Page 11 of The General's Captive
Seeing as I was only five foot four, with an average amount of curves, I managed to slip in next to the broom and mop, having to stick one foot in the bucket so I could close the door. I was thankful the door was labelled because I knew it wasn’t a likelyplace anyone would look. For starters, there wasn’t exactly much need for a broom or cleaning spray during an apocalypse. I could imagine even the clean freaks would have said ‘fuck it’ at this point.
But now the trick was staying perfectly still, and I gripped the top strap of my backpack, holding it in front of me, after resting it on the rim of the bucket. Then I waited, hoping they would just enter, get what they wanted, and leave. Or better yet, believe the creature was only sleeping and not chance it at all.
Although it was true that this wasn’t exactly my day for wishes being granted, because neither of these things happened.
I knew that the second I caught one of the deepest, richest voices I had ever heard. My uncle Rick had a deep voice but there had been a gruffness to it. However, this, now this had a low, smooth depth to it that I swear would have curled my toes if one of them wasn’t currently squished against a bucket. The voice just screamed authority, demanding respect and compliance.
It was a voice of command.
“We tracked it to here, spread out and find it.”
I couldn’t help but gulp as the voice weaved its magic over me, making me grip my bag tighter. What was wrong with me? Why did that voice affect me so much? And why did the scars on my body start to feel strange? No longer the burn or itchiness I was becoming used to, but something else entirely. Like a pulsing sensation, as if someone was running a gentle fingertip along the lines, soothing the permanently irritated skin I was used to. A whisper of comfort, like a tender lover’s kiss.
Now, where the hell had that thought just come from?
“Over here! I found it,” another voice shouted.
I couldn’t help myself as I leaned closer, peering through the small gap in the door. I couldn’t see much, but the second a large figure stepped into view, I had to bite my lip to prevent the gasp.
It was him.
The man from my dreams. Or more importantly, the man from the cabin. That single, painful memory seemed to play out on a loop, ending with the lone figure standing watching me as I drove away. The one who had seemingly let me go. Because that was the question that had always lingered, even long after waking…
Why hadn’t he ordered his creatures to chase after me?
I had no answers, and I wasn’t insane enough to pop out and ask him now. Hell, the guy fucking terrified me! Because the monsters were bad enough but the one who controlled them…
Fuck, no!
“We were too late,” that new voice said, giving the dark, tall figure cause to rumble a displeased sound, one that sounded like the devil letting his displeasure known.
“Yes, I can see that!” he snapped, that smooth voice slipping in his annoyance.
“Was it some kind of poison?” the other person I couldn’t see asked.
I heard something that must have been the empty canister roll, as if the one in charge had just kicked it over.
“Looks like someone got creative,” he replied.
Was that a hint of respect I now heard in his voice?
“I would say a lot of someone’s as there is no way a single mortal being could take down a Chimera,” the other voice reasoned.
A what now?
“Perhaps,” the leader said, but with that single word, it didn’t sound like he was convinced.
“What do you want us to do with it, General?” another voice asked, this time someone who’d only just joined the other two. One that had a gravely tone to his voice. But it was the way he had called him General that had my heart in my throat because I was right…he was the man in charge.
The one that had invaded us.
“It’s a lost cause. Take it out and burn it. We will move on to retrieve the next,” he replied, making me wonder if these creatures had been used as scouts or something.
I would have scoffed a snorted laugh when he said this, because a lost cause was an understatement, but the next question he was asked had my heart in my throat.
“And the evidence of it. Do you wish us to burn this place down also?”
Then something strange happened, because the general looked down and turned his head slightly, as if he could sense something. And once again I would have gasped, but not at the impending threat this time, no, it was because I finally got my first glimpse of him.
