Hexagon
Chapter 75: The Brand
Hey you guys! Week 1 of my mandatory corona-cation and since I'm probably not the only one stuck inside and bored out of my mind, have a new chapter a week early. Anyway, thank you to the following people for their fabulous reviews:
-CinderBlazeWarriors
-xbloodywhalex
-xXPokePotterIslandXx
-HollyleafML
-LionCinder (x2)
-Runereader of the Nightwings
-DragonClan
-Tigercry
-Guest
-Muziccat91
-Briarfang (x2)
-SaavySpirit
If y'all think the angst is bad now, just wait...
Hollyleaf's POV:
The bang from the catwalk could probably be heard for miles. At first, my mind immediately flew to the worst, assuming that Heathertail had shot on them. I had felt myself start to panic, my body freeze, when a hand clapped onto my shoulder. My gaze cast around wildly, to see Jayfeather standing by my side, his scarred blue eyes unusually narrow.
"That didn't sound like a gunshot", he muttered. Just then, Fallen Leaves jogged over and pointed upstairs. There was a gaping hole in the wall where the door had been.
"What the fuck…?", I murmured.
And then the screaming started. It was high pitched and guttural, wracked with fury. It took me a moment to recognize it. It was Cinderheart, screaming in rage. And then a second voice joined the fray, but unlike Cinderheart's, this voice was scared, not begging, but spitting insults.
Heathertail's voice.
I had known Heathertail for over a decade, had met her at the age of four when our equally affluent parents decided to set us up for a playdate. In those 12 years of knowing her, watching her grow and distort into the person she was now, I had never once heard fear in her voice as raw as it was now.
Then I thought of Cinderheart. Calm, tranquil, patient Cinderheart. What the hell had Heathertail done to reduce her to fury like this?
There was an awful, crunching thud. A crack like thunder cut through the air, and then the warehouse fell into unnatural silence. I looked around, wary. With all that noise, surely the Dark Forest was on their way? We had just advertised our location in the flashiest way possible. Next to me, Jayfeather had snapped into command mode.
"You three!", he said sharply, gesturing to Briarlight, Half Moon, and Fallen Leaves. "Keep watch. The Dark Forest will be on their way. Hollyleaf and I are going up there to make sure they're okay." His sightless eyes flitted between us, their accuracy almost disturbing as they rested on each of us. "Is anyone armed?"
Uneasy silence fell as each of us patted ourselves down, searching for the weapons we'd armed ourselves with back at school. Unfortunately, we came up empty, finding that the Dark Forest had chosen to strip us of any weapons while we were unconscious. After about a minute of this, Fallen Leaves found a beat up Swiss Army knife tucked into his boot. He smiled sheepishly.
I cast over it with a critical eye. "Well", I muttered. "It's better than nothing I guess."
Leaving the three in the lower warehouse, Jayfeather and I scurried up the catwalk into the little manager's office.
My hands clapped against my mouth.
Heathertail was sprawled in a bloody pool, covered in wounds. But worst of all? Lionblaze, collapsed in Cinderheart's lap. Jayfeather was at their side immediately. He turned to Cinderheart, who was rubbing his wrists where the restraints had dug in.
"You're restoring the circulation. Good, keep doing that." Jayfeather reached for his belt and fumbled with a small silver canteen dangling from a loop. The thing itself was tiny, it probably didn't hold more than a liter. I assumed that was the reason the Dark Forest hadn't bothered taking it away.
"Blaze", he said, patting him on the face, and offered him the canteen.
Once my brother had emptied the flask, he looked significantly less green. He rose to his feet. His first few strides were shaky, not surprising for someone who's had their feet very tightly tied together. He stumbled over to Heathertail, and with a pained look on his face, cast a critical eye over her lifeless form. He flipped her over, grimacing as his fingers went through the blood, to reveal his shock batons strapped to her belt, still in their metallic black sheaths.
He wasted no time in unhooking them from her belt and reattaching him to their rightful place at his hip.
"She has bolt stunners", he informed us, in a frighteningly hollow voice. "Should we take those off her, too?"
Cinderheart rose from her spot on the floor and walked cautiously over to him. Then she stooped down and undid Heathertail's belt entirely, bolt stunners and all, and fastened it to her own waist. Heathertail's blood dripped off the stunners' rounded muzzles, flecking Cinderheart's pants. The silverette grimaced. It was clear she didn't enjoy the sight of Heathertail's blood either.
Then, out of the blue, Jayfeather tensed.
"We need to go. Now." I looked at him, confused. "What?", I asked.
Jayfeather's voice was becoming urgent. "They're coming. I heard a gun go off."
Cinderheart and I exchanged glances. "Why would they shoot on their own?", I asked confused. It was at this point that Jayfeather lost it.
"I. Don't. Know", he snarled dangerously. "A test shot, maybe. Or a deserter. But if we want to get out of here alive, we need to go. Now!"
I trusted Jayfeather's hearing far better more my own. Being blind, he had adapted, developing the keenest sense of hearing of anyone I knew. If he said they were coming, then who was I not to trust him?
We abandoned Heathertail's limp form on the office floor and rushed down the stairs. Cinderheart had her boyfriend's arm slung over her shoulder. I was grateful that she did. The exertion had left Lionblaze looking somewhat queasy, and I wasn't sure he would have made it down the stairs alone. Once we were on the ground, Ivypool called to Briarlight, Half Moon, and Fallen Leaves, then broke into a run.
…
Briarlight's POV:
The three of us watched warily as the two siblings went up the stairs. Before long, they were gone, having slipped into the little manager's office at the other end of the room. Even when the screaming from upstairs stopped and the warehouse area had fallen into uneasy silence, no one was able to let their guard done.
Fallen Leaves was pacing, clutching the Swiss Army knife with its blade extended. He jumped at the slightest of noises and more then once went to check the door for any sign of the Dark Forest.
It was during one of these absences that I turned quietly to Half Moon.
"How are you holding up?", I asked gently. She jumped what looked like a mile and turned to me with wide, frightened eyes. She, too, was on guard, with her nerves strung like a tightrope. The sound of the desert wind hissing past the concrete walls was enough to make her jump out of her skin.
"Fine", she muttered.
Her response confused me. Was she upset with me?
"Are you mad at me?", I tried, reaching out to pat her on the back. She flinched, and I immediately felt terrible.
"Oh, Half Moon, I'm so sorry", I whispered. "We figured out what they were doing. They were supposed to go after me."
Half Moon stayed quiet. I suspected she had already figured that much out for herself.
"I'm sorry that you had to suffer for me. They should have taken me. I'm sorry they didn't."
I wasn't sure what it was, but something about my apology seemed to snap Half Moon out of her funk, because she suddenly turned and wrapped me in the tightest embrace she could muster.
"Don't say that", she said. "You're so brave, Briarlight. You put your life in danger, coming after us without hesitation. I don't know what I would have done, had it been me they left behind. I like to think I would have done it too, but I'm not strong like you. Or heroic. Or anything. It's better this way."
Hearing Half Moon speak like that, in that horrible, self-deprecating voice rubbed me the wrong way.
"Give yourself some credit", I said, more sharply than I intended. "I heard how you dealt with Minnowtail. How you kept your composure, even though you were scared, to protect everyone else in the common room. You are not a coward."
Half Moon gave a watery smile. "If that's what you think."
I clapped both hands onto her shoulders. "No, that's what I know. And it's about time you realized it, too. By keeping cool, you saved the lives of dozens of people. If you'd made the wrong move, Minnowtail might have opened fire on the common room. You kept them safe. Acknowledge it."
Half Moon wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "I've never been cheered up that aggressively before", she laughed, hiccuping.
I laughed, hugging her again. "Get used to it."
Then I heard the other five running down the catwalk and spun to see Jayfeather breaking into a sprint. Ivypool gestured to us, and then to Fallen Leaves who was coming around the corner of a shelf.
"They're coming!", she snapped urgently. "Go, go, go!"
We didn't waste any time, as Fallen Leaves hauled Half Moon to her feet and began ushering us down the hall. She stumbled at first but quickly regained her footing.
We were running wildly, recklessly, beyond caring if the cameras picked us up. It wasn't like they didn't know we were here.
But somehow, it was all going wrong. The hallways were dark and windowless, every door locked, every potential exit a dead end. I felt like we were stuck inside a massive rabbit warren.
The claustrophobia hit startlingly sudden. It came out of the blue. One moment, I felt fine, and then the darkness became suffocating, the walls seemed to close in, and the air felt like concrete filling my lungs.
I was losing control.
I wasn't even claustrophobic, so what the hell was happening?
And then the first bullet pinged off the wall.
…
Ivypool's POV:
The crack of a gunshot, and the bullet ricocheted off the wall inches from my head. I reacted almost instantaneously, ripping the bolt stunners out of their holsters and sending a spray of sedative bullets down the hall, in the direction the gunfire had come from.
The thump of bodies hitting the vinyl told me that at least some of the stunner bullets had found their mark. Another bullet came pinging off the walls, informing that the gunman was still very much conscious. I pulled the trigger again, attempting to launch another attack on the shooter.
Nothing.
There was no tell-tale jerk of the muzzle that indicated a successful shot.
I tried the second bolt stunner, which managed another few shots before it, too, fell still. I allowed myself a few seconds to check the firing chamber. Sure enough, it was empty. I patted down the thigh holsters, hoping to find a fresh magazine of sedation bullets tucked into it somewhere, but found nothing. Disgusted, I tossed the bolt stunners aside. There was no point in carrying around two empty guns that I couldn't reload.
I was about to turn and sprint when the gun went off again, and suddenly, my leg was ablaze with pain.
"Ivypool!", someone screamed from the end of the hall.
"Run!", I barked. "Don't let them catch you!"
And then the gunman, no, woman, emerged from the dark.
Dovewing.
She looked exactly the same but like a completely different person. I could tell just by looking at her that something inside of her had….died. Any shred of humanity that had been left of her, any slight bit of resemblance of the sweet, shy girl she had once been? Gone. Dead. Destroyed.
This girl was not my sister, not the girl I had grown up with. This girl, I had no idea who she was. She carried that handgun like how a queen carries a scepter. With adoration. Love, even. Like she took delight in killing and maiming those around her.
She grabbed my chin and yanked it up so I could look her directly in the eyes. Those eyes. They were a perfect copy of mine.
The muzzle of the gun pressed an icy circle into my forehead, and I could see her pink manicured nail playing with the trigger.
"Stop running", she commanded. "Unless you want me to blow her brains out." There was no girlish simper in her voice. It had become steely and cold. Like the voice of someone different entirely.
The pounding of feet behind me had stopped. I could imagine them in my mind's eye, wide-eyed with fear, frozen as they stared Dovewing down.
"Come back", Dovewing ordered.
And they did. I could hear the soft shuffle of their footsteps as they lined up behind me.
I stared at her.
She stared back, and suddenly I saw it. The fresh brand on her neck. The snarling cat symbol of the Dark Forest had been burned into the skin of her throat with a white hot iron.
The punishment for letting me escape.
"What...have they done to you?", I rasped. I suddenly regretted everything I had said to her in the basement. For all I know, that was the last time I really spoke to my sister, the last time I spoke to her when she was still herself. It was my fault that the Dovewing I had grown up with was gone forever.
She just smiled.
"You'll find out soon enough."
End Chapter 75
Sorry, I couldn't let them get away! ::runs for cover from an angry mob::
I made even myself pity Dovewing. Wow. Shocker.
If anyone reading this has claustrophobia, let me know how close I was to describing it! I based it off the feeling I got when I was inside the Forum Shops of Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas (for those who don't know, it's like a huge indoor mall that's made to look like it's outside (really high ceilings painted like the sky, Roman architecture, fountains, statues, ect.) and you have to get to the end to get out. I was silently dying.)
Reviews are always greatly appreciated.
Azra out!
