Sorcerer Hunters Fan Fiction ❯ Fall into Darkness ❯ Third Fall ( Chapter 3 )

Fall into Darkness

Carrot Torte sighed as he glanced over at his sulking and decidedly unfriendly companion. Éclair stared purposefully out of the tinted car window from behind a pair of mirror-like shades. Neither deemed it worthy to break the disquieting silence. Mentally he griped at his mentor for forcing her to act as a bodyguard. So what if someone was out to kill him? If he stayed in the heavily populated areas no one could touch him without a roomful of witnesses. He cut another glance at her and caught the tail end of a particularly hateful glare. He rolled his eyes and settled further back in the seat.

He knew why she acted like that around him: she hated him. Of course she wouldn't let it show in front of Sacher, though the older man probably knew. Not much escaped his notice, including bad grades. Of course the reason for her intense animosity towards the young man lay in the fact that she loved their guardian, loved him in a way that Carrot could never find in himself though he shared the man's bed. That too added fuel to the fire.

A sly grin drew his lips up as he thought about her reaction to the discovery. She had nearly killed him, but their mentor had intervened, reminding her that Carrot was necessary to realize his dreams. Of course, after the older man had left, she had left the young man a poorly veiled threat. She didn't like him being their mentor's favorite and his lover.

Who would have guessed that the little blonde brat would turn into such a surly teen? She had always been his rival, though he hadn't realized that at the time. She worshipped their mentor and despised Carrot as her ultimate foe. That was until Sacher explained why he needed the young man. Normally the teen wouldn't trust his life to someone who would be more than happy to end it, but she wasn't protecting him for his own sake. She was doing that for her idol. If the older man told her to do something she would do it or die trying.

"We're here," Éclair announced coldly. The locks clicked open and the two teens opened their respective doors. Carrot grinned good-naturedly at the frowning blonde and strolled happily towards the shopping mall. "Hold on."

"What?" he demanded as she clamped one strong hand about his upper arm.

"We are not staying here more than two hours. Lord Sacher specifically stated that you aren't to remain in one place for more than two hours outside of the house."

"I know what he said." Why did she have to call the man 'lord'? He respected their mentor, but not to that fanatical extent.

"You had better once we get inside and don't think that you'll give me the slip for a moment."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Carrot replied, shrugging her hand off. She lowered her shades for a moment to give him a suitably potent glare as a warning. "Okay?"

"Two hours." The blonde signaled to the driver and the car started up and drove out of sight.

"Fine." The two unwilling companions stalked across the parking lot, wishing to be anywhere but with each other.

* * *

Carrot viciously jabbed his frozen yogurt with a plastic spoon while imagining that it was the brains of a certain bodyguard. Said bodyguard stood a few feet away scanning the crowd as if she expected an attacker to leap out from behind one of the many trashcans situated about the food court. It was a good thing he didn't feel like trying to pick up girls. What would they think when they saw a suspicious, leggy blonde shadowing him like a tenacious yip-dog? Okay, a very dangerous and deadly, tenacious yip-dog.

He really didn't know why he had chosen to go to the mall out of all places. It had seemed like one of his more brilliant ideas until he had actually reached it. Well, seeing Éclair act like a freak was a bonus, but then she did that a lot.

She cast him a glare that made him glad that she wasn't within touching distance of him. His arm still smarted from her earlier grip.

"Carrot." He turned his head and found that strange, purple-haired woman leaning casually against a pillar at the other end of the food court. She beckoned to him urgently. He glanced at Éclair, found her determinedly glaring at passersby, and quickly left his seat. For a second he thought it odd that she wasn't jumping on him for moving an inch without her approval. Then he shrugged and decided that he was better off without her doing that.

"Hey," he murmured as he came to a stop before the woman. He noted that she was much taller than him, which he found disconcerting. "I'm sorry about the other day. I really don't know what happened. I remember you…and that's it." A sharp stabbing pain imbedded itself behind his temples as he tried to remember their first encounter.

"That's alright. I understand completely," she replied with a slightly bitter chuckle. "Are you feeling better?"

"I'm fine. So what were we talking about anyway? Before I blacked out?" The woman giggled softly and leaned towards him with a conspiratorial wink. The young man inched away. Falling, why did she make him feel that? Why did she seem so familiar?

"It was nothing important. So, indulge me a question or two before I have to leave."

"Leave? Where do you have to go?"

"A…business meeting."

"Sounds boring." The young man rolled his eyes thinking of all the meetings his mentor went to. The adult world seemed like a larger burden than was worth bearing. Maybe that's why his mentor was so determined to change it.

"So can I ask you a few questions?"

"Sure. What do you want to know? Wait…are you a journalist?" The woman blinked amber eyes and smiled widely.

"No, just a curious friend. How are your parents doing these days? Everything fine, I hope."

Carrot frowned and cast a quick glance at a surprisingly oblivious Éclair. His parents, he really couldn't remember them. He couldn't recall much of his childhood up to the point when Sacher became his guardian. Dimly a memory of a dark haired woman smiling tenderly at him trailed through his mind, but he couldn't remember anything of a father.

"I don't know. I think they're dead. Sacher Torte is my legal guardian so I assume they're dead. I never really thought about it."

"You've never thought about who your parents are…were?" the woman asked incredulously. Flashes of light crawled across his vision as the headache grew in proportion. He had to leave, had to get out of there. If he continued to talk to this strangely familiar woman, then he would fall worse than he had ever fallen before.

"Carrot!" Éclair's harsh voice sliced into his reeling consciousness and pulled him back from that unfathomable edge.

"What?" he demanded, turning to face the approaching blonde whirlwind.

"Be careful what path you choose, Carrot." He turned back the woman.

"What did you say?" The woman touched his cheek gently, a deep sorrow shimmering in her amber eyes.

"What are you doing, Carrot?" The young man winced at the younger girl's steel voice. He would have to placate her, and fast.

"I'm just talking to…"-the woman had vanished-"a person who isn't here anymore." Éclair rolled her blue eyes and mouthed a silent insult.

"We are leaving now."

"But you said two hours-"

"You tried to give me the slip. If you won't cooperate, then I have no choice but to end this little trip." The two teens glared at each other for a minute. The young man heaved a resigned sigh and yielded.

"Fine. Let's go home."

* * *

A fourteen-year-old, trained assassin…he was ridding in a car with one of those. A fourteen-year-old trained assassin who was currently very pissed off. Carrot sunk further into the leather upholstery and felt a fleeting sense of déjà vu steal over him. In fact that feeling was actually very close to the truth. He had come to the mall in a very similar situation and was now leaving in it again.

The girl should really lighten up, he thought cutting a quick glance in her direction. She had always been a moody, brooding girl, always staring darkly around, never relaxing. Tension always filled her wiry body, as if she was about to explode into violence. However, ever since her fourteenth birthday, she had become worse, and he knew why.

An expectation had slowly built up inside of her through the years and its culmination would never come. It was last year that she had found out about him and Sacher. She had asked-demanded while choking him-him when it had started. Fourteen, the magical number that she so anticipated. His fourteenth birthday had been the night their mentor first taken him. He wouldn't dare to call it something so mundane as sex or 'making love'. He remembered his fourteenth birthday with a mixture of fear and uneasy lust. Yes, that was the first time, but not the last.

Éclair's fourteenth birthday had passed uneventfully. She had been unusually less grumpy than normal. Her longing gazes upon their mentor had been filled a sort of trembling anticipation. An anticipation that hadn't been fulfilled. There had been no cake, there never was or would be for either of them, and all their mentor had given to her that night was enough money to go out and buy something at the mall.

Carrot had been the one to receive the nighttime visit, and the young girl had never forgiven him.

A flash of light and the subsequent roll of thunder alerted him the beginning of a bad storm. He glanced out the window to watch the first bloated drops strike the dirty asphalt. Spring storms made him uneasy. He liked everything else about spring save the drenching storms that raged through with destructive impatience.

Destruction…

He had the power. He knew it was the only way everything would be put right. He didn't doubt that. He doubted himself, his resolve.

His parents, who were they? That strange woman, he had never asked her name oddly enough, had asked him about his mother and father. His parents were dead, or so he assumed. His mentor had never mentioned anything about them, and he had never really cared to ask. Knowing never seemed that important. It still didn't. He just felt vaguely uneasy, as if he should know, should ask about them. Did Éclair know anything about her parents? Did she care?

No, she wouldn't care. Sacher was her lord, her master, her entire universe. Everything else was merely a distraction that either had to be endured, like himself, or eliminated. He never wanted to be on the receiving end of her ruthless devotion again.

"What the hell?" Carrot cried when something heavy landed on the roof of the car. The metal bowed under the weight of whatever was on top. Éclair and he stared at the dipping roof in shock. The car swerved and both were thrown violently against their seatbelts.

"Driver?" Éclair shouted at the man frantically spinning the steering wheel. The man cursed loudly and straightened the wildly veering car. A metallic crunch sounded above and the two teens found the perfect indent of a hand in the roof.

"What is up there?" the young man demanded as the creator of the indent decided to add another.

"We're getting out of here."

"What did you say?"

"Undo your seatbelt. Now!" Confused and more than a little frightened, Carrot obeyed instantly, fumbling at the release button for a second.

"Got it." Instead of making a reply she flung herself on top of him and, simultaneously, opened his door. Together the two teens hurtled out of the moving car and into the lashing rain.

Éclair immediately tucked herself into a controlled roll and was on her feet seconds after hitting the ground. Carrot wasn't nearly as skilled. He landed hard, the wind knocked out of him, and rolled until a trio of garbage cans forcefully halted his flailing body. He coughed harshly and struggled to draw air into his lungs. What was going on?

"Get out of here, Carrot. Move it!" He blinked dumbly, mind still rattling around from the fall, and tried to focus on his young bodyguard. Everything blurred unnaturally with the sheeting rain and the pounding in his head.

Before he could ask her why, she launched herself at a tall shape standing on the other side of the street. The car, he noticed, had spun out of control and crashed into a building. And despite all the noise it must have caused, no one came out to investigate. Where was everyone? Why didn't anyone seem to notice?

The grunts of the blonde and her attacker faded into the background of the storm. Carrot staggered to his feet, using the building behind him as a support, and pulled in painful breaths. She had told him to leave. Someone was trying to kill him. He should run. He couldn't.

Help…

A sharp pain lanced up his right leg and coiled about the base of his spine. He must've twisted his ankle. Gasping through the pain he hobbled away, guilt eating away. She was supposed to protect him, he knew that, but she could get hurt. He didn't like her, but he didn't hate her either. She was just a kid, just fourteen.

"Dammit!" He couldn't leave her to fight alone. She was doing it because their mentor had commanded it of her. He heard her cry out and watched as she landed hard upon the street. Then he got a good look at her towering opponent.

Blonde hair, pale blue eyes, Nordic features, so familiar in all respects, so like hers. Carrot froze as the stranger, the killer, turned towards him. The man smiled coldly and cracked his knuckles. At his feet Éclair groaned in pain and struggled to rise.

"Looks like you have no one to protect you. Poor thing," a dulcet voice sang out behind him. A timeless, nameless dread slithered down his spine.

"If you play nice, we won't hurt you," a second, huskier voice continued. Those voices wrapped around his mind and he knew nothing but terror. Slowly he turned, every cliché horror movie running through his mind.

Two young woman stood behind down the street. He choked upon seeing what they were wearing-or rather what they weren't. If truth be told, they weren't wearing all that much despite the unpleasant weather, but what they did wear consisted of black leather and a very scant amount of it to cover their bodies.

"Please don't make us kill you. If you surrender than everything will be a lot less painful for you," a calm masculine voice informed him. A fourth person appeared, black hair clinging wetly in the deluge. The pain inside the young man's head flared to agonizing life. Their faces, their perfect and sculpted faces, forcefully reminded him of…he couldn't think about it. The pounding in his skull only worsened when he tried to place their faces.

"No." The word scrapped over his chilled lips. He couldn't go with them and he couldn't let them kill him. "I can't. I won't."

She was only fourteen…So young…

"He's wants to do it the hard way, sister," one of the women giggled mischievously.

"Let's oblige him, Tira." He cried out as something pierced his side. He looked down to see a thin silver line running from the growing stain on his hip to the gloved hand of one of the women. She smiled pleasantly at him through the rain.

He opened his mouth, not knowing what he could possibly say, but a loop of thread snaked about his neck, and tightened. Frantically he scrabbled at the hair-fine line cutting into his throat. He twisted madly, trying to loosen the deceptively fragile noose.

"Struggling will only make it hurt more," the dark haired man informed him softly. "Relax." He remembered a softer, more humane voice commanding that.

"He looks like a hooked fish with his eyes bulging like that," the blonde man behind him laughed.

"If you don't cooperate, we have orders to kill you," the woman holding the wire said with a cruel laugh.

Air, he couldn't breathe. Dark spots floated across his vision. The pain in his ankle had blended into the pain rioting through his head and the desperate motions of his starved lungs. Everything was firebrand agony.

Darkness rushed up to greet him with the damp glisten of the street. He slammed into the unforgiving asphalt, a loop of thread about his neck and a line of wire in his side. Carrot wondered how it had all come to this.

Had he finally fallen?

For good?

* * *

This is not the end, just the end of the chapter. I hope you liked it and please don't forget to review with your opinions, but no flames if you can manage that.