Ashes in the Darkness

Heartache

I knew how to navigate a forest; I knew how to keep quiet when the ground is made of sticks and stones. But it was my breathing that I couldn't control. I was terrified, to the point that I was seeing black dots scatter in my eyes in an attempt to shut my mind down. I was on the verge of passing out as I exited the tree line and entered Las Almas' city limits.

I still couldn't hear. My right ear was ringing, and my wrist still ached from where Valeria had pulled it out of socket two days ago. I was weaponless, unable to use all of my senses, and alone. Completely alone. I didn't dare turn on my radio on of fear that it would give me away in the silent streets, nor did I dare to speak into my headset. There were shadows everywhere, unseen, like demons roaming in the night. On top of everything. It was cold too, making the ambience of hell all too real.

I snuck out of the shrubbery into the light of the street, making sure to scan behind me as I went. That's when the screaming began, they were still distant, but it was clear that the shadows had taken over the city, and no one was safe anymore. My mind cycled through emotions like a wheel every time I rounded a corner, fear, anger, sorrow, adrenaline, hatred, betrayal... lust. Bloodlust.

I wanted Graves' head on a pike over my bed, I wanted to look at him every night that I went to sleep. I thought he was a nasty person at first, but now I knew that he was truly evil. Rounding a second corner I saw the blood in the street, flowing with the rainwater, dripping from the bodies of what looked like a cop and young woman in a nightgown. Bile pushed at my stomach as the need to vomit and cry came fourth. True Evil.

I crawled along the alleyway some more, brushing the locks of drenched hair out of the way. My thoughts were astoundingly obscure, for some reason while my body focused on survival my brain focused on Ghost. Where was he? Did he know that I was alive and looking for him? Was he alive?

My thoughts grew angry and unnerved, why did he leave me back at the gate? He had rushed away without even a look back behind him. It seemed like ages since he had dismissed me from his office, telling me I should have gone back to Washington D.C. But now it seemed like he was falling into the same tract of distrust that Jackie and Philip were under about me, leaving me to be captured, leaving me for dead. I ground my hands into fists, making my nails cut into my palm. He left me for dead.

I had seen Soap hit the ground and then heard Ghost scream at him to run, all the while Jackie was falling asleep from the butt of my gun on her temple. But they were both gone now, I was on my own with a sadistic killer on my tail and enough shadows to conquer a kingdom looking for me. And I wanted out of this god forsaken rain.

Seeing an empty doorway, I made my way inside and found myself in a coffee shop, it still smelled like coffee grounds and pastries. My mouth watered with the thought of getting my teeth into one of the little cupcakes behind the counter, but then I saw the other side of the building and saw the lifeless bodies of three humans in the corner, one of them much smaller than the other two. "No..." I said to myself as tears sprung to my eyes and disbelief took my breath away.

I ran from the shop, looping around another corner without care of running into a shadow, I was going to be sick if I didn't get as far away from that shop as possible. Graves was going to pay for this, before I killed him, I was going to drain him of his blood drop by drop for as long as it takes. Painfully. I continued running until the screaming was much less distant and I could hear gunshots and explosions. That could either mean two things, Graves was blowing up buildings now, or Soap and Ghost were putting up a fight against the shadows.

My mind told me to keep walking, to go and find them, to help them. But there was an underlying sentiment in the back of my mind. I could run.

I could run as far as my feet could take me, drop the dog tags, pretend I'm dead. I did it once before, I could do it again. Ghost left me, I could leave Ghost.