Well, it's definitely been a while.
...
I couldn't have been asleep more than ten minutes before I felt a hand on my shoulder, shaking me awake. I cracked an eye open.
Ugh sunlight.
"You. Small one. Up." There was snickering.
I could've punched Fonts square in the face right then and there.
"Maeve's outside waiting for you," he smirked, prying the blanket that was still clenched in between my fingertips.
I let out a groan, which he mocked, before sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.
What time is it?
Tugging a random flannel around my waist in case it was still cold outside, I made my way over to the rope ladder that hung outside the entrance.
Still not quite awake, I almost took a wrong step, missing the ladder completely, and had it not been for the hand tugging my T-shirt back, I would've dropped at least twenty feet to my death.
"Whoa! Jesus, Maya, be careful!" Claire looked at me with alarmed eyes. I gave her a sheepish smile in return.
"Maeve, you sure about letting Little Miss Klutzy Dunce Elf here handle blades this early in the morning?" C called down.
Apparently he'd seen what happened -_-
I stuck my tongue out at him. He winked. I sighed.
"Oh, shush you!" Maeve called back in my defense.
"Maya, just be more careful this time," Claire eyed me wearily as I grabbed hold of the rope ladder.
"Yes mother," I teased, rolling my eyes at her.
The next four hours were spent learning how to duel and deflect and stab only if very, very necessary. Nothing fatal.
Deflecting I was good at. Aiming... not so much.
By four o'clock, Maeve and I sat by a tree stump near the foot of The Cave, sweaty and exhausted.
"How's the apprentice coming along?" Tom grinned from up above.
Maeve threw him two thumbs up.
I slumped against her shoulder.
"Hey Maeve?"
"Hmm?"
"I..." I took a deep breath, "I just don't know if I'm cut out for this 'gang' business..."
Her posture seemed to stiffen but her tone remained gentle.
"Well, hun, nobody's born knowing what they're cut out for. You'll grow into it," she assured me.
"I kinda wanna go back home," I mumbled, biting my lip.
She only clenched her fist for a second, but I still saw it. The gentleness was more forced this time.
"Maya, darling, you know as good as anyone that that's not an option anymore. You knew the second you jumped off that balcony that it was over," she said before getting up and climbing the ladder again, not looking back.
Shit, maybe I shouldn't have said that.
I took one good look at my surroundings and just for a split second debated running away.
No, they know you too well. You'd be caught in ten minutes.
Reluctantly, I made my way back up the rope ladder, not very eager for what was to come.
"There's my flannel!"
Max made it a point to storm up to me while crossing her arms over her chest, looking at me expectantly with a playful smirk.
My brows furrowed for a second before I remembered the dark grey flannel tied around my waist.
"Oh!"
I quickly unwrapped it from myself before apologizing and handing it to her.
"Hey Maya?"
I turned around to see Tom addressing me.
"How about we put some of those weapon checking skills to use?" he hinted, as if everyone had been expecting me to start a while ago.
"Right," I mumbled, wiping the dirt and grime from my scraped hands as I let him lead me to the tiny room Emma had been "practicing" in the night before.
The second I stepped inside, I knew why it stank so much.
The walls were littered with shelves upon shelves of some really strange looking chemicals, each with their own Do not touch or die symbol. There was a singular wooden table in the middle of the room. It had two drawers and metal scraps lying across its surface. I assumed this was Zoe's grenade station.
Tom turned to face me again, the scar over his eye seeming a bit more noticeable in this light, before turning back to gesture to it all.
"Here's where you'll be doing the loading and sharpening. The knives are in the top drawer and the guns are at the bottom. Zoe's crap is literally everywhere so... Well, just don't touch any of it--deadly chemicals; you don't wanna get mixed up in that stuff. You need help with anything and you holler, got it?" he spun around to face me, leaning one arm back on the desk.
"Yessir," I quipped, drawing out a long sigh.
"Alright troublemaker, get to work," the redhead gave me a smirk before leaving the room.
I stared at the safety hazard that was the table in front of me.
Well, it's now or never, isn't it?
..........
People were running in and out of that little room like madmen.
"Maya, hand me my whip."
"Short stuff, grab the revolver."
"Dear, could you pass me my knives?"
"Hand me that gun over there, Hobbit."
"Pass the grenade, just don't chuck it!"
I was handing out weapons and machinery quicker than I could even register what I was passing around.
Gunpowder dusted my cheeks and grease smeared my forehead while cuts traced themselves along my hands and arms. Time was ticking and the gang had business to do.
Emma stood by the doorway, crimson lips fixed in a permanent smile, a hazy expression taking over her eyes as if she were already in character.
"We need to get a move on, people. Let's go, go, go!" Fonts shouted at my side, throwing a jacket over his shoulders.
I watched as everyone seemed to form a line, holding out their weapons as Fonts checked them out the door.
First Max, then Zoe, then Emma, then T, then Claire, then C, then Maeve, then Tom, and Gibb.
"Dude, your fly's open,"
"Ah, fuck!" Gibb shuffled out the door with his head down as he zipped up his pants.
"Well, what are you waiting for, scrub? You gotta check out, too," Fonts held out his hand for me to take as I stepped from behind the counter, wiping my other grimy hand on my jeans.
I realized I'd already given away all the weapons in the room, not leaving any left for me.
Then was that our boss produced a singular dagger and the teensiest hand gun from his coat pocket.
"For you," he said as he tucked the dagger into the side of my belt and told me the gun was already loaded.
"Oh dear God..." I didn't quite know what to say.
"Don't think you're getting away with them that easily. You're testing them out on ground level, okay?" he laughed, playfully shoving me so I would follow the rest of the line into the other room and down the rope ladder.
"Just make sure not to kill any of us, kay Maya?" Tiernan stuck his tongue out at me, only causing me to roll my eyes at him.
"I'm not, would you relax?" I defended, trying my very best to seem more confident than I actually was.
C took a stand opposite me, taking off his shades to give me a look that asked if I was ready.
After nodding my consent, I assumed the defense position, hoping to God I wouldn't be standing on my deathbed.
I watched out of the sides of my eyes as the rest of them formed a sort of half circle around me.
Don't fuck up. Don't fuck up. Don't fuck up.
The first bullet shot.
Not from me, but from C, and I dodged it just in time. I aimed one back at him and it just barely grazed his shoulder.
Another three bullets, one after the other, came thundering down on the ground near my feet so I was forced to hop from one foot to another while aiming my next shot.
Caellum felt like surprising me there and then, so he took out an 8 inch blade, casting aside his Glock 17, forcing me to pull out my 6 inch dagger.
One could say we were about to sword fight.
"Come on, Hobbit, I'm not gonna hurt you," C spoke condescendingly, motioning for me to come closer.
There were hoots of laughter from behind.
"Oh, I'm not afraid of that," I snarled back, inching my way closer.
"Whoa, watch out guys, this one's deadly!" Fonts teased.
Just as we were about to strike, we heard the distant churning of wheels.
"Shit, that's Toothless, we gotta go," Max signaled for us to follow her lead.
Sighing but slightly relieved that I didn't have to sword fight someone nearly two feet taller than me, I tucked my dagger back into my belt, making my way over to the rest of the gang.
"Hey," C grabbed the back of my hoodie, "good fight, kiddo,"
"Yeah, yeah," I stuck my tongue out at him for good measure.
"Hurry up!"
We were booking it now--Goddammit I'm running outta breath--and we were gonna have to skedaddle in order to jump on time.
We came to a little clearing, it wasn't the same one we jumped onto the other night, but I'm assuming there were "train stations" all around the forest.
"Here she comes..."
We all looked to the left only to see the speedy old train coming at us full blast.
Here goes nothing.
My friends looked oddly like spiders as they jumped onto the train, each landing elegantly onto the platform. I had a bit of a shaky landing, but hey--it was only my second time.
Zoe, Emma, Claire, Max, and Maeve all started shouting and screaming enthusiastically as they charged up the other flights, similar to the fangirling shouts I'd heard years before, except this time it was for...well, murder.
Urgh.
Meanwhile, C, T, Tom, Fonts, and Gibb took their posts by the ground level.
"Hey, short stuff, there're some more grenades down in the lower compartment; I think Zoe was asking about them earlier. Could you go down and get them?" Fonts turned to face me, one arm leaning against a column.
"Uh, sure..." I unbolted the trap door at the center of the platform, slightly wary as to what I would actually find down there.
Just don't touch anything that says EXPLOSIVE, FLAMMABLE, or TOXIC.
The stairs were steep and the lighting was dim--dimmer than the lighting upstairs at least, and that was saying something. I walked further into the dingy room, careful not to step on anything accidentally for fear of setting something off.
This place could be full of land mines for all I know.
It was a tiny, cramped room, but similar to Zoe's station back at The Cave, it was littered with shelves all over the walls. In the far corner there seemed to be a tattered cushion that served as a makeshift chair for anyone who came down here to work.
Then I heard a slam and then there was a click.
Scrambling back up the wooden steps, I found the trap door bolted shut.
"Hey, guys, let me out!" I started pounding on the boards that held it together.
There was another click as if an extra lock had been latched on.
"This isn't funny, let me the fuck out!" I tried shouting as loudly as I possibly could but it was no use.
Those bastards locked me in.
"I swear to God, if you don't let me out..." my hands were getting tired of smacking splintered wood and soon the only thing I could hear was the dull rumbling of the engine.
I took another look around the room.
It was small, dark, the air was thick and it reeked of toxic chemicals.
Are they trying to kill me?
After a while, all the voices from upstairs had vanished. They'd left without me.
It's gonna be a long night.
..........
One lost voice, two bloody hands and three panic attacks later, I managed to somehow fall asleep on the bottom steps that led to the trap door.
I hadn't even noticed when they'd returned, let alone when they unlocked the door.
It must've been around 3am.
I heard footsteps getting closer and jumbled conversation coming from above.
"Oh my God, is that blood on her hands?"
"Guys, I told you it wasn't a good idea..."
"She was about to break code... We had to..."
"Don't be a fucker, she didn't need that!"
I felt arms lifting me up but maybe I was too groggy or it was too dark for me to even recognize who it was.
"...huh?" I rubbed at my eyes to try and get them to focus.
"Hey, little one. We're back,"
That was Gibb's voice. I could recognize that anywhere.
Somehow the sketchy light bulb that hung from ground level's ceiling made me remember what had happened.
My eyes narrowed.
"You fucking bastards locked me in there!" I pushed myself off of him and scrambled to get on my own feet.
I was not about to let them get away with this that easily.
"You fucking knew how much I hate the dark!" I charged at Fonts.
"I'm fucking claustrophobic, did you remember that?!"
Tiernan, probably realizing I was about to pummel our leader to the ground, took hold of my waist, so I took to clawing his arms.
"Ni me intentes de detener, maricón! ¿Es que no entienden lo que me hicieron pasar? Coño, los odio a toditos!"
"Whoa! Down, tiger!" C managed to pin down my arms so I wouldn't be a threat to anyone else. Probably.
I turned to the rest of them.
"And you guys didn't do anything! Why would you do that to me?" my voice was already gone, but I was reaching decibels unknown to man by this point.
"Maya, calm down, they can explain," Zoe tried defending them, but I held my glare on all the guys, who seemed to have come up with the brilliant plan.
C looked down at me as if trying to speak to a small child.
Goddammit.
"I'm gonna let you go now, but you have to promise not to hurt anyone, okay?" he tried making my eyes meet his but I was still too keen on glaring at everyone else.
"Not like she could hurt us if she tried..." Tom snickered, causing the rest of the crew to sneer at me.
"Fuck off, Thomas!" I had about had it with all of them at this point.
"Hey, cool it, short stuff," Fonts had been silent this whole time, almost as if he were trying to let me burn myself out before he said anything.
"We told them it wasn't a good idea," Claire stubbornly crossed her arms, looking unhappy with the boys as well.
"But why would they do it in the first place?!" I wanted answers and soon.
"Listen kid, Maeve told us what you said to her earlier today, about not being sure about this whole thing and we get it, but doubt isn't really our thing. Either you run with us or you don't," Fonts explained.
"Yep. And if we let you run off back home, we couldn't risk you blabbing off to everyone else about our headquarters or our plans or any of that. So our only other choice was to kill you," Maeve's eyes seemed to stare right through me.
My heart just about stopped.
Well, great, you were right--they are trying to kill you.
"But we didn't have the heart to finish you off yet, so we thought an unexpected little spin inside Toothless would be punishment enough," Gibb carried on.
"Well if the point was to terrorize me, then it sure as hell worked," I said with a slight laugh, hoping that the more I agreed as to how scary it was, the less they'd want to kill me.
"That wasn't the only reason why; we also just didn't think you were ready for tonight..." Tiernan gave me a sheepish grin that said he was sorry and for some reason it was so impossible not to forgive them.
I did feel somewhat defeated though.
"You did work very hard, we'll give you that--it's only been a day!" Emma gave me a smile underneath her wild mane of brown hair.
"Yeah, you'll be kickass in no time," Max winked at me, flipping her blue/green braid over her shoulder.
"Ooo looks like someone just got the legendary kickass blessing from our secret weapon. She doesn't hand those lightly, you know," Claire smirked at me, and I looked back at Max only to find a smug grin plastered on her face.
"Well, thanks, I guess," I tried laughing it off, the exhaustion of the night's events finally catching up to me.
"Oh Jesus, Maya, we should maybe patch those hands up sometime soon..." Gibb motioned to both my hands which had now stained the sides of my jeans with blood.
"Right," I suddenly became self conscious and was grateful when Emma started talking about how badly she'd messed with her victims' heads.
"Come on, dear, let's get you cleaned up," Claire took it upon herself to fix up my raw hands, cracked from hours of whacking splintered wood.
"I'm really sorry about tonight, it really wasn't a good idea..." she went off.
"Claire, it's fine," I reassured her, "Hey, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?"
If only I knew how true that statement was about to become.
..........
Aaaaaaand there you have it. Sorry, I know it's been months.
Writer's block is a bitch.
I can't guarantee the next one will be up soon, but I can try :)
Hasta la próxima!
Much love xoxo
Maya
