Fan Fiction ❯ Bullets ❯ Mud, blood and feathers ( Chapter 5 )

This is the last chapter for this story peeps.

 

 

 

 

 

Alcesta froze.

 

Birds skittered from the trees at the loud crack.

 

“What…was that?” Willing herself into a run once again, she began to hope against hope.

 

`There was only one shot. I know that was from a gun. If that's Aina…they only used one shot.'

 

She neared closer and closer to the clearing where the sound originated from.

 

She slowed going up the hill. Clamoring up the rocky hillside and maneuvering through trees, Alcesta flew though the last row.

 

Her green eyes grew wide and the ring she was now holding because it fell from her pocket on the way up slipped from her grasp. Stepping forward, her sandals sunk into the ground. Looking down not blinking from shock, the copper color of the mud and grass mingled with the light rain that was now falling.

 

Her breathing came ragged and slow. Her lungs just refused to work properly.

 

“No. No nononononono……” She shook her head in denial. This was not happening.

 

Laughter shook her from her state. The man she presumed was the captain held a smoking gun. His laughter hurt her heart more. Looking back to Aina she took the sight in. The area where the bullet penetrated was directly in the center of the base of her neck. Blood was splattered over her baby blue hair and outfit permanently staining them. The deep crimson was a drastic contrast to her pale skin. But, strangely, she still had a faint smile on her pale lips.

 

Even though Alcesta knew she would never open her crystal eyes again, she couldn't help but feel like she was going to sit up and smile any second now saying how she fooled her. But watching the warm, red streams flow from her to touch her own skin, she knew, she wouldn't wake up.

 

Alcesta moved her head back towards the leader. Bending down, she picked up a sword that lay by Aina, for what reason, she didn't know, or care for that matter. With a flick of her wrist, the silver blade was unsheathed and aimed at the laughing man.

 

“You did this!” she cried.

 

Still grinning he replied, “Yes and it was the best thing I've ever done, getting rid of such a disgrace.”

 

Anger flared in her heart and head. “She never did anything to you! Ever!”

 

“Oh but she did.” He stated simply. “She dishonored our village with her evil and took a woman as a consort. That, is reason enough to kill her.”

 

Taking deep harsh breaths, Alcesta took a run at him. The men that were his follows stepped away. Sure they were loyal, but with the way this man laid things down, it could be over sighted that they were too distracted to help him.

 

The commander Augustus fell back. He rained bullets down upon the charging girl. With a speed not given to humans, she easily dodged. He gave one last yell before the blade tore through the muscle of his throat.

 

Alcesta repeatedly sunk the blade into him yelling with everything she could at the mutilated corpse.

 

Something grabbed her shoulder and jerked her away from her task. Covered in blood and emotionally and physically worn, she spun to attack whoever was behind her.

 

“Take it easy, sis. Please.”

 

“Takeda?” Alcesta asked uneasy.

 

“Yeah.”

 

Alcesta looked over his shoulder at Aina once more. “Tell me she'll get up.”

 

Takeda looked away from her gaze feeling as if it penetrated through to his very core.

 

“Takeda? Takeda tell me she will wake up!”

 

The other men moved back into the woods silently, disappearing.

 

“Takeda!!” her voice was hoarse from screaming and choked from the tears.

 

“I'm sorry.” Was all Takeda could say. He prepared himself for the beating of his life, one that he couldn't, and wouldn't for once, run from.

 

Instead, he watched Alcesta swerve trying to keep her balance.

 

The red head tried her hardest to focus. But all she saw looking at her once cheerful and animated lover was oncoming blackness. Blackness that she gave into immediately.

 

 

*

 

 

The singing of the birds woke Alcesta from her deep sleep. The light hurt her eyes when she tried to look out the window.

 

She was definitely not a morning person. And as bright as it was she just wanted to take the sword she held and whack the sun back down.

 

 

………..

 

Wait a second…

 

Sword?

 

Looking down to her hand, was an almost translucent sword. Carvings of a language long extinct were etched into both sides of the blade. The hilt was solid silver with what seemed to be actual feathers inside of it. They appeared to be frozen in an ever-swirling wind.

 

Radiating a soft blue cream light, the blade had warmed the whole bed on which it lay.

 

“What is this?” Alcesta asked. She rubbed her arm across her eyes in an attempt to wake up. When she put her arm back down, the weapon was no longer there.

 

Her hands smoothed the covers where it had been feeling no warmth. “That's strange…I could have sworn that was there.” She shrugged. “Oh well. It was probably just a dream.”

 

Now used to the light, she looked back outside gazing at the purple mountains and lush forests. Her eyes scanned around the familiar sight before stopping abruptly.

 

There was something she was forgetting.

 

There was something she was supposed to remember.

 

What was it?

 

Her fist thumped her forehead in an attempt to rack her brain into remembering. Then it hit her. Aina. She felt a strong sense of fear and worry. `Wait, nothing around here is different. Was it a dream?'

 

She took in every detail of her room. Nothing was out of place. Everything was the same. “Oh my goodness! That was some freaking dream!” She smiled in relief that it never had happened but couldn't quite get rid of the strings pulling tightly at her heart.

 

Then, something twinkled.

 

Rainbows hooked her sight and led strait to a small shinning rose. That was not anything she had bought.

 

“Was that all real?” she asked in a shaking voice. Drawing herself up, she walked to the window. “It was. But nothing here is cut. That means that I had a dream of the future! Wow!!” Alcesta paused to think. “If I did, then that means that I know how to protect her when she comes!”

 

She glanced at the clock on her wall. This was the time it was when she ran out of her window in her dream. “Alright! Let's go feet!” She looked at her feet then thought, `I'll put shoes on this time.'

 

 

*

 

 

Arriving at the same clearing she caught Aina last time, Alcesta stood with arms wide open gazing at the wide, open sky.

 

Nothing came.

 

Looking around she waited for a bit longer. Still nothing.

 

“Well, I guess I'm not having the precognition thing. Drats…But that doesn't explain the rose!”

 

Thinking harder, she remembered the end of her `dream'. “Well, I guess I can check there. If there's nothing then I can just go back home and wait. Or wait here. Whatever.”

 

Turning to go to the hill, she held her heart. It was pounding so hard against her ribs it was painful. Each step seemed harder as she moved upwards. `Surely I'm not that out of shape!'

 

Reaching the top, she gazed around. Seeing nothing she exclaimed, “I knew it! I'll just go back down and wait.” Tears began to flow though. “Why-why am I crying? I don't have anything to cry about.” Dread filled Alcesta. There was something she didn't want to happen, like that `someone's watching you' feeling.

 

Spinning quickly to run like a scared mouse, she slipped on the mud. Screaming, she fell face first to the ground. Her hands barely stopped her. The only things ruined were her clothes, shoes, aw heck, she was dirty from the chest down.

 

“Crap!”

 

Alcesta sat up on her knees to brush off the dirt. Frowning, she noticed some wouldn't come off. Rubbing harder, it stained her white shirt a deep red mixed with the brown of the dirt. “Wha-what is this?!!”

 

Jerking up from the ground Alcesta took a harder look and where she had landed. Kicking her feet around, all the dirt had a distinct brick color. Her breathing became sharp. This couldn't be right. It was all a dream.

 

Backing up and turning around again, the scenes she saw attacked her mind. “Ahh!!!!! NOO! Stop!! That didn't happen!! She's alive!!! She's alive!!! SHE'S ALIVE!!!!!”

 

Her voice tore through the clearing, scattering animals. Her head bowed to the ground as she heart brokenly cried for all anything was worth.

 

This couldn't be right.

 

It wasn't right.

 

It was all a lie.

 

That was all she thought. A hand on her head and a calm voice barely reached her in the fog of sorrow.

 

“Are you Alcesta?”

 

Alcesta forced her head up to meet the person in front of her. It was a female. A well raised female by the looks of it. The robes she wore were not those of a normal noble man or maiden. They were more. They just had more grace and something else Alcesta couldn't place her finger on. The woman's long dark hair was pulled up into an elaborate design on her head that had to have taken hours to complete. Her eyes were the same color as her lips, a very deep red. Almost maroon. She seemed to be in her early thirties but looked as if she were already dead by the pale of her skin.

 

She swirled the end of her white robe to bend down near Alcesta. “Dear? Are you alright?”

 

“Do I look alright?” Alcesta sneered.

 

The woman only sighed and removed a clear gem from a pocket. It hung on a slender white string and sparkled like it was part of the moons light. The lady put it over Alcesta's head delicately and with much care even for such a simple job. She spoke almost in a whisper, afraid that someone might be hearing valuable information. “Now listen to me. I want you to never remove this necklace. I don't care what you're doing. Whether showering, playing, cleaning, I don't care. Never take that from your neck.”

 

“But why?” was Alcesta's shocked reply in the same whispered voice.

 

“Because it is very essential to you. When you die make sure you have it even then. Tell your family this. Right now, this little piece of stone is the most important thing to you.”

 

“Why?”

 

The woman took on a grave tone. “Because, Alcesta, you will live again, but also will someone else. Now I must leave.” She ended mysteriously.

 

Alcesta sat up strait. “But you didn't tell me what's so important about it! What kind of answer is `someone else will live again' ?!”

 

The woman walked to the edge of the clearing before responding. “You will understand in good time. Just please do as I say. Good day.” Never looking back, she seemed to disappear in the blink of an eye.

 

Alcesta stood up and starred at the spot where the ground was most colored. “Someone else will live again…” Grasping the crystal to look at it, she thought, `It looks like the same crystal Aina used to wear.'

 

Before any more tears could come, she turned and left the clearing to return home. “Ok, I'll keep it like she says. I'd like to see someone try and take it from me! I'll bust them up so bad they wont know which end is up! If they could tell in the first place!”

 

Alcesta returned home and sunk down into the hot water of her bath. This was going to be some fun. Yeah right.

 

Holding the crystal through her whole bath and drying off, she dressed quickly and curled under her covers. Hoping the woman was right, she drifted off to sleep, thinking only of Aina.

 

 

*

 

 

Through the rest of my life, no one dared even look at my necklace. Not once did it come off or did it's weak looking chain break. I put all my trust in that strange woman's words. Many people tried to take it. Many people also suffered from broken body parts. This is all I can tell you of my tale. My death is approaching. I can feel it.

 

Takeda is lying beside me. Has been there for the past two weeks. I have caught a disease that has wiped out half our village already. It drains one's energy down to nothing by sucking the life from their soul bit by bit. I will be buried with this necklace. I will never let it go. Forty-five years have passed since I met Aina. Forty-five. Seems like an eternity for me. I didn't even think of taking another lover.

 

Takeda married the same woman that I yelled at him for keeping me up all night for when I began this story. They had three children, two boys and one girl. The girl he had named Aina, for reasons I don't know. She does somewhat remind me of her.

 

I can feel my heart slowing and Takeda is now yelling at me. Seems like him. Here I am dying and he is still arguing with me. The brat. But I am not sad, oh no. I am darn well thrilled! Sixty-two years old and I need only wait a bit more and if that cracked woman's words were true, I just need to sleep for a while and I'll once again be with my Aina.

 

Just…a…little…nap………