Reborn Heart of Steel

With every thump of my heart in my chest, I ran through the skirts and lanes of the city, that was as dark as a nut, and wheezing hard. More heavy steps a little faster behind me, I shook off my protesting muscles, and ran. “Move!” Much louder this time, but still thick, Chase’s voice came from the left side of where I ran. I took a look behind me and saw nothing but Alessandro’s back, his brows drawn together in fierce focus. Behind him, barely visible in the dark, were the forms of our aggressors or rather men from the Phoenix Organization sent by The Raven. How had it gone sour? Our strategy appeared to be perfectly right to the letter. We thought we had found what appeared to be a vulnerable link in one of The Raven’s minor activities the office block that we had ascertained was used for money laundry. There had seemed to be so little security, and we had been so sure of our ability to sneak in, surreptitiously collect evidence, and sneak out. It couldn’t be further from the truth. From the time we had set foot inside the building, alert buzzers had shocked all of us to life. I’ve seen so many armed men that within minutes we were surrounded by more of them than in all my life. Were it not for dumb luck and some last-minute use of a smoke bomb by Alessandro, we wouldn’t even have made our escape. Now, as we ran through the narrow part of the city alleyways and turns, I couldn’t help feeling we had run straight into an ambush. Since the beginning, the Raven had been fully prepared, had been outplaying us at every turn all this while. “Left!” ALESSANDRO shouted, his throat clogged with tension. “Gosh, there I see there is a fence that one can easily climb!” Quickly swerving, we nearly slipped on the wet surface of the road with the soles of our shoes. In front of us, there was a chain-link fence that rose as high as one could tell in the night. At once, Chase got to it first, hands extending to the metal link, and proceeded to climb. It did not take me very long to grasp what was happening, and I was right behind him with my hands trembling as I tried to get hold of the bar. Desperation stung the metal as I gripped the shard tighter; the metal could have been cutting my hands, but pain was the last thing I could feel. When I climbed to the top, I heard Alessandro shout. Turning my back at him, I observed him tripping over something, his foot getting stuck in the process. He landed badly, collapsing across the dirty canal embankment. “Alessandro!” I cried, already starting to get back up the stone pit. Jaw clenched, Chase restrained me by grabbing me, and when his hand finally shot out, it locked on my upper arm like a shackle. At which point he mutters, “No time! They’re too close!” He was right. And now the sounds that were to be heard were the running feet of the individuals that were chasing us, the jeering of those who saw Alessandro on the floor. Alessandro fought to sit up, and he was too pale. His faces were set. “Go!” he shouted at me and the other personnel at the harnessing part of everything that was happening. “I’ll hold them off!” ‘You bet we are!’ I yelled back, suspecting that tears were welling up in my eyes. But as soon as I said it, I realized that it was the only thing we could do. If we all remain here, all of us are trapped. Yet at least this would give the two of us a possibility to flee, to continue the struggle. I must have looked pained because Alessandro briefly seemed to lose some of his gruffness. ‘Don’t worry, Bri. It is all okay. This is what I wanted anyhow. Off you go. ‘ Gulping, I let Chase drag me over the top of the fence, which I heard as if it was coming from a great distance. We lowered ourselves to the other side just as the first of the men got to Alessandro. Then people ran and screamed, whether in fear or excitement could hardly have been discerned. Alessandro moved like a possessed man, trying to keep the men off our backs, while Chase and I managed to get some distance between ourselves and the fence. We flew blindly, no particular place where we were going to be apart from ‘away’. Fighting moments passed out of earshot and all that remained was the thumping of our legs and our wheezing breaths. Finally, I think, though it must have only been a few minutes, Chase dragged me into the entrance’s darkness. The best thing that we could have done was to stand there with our bodies all entwined together, attempting to regain our breath and try and see whether there could be any sound of them coming after us. “I think… I think we lost them,” Chase said, getting his breath back and pushing himself away from me. I just looked at him, and was unable to say anything. I was surprised as to how fast I ran, as my adrenaline was now wearing off, and I began to shake and feel nauseated.

This was the final and bitter pill to swallow what we had just done, There was no air to breathe, no sound to make; I choked out, “Alessandro. ” “I can recall, from then on we just discarded him, and he was left to his destiny. ” Chase’s arms constricted around me, “We had no other way, Bri. He gave us a chance to leave. We must use the opportunity. ” Despite that I knew he was right, the feeling of guilt consumed me to the extent of feeling like being burdened by an enormous weight. Alessandro was one of us, he came in with us, a real conman through and through, as much as we were. And we’d abandoned him. We had reached the main door of the school and I shuddered and turned to Chase. “We need to go back.” “We need to help him,” Chase grabbed my arm, his eyes filled with a sort of sorrow, but definitely. “We cannot. Not now, as I said earlier. It is too risky for us now and the best thing that we can do is wait or, in other words, rethink and reassess. ” I wanted to explain, to yell at the man that we couldn’t abandon our friend to the mercy of those subterranean creatures. But the logical side of it understood that Chase was right. Where we were now tired, outgunned, and with no clue what we were dealing with retreat would be suicidal. I swore quietly and with a heavy heart nodded. “Okay. But you have to know that we are not backing off, and we will try to seclude him and bring him back. ” The stuckness in Chase’s eyes relaxed, and then he drew me close once again. “Of course we will,” All of us, we are in this together,” he replied with so much conviction. We dared to stay there for a moment more for strength could be drawn from the contact. Then, with a shared look as if to say, ‘We have to do this,’ we marched into the night. The movement was very gradual and conscious. Each shade was a possible enemy, each sound in the distance meant that we had to hold our breath. But as night approached, the adrenaline wore off and the effects of the tremendous strain that we had undergone started to tell. ‘The best thing to do is to look for a place to hide,’ Chase stated, his voice deep with tiredness. Such streets cannot be wandered, and we can not continue living like this. I nodded, too, my thoughts cycling through what little we could do. We could not return to any of the previous hideouts it would be natural for The Raven’s men to search for us there. We required an original location, a location they wouldn’t bother to look at.

At this incident, I recalled. “I know a place that is not so far from here. ” Thus, Chase looked at him, hesitating for a moment and lowering the wall of fatigue that had been built up around him. “Where?” “You’ll see,” I said, forcing a smile on my face. “Trust me. ”

“But the major question was “Do I even trust myself?”Content bel0ngs to Nôvel(D)r/a/ma.Org.