Title: The Longest Night
Author: Ascian
Summary: When Cecilia and Beast are kidnapped, it is up to Gambit and Marrow to save them.
Date Published: 1/2/2007
Audience/Rating: T
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Cecilia Reyes raced down the cramped, winding lane, soaked to the bone. It was difficult to hear her pursuers over the storm, winds howling down on her, pressing her skin flat against the bones of her face. It was even harder to see, to make out obstacles, the driving rain stinging her eyes and thickening the looming darkness surrounding her. She grunted in pain as the bio-shield surrounding her bare knee connected with an old wooden crate someone had left leaning against a doorstep, the narrow lengths of wood breaking loudly as they ricocheted off her leg and hit the cobblestone street behind her. Clenching her teeth against the imagined sensation of torn flesh, Cecilia slammed the palm of her hand against the plane of her thigh, and pushed herself to keep moving.
Up ahead, she could see light streaming from a window slit, bars over the glass. Rainwater poured over the eaves of the roof just above the tiny golden glow, and she steered clear of the falling water. She'd run under more than one of those, all by accident, and the shockingly cold onslaught of water had almost dropped her to her knees each and every time.
As she passed the window, the sound of laughter from within made her pause. Heart thundering in her ears, eyes and body aching, she took a numb step forward and found herself staring into a kitchen. Her gaze fell on the back of a little girl's head. She was giggling and pointing at the television, and the sounds of Donald Duck huffily spouting Chinese filled Cecilia's ears. There were other voices, a woman's shrill call to her husband, and the scraping back of a chair followed by irritated muttering.
It was the man's voice that brought her back, and she jumped away from the window, breath rattling in her throat. How long had she been standing there? She turned, and her foot connected with glass. Cecilia knelt, and with the faint light emanating from the window she was able to find the broken stem of a beer bottle she had kicked with her tennis shoe. She clutched the smooth length of glass in her right fist, comforted by the feel of a weapon in her hands, something she could use against the men if they caught up with her.
And they had, she realized, ears picking up the distinct echoing splash and slap of shoes on pavement. She turned and ran, leaving the little light of the kitchen and moving into blind darkness. Here, she could not see at all, and the lane narrowed dangerously. Narrowed even more, the walls closing around her until, shockingly, there was no where left to run. She had come to a dead end.
There were doors-she banged on them with her fists, kicking with her feet. Not one of them opened. The roof then, but the walls were slick, and she was too tired. She kept losing her grip, and on the third desperate attempt, she fell just too hard. Sprawled on the ground, collected rain from the eaves pouring down on her head, her body finally gave out. Not even her arms would work.
"Shit," she muttered, just as the first beam of a flashlight appeared not more than ten feet away.
