by S. S. Engle
“I don’t want to know.”
“You really don’t want to know? Because I think you’d be very concerned with wanting to know who it is she’s fallen in love with.”
“What?”
“Kassidy wrote this letter to confess she’s fallen in love someone. Only I don’t know when she wrote it or who she wrote it to.”
“It’s not dated or addressed?”
“No.”
“Why would she write a letter like that and not write who it was for? Let me see that.”
“I thought you didn’t want to read it?”
“Well now you’ve got me interested. This is definitely her handwriting. This is my paper from my office back in headquarters. She wrote this a while ago. A couple of weeks at least, if not a month.”
“She’s only been back a couple of months.”
“I know. Which is why I’m even more confused. There’s no name on it anywhere. She doesn’t even put her name anywhere on it. Why would she be carrying this around with her?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Who do you think this was intended for?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never heard her tell anyone she loves them. But as much trouble as she had writing it, I know it has to be her own words. It could have been written as a decoy. She carries Blue’s ring in her corset, that letter could be just another tool to use against him. Maybe she wrote it to try and seal her reuse to get back with him. This letter could just be a hoax.”
“If it is a hoax, it’s very convincing.”
“You know how well she lies. She is that convincing.”
“Give me the envelope. I’ll just go ask her about it when I get back down to the basement.”
“You think that’s such a good idea?”
“We’re good now. We talked. I know what she did and why she did it, and she knows what I did and why I did it. We’re on even ground again. And if I want to keep it that way I need to know who she wrote this letter for. If it is what you say, and it is a hoax, then we can get rid of it and move on. But if she meant what she said in this letter, I have to know who it is she loves.”
“You might not get the answer you want to hear.”
“Or I might be pleasantly surprised. You never know with her.”
“She is quite unpredictable.”
“I wouldn’t want her any other way.”
“But she also brings calm to your chaos.”
“I’d say she brings the calm, the chaos, and everything in between. I’ll ask her about the letter. But first we’ve got to finish scoping out this floor. We’ve got a lot of ground left to cover, and she’s waiting.”
The guys were taking too long upstairs and Kassidy was becoming impatient. She decided to speed things up a little she was going to go up and check things out for herself. Maybe something had happened and they needed backup. She insisted if things had taken a turn for the worse she’d whistle for Jasper to send up more men. He was going to wait at the access door in the back of the closest. Kassidy went up with her knife in hand, and kept to the shadows as much as possible., It was hard with all of the windows broken open. She wasn’t used to having so much daylight in the palace. She also wasn’t used to it being so torn apart as it was. Not an item had been left in situ. It took her a while to tiptoe through the debris to reach her library, but when she did she wasn’t sure if she had come back up there at all. Most of the books had been stripped off of their shelves and heaped into piles on the floor. Pages had been ripped out. One of the stairs in the spiral staircase had been broken through. All the couches were tipped over and shoved into the doorways. Most of them were broken into at least three pieces. It was like an obstacle course getting in and out of there.
Kassidy ran across three Dreadcranks on the ground floor keeping watch. They pointed upstairs indicating that’s where Luca and Harlan went. Wanting to reunite with them Kassidy climbed the staircase carefully noting the bannister had been removed and was precariously hanging by threadbare posts. It was hard to place a single foot down without stepping on some sort of broken glass or debris. That’s why when Kassidy reached the second floor she thought it wise to follow the sound of crunching to meet up with Luca and Harlan. Still aware a Ringer could be held up though she approached with a certain level of caution, creeping around corners and what not. But that all faded away when Kassidy was certain she was following a woman. And it wouldn’t be just any woman. A white skirt darted around a doorway, the click of heels too familiar to ignore. Kassidy gripped her knife tight now and crawled down the hallway to where Natasha had entered a room. But when Kassidy peeked her head inside to find her rival, Natasha was gone. Kassidy got up and went inside to take inventory of any hiding places, but before she could finish the door to the room was slammed shut, and barricaded form the outside.
“Natasha!”
With a solid kick Kassidy managed to budge the chair out of its wedged position. She shoved the door open wide enough to get out and continued to chase Natasha through the second story of the palace. She passed Luca and Harlan in a hallway now, but couldn’t stop to explain herself. She simply flashed a sly grin and continued running. The guys attempted to follow as the girls were quick on each other’s heel. With all of the rooms and halls in the palace it was almost too easy to get turned around. This hadn’t been the first time the girls had pursued each other here either. Both of them were relying on past knowledge of shortcuts to try and gain the upper hand. After ten minutes of enlisting the other three Dreadcranks to join in the chase however, it was clear that they had all lost track of Natasha. Harlan’s suggestion that she had left was quickly disregarded as soon as he said it. It was the fact that he was flushed and panting for air that he wanted to give up. But Kassidy couldn’t give in. Luca gave the three Dreadcranks a reprieve for his personal vendetta and let them go back down to the basement to let everyone know they were temporarily safe from a Ringer attack. Good news would be much appreciated right now. Harlan was left behind in the library as Luca took Kassidy by the hand to search for Natasha. But when the men separated they nodded to each other, knowing Luca’s ulterior motives.
“I think she might have gone into the east wing. Luca, we should split up and cover more ground.”
“Why are you pushing so hard for this sweetheart?”
“I’ve been able to move past many of my past grievances. Thanks to you I can let a lot go. But Natasha needs to pay for what she’s taken from me.”
“And what is that?”
“Peace of mind Luca. Peace of mind.”
“What are you talking about?”
“She can’t keep her hands off of anything that I have. First it was Blue, and after I broke her arm I thought that was justice enough. But back at the parlour I saw her crawling all over you.”
“Nothing happened.”
“I know. But that didn’t stop her. I want to stop her. She needs to understand you’re off limits. I’m not going to jail for harassment again.”
“Just what are you going to do when you do find her?”
“I just want to give her a message she won’t be able to ignore.”
“You’ve got that crazy twinkle in your eye sweetheart.”
“If you want to plead innocence then don’t follow me.”
“What if you run into trouble?”
“It’s just Natasha. I can handle her.”
“I’ll go check the west wing then.”
“Don’t hurry back.”
Luca would have to ask Kassidy about her letter at a different time. She was too preoccupied at the moment to try and get her to talk about anything serious. Not that her vendetta against Natasha wasn’t serious, but it was just between the two of them. Kassidy had to get past what Natasha had done to her, and Luca was alright if that meant taking physical action. The city would be better off without the last Grekova running around. And having the Harlots without their leader would help the Dreadcranks out too. It was all for the better. Lu
ca was rationalizing this out to himself as he checked out the west wing of the palace. Hearing Kassidy crunching through glass meant she was still searching herself. But Kassidy wanted to be found now. She was going to bring Natasha to her. They needed to settle this. She couldn’t move on until things were properly taken care of. To try and draw Natasha out of her hiding place Kassidy was dragging her knife along the walls as she walked. Stabbing it into chunks of glass still hanging on for dear life in their frames. Kassidy heard a gasp and followed it. Natasha was staring at herself in a fancy round mirror. Somehow it had managed to remain intact during the attack by the Ringers. Probably because it was on the inside of an armoire until the doors had been nearly ripped off of their hinges. She was touching up her lipstick, making kissing sounds, and driving Kassidy absolutely insane.
“You’re not as stealthy as you think you are.”
“Why are you bothering touching up your makeup at a time like this?”
“I need to look good for when I steal another one of your men away from you.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. That is so. I mean honestly Kassidy; do you ever even look at yourself in a mirror? Run a brush through that hair once in a while.”
“I was a little busy today.”
“That’s no excuse not to look your best.”
“Could you stop making those ridiculous sounds?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You don’t know what I’m talking about. Alright. Well how about I make myself a little easier to understand. Would you like that?”
“That’d be…exquisite.”
“Kiss this bitch!”
Kassidy gripped a fistful of Natasha’s long dark hair and bashed her face so hard into the mirror she was staring at that it shattered. Natasha screamed in pain as she began pulling chunks of glass shards out of her cheeks. She’d fallen to her knees now and Kassidy was slapping her hands together as a job well done. She put her knife back in her sheath and considered justice served. The girls were even now. Kassidy was fully confident one facial scar matched another. She was going to leave the room when Natasha lunged out with bloody hands and yanked backwards on Kassidy’s black skirt. She fell to the ground and scraped her knees on some of the broken mirror. This time it was Kassidy who screamed, but not out of pain. Further away in the palace both Harlan and Luca had heard the pair of screams and began running towards the east wing. Harlan was much closer than Luca and arrived first. Kassidy had Natasha pinned to the ground, both girls had fistfuls of each other’s hair and were rolling in bloody glass shards. Harlan decided it best to stick it out in the hallway until Luca arrived to pull the girls off of one another. But Harlan’s arrival was a distraction for Kassidy, who took her eyes off her rival to try and get her friend to remove himself from harm’s way. That second Kassidy lost her focus she was thrown to the ground and Natasha clamored up to Harlan with a hidden shard of mirror in her hand and plunged it deep into his gut. As he dropped in horror clutching the wound that was bleeding profusely Natasha scrambled to her feet and made her getaway. It was all Kassidy could do to slide across the wooden floor and catch Harlan in time as he collapsed into her lap.
13
Kassidy was covered in blood by the time Luca arrived to the room. She had her hands plunged deep into Harlan’s gut to try and stop the bleeding but nothing was working. Luca took a look around the room and realized Natasha was gone, but there was broken glass form the mirror all over the floor. Kassidy had cuts on her hands, legs and arms. Blood was smeared across her face. He dropped to his knees and began cleaning her up with the ripped curtain from the floor. Her face was contorted in all sorts of emotional pain for Harlan. He couldn’t keep quiet, and was trying to stifle his own breathing as much as possible because it just hurt so bad. There was another deep cut across his arm that was contributing to the bloody mess on the hardwood floors. Thankfully the room was dark and Harlan couldn’t keep his eyes open for longer than a few seconds to see what he looked like. Knowing by the sheer amount of blood loss that Harlan was in a world of hurt somebody was going to have to get down to the basement and get help. Luca had to put both of his hands on Kassidy’s face and force her to look at him as he got up to leave.
“I have to go down to the men and get help. You scream if you’re in trouble sweetheart, you understand? Don’t fight your way out of it. Just scream and I’ll be right back.”
“He’s not going to make it Luca.”
“I’ve seen him far worse than this. He’ll be just fine. But I have to go right now and get help.”
“Hurry back!”
Luca ran down the hallway and disappeared within seconds. Kassidy was still cradling her friends head in her lap because when she set him don flat on the ground blood began to curdle up in his mouth. This gut wound was serious. Far beyond the capabilities of anything the Dreadcranks were able to pull off. Harlan needed a real doctor to stand a fighting chance. The best she could do now was comfort him until his body shut down and he passed out. It was going to feel like an eternity until Luca came back with anybody. But he was running as fast as he could, skidding across the rugs and hopping over all the broken furniture. He made it back down to the basement without running into a soul, and was eager to pull Jasper and a few of his men out to help with Harlan. But Jasper had news of his own. Luca came down into the stonewalled basement and tried to stitch up his composure for the men’s’ benefit. They were aware something was wrong as he tried to muffle the fact he was gasping for air. But he hid it so well it didn’t become an issue.
“What is it Jasper? I’m kind of in a rush if you haven’t noticed.”
“I’m aware. But the guys found that urn you told them to look for.”
“They did?! That’s fantastic news! Where is it?”
“It was empty.”
“Empty?”
“It was a brass urn, engraved with Ulysses Bataille. We were bringing it back but one of the men stumbled on a rock and dropped it. That’s when we figured out the ashes were gone. But there was a piece of paper inside.”
“Another clue.”
“It said Lot 17. Does that mean anything to you?”
“The mausoleum at the cemetery has lot numbers.”
“So we go there next?”
“Not exactly.”
“Why?”
“Kassidy decoyed the Ringers to search the cemetery before we knew that’s where we’d be headed. We couldn’t show up there now without having some sort of altercation. Speaking of altercations, how fast can you sew Jasper?”
“It depends on what I’m sewing.”
“How are you with human skin?”
“Is Kassidy hurt?!”
“Harlan. He had a little run in with Natasha.”
“So the palace wasn’t clear?”
“Not entirely. Grab whoever you might need and follow me. He doesn’t have much time.”
Kassidy’s dwindling patience was getting the best of her again. She wadded up the curtain Luca had used to clean herself of all the blood and shoved it underneath Harlan’s head. She heard crunching glass again, and had to hope that it was the Dreadcranks searching for medical supplies. She knew where she kept them and made a mad dash out to go get them. Bandages and sterile water were in a cabinet beside the bathroom in the hallway upstairs. With knife in hand she was making excellent time. Not excellent enough however to intercept Luca. He arrived back in the east wing with Dreadcrank help but Kassidy was gone. Leaving Jasper and his men behind to sew Harlan up Luca went running for the sound of crunching glass. What bothered him more than Kassidy being gone, was the fact that he heard glass crunching from two different sides of him. He decided to run back towards the library, hoping to run into Kassidy. This time he found her, as they nearly crashed into each other coming around a corner. She dropped the bandages in her arms and they were both quick to drop to the floor and gather them up in bunches as they unrolled in their arms. As they ran back for Harla
n the white bandages dangled behind them like streamers for a party, getting tangled on any sort of jagged edge of debris that they crossed. It was too hard to avoid at this stage of disarray.
Running low on patience was a common trait amongst Dreadcrank members. Hearing running and crunching glass from all sides now Jasper decided it was safer to abandon Harlan in the room and get his two Dreadcranks back down to the safety of the basement. Harlan’s gut wound had been stitched up, but they didn’t have time to tend to the gash across his upper arm that was lying in a pool of blood now beside him and soaking his shirt. Jasper led the charge for the basement access door with his men hot on his heels. Because they didn’t want to meet anybody in the palace they took a back
hallway, and missed intercepting Luca and Kassidy running in from the main entrance. As they reunited with Harlan what he was saying was completely unintelligible through clenched teeth. But had they been able to understand what he was saying they would have discovered that Blue and Silas were lurking out in the hallway. They had been the sound of crunching glass everyone had been hearing but none of them were able to identify. Annoyed by how long it took anybody to notice he was there he knocked on the door to draw the center of attention up to himself, as he was accustomed to. On their knees hovering over Harlan, Luca and Kassidy were in a very vulnerable situation. Blue had his gun poised on Luca’s chest as he stood in the doorway. Luca pushed Kassidy behind him with his right arm out to try and protect her and his mechanical arm spread out in front of Harlan. Kassidy gripped onto Luca’s shoulder so tight her nails were digging imprints into his skin through his striped shirt. He turned and whispered to her over his shoulder to try and calm her down.