Kingdom Come Read online

  He was completely blank as he watched the two men grapple. Then Hyde snarled and jabbed at me with his knife. I jumped to the left to avoid him, but he cut pretty deep into Dan’s leg. Dan fell to the ground, whining. I grabbed my blade and tried to retaliate, but I couldn’t counter such brute force and was quickly overpowered. I had fallen to one knee and nearly given up when the pressure against my blade was suddenly gone. I looked up to see Hyde hunched over and staring at his shoulder, where a common kitchen knife was embedded. He ripped it out with a shriek louder than Dan’s caterwauling. I scrambled to my feet to get away from the bloody gash and looked up to see a horrified Jekyll and an almost deliriously angry Soul. He quickly grabbed his axe and started backing towards the door with a mad grin. In one terrifying second, our eyes met and then he spun on his heels and ran.

  Josh, Jeff, and Louis ran in, ready to do their respective jobs. A horrified look was shared between Jeff and Louis. Jeff went right to work on Dan’s leg. He turned to me and growled, “You better have a damn good explanation for this!”

  “What in god’s name?!”

  Everyone in the room looked up to see Vince Viktor saunter through the splintered doors, and over the debris.

  “Jekyll, Hyde! Dragon! … K9?” He stopped and stared at me. I had never been a problem for him. Until now.

  “Sir! We were warning everyone here that we were attacked when she just ran in and hit us!”

  “Bullshit!” Dan hollered back. “Everyone here can verify that a guy ran in and defended everyone from them!”

  “And did anyone recognize the guy?” our boss asked. Everyone cautiously shook their heads, and then he turned to the onlookers, who mumbled between themselves, then agreed on a solid “no.” “Dan, Benjamina, I want this handled. And you boys” — he turned to look at Hyde and Jekyll — “get to my office.”

  After he left, everyone breathed a sigh of relief and grimaced. Everyone saw me say something to Soul. Why did none of them say anything? That was when I saw the giant TV screen in the dining hall. Matt had already put the video on replay. The headline talked about how this hit man could be doing this for fun, like Jekyll and Hyde, but also mentioned that it was rumoured he was forced to do it against his will, for one reason or another. I looked at Matt and mouthed a thank-you before I started helping Jeffery drag a nearly unconscious Dan to his infirmary. You would think a man who had lost as much blood as he had would be a little bit easier to carry.

  Jeffery laid him out and grabbed his equipment.

  I stood awkwardly at Dan’s side, then Jeff dismissed me with a wave.

  Back in my room, I dragged myself to the bathroom. I climbed into the shower as pathetically as anything, warm water burning my cuts and soothing the aches that come with too much strain being put on your body. Pants didn’t even seem worth it. They never really do, but today especially. Granted, they were required for a social gathering, and I really hated skirts. I sighed and gave in to a pair of torn jeans. Chrissy wanted everyone together tonight. It didn’t seem like the best idea, but it would be relaxing, more or less. Until then, a nap was in order.

  The door to my room easily swung open, and I stepped onto the grey shag carpet, not expecting to see a bloody Soul leaning against the door. I jumped back and he touched his jaw carefully with a disappointed look. “Mistakes follow that which calls itself a murder.”

  The crack in his voice sent a pin into my chest and what he said was even worse.

  “You were just —”

  “No!” He held up his hand and started pacing. “No, the worm belongs to the crow. Hmm — mm, kill … kill … kill the worm. No — no! M-me … me, Crow, gets to kill the worm; no monsters, only … monsters…”

  His face went whiter than I thought possible, considering how pale he already was, and his eyes seemed to water. He looked like his heart had just broken.

  “The bird … is a monster…”

  I wanted to say something, but there wasn’t anything he would let me say, and nothing seemed to be as consoling as I wanted it to be. He dropped his jacket to the floor and ran his ink-smudged and shaking hands over his face, smearing blood over his cheeks and nose. His breathing was ragged, and he was completely horrified by his realization. He slid his back down the closet door until he was sitting on the floor.

  “J-just as bad as them…” he whispered, hands still covering his mouth.

  “No.” I carefully knelt in front of him and took his hands. “You can’t destroy a demon without becoming one. There are no guardians — no angels in this world, and just because someone does bad things doesn’t mean they are a bad person. So many of those people are survivors. None of us can ever be angels.” I put my head down and squeezed his hands. “And maybe we shouldn’t try to be.”

  My voice was shaking more than I wished it would. He shook his head, giving me a puzzled look. “But … the dog is a saviour, an angel…”

  I gave a breath of laughter and looked up at him. “There’s no such thing as angels, Soul. You either die in pain, or you become a bigger monster than the ones you’re fighting. We need to create our own happy endings, as monsters and demons if it comes to that, so are we going to get our justice? Or are we going to fool ourselves into believing the world is fair?”

  Soul looked up at me, a very sad look still painted under all that blood.

  “Come on,” I said, “let’s clean you up.”

  He looked away, pulled himself to his feet with a grunt, and walked towards the sink in the next room. His shirt, stained with ink, was all bloodied and torn and no longer nice.

  “Thank you,” he whispered, so quietly that I almost didn’t hear him. Red rolled off his hands and into the drain.

  “Out damn spot — out, I say.”

  He seemed to go about the motions mindlessly, while mumbling something every few seconds that I couldn’t quite catch. He pulled his shirt off like a child would, getting his head stuck in the neck hole, and stared at his reflection in the mirror. Blood was running down his torso from small slashes and cuts, and from what had soaked his shirt. There was a lot of blood, but it wasn’t all his. His eyes glowed through the blood that was on his face. He closed them and inhaled. Something went horribly wrong today, something that made him think he was going to end up as just another nightmare.

  I took a rag from the sink and wiped his face, water dripping from his chin. He grunted when I touched his lip by accident, and cried out as I continued to soak up the blood from it.

  After he was cleaned up, he sat silently while I walked to Angel’s room, feeling conflicted about whether or not I hoped she would be there. She was.

  “Benji, I saw what happened with those thugs. Are you and Dan okay?”

  “He’ll be fine, and don’t worry about me. I was wondering if you had any of Ronin’s shirts here.”

  “Of course. Why do you need one?”

  “No reason.”

  She eyed me suspiciously but didn’t ask any other questions. I waited as she put her book down and walked to a shelf. She pulled out a black T-shirt and held it up for me to see.

  “That’s good.”

  “Are you still going to Chrissy’s tonight?”

  I gave a sigh. “I guess I should. It would be good to take a break.”

  “And to see your best friend? Don’t forget Chrissy was attacked. You need to support her too.”

  I smiled and nodded, then walked back into my room, locking the door behind me. Soul’s lip was bleeding again, but he didn’t seem to care. He didn’t look at me when I sat down beside him. I could almost physically feel his sadness.

  “I wish … I wish so bad that you didn’t have to go through this, Soul.”

  He shrugged. “Everyone gets what they deserve.”

  “Jekyll and Hyde will if I ever get my hands on them.”

  He shook his head, trying to shake away a hint of a smile.

  “Here.” I handed the shirt to him. He put it on slowly.

  “We should get out o
f here before Dan tracks me down.” I stood and he followed me to the door. Before I opened it, I turned to him again. He had produced a baseball cap from his back pocket. He slipped it on over his hair, which didn’t do much to keep it from going all over the place. I should really buy him a brush. Come to think of it, the cap looked a little bit familiar, but I brushed it off.

  He silently followed me down the halls and to the exit.

  Eight

  Once we were outside, Soul took his hat off and shook his hair out. He seemed to be having an issue with his shirt. It looked slightly too tight — not that I’m complaining. He tugged at it to loosen it, but that didn’t seem to help.

  Suddenly he stopped walking and stuck his arm out in front of me. I too had seen the bouncy ball and attempted to catch it, but I only ended up flailing my arms out before I noticed that Soul already had it in his hand. He stared at me and slowly started to smile. We started giggling like school kids as a group of children ran over. I recognized them as the ones from a few days ago.

  The girl, Rosie, shrieked. “It’s K9!”

  I waved to them and Soul tossed the ball to the boy closest.

  “I watched the cafeteria video this morning! It was so cool how you just broke down the door to jump in!” one boy said to Soul.

  Soul shrugged and rubbed his neck, blushing at the attention.

  “And you’re so amazing, like fast and … big!” The kid puffed out his chest and flexed his tiny arms. A smile started to break on Soul’s usually serious face as the kids chattered on about this morning’s fight.

  “How did you see it? The main cameras were still down until twenty minutes ago.”

  They shrugged.

  “It aired and then cut right after Mr. Viktor came in. I checked and they said it was a technical glitch,” Rosie said. She was still staring starry eyed at Soul.

  I looked at my friend and he shrugged his shoulders. “Not a snitch, just a glitch?” he said.

  “H-how did you meet K9?” Rosie softly interrupted.

  Soul bent down to her height and rested his nose on his knees. “She saved me,” he mumbled quietly.

  “How?”

  He smiled. “She trusted me.”

  “You saved her too, right? The other day in the market, and today and this morning,” she eagerly stated.

  “He did,” I said.

  Soul glanced up at me wide-eyed as I crossed my arms. I wondered what went through his head at times like this.

  “I hope you do well in the tournament next month,” Rosie said before she turned to go. Her blue dress danced in the wind as she ran off with her friends.

  Soul stood again and I smiled. “See, they like you too. The little girl seems to really like you.”

  His cheeks turned pink, and he faintly grinned as he picked up his boots again.

  “Where are you off to?” I asked.

  He shrugged and stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Home.”

  I nodded as I watched him walk away, but then stopped him before he could get too far. “Please stay safe.”

  “For K9?”

  “Who else?”

  He smiled again and walked off, leaving me with my thoughts and a sinking feeling in my stomach. But that may have been because I was hungry…

  “Chrissy! Open the door, it’s Benji,” I had been knocking for a few minutes before my stout friend reached the door with an empty bottle of wine in her hand.

  “Tell me you didn’t drink all of that by yourself…”

  She grinned like a five-year-old and hiccupped. Who was I kidding? She could empty an entire cabinet. I walked inside and dropped onto the couch. Everyone was already there — Angel, Eloise, Juno — and everyone had a glass of wine in their hand. Chrissy poured a new one and tried to hand it to me, but I stopped her.

  “I can’t stomach that crap and you know it.”

  Rolling her eyes, Chrissy tossed a can of beer at me instead, which I gladly caught and gulped down.

  “So … who was that you were talking to earlier?” Angel asked slyly.

  “Ooh, does someone have a boyfriend we don’t know about?” Chrissy added.

  “I want to know! Tell me… Is he cute? Or hot? Or that kind of attractive in-between that makes you want to smash your face off a wall?” Juno’s brain often went into hyperdrive as she spoke. It tended to get annoying.

  “Breathe,” I ordered. How one’s mind could run so fast astounded me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about —”

  “Yes, you do! I saw you talking to someone during the Jekyll and Hyde incident,” Chrissy called from the other room.

  “Was it him you were talking to? He was definitely hot,” Angel added.

  “Guys, it’s not — I don’t… You really want to know, don’t you?” I already knew the answer to that.

  “Yes!”

  The word simultaneously rang out, so I heaved a sigh and shook my head. “Angel, yes, that’s who I was talking to. Chrissy, yes, it’s the same guy that ran in and saved Dragon and I. Juno, you’d be surprised; he’s actually very sweet.”

  “Really? I saw the video.” She exhaled, puffing her lips up and shaking her head. “I swear he was pretty hot… Are you sure he’s not both?”

  “Yes.”

  “Benji! You never just jump into relationships!”

  I threw my hands up, nearly spilling my beer over my face. “Whoa! Who said anything about being in a relationship? You all know I don’t do those!”

  “So who is he then? What is he to you?” Eloise softly threw in her question.

  “A friend —”

  “With benefits?” Chrissy asked, giggling.

  I spit out my drink and coughed as Chrissy high-fived Angel.

  “God, no!” I didn’t want to think about him that way. At all.

  “How did you meet him?” Eloise asked.

  The cat was out of the bag.

  “When he tried to kill me,” I said.

  Everyone went silent until Angel spoke again. “And we thought Eloise had a strange taste in men.” Though her words were playful, her voice was dark.

  “I — is that the guy who’s been attacking everyone?” asked Eloise.

  Juno gasped. “It does look like him!”

  “Ben, what are you doing?” Chrissy said, concern in her voice. “Why would you be hanging around that guy?”

  “Listen, none of that is his fault.” I could hear the desperation in my words. But I needed them to believe me. “He doesn’t want to hurt anyone.”

  “Bullshit,” Angel cut in. “Ronin has scars from what that guy did to him. What’s wrong with you?”

  “Well, a lot is probably wrong with me … but in this particular case, I’m on your side!” I went on. “He’s being forced to do it against his will. I promised I would help him track down the people that ‘hired’ him. The same people that branded him.”

  “Do you know who those people are yet?” Chrissy asked as she gave me a disapproving once-over.

  “No, but I think those bastards — Jekyll and his nutcase brother — have something to do with it.”

  “Do you think it’s a good idea to go after them, with your history?” Chrissy asked.

  “Not at all. Can we talk about something happier?”

  Angel was in the middle of taking a drink, but she raised her hand and waved it around until she finished swallowing. Then she blurted, “Ronin proposed to me! He said he finally realized that he had taken me for granted before and that now he wants to marry me!”

  I nearly fell out of my seat. “And you waited until now to tell us?”

  “Yeah, I told him I would. He didn’t have a ring or anything but it was so sweet, and I really don’t want to lose him.” We all congratulated her and then moved on to Eloise.

  “My life has been kind of boring lately.”

  “Come on, there has to be something,” I said encouragingly.

  “Well, you said you didn’t want to talk about it, Ben, but your ‘friend’ from
this morning told me to leave the base. He said I would know when it’s safe to come back.”

  “Don’t worry about it. Something tells me you can stay.” I was slightly aggravated that he talked to her without letting me take care of it. “What do you mean?”

  “Once I get back tonight, Dan is probably going to call him out. Or kill me. Either way, things are going to go public soon.”

  “Okay … let’s go back to talking about happy stuff. What’s new with you, Juno?” Eloise asked.

  After stuffing a handful of chips into her face, Juno shrugged. “Not much. Beanie and I are waiting for that new video game; it has dinosaurs in it.”

  Everyone rolled their eyes. Whenever something involved dinosaurs of any kind, Juno and Beanie were first in line.

  I had taken off once the party started winding down. I couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched again. The rest of the girls were staying at Chrissy’s. Chrissy was planning to return to the base the next day, and she, Angel, Eloise, and Juno were going to go together. For the time being, I was pretty much on my own.

  I really wished I wasn’t because, let’s face it, the world was against me, and I remembered that once I saw Dan storming towards me on a crutch the second I got back into the barracks. I considered making a run for it, but he got to me before I had a chance, snatching me by the hair. Honestly, I can’t blame him for being angry. I would be too, but really? The hair? Cheap.

  “Ow! Danny, let me go and I’ll explain.”

  “Oh, you’re going to explain alright.” He dragged me into his room and sat me down in a chair as he glared at me.

  “How do you know him?” His voice was far calmer than I’d expect from looking at his face.

  “What are you talking —”

  “Don’t even start. How do you know Absolom?”

  I glared back and crossed my arms. “It’s Soul now.”

  Dan ran a hand through his hair, looking like he was about to wring my neck. “He’s not right in the head, Ben, he —”

  “Shut up! What happened between you two? Why does he hate you so much?”

  “That’s not your problem!”