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defire · 2 months ago

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Dance of Death Chapter 16

You Lost Him

Content: Environmental whump, police chase, threats, fear of violence, fighting, magical sleep

Nife focused her mind on climbing, smoothly like a rhythm of four. She was still pretty sure they wouldn't shoot a Raizden. Finally reaching a rooftop, she ran across it southward and made a little leap across the alley to the next.

"That's not fair..." Someone said below her.

"Neither are your numbers." She muttered, keeping focused on her feet pounding across the slate rooftop.

She could hear them whistling to their companions as she ran on. The sound made her stomach squirm in a way it never had before. The danger was more than immediate this time, and she could feel her steps deciding her future at each bound.

Her breaths came faster and harder as she ran toward the Octagon again, leaping like a ninja across the rooftops. Little jumps led her to one slate-tiled roof after another, and then she would hightail it across the crown of the roof. However, the buildings all around her were all too tall or short to jump to.

She needed to climb, and fast.

She'd need to get up to 20th street if she didn't want the enforcers to catch up with her. She jumped onto a five-inch building strut, slapped a hand on it to slow her momentum, and dropped lightly down into an alley. Her bare feet actually quieted her landing, ripped up harem pants fluttering back down around her ankles as she rose from the crouch. She heard another group of enforcers coming from the opposite direction, so she took the first door she saw.

She closed herself in the dark, humid stairwell of a very tilted apartment building at the edge of the Crenton neighborhood she'd run over. It felt abandoned.

She crept up halls and climbed across stairways. It was so quiet, and as she went down into the darkness, she could smell the rot increasing at every level. Black lines of it crept up the plaster walls.

She pushed at the door of every apartment as she passed them on the way down the stairs, hoping to find something she could use, or at least a good hiding place. So far, none of them were budging, and she had no doubt that the enforcers had seen her go into the building.

Finally, a door popped loudly at the first kick, and then on a second kick to the upper hinge, tilted open into the apartment.

"Yes..." She whispered, climbing inside the sloping room.

Everything in the living room had slid down into the bottom corner, including a massive, rotting couch covered in other debris. She trod carefully across it with her bare feet. In the kitchen, she reached up to a vertically-oriented silverware drawer and pulled it open.

“No blazing steak knives.” She bit her lip and thought, then slammed the drawer shut. “Fine.”

A shout outside made her jump.

“Surround the building! Unit 3, storm!”

Nife cursed, climbing onto the counter to look out the window. She didn't see anyone out there, but she heard enforcers on streets above and below her location. She launched herself up and out onto the wall, scrambling hastily upward on the forty-five-degree slope. The building leaned onto the charred condo underneath it. She ran up it as fast as she could, occasionally catching herself on the surface so that she didn't stumble and fall backward, which would definitely mean death. She must've cut a ragged figure, in a dirty tunic and harem pants with one of the legs busted at the bottom seam.

She forced herself to breathe fast to compensate for the exhaustion caused by the steep incline, focusing her attention on the bricks racing along under her fingertips, outstretched to catch herself if she tripped.

Don’t think about them coming for you. She ordered herself. You’ll be fine.

That always worked when she thought about stressful situations, but in this case, her blissful denial was broken by a shout.

"Come awn! That's the girl I saw rawnning last night!"

Nife recognized Acorn's voice almost immediately.

"Stawp!" He said. "Nife Raizden, stawp!"

Nife straightened up a little and ran up the slope, bare toes gripping into the gaps between the bricks.

"Nife, ya'll only make it worse if you rawn!" Acorn shouted. "I'm warning you!"

"Not if I don't get caught," She muttered, then she leapt over the top corner of the building, catching hold of the short parapet to keep from flying way over the other side, and dropped onto the tilted wall of a maintenance shack. Her weight was too much for it, and her heart dropped into her stomach as she realized it was ready to fall off into the miasma.

Meanwhile behind her there was an alarming number of enforcers gathering. She clenched her teeth, looking down and edging closer to the roof of the tilted building, heart beating out of her chest.

"Oh horizons..." She whispered. "I'm going to have to jump."

Nife leapt down toward the opposite end of the roof, sliding into an uncontrolled fall down it. She gasped; her fingers scraped painfully against the rock as she tried to find hold before she fell away from the building. Her feet hit the opposite parapet and busted right through.

Shit.

Her fingers caught harshly onto the edge just in time, burning and scraping half a nail back. She swung inward toward the shady underside of the apartments, and let go. She pulled herself into a roll as she landed. Finally she was able to catch her breath for a moment there on the ground, puffing and wiping sweat off her face. She slowly got to her knees and then stood up.

She stared up at the brick wall that leaned over her ominously, reminded of the pillar that had practically breathed on her skull that other time, and closed her eyes for a moment.

"It's not fun anymore," She whispered.

And if she let them catch her now, they'd be pissed off at how much trouble she'd caused, and they'd probably treat her horribly. She clenched her fists at her sides, reminding herself that they hadn’t taken any fingers–not yet.

"And while you're stewing in your regret, they're catching up to you." She snapped herself out of it and got up to her feet, realizing she was aching in several places, especially her burning fingertips. She groaned and hobbled to the edge of the roof.

"Oh… great."

All down the street below her, enforcers were gathered, probably just waiting for their climbers to reach her.

"Nife, surrender." An enforcer called up to her. "You're surrounded."

"Somebody please help this man," Nife called back down to him. "He seems to be unaware of the third dimension."

She could see them crowded around on the pathways below, shading their eyes up at her, as another woosh of wind lifting her hair off her forehead magnificently.

"So how much are we allowed to do when we catch her?" She overheard one of them ask.

"Just don't kill her." Was the captain's response.

Nife's eyes widened as she glanced down at them.

"Wait, what?" She muttered, then yelled down, "Hey, man... isn't that a little extreme?"

"Then surrender." The voice came back. "I can't guarantee what will happen to you if you anger my men."

"Honestly, that's not very motivating." Nife said.

She looked around, noticing that several enforcers were making their way up the nearby buildings, probably planning on crossing over to her roof.

Nife clenched her teeth and slumped down against the parapet, thinking hard. She was starting to panic, and she was so sweaty that her feet and hands were slippery.

Then she looked across the building and noticed several Druids in enforcer uniforms making their way toward her, stepping over the vents and chimneys. One of them had a crossbow, and the other two carried small pouches in each hand. They were moving methodically and seemed to have no concerns about Nife's escape.

"Put your hands up and get dawn on your knees." One of them said.

It was Acorn.

Nife scrambled to her feet with the help of the parapet at her back. Leverage–she had leverage on him.

"Acorn?" She called across the roof to him. He glanced at his companions, then back at her. "Hey Acorn, remember last Sunday night?"

Acorn scowled at her and started coming faster.

"I don't know what you're tawking about," He said.

"Oh, I think you do," She teased, picking up a rock, never taking her eyes off them.

The two enforcers behind Acorn slowed down, looking at him slightly doubtfully.

Acorn stopped, setting down his crossbow and raising his hands.

"Pawrley?" He said. "Just step away from the edge. I don't want you to fawll."

"You sound like a sun-blessed Bane," Nife mocked. "You're just afraid I'll climb down."

His face twitched toward disgust when she said "Bane", but he was clearly trying to hide it from the other two Druids, so he shrugged hard.

"I'm nawt a Bane." He said, still walking forward with his hands up. "Just let me tawk to you."

The other two enforcers were hanging back a little as if to give him the opportunity.

"Why?" Nife said, glancing over her shoulder at the side of the building she'd just come from. She grimaced at the thought of climbing all the way down just to end up in the hands of the enforcers down there.

"There's a better way to do this." Acorn said more quietly.

"To do what?" Nife said, also lowering her voice. "Are we just going to pretend the whole Wick thing was just an accident? How about you let me go... Maybe I won't talk about it. Maybe I'm sympathetic to your cause."

As he got closer, she could see genuine panic on his face as he held out his hands pacifyingly.

"Look arawnd you. You're completely surrawnded. You're going to be captured." He said. "The question is how you'll be treated on your way back to the station."

"The real question is how you'll convince me not to tawk." Nife said with a mocking sneer.

She could tell he was putting a lot of effort into trying not to talk that way, so she assumed the jab would cut deep. However, Acorn only sighed and tilted his head at her with disappointment, like he was judging her for the tasteless ridicule.

"Here's how Awl convince you," He said. "I won't let them beat you awp. Awl protect you."

"Oh, that's so sweet of you." Nife said, thinking up another insult that would offend a Druid. "You're an especially considerate traitor, aren't you--"

She broke off as Acorn's face twisted into a snarl and he lunged at her. She dodged to the side, then threw a rock at his face. The stone conked into his nose and he cursed as he turned toward her, rage making his features twist.

"You're gonna pay for that," He growled.

Nife crouched as he got close, and kicked up toward his face, but with a jerking movement, he dodged, keeping his eyes on her as she quickly retreated before he could grab her. As she fought him and he continued using oddly forceful dodges every time she got close, she realized that the suit he was wearing was pulling him in the direction he needed to go. She'd heard that the enforcers had been given enchanted uniforms, but she'd never seen it in action. It was unfair.

Circling back desperately, she heard a shout behind her.

"Should I?"

"Do it!" Acorn said, and something was lobbed to Nife's right, which she dodged. A heavy pouch landed on the roof beside her. The enforcers budget must be pretty wretched if they had to fight with bags of rocks now.

She smirked as she lunged toward Acorn, who had quickly leapt several strides away.

That was when she felt the pulse of magic emitted from the bag on impact. Too late.

She found herself looking into Kit's eyes.

Suddenly an overpowering tiredness filled her, and she sank to her knees, and then fell forward on her face, asleep.

Was she dreaming? She didn't want to wake up, if so.

The way he turned that smile to her, the one with a feeling of certainty and warmth.

That day, he'd looked up from where he'd been bent over the table for half an hour, working on drafting a new law.

She noticed his bruised arm, and some discoloration by his mouth. About to remark on it, she looked him in the eyes, only to see a concerned expression on his face.

"Hey..." He said. "You okay? You look exhausted."

Nife was about to respond when she realized she was seeing Warren now.

That was a good day.

Exhausted after several bouts of sparring, he'd flashed her a grin and poked her in the arm on the way by.

She'd told him to watch it because she was in predator mode and he'd laughed so hard, you'd think she'd said something clever. He laughed till there were tears in his eyes.

Nife lived for these moments.

"I just want to make you guys laugh." She said.

When she spoke, both of them did a double-take and looked at her with concern written on their faces.

Nife looked at herself in the dream and realized she was bound. Her hands, her feet, and she was on her knees as a man with a crowbar walked around her, deciding which body part to break first.

She'd been so focused on the others that she hadn't checked her own condition, and now she was trapped.

Their concern turned to panic, and she could hear her own breaths hyperventilating as she began to struggle, somehow only managing to pull the ropes painfully tight.

The crowbar smashed into the back of her skull and she woke up.

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#action story #dark fantasy novel #female protagonist #urban ninja #police chase #whump writing #whump community #defiant whumpee #whump readers #sarcastic protagonist

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