Devil's Knot

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Heat rushes through my stomach and my vision blurs out for a minute. Static crackles through the earpiece. I click it off and the silence returns, louder than ever. My head pounds in time with my heartbeat and dizziness threatens to take over. Cier puts her hand on my shoulder.
"We going in there?" She whispers.
"Hell yeah." I whisper back. And we stand up, and run towards a looming black shadow, machines from inside creaking and clicking with the sounds of deadly devices and late night creatures.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Water drips on my shoulder as I crouch behind a stack of boxes.
"Clear." Cier's voice whispers in my earpiece from the other end of the hallway. I stand up and walk over to her. I pull out my map, and two red dots blink just behind the doorway were standing next to. But a voice that sends chills up my spine.
"How's it feel to take the fall for your friend?" Doe's screech rings in my ears and Rin cries out for her.
So I bash the door open and wield my sword, putting it up to my enemy's throat.
Dak snarls at me while Doe hangs limp from chains on the wall, with Rin next to her. Cier rushes to them and unchains Rin first, then Doe with his help. Dak stays at my sword point, and if only for an instant, I see fear in his eyes. I draw my sword back and he lunges at the three of them behind me. I leap forward and drag my sword through fire as I go, and then hold it in front of Dak, stopping his hand just an inch from Rin. He roars as the hot blade cuts into his skin. I stab his side and he clutches it. Then a scythe appears in his good hand and he back me up against the wall. I roll out of the way, his huge blade ripping my shirt. I kick him into Cier's knife and he arches his back in pain. My sword burns bright silver and I cut off his hand. He gasps for breath between me and Cier constantly wounding him and feinting left, cutting right, Rin occasionally throwing his blades.
"Your dead!" He shouts as he reaches for a button.
"Oh no you don't!" I yell and slash off his other hand, backing him away from the button. Cier kicks him down to the floor. He coughs and his lips stain red with blood. I kick him over.
"Look like the tables have turned." I growl.
"Not...yet..." He wheezes. I steel myself.
"Close your eyes!" I command Rin and Cier before I change my mind. I look at them and Rin holds his hands over Cier's eyes, even though she struggles against him. I close my eyes, and stab downward, just as an alarm goes off, screeching in my ears. Boots pound behind the door and blood soaks my shoes. My breaths come sharp and quick.
"Kenta..." Rin breaths.
"I'm sorry."
"Not the time!" Cier shouts. I look up at her. She grabs Rin's hand as he swings Doe over his shoulder, and they run for the window. I slam the locks on the door and sprint towards the window, slipping on the blood of the ninth man I killed on the way. The drop to the ground is hundreds of feet, but I jump. Rin was able to keep Doe above the water somehow, but that's beyond me.
The river bleeds red around my shaking body. I pull myself out and shiver as we sprint into the woods. To easy, way too easy.

Bullets fly past us as soon as we enter the woods, shouts and cracks from the soldiers following us. I'm in the back, and Rin is in the front. I occasionally hit bullets away with my sword.
My earpiece clicks with the signal of an incoming message.
"Kenta! Tell me where you are and how your doing!" Commands the familiar voice of General Bob.
"In the woods! Being chased! Need *gasp* help!" I end it there, to out of breath to continue. Even though it's only been five minutes.
"Okay, stay calm, keep runnin', and we'll fly in in about four minutes, send up a line of flares every so often, and get to an open area!" I can only nod my head but the message ends as soon as he finished, so answering would be useless anyway. I smack away another barrage of bullets with my sword. My sword barely able to keep them all at bay. I'm running backwards now, Cier yelling when to jump over a root or a hole. The trees flash past me and I yell for Cier to send up a flare. Seconds later, I hear a soft click, and then a loud bang, followed by the high whistle of a signal flare.

Three minutes pass with the speed of an hour. Bullets have grazed my hands so they're stinging and bloody, Rin is wheezing and gasping, and Cier is stumbling along behind Rin, barely able to talk through her gasps.
Sprinting at full speed is just not my thing.
The woods grow eerily quiet, and even the gunshots stop.

That's when the loudest bang of all happens.
The wood lights up in a hot fire just behind us and Rin falls to the floor, gagging and coughing from the sudden heat and smoke. I pull Doe off of Rin, and then scream at him to get on my back. I'm crouching on the ground and he clambers onto my back, still wheezing dangerously loud.
Cier follows my lead, and grabs Doe. Over the sound of Rin, my breathing, and the snap of the fire, I don't hear the chopping of the helicopter until it's flying beside us in a really large clearing. I throw Rin through the window without a second thought and they catch him. I sprint closer and grab Doe from Cier, throwing her in too. Then it's just me and Cier. Cier looks at me, and I nod, she leaps on board.
And I fall to the ground. At first I don't feel any pain, but soon enough my forearm and foot are on fire. A net wraps itself around me and pulls me towards the helicopter. I manage to pull the bullet out of my foot, but the one in my arm is too deep. Hands reach for me and haul me inside, the roar if the machine fading, and turning to almost silence as they close the window and drug me. My arm tingles with numbness as they pull out a silver bullet. It glints in the fire light, and my name, Kenta Jesse, flashes at me.
I look up to see a familiar looking face.
Q, the guy who claimed he was a hugger all those days ago. And he smiles softly as the world fades away.
I seem to be doing a lot of this being drugged to sleep thing.

Every enemy I ever had was locked inside a glass prison. Chained against the glass walls.

The three men from fifth grade.
My kidnappers.
Jay.
The five men I killed in the forest while running away.
Dak.

They each snarled at me, even though most of them were dead by my hand.
There was a button with wires attached to each of of their foreheads. I mashed the button so hard that I almost broke my finger.
Thirteen people killed. I don't care that it was in a dream. It still freaked me out. I was in the infirmary for a day, but they let me go. I have a lot of free time since Dak is dead now, and we captured his base. So I decided that I would get outside and calm myself for a while. Just me, nobody else.
The spring sun shone down on my shoulders, warming me in the late morning light. I tapped my shoulder. And my wings, stiff and sore, spread out from my back. I bent my legs, softening my muscles, and I leapt up into the air. Immediately I smiled and drew a flock of birds to my side. They sqauked at me and I laughed.

I circled lazily around base, not paying much attention, but staying within the borders. My nerves melted off of my shoulders like ice cream in the summer. And I stayed up in the sky, with the birds and trees and the clouds under my fingers untill the sky got dark and the air got cold.
So I headed back down spent a minute walking back. My foot hurt less, my arm hurt less, and my soul felt alive.

The sky is really a very magical place.
No one but yourself and the clouds.