All Of Us - Part 1: Summer

Chapter 27 - Revolt Pt.1

Trigger warning: violence

- Evangeline -

The cold hits my lung with violence and I breathe out slowly. We're around mid-April, but the air is still cool and crisp, especially in the evenings. The stars blink in and out of sight. They seem to be winking at me, and I fight an abrupt desire to wink back. A breeze lifts my shirt up and messes with my hair. As I inhale, I smell earth and rain. There isn't a murmur in the forest, but I know nonetheless that it is very much alive.

Sounds escape from the camp's exit behind me: laughter, claps, shouts, all of it so loud it's deafening. I needed to get out. Just for a second - just for a moment. I couldn't stay inside. The air was too warm, the scent of beer too thick. I didn't feel as if I could really celebrate among them. It felt... off, like a key and a lock that don't quite fit. Yet.

I duck beneath a branch and edge deeper inside the forest, leaving the little pit and the rebel camp behind me. In the night, the leaves look black and white, but in the daylight they are a shimmering green. I extend my thumb and brush one as I walk past. Twigs snap underfoot and I feel slight guilt at breaking the forest's almost-religious silence. The wind twists my pants around my knees as I come to a stop before the lake. Well, in all honesty, it's more of a pond, looking as if it was somehow dropped in the middle of the forest. Ripples spread across it in slow-motion as the breeze continues to blow, slowly. I close my eyes and tilt my head back. The night is so peaceful, and yet, I have a sinking feeling in my gut. As if something were about to happen.

"Princess." Something grabs my shoulder. Abruptly, my insides clench up. The hand firmly holding me tugs, downwards and hard, and I spin off-balance. A second arm steadies me.

"Hiya, Evangeline." The words are slurred. I try to blink in an attempt to clear my panic and get a good look at my assaillant. Small size, thick black hair, a splash of freckles across cheekbones... "Mun ?" I murmur.

She ignores me and shakes my shoulder. I grind my teeth, fighting the intense desire to sack her in the jaw bubbling within me. "Let me go, Mun," I state in a low voice. To my great surprise, she turns her dark gaze away and takes a step back. Well, all it takes sometimes is to ask nicely, I suppose.

And then she lunges, using the momentum she gained by stepping back. Hurling full-force into me, she rams into my chest, and all the air inside of me whooshes out to join the wind. The breeze seems to laugh as the pool's surface ripples and then splits apart as I fall backwards into it.

The water is ice-cold. As it closes over me, all turns pitch black.

This must be what Death feels like.

And then I'm back up, both flailing at the liquid sloshing around me and wheezing for air. Everything is so, so cold. My head hurts; I must have hit it on something. And the air - where is it ? There was so much, just a second ago ! Too much air for a single girl to ever breathe in... I slip back under, into the darkness and whatever lurks underneath that. Down here, all the sounds are muted, but I can still make out laughter. Sheso... Those bastards. Sudden, unexpected rage fills me up. They've gotten away with this shit for long enough.

Without thinking it through, I open my mouth to scream. The water pounces on the opportunity and floods my mouth, splashing merrily down my throat and choking me. I need to breathe. Now. My foot skids across a rock and falls away and I need to find the stone again and I do and I push against it as hard as I possibly can and I begin to rise before my head breaks the surface and I can breathe.

For a moment, all I can hear are my gasps.

After several long and much-needed breaths, I paddle through the water and haul myself onto the shore. My palms dig deep into the mud, but I can't worry about that now. I can't even stop and roll over to my side to catch my breath. I just can't.

I can feel their eyes boring into me, but I will ignore it no longer. With the back of my hand, I wipe the water out of my eyes, before letting my wrist drop and my fist clench. The mass of human bodies before me is an indistinguishable mass of hatred, dark and shifting, murmurs of rage escaping from all sides. Slowly, slowly, I slide my right foot back and ease into a staggered stance. If they come at me, I'll be ready.

The crowd is growing more raucous now, with individual figures detaching themselves from the throng as they holler, their fingers pointed out back at me. Their sentences are punctuated with exclamation marks and their mouths form perfect O's. I dig my heel further back in the ground. I recognized a couple of faces. Ian. Thet.

A shriek shoots across the air on my left and I spin around, my left foot sliding in the mud. In a heartbeat, I bring my right leg up and hard. Despite the darkness, my aim thankfully isn't off and my knee lands on the rebel's chest with a crack. The figure staggers back, and a ray moonlight slices across its face, exposing it to me. I don't even know my assailant. The girl is slightly askew as she clutches her side, but the spark of hate in her pupils isn't stamped out. She snarls and pulls her sword out of its sheath. With an absolute lack of agility, she hurls herself at me, the blade aimed at my heart. I only have a second to react. She might not be elegant but she definitely is quick. I only have time to dodge before she shoots past me, her sword stretched out before her. Her head doesn't turn, but her eyes shift and gape at me, wide open. Time seems to stretch as she streams past me, unable to stop her momentum. Our eyes lock and my brain stops functioning. I know what I have to do.

My left leg straightens out in the empty space beside me, a split second before she trips on it. The girl flails in the air, off-balance, and I use the opportunity to come up behind her. Hooping my left arm around her shoulder, I grab her throat and lift her in the air. My grip shocks her and she stays still for a crucial second. My right hand flies into the air, snakes along her arm, and twists her wrist. To my relief, I hear a distinct snap and she jolts back to attention. She tries to howl, but it comes out as a gurgle - my hand is wrapped around her vocal chords. Relatively quickly, she understands that gurgling won't get her anywhere and her head whirls around. Her jaw unhinges and she bites down - hard - on my left arm. Her mouth is so big. For a moment, it feels as if she is about to swallow me whole. I can feel blood swelling up under her white teeth. It hurts like hell.

My grasp on her throat loosens as I fling her to the ground. She is up on her feet almost instantly, taking no time to breathe, but I'm faster. In what seems like a flash, I dart to the sword that she had dropped and is now lying upright in the mud. The mass of rebels is looking on at us in muted surprise. I snatch the weapon and hold it up, pointing it at them. The cold moonlight glints off the polished blade, and I suddenly feel much, much more powerful. "The next one who tries to touch me will regret it." My voice is as steady as my hand as I stare them down.

I am acutely aware of how I look: soggy pieces of hair stuck on my forehead, drenched clothes plastered to my body, flashing red eyes. No - murderous red eyes. They really did it now. They've pissed me out.

Out of the corner of my eye I spot a tall rock, a bit off to the side of the crowd. My head is throbbing but I won't stop now. Without taking my attention away from the group, I stride to the stone and climb up on it in one swift movement. The rock helps me tower over the mass and I stick the sword out at them, defiant. The forest hushes. Even the stars seem to peer down with indifferent curiosity in their twinkling eyes.

"Now," I begin, my voice as cold as ice, "you are going to all shut the hell up and listen to what I'm about to tell you. And," my eyes narrow to slit, and a little voice inside my head tells me I must look like a feral snake, "the next time you call me Princess, I will rip your heads off."