Hello again. I'm doing as many updates as I can lately, so keep checking in with me =) any thoughts or corrections you have will be gladly received. I hope you enjoy. =)
Chapter 8, venturing out
I don't see the other's for the rest of the day because I avoid them and don't go to dinner. I know what Graves is like, he'll probably be feeling guilty, but I don't care. And now light is flooding in the room, because I haven't gone to sleep like everyone else. I don't know if Neil, one of the bodyguards is still out there. But they take shifts of looking after me, or rather following me.
What really bugs me is that everyone keeps telling me to be a good girl. What am I supposed to do just sit and wait around until I'm murdered? Well I'm not going to be a good girl anymore and I'm certainly not going to sit around waiting. I go over to my wardrobe and pull out my backpack. I shove a few extra clothing in it and put in the few weapons I have. But I put my Smith and Wesson in the gun holster that Sabre stole for me from Artillery and Weaponry Practice and then put it on so it sits comfortably by my upper arm.
I know that everyone will be angry at me for leaving like this. Graves will be furious that I didn't tell him, or rather didn't invite him. Christophe would tell me off for putting myself in danger. And Curtis I'm sure would be disapproving. But it's time I got answers to questions that were never answered. Like where was August? What had happened to him? I shove the only cash I have into the front of my back pack. I don't need much else. And now it's the hard part of sneaking out.
My heart drums harder as I walk as quietly as possible over to the window. I can feel that nervous apprehension fluttering around. I push the window open as carefully as possible my excitement mounting. My ears are straining to catch every sound. But the only noise that reaches me is that of the birds chirping and trees swaying. I pull myself up onto the ledge and cling precariously onto the gutter, which I know can give away from the roof if I put too much weight on it. Carefully I remove one hand to reach up for the roof. If any if these tiles give away I'm dead. And then with my heart beating far too fast I remove the hand remaining on the gutter and reach for the roof with that hand.
I'm trying with difficultly to keep my breathing steady and to slow my heart. I pull myself up with my nerves shaking. And I manage to scramble up quietly onto the top of the roof. I crouch and quickly sweep across the surrounding area. And then I see them. Greg is walking up and down the front perimeter. I do a 360 degree turn scanning and see the Artillery and Weaponry teacher Steele also walking around the perimeter and still there are two Djamphir doing the same. How the hell am I going to get out of here?
And then suddenly my heart is in my mouth, and it's racing so fast that it feels ready to explode. Because a siren is screaming that there is an intruder. Suddenly the mansion is full of noise, there is shouting and yelling for other's to wake up. Those guarding the perimeter are pulling out guns and shouting to one another, 'Where's the intruder, what way did they go in?' I hope to God that I didn't set that damn thing off. And then I know I didn't, because Gran's owl is perched on the roof not ten foot from me. She blinks at me and then sets into flight. I jump up from my crouch and run the rooftops after her.
Then I taste an explosion of wax in my mouth, adrenalin jumps into my system slowing everything down, I glance around stupidly and see to my utter shock Neil the bodyguard running after me. But the glance was stupid because it cost me my footing. I slip sideways onto my side sliding down the rooftop. I can't slow myself. But I came to a stop because my foot hits the gutter. The gutter cracks and if I don't take the pressure off it I'm sure it'll break any second.
But I'm being dragged up by my hair. Neil picks me up like a rag doll, his face brutal and deadly. 'You're the traitor?' I gasp.
'Not the traitor no, but a different traitor,' he laughed.
'And what do you want with me?' I hissed.
'I'm taking you away with me dear Dru, and you shall meet your end.'
'I'm not going anywhere with you', I shout.
'But what are you going to do about it?'
I feel a roar of rage building up inside of me. Like a hurricane gaining momentum. It feels something like the thirst, but this is built up from pure anger. I twist out from his grasp, pull out my Smith & Wesson and shoot. Because it happened so quickly and too close together it scarified my aim, but I still hit him, just gazing his elbow, which must have hurt a hell of a lot.
'You bitch', he yelled and he grabbed my wrist, and somehow wrestled me to the ground. Except we weren't on the ground, and we weren't on a flat surface. In a tumble we were sliding down the roof, hitting the gutter, which with both our weight gave away with a crack.
So this how I die, I thought. But was I really falling? It was happening so slowly that the air felt thick to move in. So slowly that the wind couldn't even catch my hair. So slowly that my heart beats felt too spaced apart. I twisted around in the air and clinging onto my gun I squeezed the trigger aiming at Neil's chest. I could actually see the bullet explode from the gun, causing the air to ripple around it as it travelled and I knew before it even hit him that my aim was spot on. His yell could have been comical if the situation wasn't so serious. The blood splashed into the air, I might even be able to count every drop and splatter that released from his chest.
In twisted into the air again this time so that I was upright, and then someone resumed normal play. But after everything had seemed so slow it felt like fast motion. I fell the rest of the way and landed like a cat, and despite being four stories high I was fine. I glanced to the floor where Neil lay on his back moaning, bleeding freely. The siren was still wailing and pandemonium was all around me. I didn't know what to do, should I now stay? I didn't know who had set off the alarm, perhaps Neil had let people in or he was working with other people in the inside. Or maybe it was a separate attack. But all my answers were solved within seconds. Gran's owl swooped over me, over the fence and continuing her flight.
I ran to the fence and jumped up already half way there. I climbed the top easily and quickly, I flung my legs over and jumped down. I kept my gun in my hand and raced after Gran's owl at a speed akin to a Ferrari.
