Author's note: A chat with Iap64 gave me the idea for this story. :)
As I watched the movie, I often wondered 'What would happen if Sloan escaped
the authorities?' Well obviously, he would go after Eliza. Here's that
story. I hope whoever reads this enjoys it. There's going to be more. This
is merely chapter 1...almost like a prologue.
DEADLY GAME
Story by DarkHououmon
Eliza Thornberry ran for her life. She pushed against all the bushes and thrustle that blocked her path. She seemed to breathe faster than any cheetah could, and her mind was racing, panicking. She looked behind her to see the attacker. She could see nothing, but knew he was out there somewhere....
"How could this be? I saw him get arrested 3 months ago!" She cried
on terror. She never before felt this afraid...and vulnerable. All she
could do was run. And run, she did. She looked ahead. 'There's camp!'
Her mind cried with joy. She hoped she could make it on time to get
into the refuge of the comvee. 'I might be safe in there.'
Having made up her mind, she started to speed up her pace. Suddenly she
felt an arm from behind grab her, and pull her back away from the camp
area. She gave in a sudden gasp of horror, and looked up at the attacker
through fear filled eyes. "Sloan!" Her voice was shaky and sounded frightened.
Sloan snickered evilly, and had one of his arms pinning both of her arms
behind her back. She struggled to escape his grasp, but he pulled out a
blade. A different blade...and held it up against her throat. Even though
he wasn't pushing hard, she could still feel the sharp edge of the instrument
cutting into her skin....
"So we meet again." The man's voice sounded dark...warning.... He looked down at the frightened girl, and looked satisfied by her fear. "You seemed surprised to see me, Eliza."
"H-How did you....." Eliza began to say, her voice quivering in fear.
"How did I escape? It was simple....but it's not of your concern, Thornberry!" When he spoke the name 'Thornberry', he said it in the same tone of bitter hatred that Bieterman did almost a year earlier. As Eliza attempted to escape again, she felt the blade press harder, and a thin line of blood trickled down her. The blade only scratched her, but it was enough to make her yelp in pain. Sloan laughed coldly, and started to drag her away from her camp. He said coldly, "There's no use trying to escape, little girl. I have you right where I want you! Now it's time to finish what I should have done a long time ago..." He laughed again, and his grip on her tightened to ensure she couldn't escape.
'How am I going to get out of here?' Eliza could feel her heart
beating 3 times faster. She desperately looked around for something to
get a grip on, or use against Sloan. But how would she be able to do that?
Her arms were pinned! She had to come up with another solution. 'If
I don't get out of here, I'm dead!' She quickly looked to the ground,
and smiled slightly. 'I hope this works...if not...then...' She
didn't want to think about it. She fixated her gaze on the man's feet.
She lifted up her right foot and held it above Sloan's right foot. She
hesitated, then stomped downward. She struck his foot with the force of
a small anvil. The man screamed and let go of the girl. Seeing her opportunity,
Eliza bolted straight towards camp, but to her shock, Sloan wasn't distracted
for long...
Sloan panted angrily as he dashed towards the escaping girl. "I'll get you, kid. You won't escape me this time! I'll make sure the job is done right!" He gave her the 'death' look as he started to catch up.
Eliza was now started to panic even more. She had to get away from him, but how? All she could do was keep on running. She didn't want to look back. She was closing in. She was almost home free..... Suddenly she heard a swooshing sound, like something being thrown into the air. Then she felt something cold and hard hit her bare arm at an alarming rate. She was about to look to see what it was, but then she felt a powerful sharp pain in her arm, and she gave out a loud scream of pain. She looked up to see Sloan with a wicked smile on his face, then look at her arm. To her horror, Sloan had pressed the blade into her arm! He pressed harder and Eliza screamed louder. Blood started to seep out of the gash, and the grass began to get blood stained. A look of fear and pain was etched on Eliza's face. Sloan pressed even harder, drawing more and more blood from Eliza's arm. Finally, he quickly sliced down, leaving a long bloody cut on the girl's arm, bleeding excessively. A tiny pool of blood seemed to start forming on the ground.
Eliza could only stare at the man, who pulled the blade back again,
like he was going to strike again. The cutting edge of the blade was stained
with her blood, red liquid dripping on the ground and on the handle. Some
even got on the poacher's hand. She knew she was going to die soon unless
something happened..... "ELIZA! WHERE ARE YOU?!" She was relieved when
she heard that voice. It was her mother's. Eliza had been gone for quite
some time. Her family must have been worried sick! She looked back at Sloan.
He glared at the campsite, and, giving one last death glare at Eliza, took
off, carrying the still bloody knife with him.
The girl couldn't help but smile. 'I'm...still alive....' She looked towards camp, and wondered how she would be able to explain the wound on her arm. She clutched it tightly, the blood seeping through her fingers. She winced in pain and in disgust as she watched her red blood drop to the floor. She slowly walked back to camp, cradling her injured arm. She left a trail of blood all across the camp area. 'I'm gonna have to explain this....' Eliza knew how worried and horrified her parents would be if they found a trail of blood leading right up to her. She opened up the door only to see her mother. She looked angry at her. "Where have you been, little missy? I thought....Eliza!" She gasped in horror. Her wide eyes locked onto the girl's arm. Blood was still draining out of it, and Eliza's hand was almost completely blood-covered.
Marianne dashed towards her daughter, and gently pushed her hand off. Her worried look intensified as she saw how deep and long the gash was, and she looked Eliza straight in the face.
"Who did this to you?"
"Mom, it was like this...."
"Did you find Eliza yet? I want to ask her something!" Debbie's voice
was heard across the comvee. It sounded like she was trying to enjoy herself.
She knew of Eliza's secret, so she wasn't surprised she wandered out alone
at night. She was surprised that she didn't take Darwin with her. Debbie
was wearing her usual green black jacket with the small orange shirt and
baggy pants. She was holding a coke in her hand as she walked out towards
the door. She got a good look at Eliza's arm and noticed that it was bleeding
pretty bad. Debbie felt herself gasp suddenly, and she tried to say something.
All she could manage was, "What...happened?" She pointed a quivering finger
at Eliza's bleeding arm.
Hours later, Nigel had wrapped a tight white cloth around Eliza's arm to help stop the bleeding. But that didn't make her feel any better. It wasn't the wound that bothered her. It was the fact that Sloan had escaped! Although Debbie was just as concerned, Marianne had sent her to her room. She and her husband wanted to talk to Eliza privately. She had confessed she was attacked, but she never stated who had done it. "I...I can't tell you..." She whimpered, staring at her bandaged arm sadly. Marianne stared at her with worry. "Eliza, whoever attacked you could come again. We need to know if you got a good look at him." "I did..but...." Eliza looked to the ground. 'I don't want them to worry about me....' Nigel placed his hand on her shoulder. She looked up as he said, "It's alright, poppet. You can tell us."
She sucked in a deep breath. "All right, I'll tell you." Her parents
looked at her expectantly. Reluctantly, she said, "It was....Sloan Blackburn."
She heard her parents give a collective of shocked gasps. They looked at
each other fearfully. They just couldn't believe it. "That's impossible!"
Marianne cried. "He was thrown in jail months ago!" Eliza nodded. "That's
true, but somehow he escaped." Nigel tried to calm the hysterical Marianne.
He was trying to control himself, too. "We have to do something. Eliza
isn't safe here." She looked to the ground. The red-haired girl muttered,
"I doubt I'm safe anywhere from that guy."
Eliza had left the room. She decided to let her parents discuss what they were going to do about the current situation. Her chimpanzee friend was quick to greet her. "Hey Eliza!" Darwin scurried toward her. "I just had this lovely dream about...what? Hey, what happened to your arm?" She sat down on her 'bed', and held her arm. She winced because it still hurt. "I was attacked...by Sloan." Darwin screeched in horror. "WHAT?! Are you okay?" Eliza couldn't help but chuckle. She turned to her chimp friend. "Yes. I'm fine." She then remembered the scratch on her neck. She pressed her hand against her throat. She looked at her hand as she pulled it back. No blood....it must have dried up before she reached camp. That does explain why her parents hadn't noticed it before. It had scabbed up already.
"Hey Eliza?" Eliza turned towards the entrance of the room. Debbie was standing there, looking in. "Would you mind if I come in?" Surprised by this gesture, the girl nodded. Debbie sat down at her side. "Are you sure you're okay? You were cut up pretty bad. Who had done this?" Debbie obviously didn't hear the conversation. She was busy trying to drown out her worries by listening to music. It didn't help her much, but it did calm her down a bit. "Sloan Blackburn, that's who." Eliza said, her voice dangerously low. She wasn't directing anger towards her sister, but towards Sloan. Debbie bolted straight up. "Sloan?! That poacher....He escaped!?" Her little sister nodded slowly, the same fear in her eyes as her sister had.
Debbie was not prepared for that. She shook a bit. She remembered the
last time they had encountered Sloan.....He had threatened to kill her,
and almost killed Eliza twice! 'This is not good...How is Eliza going
to be kept safe?' She looked at her little sister with deep concern
etched on her face. She suddenly remembered something that Sloan had told
her. She remembered, while he was pulling her towards the edge, he had
whispered something to her. It was so low that no one could have heard
it. It was meant for her ears only.... "Eliza, Sloan...told me something.
That day, when you lost your powers..." Eliza looked up at her sister curiously.
"Really? Do you remember what he said?" "Believe me, this was not something
you would forget so easily." "I'm all ears." Debbie lowered her gaze. "Are
you sure you want to know?" Eliza nodded slightly, though she did look
as if there was some reluctance in her eyes.
Debbie took in a deep breath, and said, "When he pushed me to the ground after the wind storm kicked up, he said, 'If your little sister gets in my way again, I swear....even if it takes me a thousand times, I will kill her with my own hands! I won't let her survive me next time! You hear me?!' And then he took off, but he sounded very serious."
Eliza did not want to hear that at the moment. She whimpered in fear.
"He could come by here at night, and....and....." She shook terribly. Debbie
wrapped her arms protectively around her sister. She wanted to make her
stop crying in fear, but she knew nothing at this point would work. All
she could do was let Eliza cry until she could cry no more. It hurt Debbie
to see her sister like this. As her sister let out her emotions, the blonde
looked up at the skies, then out of the small window. Her eyes narrowed
to slits. Her mind was rattled with hatred and anger. 'I will make him
pay!' That was the only thought on her mind.....
Meanwhile, further away, Sloan had stopped running, and was sitting at a river bank. He knelt down and held the blade underwater. He was cleaning it. The red liquid floated off and mixed in with the fresh water, running downstream. He straighten up, and stared at the blade. He saw his reflection in it. The blade glistened in the moonlight. He looked back in the direction he had run from. "I can't believe that brat got away!" He clenched his hand into a fist, and punched a tree in anger. "How could I have let her get away? I was so close!" His frustration caused him to tighten the grip on the blade, and almost caused it to crack open. Both of his hand shook in anger.
"But no matter...." He said, smiling darkly, "I will get her next time."
He laughed loud and long, his cruel laughter being heard over a mile away.
He then turned towards the camp again, with only one thing on mind. Revenge...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
That's it for chapter one. Yeah....it was pretty short, wasn't it? Well I wrote this at night, and I had to get off early, so I had to make this short. Heh.... Yeah, Iap64 and I were talking, and this idea just popped into my head. A description of the blade will come sooner. Eliza never got a good look at the blade, but she did get a good enough look at the man to know it was Sloan. When I saw the movie, I often wondered what would happen if Sloan returned....but this story idea didn't occur to me until the conversation with Iap64. ^_^ Hope you enjoy this story! I may write chapter two soon, but I don't know.