Fan Fiction ❯ Frailty ❯ Everything you can't leave behind ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

4- "Everything you can't leave behind"
I did not write the song "This song brought to you by a falling bomb" Geoff Rickley of the band Thursday did.

Nothing negative was observed in the midst of that glorious moment. The fact that she was still surrounded by the stout prison walls didn't matter. The ambient noises in the back-ground that resembled nothing short of a full-blown war didn't bother her in the slightest, and the heavy possibility that she had just jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire had no effect at all. Nothing could ruin the moment in which Raven escaped the confines of that wicked, horrible place.


The second the door behind her was brought to a full close, the titan lifted her head and took in a large breath of the crisp night air. Before bringing her gaze back down, she stared at the sky briefly; just long enough to note that despite there being an utter lack of clouds, not a single star resided within the heavens, the only saving grace of a natural light being a full, golden moon. It was a haunting spectacle, the likes of which she had never seen before. Odd indeed, but in recent hours, it wasn't such a leap of faith to believe.


Nothing was able to stop her. She could have done it right then and there. Took flight and left. It didn't matter where she wound up, just as long as it was away from this cursed place...but a number of things kept her from doing such...Just the thought of leaving without knowing whether or not Harvey was okay alone was enough to keep her tethered to the island, but there was something else...something she hated thinking of. The animosity. Carnate's curse. Raven refused to be so senile as to deny it's existence. Oh, it existed, and it was inside her. She would rid herself of this, or never leave. And despite his obvious mountain of flaws, something told her that Dr.Killjoy was the person to see.


"But first thing's first..." Raven muttered while gauging her surroundings, "I have to get out of this prison...for good ." To her right, the fencing stretched on just long enough for the ground to melt into the darkness and dense fog, as opposed to the dead-end five-foot extension towards the left.the influence of a no-other-option situation, Raven begun to venture to the right, but she had not even gone five feet before a near noise caught her attention; the rustling of a bush that had been planted on the other side of the fence.


The titan eyed it, but found nothing to concern over and continued moving. Just as her back became fully turned from the shrub, a machete' beast leaped out from it's hiding place and cleared the fence, landing behind her. Hearing the racket once more, Raven turned to see the monster, grinding it's arms/blades together menacingly.Damn !" She cursed while assuming a defensive stance.


It began the battle rushing directly for her, raising an arm in preparation to strike. Raven let it come and, just before the blade came down, rose her hand and waved it to the side, leaving behind a sheer shield, entirely comprised of black magic that lasted just long enough to rebound the creature's gambit.


Though slowly stepping in reverse, Raven continued allowing it to attack, using the same sorcery to block every attempt on her life. Just as she begun to counter, the beast leapt into the air and landed behind her, giving the titan no time to turn before lashing out with one of it's feet, achieving a direct slash across the back that sent her sprawling forward.


Raven groaned in pain as the slice that seared from her left shoulder-blade to her right hip begun to sink in. It took several agonizing seconds to turn on to her back and when she did, the only thing there was to see was the decapitated beast standing over her. me...ya' potshot..." She feebly muttered while pulling the magnum out from between her waist and the charm that was strung around it (She had been using this as a make-shift holster). Either her opponent did not see this, or the danger of a gun simply didn't register in it's head, but for whatever reason, it continued to take it's precious time preparing to finish her off.


Just as it heaved deeply and brought it's blade to the sky, Raven squeezed a round into it's chest. It stumbled in reverse, but didn't fall, thus another round was fired, this time into it's throat. Again, it appeared to be quite effected, but did not come down. It wasn't until the third shot hit it in the face(Somehow getting past the cage), reducing well over half of it's head to a gory paste, did it collapse, making a sickening SPLAT when it collided with the ground. Amazingly still alive, it subtly squirmed around before curling into a half-ass fetal position and laying still.


Raven spared a few moments of growing prone to her new injury before recovering to her feet. Her back throbbed dully, but with a slight wince, it was shrugged off each time. Due to her backpedaling during the heated altercation, she had not noticed how near she had grown to the end of the fence, and was quite shocked when she turned to see the barrier's conclusion come in the form of a guard tower. About fifteen feet shy of the building's peak was a square-shaped floor-grating that wrapped around the entire tower. Positioned on each corner was a vividly bright spot-light.


This key structure's purpose was to serve as a superlative sniping position, giving some one who happened to be there an ample view of nearly that entire section of the prison, however from where Raven stood, it seemed rather desolate. And desolate was never a good thing.


Knowing that the only way to get around this tower would be to go through it, Raven approached the steel door, pulled it to the side and cautiously slipped inside. Darkness . The very first thing she took notice of. The windows from the second floor shined down through the ladder-hole, providing just enough light for her to see the form of the exit door. After venturing into the middle of the compact room, Raven scanned her surroundings, then begun to mutter to herself (A habit she had begun to form to avoid from having too much interaction with her mind, fearing that something else just might reply), "Eh...maybe I should check things out from the second floor fir--"




A droplet of blood fell from above and landed on her cheek. Once it was whipped clean, Raven looked up to see what she could have sworn to be a large puddle of the bodily fluid smattered against the ceiling, only a few drops becoming earth-bound. WHAT in He--" She didn't finish her exclamation before a skinned human torso, severed from the waist-down, came bounding out from the collection of blood, suspended by a stout rope that wrapped tightly around it's throat.


Nowhere near expecting something this bizarre, Raven had no time to evade before she was seized and taken off her feet. It traveled at such an amazing pace that before she could even comprehend the situation, they were at the ceiling, the quite literally 'Halfling''s head already submerged in the puddle. Before it could pull her in to where ever it had come from, Raven's hands caught against the gravel ceiling, just barely outside of the blood's reach.The amethyst-hared titan groaned, struggling to free herself, "You're not taking me with you!"


In the middle of her squirming, she stole her nerve and clamped her teeth on to it's wrist. The hand of which the afflicted wound belonged to recoiled and loosened it's grip just enough for her to escape or rather, plummet a nearly thirty foot distance. The monster, realizing it had lost it's prey, quickly went in pursuit. If Raven had not been falling with her back facing toward the ground, she likely would have been recaptured in mid-air.


Given a clear shot while steadily falling toward the ground, she placed aim and discharged a single round that blew it's entire jaw away from the rest of the skull. Strangely enough, this caused the noose that allowed it to travel from the puddle of the blood toward the ground to snap and the bizarre creature begun to follow suit with Raven's venture toward the floor.


Mere feet away from the fatal collision, Raven's levitation took control and hung her there, allowing the titan to watch her captor sail past her. Shortly after this came the clear SPLAT , indicating that it hit the cement ground--and hit it hard.


She didn't come down. Instead, Raven begun to slowly hover higher toward the second floor. Half of it was to continue with her initial plans, but the other was to spectate this new class of adversary safely . After taking a fall like that, she was rather confident that it was dead, but couldn't be sure . Here she couldn't be sure of anything. It was that persistent caution and her measure of fear that had helped her live up to this point. On Carnate, the person who was not afraid was too stupid to live. rift..." She muttered as she came near the ceiling, receiving an eye-full of the puddle. "A damn dimensional rift...what are these things?!?"


The second story of the tower was every bit as devoid of objects as the first. Save the height differential, the only two things that separated it from it's lower predecessor was the door that exited into the sniping grates and large windows that stretched over every wall.


Again, when Raven stepped outside, she had the pleasant surprise of being met by a cool breeze, but also took note of some heavy clouds beginning to gather in the sky.


"Let's see what we have, here..." The titan muttered while approaching the spotlight that was closest to her next exploration point. With it's guiding light leading in a completely wrong direction, Raven redirected the giant flash-light to the front. Jesus !"


The decision to scan things from above had been a clever one indeed. The area that was entered through the tower appeared to be a recreations ground, crawling with machete beasts and the bizarre gun-creatures alike.


A giant square in it's general shape, the fencing divided it into three different sections. On either end was a basketball court, between them a work-out hall, twice as large. At one end of the fenced square was yet another guard tower, unlike Raven's it was populated and as far away as she may have been, she could hear their conversation. It's starting to rain!" looked up to see the light sprinkling mentioned coming down. Strange, as the sky was crystal clear a little less than a half-hour ago, but just like the absence of any stars in that particular moment, she dismissed it.


Sighing deeply, she begun to head for the exit into the, for lack of a better word, Inmate Playground, she may have been putting herself in a bad position, but at least she knew what to expect.


Almost the moment she entered the recreation ground, the machete beast's attention had been caught, not to mention the C.O's. Again, she could hear their audible shouts, "Wait a second! I think I see someone! Point it to your left!" In sequence, the spotlight of the tower went in the completely opposite direction, arising a groan from the commanding officer.other left, you dumb bastard!" it your own damn self then!" Gimme' it!"


The brilliant luminescence of the spotlight came to rest on Raven, but she hadn't much time to pay attention. As the C.O's were fighting amongst each-other, the beasts had drawn frighteningly close. Just as she prepared to manipulate one of the basketball goals, the corrections officer operating the spotlight picked back up, "Good Lord! It's the girl from this morning!"gotta' be shittin' me! She's alive?!?"officer didn't answer, but instead called down to her, "Hey! Hey, you! Don't worry about those things! We'll take care of em', just head for this tower!"


Deciding to heed the information, Raven turned and took off in a mad dash for the tower. Just as she begun to move, bullets, clearly being fired from an automatic weapon, begun to come down on the ground like a hail storm. It wasn't till she had reached the entry door did she hear the officer speak again, but it wasn't at all what she thought it would be
"Aight', I think she got into the-hey, what the fuck is that?!? Oh, shit! Shoot it, shoot it!" Following this was a torrent of agonizing screams.


Raven sparred no time entering the tower and flying up to the second room to assist her saviors in whatever problem they had encured, but alas, by the time she had reached them it was too late. They both lay in a large pool of blood, multitudes of the bright green needles shoved in them as though they were pin-cushions. The only thing the scene lacked was the perpetrator.


Almost instantly upon seeing the corpses, Raven's shock and disgust back-peddled her away, moving fluidly till she felt a furious sting arise in her exposed calve. After yelping in a contortion of surprise and pain, her hand jerked down toward the afflicted muscle, extracting from it one of the syringes (Luckily she had pulled it out before the deadly contents could enter her system) She would see nothing on first glance when she whirled around. It wasn't till she heard a low ambient hiss were eyes brought to the ground, revealing her assailant.


In it's general frame, it appeared quite a bit like a common chimp, nearly equaling it in size as well. It's flesh, bright red with scabs and sores everywhere , almost looked as though it were melting away from the rest of it's body, hanging off in full inches over some particular parts. Arranged in sloppy rows all along it's back were the needles, large enough to be confused with turkey-baisters. Though disturbing enough with this description, the face was the more frightening feature among the rest. It's cheeks sunk deep into the skull, making it look severely starved, yet the mouth was carved into a wicked grin. Taking place of eyes were none other than it's very weapon of choice.


It seemed odd how the creature waited for some time before leaping for it's quarry, almost as though it had intended to throw her off. Raven in response lifted her leg, bringing her foot to hit home in the center of the twisted little abomination's chest.


The syringe beast was sent flying in reverse, colliding against the ground forcefully, but it wasn't long before it recovered, swiftly hopping back to it's feet.


Rather than attempt another surprise-jump, the chimp-like horror reached toward it's back and plucked out a needle. Raven, anticipating it's front, breathed the by now familiar sorcery words. Just as it was flung toward her, clearly intended to land between the eyes, the needle became enveloped in the black midst then was turned in the opposite direction and fired back. Obviously not expecting this, the monster was nailed in the forehead, stumbling backward in reaction. Not wanting to give it the opportunity to gain the upper-hand, Raven seized the small nightmare by one of it's scrawny arms and violently jerked it upward, leveling it's midsection with the barrel of her gun.


"This is for them ." She growled angrily before blasting a round into it's abdomen, reducing it to a bloody, gaping hole. Not wanting to simply leave the carcass in the same place where she happened to be, Raven dangled it over the guard-rail and let it drop. In a livid, sadistic manner, hoping that it was still alive so it could feel the pain of crashing against the cement below.


Once finished with her handiwork, she returned to the bodies of the brave men whom had rescued her. After looking over them apologetically, the titan kneeled down and gently swept her hand over one an officer's face, closing his previously wide open eyes.
"You did the best you could" She murmured in a shaken voice.knowing of any prayers she could speak fluidly, Raven begun to word the first thing that came to her mind-a touching piano-tuned song she had by chance heard on the radio few days prior,


" Do you hear the jet plane yawning miles across the sky?you hear the garbage truck back down the boulevard, setting off car alarms as it passes by?you hear the static of one thousand de-tuned radios?the window, love. Keep the world outsideI don't want to think about anyonebutfootsteps are getting louder, drowning out the sound of the rain as it knocks on the windowsill'm not answering the phone-let it ring. Lately I've been feeling like a falling bomb.ground is getting closer and the sky is falling downsong has been brought to you by.a falling bomb."


Nothing else could be done. As much as she hated to leave them there, there was no time to do something more appropriate, and even if there had been, she probably couldn't muster the courage to do it anyway. As she begun to pick herself up, a genuinely unbearable racket begun to explode from the base of the tower. After wincing slightly, Raven gazed over the rail to see what beasts left alive beginning to climb toward her.


"You..." She begun in an unsteady voice, cracking at the schemes with seething hatred.
"You'll just never give up.will you ?" A vicious snarl slipped from her lips, so consumed by rage that she herself hardly recognized it. Before she could control herself, her blood begun to boil. Her muscles tensed. The last thing she would remember before slipping into darkness was shrieking in a vividly demonic voice, "IT'S YOUR TURN NOW!"


The rain began to come down in piercing sheets, not allowing her to remain in an unconscious state for a little longer then ten minutes. The only voice that entered her mind during the short window of time was that of Horace, speaking on a subject that she, even if awake, wouldn't have known of,


It's tough bein' on the inside when you've left behind a beautiful girl.The thought that she's bangin' someone else tears at your mind nearly every damn day.I couldn't take the thoughtjust the possibility that she was foolin' around.no one turns their cheek on me.no one.


Chapter 4-

's note*

four down, a completely undetermined number to go. Due to the week making it's return and me having to go back to the salt-mines as a result, my frequency in posting chapters is going to be slightly muddled. Very sorry, but ya' gotta' do what ya' gotta' do.