Chapter One
"Run Like the Wind"
Damascus
Summers in Damascus were anything but forgiving and pleasant, but the people seemed to adapt to it just as they adapted to everything else. Evangeline Harper, a witty in the mind and clumsy in the actions type of girl, stepped onto her balcony and looked around. The young woman pushed her long and dark, curly hair back out of her face and, with a chin in her palm, began to view the men and women down below that walked across the cobblestoned streets. This girl was the typical noblewoman living in Damascus. She learned to cook each day and clean and she never seemed to think twice about it. Evangeline Harper never questioned what was beyond the city walls because it simply didn't interest her.
Evangeline knew that a war was raging outside of the sandy colored walls and she was content in having nothing to do with the clashing of swords and the sound of explosions. She liked her charmed little life even though she was confined to her district of Damascus. She had grown up in the city for most of her life, moving from England only when she was two years of age. To her, all that meant was an explanation for her lilting accent and fair complexion. Other than that, home was home and home was a place never meant to be left simply because she was a woman and was not supposed to care. And, as mentioned, she was perfectly happy in her charmed little world of potted flowers and benevolent people.
While studying the streets, Evangeline was unsurprised, but happy nonetheless, to see her good friend, her best friend, Azusa, walking up to her front door. The girl smiled and leaned over the balcony, her long hair draping over the side as she got her companion's attention and told her to meet her up in her room. Azusa smiled, her darker skin shining beautifully in the light of the sun as it began its descent and her straight black hair, silky and smooth beneath the Syrian girl's light blue and pink silks. As she entered, muffled voices and laughter ensued in Evangeline's home as her family welcomed the familiar face and ushered her up into the home, probably offering food and drink to the girl and talking her ear off.
Eventually, Azusa made it up into the room and onto the balcony of her friend and they embraced briefly before Azusa took off her face covers and smiled, saying, "It is good to see you again, Eva." The Englishwoman smiled and nodded, motioning for the friend to have a seat on her bed or in a chair. The young lady accepted and Evangeline found a place beside her somewhere. She smiled even harder and then embraced her friend once again. Azusa giggled at Evangeline's giddiness and they sat back to engage in conversation.
Before they could do anything, though, the city bells stated to chime loudly and Azusa's eyes went wide. Evangeline's breath hitched and she looked out of the doors to her balcony, wondering if it was wise to shut them. Seeing the guard across the road on the rooftop made her think otherwise. I am safe here. We are safe here, she thought to herself. The guards are good at what they do.
Evangeline told this to her worried friend, though she was unsure if either of them actually believed the words. Suddenly, there was shouting outside, and Azusa and Evangeline began to worry. Evangeline stood up to close the doors when a flash of white whipped by and the guard started to shout. He was silenced only moments later by a stab to the neck from a man dressed in all white with a red sash hanging from his waist. Evangeline gasped and started to sob and choke. Azusa also started to shake and cry as they hurried down the steps to Evangeline's parents.
"Mama! Papa!" The bells continued to chime unevenly and frantically and shouts could be heard from outside of their home. Evangeline ran into her father's arms and her mother began to console Azusa. "What is happening out there? Who is that man?" Her father stuttered in his motions and turned to face his daughter.
"What man? Who are you talking about?" Evangeline's father, a large, but tall man, turned on his heel and looked at his daughter, who was frantic and scared. "Evangeline Marie, tell me now what man you saw and where!" he demanded and Evangeline took a breath. She continued to describe the man in white on the building across from them. "The phantom of Damascus has returned, I see," he concluded, fear lacing his words slightly. "I hope everyone is alright. Evangeline looked at her father, hoping that he would continue talking and answer her unasked questions. He didn't, so she pressed on herself.
"The phantom? Who is the phantom, papa? Why is he here and hurting people?" Her father told her not to worry herself with such things and her mother scolded her for asking so many questions. It was quite obvious that everyone in the lavishly decorated home was concerned to some degree.
"I am going out to look for your father, Azusa. Perhaps this visit will commence on another day." Azusa nodded and Evangeline handed her head cover. Placing her own over her head, she started to walk with the two out the door. "Evangeline, stay here."
"Papa, I'm a quick runner. If something happens," she said lowly, "I will find help. I'm not just going to allow my friend to go home without some idea that things will be alright." The young lady's father hesitated a moment and then consented. Large crowds had developed at every street corner as people began to chatter and scream about what had happened. Apparently, news of whoever had been killed or at least attacked had not reached the area just yet. Guards' bodies laid across the ground as well, which caused even more people to gather in clusters. Every place that the trio looked had become a mob of different colored silks and cloths as everyone leaned in and wondered who would do such a thing to harm someone.
Evangeline and Azusa walked arm in arm behind her father, eyes darting from rooftop to rooftop in fear that something would happen. To their relief, they saw nothing, but when the returned their gaze back to ground level, they were in a crowd of people and Evangeline's father was nowhere to be seen. Evangeline grabbed her head and spun in a full three-hundred and sixty degrees trying to locate the man who she should have been staying by. Why was I so foolish? Wouldn't a common and sane person know that it was stupid to look for danger at the source? We would be fine if I had kept my eyes where they were supposed to be! She scolded herself over and over, but she knew that that would not solve anything, so she began to walk the streets inbetween the different colored buildings and through the crowds of people.
Suddenly, Azusa's breath started to speed up and she tugged Evangeline's arm. "Eva… Look!" She whispered frantically, her eyes and voice full of fear. Evangeline's gaze slowly trailed up the building until she too was cowering in fear of the man. The phantom had returned and was once again in close proximity to the two young ladies. They gazed upon the man until he started to, or at least they were very sure that he started to, stare back. The hood masked most of his features, but sure enough he had noticed them noticing him and he wasn't happy about it in the slightest. He ran to the other side of the building and Azusa began to panic. "He saw us! He saw us, Eva! What do we do?" Evangeline was trying to think, but Azusa's panicked shrieks were correct. What were they going to do? Surely, he'd kill them if they ventured away from the crowd and venturing from the crowd seemed to be the only way to find Evangeline's father.
But, unfortunately enough for the lost duo, a crowd didn't seem to stop the mysterious hooded figure, as when no one else seemed to be paying attention, Evangeline was yanked from Azusa's firm grasp and dragged down a side-street. The girl was pulled into an arm in arm walking situation that she couldn't seem to break free of. Her heart almost stopped when she say who she was arm in arm with, however. The phantom began to speak to her, his voice rough and menacing as she expected it to be, "I will not hurt you, but here is how it is going to work: you are going to walk with me until the bells stop tolling or we reach the city gate, whichever comes first. You noticed me, therefore you are going to help me keep suspicion down as I leave and ensure that no one else notices me. Do not be obvious and act natural, like I am your husband or something." How could Evangeline act naturally? She was in the arms of a killer. Arms too strong to escape from, too. She glanced down at them and noticed that his ring finger was missing on the left one and a small blade was protruding in its place. Was her life going to be ended by that blade just as every other guard had been earlier? Before they even made it back onto the streets, Evangeline began to cry, the sobs wracking her body as she walked with her captor. "Be quiet."
Evangeline tried her best to maintain her sobs in fear that, if she didn't, he would go back on his word that he would not bring harm to her. All that could be heard of the girl were the occasional deep breath and some sniffles. With one hand, she wiped her eyes free of newly welling tears and tried to get the ordeal over with. For a moment, she got it into her head that she could catch this man by surprise. She yanked her arm and prepared to run, but was yanked back sharply. People became a little suspicious of the supposed couple and some even began to stare. Evangeline had no clue that nothing surprised this man anymore. He expected simply everything. "Please don't hurt me," she managed to whisper and the man simply grunted.
Then he spoke, "I already promised that I wouldn't. You are causing more trouble for yourself than for me, so I'd suggest that you do not try and leave again." Evangeline nodded and closed her light-brown eyes, taking a deep breath to calm herself down and tripping in the process. The man growled and roughly tugged her back up, most likely bruising her arm. "Keep your footing, woman." His voice was low and deep and threatening, but Evangeline tried her best to ignore the tone. She didn't want to have another freak out festival and earn a knife plunged into her neck.
The man and his captive continued to walk towards the city gates and Evangeline grew more and more hopeful that she'd never see this man again. Just before they reached the gates, however, the bells stopped banging and a voice could be heard screaming, "He's right there! The man in white!" It was Azusa. Azusa was screaming at the top of her lungs and a bunch of angry guards started to surround the phantom of Damascus and his hostage.
"Die, you infidel traitor! Kill him and do not spare his conspirator!" Evangeline's heart dropped to her stomach as two other guards grabbed Azusa and pulled her screaming and flailing body away to wherever it was that they would take the phantom and her next. The phantom quickly dragged Evangeline past the guards, the sound of his sword parrying the attacking swipes of the enemy blade. Without warning, when they turned a corner, the phantom threw her into a cart of hay and continued to run off, leading the attackers elsewhere. Evangeline popped up out of the cart moments later and began to run back the way that she came, happy to be out of the man's grasp, but also scared now that he had left her to get back on her own now that she was wanted to. What were you expecting, stupid?
Halfway back to her home, she realized that it had to be at least eleven o'clock. That was also when she bumped into a man. She apologized quietly and was about to continue walking away when, he grabbed her dress and stared through the silks at her face, scrutinizing every detail of fear in her sparkling eyes. Just as she thought that the old scraggly man would let her leave unharmed and not bothered any more than she already was, he yelled, "Guards! The conspirator! I have her!" The guards turned and started to run over, drawing their swords in the process. It was dark. Evangeline hated the dark. Evangeline was going to die in the dark.
"Are you sure, old man, that this measly woman is the conspirator?" One of the guards asked, skeptically, as if he didn't believe the man. The other, however, was ready to stab her at any minute as if the older male's word was better law than that of the king himself. "How can you tell?" Evangeline tried to speak, but they silenced her for daring to look a man in the eyes, much less speak out of turn to one. She immediately bowed her frantic thoughts to face the ground as she contemplated what to do and where to go and how to get there. She couldn't go home. That would only cause unnecessary trouble for her family and with Azusa locked up somewhere and her father unable to find them; they didn't need any more trouble. This was all her fault, her problem, her weight in her soul to deal with for the rest of her life. She'd never forgive herself if Azusa was killed. She could never live if an ill fate was brought to her best friend, the one girl in all of Damascus who could take the role of the sister that Evangeline never had.
"I would remember skin that light if I saw it somewhere, wouldn't you?" The old man barked at the guards and they scowled. Evangeline, afraid that she wouldn't have a chance in prison, stomped on the man's foot and jammed her elbow into his stomach, taking off back towards the main gate and the stables, the guards doubling in number and having no trouble catching up to her. Evangeline mounted her father's black stallion as quickly as she could muster, narrowly evading the guards that had trailed her so closely, and rode off into the countryside of the kingdom, trying to get as far from Damascus as possible. Her goal was to escape to another city before the false news of her did. And in the night, Evangeline Harper rode to the place that she had never wondered about before. Evangeline Harper was going to Acre.
Disclaimer: I do not own Assassin's Creed or any of the Characters and events that occurred within the games. I only own Evangeline Harper, Azusa Kanaan, the Harper Family, and my side story line (the idea of this story) that happens on the sides of the main game plot. Everything not named under me here belongs to Ubisoft and the creators of such a wonderful game.
Well, people! That was the first chapter of my first Assassin's Creed Fanfic, The Experiment, and I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to be here! I hope you all enjoyed and I'll be back with more very soon. Please rate and review and tell me how I did and what you think of Evangeline. Feel free to PM me and if you do find any grammar issues, let me know. Just please don't flame me. I take constructive criticism and mild sarcasm very well, but I don't think you want me to cry. At least... I don't hope you want me to cry. I'll be sure to change whatever doesn't make sense or clear it up with a message or let it work itself out in a later chapter. Thank you so much if you made it all the way down here and I look forward to hearing your feedback! Until next time!
-Violyss