Nation Assassination

Chapter Twenty-Four

(Alright... this chapter will get me all caught up with my updates. I promise ill stay more on track with everything, but i ask you guys to forgive me one more time, in advance: Please don't expect an update tomorrow. Im super busy and wont be able to write... but starting Monday updates will be back on track.)

It was then that i actually took in my surroundings. A small stone building with a makeshift wooden door and no windows. I assumed it was underground, but i wasn't sure.

A decent sized tin tub was in the corner, while on the opposite wall hung handcuffs and chains and ropes, next to them being an assortment of torture tools: whips, branding irons, torches, and even a string of poison ivy.

I looked around hastily, looking for something to help me deal with the person at the door.

I turned and realized that whoever this was, they had the courtesy to knock. This probably wasnt going to be a marauder... but i couldn't be sure. I shrugged, then raced to the door. I took a deep breath and slowly opened the door, peeking one eye around it.

Once i saw him, i opened the door more and stepped out so that he could see me.

There stood only one person, and a very tall person at that. A man, even, or at least nineteen. Somewhere around Jean and my ages. He was dressed in ragged, dirty... well, rags. Literally, rags were hanging off of his body, some of them tied together with thin string. He looked beaten, battered and bruised, as if he was the lowest servant.

You could tell he had many injuries that had not healed properly, as his left arm hung crooked like it had been broken before. Dried blood was in his musty blonde hair, and i assumed it was his own blood from a previous head injury of some sort.

He stood awkwardly and his stomach was sunk into the point of certain starvation. HIs ribs poked out of his paper white skin and his hair was long enough to hand down in front of his eyes. It was obvious his hair was cut with sheep shears... but some of it even looked like it was pulled out.

His bright blue eyes shone brightly as he looked down at me in curiosity, and then he spoke.

"My name is Elliot... I was sent to bring more tools to my bosses... but you are female?" He said in a gruff, wheezy voice.

I looked down at the tray in his hands, full of knives and other things that i don't care to describe, before looking back up at him.

"Promise you won't tell?" I said in my smallest, shakiest voice possible. I sounded like a pouting fourteen year old.

Elliot glanced behind himself, then pushed me out of the way and stepped inside. His eyes widened as he saw his bosses strewn across the floor, one of them slouched against the wall with a gaping hole in his stomach, One with a slash across his throat and another with a knife dug so deep into his throat, the only part of it visible was the handle.

Before i could say anything else, he turned to Jean and pointed. "This one dead too?" He asked.

I could tell by the way he talked he was pretty uneducated, but i knew he wasn't retarded or mentally ill.

"That's my....." I trailed off and looked at Jean, "My brother." I lied, "But he's not dead." I told him.

Elliot nodded and looked once again around the room, shaking his head.

"Did you do this?" He asked, finally facing me.

'Think of a lie... think of a lie...' my brain screamed at me.

I nodded.

'Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!' my brain screamed again.

Elliot just stood and looked at me in astonishment. At first, i thought he was going to call in other marauders, call for help, but he just bowed his head, and dropped to his knees.

"Thankyou.... I owe you my life for this!" He said and looked up at me with tears filling his diamond eyes.

I fell to my knees as well and put an arm out to touch his shoulder. He flinched, but then soon relaxed as he realized i wasn't going to hit him.

"They... the- the bosses" He sniffled, "always hitted me when i cry..."

I reached my other hand out and lifted his chin. "They can't touch you anymore." I told him boldly, "I swear to you i won't let them."

He seemed to cry a little more, but then he met my gaze. "Bosses will be unhappy... They see the other bosses here and they be mad at me... they gonna hit me again..." He cried softly.

"No, they won't. Your with me now, and everything is going to be fine." I told him.

"But your so... small." He said, and then flinched as if i was going to hit him.

It broke my heart to see someone like this... He was at the lowest a person could ever be. I couldn't imagine what they do to him, or what they could do to him in the future.

"But that doesn't mean anything..." He said, "Because i heard my first master talk about a man. The man wrote plays, and one of the plays said something about you." He said and raised his right arm, which im assuming was his good arm, and touched my face gently with one of his large, cut up callused hands.

"What did he say about me?" I asked, a tear welling up behind my eye.

"Though she be but little, she is fierce."