't have been great. 

"What do we do?" he whispered, still glaring at the gunman. 

"I--I don't know. He has a great aim, and if we try to run, he'll shoot us both." she said. Her eyes were wide in fear. 

"So we're stuck?" he asked, his stomach sinking horribly. 

"Wait," she whispered, "he only called out my name," she continued, as if she was on the brink of realization. 

"So?" he whispered. 

"He doesn't know you're here." she whispered back, emphasizing each word. "At the right time, when his attention isn't on finding, you can tackle him." 

"Where will his attention be, then?" he asked, fear hitching his voice. 

She looked straight into his eyes, her voice morose. "On me." 

----

He didn't like the plan. He also despised the fact that that was the only thing they could do. 

She clenched her fists, and took a step forward. And another. Another, and then, she was fully exposed, to the weak moonlight, the flickering artificial lights, and the man's gun. 

She let out a deep breath, and said, in a low voice, "I'm here." 

The man turned around, surprised. His hand steadied, as he aimed the gun at her heart. 

His index finger went to the trigger, and she quickly squeaked out, "Don't I get a right to say a few last words?"

The man said, "No, you don't. Keep quiet, or your death won't be painless." 

"Oh, sure, death by gun is totally painless," she shot back, raising an eyebrow, but her voice was panicked. 

He slowly inched out, now sure that the man's attention was on Mini. 

The man scowled, his trigger-finger quivering. 

Suddenly, the world seemed to enter slow motion. Rudy's fear, and adrenaline guided him, as he jumped out, and, elbow-first crashed into the man. 

The man's face collided with the gravel with a satisfying crunch, and his gun clattered out of his grip.

Mini lunged forward, snatched the gun from him, and the two of them rushed several feet away from him. 

"Is he unconscious?" Mini asked, her hand still clenched around the gun. 

"I don't--" Rudy began, but, with a groan, the man stumbled up, his nose resembling an eggplant, with streams of blood flowing from his nostrils. 

Although he was unarmed, Rudy didn't want to take chances--and apparently, neither did Mini. 

He grabbed her hand, and the both of them ran as fast as they could, the dark lanes flying past them, as they raced to the apartment building, their footsteps pounding against the ground, in sync with their wild heartbeats.

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a/n: alright, so the updating schedule is: every saturday, and if i don't update on a saturday, expect one on a sunday. 

and... yeah that's it! bye!