Pulse of Heroes (65 page)

“You won’t stab me. How could I carry your
son with a huge hole in my belly?” Elliot was just as surprised at
what she said as Hadeno was. Michelle didn’t sound like that
frightened little girl; she sounded like a grown woman with
strength and conviction beyond her years.

“I don’t need you because now the one I’ve
been searching for my whole life is coming, so don’t step on that
pedestal just yet,” Haden growled back at her.

“Really? You can find someone like me? A
seventeen year old in the prime of her life? One who has never used
any drugs or even touched a cigarette? And a virgin, to assure the
paternity of your children?”

“Let her go, Hadeno,” Elliot said in a
controlled voice. Good girl, he thought to himself. Until he heard
that, Elliot had pretty much assumed that they had already had
intercourse, especially as Michelle was on the fertile part of her
cycle, and Hadeno wanted her pregnant.

“You have no say, you son-of-a-bitch, and a
bitch she was. I can take my revenge on whomever I want. An eye for
an eye, Elliot, just like the old times.”

Hadeno dug the sword deeper into Michelle’s
waist and a tiny drop of blood rolled out like a small tear and
stained the fabric of her dress. Michelle bit down on her lower lip
and sucked in a deep breath. The blade was so sharp that the
slightest of pressure was enough to puncture her flesh. It burned
more than it hurt, but she didn’t want Elliot to be distracted by
anything.

Elliot saw her wince and detected the blood
as soon as it crossed the threshold from being inside where it
belonged to outside where it proved useless. The thought that his
own sword had drawn even a drop of Michelle’s blood drove him mad
with rage. If only he would have destroyed it, thrown it into the
depths of the ocean, anything. Elliot felt as if he was holding the
grip himself. Hadeno was obviously not bluffing. Suddenly, Michelle
found herself thrown to the floor outside the gate as Hadeno shoved
her away and pulled the gate shut behind him. Elliot immediately
pounced with his spear in hand, and Michelle screamed in horror.
Hadeno swung his sword, nearly missing him in the midst of his
charge. Michelle screamed again and both Hadeno and Elliot yelled
at her in unison to go upstairs.

“I’m not going Elliot. I love you.” Elliot
recognized the sincerity in Michelle’s voice and felt more loved by
her than he had ever felt before. Michelle was surprised by her
words as well, and wondered if she only said them to encourage
him.

“Don’t worry about me,” Elliot said as he
bent down low to avoid another one of Hadeno’s blows.

“Spare me the drama you two. I think I might
cry,” Hadeno whined, avoiding Elliot’s thrust.

“Go get help! The guys are out there
somewhere! Ando or Haneul.” Michelle looked up the stairs and then
back at Elliot. “It’s ok,” he said, giving her a small smile.
Michelle ran upstairs and sprinted to the bedroom door. She pulled
and tugged on it but it was locked. She then ran into the bathroom
and looked up at the gaping hole where the stained glass window
used to be but there was no way she could make it up there.
Desperate, she ran back downstairs and yelled to Elliot that they
were locked in. Elliot was still managing to avoid the swinging
sword and Hadeno showed no sign that he was going to relent until
he had hit his homerun.

What Haden didn’t expect was that Michelle
would start throwing things at him through the metal bars. She ran
up and down the stairs, grabbing anything she could find that would
fit between the bars. She threw pens and pencils, books and small
statues, even some heavy chessmen, all the while yelling for Haden
to leave Elliot alone. Haden was becoming obviously annoyed by this
distracting bombardment, and yelled at her that she was sealing her
own death. “But not before I have my fun with you, and I won’t be
as gentle as the first time,” he warned. Hearing that angered
Elliot to a boiling point of no return and he chucked the spear at
Hadeno’s sword wielding arm. Whether it was due to the chaos that
was being caused by the small soaps that Michelle was so
enthusiastically still throwing at him, or the fact that both he
and Elliot were slipping around on them, Hadeno miscalculated the
speed of Elliot’s throw. He failed to move out of the way fast
enough, and by false instinct thought that he was struck, dropping
his sword to the ground.

By the time Hadeno realized that the blade
was only lodged within the folds of his leather coat, Elliot had
snatched up the sword and was swinging it above his head just like
Michelle had seen him do in the images Haden had showed her, the
ones in which Elliot had killed man after man, tossing their bodies
behind him as if they were no more than rags while moving on to his
next victim. It terrified her to see him like that, and it was
obvious that he was going to bestow the same fate upon Haden.
Elliot was actually going to slice his head off!

Michelle panicked and let out the worst
piercing and beseeching shriek. “No!!! Stop!!!” She didn’t know
what it was that made her do it, but when she thought about that
heavy blade slicing thorough Haden’s flesh, she just couldn’t stand
it. Haden might have been crazy, even cruel, but he wasn’t all bad?
He didn’t deserve to die. What would Vilna do without him? And
Haden had other gifts. He loved the arts and was a talented
photographer. She just couldn’t make peace that a death sentence
was to be his only judgment.

Michelle’s poignant scream stopped Elliot
dead in his tracks. He held the sword above his head, staring at
Michelle and questioning her reasons and her loyalty to him. Why
would she want him to spare Hadeno? Wasn’t it enough that he had
murdered his friends and was about to do the same to him? Wasn’t it
enough that he had abused her badly and nearly raped her? He was
planning to impregnate her against her will! Did she harbor real
feelings for him after all.

“You wouldn’t want to kill your own flesh and
blood, would you?” Hadeno said. “I’m the only one that can tell you
about your parents.” The words hit Elliot like a brick. He stood
there stunned, just staring at Hadeno and then back to Michelle who
was now sitting on the stairs crying. Were he and Hadeno somehow
related? There was no way. He was bluffing. As Elliot concluded
that the whole thing had to be a ruse, Hadeno grabbed the metal
bars behind him and used them to quickly pull his body high enough
to kick Elliot straight in the upper chest with both feet. Elliot
felt a sharp, sickening pain in his lungs as an involuntary sigh
escaped from his gaping mouth, and he bent over in excruciating
pain. The sword he had gripped so tightly flew straight out of his
hands into the air; Hadeno leaped after it and snatched it back
before it hit the ground. Michelle screamed again and before Elliot
understood what had happened Haden kicked him again. Since Elliot’s
collapsed lungs had not been able to draw in any new air, he
crumbled against the back wall, coughing and clutching his chest.
Michelle watched Haden step toward Elliot’s bent-over body. He
rolled him over with his foot, as poor Elliot was still doubled
over trying his best to relax his lungs so that they could inhale
normally.

“I guess this is it, brother,” Hadeno said,
holding the sword with both hands above Elliot’s body, ready to
sink it into his flank. “Problem is, I can’t kill you all at once.
Just little bits at a time, although I can’t say I’ll be sorry to
see you suffer. I lost my father because of you.”

Hadeno began to slowly push the sword into
Elliot’s flesh and the blood started running down his side.
Suddenly, Hadeno froze, his eyes large with terror, and an angry
scream escaped his lips. Both he and Elliot turned to see what had
happened; Elliot’s spring spear was completely embedded in his
flesh, with only the handle protruding from the gushing wound.
Blood spouted as if from a fountain. Michelle stood behind him, as
white as a ghost, staring at her shaking hands. She had pulled the
gate open far enough to sneak back into the cell at the sight of
Elliot’s blood, picked up the spear from where it lay, and thrust
it into Hadeno’s back. She collapsed on the floor screaming in
complete anguish and horror before Hadeno even had the chance to
raise his sword. Meanwhile, Elliot’s lungs filled up with half a
breath and he knew that he would have to make do with that or else
Michelle was dead. He leapt to his feet just as Hadeno was readying
to slice Michelle through, and kicked him right on the open wound.
The pain must have been unbearable, because Hadeno screamed out in
agony. Only this time Elliot didn’t wait for him to drop the sword;
he simply grabbed Hadeno’s arm and bent his wrist backwards until
his fingers released it.

“This is for killing my friends! And stealing
my sword!” Elliot yelled, driving the heavy blade through Hadeno’s
back. Michelle looked up to see the tip of the sword emerging from
Haden’s chest, his face tortured. She began wailing all over again.
Behind him, Elliot stood like a menacing being. His eyes were
changing their colors and with each change the shade grew more
intense until she couldn’t see his pupils anymore. It looked as if
a film of intense opaque blue covered the entire surface of
them.

“Close your eyes Michelle! Now!” Elliot
yelled at her with such a thundering voice that out of fear of him
alone she placed her face in between her crouched knees and
squeezed her eyes shut so tight that she actually felt pain around
her eye sockets.

“And this is for hurting the woman I love,”
Elliot said calmly into Hadeno’s ear, and slowly pulled the sword
from his body while the latter screamed in anguish, feeling the
warm blade slice through his organs all over again. While the sword
slid out it made a sickening suctioning sound as the wet and bloody
viscera filled in the hollow space that was left by its path.
Before Hadeno had the chance to fall to his knees, his head flew
off his neck and hit the metal bars, landing next to Michelle while
Elliot watched with satisfaction as his body collapsed to the
floor.

Michelle didn’t see any of it, but she heard
everything and was now screaming hysterically. She felt the warm
blood splash on her bare arms and neck. She heard the whoosh of the
sword, and then the sweet sticky smell filled her nostrils. She
heard the loud thud as something hit the metal bars behind her, and
she could feel Haden’s heavy body as it slumped down right next to
hers. The smell grew overpowering as the thick metallic scent
intermingled with the heavily perfumed heart-shaped soaps that had
now turned pink from soaking in Haden’s dark steaming blood. The
combination of the two together created a slushy mélange of
indescribable aromas. Michelle choked and gasped for clean cool air
as if she were underwater. It felt like there was no more oxygen
left in the room to breath. But she was unable to open her eyes to
go searching for the badly needed fresh air. Nothing was going to
force her to open them. She was still screaming at the top of her
lungs, and the cries that came out of the depths of her gut were
full of terror and mourning. Her body became overrun with spasms,
and if Elliot spoke to her she couldn’t hear him, and she didn’t
really want to. His voice would only assure her that she was still
there, trapped in the worst nightmare of her life.

Elliot was still trying to breath himself. He
needed to gather more air into his own burning lungs, and slowly
but surely he began feeling like his brain was finally receiving
enough oxygen for him to think straight. Neither the smell nor the
sight of blood bothered him, but he wasn’t alone. The sound of
Michelle’s blood-curdling screams finally roused him. He had to get
her out of there. When he crouched to tell her that they needed to
go and softly stroked her back, she shivered.

“Don’t touch me!” she screamed at him. Elliot
was hurt, but he knew that she was in shock. Michelle peeked from
behind her hands with bloodshot eyes. She couldn’t trust the
soothing hands of a killer. “You’re a murderer! A killer! You don’t
have a heart like humans do. None of you do!” But after blurting
out those words she realized that they could all be used to also
describe her. She was no different than Elliot. She had stabbed
Haden, in the back; the man that just yesterday she was kissing and
laughing with. The man she had thought she was ready to lose her
virginity to. She had sunk the blade deep into his warm flesh, the
same flesh she had run her lips over. She remembered the way it
felt as she pushed the spear deeper and deeper. At first it was
like plunging a knife into an orange, but then it was smooth, like
thick butter that had sat outside the refrigerator for an hour too
long. Michelle began to heave and after a few painful false starts
she turned away from Elliot and threw up stomach bile. She tried to
stand up but her knees failed her. Elliot was already at her side,
and she didn’t have the strength to protest when he wrapped his
arms around her and pulled her into his embrace. Michelle resisted
only once, then collapsed in his arms weeping.

“I don’t want this, any of it. I don’t want
you or him… I just want my mom. I don’t want to open my eyes.”
Elliot carried her up the stairs, telling her that she could keep
her eyes closed the entire time. He would take care of everything.
Once in the lit bedroom, he noticed that Michelle was covered in
blood and that he himself was still fully bleeding from where
Hadeno had stabbed him. He had been poisoned by his own sword. Only
one thought came to his mind, and that was that he didn’t want to
die, he couldn’t. He needed to take care of her; Michelle needed
him.

The guys watched streams of blood mix in with
hay and dirt before disappearing down a large storm drain. They
huddled around the hose outside the stable and each of them took a
turn rinsing off swords and daggers from the blood they had
spilled. The water was cold against the warm metal, and it was
obvious that they would later need to thoroughly scrub the weapons
with warm water and soap, after which the metal would be
methodically sterilized. All of them could feel Elliot’s presence,
and they were satisfied that things had gone well. Rion made a late
night phone call to some of his local support people and arranged
for a complete clean-up of the scene. By midmorning tomorrow there
would be no trace of evidence that anything out of the ordinary had
taken place that night.