‹ Prequel: Chasing Imagination
Sequel: Martyr's Run

Hurricane Heart

Alone in the City

Hurricane

I was a shadow as I strode out of the building, my mind and soul empty. I was heartless. I was a monster. Every step I took was further condemning an innocent man to death.

And yet, out here was not where I belonged. I was the Hurricane. The very name suggested that I was too open-minded for these people out here. I was a Dreamer, and with fellow Dreamers was where I should be. Arjan had changed me, but not for the better. And with every step I took, I felt the emotion inside me being steadily replaced with numbness. By the time I slammed the car door shut and took off at speed, I was almost myself again. I held no emotion for Arjan. What happened to him was nothing to do with me.

At least, that was what I told myself.

But I didn’t even like him anyway! Why should I care what happened to him?

Once again, that was only what I told myself.

I was hiding from myself again. Just like he kept telling me I did. I was running from me.

Hurricane, Hurricane, Hurricane.

The mere word smoothed out the tempest inside my mind.

At least I’d got one thing right: there was most definitely going to be a storm tonight.

Arjan

I hadn’t really tried to listen to Hurricane’s conversation outside, but I couldn’t fail to hear the odd word. At one point, shortly after she left, I heard her scream ‘what?’ I’d also heard a few more shouts, but I hadn’t heard the actual words. And I’d heard a very argumentative tone. Whatever Carl was telling her, she didn’t want to be hearing it.

But it was only after I realised that she’d been outside for a long time that I also realised I hadn’t heard her for a long while. This unnerved me. Surely she was still out there, though, wasn’t she? She wasn’t about to leave me in any danger after all, not after everything she’d previously done to protect me.

Maybe her phone call had ended and she was now deep in thought, perhaps trying to work something out. That could have been why she’d needed her bag. She mentioned writing stuff down.

My mind told my body to relax, but my conscience said something else, and, even though I stayed lying on the bed, I couldn’t calm down at all. Every muscle within me was tensed up, ready for action, and my heart must have been beating at twice the normal pace.

She was still there, of course she was still out there. She was just taking a long time about it.

As the seconds ticked by, I became more alert, to the point where I was sure I’d be able to hear if she so much as sniffed.

And then there were footsteps. They were slow, steady, pacing perhaps. See! She was still out there. It was probably her way of thinking. Many people paced as they contemplated. I hated myself for thinking that she’d abandoned me. Anyway, her stun gun was still on the table. She wasn’t about to go anywhere without that.

The footsteps slowed down, right outside the door, until I could hear them no more. Perhaps she was about to come in, or maybe she was just trying a more stationary way of thinking.

Hurricane

I drove across Berlin at twice the normal speed limit, skidding round corners and blaring my horn at anyone who dared to so much as hesitate. The best entrance into the base was about twenty minutes drive from the hotel, but I could easily do it in fifteen. Yes. I just passed the station. That meant I was only five minutes away; less on a clear run. I’d barely been going for ten. It just showed what a person could do when they really put their mind to it.

Arjan

There was a knock on the door. It made me jump right out of my skin, so much so that I actually gasped out loud and could feel the adrenaline pumping through my veins.

It was only Hurricane. Looking across the room, I saw that the card used as a key was still on the desk. Once she’d gone out, she couldn’t get back in again until I opened the door for her.

I jumped up, glad that she had finally finished. We had barely scratched the surface in here—now that I was apparently a Dreamer, I wanted to know everything about it.

I turned the handle. The door, like many in hotels, was wide and heavy.

I pulled it open.

It was not Hurricane who stood on the other side.

It was a complete stranger.

But the mask suggested that he could very well be Soulless.

Hurricane

I swung the car round the corner into the alleyway that was realistically too small for it, but it was useful, and about as inconspicuous as a large, shiny, black car with slightly dark tinted windows could be made.

I did not hesitate as I walked the short distance from the parking space to the subway staircase. Every second I wasted was a second more likely that one of the Soulless that were swarming into Berlin like a plague would see me. I couldn’t risk them following me into the base. One life lost, although I tried not to think about Arjan, was bad. Our entire base ravaged was another matter altogether.

Once in the subway, I didn’t slow down, taking the reassuringly familiar route through the tunnels almost at a run, plugging in the code to get into the base. I was home. I was more comfortable here than I had been for a long time. I’d missed this place.

This place, which, thanks to me, Arjan would never get to see.

Shut the fuck up Hurricane!

Normally, once inside, everyone would be minding their own business. This way was one of the main ways in, and it led straight into the hub, which was rarely empty, but entrees were usually only greeted with a passing glance, perhaps a casual ‘hey.’

But tonight could not be more different. The second I pushed the door open, Carl sprung up from where he was seated on the sofa, and Jonas came at me at practically a run.

There were no people in this world that I wanted to see less than these two right now.

‘Hurricane!’ Carl cried. ‘You made it back! That was quick!’

I stormed straight past him. Jonas’s smile faded as he took one look into my eyes. If he was about to say ‘I told you so,’ he sensibly thought again.

‘Hurricane,’ he called after me.

‘Hurricane!’ Carl echoed.

I rounded on them unprecedentedly.

‘Fuck off!’ I snapped. They fell abruptly into silence, looking at each other regretfully.

To be fair, I was wrong about saying that there was no one in the world worse to see right now than these two. Because I walked straight in to one of those contradictions as I rounded the corner.

‘Oh, it’s you,’ Tobias practically snarled. ‘I see you made it back then.’

‘Yes, thanks,’ I said sarcastically.

Tobias evidently was not as intelligent as Jonas. Either that, or he had a death wish.

‘I always knew it would end this way,’ he said, the smug smile on his fat face making the situation even worse.

I slapped him across the face before I even knew what I was doing.

‘You fucking bitch,’ he hissed, reaching out with his thick fingers to retaliate. I was too quick for him, stepping out of reach, letting his own weight propel him forward and into the wall.

‘I’ll get you someday, you bitch!’ he snarled unpleasantly. ‘You got something coming for you.’

‘I wouldn’t mess with me if I were you,’ I pointed out coolly, turning and storming away. I was Hurricane. I could do this.

After my miniature ordeal with Tobias, Carl had managed to catch up with me, even at my pace that was more like some peoples’ running.

‘Hurricane,’ he breathed, jogging after me to keep up as I refused to acknowledge him, let alone stop and wait for him. ‘The Master wants to talk to you.’

I knew he was only trying to be helpful, but I really wasn’t in the mood.

‘Where else do you think I’m going?’ I snapped so viciously that he took a step backwards and didn’t resume walking until I was several metres ahead.

‘Hurricane, I don’t know why you’re—‘ he began. I didn’t wait for him to finish.

‘You want to know why then?’ I demanded, my unusually soprano voice rough and rasping and icy with emotion. ‘I’m angry because it’s your fault that I’ve just effectively killed an innocent man.’
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The Chasing Imagination and Hurricane Heart music playlists are now in my journal if anyone's interested! I've made a link to them on the summary pages of each story.