Reaper's Word

Chapter 21: Unlucky Fighter

Clair moved around only for the first part of the next day, but Isaiah and the hell hounds were moving around a lot. She didn't like the thought of the contract being up before she could get away. She went to her home not having been there in a few days and straightened it up. The day passed by and into the next and she was right back to hiding from Isaiah and the hounds.

She knew this frustrated him to no end, but she took a kind of pleasure from thwarting him. It was getting harder to avoid him. She'd given up trying to go to the studio as she just didn't feel right going there. She apologized to the house and it gave her a kind response as if it understood.

Three days had passed since the end of her bargain. She was proud that she had managed to avoid Isaiah and the hell hounds completely. It was still a week to the full moon. The hounds weren't as active anymore, and she was starting to hear less of them.

Isaiah on the other hand seemed to be everywhere at once. She dreaded having to leave her home. She knew he was waiting to catch her. She kept no routine, never visiting the same places. She'd needed something to occupy her time and she'd found the library and taken the biggest books she could find to read. Which others were milling around in there, so she made it fast.

Clair was out of water today and needed more. She sighed and headed toward the bathroom closest to her to fill the bottles that she had. She did it quick and put them in the basket. She closed the grate feeling the presence of someone human. She didn't trust those in the house and she didn't want them to stumble on her going into the venting system. Then her secret would be known. She could feel they were about to come around the corner so she moved.

Clair went down the hall and into a secret passage way. She moved through it and was going to loop back now that she went up a level. She heard Gustav talking in a room next to her. He and a few others were making some plan. She shook her head and kept moving, they didn't give up did they? It was better to just face the facts. No one was leaving, they needed to figure out how to live here.

She stepped over a loose board and was almost past the room where Gustav was hiding in and talking when the passage into the room opened. A woman stepped into the crawl space and blinked when she saw her. Clearly not expecting her. Neither of them were expecting to be seen. Simply pure chance as the woman had been leaving their little meeting in that room and chose the secret passage. © 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

"Here she is!" Clair turned and bolted down the small space. Here she was? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Clair wasn't sticking around to find out because it was pretty damn obvious that they wanted Clair for whatever reason. She didn't think it was to simply hand over either with what they were talking about. Sounded more like a sacrifice, or bait. Yeah, no.

"Grab her! We'll use her to sacrifice so we don't have to die!" Clair was quicker than they were, and what the hell did they think killing her was going to accomplish? The woman didn't go over the loose board and fell through the ceiling. Clair had a brief moment to think about that. Since when did the house have a loose board?

There was a warm touch to her. Okay then perhaps it was a little bit more to that. The other two that came after her along with Gustav went over it. Why did it have to be this group she was still stuck with? Bunch of crazy brain fried druggies. She didn't think that between all of them they had a whole brain. But they were obvious survivors having lasted this long.

She went out a panel into a hall and hit something solid flipping over it. There was a yelp and she realized that she had tripped over Beta coming out of the wall. Damn it, why did she have to have the worst luck when running? Her luck never held it seemed once she was in trouble.

He looked at her and there was a sudden sharpness to his eyes. She moved back and he came at her. No doubt he would drag her to Isaiah or call to him. One of the men came out of the wall. A knife in his hand and lunged at Beta who hadn't expected the other man. His focus having been on her. After all Clair never stayed with a group, always alone.

Clair pointed but the man was fast and strong. The knife going into the side of Beta's head and his eyes went blank as he crumpled to the floor. It was a damn good strike, and pure luck in Clair's opinion.

"I got one!" That had been an incredible stroke of luck on the man's part that Beta hadn't reacted in time. Now they were in worse trouble with that stupid move. Clair jumped up.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!" Clair shouted pulling the blade out. "Do you know what will happen when the others find out! They probably already know! We're going to be bloody chunks on the walls!" The man wasn't paying attention to her as the other two came out.

"Nice work, get her. We need her. She survived longest, the ritual will work and we can get out." Clair threw the knife and it hit the man, who'd stabbed Beta, in the leg. She turned and ran down the hall and the other two were after her. She heard snarling down the hall and a scream.

She thought it sounded like Zeta. Clair looked at the chute in the room, and she'd never crawl into that fast enough. She chose the hidden door and went back into the walls. Gustav was right behind her and so was the other man.

Clair turned the corner and Gustav was a few steps behind her. She went to jump the hidden opening in the floor when Gustav managed to snag her shirt. Her right foot missed the beam she needed to land on and they crashed through the floor which really was a ceiling.

Gustav's heavier form landed on her driving the air from her lungs and pain exploded in her head and back. His elbow had come straight down on the top of her head. She nearly black out, he rolled off of her and dragged her off the bed by the hair.

"Get down here!" He said and the other man jumped. Clair punched Gustav in the stomach hard and clawed him. He tossed her into the nightstand. The edge slamming into her ribs, he pulled her away from it by her foot.

"She's a fighter." The other man said.

"Fuck you." She snapped and pulled a flip knife from her jean pocket and stabbed him in the foot. He let out a loud scream of pain. Gustav kicked her in the back and she made a sound of agony as well. The other man dragged her up off the floor.

"This better work Gustav, like I can run now with a knife in my foot."

"It will." Gustav said and the man hit Clair hard enough in the side of the head to knock her out. More pain than the elbow to the head this time before darkness consumed her vision. The man with Gustav put her over his shoulder and they moved quickly from the room, the man limping, Clair's weight wasn't much and he was glad for it.

___Isaiah___

Isaiah stepped into the room that he'd heard people talking. He looked down at a sheet of paper with ritual writing on it. A tic worked in his jaw, those idiots. He'd find and kill them for sure. This ritual wasn't going to work in the way they thought. Had he known they were going through those books in the library...

The ritual would make him turn feral. They'd be free alright, free in death. All of them at once. He'd be a mindless creature until it was completed. No, that he would not allow. Clearly they didn't understand it at all. Messing with shit you didn't understand was how people ended up worse off, or stuck like he was. He heard running in the wall and then a loud crash. Isaiah went into the passage and started down the hall. He heard a distant yelp and then a cry.

He heard Clair's voice shouting at someone, "What the fuck is wrong with you!" She continued to shout at the man, but it sounded like they were moving. He had a bad feeling. He couldn't feel Beta in the house at the moment. Well they'd just signed themselves to death, no games for them.

He moved faster now and heard Gustav call out to go after her. Then he heard Zeta and the cry of a man. Isaiah came out in the hall and looked at the bloody mess, and Beta's still form. Blood coming from the side of his head.

‘I have it.’ Zeta said and Isaiah didn't stop he just kept going. It cost him a few seconds to catch the scent and direction. As he was seeing in red right now with what was going on. He went into the room that Clair and Gustav had, and went then into the passage. The sound of fighting came to him along with three voices. A cry of pain that was a woman's.

By the time he went down through the ceiling they were gone, and there was blood in the air not Clair's though. He moved from the room, there was a breeze in the hall and he saw that a window was open. That was smart the scent of them scattered. Not truly enough though. He glanced at the window and it slid closed with a thought.

He felt for the men he wanted, they were moving quick. Had already gone up to the third floor and were moving back along the house. Isaiah turned and went up the first flight of stairs. Alpha appearing and following him. If they had Clair and did something to her, or killed her there was going to be serious destruction in this house for it. They would not take what was his from him. They had no right to deny him what he wanted.

"I fear we will have no one left during the moon to play with." Alpha made a regretful sound. There were ten humans in the house right now including Clair. He found the floor that he needed and once again the window here was busted open. But there was more than one way to track a person.