Chapter 10 #2
I can’t tell them that it’s likely a trap.
But the instant they step through, someone wrapped in a cloak dashes forward and grabs Mickey as Torin follows while carrying Story. The person pulls them into the darkness of an alley just as I see people in black uniforms rush forward to see how the Door they’d destroyed is active again.
Torin seems reluctant to follow the person directing them, but it doesn’t really look like he’s given much choice since the newcomer swiftly hides them from the people I have to assume are the ones who took me.
I turn my attention back to my own predicament as I move slowly around my space.
With my shoulder, I can feel the bars that make up the door before turning around.
Slowly, I inch forward until I slam into something I wasn’t expecting and go careening over it.
I hit hard on my chest, having been unable to catch myself with the damn handcuffs.
When I land, I discover that what is beneath me is a person.
“You could have told me I was going to trip over you,” I grouse at the person who I’d tripped over.
At least it feels like a person, but when they make no reply, I hesitate.
I push myself back on my ass and slowly inch forward.
I have to tilt my body to the side to even use my hands to feel whatever it is I fell over.
When I reach out, I feel flesh beneath my hand and halt as I question if I’ve been tossed in the cell with a dead man.
I carefully slide my hand up the leg, checking for some semblance of life, and if there is some, maybe they can help me if I help them in return. My hand tentatively slides up higher.
“Are you just going to fucking sit there and grope me?” a deep masculine voice asks.
I freeze and slowly retract my hand. “Maybe if you’d said anything when I fell over you, I would have known you were alive! I thought you were dead!”
“So you’re into necrophilia. I see.”
“You see nothing! I’m not into necrophilia! I was going to help you—you could have said something!”
The man just grunts, but boy does that grunt tell me how disgusted he is to have to deal with me and that I’ve just become the biggest inconvenience in his life.
“Don’t fuck dead people.” He says this as though it’s some sage advice. Like I was over here eagerly hoping he was dead.
“I’m not fucking dead people!” I shout as I hear the cell door open.
“This is… most interesting,” the woman with the soothing voice who they called Onyx comments.
“I don’t… it was a misunderstanding,” I say.
“Why did you put the new arrival in the cell with him?” Onyx asks.
“Because it was either him or the guy who snapped his cellmate’s neck last week,” the guard answers. “The rest of the cells are filled with the branded.”
“I see,” she says, quite casually, I might add. I almost feel like she wishes I was in the other cell… the one with the neck cracker. “Why are you in my realm, Doorjumper?”
“Our realm was recently attacked by one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. I am a special agent with”—better not mention any magic—“the police. Our job was to stop the horseman, but after an in-depth investigation, we have concluded that there is a god working behind the four horsemen who is orchestrating the destruction of four realms. We know for sure they’ve already succeeded once and failed once.
We don’t know whether your world will be the third they’ve targeted or the fourth. ”
“So you knew we’d be next and came here to inform us of this?” she asks.
“I did.”
“And they sent a blind man.”
The words immediately irk me, like she thinks I’m less because of this.
Even without Kit, I am capable of plenty.
But I don’t want to piss her off, so I grit my teeth, pretend it doesn’t bother me, and continue.
“I was planning to come with others, but when your people destroyed the Door, the rest were left behind,” I say coolly.
“I see,” she replies. “But you are mistaken. There is no horseman invading our lands. There is no monster. I’m not sure who told you these tales, but we live in harmony, and you’ve invaded our lands with a ‘curse’ and magical items that are not permitted.”
“Are you the leader?” I ask.
“I am. I know everything that happens in my realm. I guarantee that I would know if there was a horseman frolicking about destroying my world. Do not cause unrest. If you do, we will be forced to remove you.”
“She means execute,” the man I’d tripped over says. “She tries to use flowery words to cover up her malicious deeds.”
“Don’t listen to his prattle. You are safe here until you prove yourself unworthy to be kept safe. Do you understand?”
“I do,” I mutter.
“Good,” she says, and the cell door slams shut, locking me inside.
I call out, “Can I please have the handcuffs removed? It’s really hard to walk when I can’t feel my way.” I hate that I have to share my vulnerabilities with these people, but I know that I need every advantage I can get.
She’s quiet and I wonder if she’s already left and I missed it, but then I hear the door reopen and the handcuffs are removed before they leave me alone again.
For a long moment, long after their footsteps fade, I stand still while my mind runs away without me. Luck really joined me this time.
I’m struggling to decide what to do, since I don’t feel like I can do much in this state.
“Why are you in here?” I eventually ask.
The man is silent, and I have no way to know whether he’s deliberately ignoring me or there’s a reason he can’t hear me.
“Why are you in here?” I repeat.
“The better question is why are you here, Mr. Horseman?”
I still, dread washing through me as his words hit me.
I hear the sound of chains when the man rises up, telling me he’s bound for some reason. His footsteps draw closer to me while I stand here, not quite sure I want this man anywhere near me now that I’m aware he knows who I am, but if I back up, he’ll think he has the upper hand.
A hand suddenly wraps around my throat before I’m lifted right off my feet and slammed into the wall where he pins me, unable to even touch the floor. I guess those chains aren’t keeping his hands bound since he seems to be able to freely choke me as he wishes.
“I might be stripped of my godly powers in this wretched place, but I will happily die if it means killing you,” he growls.
“I will kill you again and again, no matter how many times you come back into my life. I will rip you apart and make you regret ever setting foot anywhere near me with your wretched ‘siblings.’”
I grab his arm, but the man seems to be as strong as Torin or maybe stronger, and I can feel his muscles bunch beneath my hand.
He’s cut off my ability to speak, so I can’t even deny his allegations, but who knows what I did to this man—who’s apparently a god—in the past. Who knows if he’s innocent and I’m the monster.
While my lightheadedness increases, I reach out for his eyes, hoping that would at least make him release me.
Before I can dig into them, he throws me hard and I slam against the floor on my shoulder as I hear him coming for me.
A quick intake of air leaves me coughing, but I know I have no time to recover.
I scramble up to my feet and try to put some distance between us before I crash into the far wall, making me realize my prison with a madman who wants to kill me is much smaller than I anticipated.
“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I choke out. “I don’t remember anything—”
He’s on me again, and this time, he punches me right in the face so hard it makes my head spin. I kick him in what I believe is his abdomen, hoping to push him back, but he doesn’t even flinch.
“Knock it off!” someone yells, and then suddenly my attacker starts shaking before he lets out a low growl and falls away from me. I can’t see what happened to him to cause him to react that way. I can only stand here, breathing heavily as I hear him collapse to the floor.
“If you two have so much fucking energy, you can clean up the newest fucking mess those parasites made,” the guard snarls. “Up against the bars!”
My cellmate curses at me while he stands, but he must make his way over to the bars because the next thing I know, I’m being dragged over to join him.
Another voice says, “They said this one is blind. Just leave him in here.”
“Nah, he could use some fresh air. His buddy here can guide him,” the first man responds as I feel something snap around my wrist before I’m jerked forward, making me realize that they’ve tied me to the man who wants to kill me.
How fun is this?