A Shot in the Dark
"Not really," she tried to put up a barrier between this stranger and her. She felt the log sink lower into the ground and noticed he sat on the opposite edge.
"Here, it looks like you need this." He offered her a handkerchief.
"Thank you." She dried her eyes out on the soft fabric. "What's your name?"
"Nate," a sly smile appeared on his hidden features.
"Pleased to meet you, my name is..."
"I know who you are, Ms. Relena Peacecraft." His tone changed into a more mysterious level that sent chills up and down her spine.
She was taken aback to hear her name coming from a total stranger outside of Winfield. "I better be leaving now," she got up from the log and dusted off her dress. "Um...here's your handkerchief back." Nate took the fabric and kept it in his shirt pocket. She sensed that this man wasn't an ordinary fellow and started to walk back towards her home. She figured that it would take her a good hour to get back home from where she stood. Earlier events of Heero begging her to stay played over and over again in her confused mind, she regretted not giving him the chance to explain, but at the same time she didn't want to know at all from the given images she saw of the mysterious woman that stood in front him. She cursed to the stars with raised hands, "Why me?" The sounds of her torment rained around her, but they didn't warrant the stranger to stay away. "Why are you still following me?" Her voice became cautious.
"I just wanted to make sure you were all right. It seems you're distressed about something." His hazel eyes flashed with a spark of victory. "If you like, I can walk you home."
"I can manage, thank you," she called back to him, but she continued to hear the swishing of grass coming from behind her. She didn't recall him telling her his full name, "What is your full name?"
"Oh, its Nate N. Witillemb, miss." He continued to track her from behind, unsure if Relena realized his true identity.
Realizing that she couldn't ditch Nate anytime soon, she decided to make a light conversation with him. "How do you spell your last name? I never really heard anything of the sort before."
He cleared his throat, "W-I-T-I-L-L-E-M-B."
She nodded in response and continued on her journey home, minding her own business. She heard Nate still following her in the early twilight darkness and kept her own thoughts to herself. His name played over in her mind and the sound of it just seemed awkward to be anything of its time. The syllables sounded off in her head and somehow William's name popped into her head. I wonder... She began scrambling the random letters of his full name and took out the ones that spelled William, which left her seven remaining letters. After going through random placements of the letters, she at first came up with Tebennt and all sorts of absurd names. Then it finally hit her with full force...the name Bennett splurged onto her mind's alert system. The full name sent her nerves onto the edge and she didn't want "Nate" to think that she was onto to him. She couldn't scream for help if she wanted to, no one would have heard her for miles unless raccoon hunters were out in droves.
"Something wrong?" He spied from behind her.
"It's nothing," she forced a white lie. I wish Heero was here right now. She looked to see how visible the path was in front of her and with the dimming light, it was getting harder to see any tree stumps that may be hidden in the dense underbrush. What did I get myself into now? She began to quicken her pace, fearing for her own life and she wanted to get away from the monster, whom nearly ruined her summer. For every foot she made, he seemed to sense that she knew something was wrong and doubled his own steps. "Get away from me!"
"Why are you in such a hurry now?" His voice taunted her. "It seems like you remember something."
"Get away from me, William!" She squatted down and threw a fistful of dirt at him when he tried grabbing her arms. With that, she ran into the dense brush and tried to keep out from his sights. Her bright dress didn't do any justice in camouflaging her in the fauna.
William scanned with his hazel eyes trying to spot his obsession, "My plan of driving Heero Yuy away from you worked after all." He paused briefly, "By the looks of your tears, you saw an interesting revelation and now it seems that our hometown hero will go with her back to New York."
She covered her ears, trying to keep his venomous words from entering her conscience. He's the one that started all of this again. She shifted her position and noticed she was getting closer to home. The familiar scent of the lake drifted towards her, but she could tell she still had a long ways to go. "Someone should end your misery," she muttered.
"I hear you, Relena," his voice was even more taunting than before, almost to a psychotic state. He started to hit random spots with a large branch, hoping to scare his victim out into the opening.
Heero burst into Duo's home and startled him out of his armchair. "What the hell did you do that for?"
"Relena's in danger...Pagan didn't see her come home after this morning." He was trying to catch his breath. "William is back." His chilling voice warned that danger was imminent.
"I thought that man left town for good," his eyes looked shocked.
"It has something to do with this Nate guy that Sylvia saw," Heero paced around the house looking for something that could be of use. He went over to the mantle and ripped the rifle off its stand. "I'm going to borrow this."
"Who's Nate?" Duo was a few seconds behind in Heero's conversation. "I've never seen the guy."
"There's no time to explain. I need you to get a search party ready to find Relena." His monotone voice commanded.
He was then distracted with Heero holding his family's heirloom, "Hey be careful with that!"
"Don't forget, Duo," he shouted back and before long, the darkness enveloped his figure.
Without another second wasted, Duo complied to Heero's request and took one of his horses into town at a full canter. He alerted the sheriff about William's reappearance, which shocked the authoritarian figure, "How did ya know that he's back?"
"He's under another name...Nate...according to my friend. We need to round up a group of men to find Relena Peacecraft before William does." He tried to catch the sheriff up on the issue. Before he could say anymore words, the town's bells were ringing of the impending situation and a group of men from the bar emerged along with a couple of bystanders from the stores. They all knew what that sound meant and they gathered their pistols and rifles along with their horses, waiting for their orders. The sheriff waited on the front porch steps of the jailhouse to announce the news.
"What's going on now?" One semi-drunken man asked, "I was in a middle of a darn good poker game." Soon others asked the same question with irritation of their own. They didn't like that someone or something was disturbing their evening's routines.
The sheriff addressed the small group, "William Bennett's back in town now and he's after Relena Peacecraft." A silent wave swept over the group and he continued, "Some of you may have seen him under the name, Nate. We need to find him now, he's a danger to her and to this town." He went through the group and divided them into groups of five. "I want all the grounds to be searched and if you find him, sound off your guns for help. And if he runs, shoot him down."
With the last command said, the groups parted heading in all possible directions in covering as much ground as possible.
"Did you hear that, Lu?" Milliardo looked up from his paper. "Something's wrong." His blue eyes narrowed. "It's way too quiet now."
"The bells were ringing just a moment ago," she cradled their infant son in her arms. She looked out into the evening and didn't see anything peculiar. The toddler picked at her hands and started to cry, "Shhh...dear."
Milliardo hurried his family into the confines of their home without a moment to spare, "I want you to stay inside and don't open to anyone unless you recognize them." He grabbed a small pistol from his dresser drawer, "Here take this," he handed the metallic weapon to her. "I'm going to see what's happening."
"Wait, Milliardo," she called out to him, but he was already on his horse. She whispered after him, "Please be careful," and bolted the door. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"
He rode down onto one of the side roads and saw a group of five men searching in the distance. He called out to them, "Why were the bells ringing?"
The storeowner was part of the pack and replied, "William Bennett's in town somewhere. We heard that Relena Peacecraft is missing and she's in danger."
"Much obliged," and with that, he went out on his own search for the renegade man that nearly destroyed his sister's memories. "You're mine, Bennett." His eyes fired with anger and he wanted to find the bastard soon. Instinct told him to revisit the site of where the first attack took place, but he feared it was just a shot in the dark. The manpower he saw back there seemed futile in trying to catch William. He kicked onto the sides of his horse and darted towards the far side of the lake, hoping there was a clue to where Relena was.
Relena crawled further into the forest, trying to hide herself from William's sight. She knew she was getting closer to the lake, but she didn't want her position to be revealed to her former suitor. She leaned against a tree and looked towards the direction she crawled from, a silhouette shadow danced in the fog and she knew William was getting closer. Seeing that this was her only chance of getting away from his grasp, she got up and ran. Sounds of running footsteps were behind her, but she couldn't see where he was. Just when she was in the clearing, she felt her right foot falling into a shallow grove and with it, her entire body fell onto the soft earth. She immediately covered her mouth to keep the scream from coming out. The pain intensified as she shifted her foot out of the ditch and she knew it was a clean fracture. This can't be happening now. She tried shifting her body weight, but it was no use...she knew he would catch up to her in a matter of minutes. A few yards away from her, she saw a giant oak tree that had a trunk wide enough to shield her from the main road. With a deep a breath in, she summoned the last bit of strength in moving there and it wasn't a moment too soon. Just when she leaned against the cool bark, she heard his footsteps. Her heart pounded over a thousand times and she thought he could hear her.
"Blast that woman!" He darted from the side to side of the road, trying to find clues to her whereabouts.
She closed her eyes trying to block out his image of madness. This isn't what she had in mind of closing her summer...a summer where she wanted to spend with Heero. The pain from her right ankle started intensifying again and her body went rigid. She clasped onto her dress and squeezed it hard in hopes of trying to forget the pain. Behind the tree, she could still hear him batting at bushes randomly.
"We can play this game all night if we have to," his sinister voice echoed. The cool evening fog started enclosing around the area and he decided to move somewhere else hoping to snag her later on.
The hours passed and she felt a shiver run down her spine. By now, the fog was too dense for her to recognize any familiar landmarks. She tried her best in peering out into the white maze and saw a few evergreens nearby and decided to make her way there. With the threat of William still around, she needed to find a safe haven, but where? The fear inside her mind kept encouraging her to move on...she needed to make it through this night to make amends with Heero. She walked a couple of more feet and found another tree trunk to rest on. The scent of the lake drifted ever closer to her now and she knew she was closer to home. Right then, her hopes lifted and she let out a sigh of relief. "Home..."
"I don't think so."
Her blue widened and he spun around facing the tree and saw a figure behind it. And before she had anytime to react, William caught her hand and twisted it around the tree. "Let me go," she clawed at his hands. "HELP!" Her voice cracked the silence...
Milliardo heard the distant cry and knew it was her...he rode his horse to the direction of where her cry rang, but couldn't find her. "Relena!" He cantered a few more yards on his horse, "Where are you?"
"You're not going to answer to that now," William gagged her with a loose cloth. She bit back at his hand and he screamed in horror. "Wench!" He slapped her in the face and the force knocked her to the ground.
Milliardo continued to scan the area and honed in his hearing on the scream. He narrowed his search down to a thick grove of trees and entered the area. In front of him, he heard muffled curses coming from a man. He forced his horse further on and before long he came upon the suspect. "William!" His blue eyes fired with rage and he drove his horse forward to the man that nearly destroyed Relena's life, "You're mine!"
William got out of the way from the raging horse and found a large branch. He braced himself for the next wave of attacks coming from the blonde man and this time he charged at the horse. With a quick move, he jabbed the horse from below and sent the beast reeling into the air along with its rider.
Relena watched in horror as it threw her brother off his stead, "Zechs!" She ran up to him and noticed he wasn't waking up. "Wake up, you have to...you can't leave Lu and the baby...and you CAN'T leave me!" she shook him roughly. She felt her body being pulled back, "Get away from me...you murderer!"
"You're coming with me," he punched her in the stomach and fell limp onto his hands. "You're mine from now and forever," he whispered into her ears. He carried her to a nearby thicket, away from Milliardo's body.
Heero peered through the dense fog, trying to ascertain his location. He heard an earlier scream and tried to pin the source. This is not a good day for hunting. The muffled sounds came straight towards him and he raised the barrel for caution. His finger was set on the trigger, but then he withdrew once he heard the figure collapse a few yards away from him. To his amazement, he found a horse lying in the pasture with a deep gash wound to its front. From that point on, he knew that it was William's doing. There was nothing he could do for the poor creature, but he waited there and added some pressure to its wound. He looked around to gauge his surroundings again and figured he was close to the far northeastern part of the lake...away from the town for sure.
He patted on the horse's side and walked off in hopes of finding her in this mess. He found a clearing and instead found Milliardo lying on his back, barely breathing. For the past several months, he knew that they weren't on the same terms with one another, even though he saved his sister's life. It was all becoming clearer now...the horse and now him. "Where is she?" He lifted the man from the ground.
"It figures you'll show up," a slight trickle of blood ran down on the sides of his mouth. "He took her...not too sure where." A violent cough raged through his body and more blood spilled out.
"Hold on, Zechs." He scrambled to prop the man onto a mount of dirt.
"Relena only called me that," he frowned at his own weakness. "Get out of here, you're wasting time." He ordered the young man away and pushed him when he got too close in assessing his wounds. "I'll be fine! A fall won't kill me."
Heero backed off for a second and knew how stubborn he could get. He saw Zechs's pistol next to him and fired the weapon the three times into the open air. "Help's coming."
"You fool...I could have used those myself." He took his weapon back and reloaded the barrel, not caring of his own fatal injuries.
"Not tonight, you won't. I'll find her." He darted into the darkness again just when the sounds of riders came towards their way.
"He sure has some nerve..." He tried hard to fight the wave of unconsciousness. A few voices drifted over him trying to get his attention, even his eyesight was starting to fade.
One of the men shouted, "We need to get him back to the town now."
"What about William?" A young thirteen-year-old boy called from the rear. Somehow Milliardo followed their conversation and mumbled Heero's name out into the open and relapsed back into a deep sleep.
"We don't need to worry about him as of now," the leader turned around his horse and headed back to town with Milliardo being carried on a spare horse.
The sounds of water trickling down woke Relena from her mild slumber. She blinked a couple of times to get used to the dark surroundings and found her hands bound behind her back. She squirmed around trying to break the thick ropes.
"You're finally awake." William sat next to her and stared intently into her soft blue eyes.
"Why are you doing this?" She commanded an answer.
"You're the one I truly love." He raised his hand and moved her hair away from her face.
"You've gone mad! Get away from me, you monster!" She spat into his face. "You brought this upon yourself...that woman was right for leaving you."
"No one ever makes me the laughing stock, you hear," he seethed. His eyes went into a new level of madness.
"So this is all about your pride then? Isn't it?" She decided to remain firm on her position. "You'll always be the scoundrel here, no matter what you do."
"Why you!" He grabbed her by the neck and forced her body against the moss- covered wall.
She felt his hold tightening and forced a few more words, "You can kill me," and took another breath in, "He'll still find you."
"It's him...always him...arrgh." He released his grip for a second and watched her struggle for air. "Why can't it be ME?"
She coughed violently, "He'll be a far better man...than you." Her last words riled the former suitor even further and she knew it worked.
"Get up now," he barked at her and she clamored onto her feet, nearly tripping on her dress. He led her further down an unknown path covered with small vegetation and propped her against a tree. "No one will hear you now...scream for all I care." He took something out of his back pocket and removed the cover from it. The silver blade flashed in the rare moonlight.
"Help!" She screamed with fear for her life.
"Like I said...no one will hear your cries," a menacing smile appeared on his face.
The blade hovered over her left shoulder and she winced, bracing what his next step might be. "Heero, I'm sorry," tears started to trickle down her cheeks. She felt his cold hands pin her down against the tree, as she struggled against his grip.
"He won't come." He started caressing her face and a stole a kiss from her.
His words stung like poison and they lured her into a stupor of depression. She felt the despair creeping into her heart. He'll come...he has to. "Heero!" Her scream shattered the utter silence, alarming everything in its path.
William had enough hearing his opponent's name, "Be quiet now!" He roughly grabbed her this time and flung her to the ground. He flashed the blade in front of her, "Or I'll have to use this on you."
She sniffled, taken aback for a minute, "Go ahead use it!" She watched William poise the metal above her and waited for the slash that could end her life. She closed her eyes and doted on the memories with Heero to see her through the end. "You'll never have my heart, William."
"Say good night now." He held the knife right above her chest.
BANG
William cried in pain as he felt the knife slip away from his hands, landing only inches away from Relena's body. He looked towards the origin and noticed a cloud of smoke.
"Let her go, William. Game over," The voice was cold and distant. His Prussian eyes stared through the constant eyehole, noting any sudden movements of his intended target.
"That's what you may think," his eyes narrowed. Realizing that Relena was just below him, he grabbed her and used her body as a shield.
"Coward." His eyes narrowed, but his finger still held onto the trigger.
"What are you going to do now, Yuy?" A questionable look was raised on the pale man's face. "Going to shoot her?" He held a tighter grip around Relena's neck, as she tried to gasp for air.
She struggled against him, "Shoot him, Heero! Just shoot him!" The request was absurd to him at the very moment...the words cascaded down through his conscience and he couldn't deal with it. He didn't want to...to kill the woman he loved. Mixed emotions tumbled through his muscles and his body froze...trying to receive the signal that would make everything right.
Her eyes pleaded with his to complete her last wish. The cerulean spheres also held the apology she wanted to say to him but couldn't. She didn't want this madness to continue any further and she continued to stare into own eyes, hoping that he would understand. "I love..." She felt pressure against her vocal cords and chocked back on the last syllables.
"So what's it going to be?" His voice taunted him at his weakness of falling in love with Relena.
"You leave me no choice," Heero steadied the barrel and locked onto the final target.
TBC
How will this standoff end? Will Heero's aim be true or will fate play an awful game, tearing our favorite couple apart? Stay tuned. Thanks for reading and please review...thank you.
I would like to thank my following reviewers...I can't say this enough, but thank you for your comments and well wishes. You guys are the best.
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Sailor J-chan Luna Weasley
