"No!" Natasha's scream pierced through the night, sounding over the chaos around her. She fell forward, her legs giving out underneath her, her dagger and her mother's jewelry chest fell from her hands as she watched the hooded figure withdraw its sword from Penelope's chest, the metal dripping with blood in the moonlight. On her hands and knees, Natasha watched the shock on Penelope's face twist into pain as her hands clamped over the wound in her chest and then smooth into calm as she fell to the ground, her body stilling.
"No, please," Natasha cried, crawling across the dirt-covered street towards the girl's fallen body, despite the Guard, who had pulled his hood back to reveal his face, still standing behind her, blood-stained sword drawn high.
"Natasha!" Natasha felt John's hand clamp around her upper arm and yank her from the ground, spinning her body towards him. "Natasha we have to go!"
"No, let me go! I have to save her!" Natasha pushed at his chest with all the strength she had left, causing him to stumble backwards and release her. As she turned back towards Penelope's body, John caught her again, this time closing both arms around her waist and forcing her backwards.
"Natasha, she's dead!" He yelled as he wrenched her to the side, sending her stumbling backwards as, in the same fluid movement, he pulled a spare dagger from his boot and threw it deftly through the air, the blade lodging itself in Liam's upper chest. Natasha watched him, stunned into stillness as the words echoed in her ears, as John turned to her, his chest heaving with effort.
"You can't save her, Natasha. She's dead," he exhaled, his voice softer as he looked at her. "And we have to go before the other's show up." He bent to pick up the box and dagger that Natasha had dropped, holding them out to her. She stared down at the objects for a long beat before she reached out slowly, her hands shaking as she took hold of the items again.
"Come on." John held his hand out and Natasha tucked her dagger back into her boot and then took his hand, letting his calloused hand close around hers before he started pulling her away from Penelope's body and Liam, who had only been momentarily stunned and slowed by the dagger lodged in his shoulder, and was now advancing towards them.
Natasha gave in and forced herself to look away from Penelope and keep pace with John, who had broken into a run as they weaved in and out of the narrow streets. Even though it was the first time he had been in her village, he moved through the alleys with ease, pulling Natasha in the direction from which they had come without any directions for Natasha. They came across no more Guards in the village itself, but as they started to ascend the hill towards the cliffs, Natasha looked over her shoulder and saw a small mass of black following them in the night. She couldn't tell how many of them there were, their movement together looked like a shadow as they too began to climb the hill Natasha and John had nearly topped.
"Wait," she pulled hard at John's arm, freeing her hand from his, as something she hadn't seen coming into the village caught her eye.
"Natasha, we don't have time," John said urgently, reaching out for her hand again, but she stepped away from him, looking at the mounds of dirt that piled up in one of the pastures at the edge of the village where one family had raised a small amount of livestock, which hadn't been there when Natasha left her home.
"John, is that..." her voice trailed off, the thought weighing so heavy on her tongue that she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence. John came to stand beside her, following her gaze towards what she knew were the mass graves of all the people who had lost their lives because of her.
"Come on," John said softly, and reached down to take her hand. Natasha let him, feeling him pull her gently until she finally turned back to him and let him pull her to the crest of the hill. She couldn't help looking back once more at the graves, and at the mass of people following them who had dug those graves. Natasha's pause at given them a chance to draw closer to them, but John pulled her harder, trying to regain the distance between them.
YOU ARE READING
The Nightingale
Adventure[Completed] [Editing/Re-Writing] [10/9/19] For hundreds of years Natasha and the rest of her village have been prisoners within their own town, their own homes, as a punishment for what she believes was a failed revolution attempt against their unju...
