Chapter 6: Rescue

 

       Haven continued to walk through the forest, his facial expressions stern and his gaze set straight ahead of him. The anger and disappointment he felt towards Lucifer for killing someone filled him until he almost completely felt hatred towards the older male. However, after about thirty minutes of walking, he sighed as he began to settle down from what he had seen a while ago. His brain began to function a little more properly now that his emotions didn't get in the way and he started to wonder if he was maybe being a wee bit harsh on Lucifer. The cop was attacking him after all, and it was only natural for someone to fight back out of defense. However, the cop would have never attacked him to begin with if he never tried to become a criminal in the first place. Haven sighed once more, not even really sure what to think on the matter, and he soon just let it go about a minute later.

       About a few seconds later, Haven heard a rustling coming from some bushes to the left. Upon looking, the youth saw a blur coming straight for him. He quickly had his staff appear in his hands before blocking the vertical slash of a sword. Since the figure was no longer moving, Haven was easily able to see that it was Marcus.

       Marcus emitted a low growl from his throat as he tried to get to the side of Haven to attempt another slash. The brown-haired boy was easily able to follow his movements though and he quickly turned to block the attack before pushing the staff away from his body to knock Marcus off balance. With the man's guard being down, Haven quickly delivered a thrust of his weapon to Marcus's stomach before smacking his jaw with the end of his staff.

       Before a whack to the head could be made, Marcus quickly blocked Haven's staff before quickly trying for a diagonal slash on the torso, but the younger male managed to step back to evade it. Marcus quickly feinted a slash to the stomach, causing Haven to bring his staff up to block. As soon as he saw that the bait had been taken, the mercenary quickly closed in the distance all the way before slamming the hilt of his blade into the top of the youth's head. Haven stumbled a little before collapsing to the ground, unconscious.

 

       Haven moaned from the pain that continuously throbbed in his head as his eyes slowly cracked open. His vision was blurry for a few seconds before it cleared for Haven to see that he was still in the forest. He was tied to the trunk of a tree by rope so that his feet weren't touching the ground and there were two mercenaries standing in front of him with their backs turned on him. A couple yards away he could see a group of mercenaries – including Marcus – sitting around a campfire that illuminated the forest as night began to settle upon it.

       No one had yet apparently noticed that he was awake, or either they just didn't care enough to bother acknowledging it. Haven tested the ropes to see how sturdy they were. Upon doing this though, one of the mercenaries looked at him to see him doing this and they quickly smacked him on the side of the face with the butt of their lance.

       “Keep still!” the mercenary commanded.

       “Is he awake?” Marcus questioned as he stood up and approached the three.

       “Yes sir,” said the second mercenary.

       “Good,” replied Marcus as he stepped close to Haven, his facial expressions growing cold as he looked Haven in the eye. “Tell me where Lucifer is.”

       “I don't know,” answered Haven.

       “You're lying. You were with him before, so I am sure you know where he is.”

       “No, I don't. We split up a while ago.”

       “It looks like he's telling the truth sir,” said one of the mercenaries.

       “Yes, it seems like he is,” muttered Marcus disappointedly. “Very well then, we'll just wait here then for the others to get back from their search. Besides, we might be able to use this kid as bait to lure him here.”

       The two mercenaries nodded while Marcus walked back to the campfire before turning so they were facing the opposite direction of the brown-haired boy. Haven thought a little about what he heard. He almost highly doubted Lucifer would be caught so easily. Not only that, but the criminal would probably never come for him anyway after the way he yelled at him.

       About fifteen minutes passed before a group of five mercenaries came into the area. Upon seeing them, Marcus got up and walked over to them.

       “Sorry, but we couldn't find him,” said one of the mercenaries. “We looked just about everywhere, but we didn't have any luck.”

       “Damn,” Marcus cursed under his breath. “There is still a chance he might come for the boy though, so we shall wait for a little while longer.

       “But sir, can't we just turn Haven in?” asked a second mercenary. “We will still get the reward for only turning one in.”

       “No, we must get Lucifer too,” replied Marcus. “I want to kill that b*****d for betraying me. We will wait for another hour to see if he comes.”

       “And what if he doesn't?” asked a third.

       “Then we'll just kill Haven and turn him in,” answered Marcus.

       Haven's eyes widened some when he heard what Marcus last said. No one else bothered to argue with Marcus's decision and the group that had just returned joined the others at the campfire like Marcus did. The brown-haired boy sighed, not sure how he was going to get out of this. He was definitely beginning to regret yelling at Lucifer. If he didn't, he probably wouldn't have been in this mess to begin with. The mercenaries couldn't find Lucifer in the forest either, so there was a good chance he was long gone now.

       An hour slowly rolled by. Seeing that Lucifer wasn't going to come after all, Marcus and all the other mercenaries stood up. The brown-haired man gave the orders to one of the guards keeping watch over Haven to kill him. One of them nodded and turned to face the youth, who began to become consumed by fear. The mercenary was about to deliver a fatal blow with his lance before the sound of arrows cutting through the air somewhere not far off was heard.

       “That must be him!” said Marcus as a grim smirk came onto his face. “Quickly, go and check to see if the trap managed to kill him!”

       Five of the mercenaries ran off in the direction the sound came from. Right afterwards, someone burst into the clearing from behind a bush to the right of Haven and sent a large fist down towards the mercenary that had his lance poised to kill the brown-haired boy. The fist crashed into the mercenary's unprotected head and he fell to the ground a second later. Lucifer quickly snatched the lance from the mercenary's hand before cutting the ropes that bound the brown-haired boy to the tree. Before Haven could fall to the ground, Lucifer quickly hoisted the youth over his shoulder before dropping the spear and running off, just barely avoiding the spear of the other mercenary who was also supposed to guard Haven.

       “Damn it, don't let him get away!” exclaimed Marcus angrily.

       Shouts filled the air as Marcus and the mercenaries began to pursue the two. Haven watched as some of them got their bows ready before firing arrows towards them. Every now and then Haven winced from the arrows as they came close to hitting them. After about half an hour, the enemy was beginning to close in the gap that was between them.

       “Uh, Haven, I know you're enjoyin' the ride and all, but can you give me a hand with these pests?” asked Lucifer as he continued to run.

       Haven nodded, forgetting that Lucifer wouldn't be able to see it, before clasping his hands together as if he was about to pray.

       “O Holy Spirit, blind mine enemy with thy light,” chanted the younger male. “Flash!”

       A blinding light flashed into the area a second afterwards and all the mercenaries yelled as they covered their eyes with their hands. A lot of them cursed and thrashed about as they quickly tried to rub the spots out of their eyes. By the time they were finally able to see again though, Lucifer and Haven were already gone. Marcus gave an infuriated yell as he chucked his sword to the ground.

       Lucifer kept running for a while longer. When he was finally too out of breath to continue, he set Haven on his feet before bending over while he worked to catch his breath. Haven sighed a sigh of relief before cracking a small smile as he looked towards Lucifer. This was one of the first times Haven had ever felt glad to see someone in his entire life.

       “Thank you,” Haven said gratefully.

       “No problem,” Lucifer said in between pants as the usual smile returned on his face.

       Lucifer straightened up a few seconds later as his breathing calmed down. Haven quickly looked him over for any signs of wounds, but there were none. The two soon started to walk again until they passed through a thicket of vines. A couple seconds later, they arrived at a small clearing within the thicket, and, thinking this would be a good place to hide until sunrise, they sat down.

       “How did you find us?” Haven asked after a moment of silence.

       “I saw the smoke from the fire,” replied Lucifer. “I thought it was you, so I went to check it out. Then I saw the trap that was set up and knew that there must've been mercenaries around. I set the trap off before findin' you there, so I quickly went to save the day.” Lucifer smirked a little. “You know, you really owe me big time. You would already be on your way to Fallcrest by now if I didn't bother tryin' to come find you.”

       “You mean you spent this entire time trying to look for me?”

       “Yeah.”

       “Even after I yelled at you?”

       Lucifer nodded.

       “Why?”

       Lucifer hesitated a little, trying to figure out how to say it. He then just sighed and gave a shrug.

       “I wanted to continue travelin' with you. I hate bein' alone. Hell, sometimes it's almost a fear.”

       Haven didn't say anything as his gaze slowly lowered to the ground. He felt pretty bad now.

       “You ain't still mad, are you?” Lucifer asked.

       The brown-haired boy looked at him again before smiling softly and shaking his head. “No, not at anymore. I don't think I can be since you saved my life. But I really wish you wouldn't do all the things you do. I don't like to see anyone die or to see someone being robbed of their hard-earned money.”

       Lucifer shrugged. “I know, but I've been doin' it for so long that I'm just kinda used to it now.”

       Haven sighed before asking, “Why did you even start doing these kinds of things anyway?”

       “Well, it all started when I was young. My parents didn't have any money, so we lived on the streets. They got some kind of a disease and they died since they couldn't get any medicine for it. I was left on my own then. No one bothered with me and just ignored me. I hated it.

       “After a while though I met Marcus and his friends. They lived out on the streets like I did. They actually hung out with me instead of ignorin' me like everyone else. We did a lot of things back then like stealin' food and gettin' into fights with other kids. The stealin' bothered me a little when I first started, but I didn't want them to hate me because then they would probably leave me and I'd be alone again. I kept stealin' and I eventually just started thinking it was important for survival.

       “We kept doin' this kinda stuff and then all of 'em were jailed and beaten for all the things they did. I already told you about how I fled, so I won't bother telling that part. But when I fled, I realized that I was alone again and I hated it. I went into other towns a lot just so I could be around other people, but they often stayed clear of me because of how I was only wearing rags and everything. It only hurt me more since no one else seemed to accept me.

       “But then I met Pierce—you know, the leader of Malum. We talked a while and we took a likin' to one another. Pierce decided to let me stay with him and the other members of Malum, and so I went with him. He started to train me and after a while he asked if I wanted to join Malum. I didn't want to be alone again, so I decided I would. Then I started to kill and steal and all that other stuff you don't like.

       “When everyone was caught and executed though, I started to run so I wouldn't get caught too. I was alone again, and I hated it, but I didn't want to die either. I went into towns a lot though just so I could be with other people. Hell, sometimes I even let myself get caught so I could be with other people before I ended up escaping again.”

       Lucifer finished with a sigh. Haven didn't say anything for a few seconds as he thought over a few things.

       “Well, how about we make a deal?” Haven proposed. “I'll stay with you until at least the end of our travels as long as you don't do anything bad until then.”

       “Alright,” Lucifer replied without a moment's hesitation.

       Haven smiled a little. He wasn't really sure if it was going to work, but he figured it was worth a try. He wanted to try to get Lucifer to stop stealing, killing, and all the other illegal things he did. There was still probably a while before they would reach another continent anyway, which Haven was hoping would be plenty of time to get Lucifer to quit all those things.

       The two didn't stay awake too much longer, but instead decided to go to sleep so they would have at least a little energy before sunrise. It didn't take long before both of them fell asleep.

Author's Note

Does the dialogue seem too forced? Do you think Lucifer's past is believable and that the reasons for him joining those groups are believable enough? Is the fact that he hates being alone believable enough too?

Reviews

[Amund Schofield]

gah... you used words for a simple spell... that annoys the hell out of me and makes the story seem cheap and cheesy.

However, the fear of being alone is a real fear. Lucifer as a character does make sense.