CHAPTER SEVEN: A New Beginning with rough edges
Blade wouldn’t have known Vesper was injured if it wasn’t for the drop of blood that kept trickling down and the smell of blood that made the atmosphere dense. He was an assassin. He knew the smell of blood far too well. Just touching Vesper’s side, the blood that stained his hand was as though he had dipped his hand in a bowl of blood.
Adjusting the girl, he held so she could rest on the right side of his body, he told Vesper, “You’re injured”
“I know” Vesper croaked back, “And so are you. Friendship goals, right?” He croaked again, giving a dry laugh soon after.
“I managed to tie my injury with this little girl’s cardigan, but you seem to be losing blood every passing minute” He brought to his notice.
“I’m a Brown Robe, Blade. I won’t die” Vesper assured him, his lips were chapped and white, and his face was beginning to look pale.
“Do you by any chance, know where this person is taking us?” Vesper whispered, he had no strength anymore to talk properly, changing the subject nevertheless.
“I don’t have a clue,” He paused, before sucking his teeth as he tried to adjust himself without feeling much pain, “But it seems father sent him to take us” Blade replied.
“It seems we’d be traveling all night” Vesper whispered, giving a comforting smile shortly after.
“Yeah. Hopefully, there would be no more problems” Blade gave the assurance that even he didn’t believe. “How did you know where I was?” Blade asked Vesper, whose eyelids were already dropping.
It took quite a while for Vesper to reply.
“As soon as I reported my mission… I heard Elder Hans gathered the whole of the Brown…Robes for a common mission. Ripper was the one…who later informed me…” He groaned as he adjusted himself, to sit up well, “He informed me of the plan to assassinate you. That’s how I joined in on the plan” Those words that Vesper said sapped more energy out of him, but he tried not to give himself away by letting Blaze know.
Seeing as he was in quite a lot of pain, Blade dropped the little girl on his laps, while he stretched his hands to help Vesper sit up. That was when he discovered the degree of the injury Vesper sustained.
He was shot in his chest, and he was already sitting in a pool of blood. But even in the pain, Vesper smiled.
“Don’t ever look at someone like this again, you would only scare the person more” Vesper tried to joke, but it was on him, for he threw up blood just a moment later.
For the first time in a few years, Blade knew Fear. Pure undiluted fear.
And he didn’t know what to do. He removed the Cardigan that was now soaked with blood, and tried to use it to stop his friend from bleeding further. But the cloth was already soaked with his own blood, so it wasn’t of much help. In confusion of what to do, he threw the cardigan away and tried scooping back the blood back into Vesper’s body but it was hopeless.
“The bullet must have… hit a major artery. It’s hopeless, Blade. I don’t think…I would…Survive this one” Vesper panted, holding Blade’s hands to stop him.
“You’re not going to die! YOU HEAR THAT?!” Blade yelled. He had totally lost his cool.
“I didn’t want you to see me like this. I wanted to die a hero, just like you would” Vesper whimpered, his voice getting faint with every passing moment.
“All you ever do is talk! Can’t you just shut up and save your strength? Are you going to talk yourself to death?!” Blade was getting more flustered than he had ever been. But Vesper only laughed that caused him to cough out in pain, causing more pressure to be placed on the wound, the blood spurting out of him more that it did.
Blade rose to his feet, forgetting the little girl that laid on his laps, the poor girl rolling to a far corner of the truck, for it was a truck that was helping them flee.
“STOP THE DAMN TRUCK!” He practically roared into the night, his voice booming like one from a soundbox.
The truck came to a stop and the noise that the truck brought forth came into an abrupt stop, plunging them back into the silent night.
The driver got down, and went to his truck to see what was going on, and as he opened the door of the truck, he was pulled aback at the sight of blood he saw.
He put on his battery powered torchlight to see what was going on, and he was surprised to see the little girl in a far corner, in a pool of blood, a man standing, with blood dripping down his hands while another laid at the far corner, his face already pale as he seemed closer to death than usual, sitting in a pool of blood as well.
The truck driver, got the wrong idea and thought Blade was the killer of them both, so he took to his heels and ran away before Blade got the chance to explain.
“That fool!” Blade spat angrily but his hard face turned soft again when he heard Vesper whimper.
He tried to lift Vesper up but Vepser didn’t let him. After trying to lift him at all odds, his knees gave in and he ended up falling on Vesper, who grunted in pain underneath him. He rolled away from Vesper, lying flat on the floor and looking at the dark hopeless sky. He was also weak but his trembling heart didn’t make him notice just how weak he was.
The two were now lying beside each other, the cricket’s song were even louder than their breathing.
“It’s good enough that I get to die outside the Citadel. That way…Viper wouldn’t mock my dead body” Vesper’s voice was almost gone.
His eyes began to sting as reality continued to dawn on him mercilessly that nothing good lasts forever.
“At least, I get to have my last moment with the most respected assassin of the Citadel” Vesper smiled, resting his head on Blade’s shoulders.
Blade’s hand flew to his mouth as he tried to muffle his cries, turning his face to the other side so Vesper wouldn’t see him in that state. Those tears couldn’t stay back, they flowed uninterruptedly.
He heard as Vesper breathed his last and, his hand fell to his lap, completely lifeless.
His sobs broke out. It slowly turned to a cry and his cry slowly increased tempo. He laid down there and wept.
The first he has done in years. The last time he cried that hard was when his mother gave him away to the Citadel.
In the middle of nowhere, he and his dead friend laid there, with the sleeping girl at the far corner of the truck, blood laid like a rug under them and all that could be heard in the dark, cold night, were the cries of an assassin.
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After burying his friend and putting a big rock on it as a tombstone, he turned around to carry the little girl he had kept in the corner while he buried his friend and he was surprised to meet her awake.
She had been watching him quietly as he buried his friend.
It took a while for Blade to take in her look, and he wasn’t liking any bit of it.
Her dress was blood soaked and her hair was in a mess. The little girl looked like an accident victim which was traumatizing to look at. And if anyone saw them together, they would tag him the culprit without asking questions.
So, he walked up to the little girl, and stretched forth his hand towards her, she stood up and took it without hesitation. The stream wasn’t far from where they stood, for it was there he washed the body of his dead friend.
He took the girl to the stream, left her there, while he went to wash up all the blood he had on him.
He removed his bloody shirt, bathed at the stream, then sat down to remove the bullet that had entered his back. Luckily for him it was not to deep, but as the pro that he was, he used his fingers to remove the bullet like it was nothing, before washing away the blood again.
He was almost done with cleaning himself when he saw that the girl had been staring at him all along.
He had brought her to the stream for her to clean herself, but instead she was staring at him, looking like that. Made it feel like a ghost had been staring at him all along.
He got out of the water and walked towards the little girl. He was confused as to what he needed to do.
He squatted in front of her and asked her, “What’s your name?”
She gave no reply. Just kept staring.
“You don’t know your name?” He asked her again, but she gave no reply. She was mute. Like someone with sealed lips.
“Can you hear me?” He asked, waving his hands in front of her but still, no reply.
Seeing as it was no use asking her questions, he took her into the stream, removed her blood-soaked dress and bathed for her. Took his time to wash off every bloody patch that he saw.
By the time he was done, he took Vesper’s Brown robe and wrapped round her body, for her dress was now condemned.
“Don’t let it fall off you” he told her as he tied the upper part of the Robe so it wouldn’t fall off her body.
Then he held her hands and walked her to the truck the driver had left behind. He had tried to rinse off all the blood so as not to call attention.
With the little girl sitting by his side, Blade mustered some strength to drive the truck out of the woods. As long as he found a town or village he could settle in with the little girl, safety was guaranteed temporarily.
It was almost dawn, and it seemed as though the journey had no end. With every passing minute, he struggled to keep his eyes on the road, even though he grew weaker and weaker with every passing moment.
Just when he was about to doze off, a human figure ran past the front of the truck and in response he turned away from the road in hopes not to hit her, pressing the brake pad which was right on time, stopping the truck from colliding with a tree.
Immediately, he got down from the truck to see who it was, he saw a female figure, her red lipstick was the only thing that stood out in the darkness.
“Let me ride with you, please” she said. It was an urgent call for her. Her breathing was rushed and her perfume suddenly saturated the air.
Before he could reply, she was already in the truck.
He turned around to enter the truck but his vision suddenly doubled and became blurred. Before he knew it, he lost his balance and fell.
The last thing he saw before he passed out, were black pumps hitting the ground.