Hurricane Heart

Hurricane

I ran across the road, spotting two people disappearing down a small street.

Soulless.

I could tell from the way they skulked, their backs pressed into the darkest shadows, darting through the light as fast as they could, afraid of conspicuousness.

I charged after them.

This time, I did not wait. They were moving lithely, prowling like animals, but they hadn’t noticed me yet.

So I shot two bullets, and hit both of them in the backs.

I heard two screams, and both of them fell. The first collapsed into the other, and the other fell forward, bringing the first with him. The first rolled onto his side, and the other landed face first.

They were both still very much alive, but from their writhing and tortured cries, I could sense that they were in considerable agony.

I could have killed them, but I spared them that much. Instead, I just charged on past, my vision red, my mind murderous, bloodlust contaminating every last thought in my brain.

That was why I left everything behind.

I raced down the road, and then into another, and then another, looking out for any signs of Arjan.

Arjan

My mind was hollow as I stumbled through the automatic doors, practically colliding with them as they opened too slowly, as though they had all the time in the world, out of the far too bright, luminescent strip lighting and into the comforting dimness of the city night.

I was on a large, yet quiet road. A few cars were parked, and one drove past. On the far side was a green space, expanding out into the park. I crossed over, not even bothering to look for cars, and continued to run towards the right, into the trees. There was a main path leading through, lined with benches and bins and trees at regular intervals. It seemed stupid being out here in the open, but perhaps that was better. They were less likely to expect me out here. And I was more likely to see anyone that was coming.

I ran far enough into the park so that the city skyscrapers, dotted with tiny yellow pinpricks, were all behind me, and the roar of cars was in the distance. There couldn’t be any Soulless around; I hadn’t seen anyone at all since I’d first entered the park. My insides screamed, begging for mercy, and I gave in for just a moment, collapsing backwards onto a cold park bench as I clutched at the stitch ravaging through my side.

How much longer could this go on? I’d been running and fighting for at least two hours now, but I hadn’t even scratched the surface of the total number of Soulless that could be hunting me down through this city right now.

One thought still refused to leave my mind no matter what else was occupying it: Hurricane.

Why had she left me? Was this really her intention all along, or had her phone call unveiled some new, dark revelation? I wanted to believe in the best in her, but reason told me that she wasn’t like that. Of course I couldn’t rely on her. She made it clear right at the beginning that she didn’t like me, and she’d repeatedly explained how her entire philosophy in life was never to get close to anyone. She didn’t expect anyone to rely on her, and nor did she rely on anyone else. She held no ties so that she had nothing to lose. She was both selfish and selfless in that motto, but right now, looking at the black park and the black night that stretched on ahead of me, seeming as if a new dawn would never break, and with nothing but death staring back at me out of that darkness, I could only see the selfish side.

I shouldn’t have ever expected her to stay around. I wouldn’t have, because I knew what she was about, but it was just the fact that she seemed to want me for something so badly. Even she admitted she didn’t know why she needed me, but as long as she still had something to discover, she kept me very close.

Maybe she just no longer needed me anymore, for whatever reason. Maybe she’d been ordered back. Maybe she had realised the danger we were both in and got out, saved herself while she still had the chance. I just felt like, after all this time, after ruining my entire life, she owed me something.

I tossed my head back, staring up at the tiny burning pinpricks in the eternally black sky. It was eerily clear, not a cloud to be seen, but fresh also, not hot or muggy. The first breath of wind that I had seen all night whispered through the trees, hardly anything significant, but enough to make the leaves rustle like encaged ghosts. I closed my eyes briefly, trying to sift through the chaos inside my mind. It was just all so strange and so hectic and so confusing. Why was I even here? I just wanted to get back to my normal life, but that was going to be impossible.

I remembered my situation. I was supposed to be running, and here I was, practically lying on a park bench, worn out and exhausted and totally vulnerable.

I opened my eyes, momentarily staring up at the black sky, before forcing my frozen head to move back to its normal position and looking across the park which, apart from the city lights that didn’t touch this dark space and the occasional lamp lining the main path was just as black.

But, under the tall lamp nearest to me, I could see another face staring back at me.

Hurricane

I fired. Another Soulless fell. This one was on his own. That made a total of six for me now, and still without a scratch on my skin.

But, whilst shooting Soulless could be incredibly pleasing, it wasn’t why I was out here. I had something far more important to do. My insides were on fire, and I could collapse from exhaustion, but an unknown force kept me relentlessly running on.

I turned a corner down a large but deserted road, imposed on from either side by tall office blocks, and I could see a person walking towards me. It was a moment, however, before I saw the mask, and a moment later before I saw the gun.

That was a moment too late.

‘If it isn’t our little rogue Dreamer,’ the man jeered. I recognised him in the same way as he recognised me, possibly from a raid not too long ago. I fought to retrieve his name from the depths of my mind.

‘Heiko,’ I said, staring down the barrel that was now less than a metre from my face, breathing shallowly. An unexpected gust of wind was channelled through the tunnel-like road and it whipped my wild hair like a dark halo around my face.

‘Is it Hurricane now?’ Heiko asked.

‘Yes,’ I said. ‘To you anyway.’

‘I like it,’ he said, always that same taunting tone that he must have picked up from Scarrus. They both worked for the Berlin Soulless; I knew that much. ‘It’s...powerful. Too bad I’m about to bring down that power.’

‘You just try me,’ I challenged. I knew this gun contained bullets. It was the same make as the one I had stolen from Scarrus.

Heiko smiled maliciously. ‘Where’s the Secret? You’re not with him, I see.’

‘The Secret?’ I repeated.

‘The boy.’

‘His name’s Arjan,’ I told him curtly.

‘Whatever. You’re separate, though, that’s what’s important. I didn’t think even you would leave him so vulnerable.’

He was playing to the human nature that still lay buried deep somewhere within me. I would try my hardest not to take any notice, but it wasn’t easy.

‘It wasn’t by choice,’ I told him. ‘I had other things to do.’

‘Well, don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining,’ taunted Heiko, determined to make me hurt from my mistakes. ‘It makes things so much easier for us.’

He never moved that gun, and, unfortunately, until he did, it rendered me powerless. Getting injured or even killed was going to be no use tonight. I had other lives to save.

‘Do you know where he is?’ I asked. I was stubborn. Even staring down the barrel of a gun, I could still make this work to my advantages.

‘You mean that you don’t?’ Heiko replied indirectly.

‘That’s not what I asked.’

He chuckled. ‘You’re good, Hurricane. I like you. Too bad I’m going to have to blow your brains out.’

‘You don’t have to do anything,’ I told him, my voice monotonous, perpetually emotionless. Even I couldn’t work out whether I was scared or not, so Heiko would have no idea.

My hand inconspicuously rested on the gun in the little belt holder that I was wearing round my skin-tight black jeans. Heiko’s eyes never moved from mine. He didn’t seem to notice.

Lightning speed was what it took to achieve this, and not to mention some incredible moves.

It was a good job I possessed those skills, then.

‘So,’ I tested one last time, ‘are you gonna tell me where Arjan is?’

‘’Fraid not,’ he replied sarcastically. ‘You see, we’re enemies, Hurricane. It’s almost a shame that you didn’t turn out like your father.’

That was the fuse that lit the bomb.

I whipped my gun out in a flash.

I leapt to the right at the same time.

And I spun round Heiko, giving him a kick for good measure, shoving him towards the wall of a brand new, stylish office building.

He was unprepared. You’d think the Soulless would be better practiced at dealing with someone like me, but conveniently, they weren’t. As soon as he realised what was going on, he retaliated, yelling out and punching back, but I was too quick, and he missed.

I was round him before he could comprehend what was going on. With a high kick he staggered back into the wall, knocking his head on the polished stone rendering.

‘You—‘

I had my gun raised and unlocked, mere centimetres from the bridge of his nose before he could even finish his sentence.

‘Yes?’ I challenged.

‘Bitch,’ he finished.

I ripped his steel coloured mask off, letting it fall to the ground. I wanted to see the fear in his eyes; let him know what his pretentious statement had done to me. I wanted him to beg me to spare his life before I brutally and cold-bloodedly murdered him.

And I wondered why people called me a monster.

But he didn’t beg. Most Soulless were cowards, but it seemed that Heiko was better than that. His lips cracked open to reveal a toothy smile, pulled taut against his skull. He laughed menacingly, a glint of malice in his eyes.

‘You’ll get what you deserve one day soon, Hurricane,’ he taunted, still mocking me despite the fact that he was moments from his death.

‘Not as soon as you will,’ I hissed.

A colossal crack resounded right down the road.

His eyes went blank, instantly and irreversibly devoid of life.

He crumpled to the ground, his back still upright against the shiny, black wall of the office, now smeared in dark red blood that had erupted like lava from his skull as the bullet had made contact. I felt a small spattering of it land on my cheeks, and I wiped it off with my fingers in disgust. Even now, his lips were still pulled up into a leering smile, his hollow eyes still wide with the menacing way they had greedily looked down on me.

If it was a really dark day, I would have considered drawing a Dreamer eye the blood smeared on the wall.

But it wasn’t a dark day. That was my seventh Soulless tonight and, aside from the memory about my dad that had been ripped open by Heiko as though he had slashed through an unhealed wound, I was on fire.

So the running resumed.