LIAM. with little else to look at while he trudged along, his feet cold, the sensation of dirt and mud sticking to the soles of his feet and getting between his toes wholly unpleasant, liam stared into the shadows, almost hoping that something would wink back at him. anything but this unnatural nothingness. his mind, poorly trained to remain in the present, took its cue from the silence and nothingness, and wandered into the past. he felt the weight of his ancestors before him gather into him, filling him as though he’d eaten a feast and pressing up into his lungs. when he took a step, he felt as though he were moving for dozens of other people, all pale like him, all with eyes the colour of the ocean before a storm like him, all moving towards their death like him. HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF BECAUSE WE DO NOT LEARN FROM IT, but who is there to teach him otherwise? he still felt that his decision to run with this crew had been a step in the another direction, if not the right direction, but he could hardly worry about right and wrong now.
he was just thinking to himself that he should ask viviane about how she’d come to decision to join giordano as a partner in crime, when he was suddenly forced forwards, his face smacking painfully against the ground. he cried out in pain, a curse intermingling with her name rising in his throat only to be cut off by the loud cracking of bark off the nearby tree. rather stupidly, liam blinked up at the hole in the tree, his spatial intelligence faltering at tidily putting together that his head had just been at that level seconds ago. he felt himself being yanked up, his eyes levelling with the hole in the tree, yes, the hole right where his own head had been second ago, and pushed along. then, they were moving. his legs pumped mindlessly, the ball of his feet digging into the ground, pressing past the dirt and rocks, his muscle burning with the effort. panicked, he turned his head in every direction, searching for the gunman, the thought that it’d been a faraway sniper having not yet clicked. what did occur to him was that he could easily overtake viviane, but once he’d come level with her, he didn’t push quite as hard. he refrained from taking her hand, knowing that’d only slow the both of the them, making them clumsy. finally, a coherent thought locked into place and liam, despite part of him still having the audacity to feel silly in the face of danger, began to run closer to the trees for cover.
“ VI! ” he shouted, his voice strained and thin. “ WHAT THE FUCK DO WE DO?! ” running this way, liam did not notice that the shadows seemed to thin around him, as though this could not cling to someone moving so quickly. what he did notice was up ahead, there was a formation of rocks, a large clutter of grey stone that jutted out of the ground, a sloping hill behind it. liam diverted towards the cover, briefly pulling viviane in the same direction before letting her hand go and slipping rather sliding down the slope. with a bit of difficulty, he pushed himself up against the hill, his chest heaving. THERE HAD BEEN NO FOLLOW-UP GUNFIRE. but someone had shot at him and they had shot to kill.
the fear of having nearly watched liam’s head burst open like a watermelon triggered an influx of adrenaline in her central nervous system. her hammering heart pumped it so fast through her body that in just a few seconds, she no longer felt so shaken. it had been replaced by an innate, 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑎𝑙 instinct that had her sprinting through the trees faster than she had ever run before. her eyes searched the expanse ahead wildly in the brief moment of reprieve provided by their slip down the slope. to their right was another thicket where the darkness seemed to gather. to their left was a clearing that would sacrifice their cover, but she could finally see the first 𝑠𝑐𝑎𝑡𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑑 beams of light in hours. the muscles in her arms and legs burned and she knew that her feet were bleeding without even having to really think about them. her lungs strained to fuel the sudden burst of activity and she glanced over at liam with a panicked look in her eyes.
𝙱𝙴𝚃𝚆𝙴𝙴𝙽 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝚃𝚆𝙾 𝙾𝙵 𝚃𝙷𝙴𝙼, 𝚃𝙷𝙴𝚈 𝙱𝙾𝚃𝙷 𝙺𝙽𝙴𝚆 𝚆𝙷𝙾 𝚆𝙰𝚂 𝙶𝙾𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝚃𝙾 𝙱𝙴 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙾𝙽𝙴 𝚃𝙾 𝙵𝙰𝙻𝙻 𝙱𝙴𝙷𝙸𝙽𝙳. their path ahead was a gamble, but viviane gasped out a ragged response between breaths. “ LEFT! I’M GOING LEFT! ” if he chose to abandon her now she couldn’t blame him. it may even be the best that they separate. she could hear matteo’s voice echoing in her head: [ increase the 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒𝑠 of one person making it back to the group ]. her breath caught in her throat as she lowered her stance and veered towards the direction of the light. she didn’t want to look to see which way liam decided to go.
branches raked at her bare skin like claws, drawing blood in small beads that rolled horizontally across her arms and legs. her hands pushed them aside — grasping desperately at anything and everything ahead of her as if she were digging herself out of the dirt. the 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑠 were fading behind her and soon, even the branches that had torn at her were little to none. the sudden onslaught of light momentarily blinded her but she continued to run forward until she heard the blare of a car horn. by the time she felt the pads of her feet hit pavement, she was already halfway into the lane and too shocked for her brain to make her lunge forward or throw herself back. all that echoed in her all too quiet head was a loud and resounding: 𝑀𝐸𝑅𝐷𝐸.