Chapter Project

From Where the Stars Fall (Temporary Title)

            The man awoke stirring from his spot with a low groan, everything was spinning and the world around him swirled around in blurry fragments. His head was throbbing, the dull pain pulsing over the top of his scalp and lingered around his ears. The man reached to clutch at the source of the pain and to grab his bearing together when the pull of a foreign force seemed to keep his arms in place followed by the sound of rattling metal. He looked up into the blurred darkness to faintly make out that his hands were tied with chains to the metal pipe above his head. A gasp escaped his lips, his eyes widening a bit in panic and began to pull desperately to free his hands. Oh god where was he? The blackness was all consuming swallowing everything in sight into its dark gullet and left nothing but the faint outlines of things that were once there. The man tugged and strained for several long minutes then turned his attention to the dark room around him, there was no light to be found save for the new dim glow of a lantern that now sat on a hook upon the wall. He ceased his struggling and fixed his gaze upon the light for a sign of life. “H-hello, i-i-is anyone there?” he called shakily into the emptiness only to hear it bounce off the walls and echo back in his face. His eyes darted back and forth from the darkness to the warm glow of the light.

            It was then that he saw her. A silent white face peering out of the thick nothingness of the room the faint outline of the rest of her made plain by the small torch beside her on the wall. How long had she been standing there and staring? She was leaned back against the wall hidden in the shadows but her cold eyes leapt out of the darkness to swallow him up. She stared at him a slow feline smile and crossed her arms in triumph. “Oi! It seems the wee lil’ princess done woke up, rise an’ shine sleepin’ beauty,” she said with a sinister chuckle taking slow steps towards him “now that yer awake ye can tell me where ‘e is.”

“W-what? I don’t know what yer talkin’ about“

“Oh I think ye do, now where did ye send ‘im? Where the blood ‘ell is Bartholomew Curtis Coote?”

The man tensed at the name his face draining of all color and he began to stammer nervously “I-I don’t know! I don’t know him or nothi-“

A quick flash of movement halted him mid-sentence, the girl grabbed a handful of his greasy hair and slammed his head hard into the cracking concrete wall.

“Who the bloody ‘ell do ye think yer kiddin’ mate? Yer the last person to see the b*stard when ‘e disappeared from me sight. Don’t lie to me again, where did ye send ‘im? Now I ain’t gonna ask ye again so ye better start talkin’.”

His head was spinning once more as the girl began striking his head against the wall over and over “stop! I don’t know nothin’ you crazy b*tch!” His face was white with anger his voice filled with venom and he began to thrash around violently in a weak attempt to fight back. He sucked back gathering a mouthful of saliva before spitting it back into the girl’s face “get yer d*mn hands off of me!”

The girl was taken a back for a moment her cheeks reddening and slowly wiped the spit off of her chin and onto the filthy shirt of the man, her fists clenched tightly and her cold eyes stared daggers down at the unfortunate man. “So that’s ‘ow it’s gonna be eh?” she hissed and with one foul swoop of her leg her foot made contact with the man’s nose and the loud crunch echoed in the empty space blood spraying the air. The man let out a scream choking on the heavy red stream pouring from his mangled nostrils, his breathing became heavy and more frantic. The girl stood and sent another swift kick to the man’s chest and disappeared into the darkness returning with a small pocketknife with a rusted handle. The man gasped for air letting out another scream as he spied the old rusted blade “Help! Help! Fer the love of God someone get me out of here!” The girl looked down at him and grabbed at his hair once more “No one’s comin’ fer ye mate an’ now no one is goin’ to recognize ye either when I’m done wit ye.” She pulled back his head and pressed the blade against his bloody cheek, a stinging red line flowed down trickling off of his chin “Yer the only one that can make all o’ this stop, tell me where ‘e is.” The man screamed jerking his head away his whole body was shaking in breathy gasps for air. A small period of silence broke between the two it was his chance to speak but no words were uttered from his shaking lips other than “p-please stop, jest let me g-go.”

“ ‘tis a pity I’ll just ‘ave to force it out o’ ye then if yer gonna beg like that” she said her voice filling with ice and once again stepped back into the darkness returning this time with a primitive pair of pliers from god knows where. The man’s eyes nearly bulged out of his sockets upon seeing the foul device set in her hands and immediately began thrashing around violently “no no no no! Don’t ye get that bloody thing near me!”

“Oi, ye ‘ad yer chance now mate an’ I’m always a girl o’ me word now open up” she said with a sinister grin plastered on her face. He clenched his jaw tightly before the again slammed his head into the wall with a loud crash, stunned and confused his lips loosened and the cold metal forced it’s way into his mouth. His eyes began to water and his hands shook in the chains “p-p-please…” he mumbled through the metal, but his cries fell on deaf ears. She grinned down at him and shoved her hand onto his chest “one, two, an’ a three” she said with a laugh before clamping down on a back molar and with a one swift yank she loosed the tooth from his mouth. The man let out a scream of murder as his mouth now filled with fresh blood and tears flowed from his eyes in pure pain. She stared at him and pulled the yellowed tooth from her pliers holding it out in her palm for him to see “well won’t ye look at that it’s nearly rotten inside jus’ like ye mate, let’s see if yer other ones are just as bad” she said going for her pliers again. The man’s shoulders slumped in defeat and his chest was heaving in thick sobs “e-enough… please stop I’ll tell you all ye wanna hear, I know where he went.” The girl grinned and kneeled down next to him “talk quick an’ if I catch that yer lyin’ to me yer gonna loose ‘bout ‘alf o’ yer teeth.”

            The man nodded spitting out another mouthful of blood and looked up at her “yer lookin’ fer Bartholomew Curtis Coote I-I hid him safe at the Hag’s Hole Inn down on the corner of Cheapside and West Chesterson. He’s sittin’ in the t-tarvern waiting fer me to get him out of the city” he said thickly gasping for air. The girl nodded but raised a dark eyebrow up in question grabbing at the man’s blood soaked shirt “an’ whot were ye plannin’ to do when ye were to meet ‘im at the inn?”

“I-I-I was goin’ to get him out of the city and off of this bloody continent when I heard ‘bout the price on his head.”

“How were ye gonna do that? What was yer escape route?” she asked with a triumphant serpentine like smile pulling his face up to really stare him in the face “come on out wit it mate I don’t got all day.”

“We…we were gonna leave from the inn and take the alleys east out of the city then navigate our way through the forest for a few days… there was a small town outside of Favershim to take the bullet steamer train to the east coast we’d catch a passenger liner from Carolly harbor and cross the sea to d*mn Hillenbrend. There are you bloody satisfied you daft b*tch!”

“How do I know ye ain’t lyin’ to me right now? Why the ‘ell should this b*tch believe ye?” she said grabbing his broken face and shoved it again into the cracking wall.

“Ah! For the love of god I’ve told you everythin’! Why would I lie under this type of abuse!”

“You’d lie ‘cause ye love ‘im mate but it ain’t no matter ‘bout that, I believe ye are tellin’ the truth” she said with a sly smirk standing up “since that’s all I need I don’t think you’ll be o’ any use to me now. This ain’t personal mate so take this wit a grain o’ salt would’ya?” With that said she drew a small pistol from her belt and cocked back the hammer aiming at the man’s head, she drew a slow breath and her finger pulled the trigger. The silence of the dark room was shattered as the pistol let out a sharp howl and echoed through the building before going silent once more. The man was slumped against the wall his blood now painted the concrete around what was once his head. The girl sighed hooking her weapon back into her belt holder and quickly grabbed for her tools, these would need to be disposed of. She carefully stepped over the body unlocking his limp hands from pipes and collected the chains placing them beside her other sinister tools. She looked down at her clothes and spat out a fowl curse “OCH! Bloody f*ckin’ ‘ell the idiot got ‘is d*mn blood all over me shirt! What a waste…” she muttered as now the clothes off of her back would have to be thrown out as well, too much blood called for too much attention. With a shake of her head she began stripping down pulling off every bit of cloth that came into contact with his blood. She grabbed for her pack in the corner and dawned on another set of clothes, they weren’t exactly clean but they’d have to do for now. The girl flung her pack over her shoulder collecting the evidence in hand and headed for the door, she stopped for a moment to look back at her mangled masterpiece. The poor b*stard looked awful, but why should she care he helped the target escape and he wouldn’t be so lucky in avoiding detection this time. With a heavy sigh she blew out the light from the lantern plunging the room into pitch black and bolted for the door. She opened it and stepped out of the darkness into the muted moonlight of an alleyway surrounded on both side by deteriorating buildings with broken windows. She moved quickly to distance herself from the building tossing her bundle of used tools and bloody clothing into the rank open sewer hole, the current would carry them far enough no fool was dumb enough to dig through raw sewage to get at them even if found. The girl chuckled in satisfaction and made her way out into the streets of Favershim’s slums standing tall. Ah Favershim what a sh*thole.