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Quote of the Chapter:
“Love is like war: easy to begin but hard to end.”
~Unknown
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Liberation of a Demon
Blaze
I stared at Bailey for a few seconds, taking in the annoying fact that she was here and alive. Deciding that I might as well piss her off, I said, “Shouldn’t you be buried under tons and tons of rock… dead? With your beloved Hamilton?”
She glowered murderously at me. “No. I didn’t fly with him that day.”
“What a shame…” I muttered. She slapped me good and hard across the face. I clenched my jaw to prevent myself from letting out a cry. Easier said than done but there was no way in hell I was letting her have the satisfaction of knowing she hurt me.
“Bailey, you said you could shed some light on whom she is,” Rald said impatiently.
“Yes, of course. So, Elizabeth,” Bailey snarled venomously, “would you like to tell them or would you like me?”
I stayed silent, giving her a bored stare.
“Just spit it out!” Rald ordered.
She grinned. “Her callsign is Blaze. She was a nugget for Captain Bartlett until he was shot down. She became temporary captain for two missions and after the fourth one, she was made captain. She is the reason we started to lose, why Yuktobania started to lose, why we had to go out of our way to make sure she died.”
“So she knocks on deaths door a lot?” Viktor asked for conformation.
“And then I run away, or in my case fly, as fast I can. He’s getting pissed,” I chirped.
“Shut up,” Bailey snapped, punching me on the side of my head. I had a very strong, sneaking suspicion that she was enjoying beating me up to an unhealthy level…
“Hang on… Blaze. Blaze was what the Razgriz always called their-” Otto began.
“Captain,” Viktor finished.
“You’re the captain?” Rald demanded seriously, looking at me.
With a cocky smirk, I said nonchalantly, “You caught me!”
Rald, for the first time, looked somewhat surprised. “I always did have good luck getting what I wanted. See, the reason I wanted to kidnap an Osean official was to find you, but what do you know? I hardly had to try.”
“Good luck getting information out of me. You probably chose one of the most stubborn people in Osea,” I told them.
“Is that so? And why do you say that?”
“I refused to let your guys shoot me down didn’t I?” I winked at him. “And they were aces against a nugget like me. That doesn’t say much for your pilots now does it? I think they are losing their touch.”
“Our air force is the mightiest in the world!” Rald barked. “You were lucky!”
“I don’t call it lucky being ambushed by thirty planes and shooting them all down and living to tell the tale. I call it skill. I’m not one to brag about my flying. In fact, I don’t like to talk about it at all, but in this case, I would love to rub it in your face that three planes that weren’t considered aces shot down thirty planes of the mighty Belkan Air Force because I know how much it pisses you off.”
He turned around, expressionless. I couldn’t see what he was doing but I could tell he was grabbing something. When he faced me, Rald was holding a taser…
Well hell…
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Pixy
Blaze had been up there for what seemed like an eternity. My first thought was that they had killed her but I pushed that thought out of my mind. They hadn’t gotten what they wanted from her yet. Henry was attempting to find a way out of his cell. I don’t know why he was so adamant to get to a person he had never met but I wasn’t complaining. At least I knew that he was on our side.
“Damn it!” Henry shouted, slamming something (again) into the door.
“No luck?” The question was more rhetorical than anything because I knew what the answer was going to be.
“No.” He sounded defeated but his voice was still edged with determination. I didn’t know this guy well but I admired his fortitude.
At that moment, a scream, although short and weak, reached my ears. It didn’t happen again and so I just figured I was going crazy. Henry didn’t say anything either, which just fueled that thought even more.
I was about to say something else when I heard another scream. This time, there was no mistaking it. It had definitely been a scream.
“Elizabeth!” Henry shouted anxiously. The screams became more frequent. Now both Henry and I were shouting at the top of our lungs for her, trying to get her to respond to us, but her screaming was so loud that I think she drowned us out.
During one of the brief moments she stopped screaming at the top of her lungs, Henry shouted as loudly as he could. She heard him and cried out his name.
After that, there was no more sound. What had happened to her? What had they been doing to her? I was almost too scared to know. Then the door banged open and footsteps were carefully going down the steps.
I heard whispering but I couldn’t make out what was being said.
“Blaze?!” Henry yelled fretfully.
“She can’t talk,” a masculine voice responded.
“What did you do to her, damn it?! Tell me!” I roared.
“They tasered her. I don’t know how she’s even still conscious. She’s not responding to anything though,” the guy replied, sounding almost angry at the thought.
“Who are you?” Henry demanded.
“I’m Henri,” he replied.
“Damn, two Henry’s… this is confusing,” I muttered.
“That’s what Elizabeth said. She’s mentioned you. You’re Rald’s son,” Henry mentioned as her door opened. I heard the bed creak as I assumed Elizabeth was being placed on it.
“Keep talking to her. See if you can get her to talk. I can’t stay down here or else they’ll get suspicious. Hey, new guy, your name is Pixy right?”
“Yeah…” I replied. There was no point in hiding it when everyone upstairs knew who I was. Perks of being a ‘traitor’ to Belka. Traitor my ass…
“How long?”
“How long what?”
“I know why you came to Anfang,” he said. “How long?”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I grumbled in annoyance.
Henri was silent before saying, “She is stalling and she is running out of time.”
Everything clicked. He had just said exactly what the last part of the coded message had said. He was the one that had sent it.
“When did I get here?” I questioned.
“Ten hours ago.”
“We have an hour or two to go. Do they know?”
“No.”
Henri started walking away and I heard the door at the top of the door slam shut.
“Elizabeth?” I prodded. My response was a pained groan.
“Pixy,” she murmured. “I’m okay…”
“Get some sleep. It’s not over. Hang in there. We have an hour to go,” I urged her.
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Blaze
I was still convulsing sporadically, still feeling like I was being electrocuted. My whole body was numb; I had such a headache I thought I was going to pass out. I was mad at myself for screaming. I had sworn to myself I wasn’t going to, and then what do I do? I scream.
“Elizabeth?” Pixy’s voice floated from somewhere. I wasn’t quite sure where.
“Pixy,” I murmured. “I’m okay…”
“Get some sleep. It’s not over. Hang in there. We have an hour to go,” He encouraged. I nodded, although I knew he couldn’t see me.
“Elizabeth, what happened?” Henry asked gently.
“They tasered me… multiple times… for long periods… they did it just long enough that it wouldn’t knock me out… I’m going to sleep. I can barely keep my eyes open.”
I closed my eyes and was out like a light within seconds.
I was awoken what seemed like minutes later.
“It’s been over an hour, Elizabeth. They should be here any minute,” Henri whispered softly into my ear. Surprisingly, a lot of strength had returned to me and I was able to get up on my own. Henri put my handcuffs on and slipped something into my hand. The object was small and cold.
It was a key.
“My father will be alone with you. You’re entering his area of expertise now. Get the cuffs lose immediately. The room is sound proof so no one will hear if you two get in a tussle,” Henri informed in a hushed voice, talking so fast I could barely understand what he was saying. “There are knives, guns, tasers, and other things in that room you can use to your advantage. Be careful and I’ll come help you get out of there when your retrieval group is here.”
I nodded in response as we walked upstairs. “Henri, Pixy, I’ll be back!” I called out.
“No! Leave her alone!” Henry’s voice commanded. I heard something or someone slam against his door.
“I’ll be back, Henry. I promise,” I said. He didn’t listen as he repeated the process, with Pixy joining in. “Honestly you two, I’ll be back.”
Henri led me up the stairs and Pixy and Henry shouted my name out futilely. Two men came down the stairs as I was going up. I heard two doors open followed by two sickening thuds. No more sound came from Henry or Pixy. When I reached the top step, with the two men now behind me and Henri, I struggled, just to get those two men in front of me. I succeeded. I spat on them. One punched me in the stomach, knocking the wind out of me. Henri’s grip tightened on me as I doubled over in pain.
“Son of a…” I trailed off. As soon as I was able to stand upright, Henri led me to a set of stairs leading down. It was a separate part of the basement I guess, not accessible by the part Pixy, Henry, and I were being held in. We walked down and to a fireplace. Henri pushed in one of the eyes of the lions on the empty fireplace. The back of it slid open, revealing a secret room.
“Just like out of a horror book,” I muttered as Henri led me inside.
“Here she is, Father,” Henri announced, uncuffing one of my hands only so he could cuff me again so that the handcuffs were around the pole that was situated in the center of the room. The room itself was dark and dusty, but the weapons and instruments were shiny and well taken care of. This was going to be horrible. “I’m going upstairs.”
“All right son. Keep those men in line,” Rald ordered. His son nodded, gave one apologetic look at me, and left. I sighed huffily.
“So, Blaze, what should we start off with?”
I stayed silent as I shifted the key in my hand so that I was holding it with my right hand. Rald turned his back on me to look at a variety of weapons he had displayed on a table. I immediately started to try and unlock my handcuffs. The hole to unlock the left one was difficult to find but once I did, I had no trouble unlocking it. I shifted the key to my left hand quietly, avoiding making the handcuffs rattle against the pole, which happened to be metal… really cold metal. The room was stifling though so the cold actually felt good.
I put my hands in front of me so I could unlock my right hand. Rald was saying something to himself but I couldn’t understand a word being said. I unlocked the right handcuff and silently put them behind me. My heart pounded as I stood up silently, and without turning around, I backed up, grabbed a knife from one of the side tables, and went back to my pole. Rald had no idea I was even up. Just as I was about to make a snide remark, there was the sound of glass shattering upstairs, followed by lots and lots of frantic shouting, pounding footsteps, and gunfire. Rald’s head snapped up to look up, as if he could see through the ceiling.
“What the hell is going on up there?!” Rald demanded. “I’ll be back, Blaze. I have to see what’s going on up there and then I’ll come deal with you.”
“No. You’ll deal with me right now,” I declared, gripping my knife so tightly that my knuckles were white. He turned to face me and all the color in his face drowned out.
“What the-” he trailed off.
“I wasn’t lying when I said someone was helping me; I guess you trusted your son a little too much.”
“Henri… that bastard!” Rald roared. And that’s when he lunged at me.
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Henry
I groggily woke up to someone repeating my name.
“Henry?” Pixy asked.
“I’m up,” I groaned. “Is Elizabeth back yet?”
“No… do you know where they’ve taken her?”
“If they’ve resorted to physical torture, she’s in another basement in the house, in a secret room. I’ve had my fair share of being in that room. It’s not fun.”
“God I hope she’s okay…” Pixy mumbled. We fell into silence. There was not a sound to be heard. I used the time to try and remember anything or anyone from my past. The brunette woman with the kid kept flashing through my mind but I never could get a good, lasting image. One thing I was sure of though was that the kid was related to me.
The sound of glass shattering, boots pounding upstairs, frantic shouting, and rapid gunfire broke through the stillness.
“What’s going on?!” I inquired instantly.
“Looks like our rescue party is here,” Pixy said, slightly amused sounding. Now if they would only come down here.
The footsteps got louder and louder and I started shouting at the top of my lungs for them to get me out. It wasn’t long before someone opened the door and shone a flashlight directly at my face. I instantaneously covered my eyes, flinching from the pain the light caused.
“Who are you?” A guy demanded.
“My name’s… Henry… please, put that light out of my face. I can’t see with it like that,” I said. The soldier obeyed.
He put his hands on my shoulders and I flinched again; I had multiple bruises on my shoulders from where I had been hit repeatedly by the Belkans upstairs. But the soldier didn’t see my reaction. It was obvious there was only one thing on his mind.
“Where is she?”
“Where’s who?” I queried. The light had disoriented me severely and I was having trouble staying focused on any one thing in my mind.
“Blaze! Where is Blaze?!” the guy yelled.
“I don’t know a Blaze but I know an Elizabeth…” I offered weakly.
“That’s her real name. Blaze is her callsign. Now where is she?” he demanded again. Something was clicking inside my head. I recognized the name. I recognized something but I wasn’t sure what. A blonde girl suddenly appeared in my mind, grinning at me. On her hand was a sapphire engagement ring.
And that’s when everything suddenly came together in my head.
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Blaze
I dodged out of Rald’s way and he slammed into the pole, which unexpectedly made me giggle slightly before I sucker-punched him in the head as he was turning around, and that made me laugh even harder (I question my sanity sometimes). The laugh was short-lived when he shoved me up against the wall. I spat in his face and kicked him in the stomach, making him bend over. I used the opportunity to kick him in the head but he grabbed my foot in the nick of time. I slashed my knife at him but he caught my hand, let go of my leg, and pulled it from underneath me. My head slammed against the concrete floor with a nauseating thud, dazing me, but there was no way in hell I was giving up. There was no way in hell I was going to let him win this after everything. My foot connected with his fingers; he instantly let go and I scrambled up. Rald then proceeded to practically punch my eye and I gave a short yelp as I stumbled back, putting my hand over my already swelling eye. It became so swollen that I could barely see out of it. Great. So now I could only see out of my right eye.
He grabbed me from behind and held onto me. The knife dropped out of my hand as I struggled to get out of his tight embrace. My arms were pulled up against my chest; opening my hands (which had been curled into fists), I pushed down with all my strength. Miraculously, it worked but not for long. Rald was able to grab me again before I could even get away.
I screamed bloody-murder. His hand clapped over my open mouth. His pinky was attempting to shut my chin but it kept slipping and going into my mouth. Without thinking, I bit down.
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Henry
I shoved the soldier off of me and pushed past all of them. They all tried to grab me but I punched any of them who attempted. I ran up the stairs and into the light. I was instantly blinded but since I had been in this house so long, going from place to place, I kept running, knowing exactly where I was going. My hand reached the doorknob to the door that led to the second basement. I plunged into darkness and down the stairs. I stumbled on the third to last step and crashed to the floor. Even though pain shot up my hip because I had landed on it so hard, I pushed myself up and ran to the fireplace. I blindly searched for the right lion’s eye. It didn’t take long for me to find it. I pushed it in and ran into the room. Rald was in there, bandaging up his hand for some reason. There were small puddles of blood on the floor and my first thought went to Blaze. Rald turned to face me as I walked in. The sheer shock of seeing me was the reason he didn’t react immediately when I charged him and crashed him against the wall.
“Where is she?!” I shouted. “What did you do to her?!”
Rald grinned maliciously as he kicked me off. I had practically no strength from being imprisoned for so long and from malnutrition.
“She’s as good as gone,” Rald spat, kicking me in the ribs. I winced and tried to get up but he kicked me down before connecting his foot violently to my head. My vision swam before me. “You’re too la-”
He was cut off by Blaze barreling into him. She pinned him to the floor and punched him square in the face repeatedly. He somehow shoved her off of him. I watched dazedly as Blaze ran for a gun. Rald was behind her, something shiny in his hand.
“Watch out!” I cried out. She whirled around and her mouth dropped open as Rald stabbed her in the stomach. Blaze looked down in shock as she sank to her knees. She pulled out the knife, threw it on the floor, and collapsed into a ball on the floor. He knelt down next to her and whispered something in her ear, but I didn’t know what. Rald stood back up and had just strutted out of the room, the fireplace door closing, when I heard a shot fire. I looked at Blaze, who was deathly pale. Her hand was shaking but she had sent the bullet into his leg, immobilizing it. He looked at her for a brief moment before the door blocked him from us.
“Blaze!” I croaked, forcing myself up so I could crawl to her. She didn’t answer. “BLAZE!”
The crawl was slow and agonizing but I still reached her. I gently turned her over and cringed at how much blood she had lost. She couldn’t be alive, but when I put my ear over her heart, it was still beating; it was weak, but still beating. Her face was bruised in multiple places, and her left eye was swollen shut.
I took off my jacket and wrapped it around her torso. I lifted her up, my anger and worry giving me the adrenaline to even stand up with her my arms. I headed over to the fireplace in the room, identical to the one on the other side. I pushed in the eye of the lion with my nose and was about to walk out when the smoke poured in.
Rald had set fire to the building. The smoke made its way to my nostrils and I immediately started coughing. However, I was only thinking that Blaze couldn’t take the smoke in her current condition. I barreled through the ablaze fireplace and looked down at my jeans. Somehow, they weren’t on fire. I didn’t give myself time to celebrate my amazingly good luck (seeing as how I hadn’t had much lately). Instead, I mustered all of my remaining strength and carried Blaze up the stairs. When I entered the hall, I barely had time to duck out of the way before a fiery beam fell straight for our heads. I covered Blaze’s body with my own even though I knew it wouldn’t do much. The beam had blocked my path. Both ends of the hallway were being obstructed by malignant infernos. I shouted for help in between my coughs that the smoke was causing.
“Hello?!” A voice shouted; it was muffled due to the crashing of wood in the rooms surrounding us and the crackling of timber.
“Over here! We’re trapped!” I yelled. I heard more crashing but it sounded like footsteps. A soldier appeared, wearing fire protection gear. There were two other guys with him, donning the same gear. They moved the beam that had blocked my path and lifted me up. When they saw Blaze, bloody and beaten, and me struggling to keep her close to me, they became frantic. One guy lifted her up gingerly while one helped me stumble down the hallway. The third guy led the way, pushing debris out of our way and radioing to someone that a helicopter was needed immediately, that Blaze was in critical condition and was barely alive.
The house was collapsing all around us as we made our way through. The soldier had put a cloth of my mouth to slow down my inhalation of smoke. The heat was unbearable and the bright, maliciously flickering flames were murder on my darkness-accustomed eyes.
I was relieved of most of my burdens when we reached the coolness of outside. I took in a deep breath of clean air, of fresh air. It had been my first in a long time.
My thoughts instantly went to Blaze; my eyes found her being carried to a stretcher.
That’s when the house exploded, shedding shards of glass and woods in all directions. Someone pushed me towards one of the two ambulances. I stood inside the back as I watched the debris fall.
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Blaze
I was vaguely aware that something had just blown up. I was mostly aware of what was going on around me. There were panicked shouts and a sudden heat wave that lasted briefly right after the ear-shattering explosion. I was placed on something, a stretcher I think. As I was being loaded, a voice floated in my head: “Be careful, my Blazing Star.”
I meant to say his name out in a steady voice but apparently getting stabbed hinders your body to do a lot of things. Instead, my voice came out in a whisper as I said, “Chopper.”
Then I blacked out.
The next time I became conscious, although I wasn’t able to open either of my eyes, I heard voices. They were distant and I could barely make out what they were saying: “Mass amount of blood loss… on oxygen… stab wound… holding on…”
Whatever or whoever they were talking about sounded like they were in trouble. I wasn’t sure where I was. In fact, I didn’t even care. All I cared about was what had happened to Henry.
I tried to say his name but it came out as a whimper much to my annoyance. That only made me more determined to fight back whatever was preventing my body from doing what I wanted it to do.
“She’s awake I think,” a voice said.
I forced my eyes, or eye, open. My left one refused to cooperate with me. The bright lights hurt my right one, making me squint.
“Henry…” I forced myself to murmur.
“What did she just say?” a guy asked.
“I don’t know. Captain Blaze, can you hear us? Can you lift your thumb to let us know if you can hear us?” another guy inquired. I lifted my thumb; it was painful but I did it. His voice was muffled but I heard him say: “Tell Genette she’s conscious.”
Genette…
He was the last thought in my mind before I couldn’t stay awake any longer.
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Henry
The house was gone, blown up into a million pieces. I was being bandaged up because I had a few minor burns and bruises that were so black and dark that the paramedic thought they were dirt. It was that bad apparently. Once he was done, he left, leaving me to my thoughts on the edge of the paramedic’s truck. I was worried sick about Blaze. She had lost so much blood there was no possible way she could still be alive. But Blaze had always been a fighter; I knew that from experience.
I looked up to watch the proceedings. Armored vehicles were all over the place; Belkans were being loaded into them. There were about fifty Osean soldiers searching for a missing Belkan. It was Bailey. I wanted nothing more than to see her ass thrown in jail. She was one of the reasons why Blaze was being flown to a hospital. I saw something out of the corner of my eye and turned around, just in time to see a shadow flit back into the forest. Instinct took over, and without looking back, I dashed into the forest. The person was fleet-footed, but I was faster, mainly because they had given me painkillers so I practically felt nothing. Thunderous footsteps were behind me but I paid them no heed. I focused on the person. They stumbled and out of nowhere, the knowledge to drop my shoulder came to me. I listened and I literally knocked the person two feet away. The impact stunned them, giving me the opportunity to pin them to the ground.
It was Bailey.
“Get off of me!” She screamed. There were shouts behind me as I was surrounded by a group of soldiers. One pulled me off of Bailey as others quickly grabbed her. She fought back viciously, punching and kicking.
“Be quiet!” A man hissed. He seemed to be the leader of the group.
“You bloody traitor! How dare you help her! You filthy bastard!” Bailey screeched.
“I’m telling you to shut up, bitch,” the guy snapped. His sudden use of profanity shut her up, more from shock than anything else. The soldiers restraining her took the opportunity to subdue her completely and they led her away.
I braced myself against a tree to catch my breath. The running was catching up to me.
“Are you okay, sir?” A man asked. I looked up. A single soldier was standing there, the one who had yelled at Bailey. His helmet was off so instead of just seeing a pair of eyes like I did with the rest of the battalion, I could actually see what he looked like. He had green eyes and hair that looked blonde in the moonlight. I think he was a dark blonde or a light brunette.
“You’re a Belkan,” I stated simply, standing up to my full height. I was only an inch taller than him but I still wanted to show him I had a height advantage over him. It was one of the few things I had going for me seeing as how I was so malnourished he could probably snap me in half as if I were a twig.
“Yes, but before you punch my… lights out? I believe that is the correct term. Before you punch my lights out, let me explain.” I stared at him, waiting. “My name is Jens Geller. Yes, I am Belkan, but I work for the Oseans right now. Blaze was able to send a message to President Harling; I was the one who cracked the code. I am here so Blaze would have a familiar face… I thought she would be conscious though…” Geller said sadly. “She helped me by showing and telling me the truth of what my country was doing so in turn, I am helping her.”
“What happened to Rald’s son?”
“He is being held separate from the prisoners. He is claiming he is the one that sent the coded message to us upon Blaze’s request and he is being very adamant about it. We have to wait until Blaze wakes up for her to confirm this.”
“She makes the most interesting friends,” I muttered.
Geller chuckled a little. “That she does. Now let us get you back to the vehicle. The chopper is here that is going to take you to the hospital.”
He urged me forward and I figured if Blaze trusted him, so could I.
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Hope y’all enjoyed! I’m just going to knock this story out so updates will be quick :) please review! I liked having seven reviews for the last chapter.