Hurricane Heart

Hurricane

I staggered, delirious and confused, through the trees, slipping on the mud and tripping over tree roots. And then, before I even knew what was going on, I felt hands on my shoulder. Rough, wet, clammy palms groped at me, and I began to scream, the rain disorientating me and throwing me into confusion.

‘Get off!’ I screamed, reaching for my gun. My hand was roughly swept away, pulled behind me as loud voices spoke over the rain and over my cries. I couldn’t make out what they were saying no matter how much I tried to focus.

‘Leave me alone!’ I shrieked, elbowing one of them, for there were several, so that he grunted in pain, but more hands replaced his...or were they the same? They all felt alike.
I was thrown to the ground, crying as I fell sideways into the dirt.

‘Get off!’ I cried again as a heavy boot held my feet in place and someone else held my arms, which blindly tried to punch everything and everyone in sight, even though my hopes were already looking slim.

‘Who’s this, then?’ asked one of them. A tall, dark haired man with pale skin and yellowing teeth leered over me. He was wearing an elaborate mask and a top hat, which confirmed my sudden suspicions that he was one of the Soulless.

‘Y’know, Brad, I think we got ourselves a nice little Dreamer here,’ said another; a blonde one.

The scene began to take shape before me in the pouring rain: two men and a woman, drenched, but with vibrant eyes, lit by a sickening fire from within. They all stood over me, looking down, eyes wide and faces eager like I was a mouth-watering feast. I felt one of the many hands wrench the gun from my pocket and I screamed, desperately trying to lash out at the intruders, but a sharp pain shot through my shoulder as one of the large boots kicked me.

‘Violent one, too,’ said the dark haired man, who must be Brad.

‘Get the fuck off of me!’ I cried, still refusing to stay still. I writhed and desperately tried to kick my way away from the boots that held me down and the tight grip the woman held around my arms.

‘Y’know,’ said the blonde man, his face coming closer, leering at me through dark eyes and grinning with yellow teeth bared between chapped lips. ‘We can make this a hell of a lot worse for you if you want.’

His breath was hot and rancid on my face, and I turned away to stop myself from gagging.

‘What do you want with me?’ I eventually asked, slowly, pained, through gritted teeth. As the boot of the blonde man shifted, I made one last attempt at escaping, but I knew that, especially without a gun, I was useless. I was a good fighter, but not against three strong people who already had an advantage on me.

‘Well, my friend,’ Brad continued in a Soulless-esque theatrical style, his hawk eyes never moving from my face, ‘you are a Dreamer. And d’you know what we do with Dreamers?’

‘We fucking cart your lot off and ‘ave you locked up,’ sneered the blonde man, as though I did not know already.

‘I’m sure the police’ll have a nice little treat tonight, won’t they?’ said the woman mockingly, clean and pretty unlike the other two, with finely applied makeup and the most eccentric outfit of all of them.

‘Not to mention the rewards we’ll get from yer misery,’ the blonde continued to jeer. If I had just one punch, I would aim it right in his ugly, taunting face.

‘Right, well shut yourselves up and get her away from ‘ere,’ ordered Brad, continuing to pace as the other man and woman lifted me with rough hands from where I lay in the dirt and mud. I writhed and struggled and screamed, trying my best to resist, refusing to go down without a fight.

‘Let. Me. Go!’ I yelled, shaking one arm free of the woman’s viciously sharp nails, only for it to be wrenched back behind me by the man so hard it hurt. I was outnumbered. I was alone.

‘She don’t seem to wanna come,’ Brad jeered, his face protruding out, inches from mine. ‘Tie her up.’

I shrieked, struggling desperately as the woman pulled my hands roughly behind me and I screamed out loud in fear and desperation, thick rope already being coiled tightly around my wrists, pulled firmer and firmer until the scratchy, fraying strings began to cut into my skin.

‘Get off of her!’

The voice came, fearful, but roaring over the rain and the commotion the Soulless and I made, from a short distance away. Simultaneously, we all looked up.

Arjan was standing there, water dripping from the ends of his hair, a gun in his shaking hands.

I rarely used proper, bullet guns, but that didn’t mean I didn’t have any. In fact, on the contrary, I had many. And there was also the one I had picked up from Scarrus, which I’d kept no secret from my prisoner companion.

‘Who’re you?’ Brad asked, cocking his head to the side in a jeering smile.

‘I said, get away from her,’ Arjan yelled, his eyes narrow, looking angrier and deadlier than I’d ever seen him. ‘Get away, or I will shoot.’ I noticed how his hands trembled with the weight of the large gun, and I already knew that he would not kill. He did'nt have the courage, not even to save another life. Killing was nowhere near as easy as one could make it look.

But the Soulless did not know that. And as long as the murderous mask remained on his face, there was still a chance.

Besides, what did I really know about him? I’d known him for a mere few days, and even someone as shallow as a non-Dreamer was a deeply intricate and complex person. Maybe he would kill after all, if he really had to. The fear seemed too great in his eyes, but I knew nothing of the fire that may burn in his heart.

‘I mean it,’ he threatened, stepping closer and aiming the barrel of the gun right towards Brad. ‘Let her go!’

I felt the grip of the blonde man loosen. The woman still had a claw-like hand on my shoulder, but it shook with fear. One thing I knew about the Soulless was that they were survivors. Scavenging; hunting; prowling through the shadows; they were like animals, and their survival instinct was so strong that they would do anything to stay alive. Their minds were so vacant that they could not even comprehend the idea of life after death. On the other hand, the Dreamers knew that there was a distinct possibility of such thing as an afterlife, and for that reason we would welcome death with open arms if it was for a noble cause.

Brad glanced at the other two.

‘Let her go,’ he said. He put on a brave face, but I could sense fear in his eyes. He watched the gun warily.

Reluctantly, the other two let go of me, and I shook my hands free of the ropes that had not yet been tied properly, scrabbling up from the ground and brushing some of the dirt off of my face and clothes, running a violently trembling hand through my sodden hair.

I turned to the blonde man.

‘Oh, and I want my gun back, thank you very much,’ I said coldly. Now it was my turn to taunt.
He did not move, clearly contemplating whether he could draw it and point it at me before Arjan could shoot him.

‘Give it to her,’ Arjan warned, threatening him with the gun, his eyes wide and horrified at what he was doing. Begrudgingly, he pulled the tiny but powerful stun gun from his pocket and handed it to me, resentment in his expression. Snatching it away, I began to back off, slowly but surely, towards Arjan. I knew he did not have the strength to shoot them, whatever the beast inside him was portraying, and for that reason we had to get out.

A whirlwind of thoughts warred inside my head. I was too alert and too uptight and too focused right now to make anything clear. All I knew was that I could hear every ragged breath and frantic heartbeat; feel every tiny raindrop that landed on my shoulder; smell the air, cleansed by the much-needed falling water, a scent indescribable to one who had never experienced it before, entwined with that of the pine trees and the leaves and the wind.

‘Give me the gun,’ I whispered.

Arjan shook with adrenaline and fear. His eyes were demonic, and for a moment I felt sure he was not going to be able to let go of the power and pass it to me, but he did, and his trance-like spell broke with it.

I was more casual about killing. I had killed before, and I would kill again if I had to. I flicked the safety guard off and ran my finger over the trigger.

‘You will leave this area,’ I warned the three Soulless, watching me intently. ‘You will run away from here, and I swear I will check. I have a tracking device, and I can pick you up in an instant if I so wish. You will leave, and you will go north. You will not follow us, and if you do, I won’t be so kind next time.’

Even Arjan looked at me with fear. I could be terrifying if I wanted to. I could be a murderer. There was so much rage imprisoned inside of me, and I was ready to let it all out, freeing my mind once again.

‘She’s lying!’ Brad eventually cried out to the other two. ‘She can’t track us!’

‘Lying am I?’ I challenged.

I pulled the trigger, and the bullet fired from the gun with such force that the woman screamed aloud and the blonde man jumped way into the air.

The bullet deliberately missed Brad by inches, hitting a nearby tree with such force that it groaned under the pressure and the bark began to split up the side, cracking sickeningly.

‘No,’ Brad decided; one of his wiser decisions. ‘You ain’t lying.’

And with that, they turned and, little more than shadows on the wind, they departed into the night.