Escape

I felt it before it even touched my skin.

It wasn’t a surprise. I had been expecting it to happen for the past eight years; I just didn’t know how it would catch up to me.

Even as the cuffs tightened around my wrists, I didn’t move, faking my sleeping state, giving myself time to think because I wasn’t sure how I would react when I saw her in front of me.

The muffled sounds of crying filled the room we shared as if she had the right to cry after locking my fate like this. Anyone would have woken up at this point with all the sniffling and sobbing, but I didn’t want to open my eyes just yet. The nights in the countryside were dead silent, so silent that I easily heard them approach the house in steady and measured steps.

She seemed unaware that the house was already surrounded as she increased the volume of her sobs, begging for attention, or just maybe a reaction. I put my back to the mattress, startling her into silence, before I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. I forced my face to look bored even though behind it, I felt the betrayal and disappointment, but I wouldn’t let her see how heartbroken I was, not because of what she did, but because of where I would end up.

I rolled my neck a few times when I sat up as she began sobbing again, taking the chance to figure out how many sets of steps approached the house, but they were too in sync to count them all. I could tell there were too many to fight my way through.

“Why?” I asked before standing up, putting on a sweater, and working out my escape route. I couldn’t go back there, I promised myself I never would. My heart rate increased, and my temperature with it, until the air around me became stuffy.

Maybe it was my icy voice that scared her enough to step away from the bed, or maybe it was the way I looked at her.

“There was a big reward for you,” Debra said, trembling. “I can finally move out of this end of the world and go to the city.”

I clicked my tongue. “Why are you crying?” I reiterated my question. I didn’t care why she did it, but her crying was pissing me off, especially when I should be the one crying. I wanted to yell and vent my anger at her, but I didn’t want to hurt her by mistake, so I kept reining in my emotions. There would be a time and place to wallow in self-pity.

The men were getting closer to our house, still trying to keep the element of surprise, but this curse I had running through my veins gave me a good hearing, not as good as a dog’s, but way better than an average human.

“Why aren’t you yelling at me?” She asked, with an edge to her tone.

“So that you can feel better about yourself? No.” I put my boots on and grabbed one of her hairpins before walking to the door.

“I saw it when I went to the city,” she said, grabbing my clothes. “This area is so remote that we don’t even have internet here, and when I went to meet my friends, I saw it by luck.” I stepped away when she leaned her head on my back for comfort. “They said you are very dangerous, that you killed people.”

A mirthless chuckle left my lips. I couldn’t help it. I looked at her from the corner of my eye. “Was I ever dangerous to you?”

It hurt. Even if I thought I could take it, it still hurt like hell looking at her, because after all this time, I finally thought I could settle down here for good, in this remote and forgotten little village. All that time we spent together vanished with a simple click.

I left without waiting for a reply. I needed to calm my anger that was making my blood boil and my body heat to dangerous temperatures. The men surrounding the house were too close for me to get a weapon from downstairs, and instead, I went up to the attic, blocking the door behind me. The hairpin broke in my hands after several attempts at unlocking my handcuffs, frustration making my panic increase.

Outside the window, the area around the house was empty, and I felt confident enough to have some hope in losing their trail if they didn’t catch me until the treeline. It was soft, but I heard them come into the house, dispersing to search and secure all the areas.

There wasn’t much time left until they came up here, but it would have to be enough. I focused like I had so many times before, imagining my hands getting hotter as I held on to the links connecting the cuffs. On any other day, just thinking about it would be enough to make my hands heat up, but today, even as I focused, there was barely a reaction.

Anger and panic filled my senses as I tried harder to make this curse listen to me, hearing the steps getting closer, my heart drumming into my ears. If I could break the links, I could climb down and run. Desperation made my hands hotter, and so did the metal under them, until it turned bright red. Trained steps trailed up to the second floor, and I heard them stop at the base of the stairs to the attic. Two links melted, and I turned to the window, ready to escape.

The breath went out of my lungs when I stared at the window again. A squad of trained men, fully armed, stood there covering the only exit I had left. Then it clicked why it took so much effort just to melt a stupid link. I stared at the cuffs and gritted my teeth.

They broke the door with a bang, and the next moment, a man entered with a gun poised at me in silence. More men followed him, tense but not scared, unlike me, who had to keep looking over my shoulder these past eight years afraid of this very moment. No, even before that, there was always something that scared me.

“You are surrounded,” started the man right in front of me, the leader, when he saw me glancing at the window. He dropped his gun a few inches, taking half a step forward. “We aren’t going to hurt you.”

Maybe I would have believed him if I didn’t have six guns pointing at me, but if anything, his statement made me laugh. The men tensed, and I realised I probably looked quite deranged laughing in this situation.

“We are here to take you back. If you don’t cooperate, we will take you by force.”

I stared at the man for a moment, pondering his words. I would bet they didn’t even know my name or why they were looking for me, only that I was extremely dangerous.

The leader took a step forward in a silent threat.

I took a deep breath, closing my eyes for a brief moment, and without warning, I dashed towards the window and jumped, crashing against the glass and breaking it.

As I fell, I wished the height would be enough to kill me.

Hazuki