Kingdom Come Read online

  He’d started to stand taller. He looked bigger and he didn’t hide his face by looking at the floor. Granted, he was still pretty easily taken off guard.

  He caught me staring and his cheeks went pink, but he didn’t look away. Turning away slowly, I rested my chin on the tops of my hands as I went back to listening to Chrissy argue with Angel.

  A moment later, a jolt of fire ran through my body. My arms and legs spasmed uncontrollably for what felt like an hour, and I fell to the ground, a groan of pain escaping my throat. The second it was over, I jumped up and snatched the steak knife off Chrissy’s tray. I spun to see Carmela and Cindy — Carmel and Sugar — smirking back at me. Carmel was holding an electric something or other, which sat in her perfectly manicured hand spitting blue fire.

  I lunged at them, ready to slit their throats, but Chrissy grabbed my wrist before I got the chance.

  “What do you two want?” she hissed.

  The two looked at one another and burst into laughter.

  “We just wanted to see the travelling freak show!” Carmel said.

  “Yeah, we heard the clowns were back in town,” Sugar added.

  I crossed my arms. “Is there a point?”

  They looked at each other again before smirking, “We just wanted to let you know that it’s going to be four versus two in this little battle next week.”

  I gave Carmel a confused look before Sugar jumped in. “Yeah, our boyfriends and us versus you and” — she waved in Soul’s general direction — “that.”

  “Wait, your boyfriends? Who would be desperate enough to date you two?”

  And then it hit me. “Jekyll and Hyde.”

  “Of course! They’re so hot…”

  “Yeah” — Carmel jumped in again — “I dumped Jeremy after he woke up. Jekyll is just so much more … dangerous,” she finished, licking her lips. I couldn’t help but cringe.

  “Dangerous? Listen, Candy-corn, those guys are monsters. Psychopaths, sociopaths, complete abominations of the human race!”

  “Oh, like you’re any better,” Sugar spat.

  I pulled my hand out of Chrissy’s grip and pressed my knife against Sugar’s face. She tensed, standing perfectly still.

  I moved my face close to hers. “You wanna say that again?”

  I stepped back again. She exhaled and rubbed her cheek, then stepped slowly around the table to where Carmel stood.

  “Don’t bother with her, Sugar. The real monster is right here.” She motioned at Soul with her stun gun, or cattle prod, or whatever it was. “Don’t they call a group of crows a ‘murder’?”

  Sugar let out a sharp laugh, then smacked the side of Soul’s head with her open palm. He didn’t react. Carmel sniffed and jabbed her prod into his ribs. He tossed his head back and screamed, his shout ringing through the hall.

  I tried to lunge angrily after them, smiling wickedly at the thought of what I would do to them, but was again caught and held, this time by two people — Chrissy, who held my waist, and Angel, who had got a hold of my shoulders.

  “Cool down. Calm — calm down!” Chrissy said, struggling to hold me back.

  I was so angry I didn’t notice the pressure from her arms around my stomach until a moment later, when pain flared up through my wound. I felt like I was shot a second time. Reluctantly, I dropped the knife onto the table and held my arms up in surrender.

  Chrissy and Angel let me go. I scowled back at them as I took a seat beside Soul, who was clutching his stomach and struggling to breathe. He had rested his head on the table as he choked and gasped for breath. I slid my glass of water toward him as he started to breathe properly again. His eyes were red and watery as he looked up at me, still holding his side.

  I motioned for him to take a sip of his drink, and as he did, I lifted his shirt to see how bad it was. They had increased the voltage. From the pain I felt, there’s no way I could have a burn as bad as Soul did. But that wasn’t the worst part. I was certain I had seen this same burn before.

  “Take off your shirt,” I said quickly.

  He looked over at me, his cheeks reddening.

  I scoffed. “Just do it.”

  He complied, unbuttoning the shirt and pulling it off his shoulders slowly.

  I studied the shape of the raw wound on his ribs, then moved my eyes up his chest to a much older scar, just below his collarbone. It was nearly identical to the new one in size and shape: a skull, strangely distorted, with its cruel mouth hanging wide open. My chest tightened.

  “What?” His voice was once again shaking. He licked his lips.

  “It’s the same,” I said shakily, waving my hand between the two marks on his body. “The two marks, they’re…”

  He touched the old scar with his fingertips. “But this… They weren’t the monsters?”

  I jumped up from the table and, without saying a word, ran off in the direction that Sugar and Carmel had gone.

  I had followed them back to their locker room with no weapons and no knowledge of whether or not friends of theirs would be lurking. I had to be extra careful while breaking into their lockers, so I took a screwdriver from the toolbox by the door and jimmied the latch on Sugar’s little blue locker. I found nothing in it except the clothes she was wearing earlier. I moved to Carmel’s locker and found exactly what I was looking for. The cattle prod sat on the ledge, just waiting for me to take it.

  Before I got a chance to examine it properly, I heard the door open. I spun on my heels, jumped behind the lockers, and held my breath.

  “You got the smart one, but I got the pretty one,” a strong Irish accent said.

  “Yeah, but she’s the forgetful one too.” Jekyll chuckled cruelly, the way he would when he was getting ready to attack. “And Carmela’s not as good in a fight.”

  I peeked around the corner to see Jekyll and Hyde pulling off their workout gear.

  “Hey, did you take a look at that last message from the doctor?” Jekyll said.

  “Pfft, yeah. But I didn’t answer him or nothing. I swear he thinks we’re his servants.”

  I bit my lip and silently walked behind the lockers, making sure they weren’t looking, then bolted out the door. I ran through the halls until I was back at the cafeteria, wheezing and holding one hand over my middle.

  “I-it was them! Jekyll and Hyde.” My brain was running a mile a minute as I tried to explain to everyone through my gasps for air. They all looked at me blankly. “Listen. They were talking about Frankenstein, right there in the open locker room. I think they were, anyway. They’re involved! They must be.”

  I smacked my hands together and looked at everybody, pleased with myself.

  Angel rested her head on her hand. “And what exactly would be their motivation?”

  I shrugged my shoulders, “I don’t know — any excuse to hurt people, probably!”

  I looked at the zapper I had just stolen from Carmel. It was a weird contraption, a mix between a cattle prod and an electric branding iron. It had to be a custom build; it was clearly designed to dole out as much pain as possible, and to leave its mark.

  I made sure the thing was turned off, then examined the end, looking for the pattern that matched Soul’s scars. There was no pattern, no skull, only zigzagging lines. I tossed it on the ground and pushed my hair back, feeling defeated. I sat beside Soul and dropped my head to my hands.

  “I was so close … and it’s the one room that doesn’t have any cameras!” I shook my head and sighed. Soul kicked his legs over the bench and knelt by the broken pieces of metal.

  “Possible … they s-switched the branding plates.”

  I leaned forward and he held up two separate pieces, both with threads on the ends.

  “Interchangeable,” he stated.

  “Just have to find the plate she used!” I pumped my arm in the air, hope returning again.

  “Benji, do you have any idea how hard that will be to do? Think of all the places it could be hidden.” Chrissy rubbed her head and looked indi
gnant.

  “They wouldn’t have hidden them though; think about who we’re talking about here! Their egos are too big to ever even think of getting caught.” I ran my hand through my hair, thinking. “I’ll get Josh to unlock their rooms when they’re not around —”

  “Josh won’t do it. He can’t know. We’ll cover for you if you don’t leave any evidence,” Angel said.

  “N-no…” Soul spit out.

  I patted Chrissy’s back with a grin as I bounced off before he had a chance to argue.

  “K9! Bad idea… Don’t do it!”

  I heard him trip over the table as he tried to follow. I turned to see him muttering as he straightened himself out and ran after me.

  I pulled the knife from my boot and jammed it through the framework, pushing the lock back and hip-checking Sugar’s door open. Soul wrung his hands as he recited a poem, trying to keep his nerves at bay while I started rummaging through a drawer. I quickly made my way around the room, trashing what I felt was necessary before making my way through the bathroom to Carmel’s room.

  “The dog has focus, the bird is nervous.”

  I took a quick glimpse at him.

  “Hocus pocus, such a disservice.”

  I shook my head as he pushed his hair back and started looking through trinkets on the shelf.

  “This?” I turned again to see him holding a small piece of metal in the shape of a skull. I jumped over the bed and looked; it matched his burn perfectly. We both grinned. Suddenly, the lock started to rattle. Soul pulled me towards the bathroom door, putting his finger to his lips. I cringed for no more than a second before Soul shoved me back into Sugar’s room and to the door. He made sure there was no one around before he dragged me out into the hall, back to safe territory. Luckily, everyone was training so we were okay.

  That is, we were until we ran into Dan.

  “What’s going on?” he said, grabbing my shoulders. “Why are you so out of breath, princess?”

  Soul stepped forward and stood tall, giving Dan a menacing look.

  “I told you to stop calling me that.” I pushed Dan off and walked past them both, the metal plate still tight in my hand.

  “What is wrong? Why are you acting like all the time we’ve spent together is nothing?” Dan growled at me. “I can understand him being mad, but you?”

  “All the time we’ve spent together? You mean fighting on the same side while you made passes at not only me, but every other half-decent girl you saw?” I looked him over. “Learn some loyalty, then we’ll talk.”

  Soul smirked and followed me until Dan spoke up again, stopping us both on the spot. “I loved you, Ben.”

  I didn’t bother looking at my scruffy co-worker. “That’s nice.” And also not true by any means.

  Soul stood clenching his fists. I turned to look at him, silently begging for him to ignore Dan. He grumbled and sneered but he obeyed and followed me down the hall.

  “You have to learn to ignore him. He’s just trying to work you up,” I explained to Soul.

  He was currently working on the punching bag pretty well. He sent a few more punches, then looked up at me. “Sorry…”

  I looked back at him and slowly gave him a smile. “Don’t worry about it.”

  He shrugged, then moved on to defence training, taking up his axe, and I grabbed my swords. I swung one sideways and then the other downwards. This caused me to have to twist my arms as he started to retaliate. We both absentmindedly swung, then deflected.

  “I’ve never seen you really go at it,” I said as he brought his weapon down, causing me to fall to one knee. “How about we go out to the arena in a few days, get some real practice?”

  He thought a moment, then nodded. “The K9 will lose, though.”

  I laughed louder than I ever had in my life. “Is that a challenge?”

  He grinned as he pushed his blade down harder, a mistake I had to remind him not to make again. I kicked his legs out from under him.

  “You may have strength, but I have speed.” I lunged forward and dug the blade into the handle of his axe. He could effortlessly hold me back, so he gave me a shove and then held his weapon over me, indicating that I should stay down. Dropping it to his side, he pulled me up with one hand. “K9 is reckless.”

  After we’d gone at it for a few more rounds, Matt ran in and sat down with his lunch.

  “What’s happening, Kreature?” I asked.

  Matt shrugged and took a bite of his sandwich. “Not much, but I can tell you one thing…” He paused to swallow, and I raised my eyebrows. “The crowd loves you two. And I mean loves!”

  He took a few more bites as Soul and I switched weapons — not the best idea I’d ever had, considering I could barely lift his.

  “Any other news, Matt?” I asked.

  He nodded excitedly, choking down his food, making his eyes water. “Yeah, Sugar and Carmel found out what you did. They announced that they’re leaving you two until last and that they’re going to kill you, no mercy. I’ve been asking around, and no one is even going to try and get in their way, so you guys are pretty much on your own. Sorry.”

  I shrugged. “Anyone drop out yet?”

  “Nope, they all figure they should eliminate each other and then let you and the twins battle it out. Take on whoever’s left standing, since you’ll be broken and out of breath.”

  “Smart.” I leapt back, barely avoiding being hit with my own swords. I planted the sharp end of the axe on the ground and swung myself around, kicking Soul in the side, which caused him to drop one weapon. I hauled the axe over my shoulder and fell onto my behind in the process, but considering it caused him to fall back and drop the other sword, I was okay with it.

  I pressed my boot into his chest, and he laid flat on the mat with his hands in the air.

  “What do you think will happen if you win? I mean, I know the other cities have an idea of what’s happened, but they aren’t as forgiving as Lilithia, I guess. You’ll be targets,” Matt said.

  “We are going to win, and we are going to out the person responsible, prevent it from happening again, and then blah, blah, blah … happily ever after.” I faced him, striking a little pose for the cameras, and waved my hand around as I spoke, not realizing that Soul had gotten back up and grabbed his axe, placing it directly in the centre of my shoulder blades.

  I held my hands up and sighed as my hair fell in front of my eyes. “Cheap.”

  Fourteen

  Two days until the tournament, and training was excruciating. Jekyll, Hyde, Cindy, Carmela, Jeremy, and Randy had all made it very clear to the public that they were going to kill the traitor. Traitors.

  Matt, who’s in charge of all promotion as well as overseeing the media, had suggested we make a retaliating statement. I thought we already did that but evidently not.

  I was on my way to give my statement when Soul joined me, lip bloody and more ink smeared across his face.

  “What is it exactly that you do when I’m not around?”

  He gave a shrug and wiped his lip. “Unimportant.”

  I grimaced and eyed him as we walked into one of Matt’s many studios/offices. He greeted us with a smile. “All set up… You just have to say your piece.”

  I followed to where he was pointing and rolled my neck; this might get ugly. He flicked the camera on and I leaned forward with Soul wringing his hands behind me. “You know Jekyll, Hyde, and their little followers? They tried to say we were the villains, and that’s just not true!” I glanced back at Soul, who smirked and looked at me with mischief in his eyes. “Sure, most of you know I’m not one to play hero. I always do what I have to for the greater good. But a hero? No way. Heroes don’t tend to commit homicide.”

  Soul shook his head. “The dog is no liar, either. Not this time.”

  “So trust me when I say I am not going to be playing the hero this weekend. I am not going to be playing nice. I’ve sharpened my toys, I’ve been training, and I have an ally this time … and he’s st
ronger than anyone you’ve dealt with before.”

  I heard Soul crack his knuckles behind me. I grinned.

  “If it’s a war you want, it’s Armageddon you’re going to get.”

  “Suffocating, walls closing in on me.” Soul examined an ink stain on his arm. “Dying, crawling free, is it worth trying to see?”

  A crease formed between his eyes as he started to try and rub the ink off. I turned back to Matt’s camera. “Are you willing to risk being locked in an abandoned area of town with a revenge-crazed lunatic and her bird? Or would you rather not feel what it would be like to live in hell just yet?”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and stared at the floor, rubbing my hands together. “You’re going to get what you deserve. It’s just a matter of time. This is your warning. Drop out now and live a little longer.”

  Matt switched the camera off. “Perfect. That’s going to play great with the public. It’ll have the Jekyll and Hyde fans seething.”

  He moved around to his desk with the handheld and connected it to his small computer. He switched the thing on, and blue light lit up his face. He looked confused.

  “What the hell?” Matt said.

  “What?” I asked, moving around the desk to stand behind Matt. “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s been wiped. The whole thing. All my videos…” Matt held his head and groaned.

  I kicked a chair across the room and Matt jumped, but didn’t look up. “Goddammit Matt, I swear we’ll get to the bottom of this.”

  I strolled out into the open arena, feeling like a million bucks.

  I’d been given new armour for the coming events, courtesy of Josh. He’d always been enthusiastic about what we do. It was slightly more revealing than I would have liked, but I couldn’t complain. There was a simple band that would go around my top, taped down with the same thick tape I use on my wrists, and silver shoulder pads. Brindled grey fur stuck out from the bottom of the plates, as it did on my old armour, though this was much shinier and unscratched.