Clan Nemesis

Chapter 6: Fresh Air

Ridley and I had a lot of unanswered questions, but nobody had come by for days, so we had no one to interrogate, and no food. As time passed, our questions grew. Why did they suddenly stop giving us food? Who was Balthazar? Why was his nickname 'the breaker'? Was I going to die in here, or by Balthazar's hand?  That one frightened me the most.

I had spent the majority of my life not caring about myself, not caring whether I lived or died, and only thinking about what was best for the clan. I wondered if my life had a point if my brother was going to become chief anyways, and what impact I had on the world. 

All of this changed when that guy tried to kill me. I realized that I didn't want to die; I wanted to fight to become chief of the clan and make my mom proud of me. 

~

About a week passed by before we saw anyone. He looked young, and all he said was "Come with me." I realized then that they had wanted to starve us to weaken us for some reason, but Ridley and I followed him anyways because we didn't have the strength to resist.

We reached a larger room and somebody came up behind me and put handcuffs on me. I tried to jerk away, but they kept a firm grip on my wrists, digging their nails into my skin.

I turned my head and saw Balthazar holding my wrists and I glared before turing away. Strangely, I wasn't afraid of him anymore. I was more angry and hungry, and truthfully, I didn't care about anything else at the moment.

"Aw, don't be like that, red. I thought we could be friends. Don't glare at me like that," he told me playfully.I tried not to notice how his fingers loosened their grip on my wrist.

"Oh, do you always threaten to kill your friends?" I asked him sarcastically. 

"As a matter of fact, only if they screw up, and you screwed up by going onto the battlefield two weeks ago. Besides, we're giving you back to your clan now, so you should be grateful to me," he added righteously.

"If we're going home, whats with the handcuffs?" I questioned cautiously, not commenting on the battlefield.

His expression changed from the playful smirk to a malicious glare once more and he pushed me forwards towards two doors standing side-by-side, his nails digging into my skin again. He pushed open one of the doors for me and then shoved me through roughly.

I was expecting another hallway, but I was surprised with green trees and the smell of fresh air. I inhaled greedily before Balthazar pulled on my wrist again, indicating that we were going to the right along a well-worn path through the bushes.

We walked in silence with Ridley and another guard behind us until we came to a spot where we left the path and began trekking through bushes and over tree roots and other things that I tripped on. No matter how many times I tripped, Balthazar always caught me and I couldn't help but admire his cat-like reflexes. My own reflexes were being slowed down by my hunger and not having use of my arms.

"How much farther?" I asked Balthazar impatiently as my stomach growled.

He looked at me with an exasperated expression, then sighed. "Not much farther, it should be right up ahead," he replied. I nodded and continued to follow him.

As he said, we entered a clearing not long afterwards, but it was empty. 

"Where is - " I began to ask as I looked around, but I was interrupted by the smell of blood and rotting flesh, and I wondered why I couldn't smell it earlier.

I turned to look at Balthazar and asked, "What's going on here?" He looked confused for a minute, then opened his mouth and smelled the air. A look of horrified realization came over his face, and he suddenly looked into the woods to his left, my right. I looked too and realized when I saw a feint glint about 30 metres away. 

"Ambush!" Balthazar and I yelled at the same time. He pushed me down, and for a minute I thought he was ambushing me, then he ducked onto the ground beside me, and I realized that he didn't plan this. 

Ridley and his captor were too slow to react, and I watched as my best friend was shot before he fell to the ground. I shouted his name, but I couldn't hear anything above the sound of gun fire.

I tried to yell his name again, but found someones hand over my mouth, so I bit it. I heard someone mutter a curse then I felt Balthazar put his hand on my mouth again, this time with more force. He forced me to face him and I could see his mouth moving, but couldn't hear a word he was saying.

My eyes swelled up with tears and I closed them to try to keep them from spilling out, but it was useless and I cried anyways. I felt a warm embrace and smelled Balthazar's shirt to try to keep myself from sobbing like a child. 

Minutes passed and I forced myself to stop crying. I looked up at Balthazar's face and saw that he looked genuinely concerned and deep in thought. 

"Balthazar..." I said quietly. He didn't reply so I tried again louder. "Balthazar?" He looked at me like he couldn't believe his eyes. He just stared at me like that, so I wasn't sure if he heard me or not.

"Balthazar, why did you push me out of the way?" I asked, confused. Our faces were mere inches apart.

"I... I don't know. It was ... the right thing to do after I starved you for a week," he told me.

"Oh..." I trailed off and looked down at his chest. I wasn't satisfied with his answer.

Balthazar suddenly pushed himself away from me and sat up, scanning the surrounding area. "I think they're gone," he told me cautiously. He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a small key.

"Get up," he told me as he stood up. I wriggled around trying to get up, then he grabbed my upper arm and hauled me upright. He spun me around so that my back was to him and grabbed my wrist.

"What are you doing?" I asked him,trying to turn around.

"Stay still," Balthazar growled. I obeyed and he soon unlocked the handcuffs and dropped them on the ground. He handed me a small black wallet, which I realized was mine.

"Head North-East from here and you'll reach your clan's territory. Do me a favor and don't get yourself captured again, okay?" he asked me playfully.

"Oh? And may I ask why you request this favor?" I replied jokingly. He looked at me with a strange expression that I couldn't quite identify.

"It was really hard for me to see you starving," he told me matter-of-factly. I opened my mouth to ask  what he meant since he was the one who starved me, but he turned and jogged out of the clearing the same way we came in. The clearing was quite small, so he was in the bushes in a matter of seconds.

I partly couldn't believe that he was gone just like that after all we had been through together today, but another part of me knew it was for the best.

What was this feeling in my stomach? Probably just hunger, I hope.