Grave Intent

by G. K. Lund

  What the hell?

  I stared in disbelief as Winter came to life right in front of me. Heavy breathing like his body craved air after its minutes of not getting any.

  Then he groaned and turned over on his back. I saw him feel around himself on the floor, realizing he lay sprawled in his own blood.

  “Fuck,” he said, and stopped moving. “Fuck,” he repeated, then groaned again as he was obviously in some pain still.

  Pain? I thought. How was he even conscious? All the blood in him had to be on the floor, for crying out loud.

  Winter tried sitting up, but his hands slipped in the blood, like when Okanov had been stabbing him to death. “Damn it,” he blurted. “Like fucking Bambi.” He sighed in resignation and then whispered something that caught my attention even more than this spectacle. “Yorov. You fucking bastards.” I saw all this in a mix of my own detachment and a white haze of barely contained fury and hatred. And then I heard or saw no more of the memory. The dim light around me faded quickly and engulfed me, an old and lost memory made new – and now an ever-present reminder in my consciousness.

  Chapter 9

  Low, hushed voices kept repeating something. It was hard to grasp. The head was filled with images of a man lying lifeless in a pool of blood. There was no darkness as I saw it now. The voices were persistent, drew me away from something that made hatred course through me. And yet that felt like it was not quite right. Like it had little to do with the body I was now in. It took me a moment to realize I was seeing the library. That I was seated on a hard chair close to the railing of the gallery, a small table next to me with a neat stack of books on it. Peter and Evy hovered somewhere around me, asking me questions. There was only one thing I wanted to know in that moment, even despite what I was there to find out. I looked down into the lobby, Winter, alive and breathing; laughing even. What kind of creature was he?

  “Ben.” Peter’s low, insistent voice finally broke through.

  “What?”

  “I think he’s come to,” Evy said. “What happened there?” She had a look on her that told me she didn’t quite believe I had simply passed out. I had no time or interest in explaining as I noticed Winter’s large group of people begin moving down there. She followed my gaze and straightened up. I lost track of the group for a moment as I watched her scan the gallery. Lots of people around us, though no one seemed interested in much but themselves and their own goings-on.

  “Glad to see you’re alright,” she said hastily. “I have to go now.” She began walking along the gallery. If she kept up her pace she would reach the group as they reached our floor. The problem was – there was more than one staircase; three in fact. Before she would get that far, the fake security guards from outside were going to cut her off.

  “Oh no,” I said weakly and sat up on the chair.

  “Are you okay?” Peter hadn’t seen what I had, and I pointed without speaking. The three men were walking quickly up the steps, not running, but still taking two steps at a time. Their eyes were studiously directed at Evy while they all put on gloves.

  “The security?” Peter said, and then noticed the intended crash course with Evy. So did she. It was almost too late but she managed to rein herself in, her focus so intently directed at Winter. She halted for a mere moment, and then hurriedly turned left where there was a door. She opened it and disappeared through it.

  The three men reached the top of the stairs and made a beeline for the door, pushing at a teenage boy on their way without looking back to apologize.

  “That can’t be good,” Peter said as he had grasped the situation. “We should call the police.”

  “No time,” I said and got up, a snap decision made. I made my way to the door, not waiting to see if Peter followed. He was probably right about the police, but that would take minutes. Minutes I suspected Evy didn’t have.

  The door opened to reveal a long hallway, with a few doors on the right-hand side. They led to restrooms and storage rooms. I did, however, not have to guess at where Evy had gone, as I saw the three men exit through a door at the far end of the hallway.

  “Oh my God,” I heard behind me as Peter stepped inside as well. “They followed her into a bathroom? Shit.” He looked horrified at the thought.

  I began walking toward the door. “I don’t think this is an assault,” I whispered. “They’re here to take her somewhere.”

  “How do you know?”

  Everything about the men screamed of planned and coordinated actions. They had suspected she was in one of the buildings, hadn’t they? Only Winter’s arrival had spurred them inside, which meant they knew she was looking for him, and they didn’t want her to reach him. Why? Well, that didn’t matter at the moment. I stopped by the door and heard muffled sounds, interspersed with tense orders barked between the men.

  “Stop her, stop her,” one of them shouted. “Get her down from there.”

  “Oh God, what’s going on?” Peter said, pulling his phone from his pocket, ready to call the police I assumed.

  I glanced around the hallway. I needed something that could help me. “She has information, and I think they want it. I certainly do.”

  “You do? What about?”

  “Huh… did I say that aloud?” I spotted a fire extinguisher hanging nearby on the wall, and grabbed it.

  “Yes you did, and pulling the fire alarm won’t work with guys like that.”

  “I’m not going to do that,” I said, thinking little and simply pulling the safety pin free from the extinguisher.

  “Oh, shit, Ben what the—” Peter hissed as I switched off the light switch to the bathroom behind the door that I opened. The sudden darkness confused the men as they shouted at each other. I didn’t wait for them to gather themselves. Instead, I released the fire extinguisher on them, thick foam spraying wildly into the room. The shadows of the men flailed in shock as they had no time in their blinded state to defend themselves. The dark room filled with the whiteness, covering the men, floor and two of the walls, almost as if it had snowed in there. I had no idea if I emptied the apparatus as instructions that seemed to appear from nowhere flew through the head. I swung the extinguisher at the closest man and hit him square in the head, making him fall back against the wall. I lost the extinguisher with the impact and reacted quick as a second man tried getting control of himself and lashed out toward me. Two things happened in quick succession then. I knew no one was dying at the moment, felt nothing to indicate such a thing, and yet the thought of weak places on the human body flashed through the mind. Knees, crotch, ears, eyes, and throat. I knew people had died from the wrong kind of impact there – and yet I sent a fist straight into the oncoming man’s throat. He reeled back and wheezed before falling down. I proceeded to turn the lights on again, the bathroom now flooded in it. It was enough to stop man number three who had drawn a gun. The sudden bright light, made him wince and step in the slick foam as he fell to his knee, gun slipping out of his foam-covered hand.

  “Holy hell,” Peter shouted behind me.

  “Evy,” I directed to the stalls on the other side of the room. “Now’s the time to go.”

  “Dude, what the fuck?” Peter said, but was distracted by Evy who opened the door to the stall a fraction. She spent a microsecond taking in the situation before opening the door fully and running toward us. There was a slight limp in her step and I noticed a small window high above the stall that was open. She must have tried to escape that way when they pulled her back down.

  The third man who had fallen and was searching for his gun, protested to her escape through the bathroom with a short “no,” as he threw himself forward and grabbed for her. He threw his arms around her thighs, effectively locking her legs, making her fall forward, toward me. I grabbed her under her arms and tried pulling her closer, but the man hung on, the foam making it difficult for everyone to keep balanced. I couldn’t kick at him because I was too near a fall, and Evy was in my way. I could see a smile on the man’s face a
s he realized this.

  And then, the flabbergasted Peter stepped forward beside me and kicked at the man, hitting him half on the shoulder, half on the side of his head, enough to send him sideways into the slippery foam that splashed around him. I noticed the man who I’d hit in the head with the extinguisher begin to move where he lay close to the door. There was no time to waste. I pulled Evy with me outside where she managed to gather herself and get on her feet as Peter slammed the door shut and turned off the lights again. It could buy us a few seconds.

  We didn’t speak, only turned and ran in silence. Out of the hallway, and down the stairs. Didn’t care that we looked out of the ordinary where we ran, white foam on our feet leaving a trail for startled visitors to the library. I thought I saw Winter’s group a few floors up now, but despite my determination, I knew we couldn’t stay and get his attention anymore. Instead, I followed as Evy led the way outside, Peter close by.

  Chapter 10

  Trying to catch his breath, Peter followed Ben and Evy along the streets, his mind no longer processing where they were going. What had happened? Those where criminals. Actual threatening people – the kind you never met in real life unless you walked into a shady alley on a late night. Why had they still not called the police?

  “Are you okay?” Ben asked Evy, who was moving quickly enough, but with a limp.

  “I’m fine.” There was a determination in her voice brought on by the need to be far away from the men who had cornered her in that restroom. Peter was not disagreeing with her on that point. They had seemed like they knew what they were doing until they’d been surprised by Ben’s ridiculous stint with the fire extinguisher. Peter stole a glance at his friend as they turned a corner and kept the brisk pace down the next blurry street. What had Ben done? It was like he was a different person. Attacking people like that – and succeeding?

  “What on earth came over you back there?” he asked him.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Attacking those guys? You shouldn’t have gotten away with that.”

  “Oh…” Ben thought about it for a moment. “It was the right thing to do?”

  Somehow Peter doubted that argument. At least to a degree. He had been insistent and curious about what few things Evy had said before she noticed Winter enter the library. Peter shook his head in disbelief over everything that had happened. He remembered glancing across the lobby in the library, seeing Winter some way up the other stairs as Peter, Ben, and Evy had run down the one on their side. He’d been mid-conversation with someone, a frozen smile on his lips as he noticed Ben. Clutching at the banister, eyes wide in horror – easily spotted from that distance. The man was terrified of Ben. And there was something odd about Ben wasn’t there? He hadn’t seemed afraid of Evy’s attackers. Not even of the risk of pain, something he’d clearly had a problem with after his accident. A trauma he had suddenly forgotten moments earlier.

  None of this made sense.

  This was nothing but confusion and violence and Peter desperately wanted his old life back.

  “Why did you do it, though?” he pressed. “Normal people call the cops.”

  “I don’t think they can help with her problems… and besides, no one was going to die. Seemed like low risk.”

  Peter opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. No one was going to die? His mind flashed back to Cury Square a moment, but he refused to think about it. Nothing made sense.

  “We need to get off the streets,” Evy said, as she waited for them. Her interruption of Peter’s thoughts was a welcome blessing.

  “Why? Are they tracking you?” he asked as a half joke.

  She was dead serious when she answered, her eyes darting around the street, taking as much in as possible – scanning for threats he realized. “I don’t think so, but they are skilled at what they’re doing.” She seemed oddly used to this.

  “Who are they? And why are they after you?”

  “It’s…” she began and then stared a little longer at something behind them. Peter turned to see a nightmare. The three men rounded the same corner back there, looking wet from mostly removed foam, and angry.

  Without talking they scrambled to leave the street via an alley that led to a less urban area; they were far from the city center now.

  “Damn it,” Evy hissed. “We need to hide.”

  “Over there,” Ben said and nodded to a large half-open iron door in the protruding bedrock beside an auto shop and a laundromat. A bomb shelter, by Peter’s reckoning. They didn’t discuss it, they ran. A large municipal truck was parked outside, but as they entered the gloomy large room behind the door, they saw no workers. They could hear them though, further in and below the level they were on.

  “Come on,” Evy urged and they walked away from the entrance, moving quickly to an area where the pretense of walls fell away. It smelled shut in – dry and moldy at the same time. This was a bomb shelter carved from the bedrock, and unlike most of the shelters in town, it hadn’t been used for anything else. That much was clear from the sparse furnishings.

  After a few minutes, they managed to find a room that was some distance away from the voices of the workers. They didn’t want to get caught and chased outside to face their followers again. Better to let them pass through the area.

  The room was spacious, though there was only one chair and a table in there. Luckily, what they needed most was also there in the form of a lamp that shone with a dingy yellow light. Still, it was better than darkness.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?” Peter asked as Evy limped over to the table and sat down on it, a sigh of relief escaping her as she could take pressure off her leg for a moment.

  “I’m fine, they pulled me back when I tried escaping through the window, and the side of my thigh hit the top of the stall as I fell down.”

  “Shit,” Peter blurted in sympathy. That had been a high fall. She had been lucky despite the pain.

  “How did you even get up there?” From what he could now remember, there was not much to hold onto to reach that window.

  Evy shrugged like it was nothing. “I’m a gymnast… but I have to admit, I was highly motivated to get out.”

  “And these men are what you call Yorov?” Ben asked.

  Peter gave himself a mental nod. Ben had been interested in that name. It had given Peter a feeling that his friend had almost remembered something. But what did the word even mean?

  Evy said nothing for a moment. Clearly considering them both. “You don’t seem like you know.”

  “Well, duh.” Peter blurted and regretted it. Still… what was this about? “Why are they after you?” he added and hoped his tone inspired a little more friendliness this time.

  “Because I have something they want.” Evy placed her hands on the table and her shoulders tensed. She didn’t want to say anything else.

  “Okay. Let’s deal with the immediate problem first,” Ben said, suddenly the voice of reason. “We’ll wait here a while, keep a lookout through the door. Hopefully, we can leave before the workers notice us or go home for the day.”

  “Fine,” Peter said and fished his cell phone from his pocket. He barely had any internet connection in the rocky hiding place. He typed in ‘Yorov’ as a keyword and then opened the still unanswered text from George as he waited for the search results to load.

  The air in the room was uncomfortable. It made the nose feel dry like there was too much old dust about. As far as I could guess, we had headed west from the library, likely outside Harrow by this point judging by the more open-spaced area. The bomb shelter was a lucky reprieve from the trouble we had landed in.

  “Thanks for what you did back there,” Evy said. As with me and Peter, her breathing had slowed down now, her tense shoulders more slumped. I felt a bout of fatigue and assumed it was the adrenaline leaving the body. I had been on high alert since the three men followed her into the restroom. It reminded me of being chased through the Winter Fortress by Saphia. That had sent
adrenaline coursing through the body as well. Like a dormant instinct welling up on its own. Ready to fight for dear life.

  “Sure,” I said.

  “How did you know that would work?”

  I pulled the shoulders up in a shrug. Peter was busy with his phone but I had no doubt he was paying attention. His old friend was doing many unusual things these days. I felt a little sorry for him, and that was interesting. Apparently, every human has the ability for empathy, but all children must learn. Maybe I was as well? Old Ben must have, and since I was not him perhaps I had to begin anew. That meant the body was affecting me more than I had thought. It had been simpler the first time after I woke up by the Ashdale River. It had all been about keeping up appearances then. I felt the body sigh without me telling it to, and went and sat down beside Evy on the table.

  “I didn’t know,” I admitted. “Just had a good feeling.”

  “Huh,” she said and straightened up a bit. “Well, thanks. To both of you,” she added and smiled at Peter.

  “Why are they after you?” I was impatient; had wanted answers since I learned she was after Winter as well. “Is it because of what you can do?”

  “Dude, with the questions,” she said with exasperation, but her smile didn’t vanish. Probably a good sign. “What about you? I don’t usually give people a jolt like that.”

  I shook the head in protest. “Not a jolt. More like a dull, numbing slow current.”

  “Current?”

  “Believe me, I know what it’s like to have electricity run through you.”

  “I…” she began and glanced at Peter who gave me an odd look but refrained from saying anything. “Anyway. That has never happened before.”

  “Says here that this Yorov is a European industrial company. Steel, coal, machinery… some technology as well,” Peter said, quoting his phone.

  “They’re everywhere,” Evy said.

  “What does that mean?”