The House of Izhar

Chapter 27 - Dancing in The Shadows

The night was too quiet and cold. Cold clouds could be seen every time we exhaled. We all ran instinctively to the hospital, always remembering to stay in the shadows. They were already here and we all knew it. Now, we just need to hope that we don't play according to their game. The 'Scumbag' aka Alex Connally, had a hard time keeping up with us. That was expected. However, he never complained or uttered a single word of disagreement which was a pleasant surprise.

The trek was long and terrifying. The closer we got into the heart of the town, the higher the possibility of being ambushed. There was no sound apart from the occasional crunching of gravel beneath our feet and the heavy-breathing Alex.

Avery stretched her hand outward to stop us from going any further. Her eyes looked upward and we all followed. We were here. The building loomed over us as if awaiting our arrival. Lightning struck hard. Us Izhars instinctively dived to the ground to avoid our silhouette from being caught by the light. Unfortunately, the scumbag wasn't too quick to act. His shadow got casted brightly on the gravel road. Avery yanked him down as quickly as humanly possible but it was too late. We had already been spotted.

Lightning struck again and we saw another shadow. A shadow that didn't belong to any of us. As quickly as it had appeared it had also disappeared just as quickly. Mat took out his whip lasso from its holder and Avery reached for her dagger. Rock and I followed right after. We readied our cards and anticipated the right time to fire. Poor scumbag, he didn't prepare any weapons to defend himself with. He bawled his hands into fists and faked a brave face.

Drip...drip...drip...

The rain poured in light drizzles but even the light rain added much difficulty to the mission at hand. There was silence and then...

"Watch out!" Avery screamed.

In the nick of time, I yanked Alex away from a high-speed knife. Three black figures dropping down from the sky, sharp knives at either hand. And as if it were all choreographed, they charged at us making confident slices.

Mat swung his whip right at their faces, but like delicate dancers, they dodged. They moved like shadows, quick and silent.

Rocket flicked one of his cards right at them. It was a good flick. The card had pierced through one of the shadowed men's torso. However, he just kept on advancing his attacks on Avery and Mat as if he didn't even realize that he had been stabbed.

Avery had managed to dodge one of their hook punches and in retaliation, she took the opportunity to get herself into the pocket zone. With all her arm strength, she thrusted her dagger in and yanked it out of the underside of the figure's chest. But to her surprise, there was not a single drop of blood. "They're wearing armor!"

Sorian's hair was soaking wet, dripping droplets of water into his eye. He was having a hard time seeing. However, that did not render him useless for he had trained for years to defend himself even though one of his senses has been compromised. His moves were so precise and graceful.

The third figure came out of the shadows and was about to slice Alex's head off when Mat tangled his whip around Alex and yanked him out of danger. "If you're not going to help, don't stand in the way," he scolded through gritted teeth.

Meanwhile, Birdie had managed to land a clean kick onto one of their faces. Rock and I decided to redirect our shots to their fingers and eyes as those areas could not be protected by the armor.

"Aaaahh!!"

I whipped around to see that scumbag getting dragged away. I can't believe this guy. Does he even have a death wish or something? I threw a card that curved way too near his face but good enough that it had cut the wrists of the enemy.

The figure dropped his grip on Alex. "Run!" I yelled and run he did. He scrambled up the nearest escape ladder. The figured man didn't dwell on his injuries for long and clambered up after him. Rocket and I followed right after.

"Help!" Alex yelled.

Mat reacted quickly, using his whip as a lasso, wrapping it around the figure's neck and pulling violently, causing the figure to fall back to the ground.

Just as one got taken down, the other came charging right after. The figure was a slippery fella right behind our tail.

"We got to find a way to lose them!"

Rocket looked down to see the enemy chasing us in hot pursuit. He looked back up and we made eye contact for a brief moment. He gave me a sad smile before thrusting himself off the ladder, crashing onto the black figure. There was a loud thud but before I could take a look... "Keep on running! They got back-up!" Avery screamed. "Don't let them get Alex!"

It was pure adrenaline that that scumbag managed to climb up five stories in quick succession. West wasn't kidding when he said that The Order was after him. His offence must be serious that so many of the figures were after him. In no time, we had reached the roof. We scanned the area for the next possible place to run to. Unfortunately, there were no nearby buildings that we could jump onto. We were trapped.

The scumbag was running his fingers through his hair. "I was about to die!" he yelled at first to himself then louder at me. Then, he shook me by the shoulders, "I can't die here!"

Out of the corner of my eye, a similar black figure emerging from the ladder we had just climbed. "Oh, crap," I heard myself say as I took the frozen Alex by the hand and dragged him towards the door into the building. I twisted the handle, only for it to be locked. Come on! I rammed myself towards the door repeatedly but the door would not budge. I could feel that scumbag tightening his grip round my hand. I fumbled out for my cards. I only had 4 left.

The black figure was now charging full speed at us. I flicked a card but the figure deflected it with their knives. It was coming nearer and nearer and...clack! The door flung open. "Get in!" It was Sorian! He jammed the bolt shut just in time. Not a moment too soon, we heard the loud crash on the door.

The scumbag had his hands on his heart and his body leaned against the wall. Stunned at his second near death experience. "Quick you two. That door won't hold for long."

He was right. The door flung off its hinges and this time, not one, not two but three black figures were seen through the frame. We followed Sorian as he dashed down the flight of stairs and through the hallways. "In here," he ushered. We filed ourselves into a storeroom.

The scumbag was breathing hard. Sorian raised a finger to his lips as we heard footsteps shuffling through the hallway. We remained in darkness for several minutes before Sorian even dared to open the storeroom door. When the coast was clear, Sorian handed back my metal cards that he had managed to collect before we followed Sorian stealthily back to the group.

In the dim light, I could see a large slash across Sorian's face. The slash was bleeding out and it was being absorbed by his clothes as it trickled down his neck. Sorian assured me that he was fine. "Worst it would do is leave a scar," he assured.

We met up with the others under a bridge. Mat, Birdie and Avery had bruises and fresh wounds all over themselves. They looked disheveled but it wasn't the worse that they have endured.

"Oh, Rock!" I could feel a heavy burden lifted off my shoulder. Rocket was laying down, his face wincing in pain for he had twisted his ankle but, he was okay.

"Did you see what I just did?" He smiled proudly.

"You fool, that could've gone way worse."

"But it didn't," he laughed for a bit before grimacing in pain.

Sorian ran towards Avery to make sure that she was ok. Birdie stayed quiet as she dressed her wounds with pieces of clothing town up into strips that she had stolen from a clothesline somewhere. Mat tried to remain optimistic by telling us that he had just added a new scar to the collection.