On a String

Chapter 17

My strength, it is fading
I have to give in...
It's the fear,
The fear of the dark
It's growing inside of me
They won, they will come to life..."
'It's the Fear' by Within Temptation.

It was time to go.

His eyes flashing with an intensity that matched the darkness outside, Kai looked at Cole and gestured towards the broken window. "Get out there. I'll cover you," he breathed. A distant 'click' from the other side of the house softly echoed after his words.

Cole nodded, immediately understanding the situation. That sound could only mean that the intruders had bypassed the lock and entered the building. The ninja had perhaps seconds left before discovery.

The Master of Earth checked that he still had all the paper found in Clarissa's bed and swiftly moved across the room to the moonlit window. Harsh, jagged lines that were ironically reminiscent of Kai's spiky hair glared back at him as the pale light glinted off the shards. "You'd better follow fast," he replied while stepping over the red stain in the centre of the room. As he left, he saw Kai's head bob once in assurance.

Grimly, Kai pulled out his second pistol and backed away from the doorway, just as a white light punched down the corridor, perpendicular to his position. From the number of footsteps drumming against the wooden floor, he calculated that there had to be at least five people in the group moving down the hallway.

And they were all after him.

Again.

Except this time, the stakes were higher. Because Cole was here too. And if Kai failed, then Cole could get killed.

He didn't think he could pay the price failure would bring. Didn't think Cole's life should-

Failure? Like the same way you failed Clarissa? A soft voice asked; its tone dreamlike-metallic and hazy- as if stepping out of his mind only to turn around and fight against it.

But it was familiar.

Choking.

Like a ghost... dead, chained, restrained....

...but, alive?

He could feel the pain and panic folding in like a falling castle (wrecking, crumbling, destroying) as his expression slid back into an emotionless mask. The house (graveyard) had brought him back to the same dark place-

Kai hunched over slightly more, and his grip on his pistol tightened. No. He would not fail!

Like... you failed Clarissa?

No!

Kai took another step backwards towards the window, shivering at the cold night air seeping through the shattered glass.

He hated the cold almost as much as he hated the heat.

Hatehatehate.

Such an ugly word. It echoed of anger and pain; like fire- destruction.

(burningburning burning...)

Heat was pain. But... in its own way, cold was death.

(A death that had glowed from every inch of his prison; white cell walls, crimson cell floors...all cold, all dead, all trying to make him join them...)

(I HATE you)

Most nights in the cell had been cold. So cold that sleep evaded him (but that was okay because sleep was full of nightmares and darkness and pain- like billions of black holes scattered through his mind; waiting to suck him in and destroy-) and all he could do was struggle to breathe and watch himself bleed and hold on (although he never actually knew what he was holding on for....)