Curse the Curse... not me...

One

I looked up into the night sky and grimaced. The time was only a few days away. I had to find shelter soon. I heard a scream from behind my back. Someone had found the body. I should’ve never come to the humans’ city. “MURDER, MURDER!” I swallowed my fear of what time would bring and focused on the present. I had to get out of the area. I sprinted further into the darkness; it was only a matter of time before they found me. Something scrambled into one of the tin cans that surrounded me. But I didn’t care; I just had to run. Soon, shadow had won the battle with light and it was pitch black. I heard footsteps echoing on the rain-drenched pavement.

“Where is it, Vulture?”
“She said it ran down here, now be quiet!”
“But where? I can’t see a thing. How are we supposed to find this girl if we can’t see it?” The footsteps slowed, turning into a cautious pace. I walked backwards, facing the direction the voices came from. My heart pounded inside of my chest. My eyes were wide with fear. It didn’t help my eyesight; even though I strained it to it’s fullest, I couldn’t see a thing. I walked into something; it toppled over, giving out a large crash as it hit the floor.

“Over there!” I heard one man shout. I caught a glimpse of someone pointing to me before I disappeared into shadows once again. I needed to get out of the new quarter. And soon. I heard them running after me. They were catching up. I was running into nothingness. I couldn’t see where I was going, or where I was coming from. The moon wasn’t there to guide me. I was worried I’d run into a wall, but that was at the back of my head. I had my attention on how I was going to evade these guys. I made a quick turn to my right and ran my hand against the cold, concrete wall, and as soon as I felt it end, I crouched down, making myself as small as I could be while still on my feet. I still tried to see but it was no use. Everything was black. I heard them stop. They were just in front of me. I was thankful for the darkness. The tension, though, was unbearable.

“Where is it?” One of the men hissed, he was the snake, a higher voice than his partner, the vulture. Vulture didn’t reply. I assumed he too was trying to see. I held my breath. If he heard me, I was doomed. I put my hands out to my sides. Two walls were in the way of my hands. I had cornered myself. I didn’t even dare to try and breathe. It would be too much of a risk.

“It’s here. I can smell the fear… the blood of its victim.” I didn’t move. I tried to be a statue, not even to look somewhere else. I had to stay hidden.
“But where here?” There was a pause. I couldn’t hold my breath for much longer.
“Shh.” He was waiting. I felt like my lungs were going to burst. I couldn’t hold my breath. I blew out. Almost immediately, I heard his voice. “Here.” I heard him walk over to me. I backed further into the corner. I didn’t want to be here. Fear had got the better of me. I couldn’t move. There wasn’t time. “Raven. At last.” He said, crouching down. He stared into my eyes. His own were never ending. Darkness… evil… It was merciless. “I expected you to be a little… older.” He said. He drew something from his coat pocket. A handkerchief. He pressed it up against my face. The last thing I saw before fell asleep was snake coming up to us, with the authorities behind him.

* * *

Something near my hand moved. I flicked it away. My eyes flickered open. My vision was hazy. It was daylight and I was sitting on straw. My trousers and leather boots were still damp and heavy. My long sleeves had bloodstains soaked in it. I attempted to move my hand. The muscles in my shoulders and back hurt, they were bruised. The wall I was leaning against had gaps in it. It was no wall. They were bars. I moaned. I couldn’t lift my head. It was too heavy.
“Raven, you’ve got two weeks.” I heard a familiar voice behind me.
“Wha…”
“Oh. You’re still half asleep. I’ll tell you later.”
“Wha… where…” I yawned. My joints gradually awoke. My vision cleared. “What?”
“Awake?”
“Two seconds…” I said, lifting my arms and stretching. I turned to the bars. Through the gaps I saw the most comforting person I had seen all week. A pale face, hood over his face and dark blue eyes was looking up at me. Everyone else would think he would be a normal 18-year-old boy, but no, he was much more of a man than that. Nyack had a rugged look, his hair always messy thanks to his black hoodie, and his personality was pretty much the same. You could tell he was tall, even thought he was sitting down and slumped over. If I didn’t know him better, I would’ve assumed he was a vampire. His gentle face looked up at me and had obviously seen that I was now awake. In the not so far off past, he would probably called one of those labels… what was it again…? Emo… I think…
“Two weeks. Any ideas?”
“I’ve just woken up, Ny, give me a chance to think.”
“Please use my full name. Ny sounds like I say no all the time.”
“Fine, Nyack. Happy now?”
“Much better. Now. Two weeks.”
“Gets shorter each time.”
“Well, if they give you the same as last time, you have the same time to escape.”
“Well, what are you in for?”
“Same as last time.”
“You’ve been smuggling again, no wait, that was last, last time…”
“It’s not speaking. Plus the fact I’m a member our legion.”
“Not speaking of what?”
“You… duh!” I sighed with irritation. Not only was he annoying at times, but he was always the one who got thrown in jail because of me.
“It ALWAYS has to be OUR legion… WHY NOT SOMEONE ELSE?!”
“Hey, don’t go shouting at me, blame the stupid humans.” He smiled. And although we were in jail, I cherished the moment. Ny didn’t smile… often. I gave him a sharp-toothed grin back. There was a pause. A silence of which when you cannot think of anything to say. Something popped into my head.
“So, who caught you?” I asked.
“Same old hunter.”
“He’s still after you?”
“Yup. The old bat never turns his back on his rivals. A.k.a. me.”
“How did he catch you?”
“I ran from him, but by getting away from him, I fell straight into his trap. Literally. I now officially hate holes in the ground.”
“You’re smarter than that trick!”
“Yes, but when you’re under the pressure of the moment you do stupid things.”
“Yeah, fine.” I said, sarcastically.
“Who caught you then?”
“Newbie.” He raised his eyebrows.
“Newbie? They’re easy to evade!”
“Well… he was new to me.”
“Right. So not a newbie at all.”
“Snake was with him.”
“The ‘newbie’?”
“Called Vulture.”
“And how did you get captured?” I didn’t want to say, if I told him, he wouldn’t let me hear the end of it.
“Snake tripped me over.” I lied, looking at the floor.
“Truth, if you don’t mind.” I sighed.
“I got cornered.”
“Whole truth.” I folded my arms. Lying to him again would’ve been foolish.
“By myself.” He burst out laughing.
“Yourself! You cornered yourself! HA!”
“It was pitch black! I couldn’t tell where a wall would be or not!” A large creak came from above, along with the clank of keys at someone’s belt. Nyack stopped laughing.
“Jailer!” Whispered Ny, lying down on his back. “Look pathetic!” I sighed, rushing over to the wall, turning myself towards it, back to the front of the cell. I had to pretend I was crying. People always felt sorry for girls crying. I heard dragging footsteps coming down the stairs. Ny sat up.

“Oh no, not you again!” I heard him say, obviously disliking whomever it was. I turned around. A boy with short-ish, ginger hair stood at the last step. He was holding three tin plates in his hands, containing some stale bread and what looked like gone-off cheese. He reminded me of a character I had read in a book. He was like that boy in Harry Potter… not the famous one the other one… Yes, he had some sort of ‘Ronnish’ quality to him. The only difference between the two was that the jailer was lacking a sweater with a big fluffy ‘R’ on it. The jailer seemed nice enough. That was good. If he felt sorry for me… we stood a chance of getting out of there. I started to fake cry again.

“Yes, it is I, the jailer from hell, Jonathan!” He said, obviously joking. Well, at least his name wasn’t Ron. “Honestly, consider yourself lucky. You could’ve got jailers worse than me.”
“Name one.” Nyack sneered.
“Oh come on! How on earth am I supposed to know? I’ve only been here three days!”
“So have I. I know more about you than any of the others.”
“Argh. Enough talk. Food’s here.” He said. I heard him walk up to the three cells and slide the so-called ‘food’ underneath the cages’ doors. “I see your sister’s awake.” I smiled, still pretending to be very upset. At least he had noticed me.
“For the last time, she ain’t my sister!”
“Than why are you talking to each other? Oh yeah, I know you’re not crying.” I looked up.

“See what I mean? No chance of us getting out of here.” Said Ny, looking at me.
“Just count your lucky stars that you weren’t put to death right away!” Jonathan said.

“Right away? How long did Ny have?” I asked, becoming scared.
“NYACK!” He shouted, as if we were all one big family having a big argument.
“Five days, now three days have passed, 2 days.”
“Two days?!” I was stunned. “B…bur… but that’s less than me!”
“They found the Cursed mark on my wrist. Cursed is always worse. It doesn’t matter what crime you commit as long you’re on their side. Since you don’t have a mark, they just think you’re a murderer.” Said Nyack, making seem like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“I knew that you were a cursed. Even though you don’t hold the symbol, I had a feeling you were one!” Said Jonathan, a trace of success in his voice.
“THERE’S NO DIFFERENCE!” Nyack shouted. “And, hasn’t anyone told you that she’s not breathing?” He said, nodding towards the girl lying in of the cell next to mine. I sighed. Another victim lost in the walls of this jail. “She strangled herself.” Nyack stated, looking back at the jailer.
“Sad.” Jonathan said, glancing at the girl. Long blonde hair lay across her face.
“She wasn’t a cursed. She was accused of being one. It ain’t sad she died, it’s sad that your legion has such awful judgment!” Said Nyack, it was as if he was looking for an argument.

“Our legion has fine judgment! She was found with a mark!”
“Yes, but do you know that’s not just a fake one? Did you test it the same you tested mine?” There was silence. No one said anything for about five seconds. “Exactly. Your legion. Completely stupid.” Nyack snarled, doing the shooting yourself in the head finger gesture. Jonathan stormed out, slamming the oak door behind him.

“Nice going, Nyack. You’ve blown our chances of getting out through him!” I said, glaring at him, doing the same shooting yourself in the head gesture he used.

“There was no chance anyway!”
“Right. Now we’ve got two days. How else are we going to escape?”
“Cross our fingers and hope I can overpower the guards when they come to take me?”