Chapter 24 – And Then It Rained
Evey had heard the noise, the shattering of the glass. Even after the training of the last few months, her reflexes were not fast enough to react to the threat in time.
But his were.
V was on her before she even had the time to formulate coherent thought. He used his body as a shield, sheltering her as shards of glass came raining down on them. It was beautiful really, the falling glass, shimmering in the light like diamonds. Dangerous yet beautiful razor-sharp rain.
The spectacle was disturbed by an ever-thickening blanket of smoke.
Then it hit her.
A smoke grenade. Someone had thrown in a smoke grenade.
She pressed herself against V's body, accepting his protection gladly. But he pulled away before she could even begin to hold on to him. More shattering sounds reached her ears. She guessed he went out the same way the smoke grenade had come in – through the window.
Well so much for doors.
She could feel she was unharmed. Part of her did not want to move though. Part of her just wanted to lie there, waiting this one out. She was so very tired. So very fed up with this violence. There were too many sharp things in her life.
Speaking of sharp things…her hands moved to her belt, where her daggers were still securely stored.
Get up.
Her hands curled around the handles – twin daggers, entirely symmetrical and eager to be used. It was she who was uneager.
Get up. You're being a child.
She took a deep breath. She straightened herself in one fluid motion; she was on her feet with lightning speed. Pieces off glass that still stuck to her clothes now succumbed to the pull of gravity and landed back on the floor. More glass was trapped underneath her feet, and it crunched as her weight landed on it.
More smoke was filling the room, wrapping her in a yellowish haze.
The window was damaged now anyway – might as well take the short way. The next thing she knew, she was leaping through the air. She managed to get through the window perfectly – no part of her touched the sharp edges, she went through unscathed. She landed on her feet, too, once on the other side. She was grateful they were on ground level, though. She was quite simply physically incapable of jumping from the same heights V did. If she were to try, she'd spend another few weeks in hospital.
As for V – she could see him. Out of the corner of her eye she caught a glimpse of something black moving on the rooftops. She knew her beloved well enough to recognise even his shadow.
Show-off.
She herself would continue by land – she'd leave the rooftops to him. She was fast too, her lithe body being built for speed. She remained aware of his spatial location, and went in pursuit of whatever he was chasing, too.
Perhaps chasing was the wrong word. He was stalking, prowling. Soon he would have his vengeance. She knew that V took no prisoners. And she wanted answers above all else. She ran as fast as her feet could carry her, hoping she would arrive I time.
She turned a sharp corner and a young man came into her range of vision. He seemed calm; he did not know he was about to become prey.
The black shadow came falling down from the sky and Evey knew she'd have to be quick. V landed on the man with full force, using his victim's body to break his own fall. The man cried out in terror – and quite probably in pain too. V was back on his feet before anyone knew it and drew a knife from his belt.
"Stop!" Evey yelled.
V's knife stopped just in time, already having drawn blood from the man's throat, but not having penetrated deep enough to kill him.
The man – it was hardly a man really, still very much a boy – pulled himself into a ball, trying to protect himself.
"Please don't let him kill me, Miss, please." He begged as his eyes sought contact with Evey's.
Evey approached him. Her hand quickly landed in his hair, pulling hard at the blonde locks. The man cried out again and moved back to alleviate the pain, which exposed his throat. Evey's dagger landed there quickly, grazing the already bleeding skin. She was angry. This man had the audacity to defile her home. She was not in the mood for forgiveness.
"You will tell us why you attacked us, or I will kill you myself." Evey hissed.
The man started sobbing.
"It wasn't my idea, I swear, they just paid good money."
"Greed doesn't pay, dear sir. You should know that. Now who paid you? Evey asked, still enfuriated.
"I don't know." he sobbed, shaking his head.
Evey's dagger dug deeper into his skin, and new droplets of blood started to form where the blade touched the flesh.
"I would answer the lady, if I were you. I do not think she is joking about facilitating your premature demise if you do not cooperate." V interjected.
The man looked at V in terror.
"I'm not paid to ask questions. She never told me her name. She never told me who she worked for. Please. I don't know anything."
"She?" Evey asked sharply.
The man nodded. "Mature lady, brown hair – she had some sort of scars on her neck and she…"
He never got a chance to finish his sentence. The sound of his words was muted by a deafening bang.
It was so very loud. It hurt Evey's ears.
The next thing she knew she could feel a sticky, warm wetness on her blouse.
Blood. She was covered with blood.
The red substance was splattered over her like a Jackson Pollock painting. She wanted to scream, but she didn't. Her first instinct was to check if she was shot. It was only when she withdrew her hands from the man she was holding captive, that she realised what had come to pass.
Without the support of her hands, the man's body collapsed to the street. His dead eyes looked up at her lifelessly. Part of the left side of his skull was missing where the bullet had impacted with its target.
V was already on the move, pursuing the shooter. She stood there for a moment, considering the man whose life had been ended before her. She screamed inside, but the sound never reached her lips.
Slowly she pulled herself away from the scene and started looking around for V. He was already out of her range of sight.
She found him three streets down. He was leaning over the lifeless body of a man, searching his pockets.
"He could have talked, V. You really should not have killed him." she said wearily.
"I didn't." V said. His voice sounded strange. Sad, almost.
"Cyanide pill," he continued. "I tried to pry it out of his mouth, but alas, the damage was already done."
"I'm sorry, V. I didn't mean to accuse you…"
V stood up to face her.
"That is quite allright, Evey. We both know…what I am capable of. There's nothing helpful in his pockets, I'm afraid."
She nodded, feeling slightly shaky.
"I should go back to my apartment, see the damage." she said.
She wanted to walk back, but he took her arm gently.
"Evey, we must get out of here. I do not think anyone saw. But…look at yourself. If you are seen like this…" V stopped his sentence, leaving it to the silence to tell the rest.
Evey looked down again, mentally processing the blood marks on her blouse.
"Right, I forgot…" she said.
How could she forget a thing like that?
She was feeling a bit queasy. She could feel herself shaking. She could control it at first, but soon her muscles moved beyond her will. Latent shock moved into her system and there was really not much she could do.
"Evey, are you alright?" he asked, his voice laden with concern.
She shook her head. "I don't feel so good."
Her legs failed her. His arms wrapped around her in time, as she knew they would. He would never fail her.
"Come. Let's go home." He said caringly. "Can you walk?"
Evey nodded, though that was not entirely true. She was leaning on him quite heavily, her body refusing to cooperate.
He wrapped his cloak around her – protecting her, hiding the blood from sight. It was weird seeing him like this, in broad daylight. It was as if he somehow did not belong in this day-world that lacked the shadows to protect him. He looked…vulnerable here, as if the light had stripped him from his supernatural power.
In the distance, a siren could be heard. Someone had noticed something. They had to disappear as fast as they could. And she realised she could not do it. She was incapable.
"V, you need to leave me. You can still make it out on time."
"Leave you? No, that would be entirely out of the question." V stated.
"I can't run." Evey tried to explain.
"Then I will carry you." V said, refusing to back down.
"I'll slow you down. They will see you. A man in a mask will not go unnoticed."
He stood there, looking at her. How frustrating that she could not see his face – or more precisely, the expression on it. Something was definitely going on in his mind.
The sound of the siren was getting louder.
…
And then it rained.
Thick, solitary drops at first. But soon it was pouring down and it was like the sky had torn open and was leaking all over Earth. Evey looked up.
"God is in the rain" she whispered.
She held out her arms. The cold droplets invigorated her, made her feel somehow alive. The adrenaline started pulsing through her veins and it was the little push that she needed. She tingled and her body felt hers again.
What a glorious non-coincidence.
Her legs started moving again, and she practically pulled V along as she ran. People were vacating the streets rapidly, uneager to get wet. They were too busy looking for shelter to notice the two strangers running bravely through the rain. Too busy even to see that one was stained by blood and the other was wearing a mask. The curtain of rain was so thick it was not possible to see much, anyway. They must have looked like two blurry figures to any onlooker. Completely uninteresting, not worth a second glance.
Just two people running from the rain, trying to reach their home.