CHAPTER 6
V
He felt inside of him and ache so resonant that he couldn't keep still. Today just seemed to be horrible... His heart kept pounding, unfamiliarly rapid and he couldn't fathom the cause. His mask, usually a familiar weight, seemed stifling, hot and heavy. He'd been reading when the unease had started and had gotten up to walk it off... he continually paced and paced around the tunnels these days, endlessly...but today it wasn't helping. And then he heard it…the scream...and he knew it as surely as he knew his own...a cold chill hitting his lungs instantly.
"Evey!," already moving as the cry sounded in his head, his feet thudding on the cement below them, as sure footed as ever with purpose, and although he hated the sound, he begged silently for her to keep screaming, the echoes of the tunnels could be confusing, and they went for miles. Mere moments passed as he rushed towards it...towards HER.. and then he found her, struggling in the arms of an attacker, her head covered by one of those awful black bags. Evey.
She continued to scream...her body writhing and struggling for an inch of freedom, never going silently into the dark...she wasn't that kind...uttering such profanities as he'd never heard her utter at any point during their time together…and initially...that would have made him pause...but now wasn't the time…and the choice...to act or not to...was made as his gloved fist made contact with the nose of the man holding her and she was shoved to the side, with a blood filled scream from the man... Why was she here...why had she come...
His movements were swift, deadly and silent for the most part. He watched as Evey fell against the wall and slid to the ground, shoved aside, and she struggled with the ties that bound her wrists, but she wasn't screaming anymore. A grunt from the man in front of him as he swung out in rage, screaming "There you are ya fucking bastard!", prompting V to twist, to absorb the impact of the worthless blow. His feet shifted and he moved, meeting the responsive backhand that came at him. Ducking, his fingers curled into a fist and he brought it up with the full force of his body and into the assailant midsection, the air from his lungs blown out in a breaking puff. The man groaned and his eyes rolled up into the back of his head as he fell unconscious. V grabbed him with his free hand and held him hanging for a moment as he turned his head.
In this moment, he looked at Evey...at the cloth that covered her face, at the rope that cut into her wrists and at the shivering her body was subject to now...and he saw red...the anger filling him was tangible and electric...and without a second glance, he grabbed the unconscious man by the scruff of the neck and quite literally threw him. V heard a bone chilling snap as the body hit the tracks and walked forward, gazing down for a moment before the mask tilted. He wasn't getting up...V knew that for certain...and as he surveyed the scene...the silence around him became deafening...making him turn.
Evey stayed where she was, so very still...and for a moment, he thought she might be injured… hurt… or worse until his glance to her chest revealed a steady rise and fall. What was he supposed to say...what...could...he say...and what was she thinking now. He wrestled with the thoughts plaguing him as he moved towards her, so tentative, so slow to approach her, but bringing his body down to a kneel in front of her, his arms came around, his hands immediately going to hers at her back and after a silent struggle of gloved fingers, released her hands from the rope. He touched her no more than that before moving back and slightly away.
He watched as she brought hands around and to each wrist...rubbing each ones companion and then up. Her fingers curled on the edge of the black bag, pulling it up and off of her face... but to his sheer amazement her eyes remained closed. She shook silently in front of him, her arms dropping to hug her middle, single tears starting to drop from beneath the lids. She was crying. Of all the things she could have done in this moment...which he had to admit, he'd envisioned many an outcome...the way she was crying now...had not been one of them.
He gazed at her silently and with a silent movement, he touched his gloved hands to her arms, intending to draw her close, to comfort...but that's when she started. She lashed out, and struck at him, her eyes now open and the edges of them hard, furious and pained with the glisten of tears still streaming down her face.