Snippet #1348825

“No sign of the girl. Brat must have escaped.”

Elise shuttered as the officer’s voice pierced the dark silence where rats scurrying and squeaking had been the only sounds. She froze, terrified. Run! Her mind screamed it in her ears, screamed so loud that’s all she could hear, all she could think, but her body didn’t move. It didn’t do anything. She just sat there, frozen and huddled, her body violently shaking as she awaited her death, or worse.

There was a click, then half a second later a thunderous BANG that reverberated like a cannon inside the confined stone space. Her ears rang and hurt. For a moment she thought she had been killed, but realized that the flash wasn’t her death but a gunshot. Something had happened but she dared not look. Maybe the cop had found where she was hiding and had shot at her as a warning? Or maybe he had just missed? Her eyes went wide, expecting the man to find her in the little cubbyhole and shoot again. But he didn’t.

The face that greeted her was terrifying in it’s own right. It was a man, his face filthy and worn looking, like a war veteran who had just come back from hell. In the darkness she couldn’t see much of his face, but what she could see looked cold and remorseless. Her eyes went wide, expecting him to hit her or shoot her at any moment. But still she couldn’t move or speak or do anything. The best she managed was to mumble unintelligible sounds.

The man moved to reach for something and Elise opened her mouth to scream. Nothing came out, and it was probably for the best. He tossed her something and when she looked down she saw it was a medical kit.

“Merry Christmas. You’re no use to me dead, so patch yourself up.”

Suddenly she realized how much her body actually hurt and hoped her thankfulness could be seen on her face because she didn’t feel like talking. Elise wasted no time and snatching up the medical kit and popping it open. She placed Band-Aids on the cuts that riddled her arms and squirted disinfectant on her hands, wrapping them in gauze after trying to clean them as best she could. She couldn’t do anything about her elbow, and decided to simply shake it off since nothing could be done. Forcing herself to stop avoiding the real problem she took a splint out of the medical kit and got ready to set her finger. She grabbed her index finger with the other hand and forced it back into place with a sickening pop and a whimper from the pain. It was over quickly, however, and she splinted the broken finger before bandaging it to hold it secure.

Her savior now threw her a blanket, which she took readily and wrapped it around her quivering form. She wasn’t particularly cold, but her body said otherwise and the blanket comforted her in some odd way reminiscent of a childhood spent hiding from monsters under the covers of her bed.

A few minutes past and she finally stood up… Well, crouched more like it since standing up was impossible in the confined sewer. She didn’t speak, but shuffled out into the tunnel behind the man who had saved her and prepared to follow him. It seemed like the safest place to be for the moment. Wearing the blanket like a cape she stepped over the bloodied body of the former police officer and felt nothing, ready to move on.