SACRIFICIUM (THE UNDERGROUND Book 1)

by Allie Doherty

  “Does everyone know their part?” I ask, checking the bullet count in my handgun. They nod. “Okay, let’s go!”

  It’s exhilarating to run my own operation and I’m focused on making it a success – just to rub it in Tavis’ face.

  “Three… Two… One… Go!” The countdown is over and we charge the doors.

  We’re all armed with knives, and Zhavia, Knox, Penelope and Ben enter from the back, also heavily equipped with grenades, guns and knuckle dusters while Maeve, River and I storm the front with handguns.

  The rest of the army, including Mateo, Jonah and Amalie stay on the bus – a second defence in case we need it.

  The hallways are covered in grime and the smell of damp invades my nostrils. Talismans line the walls and there’s so many of them that it’s obvious we’re powerless in this.

  “Good thing we’re prepared,” River whispers.

  We continue through the house, searching for any sign of danger but no one jumps at us and no gun shots sound. I think, for a minute, that we’ve hit lucky and stumbled upon an empty house…

  No such blessing.

  A shotgun barrel narrowly misses Maeve’s head, and she rolls out of their aim, lifting her gun and letting off a perfect shot. The hunter drops to the floor, but it’s not long before another shot fires.

  Hunters come from every direction and a battle of the guns ensues. I take out two or three, but their numbers seem endless.

  Knox hits their side with a grenade and takes out five of them. It’s not enough to stop the shots.

  Finally, the rounds run out and we don’t give them enough time to reload. Setting upon them, we punch, kick, claw, and everything in between.

  I side glance to find Maeve snapping a hunters neck like breaking a wish-bone. I follow suit and copy her stance. Wrapping my arms around a six-foot, burley man’s collar, I twist and twist, waiting to hear the crack that never comes.

  He laughs at me and throws me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing. Crashing to the ground and gasping for air, I see his boot ready to come down on my face and barely manage to roll from under him.

  Maeve climbs six steps on the rickety staircase and flies through the air, landing on his back. She sinks her knife into his shoulder and as he screams, she uses his shock to her advantage and finishes the job I started on his neck.

  The giant flops to the ground and I run for the next one. It’s a girl around my age with black hair, dark skin and muscles like a professional bodybuilder.

  I gulp down my nerves and stay light on my feet. The past two weeks have vastly improved my skills – at least in a practice situation – and I’m hoping the hard work pays off.

  She looks at me like I’m a piece of meat that she’s ready to chew up and spit out. Lunging out, she swings for me and I try to dodge it, but I’m not quick enough. She grabs a tuft of my hair and throws me against the wall. My barely healed shoulder makes me cry out in agony and I sink to the ground.

  She advances on me with sheer blood-lust in her eyes and I know that if I let her connect her fist to my skin, I’m not getting back up.

  I take a leaf out of Zhavia’s book and roll forward, wrapping my legs around her waist and using her body as a pillar, I lift myself up and head-butt her as hard as I can. It’s enough to disorient her and I don’t have time to play nicely.

  Using my thumbs, I penetrate her eyes. The squelch of her cold, wet eyeball pushing back into skull makes me want to vomit but I don’t stop until I feel her brain and the warm blood runs down my arms. It’s strangely satisfying.

  She screams so loud that it could perforate my eardrum, but it’s not long before her screams stop and she drops to the ground.

  I’m ripped backwards by my hair and a punch cracks one of my ribs.

  “Shit!” I scream, grabbing my side. I duck the second punch of the young man in front of me. There’s tears and anger in his eyes. He lunges out at me again and each attack is more ferocious than the last.

  “You bitch!” He screams, pushing his fist forward once more. I grapple him to the ground and plunge my knee into his jaw so hard it smashes two of his teeth. I do it again and again until he’s dizzy and not fighting back, then I plunge the knife into his chest.

  I stand up and hobble towards the next hunter I can find. She’s an older woman, twice as built as the one I was fighting before. I keep my knife in hand; ready to take any opportunity that arises.

  She kicks at me first and then follows through with a fist. I jump back and I shouldn’t have because now I’m trapped between her and the wall.

  A thought occurs to me and it might just work if I play it right.

  I dodge her strikes and she’s getting increasingly frustrated. With each shot missed the harder her strikes become, and I know that if she catches me, it’ll be lights out.

  That’s a scary thought.

  I duck another punch and she’s finally angry enough. I stand in one place and wait for her to pull her arm back as far as it’ll go. She lets it off like a slingshot and I move at the last moment and watch as her hand encases itself in the rotted wall behind me.

  She panics, trapped in the wall, with only one hand to protect herself. I lash out with my knife and slash her throat.

  I’m like an assassin moving through the house and I’m not ashamed to admit that my blood-lust has hit an all-time high.

  The adrenaline pumping through my veins could reanimate the dead and the rush is unlike anything I’ve ever felt. It’s an unsettling thing to realize that I’m genuinely enjoying myself.

  My team are slicing through the Jacobian’s like they’re weeds and we’re seasoned gardeners.

  Maeve abandons her own rule and lets out a battle cry as she kills hordes of them.

  Zhavia runs up someone’s body and twists her legs around his neck, snapping it in two before moving onto the next.

  Knox is knocking people out left, right and centre.

  Ben, Penelope and River are tag-teaming two hunters and kicking their asses.

  I realize, as I look around, that nobody is watching me and I remember why we’re here.

  Seizing the opportunity, I take the steps two at a time and run through the rooms of the house, searching for the one from my vision. I check six or seven doors before I finally come across a locked one.

  Pulling back, I take a running jump at the door and go through it, landing on my hands and knees.

  The same grey walls, the same desk in the middle, the same candle stick donning the wall… the knife has to be here somewhere.

  I start rifling through the chest of drawers in the corner first and come up empty. I move to the bed, second, and sink to the ground, hoping that the hunters are more cliché than they are smart. No such luck. Finally, I search the drawers on the desk.

  I don’t find the knife but I do discover papers and pictures of most of the witches in the underground along with others that I’ve never met. Some have the word ‘target’ sprawled across them while others have ‘eliminated’ or simply ‘dead.’

  I flick through the pictures and my heart breaks. Some of the witches are children, less than five years old, sat smiling on their mothers knee. One of them has a comment attached stating that she was, ‘tough… for a kid.’

  My eyes well up and I want to run back downstairs and kill every last one of them.

  I pull my leg back and kick the side of the desk so hard that my foot goes through the decaying wood.

  “Damn it!” I wince, taking my splintered limb back from the wreckage. I push my hands through my hair and sigh. Tavis was right; this mission was a waste of time. I have no idea where the knife could be.

  I move past the desk and check my hip against it. Pain rattles through my body and I get the distinct memory of putting my foot through it again.

  “déjà vu,” I say.

  I swing my leg back and let it go from the other side. Once again, the rotting wood gives way as my foot enters. I pull it back and kick again, and one more time after
that, until there are two gaping wounds in the Hunters desk.

  Getting to my knees, I search the abyss of corrosion until I see a glimpse of something shiny.

  I cringe, sticking my hand into the fowl smelling opening but it’s worth it when my skin connects with something hard. I grab at it and pull it from its hiding spot.

  It’s a small treasure chest, decorated with golden spirals and the initials ‘KRH.’

  I smile, undo the clasp and lift the lid.

  The chest is full of packaged things in small compartments that I don’t have time to check out. I hover my hand over the biggest part, and immediately, my skin tingles. The knife is lying on a bed of gilded velvet and it glows through its holder, beckoning me to grasp its naked body, but I refrain.

  I close the chest and carry it in my arms, running back downstairs. “Retreat!”

  “She’s got the knife!” I hear one of the hunters shout.

  I panic and head for the door, my only concern hinges on the protection of my knife.

  Turning back to check on my team, I see that Maeve is right beside me, closely followed by River, Knox and Penelope. Ben is close to them and Zhavia isn’t too far behind. The hunters are after us, and despite my shouting for them to stay on the bus, the second defence steps up to fight.

  Amalie is the first to reach a hunter and she swings a kick aiming for his kidney. The hunter is quick to anticipate it and brings down a blowing strike to her leg. I hear the crack ring out and her screams bellow across the lawn.

  “Amalie!” I yell and run for her but I’m too late. The Hunter raises his knife and delivers two quick plunges to her abdomen. He drops her like a toy he’s done playing with and moves on through the others.

  Five of our defensive line is slaughtered in seconds, and without much effort, including two of the newbies: Josh and Jake.

  “Pull back and run!” I yell but nobody is listening to me anymore. Maeve and Zhavia take the man on next and they’re the ones to put him down.

  Jonah, Ben and River take on a team of teen hunters, Penelope is fighting an older female and I can’t see Knox.

  More hunters arrive in hordes, blocking our exit and everything is happening so fast that I can’t keep up.

  We’re surrounded.

  It’s baffling to me why I’m still holding the box instead of helping in the fight but try as I might; it’s glued to my hands.

  It’s a part of you and if you drop it now, they died for nothing.

  And so I don’t. Instead, I run, my cracked rib causing me agonizing pain.

  The cold air burns my lungs and I hear shots ringing out behind me. Mateo is at my side, running for his life as another shot rings out. It’s too close for comfort and I duck my head on impulse and wait for the sharp burn of a bullet wound to ricochet through my body… I feel nothing.

  I still, relief filling my body and then I laugh.

  They missed. I got lucky. A smile makes its way onto my face and I turn to share my joy with Mateo and –

  Blood stains his white V-neck and spreads wider in his chest area. My stomach drops and my heart feels like it’s about to stop. He’s still standing, but as the panic paves way to adrenaline and his heart pumps faster, the blood spills out quicker and he hits the floor.

  “Tell T-Tavis, I’m Sor –”

  “No, no, no, no!” My limbs feel like concrete and I’m finally able to drop the box in time to catch his falling body in my arms. “No! Mateo, stay with me…”

  I slap at his face and scream his name but he’s limp and heavy in my arms.

  I hear the cocking of a shotgun above my head and look up to find it pointed at me with a smug, grimacing hunter at the helm.

  “Are you ready to die, bitch?”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  The stench of cigarettes and sweat accompany his aggressive, downright ugly demeanour as he smiles, ready to take the shot.

  “I always knew I would be the one to end you and your line, Raven-Hill.”

  “So why did you miss? Why not just take me out? Why him? He’s fourteen!”

  “He was a witch like the rest of em,” he spits and snarls. “Disgusting abominations, all of you! Should never have been allowed to bree—”

  “If you’re going to kill me, just do it already!” I snap. “Because making me listen to you talk is a sick form of torture…”

  He grins and presses his index finger over the trigger. I close my eyes and search for a semblance of power in me.

  It’s there but it’s faint; trying to fight through the talisman’s effects. I open my eyes and search his body. There’s nothing around his wrists or neck.

  “The talisman’s they’re –”

  “They’re in the ground, girlie.” He laughs. “Y’all didn’t have a chance from the jump. Now say goodnight, bitch.”

  I drop Mateo’s body and roll forward as the trigger is pulled and the cartridge is released. I barely escape it in time. I hear the gun cock again and he pulls the trigger. I brace myself for the shot but it doesn’t come. The barrel is empty and the panic in his eyes is delicious.

  He rushes to reload but I’m too quick on my feet. He cuts his losses and uses the shotgun as a bludgeoner. He swings for me with it and I catch it in my hands. We’re wrestling and he’s stronger than I am, but Zhavia’s teachings have prepared me for that. I fight as hard as I possibly can for a minute or two and then I stop fighting completely. He pushes against me so hard that when I move back, he keeps going.

  His body hits the ground, face down and it gives me my opening.

  I stand over him with my knife in hand and grab a fist-full of his hair. Lifting his head up, I smile.

  “Goodnight, bitch…”

  I drag the blade in one swipe across his throat and drop him, bleeding, to the ground. Its seconds before his twitching body goes limp. I expect some kind of satisfaction to accompany the kill, but as my eyes land on Matt’s lifeless body, all I feel is sorrow and regret.

  I head for a group of hunters surrounding Maeve and Knox and raise my blade. They don’t see me coming and the element of surprise gives me easy kills.

  I twist my head and gasp. Amalie is on her feet and clutching her bleeding abdomen. She heads in the direction of Mateo’s body and grabs the chest from the ground before limping away.

  Nobody is paying attention to her because they’re too focused on us and she gets a clean break.

  Maeve sees her too, and we pick up the pace.

  We can’t kill them all but we slaughter enough of them to give us an exit and then… we run for our lives.

  ***

  We all go in different directions. Maeve is with me but I don’t know where the others are. The hunters stopped chasing us a while back, but we’re still moving; fear of being ambushed not allowing us to stop.

  We come to a cul-de-sac a couple miles away from the scene of the battle and Maeve pulls out her phone and dials a number. “…Oh, okay. We’ll stay right here, then.”

  “Who was that?” I ask.

  “River,” she tells me. “Most of them made it back to the bus without getting caught. Amalie is in a bad way and they still can’t find Knox but they have the chest so the operation was a semi-success…”

  ‘A semi-success…’

  Images of Mateo’s heavy body weigh on my mind along with the other five dead underground members. It wasn’t a success… not even close. I should have listened to Tavis. The knife wasn’t worth the risk and now, people are dead.

  The bus rolls up and we get on. I avoid the eyes of the people who I put in danger and move to the back.

  Amalie is lying on the floor, severely bleeding, and surrounded by Jonah, Penelope and Zhavia who are applying pressure to her wounds.

  River makes her way over to me and offers me a bottle of water. I take it and thank her.

  “They don’t think Amalie is going to last the bus ride back and we have no idea where Knox is…” She starts. “There’s been talk of assuming he’s dead and going, The
o, but you’re the leader. It’s your call.”

  I don’t feel up to making any more life and death decisions, but as I lift my head and find the eyes of a bus full of people staring at me, I realize I have no choice.

  They’re expecting me to take charge and I can’t disappoint them.

  “We sweep the surrounding area once for Knox and if we don’t see him, we put pedal to the medal and get Amalie to Katia as fast as we can.” I stand tall, giving a false air of confidence.

  I take over for Zhavia and press down on Amalie’s stomach with all of my might.

  “Are you wearing anything under that?” I ask Jonah. He nods. Shedding the mud-stained, white, cotton pull over from his body, he hands it to me. I call my magic for added strength and rip the material into strips, applying it to the wounds. Immediately, the cotton is soaked through with her blood and my heart drops.

  Her breathing is rapid and there’s fear in her eyes.

  “I don’t want to die,” she cries. “I’m not ready…”

  “You won’t!” It’s an empty promise. “You’re going to be fine!”

  I press harder as the blood comes thicker and her eyes glaze over.

  “Amalie!”

  She’s unresponsive and her breathing slows.

  “Stop the bus!” I yell.

  Cleo does as I say and I grab Maeve and Zhavia by the hands.

  “Get her to Katia, now!” I order. “Maeve, Z and I will find Knox if he’s alive.”

  Gods, I hope he’s alive.

  The bus takes off at lightning speed, heading towards the highway and we’re left to search for the missing member of our crew.

  “What if he’s dead?” Zhavia asks.

  “He’s not,” I insist. “…But if he is, then we’ll take a car and go back. Start searching…”

  ***

  An hour later, we’re still searching and I’m starting to lose hope. My heart sinks with the thought of never seeing Knox again.

  We’re in our third suburban cul-de-sac and we’re getting closer to the hunters house with every step.

  “If we go back there, just the three of us, we’re dead, Theo…” Zhavia makes sense but I can’t stop my feet from walking.