BREATH . OF . LIFE . ~ { ReGenisis Chronicles Book I }

Chapter Twelve [Part 1/3]: From A to B

                      -Rin Takeichi-

A crippling pain warping through me to join the sting of a deep gash in my shoulder I had found the floor cushion my fall with a loud reverberation through my hollow bones. My teeth jarring together to clench back the scream behind them. Two hard taps at my side to make sure I was down whilst I clamped my eyes shut, playing dead like a dog. Soon Mead had gone away and I was left to consider giving up. I never had before.

I fought past the pain in my abdomen and crawled forward on the floor, one hand clenched to the deep wound that pumped out red across the concrete. Dizziness was taking hold, a foreign concept for so long, the anti-coagulant in my system working its magic against the ReGenisis serum. What before seemed a trivial scratch that would soon pull together, something I could move through, was now almost exactly as it should be. Very likely fatal.

I'd reached up for the door, fingers slippery with crimson, arm feeling stretched to its limit. I hadn't felt this kind of ache in a long time. Fingers grasped the knob and wrenched the door open. The splitting pain in my lower stomach screamed at me as I pulled myself out into the hallway. My vision was blurring with blood loss as I looked around the empty hall.

An air vent above me looked like the perfect escape, if I could get myself up. I started to push myself from the ground, using the wall to steady myself on my feet. I didn't have time to mess around unscrewing the damn thing, so I braced myself and crouched to leap for it. Smashing through the metal, feeling it scrape at my skin. Loads of little stinging scrapes that were refusing to seal up.

I pulled myself forward, ignoring the ache running through my whole body. The fatigue, the light headedness, the dust filling my lungs in this musty little crawl space. I'd been in worse predicaments. I choked on the disturbed dust swarming the air before my lungs adjusted, holding my breath for just a second as I dragged myself through the cramped vent. With every foot I covered, I felt my energy drain a little more and my actions slow. Good for stealth, but not much else.

Following little else but my sense of smell, I journeyed towards fresh air and freedom.

Almost there I stilled myself, hearing movements below. Footsteps shuddering through my ears as they moved slowly. Stalking prey.

A loud shuddering crunch that ran through my whole body, and dim light poured into the vent, a vice like hand grasping my ankle roughly. Without time to react, I was dragged towards the hole and the presence waiting below. I clawed for a hold on the metal vent around me. Black varnish chipping off like glitter in the dimness and a nail or two splitting. Red starting to appear under them.

I fell through the ceiling despite my resistance, clumping to the hard ground. Another heavy ache ran through me, as sharp pain erupted from my side. I scowled up at my assailants face, unsurprised it was Mead standing there with the kind of sadistic sneer I'd come to expect from him.

"Thought I told you to stay put, Takeichi." He bent down towards me, blocking out what dim light there was with his hulking body and yanked me up from the ground by the front of my clothes.

"I'd finish me now if I were you..." I swallowed back the choke of blood that had invaded my mouth. It was a mild smell to others, but I could still taste strong copper, like sucking on two pence pieces.

Mead's leer only seemed to double in size, as I tapped my heels together and kicked my free hanging feet forward. Both hitting him in his abdomen, making fluids pour out, putrid and warm as it sprayed my legs. He slammed the back of my head into the wall, forcefully removing my shoes with the once hidden blades in their toecaps. He was healing up, like any Nocturnal would, but I was still going to pay.