The Puppet Assassin [TTR sequel]

The Puppet Assassin - Ch 33 [suddenly...?]

I took in my exits. The kitchen window and the door to the hallway. Garth was closer to the window so…

“Dizelde… No!” Garth made a slashing move with his hand to emphasise his point, his eyes hard.

I considered the reason why Luke would be so worried and hurried and why he would have ordered Garth to stay and keep me in this room. I had to get out of here. I felt tears rising and stifled them angrily.

I went for the door, taking a dive in its direction. I hit the door, which immediately swang open and rolled out, ignoring the areas of my body that had been impacted. Garth was right behind me and as I stood up, he grabbed onto my wrist and yanked me backwards. I stumbled back and landed against him, my arm twisted up between us in a way that tugging on it would cause pain. I snapped my foot down onto his toes which made him flinch back but he only yanked me along with him.

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.

I clenched my jaw and rammed my elbow back into the sensitive spot on his side. He hissed and jerked back and I ducked down before using momentum to throw him over my head. He landed on his back and a rush of air escaped his mouth as the fall winded him. I span and raced down the hall to where I remembered the side door being. I exited the house and ran down the back to the rows of trees.

The door slammed behind me and I fretted when I didn’t hear Garth’s pursuit. He was like a cat, so swift, and I wouldn’t be able to hear him approach. I just had to pray that I would make it to the trees first. Thankfully, I did, and jumped up onto the handiest branch before using agility and balance to work my way over to the wall. As I reached it and turned to drop down from it, I saw Garth only a few branches down. He was a little slower than me in the trees, not as used to climbing as I was, but his balance was far greater and he gained distance as he sprinted the lengths of the thicker branches. I dropped.

The landing sent shooting pain up my feet once more and, as before, I ignored them as best as I could. I sprinted out to the front of the alley, to where I could make my way to Luke’s house, where I suspected he was taking Connor.

I nearly stopped where I was when I reached the exit and saw the crowd congregating on the street in front of Garth’s house but instinct told me that Garth would be vaulting the wall right now and would reach me in no time. So I kept going until I reached the edge of the crowd. I recognised a few of the faces, most from the time I’d babysat at Luke’s place. I pushed through them, trying to reach the place where I could see Connor’s reddish hair over the heads of others.

The crowd shifted and through the gap I could see it. The body. Oh, no, no! I shoved my way to the front, upsetting a few people. A hand grabbed at me but I jerked out of the way and tripped forward, my hands a few feet away from Larkin’s waist. I lifted my head and took it in. It was indeed Larkin’s body, and the same clothes he’d been wearing this morning covered him. I shivered as I felt the start of a sprinkling of rain hit me, the drops freezing. Larkin’s eyes were closed but it wasn’t sleep that kept them that way. He was pale, too pale considering his tanned skin, and he had a greyish tint. No, that wasn’t right. I’d been forced to look at thousands of images of dead bodies, photos taken minutes after death, others that were an hour after death and ones that had been left for much longer. This body looked like it had been decomposing for at least a day.

Strong and hard, warm arms slid under my armpits and lifted me to my feet. I couldn’t take my eyes off the body. All I could feel was the pain of my lungs being squeezed by my rib cage. It felt like a sharp bone jutted into them each time I breathed in.

“It’s not Larkin,” I said torpidly, glancing back at Luke’s furious face. He wrapped an arm around my waist and dragged me back out of the crowd. Garth appeared in front of me.