Pulse of Heroes

by A. Jacob Sweeny

  Elliot saw her wince and detected the blood as soon as it crossed the threshold from being inside where it belonged to outside where it proved useless. The thought that his own sword had drawn even a drop of Michelle’s blood drove him mad with rage. If only he would have destroyed it, thrown it into the depths of the ocean, anything. Elliot felt as if he was holding the grip himself. Hadeno was obviously not bluffing. Suddenly, Michelle found herself thrown to the floor outside the gate as Hadeno shoved her away and pulled the gate shut behind him. Elliot immediately pounced with his spear in hand, and Michelle screamed in horror. Hadeno swung his sword, nearly missing him in the midst of his charge. Michelle screamed again and both Hadeno and Elliot yelled at her in unison to go upstairs.

  “I’m not going Elliot. I love you.” Elliot recognized the sincerity in Michelle’s voice and felt more loved by her than he had ever felt before. Michelle was surprised by her words as well, and wondered if she only said them to encourage him.

  “Don’t worry about me,” Elliot said as he bent down low to avoid another one of Hadeno’s blows.

  “Spare me the drama you two. I think I might cry,” Hadeno whined, avoiding Elliot’s thrust.

  “Go get help! The guys are out there somewhere! Ando or Haneul.” Michelle looked up the stairs and then back at Elliot. “It’s ok,” he said, giving her a small smile. Michelle ran upstairs and sprinted to the bedroom door. She pulled and tugged on it but it was locked. She then ran into the bathroom and looked up at the gaping hole where the stained glass window used to be but there was no way she could make it up there. Desperate, she ran back downstairs and yelled to Elliot that they were locked in. Elliot was still managing to avoid the swinging sword and Hadeno showed no sign that he was going to relent until he had hit his homerun.

  What Haden didn’t expect was that Michelle would start throwing things at him through the metal bars. She ran up and down the stairs, grabbing anything she could find that would fit between the bars. She threw pens and pencils, books and small statues, even some heavy chessmen, all the while yelling for Haden to leave Elliot alone. Haden was becoming obviously annoyed by this distracting bombardment, and yelled at her that she was sealing her own death. “But not before I have my fun with you, and I won’t be as gentle as the first time,” he warned. Hearing that angered Elliot to a boiling point of no return and he chucked the spear at Hadeno’s sword wielding arm. Whether it was due to the chaos that was being caused by the small soaps that Michelle was so enthusiastically still throwing at him, or the fact that both he and Elliot were slipping around on them, Hadeno miscalculated the speed of Elliot’s throw. He failed to move out of the way fast enough, and by false instinct thought that he was struck, dropping his sword to the ground.

  By the time Hadeno realized that the blade was only lodged within the folds of his leather coat, Elliot had snatched up the sword and was swinging it above his head just like Michelle had seen him do in the images Haden had showed her, the ones in which Elliot had killed man after man, tossing their bodies behind him as if they were no more than rags while moving on to his next victim. It terrified her to see him like that, and it was obvious that he was going to bestow the same fate upon Haden. Elliot was actually going to slice his head off!

  Michelle panicked and let out the worst piercing and beseeching shriek. “No!!! Stop!!!” She didn’t know what it was that made her do it, but when she thought about that heavy blade slicing thorough Haden’s flesh, she just couldn’t stand it. Haden might have been crazy, even cruel, but he wasn’t all bad? He didn’t deserve to die. What would Vilna do without him? And Haden had other gifts. He loved the arts and was a talented photographer. She just couldn’t make peace that a death sentence was to be his only judgment.

  Michelle’s poignant scream stopped Elliot dead in his tracks. He held the sword above his head, staring at Michelle and questioning her reasons and her loyalty to him. Why would she want him to spare Hadeno? Wasn’t it enough that he had murdered his friends and was about to do the same to him? Wasn’t it enough that he had abused her badly and nearly raped her? He was planning to impregnate her against her will! Did she harbor real feelings for him after all.

  “You wouldn’t want to kill your own flesh and blood, would you?” Hadeno said. “I’m the only one that can tell you about your parents.” The words hit Elliot like a brick. He stood there stunned, just staring at Hadeno and then back to Michelle who was now sitting on the stairs crying. Were he and Hadeno somehow related? There was no way. He was bluffing. As Elliot concluded that the whole thing had to be a ruse, Hadeno grabbed the metal bars behind him and used them to quickly pull his body high enough to kick Elliot straight in the upper chest with both feet. Elliot felt a sharp, sickening pain in his lungs as an involuntary sigh escaped from his gaping mouth, and he bent over in excruciating pain. The sword he had gripped so tightly flew straight out of his hands into the air; Hadeno leaped after it and snatched it back before it hit the ground. Michelle screamed again and before Elliot understood what had happened Haden kicked him again. Since Elliot’s collapsed lungs had not been able to draw in any new air, he crumbled against the back wall, coughing and clutching his chest. Michelle watched Haden step toward Elliot’s bent-over body. He rolled him over with his foot, as poor Elliot was still doubled over trying his best to relax his lungs so that they could inhale normally.

  “I guess this is it, brother,” Hadeno said, holding the sword with both hands above Elliot’s body, ready to sink it into his flank. “Problem is, I can’t kill you all at once. Just little bits at a time, although I can’t say I’ll be sorry to see you suffer. I lost my father because of you.”

  Hadeno began to slowly push the sword into Elliot’s flesh and the blood started running down his side. Suddenly, Hadeno froze, his eyes large with terror, and an angry scream escaped his lips. Both he and Elliot turned to see what had happened; Elliot’s spring spear was completely embedded in his flesh, with only the handle protruding from the gushing wound. Blood spouted as if from a fountain. Michelle stood behind him, as white as a ghost, staring at her shaking hands. She had pulled the gate open far enough to sneak back into the cell at the sight of Elliot’s blood, picked up the spear from where it lay, and thrust it into Hadeno’s back. She collapsed on the floor screaming in complete anguish and horror before Hadeno even had the chance to raise his sword. Meanwhile, Elliot’s lungs filled up with half a breath and he knew that he would have to make do with that or else Michelle was dead. He leapt to his feet just as Hadeno was readying to slice Michelle through, and kicked him right on the open wound. The pain must have been unbearable, because Hadeno screamed out in agony. Only this time Elliot didn’t wait for him to drop the sword; he simply grabbed Hadeno’s arm and bent his wrist backwards until his fingers released it.

  “This is for killing my friends! And stealing my sword!” Elliot yelled, driving the heavy blade through Hadeno’s back. Michelle looked up to see the tip of the sword emerging from Haden’s chest, his face tortured. She began wailing all over again. Behind him, Elliot stood like a menacing being. His eyes were changing their colors and with each change the shade grew more intense until she couldn’t see his pupils anymore. It looked as if a film of intense opaque blue covered the entire surface of them.

  “Close your eyes Michelle! Now!” Elliot yelled at her with such a thundering voice that out of fear of him alone she placed her face in between her crouched knees and squeezed her eyes shut so tight that she actually felt pain around her eye sockets.

  “And this is for hurting the woman I love,” Elliot said calmly into Hadeno’s ear, and slowly pulled the sword from his body while the latter screamed in anguish, feeling the warm blade slice through his organs all over again. While the sword slid out it made a sickening suctioning sound as the wet and bloody viscera filled in the hollow space that was left by its path. Before Hadeno had the chance to fall to his knees, his head flew off his neck and hit the metal bars, landing next to Michelle while Elliot watched with
satisfaction as his body collapsed to the floor.

  Michelle didn’t see any of it, but she heard everything and was now screaming hysterically. She felt the warm blood splash on her bare arms and neck. She heard the whoosh of the sword, and then the sweet sticky smell filled her nostrils. She heard the loud thud as something hit the metal bars behind her, and she could feel Haden’s heavy body as it slumped down right next to hers. The smell grew overpowering as the thick metallic scent intermingled with the heavily perfumed heart-shaped soaps that had now turned pink from soaking in Haden’s dark steaming blood. The combination of the two together created a slushy mélange of indescribable aromas. Michelle choked and gasped for clean cool air as if she were underwater. It felt like there was no more oxygen left in the room to breath. But she was unable to open her eyes to go searching for the badly needed fresh air. Nothing was going to force her to open them. She was still screaming at the top of her lungs, and the cries that came out of the depths of her gut were full of terror and mourning. Her body became overrun with spasms, and if Elliot spoke to her she couldn’t hear him, and she didn’t really want to. His voice would only assure her that she was still there, trapped in the worst nightmare of her life.

  Elliot was still trying to breath himself. He needed to gather more air into his own burning lungs, and slowly but surely he began feeling like his brain was finally receiving enough oxygen for him to think straight. Neither the smell nor the sight of blood bothered him, but he wasn’t alone. The sound of Michelle’s blood-curdling screams finally roused him. He had to get her out of there. When he crouched to tell her that they needed to go and softly stroked her back, she shivered.

  “Don’t touch me!” she screamed at him. Elliot was hurt, but he knew that she was in shock. Michelle peeked from behind her hands with bloodshot eyes. She couldn’t trust the soothing hands of a killer. “You’re a murderer! A killer! You don’t have a heart like humans do. None of you do!” But after blurting out those words she realized that they could all be used to also describe her. She was no different than Elliot. She had stabbed Haden, in the back; the man that just yesterday she was kissing and laughing with. The man she had thought she was ready to lose her virginity to. She had sunk the blade deep into his warm flesh, the same flesh she had run her lips over. She remembered the way it felt as she pushed the spear deeper and deeper. At first it was like plunging a knife into an orange, but then it was smooth, like thick butter that had sat outside the refrigerator for an hour too long. Michelle began to heave and after a few painful false starts she turned away from Elliot and threw up stomach bile. She tried to stand up but her knees failed her. Elliot was already at her side, and she didn’t have the strength to protest when he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his embrace. Michelle resisted only once, then collapsed in his arms weeping.

  “I don’t want this, any of it. I don’t want you or him… I just want my mom. I don’t want to open my eyes.” Elliot carried her up the stairs, telling her that she could keep her eyes closed the entire time. He would take care of everything. Once in the lit bedroom, he noticed that Michelle was covered in blood and that he himself was still fully bleeding from where Hadeno had stabbed him. He had been poisoned by his own sword. Only one thought came to his mind, and that was that he didn’t want to die, he couldn’t. He needed to take care of her; Michelle needed him.

  Chapter 19

  The guys watched streams of blood mix in with hay and dirt before disappearing down a large storm drain. They huddled around the hose outside the stable and each of them took a turn rinsing off swords and daggers from the blood they had spilled. The water was cold against the warm metal, and it was obvious that they would later need to thoroughly scrub the weapons with warm water and soap, after which the metal would be methodically sterilized. All of them could feel Elliot’s presence, and they were satisfied that things had gone well. Rion made a late night phone call to some of his local support people and arranged for a complete clean-up of the scene. By midmorning tomorrow there would be no trace of evidence that anything out of the ordinary had taken place that night.

  One of the horses inside the stables was neighing and snorting and Ando, being a horse aficionado, knew those sounds very well. When he entered he found Susanna, Vilna’s mare, stomping nervously with her hind legs, and her ears were leaning backwards in a sure sign of discomfort and worry. She kept swinging her head to the right, and the whites of her eyes showed every time she did so. Ando read her name on the plaque behind her and spoke to her soothingly before he approached. Although she was still nervous, Ando’s abilities to calm the animal proved successful and in no time she had moved forward to let him scratch her forehead. But even as she relaxed she kept tilting her head to the right, again and again as if she was trying to tell him something. Ando looked around, but found nothing out of the ordinary. There was a small door in the back of the stable and Ando wondered if someone could be hiding in there? Was that what she had been trying to tell him all along? He drew his sword again and crept over quietly, ready to strike. But when he opened the door it just led into another stable, only this one was empty.

  “One of them got away. They rode the stud out of here while we were fighting,” Ando announced when he returned from feeding the horses and making sure that they could get out to forage if needed. None of them had seen anyone sneak away on horseback, but this new development meant that the situation had changed entirely. Now there was a possibility that others would be called in to fight them. Whoever it was had surely seen their faces, and must have recognized at least one of them.

  “Well there’s nothing we can do about it now anyway,” Devin said, pulling his shirt off his shoulder to examine the gash that Hadeno had inflicted on him. It was quite deep, and although the blood had begun coagulating, it was obvious that stitches would be helpful. Devin was trained as a doctor, but he couldn’t very well stitch his own wound since it was his right arm. Mikoto suggested that they use the pure silk thread that he had wrapped around the handle of his sword to improve the grip. It was clean, natural, and could be sterilized just as well as any medical grade material. That sounded good enough for Devin, and Ando volunteered to do the deed because he had plenty of experience from when he served as a medic under Eric Rosenkrantz in the Seven Year War against the Swedes.

  Michelle was adamant about leaving Haden’s room. It was just too much for her to be there amidst what remained of him, a person that no longer existed, as if he never had at all. And yet she saw his pained face everywhere she looked. It was that expression of disappointment that came before the rage, when he realized that it was she who had stabbed him. How could she have done that? Was that her at all? Did it really happen? It was as if she remembered the whole thing as a spectator, not an active participant. In her mind, her actions resembled those of an animated puppet on a string, as if someone else was driving her body and she had neither control nor the will to stop it. The idea that her own hands had killed someone was as foreign to her as was the idea that Haden was dead. She began wailing again. Elliot placed Michelle back on her feet right in front of the bedroom door and told her not to turn around until he returned. The last thing he wanted was for Michelle to see her blood soaked reflection in the mirror. So she leaned her forehead against the jamb while Elliot returned downstairs to search Hadeno’s headless body for the keys. Although she didn’t want to think about it anymore, Michelle’s mind kept replaying that final moment.

  Elliot didn’t say much after they exited the bedroom. He carried Michelle to another bathroom, and without turning on the light he placed her in the shower and turned on the warm water. Michelle’s cries ebbed and returned as she stood there with Elliot holding her steady by her arm. She wanted to cry into him, but she hated him also. She just wished she wasn’t. Michelle’s dress bled for a long time and Elliot watched the water turn from red to pink and after that clear. Michelle eventually sat down and let the water run over her head; she kept her eyes closed. She would n
ever feel clean. Elliot gently explained to her that he was going to pull the dress off over her head, and Michelle let him while she placed her arms over her chest. When Elliot was satisfied that there was no more blood he turned off the water, wrapped one large towel around her, and dried her hair with another. Michelle didn’t remember feeling like that with anyone, save for when she was a baby and her mother bathed her. She wished she could turn back the clock.

  Elliot carried Michelle back to the living room and set her gently in the center of the couch. He grabbed an angora throw from one of the recliners and wrapped her up in it. He could tell that she was feeling cold and exposed.

  “I’m just going to look for something in the other room. I’ll be back in less then a minute,” he said, looking into her eyes. But Michelle was far away. It was as if he wasn’t there in front of her at all. Elliot knew that Michelle was still in shock, and contemplated whether he should just put her to sleep, but decided against it. Her brain needed to do what it had to do in order to catch up with all that she had been through. She had a few hairline scratches on her face from the tiny chips of colored glass, and a larger wound on her side that had obviously been caused by the blade of his sword. Elliot grabbed some gauze and bandages from a small box below the bathroom sink. He turned on the light to search for some sort of disinfectant, and it was then that he realized how pale he looked. Elliot lifted his shirt and looked down at his wound; he couldn’t feel anything at all. It was as if the wound wasn’t there, but he knew very well that his own powers could not block pain to that degree. Maybe it was the toxic alloy, slowly spreading and killing off every tissue it touched like a third degree burn, rendering his nerves incapable of sending pain signals to the brain. He’d worry about that later, he thought, curtailing any further thoughts on the matter. After searching in vain for some sterile alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, he walked to the kitchen and looked in the freezer. He found a bottle of very expensive vodka and splashed his open wound with the freezing crystal liquid.