Chapter 13
“No!” I screamed. A loud, resonating scream.
People with weapons flooded into the room circling Dig like a pack of hounds eager to shred their object to pieces.
The room filled with the stench of sweat and blood.
My thighs quivered. My clit was cold. My need was desperate.
“I haven’t finished yet!” I screamed again, frustration wrapping its hands around my throat. “I’m going to kill you!” Not literally. I was a good person. “I’m going to kill all of you!” Not literally. “I swear to the gods I’m going to kill all you motherfuckers!” Not literally.
Five figures piled into the small room each with a bloodied blade. They ignored me on the ground, and turned their attention to Dig.
He groaned. The blade in his back most likely the trigger.
“Are you okay?” I shouted to Dig. “You’re not badly injured, are you? Are your fingers unharmed—oh wait, I’m not supposed to care about you. Goodbye.”
I ran out of the door. My bare feet pounded on the carpet. Behind me a figure chased. A woman, I think. I fled down the staircase.
“Come here bitch!” They called.
“Ah, no thank you.”
I made it to the ground floor and ignored the glass that sliced my feet and threw myself out of the building and down the street. The tarmac was gritty and sharp upon my feet. A cloud moved over the moon. The air spiked with a light chill.
Behind me, the woman followed.
She flung something at me. A rock, probably. Rude. It hit my spine, causing me to stumble. Now I had to run zig zag to evade a medieval stoning.
A drone hovered above, capturing all.
I wiped hair from my face, making sure I looked good for the camera.
The woman threw another stone at me but missed.
I needed to ambush her, turning a corner and surprising her would be best. I located a building up ahead and made my plan. Unfortunately, it was I who was ambushed first.
A man sprung out of an upturned car, catching me in his arms.
Oh dear.
“Are you Delphine?” his voice struggled against my beating.
I kicked. “Get off!”
“Are you Delphine De Astor?”
I punched. “Let me go!”
“Listen to me!”
The woman chasing caught up to me and as she was about to open her mouth to speak, a small figure jumped down from the upturned car and landed themselves on the woman, forcing a knife into her skull.
The woman chasing me would now no longer chase me.
One problem solved. Now for the other.
“Listen to me, are you Delphine De Astor?” The man shook my shoulders, forcing me to listen. “Magnus, your brother hired us to protect you.”
Ah. I had no problems at all.
There were two of them.
The man wore camouflaged hunter’s gear and was not very good at growing facial hair. The other was a young woman, pushing my age with the face of a doll and voluptuous curves. She also donned camouflaged gear matching her comrade.
“Fred’s my uncle,” she said. “And I’m Fiona.”
Fiona and Fred.
“Ah, family.” I clasped my hands together. “How sweet. And how exactly do you know mine?”
We stood in the shadow of a building, the uncle and niece duo both pointed themselves outwards with weapons eager to attack if anyone dared intrude on our much-needed conversation.
A drone hovered over.
Fiona promptly dug into her belt and pulled out a slingshot, hitting the drone with a rock. The drone fell and crashed. She smirked.
“Good shot.” Fred nodded to her with pride.
“Did you see me stab that bitch in the skull?”
“Sure did.”
I briefly wondered if Fiona was a serial killer or just a Gemini.
“I do apologise,” I said to them both. “But I cannot trust you. You could easily be herding me into a den of people so that each of you can take your turn doing…whatever it is Soulless people do.”
“Duckie and I eat chocolate chip ice-cream for her birthday, and she drinks cocoa before bed to chase away her nightmares. She also has a sexual fixation for sunglasses,” Fred recited as if it were Magnus in front of me.
“So, you have made yourselves my protectors?” I asked.
“Until the last of the ten days, or until he gets you out,” Fred said. “Don’t worry. We’ve survived three Execution Battles before. We’re pros.”
“Just stick by us,” Fiona said. “We’ll keep you safe.”
“Oh, no thank you.” I waved at them dismissively.
“I do not want you mixed up with myself. I am target, you see. A psychopath is hunting me down and will have absolutely no regard for your lives. Also, everyone else in this Battle wants me dead and will most definitely harm you for your association with me. If you protect me, you will die. Thank you. Good night to you both.”
As I went to leave, Fred held me back with a knife. “Uh, nah. You’re staying with us.”
“I’m trying to save your life.”
“No, that’s our job.”
“Believe me.” I laughed. “Whatever resources in prison my brother is offering you are not worth your lives. Just let me do this alone. Once I get out of here, I promise I will ensure you are entitled to whatever he promised you. Hm?”
“You’re staying with us.” The severity in his gaze was unmissable.
I narrowed my eyes. “What is my brother paying you?”
“Money.” Fiona aimed her slingshot in the sky in case another drone approached. “And freedom. He promised us he’d get us out.”
The two of them shared a look. In that look there was a smile, a smile that spoke epochs of hope.
My shoulders pulled down, my heart drew heavy. “My brother is lying to you.”
Their smiles cracked.
But that hope. Oh, that sweet, stupid hope won them over.
“You’re coming with us.” Fred showed me the tip of his blade. “And you’re letting us save you. If you don’t? I’ll kill you.”
They had a charming abode.
An office building which Fred, with his background in hunting, had skilfully laid with traps. Over each Execution Battle the past three years he had armed the stairs with metal teeth and—I stopped listening. It was very boring.
They camped in two rooms on the fourth floor with a bird’s eye view around the building and a small stack of rations they had already secured. I did not want to eat their food, but they insisted, shoving stale crackers into my mouth.
“You need to stay alive,” Fred told me. “Please.”
I ate.
“Are you both Soulless?” I asked them.
They nodded.
“Hm.” I handed Fiona the rest of the crackers, refusing to eat it all. “What crimes have you committed?”
“We killed our family.” Fiona accepted the food with a smile. “My parents, my grandparents and all my siblings.”
“Lovely.”
I slept on piled couch cushions alone in the corner and woke up as the sun stretched its warm rays. I also woke up to moaning.
Fred laid naked while Fiona, also naked, rode on top of him.
I cleared my throat to alert them that I was awake.
They didn’t mind, continuing with their morning delight. In prison I had witnessed more public love making than a zoo’s breeding program. I supposed there were not many private places in a prison and so these people were accustomed to their situation.
“Excuse me.” I stood up, stretching. “I thought you were uncle and niece?”
“We are,” they both said.
The nice incest couple had coffee.
They also had gallons of water and lavender soap.
I washed myself until I smelled of spring and laundered my dress, hanging it over the window to dry and padded around in my matching Pearla lingerie set.
Perhaps it was because I was so wonderfully alive and un-raped and un-mutilated and freshly bathed that somehow, instant coffee and room temperature water tasted divine.
The window let in fresh breeze and birds came to roost on the building tops.
“What on earth?” I lowered the mug from my mouth.
Below on the street, Dig looked up at me.