I think this chapter was done in record time! ^^;
Big big thanks to my awesome beta, Aikoyu Saotome :D
Kaito: Thanks so much! I'm glad you liked it ;) Expect more where that came from, in due course XD That sounds even better than icecream *v* And thanks, the same to you! It's never too early to start being festive XD
Synk: I'm happy you liked it XD she's got some fire in her, that's for sure ;D
14. Attack (30 Seconds to Mars)
I won't suffer, be broken, get tired, or wasted
Surrender to nothing, or give up what I
Started and stopped it, from end to beginning
A new day is coming, and I am finally free
Run away, run away, I'll attack
Run away, run away, go chase yourself
Run away, run away, now I'll attack
I'll attack, I'll aa-WHOOOAAAAAAAAA
I would have kept you, forever, but we had to sever
It ended for both of us, faster than a
Kill off this thinking, it's starting to sink in
I'm losing control now, and without you I can finally see
Run away, run away, I'll attack
Run away, run away, go chase yourself
Run away, run away, now I'll attack
I'll attack, I'll aa-WHOOOAAAAAAAAA
Your promises, they look like lies
Your honesty, like a back that hides a knife (knife)
I promise you (promise you)
I promise you (promise you)
And I am finally free
Run away, run away, I'll attack
Run away, run away, go chase yourself
Run away, run away, now I'll attack
I'll attack, I'll attack, I will attack
Run away, I'll attack, I will attack
Run away, I'll attack, I will attack
Run away (Run away), I'll attack (I'll attack)
I'll aa-WHOOOAAAAAAAAA
Your promises
(promises, promises)
I promise you
(promise you)
I promise you
(promise you, promise you)
"Shock? Shock, wake up already!"
The whispered voice sounded urgent, rousing her from her state of near-unconsciousness. Someone was shaking her shoulder roughly, and she pushed herself up onto her forearms, blinking groggily.
"Stop that!" she mumbled, her voice still heavy with drowsiness. "'m up already, sheesh."
"We've got to get out of here," the voice carried on, sounding more and more urgent with every hushed syllable. "While the guards are still sleeping, hurry up!"
Shock sat up quickly, suddenly wide awake. She glanced around her – she was in a small clearing in the middle of the woods. It was early morning, judging by the freshness of the air and the waning chirps of the crickets. The sun had yet to rise, and everything was still dark. Sleeping figures dotted the clearing, covered in rough woollen blankets. Shock remembered who they were – bastards from the military, herding her off to some foreign conscription camp for their own sinister purposes.
Shock's attention was garnered by the shadowy figure perched in front of her, waving their hand in front of her face. "Are you even listening to me? I said let's go!"
Shock made a move to rise, but stopped short when her ankle met some resistance. "How do you expect me to get going when I've got the damn ankle chain on, Emil?" she whispered angrily. "Or did you forget about that?"
Emil just snorted under his breath and produced a ring of keys from somewhere about his person. Careful not to jangle them together and otherwise alert the still-slumbering guards, the young boy set to work on freeing Shock's ankle. In a matter of seconds, the steel cuff fell open. Shock stepped out of it gingerly, not used to having the freedom of moving her left leg unhindered. She rubbed her ankle tenderly – blistered and bruised from the constant chafing of her confines over the past two weeks, it was still going to be a pain to walk.
"Where's the sentry?" she asked her companion quietly, scanning the tree line. She edged away from the spot where she had been chained for the night, readying herself to bolt. "And how did you get the keys?"
In the darkness, Shock could almost hear Emil rolling his eyes. The two of them had been close friends back in the village, before the military had swept in and snatched them up. Being two years older, Emil was usually the one to take charge of the situation, and thought it his mission to protect Shock. His constant coddling irritated her sometimes – she could take care of herself perfectly fine. She had been doing just great by herself in the few months since her mother had passed away. She didn't need someone constantly looking over her shoulder.
"You think snatching a bunch of keys would be hard for a former street rat?" he sighed irritably. "And the sentry buggered off to take a piss or something, which is why we should be leaving now!"
Keeping close being Emil in the early morning darkness, Shock crept towards the treeline as silently as she possibly could. Her heart was beating loudly in her throat, and she was petrified someone would hear it. The pair slunk as silently as field mice to the tree line, and Shock glanced over her shoulder one last time to make sure no one had woken and discovered their escape. When no one stirred, they disappeared into the shadows.
…
Chests heaving, gangly limbs pumping furiously, the two children tore through the forest with reckless abandon, not caring if they made too much noise any longer. They were a good two hours away from the clearing where their captors had set up camp, and were pretty sure no one had noticed their departure until they were long gone. The sun had just started filtering through the densely packed trees, illuminating the way forwards for the pair of runaways.
Shock's throat was burning and her sides were cramping, but she knew she couldn't slow down. When the military officials found they were missing, they'd be sure to be on the hunt. She and Emil had to find a town or some form of civilisation – someone would help them, she was sure of it.
The two of them leaped over bushes and protruding tree roots as if they were hurdles, pushing themselves off of tree trunks to keep their momentum going. Shock's charms thudded against her back in the small cloth bag she had managed to hide them in, jangling together loudly as she ran. She shifted the satchel around, clutching it to her chest to silence her precious keepsakes. Emil cast her frequent glances over his shoulder to make sure she was keeping up. For once, Shock was too preoccupied with getting away from the military to be annoyed at his overprotectiveness.
A loud braying sound echoed from the forest behind them, and Shock's blood ran cold. The dogs. How could they have forgotten about the dogs?
Petrified of the hellish hounds on their trail, Shock and Emil doubled their speed to such an extent that the braches whipping past them left lacerations on their arms as they went. Shock grimaced in a mixture of pain and dread – the dogs were sure the track them by the blood splattered leaves left in their wake.
But she needn't have worried about the dogs tracking them – being so young and weakened by weeks of non-stop forced marches, Shock and Emil were beginning to tire. Shock found it hard to get her legs moving in the direction she wanted them to – she started bouncing off trees as she ran, her limbs flailing around wildly to keep her balance. Emil began to stumble frequently, often grazing his knees on fallen logs as he struggled to keep on his feet. Chests burning and sides heaving, both children knew it wouldn't be long before they either collapsed from exhaustion or were pounced upon by the savage beasts on their trail.
With the braying and howling of the dogs getting louder and louder as they inched closer and closer to their prey, Shock began to lose hope. She had been foolish to think for even a second that they had a chance to escape. They were out in the middle of nowhere, with no idea how close the nearest civilised establishment was, or even how near they were to anything vaguely hinting at a human population. They had no food or water, no idea where they were going, and no weapons. Running away had been almost like a death sentence.
And now they had another form of a death sentence breathing down their necks.
Shock's foot caught in a protruding root and she crashed to the ground, skidding a good few feet before slamming against the trunk of a tree. She cried out in pain, clutching her ankle with one hand and her head with the other.
"Shock!" Emil skidded to a halt, turning around and coming back for her. "You need to get up, they'll be here any moment!"
"I can't!" she wheezed, her head swimming from a combination of the blow against the tree and a lack of oxygen. "My ankle… I think I sprained it."
Emil cursed loudly, looking around quickly for any signs of the hunting dogs. The barking and howling was getting closer and closer. "Come on," he grunted, pulling Shock to her feet and supporting her weight on his shoulder. "You've got to at least try."
Shock gritted her teeth, swallowing a groan as she gingerly put some weight on her swollen ankle. Spikes of pain flared from the joint whenever she tried to stand on it, but she swallowed it down. Pushing away from Emil, she began jogging again – this time with a pronounced limp.
"Come on, we should keep moving."
Emil joined her, and Shock pushed the pain to the back of her mind, picking up speed.
Heart thundering in her throat, it almost stopped completely when the vicious snarl of a hunting dog sounded right behind her. Shock screamed as a force hit her square in the back, a maw full of razor-sharp teeth clamping down on her shoulder. She screamed again, trying to throw the dog off of her, but to no avail.
"Shock!" Emil cried, stopping in his tracks, watching her in horror.
Before he could make a move towards her, Shock shouted, "No! Don't worry about me, you have to go!"
"I can't just leave you here!" he protested, taking another hurried step closer.
Shock gritted her teeth and punched the dog on her back right in the snout. It yelped, releasing her shoulder and shaking its head roughly. Shock seized the opportunity to shove it away from her, flipping herself over onto her backside. She glared at Emil over her shoulder.
"If you don't leave now, the guards will be here soon and that'll be the end of you!" she snapped, kicking the dog away with her good leg as it made another lunge at her. The braying of its pack mates continued to grow louder and louder.
"I'm not abandoning you!" Emil shouted, making a grab for her good arm.
Shock slapped his hand away. "I'll act as a diversion. It's better for one of us to at least make it out than neither!"
"But-"
"NO BUTS, EMIL!" Shock screeched. Even the advancing hound shrank back at her tone, ears flattened against its skull for a moment. "GO! NOW!"
Shock didn't even look over her shoulder as her childhood friend hesitantly disappeared into the underbrush. The heaviness on her heart dissipated a little bit at the thought that he would hopefully make it far enough away in time, and escape the military hounds on their trail.
With renewed determination, Shock stared down the approaching hellhound. She made direct eye contact with the beast, daring it to charge again. Her shoulder throbbed, blood soaking her shirt. The hound snarled menacingly, hackles raised. Refusing to be intimidates, she bared her teeth. The dog copied her expression, revealing a pair of rather large, razor-sharp incisors, glistening with drool. It growled low in its throat, preparing to spring.
A growl of her own reverberating in the back of her throat, Shock tensed.
The beast sprang.
Shock screamed.
The charm mage bolted upright in her bed so quickly that she almost flew out of it. She clutched her sheets in a white-knuckle grip, heart hammering and breath short. Beads of perspiration ran down her back, between her shoulder blades, and she shuddered. She thought the nightmares were over. She had thought that the flashbacks would have stopped by now, nearly two years after escaping the camp.
But she guessed she had been wrong.
Shock took a few deeps breaths to calm her erratic heartbeat, wiping the sweat from her brow with the back of her hand. She closed her eyes for a moment, running her other hand over her face. She sighed, shoulders slumping. She could have laughed at the fact that after so many years apart, her mind could even still remember so much about Emil. She had even been able to remember the freckles on the bridge of his nose, how one of his eyes was blue and the other hazel, how he'd always had that one spot of hair that refused to stay down, no matter how long he'd teased it with either his fingers or a comb.
Shock ran her fingers through her hair, working out some of the knots that had formed with her tossing and turning. Even after so many years, she still wondered where the hell that kid had ended up. If he'd even been able to get away from the military. She kind of missed him.
She glanced over at her side table, the time on her clock illuminated in bold red numbers.
1:20 am.
Shock grumbled irritably, rolling her eyes as she resisted the urge to smack herself in the face. There went another night of sleep. She sat in silence for a few more moments before throwing the covers off and hauling herself out of bed. It was no use just lying there in the dark when it was obvious that sleep would elude her the whole night.
Shock fumbled around in the dark for a minute or two, muttering curses under her breath when she kicked more than one piece of hardwood furniture. Finally, she found her desk lamp and flicked it on, leaning against the table for a moment as a yawn assailed her. She scratched the back of her neck, deciding what would be the best way to while away the hours until daybreak.
Shock glanced around her sparse room – there was nothing much in it besides the furniture and her clothes. She wasn't really one for being materialistic at the best of times. She peered through her shutters at the dark landscape outside. Erza was sure to have locked the front door of the boarding house long ago, but Shock knew where the keys were. She needed some fresh air to clear her head and get rid of the unsettling feeling weighing heavy in the pit of her stomach.
Shock shuffled over to her cupboard and pulled out a pair of cargo pants and a tank top. After a moment's hesitation, she pulled out her bomber jacket as well. Tossing the clothing items on her unkempt bed, she scrounged around for her boots. Yanking them out from under the bed, Shock dumped them in a pile next to her bedside table and yanked off the baggy T-shirt she had been sleeping in. She paused, regarding the clothing ensemble on her mattress.
It was always the same – baggy cargo pants that were comfortable and easy to move around in. They didn't show much, either. Tank tops – great for keeping cool during training, and they basically went with anything so she didn't have to worry about matching outfits or anything silly like that. The bomber jacket was basically her only means of keeping warm in the winter. Shock didn't really feel the need to buy any other coats – a mind-set inherited from the camp. You used what you were given and didn't get a replacement until the old one was beyond repair.
And then, her trusty combat boots – sturdy, warm in the winter, had a good grip on them for running, and they would most likely endure the apocalypse. All of her clothing was practical – no fashion nonsense or compromising comfort for the sake of style. It wasn't the most exciting collection of clothes, but it had always done the job. Once again, it was another habit retained from the conscription camp.
Shock wasn't sure if she was irritated by the fact, or indifferent. Her clothing suited her needs, whether it be a left-over teaching from the camp or not.
Pushing the thought to the back of her mind, Shock dressed quickly and quietly made her way out of her room. She padded down the dark corridor, especially careful not to wake any of the other girls who were sure to be fast asleep. Shock envied them.
She ghosted down the stairs and rounded the corner, coming face to face with the locked front door. Shock trailed her hand over the wall to her left until her fingers found the hook with the door keys suspended from it. She lifted them free and felt around for the right key. Having found it, she slotted it into the front door and unlocked it, leaving the keys in the lock and slipping outside into the cool early-morning air. Closing the door softly behind her, Shock shoved her hands in her pockets and trudged off the porch and up the winding pathway, towards the town.
On her walk, Shock was reminded just how peaceful Magnolia was before the hustle and bustle of the day started – the only sounds were the chirps of the crickets and the crunch of her boots on gravel as she walked. A slight breeze blew in from the north, rustling the trees gently.
Shock let her feet guide her, and pretty soon she found herself on the banks of the river. A small overhang had been built over the water, a rest stop for anyone travelling along the broad walkway following the river through the town. She paused, scanning the area around her. Tendrils of light had begun to creep in through the night sky, painting the few scattered wisps of clouds bright gold and pink. Shock let out another world-weary sigh and made her way over to the bench just behind the guardrail. She sat down and leaned back, drawing her legs up and resting her feet on the top of the railing. She hugged her knees to her chest and rested her chin atop them as she looked out over the river.
The quiet gurgle of the water had a calming effect on Shock's turbulent thoughts. She allowed her mind to empty itself of everything but the sound of the water, letting it wash over her and dissipate the uneasy feeling that had been churning around in her chest.
"Can't say I would have expected you up and around at this time of the morning."
Shock spared a quick glance over her shoulder at the new comer before turning her attention back to the river. "Stranger things have happened."
Gajeel ambled around the bench and took a seat next to his partner. The two of them sat in silence for a while, just watching the water. It was the most peaceful Shock had ever seen her partner since joining Fairy Tail.
"So what are you doing up so early anyway?" she asked, scuffing one boot against the railing.
Gajeel snorted, the tiniest of wry smiles curving his mouth. "You're not the only insomniac in town, hate to break it to ya."
Shock chuckled. "Yeah, suppose I should have known better."
The pair sank into a companionable silence as they watched the sun slowly start its ascent. For a long time, the only sounds were the crickets and the bubbling river below. A sense of peace washed over Shock, something she hadn't felt in a long time. She allowed herself a small smile, settling back against the bench and snuggling deeper into her jacket.
Gajeel glanced at her from the corner of his eye. "What are you so happy about?"
"Not… happy, per say," Shock replied, "more like being the most at ease I've been in months. It's… nice."
"Never thought anyone would say that while they were around me," her partner sniggered, ruffling her hair.
Shock swatted his hand away and his snigger turned to a chuckle as she scowled, patting her hair down again. She smirked, smacking his arm playfully. "Maybe more people would say it if you weren't such a grouch all the time."
Gajeel just rolled his eyes. "We've been through this, pipsqueak – I am the literal definition of a grouch."
Shock snorted. "You do a damn good job at perfecting it, too."
Shrugging nonchalantly, Gajeel snickered. "I pride myself on perfection."
Shaking her head, Shock replied, "You're impossible, you know that?"
"Tell me something I don't already know," he sighed, grinning smugly
Shock just continued shaking her head, chuckling to herself. She had to admit, she hadn't been this comfortable around another person besides Levy since coming to Magnolia. While her relations with the other mages in the guild were steadily improving, it still hadn't progressed much further than friendly chit-chat and polite greetings.
As the sun continued to rise, and the sky lightened, Shock's chuckle faded to a small smile. Her expression softened. Despite the few little hiccups she had experienced in the last few months, she was happy with the way things were going. It could only be up from here.
To all my wonderful readers,
If I don't manage to update before Christmas (I'm going away sometime in the next two weeks), I just want to wish all of you the best for the holiday season (whatever religion you follow) and a happy New Year! And thank you all so much for being the best readers a writer could ask for *3*
BiFT