Hurricane Heart

Hurricane

Not ten minutes later, I heard a sound upstairs. It was the sound of a door opening, followed by footsteps on the creaking wooden floor, and then a voice.

‘Anyone in?’

‘I’m down here!’ I called, opening the downstairs door, pleased that it was Carl’s voice that I could hear.

His face appeared over the staircase banister, his light brown hair falling forwards as he leant down. He was followed by another face; shaggy, light hair framing stone cold blue eyes.

‘Tobias?’ I said, noticing the second visitor. My voice easily conveyed the distinct lack of enthusiasm that I was now feeling at the sight of this second guest.

‘Hurricane,’ he said; an acknowledgement more than a greeting. He followed Carl down the stairs, where the latter greeted me with a broad and slightly awkward smile.

‘Is this him?’ Carl asked, walking in and spotting Arjan sitting, hands tied and hunched over, on the sofa.

‘Why haven’t you locked him up?’ Tobias asked. ‘The prison’s just down there.’ He gestured down the corridor I’d recently gone to investigate. I knew full well where the prison was, as a matter of fact.

‘I know,’ I said curtly. ‘But he hasn’t been any problem, so I let him stay out here.’

‘Well, I’m not having him around whilst we talk,’ Tobias declared. ‘I don’t let betrayers in on my conversations.’ I learnt long ago that many Dreamers referred to all non-Dreamers simply as ‘betrayers.’ If they weren’t willing to fight and die for a world without fear, then they had apparently betrayed us all.

I could see by normally charismatic and chatty Carl’s dismal face that he wasn’t going to have a fun time stuck between two people as warm and loving as Tobias and myself.

‘Well we need to talk,’ Tobias said grumpily, unimpressed at my lack of answer, ‘so I’m going to deal with him.’

‘Deal with him?’ I asked, not liking the sinister note in his voice. I kept my voice cool, not betraying any of my feelings for Arjan. Well, ‘feelings’ was generous. By ‘feelings,’ I just meant the sort of forced friendship we had.

Yes. Of course that was all I meant...

‘Yeah,’ Tobias said curtly. He marched over to Arjan and heaved him up from the sofa. Instinctively, Arjan began to struggle, giving me a pleading look. I returned with nothing.

‘You’re going to go where you fucking belong!’ Tobias snarled, shoving him forward. Arjan continued to writhe and wrestle under Tobias’s firm grip—the man was clearly causing him pain—but with his hands tied he was no match.

'Get off!' he protested, but Tobias ignored him.

‘Don’t hurt him!’ I suddenly blurted out, surprising even myself.

Carl turned to me with wide eyes. Tobias gave me a stern, and very confused glance.

‘What the hell?’

‘I just mean...’ I stammered, lost for words for the first time in my life. ‘He won’t struggle if you take him nicely.’

As if to prove a point, Tobias shoved Arjan so hard into the corridor that he stumbled and fell into the wall, yelling out, not getting his hands out in time to save himself. I stood with Carl, my fists clenched tight to stop me from shouting out. Arjan looked at me desperately, calling out my name and struggling under Tobias’s harsh grip, knowing where he was going, and able to do nothing about it. I could only watch blankly, and wait. I wished I hadn’t tied him up now.

I heard him cry out in pain shortly after he and Tobias were the other side of the curtain, and instinct told me to run and find out, but Carl’s hand stopped me. Every argument I posed would only make things worse. I was as powerless as poor Arjan.

I heard another loud shout, sounding like ‘no!’ once they reached the far end of the corridor, and I turned away to try and block it out. I ran into the kitchen and switched on the kettle; drummed my nails on the countertop; began running the tap to wash the dishes from dinner, even though Carl was waiting outside. Anything to drown out the noise.

Perhaps this was what Arjan meant by running away.

Arjan

She had betrayed me. As Tobias threw me into the end room, and I began to panic as I saw the darkness and the chains, that was perhaps the harshest thing I had to face. I had trusted her; the enemy, and she had betrayed me to this bastard. I had looked at her, I had called for help, and she had said nothing. She was content to watch me shoved around like a slave, hurt and treated like I was nothing.

I had thought I liked her. I thought I was getting somewhere, but evidently she was still the same cold, heartless bitch she always had been. I thought I was changing her, but someone like Hurricane would never change. She had left me to this room, and I had no idea this time when I would be out again.

Tobias dragged me over to the chains, untying my wrists but keeping a firm grip on me all the time. He fixed the rusted iron around my wrist as I writhed and struggled in desperation, and he shoved me back against the wall so hard it hurt, locking me in place.

‘Get the fuck off me!’ I cried. Tobias seemed to be enjoying himself in a sadistic way.

‘You’re a prisoner, and this is where the prisoners belong,’ he snarled. ‘Not out there, where she was keeping you.’

It was true; she had been treating me well these last few days, but that wasn’t to hide what she was really plotting. She would earn my trust, and then she would betray me. Sneaky, devious, two-faced bitch.

As Tobias backed out with a mocking smirk that made me want to throttle him, I began to realise how, even in the beginning, she had been better. Even when she’d left me in these rooms, she’d left me with food and a sleeping bag and even a pillow.

But despite all of that, it had all been an elaborate trick. And I hated her. I thought I was growing to like her, but all that affection had vanished when I’d looked up at her with begging eyes and she’d returned a blank, emotionless, unforgiving glance, refusing to help me whilst in the company of her own people.

Yes. Only now, I realised that up until this moment, I had liked her. It was so strange, but it was so true. I could only tell this by the betrayal I now felt like a hole in my heart. I didn’t realise what I had until I had it no more.