“I knew it!” I screamed in a blind rage, charging at him. Hearing my voice, Jax turned around, only to feel my shoulder driving into his solar plexus. He let out a gasp as the air was forced out of his lungs. Reacting out of pure instinct, he struck the side of my head with his fist. I saw a flash of stars in my vision, and I tasted coppery blood flood my mouth. Wiping my mouth with the back of my hand, I realized that my lip was bleeding profusely.
“Aurea? What…What are you…doing here?” Jax wheezed, holding his stomach as he laid on the ground. Taking the heel of my boot, I ground my foot into his stomach. Although I hated to admit it, part of me enjoyed watching the one who tormented me in my youth squirm in pain.
I leaned in close, staring straight into his fearful eyes. “I’m taking back what you stole, you deplorable piece of shit,” I spat, reaching towards his necklace. Suddenly, he grabbed my wrist and pulled me off balance. I tried to pull my arm away, but his hand was locked on like a vice. Rolling on top of me, Jax trapped my arm with his knee and wrapped his hands around my neck. Using my free hand, I scrabbled at his fingers to no avail. I felt a tingling sensation in my limbs, and dark spots started appearing in the corner of my vision.
“I should'a done this a long time ago,” he hissed, tightening his grip. “Your useless ass was just another mouth to feed. But at least your dad was a decent meat shield,” he chuckled darkly. Bucking wildly, I barely managed to snatch my knife from my belt before I slashed at Jax wildly.
“AGHHHH!” he screamed, a jagged cut running down his arm. Letting go of his chokehold, he grabbed at his harm and scrambled away. I retched and gagged, taking desperate breaths. Even though it hurt to breathe, the air was the best I had ever tasted.
“YOU CRAZY BITCH! YOU TRIED TO STAB ME!”
“Says the bastard who was strangling me…” I coughed out.
“Alright, if that’s how you wanna play this,” he muttered, picking up the large wooden sword he had been using just a few moments ago. Standing up on shaky legs, I gripped my knife tightly with both hands. Jax let loose a resounding war cry before cleaving his sword downward. Dodging out of the way, I lunged forward, aiming my knife at his midsection. With reactions that belied his large frame, Jax turned the wooden sword around and parried my knife. Off balanced, I couldn’t avoid the next attack, a loud crunch ringing through the air as the sword slammed into my right wrist.
I backpedaled rapidly, doing my best to evade the onslaught of wild strikes. My fingers felt swollen and numb, forcing me to switch my knife to my other hand.
“I can’t keep this up,” I realized. Thinking quickly, I devised a last ditch plan. As soon as I sensed a slight lull in Jax’s attacks, I threw my knife straight towards his face. His eyes widened in shock, and he jerked his head to the side. Taking advantage of his brief distraction, I rushed and landed a blow directly across his jaw. Jax was sent reeling from the force, giving me just enough time to follow up with another strike to his midsection. I felt Jax grab onto my shirt, and I instinctively grabbed a couple fingers, giving them a violent twist. I heard an audible crunch, and both Jax and I looked at his fingers that were now bent at a nauseating angle.
“AAARGHH!” Jax let out an agonized screech, holding his hand in front of his face. Shoving me away with his good hand, he scrambled backwards desperately. Unwilling to let him escape, I darted forward and tackled him to the ground. I grabbed onto his hair with both hands and slammed his head into the ground repeatedly. Stopping suddenly, I realized that the thing I wanted was still hanging on his neck. My hands shook as I tried to undo the clasp that kept the necklace attached to Jax’s neck, but my swollen fingers and blood-covered hands made it a difficult task. I finally succeeded after wiping my hands on my pants, and I pulled the necklace free. The necklace was made of silver, and it made a quiet clinking sound as it swung around. The centerpiece of the necklace was the small locket on the end. I undid the small fastener that kept it closed, expecting to see a familiar face within.
My heart dropped when I realized that it was empty. I closed it again and squeezed my eyes shut.
“Oh Mother, please tell me I’m wrong…”
I opened the locket again just to see the bare interior.
“JAX!” I heard a horrified shriek. Looking around, I noticed that the sound came from his mother, who’s head stuck out from behind a nearby house. Ignoring her for the moment, I crouched down and pulled Jax’s head up from the ground by his hair.
“Hey,” I whispered into his ear. “You know that picture of my dad that was in this necklace? I’m going to give you one single chance to tell me where it is.”
Jax smiled, the blood dripping from his nose and mouth and several missing teeth making it a disturbing image. “Burned. Gone.” he managed to eke out. Suddenly, he hurled a glob of bloody saliva into my face and laughed. I barely paid it heed as the ball of anger in my chest that had just started to face re-ignited with full force. As I stood up, I realized that a large crowd had gathered around to watch the spectacle.
“What did you do to him?!?” a man yelled, pushing through to the front of the crowd. I shook my head dejectedly. How Jax became one of the favorite members of the village was beyond me. Several of the other village men came forth, wanting to hear my answer.
“What’s it look like? I beat the shit out of him,” I laughed.
“That’s impossible!” he shouted back, and mutters of agreement came from the crowd.
“You seeing anyone that helped me?” I asked, holding my arms wide open.
I could feel the crowd’s eyes lock onto the necklace that was swinging from my closed fist.
“So that’s why? Ya wanted to steal his stuff?” someone shouted from within the crowd.
“What? No!”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“I knew yer dad and you were rotten thieves, but this is too much!” someone else added.
“Thief!”
“Monster!”
“Get her!”
The mob of people was growing restless, and many were calling out for justice. The cacophony of sound surrounding me was deafening. The insults grew louder and louder, and I had a sudden flashback to the nightmares that had plagued me.
“ENOUGH!” I roared when I couldn’t take it anymore. Surprisingly, the people listened. In the silence following my outburst, one could hear a pin drop.
“You’re all terrible people! My father was a hardworking man who toiled in the fields from dawn till dusk, and yet you still treated both of us like we weren't human! And why? Because we weren’t born and raised here? Oh, but when the wolves were at the door, you had no qualms about shoving him through the gate with a pitchfork in hand! You didn’t even give me the chance to help him! I thought that the bigshots in Ocaephis were at fault, but now I can see that you all share the blame. And he,” I ranted, pointing at Jax, “he’s the epitome of your mistakes! So for once in his rotten, misbegotten life, he’s going to learn the meaning of the word ‘consequences’!”
Turning to Jax’s limp body, I grabbed his ear and pulled on it.
“AY! Let him go, Aurea!” a man holding a rusty and battered sword said. I recognized the man as one of the village guards. Multiple other people followed his lead, yelling at me to get away from Jax.
“Where was this courage when the Blood Brigade came, hmm? Weren’t you hiding behind the wall, sniveling in fear?” I mocked.
“That ain’t true!” he denied fervently. “Now put down your knife, and come quietly. We’ll be handing ye over to the officials over in Ocaephis.”
“Or what?”
The sound of metal and wood scraping against the ground rang out as farmers holding pitchforks and scythes surrounded me.
“You might be deft with that knife there, but we got better reach and more men,” one of them pointed out. “Don’t go doing somethin’ stupid now…”
“Funny,” I said, gripping my knife tightly. “I’m going to do just that.”
With a quick slice, I separated Jax’s ear from his head. He screamed in agonizing pain as blood spurted from the grisly wound.
“MY BOY!” I heard his mother scream from somewhere in the crowd.
“Thank the Mother that I’m not taking the other one,” I commented coldly.
“KILL HER! KILL HER! KILL HER!” Jax bellowed, cupping the side of his head.
He only stopped when I gave him a hard kick in the mouth. “Shut up already!”
“Alright, that’s it!” the town guard interrupted, motioning with his hand for the other farmers to tighten the encirclement. They inched closer, making sure to keep their tools at the ready in case I tried to rush them.
Subtly dropping my arm to my side, I finally decided to use my new weapon. With a quick movement, I drew my pistol and fired towards one of the farmers. The sudden noise startled everyone, and several people jumped backwards in fright. The daily practice I had done with the pistol paid off, allowing me to land a shot on the thick handle of the farmer’s pitchfork. He yelped in surprise as he was sprayed with wooden shards, and after a moment’s hesitation, made the decision to retreat.
Taking advantage of the temporary confusion, I hightailed it out of there, sprinting as fast as I could.
“She’s getting away!” someone shouted. I could almost feel the outrage of the mob as every single person gave chase. Man, woman or child, they all pursued me with a speed born of anger.
I could hear my heart pounding in my ears as I ran. Quickly turning a corner, I used a precious few seconds to shove a pile of barrels behind me before taking off once again. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the surge of people push the barrels aside as if they barely existed.
“I just need to make it back to the golems,” I thought desperately.
Retracing my steps, I spotted the hole in the wall I had dug earlier. I jumped over the squawking chickens and dove straight through the opening.
“Hnng!”I grunted in pain as a long shard of wood sticking out from the side left a long gash along the side of my leg. Picking myself off the ground, I limped forward, doing my best to keep weight off of my injured leg. The sound of heavy footsteps made me look up, and I sighed in relief as the golems that had been sent with me approached rapidly.
My relief was short lived, as the weakened section of wall was pushed over by the combined efforts of the villagers.
“Stop her!” someone shouted once they spotted me. The village guard led the charge, holding his beaten sword high in the air as if he were some hero of legend.
“Hostile targets identified,” both golems said simultaneously, and I suddenly felt something bad was going to happen once I heard the ominous clicks of their weapons.
“Don’t hurt them!” I ordered at the last second.
“Lethal force disengaged…changing targets…” they said. I watched as their weapons went from being pointed directly into the crowd, and instead towards the ground in front of them. Sharp cracks rang out as the golems fired, tearing up the ground in front of the mob. A hail of bullets, fired much faster than I could even dream of, sent clods of dirt and earth flying into the air. The intensity of the sound made me cover my ears, but my eyes wouldn’t budge from the impressive scene. An entire swarm of angry villagers were stopped in their tracks by only two golems, and easily no less.
Seeing the deadly hazard in front of them, the villagers were forced to backpedal rapidly. In their haste, some tripped and fell backwards, and were forced to crawl on their hands and knees.
When the golems finally stopped firing, I was able to let go of the breath I was holding. From within the dust cloud, I could hear people coughing.
“Hostile targets neutralized. Casualties: 0.”
“Good…good job…” I managed to say.
“Devil! You’re the devil!” the familiar voice of the village guard came from the haze of dust. The two golems' heads instantly snapped towards the sound. “You align yourself with these…these…souless things!”
I snorted in indignation. “These golems are better people than any of you will ever be!”
The village guard raised his sword above his head as he opened his mouth, when out of the blue, it was shot out of his hand. He grabbed his wrist, the vibrations having traveled down the blade and into his arm. Looking down, I realized that the sword had been completely shattered, with most of the pieces having been scattered across the ground.
“Continued hostile action will be met with lethal force.” one of the golems said coolly.
“Cessation of hostilities is advised.” the other one added.
The village guard ground his teeth in frustration, but he didn’t dare to continue. Leaning on a golem for support, I ran a finger along the wound in my leg, letting the blood accumulate on the tip. Lifting my hand towards the mob, I flicked the blood at them before turning around and limping toward the tree line.
“And with that, I wash my hands of this place…”