The Witch of Storn

Chapter 15

Rey squeezed out a smile. She should have been feeling over the moon, but somehow the fact that she was finally standing face to face with Helene didn’t seem to have fully hit her.

“Sorry I took so long,” she said, walking over to the mattress where Helene lay, bound to one of the iron bars covering the window above her head. Helene shifted to the side and Rey sunk onto the bare mattress beside her. For a moment they sat in comfortable silence, shoulders touching. Rey looked around the room. She assumed it was the most extravagant room in the entire building, from all that she had seen so far. Compared to her tiny apartment though, it was a miserable place to live in. the walls were bare with only one window between the four of them. The cement floor was as plain as the walls and the only other features were the fluorescent bulb dangling from a wire above their heads and the mattress. Rey sighed and turned to her friend. Helene was already looking at her with a weird smile.

"What?" Rey asked a little defensively. Helene shook her head and smiled again. This time it was her normal smile, the one that always left people blinded by her beauty.

"It's nothing. I'm just really, really glad you're here."

Rey rolled her eyes at her friend. "Of course I'm here! Why wouldn't I be?"

Helene grinned at that. Then, rather seriously, she said, "Still, you don't know how much it means to me that you're paying my ransom. I know you really needed the money -- I'm sorry for being a bother--"

Rey groaned loudly and rolled her eyes again. In spite of her exasperation she was smiling. It was good to know that some things hadn’t changed in the time they had been apart.

“Shut up. When did I ever complain about bailing you out of your various predicaments?”

Helene gasped in mock outrage. “Hey! Why are you saying it like it’s my fault I got kidnapped?”

Rey laughed at that, and finally Helene gave in and joined her. They were still giggling when the door banged open. A gruff voice from the dark doorway growled at them to be quiet or its owner would sew their lips shut. The door closed as loudly as it had been opened, and the girls burst into giggles again, this time more quiet. Helene stuck out a mischievous tongue at the door. Rey chuckled and shoved her with a shoulder.

“What if she comes in and sees you?” Rey asked. Her friend only shrugged, absolutely unconcerned.

“She can’t do anything to me anyway. I’m more valuable to them alive.”

Rey raised an eyebrow. It was in times like this she wished she had Helene’s level of confidence, even if it wasn’t the most appropriate time to feel like you had the world at your feet.

“Uh, what do you mean, you’re more valuable alive? They have the money now, remember?” she watched in satisfaction as Helene’s eyes rounded and her lips widened into an ‘O’. “Also, they have two hostages now. Who knows, they could decide to demand ransom for me too.”

Helene snorted at that. “No, we’re definitely going to be set free.”

“Really, I wonder where you get such confidence sometimes. Why are you so sure that they’re actually going to keep to their word now that they have the money?”

Helene opened her mouth to respond, and then shut it just as quickly, obviously changing her mind about whatever she was going to say. The door opened as Rey was about to question Helene, and Rey thought she heard Helene sigh. She paid it no mind as all three of Helene’s captors filed into the room. The room instantly shrunk in size with five people in it. Rey felt ironically grateful for her current position as she watched the youngest kidnapper bump his head on the lintel of the door.  The angry one scolded him while the calm one rubbed his temples, looking like he would give up his soul to be anywhere but there.  At last the other two were done and he quickly turned to the girls huddled together on the mattress.

“Well, the money’s complete, so you’re free to go.” Rey squeezed Helene’s hand at the welcome words. Helene squeezed back with equal fervour. They backed out of the room, creating space for their captives to stand. Helene stretched languidly as she stood, and Rey watched the young kidnaper stare at her friend. She shrugged her concern off. Even criminals had taste, and Helene was appropriately named. Her beauty had definitely inspired fights, though not on such a grand scale as that of her namesake. The kidnappers led the way out of the room, the woman at the very front lighting the way with a powerful flashlight in hand.

Soon enough they stepped out of the building, a fresh evening breeze blowing in their faces as they left the mustiness of the unkempt building behind. There wasn’t time to enjoy it though. Rey looked to the three, who were convening in a small circle a few meters away from her and Helene. She examined her surroundings. If she grabbed Helene and ran they would have the tall grass for cover, but the hot-tempered woman had the flashlight. They would probably be caught in minutes. It didn’t seem worth the risk, plus Helene was likely weak and fatigued, and Rey didn’t possess the muscle strength to carry a person almost her size while simultaneously running at top speed, so she let go of any thoughts of running and waited for the kidnappers to end their whispered conversation.  Moments later the huddle broke up and the three shifted their attention to the other two.

“Well?” Helene asked in a tone Rey found too relaxed for their current situation. Just where did she get her boldness from? Rey really wanted to ask her friend and maybe shake some sense back into her while she did that. Instead she sighed and elbowed Helene a little roughly.

“What she means is: now that you have the money and you’ve confirmed it’s complete, can we please leave? “ Safely, she wanted to add but decided it was best not to. They looked at the quiet guy, who nodded at Rey.

“Sure we will, but we will have to escort you back to the train station to make sure there’s nothing unpleasant in store for us, you understand, right?”

It wasn’t as if she could decline—it wasn’t a request for permission; he was just informing her out of...politeness? Rey nodded still and they motioned them forward, guns pointed at their backs.

Helene and Rey (and their escorts) retraced the path Rey had taken to get to the kidnappers’ hideout. It was a quiet and short journey, as no one spoke. Soon they were in sight of the main road. It was a bit deserted at that time of the day, since even during the day it wasn’t a high-traffic area. The five people stopped and looked at each other.

“Well?” the woman whose name started with a V glared at them. “You don’t want to leave or what?”

Helene and Rey shook their heads immediately the words came out. “No, no, we’re fine, thanks!” Helene replied hastily. “My hands are still bound though, so...?” she waved her cuffed hands in the air, drawing the kidnappers’ attention to them.

The other two looked at the youngest, who smiled sheepishly and dug into his pockets. A minute passed and he was still searching. He looked up from his search with a small smile when he couldn’t find it immediately.

“Don’t worry, it’s definitely on me....I just have to find it...” he trailed off, diving back into the large pockets of his cargo trousers. Helene rolled her eyes discreetly at Rey, who was too worried to find it funny or ridiculous. In the back of her mind the thought that Helene was being too carefree — even if her ransom had been paid – rose up and was promptly buried by the mountain of worries that plagued Rey.

Meanwhile the woman was berating the young one in an acerbic tone, causing him to shrink away from her while shoving his hands in each pocket even faster than before. The last guy just watched them with an expressionless face. Finally they heard the jingling of keys. The young man held up the ring of keys in the air triumphantly.

“Found them!” he crowed, his voice breaking through the still silence of the night. In response the woman swung her free hand at him. He dodged just in time to avoid it, moving over to Helene as he escaped. Helene held out her wrists impatiently and the man began to work on the handcuffs. With a twist of the key and a satisfying click the handcuffs loosened and he took them off Helene’s wrists. She rubbed them with relief plain on her face.

Suddenly the sharp scream of a siren pierced the air and the five froze, all looking in the direction of the road. The sound came from the distance, but it seemed to be getting closer. The woman turned and stared at Rey with cold eyes.

“You said you didn’t call the police.”

“I didn’t!” Rey defended herself hastily. When there was only a silence in response she said again, “I didn’t call the police!”

The quiet man nodded. “She doesn’t seem to be lying.”  When she said nothing he sighed and said in a much louder voice, “even if she did what do you want to do about it now? If that-“ he waved in the direction of the road where the siren was slowly getting louder—“is for us then shooting will make it even worse. And if it’s not then you’d just attract them, and we don’t need any of that. Now drop it.” He said sternly to the woman who was now holding her gun up to Rey’s face. She evidently wasn’t going to listen to him, her hands as steady as ever on the gun. Her eyes though had moved to Helene, who was now standing behind Rey after Rey had moved to stand in front of her immediately the gun had gone up.

“You said she wouldn’t call the police,” she said to Helene coldly. Behind her Rey heard Helene splutter angrily.

“She didn’t! If she said she didn’t then she didn’t!”

The woman snorted disbelievingly. “And I’m supposed to believe that? She’s your friend, you can say anything just because—“

“Rey wouldn’t do anything that would put me in danger!” Helene cut in, raising her voice. The other two hushed them hastily, telling them to keep their voices down. No one listened to them except Rey, but she couldn’t do anything about it. She would like the two women to be quieter too, but she was standing directly in the line of fire and it felt like if she did so much as blink, she would have a bullet in her skull the very next second.

Helene! Please stop talking! It was a shame Helene wasn’t telepathic, because she didn’t stop speaking until the woman said something that made the other kidnappers freeze.

“You told us this was going to work! I’m not going to prison just because your friend didn’t do anything like you said he would!”

Rey heard Helene gasp. In front of her the calm one was now shouting at the woman to shut up. The younger male meanwhile was backing away slowly in the direction of the building they had been in earlier. Rey just stared in confusion. She was glad the gun was no longer pointing at her, or anyone else for that matter, but she couldn’t understand why the situation had suddenly degenerated into chaos. A hand grabbed her wrist and she placed a hand over her mouth, stifling her scream when she saw who it was.

“Let’s run while they’re still distracted,”  Helene hissed lowly into Rey’s ear. Rey looked over her shoulder at the still arguing kidnappers and then back at her pale friend. She was about to ask if Helene was feeling alright when Helene suddenly took off, dragging Rey behind her. As soon as they took off a furious shout and exclamations of alarm rose up behind them. Almost immediately consequent footsteps pounded the ground hard, hot on their heels.

In response Helene ran even faster, panting like an asthmatic in desperate need of an inhaler. Rey wrenched her wrist out of Helene’s vice-like grip and sped up. In a matter of minutes she was neck and neck with her friend. Rey chanced a glance at her friend, taking in her wide eyes and heaving chest.

She wanted to ask why Helene was so scared. Only moments ago the brunette would have been awarded for being bold in the face of certain danger. She had waltzed out of captivity as if she was just a visitor dropping in for a little chat and even stood toe to toe with a temperamental gun-wielding criminal, so what exactly had her so scared? She couldn’t exactly stop and have Helene pour out her heart to her so she just put her head down and pumped her arms even harder, trying to go faster. It didn’t seem to be working though. Already she could hear panting from behind her, and it felt like if she stopped for even a millisecond she would feel someone’s breath on the back of her neck.

“Helene, stop!” it was the young, awkward one. Unsurprisingly Helene didn’t even pause or look back. She just shrieked and kept on running. So did Rey. Now the sirens were so close they sounded like they were right above Rey, wailing loudly against her eardrums. With the sound came a renewed sense of hope. Maybe they could get out of this intact—maybe even get the ransom back?  Rey’s heart soared at the thought and her feet felt lighter. The pain of her heart beating faster than it was used to seemed to have vanished.

Helene must have had the same thoughts because she screamed as loudly as she could, “HELP! HEY! THEYRE TRYING TO KILL US!”

An outraged gasp sounded behind them. Rey didn’t bother looking back to see who it was. Rather she started shouting too, waving one hand wildly in the air. Under the combined shouts of Rey and Helene there was a voice hissing at them to stop, however Rey ignored it and it seemed Helene hadn’t even heard it.

Suddenly there was only quiet, the sound of the siren cut off abruptly. Rey stopped running for a second in confusion. Helene seemed to know what was going on however, darting to the side to grab Rey’s wrist once more and sending her a look that asked why she was being stupid enough to stop running.

A voice called out from the direction they were running in, sounding unsure. “Hello? Is there any one there?”

“Yes! Please help us!” Helene screamed in reply.

Behind them someone cussed loudly. Rey paid no mind to the alarmed shouts that followed. It was the worst mistake she would make yet.

Finally they reached the road. Rey and Helene waved at the police truck as they ran. There was a wide smile on Helene’s face as she saw the young policeman step out of the passenger’s seat with a walkie-talkie to his lips.

Rey smiled too. Something made her look over her shoulder though. When she did her heart stopped beating for a moment.

The woman had her gun pointed at Helene.

“Helene!” the woman and Rey screamed simultaneously.

Helene turned as the policeman’s eyes rounded. She jumped, raising both arms in the air as if to say, I’m not a threat.

The woman didn’t care though. Behind her her partners in crime stumbled forward, one bleeding from his nose and the other cradling an arm. They shouted at her to stop, but her aim remained fixed on Helene.

Cold steely eyes stared into Helene’s scared ones.

“You said this would be quick. You said it would be easy.”

Helene shook her head frantically.

“I don’t know what she’s talking about—“

“Stop lying!” the woman screamed furiously. “You were the one who planned this whole—“

“Madam, we have to ask you to drop the gun,” a voice interrupted. Rey turned slightly to look at the intruder, another policeman with a megaphone in his hand. He wore the neon orange vest of the traffic division and in the back of her head there was a tiny voice that wondered if he and his partner would even be of any help to them.

Unfortunately she got her answer quite fast when a gunshot ripped through the momentary silence. Rey screamed as the policeman fell, his partner running to him and shaking his body with terrified eyes. She turned back to the woman, scared for real. Who knew what she would do next?

The woman only had eyes for Helene though.

“So?” she taunted, waving the gun at Helene. “Explain yourself.”

Helene stuttered, her eyes darting between Rey and the woman.

“I-I don’t understand what you mean...”

“Shut it!” the woman screamed again. Helene flinched while the quiet one pleaded with the woman—he called her Victoria—to please stop so they could leave. She shook him off, starting in alarm as the door to the police truck suddenly snapped shut and the engine revved.

Helene was even more alarmed.

“Hey! Where are you going?!” she yelled at the truck that was driving away. “Come back! Please!”

The truck raced off, pursued by gun shots that missed their mark and taking away the policemen and their hopes of rescue. When the truck was no longer in sight Helene crumpled to her knees with a sob, her hands in her head.

Victoria smirked. Behind her Rey noticed the other two kidnappers creeping away into the darkness; she wanted to cry out, Take me with you! Unfortunately she had to stay and see this to the end, whatever it was. She didn’t feel so good though. Not with a gun-wielding maniac at one end and a sneaking suspicion rising up in her mind.

“So?” Victoria grinned triumphantly. “Why don’t you tell her?” she gestured to Rey, even though she was addressing Helene.

There it was again. That snivelling little thing, rearing its ugly head and grinning at her with its sharp fangs. Helene wouldn’t have...she’s my friend...she wouldn’t...

Helene wept and Rey took a large step back. Helene never cried unless it was something major or for someone she cared about. Even sad stories didn't faze her.

So why...?

“I’m sorry,” she sobbed. It wasn’t clear who she was talking to, but the three who were there knew.

“Helene...“ Rey whispered, falling silent once more. She had a lot to say, like I treated you like a sister, and they must have forced you to do it, right? It was just that her throat was blocked by something and she couldn’t force the air out to form the words. She blinked rapidly. Her eyes were going blurry and she couldn’t see in front of her properly.

“I’m sorry, okay?” Helene shouted, voice muffled by her hands. She said quietly, “it was just that I needed the money...”

Rey wanted to scream. There were other things she would have liked to do too. Victoria’s scathing voice cut in though.

“How touching,” she drawled, sounding absolutely untouched. “But now the police have seen my face, so I have to go. I’ll leave you with a parting gift, though, don’t worry.”

At that Helene lifted her face and in the same breath she scrambled back hastily as Victoria advanced, gun coolly pointed straight at Helene’s forehead.

Later, as she lay in the itchy grass, a pool of blood slowly widening around her, the sound of sirens and many pairs of feet resonating with the ground beneath her, a warm hand clasping hers, Rey would wonder why she did it. Helene had betrayed her; had been the cause of everything that had happened to her so far, so why had she run to her when Victoria’s finger squeezed the trigger?

She still didn’t know. Everything happened in a flash: there was the shot, the impact as she knocked into Helene as she pushed her out of the way, the pain that exploded in her chest as the bullet hit her, the subsequent scream that only she seemed to hear, swallowed up by the sirens and voices and the escape of Victoria.

Even as she lay there, Helene crying and clinging to her, a concerned but soothing voice saying something incomprehensible as the owner of the voice poked at her with gloved fingers Rey knew it was the end this time.

She closed her eyes and welcomed it, saying a faint goodbye to Helene. As a scream broke through the night Rey wondered who was screaming and why, but she swiftly let go of the thought.

It wasn’t her business anymore.