Hollace Graydem

Chapter 1 - Coll and Aedar

Aedar bursts into the room, his dark brown eyes wide with shock. He's staring at the empty space beside me on my rusty steel-frame bed, but his vacant gaze is shifting around the room; finally settling on me. Aedar: smiles, straightens up, raises his index finger, and parts his lips all as if to explain his sudden intrusion, before collapsing on the floor in a heap. I rush over to his thin frame...Too thin even for him. I go to check his pulse, but end up seeing if I can put my hand around his wrist and still touch my little finger with my thumb. I can. What has she been doing to him?

  Down the corridor I can see Coll skidding around the corner clearly running too fast, because he slams into the wall with such force he disappears into it. The scene is so comical and my joy at seeing them both (since god knows when) so immense that I nearly smile. Nearly. Coll soon emerges stumbling over the plaster, before running again at full pelt bellowing "Aedar!" over and over again.

  I yell back "Coll. He's-". Coll stops, just like that. So of course he tumbles head over heels, landing painfully on his rear-end. It's too much for me and I start to giggle. But the jokes on me as I realize why Coll was running quit so fast. Inhumanly fast. My scream echoes down the corridor, and Miss Carnie smiles.

  Coll's head spins around. He shouts at me still glaring at the huge muscular figure "Hollace. Get yer self and Aedar out of 'ere now."

  "But-"

"NOW!" Coll's head snaps back, so fast I'm surprised he does not feel dizzy, to beg at me with his piercing blue eyes. That's all she needs. Miss Carnie lunges forward, eyes red and face contorted in rage. The movement makes her muscles ripple.

  I scream again, shutting my eyes tight 'cause this is the end.

  The next thing I know someone is tugging at my arm, desperately trying to make my get up. I hear a gun shot. I get up. Aedar's unconscious body is slung over Coll's shoulder, he grabs my hand and we run.

  We run and run down corridor after corridor, diving into dormitories and dashing out again when the coast seems clear. All the time Miss Carnie is thundering after us, no matter how fast we run she always seems to be just behind us. Occasionally she will fire at us, and every time she does I think just how frighteningly accurate her aim is as the bullet pings of a wall. Every inch of me aches like hell, but I don't dare slow down. Slowing down would mean slowing down Coll and in turn Aedar. That I could never live with, so I suppose death would then be a blessing. But I want us to live. My breath comes out in ragged gasps, the pounding of my heart beats throughout my entire body.

  The cacophony created by the chase brings out many of the more curios orphans into the narrow corridors, making it even harder to run. After a while, however, I realize that we aren't slowing down, but speeding up. Our fellow peers are pushing us forward, whispering words of encouragement and wishing us good luck. The words do me good. I turn my head to look at Coll, who looks back at me. We have both benefitted from the kind words in our moment of peril.

  An enormous roar erupts from the monster behind us. Miss Carnie fumbles with her pistol, shaking it, smashing it against her hand. "Ha. What yoouse gonna do with that, huh?" screams Coll.

  In all honesty I'd rather she'd taken it as a rhetorical question. Like an Olympic javelin thrower she hurls the Beretta 92FS at us. We duck. It misses. I feel exuberant, I've never felt like this . Not in this hellhole anyway. Hollace Graydem once again avoiding-...

  Everything caves in upon us, the ceiling, the walls, and the floor gives way. Carnie had hit one of the building supports. The air smacks my face, tossing my hair into it obscuring my vision. I can't see. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing, I squeeze Coll's hand as we fall. He squeezes back.