Man Hunt

Chapter Eleven - A Bloodbath

As he says this, he drives his leg into the back of Eve’s knee and she collapses to the ground. He then pulls her hair, making sure she is tightly in his grasp and unable to move. As he pulls at her, she cries out in pain and recommences sobbing.

‘’Stop it!’’ I roar again, ‘’Niamh look what he’s doing! He’s torturing her!’’

‘’Is that any different from what you did to our friend?’’ she retorts.

I cannot speak. In a way, she is right. I feel a lump form in my throat.

‘’He wasn’t your friend, you let us take him,’’ says Aaron angrily, ‘’if you really cared anything for him, you’d have chased after us like we’ve done now.’’

Niamh doesn’t respond, instead she looks to Alex for backup. He says nothing; neither do anything of the others. I quickly glance at each member of the red team. Although Alex looks truly deranged and Niamh seems to be ready to agree with anything he says, the others jst seem to be frightened.

‘’Please...’’ sobs Eve, properly crying now.

‘’Let her go,’’ I plead silently, my voice barely a whisper.

‘’Stop this right now,’’ orders Aaron.

Alex smiles maniacally. Eve continues to sob, she has begun shaking now.

‘’You know what’s perfect about all this?’’ begins Alex with an evil grin, everyone remains silent, ‘’I can demand whatever I want from you, and you have to give it to me.’’

We say nothing, his smile stretches even wider across his face.

‘’Or else...’’ he smirks, ‘’I kill her!’’

She gulps and he holds the blade of his dagger to her throat.

‘’So firstly, hand over your weapons,’’ he demands.

We don’t move for a second. He’ll kill Eve either way, that I am sure of. If we give over our weapons, they will just charge us once they kill Eve and they will win. If we don’t hand over our weapons, Alex will probably torture Eve in front of us.

‘’Don’t do it!’’ orders Eve, Alex rips her hair upwards and she roars in agony.

‘’Shut up, you stupid bitch!’’ he screams angrily at her, then he turns to us, ‘’hand them over.’’

Surprisingly, Aaron steps forwards and holds his weapon out to Alex. Alex takes a step back with Eve.

‘’Hold on! That’s far enough,’’ he explains, ‘’slowly bend down and place the dagger on the ground, then back up.’’

Very calmly, Aaron does this. He begins to crouch towards the ground and we all stare at him in complete shock. Surely he doesn’t agree with this. Surely he has some form of plan. He couldn’t think that this is going to end well.

‘’That’s right,’’ begins Alex, taking his eyes off Aaron and turning to us, ‘’follow your leader, he knows what he’s doing. He knows who’s boss-‘’

Before Alex can finish, Aaron dives forwards and knocks into both Eve and Alex. The three of them fall to the floor in a tangle of arms and legs and the world seems to slow down momentarily.

Aaron is first to his feet, and he springs towards the closest member of the blue team. He grabs the boy and wraps him in a headlock. The boy squirms, however Aaron overpowers him quite easily. Eve is next to her feet and although Alex cannot grab her, Niamh does.

‘’Let her go,’’ orders Aaron, tightening his grip on the boy who is now panting heavily, ‘’or I kill him.’’

‘’Do it,’’ teases Alex, ‘’you don’t have the balls.’’

‘’I swear to God I’ll do it!’’ snaps Aaron in response, ‘’don’t push me.’’

Eve screams again as Niamh yanks her quite roughly by the hair. Niamh presses the blade of her dagger to Eve’s throat. Alex stands up and joins her side. Aaron slowly backs away so he is closer to us than them.

‘’Touch him and she dies,’’ explains Niamh completely casually, as if this is nothing out of the ordinary.

‘’Niamh,’’ I gasp.

‘’Alice,’’ she teases, ‘’just shut your mouth, will you?’’

Again, I find myself wincing. I can’t believe how much she has changed in such a short space of time. Being with Alex is changing her completely. She is as twisted and sick as he is.

I turn to Aaron.

‘’Give us Eve and we’ll give you him,’’ he offers.

‘’As if,’’ laughs Alex – like Niamh, quite nonchalantly. It is supposed to be a scoff, but it sounds more like a chuckle.

I glance around the small clearing. Myself, Kate and the mute are standing behind Aaron. The boy in Aaron’s vice-like grip is quivering; he looks on the verge of tears. Niamh and Alex stand with Eve, they truly look demented. The girl from the red team watches silently in fear.

‘’Wait,’’ mutters Kate beside me, ‘’wasn’t there another girl with them?’’

As she says this, it dawns on me that there was. However before I can bring it to Aaron’s attention, I catch Niamh’s grin. Next there is a yelp followed by a thump and I turn to my right. Beside Kate is the girl from the red team. She stands above our team’s mute with a small rock in her hand. He is unconscious on the floor.

What happens next seems to happen in the blink of an eye yet there is so much to take in. Niamh shrieks cruelly, and tears the dagger in her hand across Eve’s throat. She attempts to scream, but chokes on blood which spits from her mouth as more spurts from her throat. She goes limp almost instantly and slumps to the floor.

Next, Aaron grabs the boy from the red team and in one quick motion, jerks his head – snapping his neck with a sickening crunch. He then tosses the boy to the floor and dives towards the girl that smashed our mute in the head with the rock.

He grabs her around the throat and pulls her to his chest, so she is facing her team members. Neither Alex, Niamh nor the other girl move. They simply watch Aaron – as we do.

‘’Hand over your weapons, or I kill her,’’ he demands with heavy breaths.

‘’Do what you want with her,’’ mutters Alex and then he turns. Niamh quickly checks the letter displayed on Eve’s bracelet and she follows Alex and the other girl from the clearing.

I glance around as the sun begins to rise, lighting up my surrounding a little bit better. In the clearing are myself, Kate, Aaron and the girl from the red team. Our mute’s unconscious body is lying on the floor next to the corpses of Eve and the red team’s unnamed boy.

Kate rushes to the aid of our mute and begins frantically shaking him. I watch for a few seconds, then I turn to Aaron.

‘’Don’t torture her,’’ I plead, ‘’please just make it quick.’’

‘’No!’’ begins the girl, ‘’you can’t do this, please! I-‘’

Before she can finish her sentence, Aaron rams the blade of his dagger into the nape of her neck and she instantly slumps forwards in his grasp. He slowly lowers her to the floor and then he turns to me. I maintain eye-contact momentarily, then tears cloud my vision and I begin to sob.