Fate's Gambit: A Half-Blood's Odyssey

Chapter XII: Allura is in Trouble!

THIS STORY IS NOW TAKING PLACE FROM ALLURA'S PERSPECTIVE. IT STARTS A WHILE AFTER ALLURA AND KAELA SPLIT UP.

"Come on, stupid thing!" I hit the radio in an attempt to get it to work properly.

"Officers... Report any... If you... Tonight..."

The radio keeps picking up static. I can't understand anything anyone is saying. This is so irritating.

"Suspicious... High alert... Please report to..."

The radio fades out on the last words and goes completely silent. I try turning it off and on again a few times but it won't work. The batteries must be dead. Great. Now how am I supposed to know what's going on? I bet Kaela's having a blast upstairs. It's not like I wanted to take the top floor or anything.

There's barely anything good down here. Just vases and paintings. I found some gold-plated tableware, but that won't sell for much on the market. I still have another part of the floor to explore, so hopefully, I find something worthwhile.

I gotta be careful in this part. The front door is right there, I'd be in so much trouble if someone were to walk in. I snatch a few more vases and take some pictures off the walls and put them in the bag with everything else I've stolen so far. Sitting neatly on a table near the door are these adorable angel figurines carved from crystals. They're probably worth something, so I take those too.

Kaela doesn't know this, but the rug and carpet market is starting to get super profitable. This part of the mansion is rug central. From here, I snatch a bearskin rug, a lionskin rug, some hallway runners, and some clean-looking area rugs. If nothing else, I know these are gonna make me rich. Well, richer. I'm about to be rich off of stolen jewelry. This is just the cherry on top.

As I roll up my final rug, the front door opens. I freeze. Kaela, wherever you are, now is a good time to come downstairs.

Two guards enter through the door, talking about how long of a day it's been and blah blah blah personal problems. They stop when they notice me staring at them wide-eyed from across the room. We just stare at each other. I stare at them, they stare back at me. I notice one of them reaching for the gun holstered to their hip, so I panic and take off, having enough sense to not leave the bag behind.

"Hey! Freeze!" One of the guards commands.

I can hear them chasing after me. I manage to leave enough distance between me and them and make a last-second decision to hide in the nearby hallway closet. I hold my breath as footsteps rush past the closet, getting quieter as the guards disappear down the hall.

That was way too close. I look both ways down the hall before slowly emerging from the closet. Now that I have time to take in my surroundings, I've realized I'm lost. I don't remember how I got here, I just remember I was trying to escape those guards.

"Hey, you! Stop right there!" A guard spotted me from down the hall and starts charging toward me.

Fear paralyzes me for a moment, then I finally get the courage to start running again. As soon as I turn a corner, I bump into another guard and stumble to the ground, the impact causing me to drop my bag. The guard grabs me before I can pick myself up and soon after, the other guard catches up. I've been caught.

"What do we have here, Michael?" The other guard asks.

"Looks like we've got ourselves a little thief on our hands, James," Michael responds.

Michael picks me up and pins me against the wall by the neck.

"I don't want any trouble, guys," I wince at the pressure increasing against my neck. "You can take back everything and we can forget I was ever here, yeah?"

The two guards burst out in laughter.

"Look, I'm really sorry, please let me go," I beg.

"You think it's that easy?" Michael asks rhetorically. "You think you can just break into the home of the richest man in town and just get away with a slap on the wrist? We're an independent team, we don't make arrests. We kill intruders."

I struggle in Michael's grip, wanting to break free.

"Hey, she's awfully cute isn't she, Michael?" James asks, his eyes exploring every inch of me.

"Yeah, you know what, I was thinking the same thing," Michael's eyes look me up and down too.

I wriggle and shake, again attempting to escape, but to no avail.

"If you let us have some fun with you, maybe we'll pretend we never saw you here," Michael smirks as he runs his hands along my midriff. His hands feel rough and I flinch at the touch. "Her skin's so soft and smooth, it makes me wonder what else she's got that's soft and delicate like this."

"Only one way to find out," James rubs all the way up my leg, stopping under my skirt.

"Hey, what are you--" I whimper and convulse at the touch of this stranger.

In a sudden burst of courage, I manage to land a hard kick right into Michael's shin. He lets go of me, but he recovers fast, too fast for me to go anywhere.

"All you had to do was sit there and take it, you rodent scumbag," James says aggressively.

Michael pins me to the wall by the neck again. "And now, there's no more Mr. Nice Guy." He balls up a fist.

"Y-You wouldn't hit a girl, would you?" I push on his arm in an attempt to force him to let go, or at the very least loosen up, but his grip is too powerful. It's almost hard to breathe.

"As far as I'm concerned, you're not a girl, you're just filthy criminal trash," Michael plants a hard punch in my stomach.

The pain is not something I can easily describe with words. I've never felt so much pain like this, not even when my dad would beat me.

"I-Is that a-all you got?" I'm helpless now. The best I can do is stall them and pray Kaela can find me in time.

Michael throws another punch, this time hitting me in the face. He punches me in the face a few more times, busting my lip and giving me a nosebleed in the process. Michael changes up his grasp on me so that both my arms are behind me.

James starts beating me now, landing hit after hit to my stomach and face. When James is done, Michael pins me against the wall again, this time holding my face to the wall, keeping my back exposed. They take turns hitting and kicking me against the wall until Michael finally lets go of me. I fall to the floor, but they still won't let up on me. They kick me and stomp me, taunting me when they land a hit on my stomach or face.

"Not so tough now, are you?" Michael kicks me again.

"Hey, we'll make it easier for you," James sneers. "If you can get up right now and scram with your tail tucked between your legs, we won't kill you."

Tears stream down my face, sharp as knives against my now tender skin. I put all the energy I could into trying to lift myself off the ground. My whole body, sore from such a heavy beating, shakes violently and gives out on itself.

I get kicked in the ribs by Michael. "And you were so close, too. What a shame."

I brace for a finishing blow or a bullet to the back of the head, but neither come. Instead, the smell of smoke fills the air. The two guards let out blood-curdling screams of agony and I hear their bodies fall to the floor. When the smoke clears, a tall, hooded figure stands over me, their back to me and a bloody knife in their hand.

"Kaela..." I say feebly. Even in my pain, I can't help but feel relief now that Kaela's here. A weak smile creeps along my face.