Exciti

Chapter 4 (Adam)

After skipping a beat, Adam's heart restarted beating at a frantic rate.

Two men, clad in black, stood at the nursing station. One looked emaciated, with pale skin and a curtain of arrow-straight black hair cut in a severe line by his ears. He was talking in quiet tones to a nurse who stood behind the desk, showing her a fist-sized, egg-shaped pendant. The nurse stared at it with a dazed expression. Her goofy smile an odd sight, considering that another nurse was next to her, on the floor, unconscious!

Yet it was the silent and brooding second man standing behind him that really scared Adam. His face looked like a cross between a clown and a baby Cupid. Round, babyish and washed with a bright white powder before it was painted in bold colors. Clowns and cherubs are creepy enough, he thought, but this cupid-clown man radiated the same ominous feeling as Ms. White.

And he was huge! Not just tall or heavy. The man was ginormous, with his white curls brushing the ceiling and his frame broader than four Adams standing abreast. Adam stared at the bell-shaped black cloak that covered everything from the man's shoulders to the floor. A sliver of metal gleamed through a crack in the velvety fabric. His breath hitched. Is he wearing armor?

He had just decided that those men were bad news when the smiling nurse uttered something and pointed at his hospital room then collapsed to the floor next to her colleague. Both men started walking in the direction of the empty room, the metallic clank resounding through the corridor with every step the huge man took.

Adam resisted the urge to slam the door when they got close enough for him to hear their whispered conversation, and opted to step back to let the darkness of the office engulf him instead.

The thin man looked at either end of the ward before they stood at both sides of Adam's hospital room. "Doesn't look like The Society is guarding him, Eiserne. Are you sure about this? He was specific when he told us not to do anything noticeable." Said the thin man, looking up at his huge partner. He sounded like he had swallowed a frog.

"Loose ends like the boy are noticeable, Ricky," answered the giant cupid-clown, Eiserne. His voice was strange, as if he was speaking from a metal box. It sent waves of dread down Adam's spine.

Eiserne moved his giant hand to the handle on the door and whispered, "Now remember, his death has to look self-inflicted."

Adam pressed his lips to trap a gasp.

Ricky nodded, "I wouldn't drop my guard if I were you."

"He is but a scrawny kid," Eiserne said, rotating the knob.

Ricky lifted up a heavily bandaged hand and hissed, "His sister didn't look like much when we captured her, either!"

Adam felt his heart sink. Tam!

Eiserne placed his finger on his lips, hushing his partner.

Adam braced himself. It wouldn't take more than a sweeping glance for them to realize that his room was empty. That would give him a few seconds to ...to what? Fight? He looked again at the size of Eiserne and stifled a whimper. Oh, who am I kidding?!

As soon as the two men opened the room's door and barged inside, Adam yanked the door open and ran with all his might to the other end of the hospital ward. He made it about ten yards before two sets of steps started running after him: one light and quick and the other resonant, heavy and metallic.

Adam could hear the light steps, he guessed Ricky's, gaining on him as he reached the end of the corridor. The sole way out, the emergency exit, came into view. A red sign warned that opening the door would ring the alarm.

Adam didn't hesitate: Alarms meant help, so he threw his entire weight against the door bar. A siren flared all over the building as Adam plunged himself through the door, slammed it behind him and started to sprint toward the stairs.

His momentum almost caused the hospital gown to choke him when someone yanked it from behind.