In the Shadows

It was dark: it was so very, very dark, but the lightning lit up the whole room, illuminating the yellowing walls, the decrepit furniture, the cracked and broken hardwood floor. There was nothing the light didn’t touch, and Billie could see them all from her hiding spot behind the dreary blue curtain hanging from the window. There was a hole in the fabric that she could just barely see through, but she could still see them, her mom, her brother and little sister, all standing in the middle of the near empty living room.

Her mother paced back and forth across from the front of the door, her eyes wide, ringing her hands endlessly as she mumbled random words, sentences of nothing. She looked as if she were insane, sounded as if she were paranoid, and even from where she was, Billie could see the strange shaped whale bone trinket her mother horded, sticking from the pocket of her tattered grey coat. In fact, it was the reason her little sister sat on the floor with a hand to her cheek as she glared at nothing before her, crying silently. The little girl had just been trying to get her mother’s attention when she accidentally grabbed the charm. In a sudden, frenzied rage, her mother had whipped around, backhanding the girl before going back to her pacing. Billie had hidden, them, not liking the horrible look on her mother’s face. Well, there was that, and there was the fact that Billie didn’t want to be hit. She’d seen her mother lash out like that before, but never had she seen her so… unremorseful about it. Whenever she’d hit one of them before her, she’d always had an apologetic look afterwards, except she never voiced that apology. The only time she was never really sorry was when Billie’s big brother did something stupid and got in trouble. Being hit had never fazed him much, though, anyway…

Even now, like usual, her bother stood rigidly still, simply staring at the floor as though there was something there that really vexed him. Billie looked closely at him: he was pale and so very skinny, not much unlike herself or sister, but he was certainly in the worst shape of the three children. Their family had always been poor, but things had never gotten this bad. Not until their mother found that charm lying on the beach, stuck in the mud. Charms like that were supposed to bring luck, but all it had gotten them was an overly nervous mother who did nothing but compulsively pace as she muttered nonsense words about someone called The Outsider. Billie had heard that name before after passing by some guards on the street one day. The Outsider was supposed to just be myth, but if he was real… was this his work? Surely, it couldn’t be, could it?

Biliie nearly jumped from her skin and her sister screamed as their locked front door came bursting open with the sound of splintering wood. About five heavily armed members of the City Watch poured into the tiny apartment, grabbing her brother and sister. The boy’s look was blank, and the little girl was fearful, crying harder than before. Their mother started to curse and yell like a madwoman only to be struck across the face, and then kicked by an Overseer.

Billie stepped back, pressing herself into the wall, her heart pounding as she tried to steady her breathing. The rain continued to pound down, accompanied by the thunder and lightning, and though she was scared and her eyes burned, the young girl refused to cry. The Overseer quickly searched her mother, and when he found the charm, taking it, the older woman went rampant, but the guards held her tight, making sure she couldn’t break away. She continued to fight until a guard finally hit her again, nearly knocking her out, and then, Billie heard the order to apprehend all of them, mumbling something about heresy.

Billie was frozen, stuck in place hiding behind the curtain. Her breath hitched in her throat and her limbs would not move. The young girl didn’t try to call out for them, or to stop the guards, like one would expect her to do. She did nothing but stay still and hope the guards would not find her, even as she watch the guards drag her siblings towards the door.

She felt nothing. Absolutely nothing.

There was no sense of being obligated to protect them, no guilt. She had suffered far too much and for far too long at the hands of her family to feel sorry for them. She had not remorse for leaving her mother to her fate, and when it came to her siblings… there was resentment. Never had she cared for them; so many times, Billie had been hurt trying to keep them safe, and did they ever do the same for her? No, they had not. Besides, the Watch wouldn’t kill them; they’d simply be left to fend for themselves. Or, at least, that was what she assumed. Who knew what’d happen to them?

Either way, the young girl tucked by the grey-blue curtain didn’t care. Billie had been planning to escape her family and this dreadful apartment for a while now. All she wanted was to leave it all behind. She was starving, anyway, so the streets couldn’t be much worse. After all, on the streets, if she kept her head down, she wouldn’t get the crap kicked out of her like she did here. On the streets, it’d just be her and she wouldn’t have to answer to anyone, or follow stupid rules. She’d be free.

Once her family had been taken away, the leader of the group of guards, a tall, skinny guy with dark hair and eyes, came back through the front door of the apartment.

“Search the place for anything of value, then send over a Tallboy to torch the place and report back to me.” There was a quick response of ‘yes sir’ but Billie could barely hear them over the sound of her own heart pounding horrible in her ears. A Tallboy? What was that…?

Horror flooded her mind. Tallboys were the guards on stilts that shot explosive arrows… They were lethal, and they were vigilant. There was no way she could get past one of them, especially not when the guards that were already here were keeping her in trapped in her hiding place, hiding behind the dreary grey-blue curtain. If she waited until they were gone, she’d die in a bright blaze, and she had no intention of burning to death. The only thing she could do was risk darting past them, hoping they wouldn’t catch her, and so…

Billie focused her sights on the door. Throwing the old curtain quickly to the side, she willed her limbs to move and her feet hit the floor hard as she took off running. She had tunnel vision for that door, and barely saw the guards as they reached out for her, and then, lightning flashed suddenly and she caught a glimpse of the leader that nearly stopped her in her tracks. The flare of light had just been quick, but bright, and all she could see were black, soulless eyes and hands baring down on her. Her mind was sent reeling a second later as her body collided with something hard.

Billie let out a shrill scream as someone yanked at her dark hair, throwing her back. The small girl hit the ground with a force hard enough to knock the air from her lungs and to blur her vision. Instinct kicked in, then, and she was on her feet in seconds, missing most of the force behind a hard kick from one of the guards. It was dark, and Billie couldn’t see well, nor was she trained to fight, but she did anyway. She struck blindly, aiming for the shadowy faces that surrounded her, using the random flashes of lightning to her advantage as much as she could. One cursed as she nailed him in the face with a hard punch, but she had no time to enjoy the victory as she crashed into the wall, her back aching from the kick she’d failed to see. Falling to her knees, Billie tried to get back up, but hit the floor as a strike crushed into her ribs. She winced, trying not to show her pain, but the guards were merciless. Hit after hit racked her body, each aching more than the next, and the pain was nearly unbearable. Her eyes were shut tight and they burned as she tried to fight back tears.

Even still, she tried to fight.

Ignoring the rough kick that connected with her spine, Billie pushed herself off the floor as far as she could, throwing out her hand in a punch. It made contact with the stomach of one of the guards, and as he dropped to the ground, wheezing, Billie had enough of a distraction to jump up, trying to run. She scrambled through the dark to the door, yanking at the handle in desperation. Just as the hinges began to screech and the heavy wood budged, someone tangled a hand once again into her hair, and once again, she was dragged back into the room. She was thrown to the ground, her head slamming against the cracking floor, only to by pulled back up. Two guards held her in place as the leader, who was the one she’d managed to punch, recovered a bit, lifting himself to his feet. Billie’s heart pounded and her blood ran cold as he stormed towards, and she tried to struggle against the guards, but there was no point; she wasn’t going to escape. Probably wasn’t going to survive this, either.

The leader of the group of City Watch guards marched towards her, his dark eyes furious and his uniform disheveled, cursing and sputtering.

“Stupid bitch,” he cursed venomously. “Should’ve just killed you to begin with.” Lightning flashed again, its blue-white glow illuminating the room and Billie’s eyes widened as she saw a glint of silver. Adrenaline and fear running high, she tried again to fight, only for the leader to strike her across the face with the hand holding his gun. That blow sent her head spinning, aching in a blurry haze of pain. Her body slumped farther to the ground, defeated, but still she tried to keep her heard up, defiant to the end.

“Just kill her and get it over with,” one of the other guards hissed. It was the one to her left. “What’s one more body gonna hurt?”

"Absolutely nothing," the leader hissed, smirking as he looked at Billie. Her stomach lurched; his eyes were so black, so apathetic and soulless. He cared for nothing. Killed for no reason. Billie glared back viciously, her rebellious nature firing up again. No, she told herself. I will not die like this, not at the hands of a man like this, not on my knees. Not beaten down. If she was going to die, it'd be on her feet.

"You're right," Billie said flatly, her voice hoarse as she continued to glare up at the leader through the strands of hair that had fallen in her face. "What will one more body hurt? Or, five, for that matter." She moved then, gathering all the strength she had left. She wrenched her arms out of the two soldiers' grip, shooting forward, aiming to deliver a hard kick to the leader, but she didn't account for the sudden, hard crack of thunder.

Or the gunshot that it masked.