Chapter Thirteen
There were only faint glimpses of stairs and a rug as I was dragged up to the room. No one rushed to help me; and though logic stated that I had to be alone, in the room the others weren't in, a tiny part of me said that maybe they were there and nobody cared at all. The men didn't take any care to place me on the bed, just setting me sprawled on the floor.
The door closed. I slipped under again.
The door to the balcony was rattling some time later. Maybe hours. Maybe seconds. Everything felt unreal and the pain was muffled by my cells expanding with pulsing pleasantness.
Glass broke, faintly tinkling to the floor by the balcony, and the door popped open. Light, hurried steps fell leading up to me, then soft hands were shaking me.
"Syracuse. Hey, wake up. Look at me."
Miles. I felt a little flutter in my chest. Not some grand, endless love, but still more than I wanted to allow. For a moment in time he was my hero. Not that he could come save me, but his presence soothed my worries, and I felt my lips smiling of their own accord.
"Drexel's going to be coming up here." The thought hadn't quite formed to speak, and my speech was slurred. "Go protect Charlie."
To my embarrassment, when he tried to help me stand, I could not. Then he was carrying me, bridal style, to the bed. "I know what you did. You protected her."
"The kid grew on me. She can't protect herself."
"Yeah," he said, and I could sense through my closed eyes that he was turning away. "But neither can you in this state."
"Scott Frobisher was the one the Irish family hired to burn the fields," I said.
"Great. Another reason for Drexel to be pissed."
"Go. Charlie."
"Right."
He left. I forced myself to stay awake. Blinked rapidly, even shook my head to try to clear it, but nothing could break the surface of the drugs which kept dragging me down into them.
Drexel's voice came from the other room, a harsh yell of, "You can't! She can!"
She. Me? She. Charlie.
I felt myself fade out into the atmosphere, but with worry still holding my mind.
It may have been seconds or days before I floated to the surface again, to the gentle coaxing of Miles' voice and soft hands.
"Matheson," I murmured. "Charlie!"
I jerked upward, but Miles shoved me back down. "Lay back."
"Where's Charlie?"
His silence filled me with dread.
"She went to go kill the Irishman."
"You can't let her do that." My head still felt foggy, my limbs still seemed weighted, but I could form thoughts again.
"I don't have a choice. I can't get the rest of you out of here. If I leave, they'll kill you, Nora, Aaron."
"That doesn't matter, you can't let her kill someone innocent, even if she could-."
"You'll all die!" he called.
"Charlie will die!"
He swallowed, unable to look at me.
"Go," I said, "You can get out, save Charlie and come back. Me and Aaron can do our best to protect Nora. Just, help me up-."
It was obvious the argument was won, and Miles pulled me to my feet, partially supporting me.
"Get me over to Aaron, then we'll find a way to get you out."
We stumbled to the balcony. "Doesn't seem like you to be risking your life for someone else," he said.
"She's me before the blackout, don't read into it."
The leap across the balcony proved problematic, but we managed. And when I stumbled into the room, Aaron helped catch me and helped me onto the neatly made bed. My head swam. Miles moved to the door.
"What's the plan?" Aaron asked.
"I'm going for Charlie. You, come here."
Aaron crossed to him and they exchanged whispers for a moment. I flopped down on the bed and shut my eyes. Miles noticed and sighed. "Just keep them safe, if you can."
"I know how you can get out. Just take care of the guy at the door."
Aaron lured the man in and Miles cut him down, then they dashed out of the room. Only Aaron came back in a few moments later, closing the door and barricading it with a small dresser.
"What about Nora?" I asked.
"I don't know. I can't get down to her- we don't even know where she is. She's incapacitated, maybe they'll leave her alone-."
"That's not how it works! When you're incapacitated, you can't fight back! When they figure out Miles is gone, she's the first one they'll try to kill."
"Try?" he said miserably.
"Yeah, try, because we're not going to let them. Help me up."
They moved out of the room, where I bent to retrieve the dead guard's sword, and immediately after there came a loud blast from a gun downstairs. We froze. "Let's go, quickly," I said.
We hurried down the hall, past the dumbwaiter, with Aaron still supporting me on one side. Footsteps pounded up ahead and I raised the sword, but the men I assumed were coming for us took some other path, as the footsteps died away heading right. Through the wall we heard a bellow of, "Escaped!? I told you to guard them! I said he'd be tricky! Go! Kill the spares, keep Frobisher's girl alive!"
"Go, go!" I hissed at Aaron, nodding to the bend in the hallway ahead. He trundled along, panting, and we crossed the hall, diving into the closest -thankfully empty- room and sliding the door closed just as the men thundered out of Drexel's room. They headed down the hall toward our vacated rooms, and I urged Aaron on.
"What did they do to you, anyway?" he whispered.
"They injected me with something, I think it was heroin. I don't know how people enjoy this."
"Remember that when you're craving a couple of days from now."
"If we live that long."
He laughed out a, "Ha!" and we hit the stairs, but quick steps were following, fanning out to search the upper level.
A guard waited at the front door. He noticed us when we reached the bottom of the stairs and turned into the foyer. I lunged away from Aaron as the man drew his sword and stepped up, beginning to call out for a split second before I knocked his blade aside and slit his throat with no care at all, sending blood splattering as the blade nearly took his head off. Some of it ricocheted back and struck my neck and chest.
For a moment I felt the strange, surreal feeling of killing and normalcy was returned to my life, almost the way it had always been before meeting Miles, Charlie and the rest. The blood, I thought, matched perfectly the pretty dress I wore.
But I nearly collapsed the next moment and Aaron caught me.
"Let's go. One of these rooms. Off the left is the basement where they took her, we'll start there."
Limping down the stairs with Aaron pouring buckets of sweat was difficult. A man waited down there, among the plants with medical purposes and a few clean operating tables. He straightened, looking bewildered and high.
I broke off from my perch and swung the blade, slicing across his stomach.
"Why- why did you have to kill him?"
The man fell.
"Do you think he was innocent?"
"No, but you didn't have to-."
"No, I didn't have to. I wanted to. Nora's not here, let's go."
He didn't look at me in the same way again. I supposed he thought I was bad.
We moved up the stairs, where two men came crashing down the stairs. There was no stopping them from calling out, but I ran forward on shaky legs.
One swung for me, and I met the swing, then the other raised his gun on Aaron. I paused. With a quick snap, the first disarmed me. I backed away with my hands raised. It all felt strangely amusing, like nothing of it mattered. I laughed lightly.
"You're not gonna kill them. I'm not gonna let you."
With a single step I positioned myself in front of Aaron.
"Go get the girl."
A few men came down the stairs and went into one of the rooms off the left.
"Do you know who I am?" I began. "I'm Syracuse Kelly. You know my name, but do you know the things I've done? Do you know how many people I've killed? And I'm gonna kill you, too, if you hurt them."
The man holding the gun blanched, but the other just grabbed me and turned me, wrenching both arms behind my back. I almost went slack, feeling overwhelming lifting in my veins, but I fought to hold my ground, jerking at the man's grip on me.
"Grab Tubby."
They led us out into the front yard and Drexel met us, carrying a case. Nora they injected with something, and I thought with an insane chuckle that if it was heroin she would still beat Aaron in whatever they were planning; forming a ring with their torches held up to light the grass under the dark, starless sky.
Nora jumped to life, sweating and panting and instantly fighting against the rough hands that held her. I didn't like Nora, but I certainly didn't want her dying so that Miles and Charlie could both feel guilty about bringing her along.
"Whoever kills the other..." Drexel was saying, handing each of them a gun. "Gets to go free."
"What about Syracuse?" Aaron asked, taking one of the pistols.
"She stays. We have business to attend to, her and I, I and her."
"What the Hell did Miles get us into?" Nora hissed, taking a pistol.
Drexel ducked behind the door of a tank used as a lawn ornament.
"It's a long story."
"And what's wrong with her?" She jerked her head toward me, obviously no love lost between us.
"They drugged her. Her rebel friend burned the fields for some Irish family up the road a ways. They sent Charlie to kill the head Irish guy and Miles went to save her, so with you two both incapacitated our only hope is me, which means we're all screwed, so-."
"Aaron."
"I'm not gonna shoot you," he said. "But I want you to shoot me."
"I'm not gonna shoot you, Aaron."
"Then he'll kill us both. I'm no good to anyone, this way you can go on. You have to live! You have to help Charlie, and Miles, and Syracuse save Danny."
"No," she said, and tossed the gun down.
Slowly, he turned his own gun around, and fired into his chest. I was speechless.
"Aaron!" Nora screamed.
Drexel moved out and inspected the body that had fallen on the grass. Its arm whirled up a second later and fired straight into his chest.
Aaron struggled to stand, brandishing a metal flask dented from the bullet which had been tucked into his breast pocket.
"Do any of you know how many bullets that psycho put in this gun?"
Two of the men exchanged a glance. One said, "Get your crap and go."
"Her too?" He nodded to me.
"Yeah." He spoke to me. "We don't want Scott Frobisher coming here."
"Let us go, you don't have to worry about it."
They shoved us out onto the road with our bags. Aaron lumbered along with three on his good shoulder, wincing with every step, while Nora and I leaned on each other out of necessity as we went. Miles and Charlie met us about a half hour down the road.
"What the Hell happened? How'd you get out? What about Drexel?"
Nora smiled softly. "Aaron shot the son of a bitch."
"Aaron?" Miles gawked. "This Aaron?"
"Yeah. Thanks. Did you, you know?"
Charlie smiled softly, too, and shook her head. "No."
They each took their bags from Aaron, then Miles took Nora's; after a second he tried to take mine, but I waved him away.
"Let's go get the kid."
Author's Note: I am SO sorry for the wait. So many issues. I'll try to stay more regular for now on. I love and cherish all your reviews.