Huntsman by Cambria Hebert
37
Virginia
The usual humof quiet in the Tower was suddenly disturbed by the piercing, high-pitched wail of the fire alarm.
The sound was near deafening as it bounced off the walls, shattering any and all peace and rippling the very air with invisible anxiety.
We looked up from my iPad, no longer seeing the beautiful photos of California that Ivory had sent. Instead, a look of confusion passed between us.
“Were they running a fire drill today?” Ivory inquired, her small nose wrinkling.
I shook my head. In all the years I’d lived here, we’d never once had a fire drill.
“Maybe the sensor or something is faulty.” Ivory tried again. “This is a very old building. Do you think the alarms are up to code?”
Before I could reply, someone out in the hall keened. “Fire!”
Instead of fear spiking my pulse, a peculiar inkling of foreboding slowed it down. Rather than instantly wanting to scramble into my chair and race for the closest exit, I found myself gripping the tablet as a sluggish, slow feeling draped over me.
It was far scarier than the rush of urgent adrenaline could ever be.
Moving to the door, Ivory pulled it open, revealing the hallway where several residents were already loitering, some confused, some clearly afraid.
“The place is on fire, Virginia! I knew there was bad wiring in this place,” Mr. Donaldson yelled in the doorway over the ear-piercing alarm. “I tried to tell them!”
“Mr. Donaldson.” One of the nurses appeared, taking him by the arm. “We all need to get outside until we know what’s going on.”
“I’ll tell you what’s going on! We’re all gonna burn!” he broadcasted.
My stomach dropped a little. I knew he was an old man, not always rational and definitely filled with dramatics, but I couldn’t help feeling a prickle of distress from his words.
“So there really is a fire?” Ivory asked the nurse.
“We have someone checking, but we are all evacuating for precaution,” he answered. “Do you need assistance?” he asked, looking at me where I was still sitting on the bed.
“My cat!” the woman who lived across the hall exclaimed. “I am not leaving my baby behind!”
“It’s full of stuffing!” Mr. Donaldson yelled at the woman. “It’s not like it’s alive!”
Claire gasped. “How dare you talk about my Mittens that way?”
The nurse holding on to the older man visibly held his patience. Clearly, the situation beginning to stress him.
“I can go downstairs on my own. Ivory is here.”
Ivory nodded immediately. “Of course. We’ll go now.”
“Thank you,” he said, going to break up the arguing elders.
“I won’t go without my cat!” Claire shrieked insistently.
“It’s so loud!” another pajama-clad resident complained, walking down the hall with their hands pressed over their ears.
“Everyone make your way to the stairwell!” announced a nurse who was not dealing with the elderly couple arguing. She sounded much calmer and in control.
“Can we take the elevator?” Ivory worried, glancing at me.
“I think it should be fine,” I answered, reaching for the board I kept close by so I could transfer from the bed to my wheelchair. “They’re probably trying to keep it open for those of us who can’t take the stairs.”
In truth, there was only one other resident here that couldn’t take the stairs if absolutely necessary.
“Let me help you,” Ivory offered, moving quickly but not panicked.
When I was settled into my chair, I glanced up. “You’re very calm.”
“Well, panicking won’t do us any good. Besides, we’ve survived worse.”
Those words were all too true. They also made me think of Earth. I glanced at my cell phone lying on the bed and wondered if I should call him.
I decided against it, tucking the phone into the pocket on my chair. Ivory and I were perfectly capable of getting out to the sidewalk.
“Do you need to bring anything else?” Ivory asked, a little worry flashing in her face for the first time. “What do you need?”
I really didn’t think I would need anything. Whatever was going on was probably a false alarm or, at worst, something the firefighters could take care of the minute they arrived. But my gaze landed on the purple backpack Earth had set aside when he brought it back. I hadn’t even unpacked it yet.
“Just grab that bag,” I told her.
It wouldn’t hurt to be cautious.
Ivory slipped it over her shoulders, settling it on her back as though she were a school student, and I smiled.
“Let’s go,” she said, motioning toward the door.
I started forward, then stopped. “Zilla!”
Ivory turned back, glancing over to the gecko habitat.
“I can’t leave her. What if there really is a fire?” I worried. “Unlike Claire’s cat, Zilla is actually real.”
Ivory nodded. “Should we just carry her?”
I rolled over toward the habitat, reaching behind it to grab a much smaller enclosure. It was a small clear box with a vented purple lid on the top. It already had a couple things inside to make the gecko comfortable, so I reached into the large tank and carefully transferred Zilla into the traveling case.
“We’re going on an adventure, Zil!”
A loud crash followed by a deafening roar competed with the whistling alarm. Nearly dropping the case in my lap, I looked up.
Ivory’s blue eyes were wide, her red lips parted in shock. “What was that?”
“I-I think it was him.”
“Him?”
“That beast who lives at the end of the hall. The one from the other night.”
“Oh dear,” she replied. “Do you think he’s okay?”
He bellowed again. He scared me that first night, but now I wasn’t as afraid. Uneasy, yes. He was very loud and sounded very destructive. But I also knew that he was probably scared and that he was a patient here like me.
“I can’t leave him behind.”
“Let’s see if he needs help.” Ivory agreed.
I wheeled toward the door where she waited. The lights in the hall flickered a bit like they wanted to stay on but the power was trying to cut off.
The alarm still created a cacophony of noise, making my ears ache and my shoulders tense. I sniffed the air, trying to smell for smoke but could not.
“Everyone downstairs to the sidewalk. Help is on the way!” a nurse yelled from down the hall.
The beast of a man shouted again. The sound of wood splintering made us pause.
“Are you afraid?” I whispered, unable to yell over the alarm.
Even though Ivory looked frightened, she shook her head. “Go on strongly despite the fear.”
We started down the hall again. At the end of the corridor, his door flung open, and my breath caught waiting to see whoever created such chaos rush out into the hall.
But it wasn’t him.
It was a nurse in pink scrubs. She rushed out, the sound of shattering glass following her. She hurried down the hall, face caught between a grimace and fear.
“Nurse Jackie,” I called out, and she glanced up, shocked to see us there.
“What are you doing in the building?” she fussed. “Out. Let’s go! This isn’t a drill.”
“But what about him?” I asked.
“He’s refusing to leave. We can’t wait. Let’s go.”
“We can’t just leave him!” I worried.
“We have to. It’s my job to get everyone to safety but not at the risk of my own safety. I’ll have the emergency responders come for him.”
I frowned. Did she mean she was risking her safety by staying behind trying to convince him to come out or by being in that room with him?
“Jackie, a hand?” someone at the end of the hall called out.
We all looked to see the only other wheelchair-bound patient sitting under an ominously flickering light. It made her color ashen, her cheekbones hollow, but seemed to highlight the way her frail old limbs visibly shook.
“Could you ride down the elevator with Mrs. Cramb? I need to sweep the stairwell one last time.”
“Of course.” She glanced at me. “Come on, Virginia. You can ride down with us.”
I glanced back down the hall. “Go ahead. Send the elevator right back up for us.”
“I don’t think—”
Ahhh!
Nurse Jackie’s protest was silenced by another scream. Blanching, she rushed off to help Mrs. Cramb.
I glanced at Ivory. She nodded.
Just outside his door, we paused. The room was completely dark, not a single light shining within. If he had a window, it was completely covered by curtains, but maybe his room was windowless like mine.
It was eerily quiet inside, and I wasn’t sure which was worse: his complete lack of sound or when he screamed.
“Excuse me, sir?” I called from the doorway.
He didn’t answer. It really wasn’t shocking.
“Um, sir.” I tried again. “There seems to be an emergency, and we need to evacuate the building.”
When there was still no sound, I started forward, my wheels gliding across the threshold of his room.
“Get out,” intoned a low, gravelly voice.
I couldn’t tell where it was coming from, and I swallowed cautiously. Ivory’s hands fell to the short handles on the back of my chair, and I felt her tug me back.
“You need to come with us. You could be in danger.” Ivory tried.
“Get OUT!” he roared.
Ivory and I stumbled back with her landing on her butt in the center of the hall.
Gasping, I turned to look at her. “Are you okay?”
“Fine. Just startled.” She assured me, standing up to dust off her hands.
“Virginia!” A stern voice punched through all the other noise.
Emogen hurried down the hall toward us, her springy curls bouncing around her face. “What in the hell are you doing in here, girl? Why aren’t you outside?”
“We were trying to help.”
“You can’t help someone who doesn’t want to be helped.” She pursed her lips and glanced to the room.
“We can’t leave him here,” Ivory insisted.
“Even scary people get scared too,” I added.
“He ain’t scary.” Emogen scoffed. “He’s just a stubborn ass.” She yelled the last part toward his open door.
He seems a little scary to me.
“Go on,” she insisted. “Both of you, out of here. I’ll take care of him.”
“Are you sure?” I worried, glancing back at his dark doorway.
“Go.”
My head had started to ache with the insistent shrieking alarm, and when I glanced at Ivory, I realized she wouldn’t go unless I did. I didn’t want to put my sister in danger by staying.
“I’ll let the responders know you’re here,” I told Emogen. She looked calm and cool on the outside, but I knew, deep down, she was likely nervous too.
Reaching out, she squeezed my hand. “You’re a good friend, V.”
Ivory grabbed the handles on my chair, and we went down the hall at a bustling pace. The lights were still flickering, but the hallway was empty now, everyone else having already left the building. “Why is that horrible alarm still going off?” Ivory fussed as we neared the end of the hall.
The strong, suffocating scent of smoke hit me almost immediately. Recoiling slightly, I looked at the door leading to the stairwell.
Billows of thick gray smoke pushed beneath the door and around the edges.
Ivory’s steps faltered, and we both stared for long seconds at the clear evidence of a fire somewhere in this building. So much for thinking it might be a false alarm.
“Emogen, hurry!” I screamed down the hallway, hoping she could hear me over everything else.
Ivory pressed the elevator button more than once, and we both stared at the lit arrow.
“Do you think this elevator is safe to use?” She worried, biting her lower lip.
“I think it might be safer than the stairwell.”
But really, it didn’t matter because I couldn’t go down the stairs. Ivory wasn’t big enough to carry me. It was this elevator or nothing.
When the door dinged open and the empty car appeared, even though it was a welcome sight, it was entirely eerie.
“Why do I feel like I’m in some bad movie?” I wondered.
“I’ve had quite enough suspense to last me a lifetime,” Ivory declared. “Let’s go.”
I rolled into the car first, maneuvering so my chair faced the doors as Ivory stepped in after me. Reaching over, she pressed the button to take us to the ground floor. It lit up, but the car stubbornly sat there, doors open for a few uncomfortable seconds that seemed to last far longer than that.
We shared a nervous look as the lights out in the hallway continued to flicker. If the alarm wasn’t still shrieking, I was sure I’d be able to hear the way they crackled.
Uneasiness tapped me with a cold, boney finger, causing a light shiver to race across my skin. Just as I started fidgeting, the doors made a sound and began closing.
Both of us sighed in relief, trying to smile reassuringly at the other while we secretly prayed we made it down.
Just as the doors were about to seal shut, something stopped them.
No. Not something.
Someone.
Four thick fingers jammed themselves into the small space and spread. Pushing wide, the doors started to open, and another hand joined the first. We watched silently as a large pair of hands, which bulged with veins, pushed, reopening the doors that had almost been closed.
It could have been a firefighter. Emogen. Even the beast she was trying to coerce from his room.
I knew it wasn’t.
Hostile intentions slithered between the widening doors, oozing into the small space, rising like the smoke in the stairwell. It had no odor. No color. But oh, how it attacked the lungs, seizing them and making it nearly impossible to breathe.
Almost immediately, my fingers started to tremble, but my stare remained focused on the man slowly revealed to us.
Black clothes. Black hat shielding an unknown face. He stood, head angled down, with both arms out, holding the automatic doors open.
Barring us from getting away.
Slowly, his head lifted, and my insides twisted with something insidious. Scrupulous Asian features were revealed inch by inch until hawklike cold eyes glittered menacingly at us as if a predator had found his prey.
My instincts stopped screaming something was wrong. They didn’t need to scream something I could clearly see. Instead, a heavy weight of dread settled upon my shoulders as if it could hold me down and drown me.
He smiled. It was not friendly.
I thought maybe I should have called Earth.
“Pardon me. We need to go down.” Ivory attempted. How she made those words sound reasonably polite, I would never know.
“I’d say you’ve reached your destination.” His English was not as good as Earth’s, but it was perfectly clear what he meant.
Dropping his arms from the doorway, he sniffed, a low, threatening sound I shouldn’t have heard over the alarm—
Wait, the alarm had stopped, and I hadn’t noticed until now.
Thoughts of the alarm vanished when he lifted a gun, its black barrel pointing right at me. Swallowing thickly, I shoved my hands under my thighs, trying to calm my thundering heart.
“Who are you?” Ivory demanded, the fear in her voice unmistakable.
His black, soulless eyes never left mine as he answered, his penetrating gaze threatening to swallow me whole. “Just here to collect a life owed.” Suddenly, he glanced away to my sister, and a corner of his mouth lifted. “Looks like today I get a two-for-one.”
I burst into action, pulling my hands from under my legs, bringing with them the knife Earth insisted I keep. Shoving out with one hand, I threw myself out of the chair. It rolled off behind me, and I dropped to the floor.
I used gravity to my benefit, bringing down the knife into the man’s thigh as I fell. He howled in pain, stumbling back, surprise flashing in his eyes.
The second he moved, the doors began to close with me lying in their path. Part of me was in the hall, the other still in the elevator.
“Virginia!” Ivory exclaimed.
I gasped, pushing up onto my forearms, reaching out a hand for Ivory to pull me back inside.
“Ah!” I cried out when a violent hand wrapped around my long braid and pulled. Hard.
“You’re gonna pay for that.” His voice dripped with menace.
With his fast yank, my eyes prickled with tears as my scalp screamed from the hair being pulled so forcefully. I fell back, my body starting to slide into the hall out of the elevator. Ivory lunged, hands locking around my ankles.
I became the object of a tug-of-war, the doors nearly closing, but once they hit my legs, they sprang back open.
The thunderous sound of a gun exploding made us both scream. Metal groaned, and glass shattered, the light in the elevator instantly going dark. Panicked, I searched inside the car for Ivory, praying she hadn’t been shot.
She was crouched in the corner, hands over her head, glass everywhere. I couldn’t tell if she was shot, and then she wasn’t even in my sight at all.
I cried out, clawing desperately at the hand and arm towing me down the hallway, wanting so desperately to fight.
I felt so helpless. So utterly weak.
Tears streaked down my face, a mix of frustration, fear, and pain. “Run!” I screamed to my sister, hoping she was alive. Hoping she could hear. “Run away, Ivory!”
“You can’t run from the Black Rose,” the voice intoned as he gave me another vicious yank.
The elevator chimed, but I wasn’t able to look back because pain so intense radiated through my scalp. I stared up at the flickering light, praying that meant Ivory was on her way to safety.
“Damn, you’re heavy for being so small,” the man spat. “Fucking gimp.”
The slur was a stinging slap to my face, and it also brought out unbridled rage. How dare he complain that I’m heavy? I didn’t ask for this!
Through watery eyes, I saw the knife still sticking out of his leg as if my effort to protect myself had been so insignificant he hadn’t even bothered to pull it out.
Twisting at my waist, I lunged, ripping it out. The gross sucking sound it made was punctuated by his scream, and then he dropped me. Gasping for breath, I pushed up onto my forearms, still gripping the bloodied blade.
He lunged at me with a loud yell, leaping on top of me and pinning me down with his weight. My brother and Earth had endlessly black eyes, but this man’s were different. These were the true eyes of a killer. Flat, lifeless. With no conscience or regard to human life.
For long seconds, time hung suspended, and I was caught in a place with this man where life and death were equal. And sadly, he had the power to decide which I would get.
Despite his hands being slick with blood, they were strong when they wrapped around my neck to squeeze.
A feeling of claustrophobia wrapped around me, and I gasped.
Even though I stared up at the man trying to strangle the life right out of me, I thought of Earth.
Of how he’d hit his knees the last time I’d been with him. How he buried his face in my lap and sounded so broken yet so whole because he’d felt chosen for the first time in his life.
This man was completely capable of stealing away my life, but I couldn’t allow it. I couldn’t allow anyone to take anything more away from Earth.
Fight.
The world dimmed at the edges of my vision as the man squeezed tighter. Feeling the knife still clutched in my hand, I brought my arm out, stabbing it into the muscle in his arm.
His grip disappeared. Oxygen flooded my deflated lungs, and I began to cough and choke.
“You little bitch!” He fumed.
“Virginia!” Ivory yelled, feet echoing in the hall behind us.
I told her to run.
Like a little hellcat, Ivory launched herself onto his back. All I saw was her feet closing around his waist as she clung to his back like a spider monkey. He shouted, reaching behind her with a hand to flip her off.
The gun went off, and I screamed. Plaster from the walls or maybe ceiling rained down over us as they continued to struggle. I shoved up into a sitting position and tried to think of something more to do.
They struggled for only a minute, and then he got the upper hand, reaching around to flip Ivory over his head, slamming her into the floor. Crying, I pulled myself across the floor toward my sister who was lying on her back, unmoving.
The man trained his gun on her.
“No!” I roared, throwing myself at his legs, still unable to reach.
In that moment, I hated my body. My useless legs. I hated being unable to fight.
“What the hell is going on here?” A new voice came from the end of the hall.
“Help!” I screamed.
Across the distance between us, our stares collided. There was something about him… something that seemed innately familiar.
“Please,” I begged. “Please help us.”
The man terrorizing us laughed. “He’s with me, princess.”
The new man was dressed exactly like his friend, except his hair was longer because I could see it sticking out from under the edges of his hat.
“What the fuck are you doing? You were supposed to be in and out.”
I couldn’t pull my eyes off the man. What was it about him? Even his voice.
“Please,” I whispered, dragging myself across the floor toward him. He obviously wasn’t here with good intentions, but whatever it was about him appealed to my instinct to survive.
“She stabbed me. Twice!” barked the man I was trying to get away from.
“She wouldn’t have if you’d just shot her.” The man sighed almost as though he were bored. His words were cold and matter-of-fact.
Just like… “Earth,” I whimpered.
The man’s body went rigid, and I glanced up. He reminded me of Earth.
There was a flash of something in his eyes, but then he looked away, the muscle in his jaw jumping. “If you won’t do it, I will.”
A gun exactly like the one his friend carried appeared in his hand. Eyes cold, he leveled it on me.
“Please don’t kill my sister. My brother will need her,” I begged and then closed my eyes and waited to die.