Rogue Shadow

Chapter 29 - Nothing

Chapter 29 – Nothing

04:47 Wednesday, 8th November 2017

"Nu!" Nat hauled herself through the windowsill, shrouded in glass. Fire raged around her. Smoke billowed into the room and stung her throat. She couldn't breathe. It was hot. Too hot. But Nat ignored the searing, blistering pain the flames liking her skin left behind. She had to save them.

"Jacen? Giselle!" Nat stumbled through the house, blinded but the flames and smoke. She couldn't see. Fire surrounded her. "Where are you?"

A section of the roof, damaged and aflame, crashed to the floor, just barely missing Natasha. She staggered back, desperate to find them, someone, anyone. Where were they? The heat begun to sear her skin. The smoke hurt so bad that she could barely see. It filled her lungs and stole her breath. It was killing her. The raging monster had taken the family. It had come for her. It would drag her down to hell.

Nat kicked a bedroom door open, flames licking her legs and searing her skin. "Brooke!"

She turned around, fighting her way through the wreckage. Her eyes stung from the black smoke filling the house. Her skin was burning. Where were they?

She heard something. Movement. Crashing. Someone was alive. She struggled her way to the source of the noise, desperate for any sign of life. But then a pair of hands grabbed her. Her feet left the ground, and she was dragged away.

"No, no! Lemme go! No, Cian!"

She screamed at the man holding her back, begging him to let her go. They were dying! They were going to burn! Her lungs burned painfully but still she screamed. She didn't care. It didn't matter.

Nothing mattered anymore.

They were gone.

She was too late.

She froze.

"Pozhaluysta... net..."

Nat squeezed her eyes tightly shut, welcoming the darkness. She had failed. They died. They had died and it was all her fault. Her fault.

For a second, there was nothing. Complete nothingness.

But that peace was shattered by a sudden wave of heat and noise.

"Henderson, look out!"

Banging and crashing assaulted her ears and shook her world, tuning over and over until it stopped, leaving Nat hanging upside down.

She could feel her left side completely covered in glass and blood. Nat fought to escape her seatbelt and freed her arm from being crushed between the door and her seat. She dropped to the roof and shook the man across from her.

Dead.

The car had caved in, and she had nowhere to go. She was trapped. They were coming, they had found her, and she was trapped.

She cursed in her mother tongue when she dislocated her shoulder. Smashing in the rest of the glass from the window, she crawled free of the wreckage.

They came. They had found her. They were going to take her away. They were going to kill her.

Her lungs screamed in protest with every ragged breath she took. Everything hurt. The world spun – she couldn't see. But then the shadow came, he spoke to her. It was the only thing that made sense. The world was a mess, she was in pain, she couldn't see, couldn't breathe. But his words were clear. Clearer than the crystal blue waters of Whitehaven.

"Rest now, kid," he said. "You're safe."

And then there was nothing. Absolute nothingness. Oblivion. Nothing to think nor feel. Void of life and time, nothing remained. Freedom or death. They were one and the same. She was free.

Libertas uel mortem.

Freedom or death.

"Freeze!" a voice called out. "Nobody move!"

"Moye Solntse, grab your sister and run." Nat heard the desperate whisper of a woman. She watched a young girl with brown and blond hair run from the woman. The child was panicking. Something was coming. Someone had found them.

"Begat'!" a man screamed. Nat saw him round the corner and drag the woman away. "Run!"

Nat followed the man and woman, knowing that something terrible was about to take place. She knew it without having to be told. She could feel it in her bones.

Run.

People came; they stormed the room. The people in masks raised their weapons and gunned down the couple like they were nothing.

Nat staggered back. She turned on her heel and ran. Where was the girl? She heard a woman speaking in Russian, her voice was fake. She was fake. Lies. All lies.

Masks... guns... masked men with guns trained on the girl and another one. The smaller girl had fiery red hair, curly and untamed. The brown-haired girl had an arm over Red's chest. She was protecting her.

They were trapped.

"You don't have to be afraid of us, little ones. We're going to protect you. Help you. You don't have to be scared anymore. You serve a greater cause now."

It was a trick. A trap. Don't go!

Nat watched the men step forwards and drag the girls apart. The screamed! Called out to each other in Russian. One of them men wacked the butt of his gun against Red's head. She fell to the floor, unconscious.

"Sestra!" Nat screamed.

No, no, nu! Not again. Her sister was being taken. They took her away!

Danika.

Nat heard them speaking to the other girl, no more than five years old. Their words full of malice – she didn't trust them. They lied. They always lied.

They took her sister away! Danika! They took Danika away from her!

"Sestra!"

The darkness came and went, just like before. And when she opened her eyes Nat found herself in a large room.

"Dlya Rossii!" A woman called out. A chorus of voices chanted the words back. She looked around. She was surrounded by girls, all dressed in black shorts and a white singlet top. They all had the same black shoes. Nat looked to the other side of her. Every girl had their hair braided in two plaits behind their ears and down their backs. Their faces were young and filled with excitement.

"Zhit' – eto znachit." Nat looked down at herself. She was the same. One of her plaits had fallen over her shoulder. It was brown. She scanned the group of girls. To her left and slightly in front of her was a girl with fiery red hair tightly wound into two neat braids.

Danika. She was here. She was alive.

"Umwewr' dlya slavy." The words were chanted back. Excited, eager, young voices filled the room. Danika was there. They had to get out. They had to run. Danika!

Danika! Run!

As she spun around, everything around her dissolved into smoke.

Danika!

She was gone. Where did everyone go?

Where was she?

She tried to scream but she couldn't breathe. Couldn't make a sound. She was suffocating in the darkness that surrounded her. It was consuming her. Everything was gone. Nothing survives.

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