Infernal Hearts

I sighed. "You don't give up, do you?" I asked her. "Of course not. Have you seen me?" she said, tugging at the bars. "We aren't going to get out. Leave it be. Don't torture the bars, at least." I said.

"What? You've given up?" she asked.

"What if I have?" I asked.

"You'll lose the minuscule amount of respect I had for you."

"You think I care about your respect?"

"Well, you should. I'm the greatest merc who's ever lived."

"And yet, here we are. For a week and a half. With barely any water and food."

Nova left the bars and sat down hard across from me, leaning against the grey wall of the dungeon. She raised her head and stared at me. "We wouldn't be here if you hadn't interrupted," she said, voice thick with anger.

"I was on a contract," I said, leaning my head against the wall and closing my eyes.

"I was too. Not an excuse for incompetence. Now we're stuck under this castle. Who has a castle anyway in these days?" she said.

"Megalomaniacal idiots, who have nothing better to do with their time?"

"Yeah. No wonder half the world wants him dead,"

I didn't open my eyes, but I could make out Nova passing by the window, interrupting the light for a moment. I felt her pausing in front of me and kneeling down. "What are you doing?" I asked, still not opening my eyes.

"Figuring a way out. Whatchu got?" she asked.

I sighed. "The guard passes by, right? Eventually?" I asked.

"Right."

"So..."

"We kill the guy and escape?"

"He won't open the door. So we have to bluff him, distract him."

"I can handle that."

"Of course, you can. I'll handle actually getting us out of here."

"Just because I'm helping you, doesn't mean I have to like you. Don't think of us as friends."

"Don't worry I won't. As soon as I'm out of here, I don't know you."

It might have been my imagination, but I thought I saw something like sadness, or... longing, in her eyes before she nodded. She knelt there, staring into my eyes.

I became less and less sure I wanted to part ways as we stared at each other. In the week and a half days we had spent in the cell, she had proved to be more than just a really pretty face.

She had thoroughly antagonized me, blaming me for her failure to kill the previously stated megalomaniacal idiot. Said idiot had rubbed salt on the wound, by putting us in the same cell.

Her tantrums on the first two days should have constituted a separate wonder of the world. She had calmed down on the third day, thankfully. I wasn't sure I could take any more of her incredibly short temper.

"What's your plan?" she asked after a few moments, her voice a bit rough. "Right," I said, blinking, "Plan. You kill me," Her eyes widened for a second before she smiled. "With pleasure," she said.

"Not literally, you bastard," I said.

"Oh," she said and her smile dropped.

"You pretend you kill me. That will draw the guard in. I knock him out, steal the keys, we escape. Good?"

She was silent for a moment before she muttered, "You're smarter than you look."

"That's why they call me the greatest merc in the world."

She sighed, shook her head and stood up. She locked her hands behind her and arched her back, stretching herself out. I tried not to stare. Really, I tried, but she caught me staring anyway.

She turned away from me, depriving me of my view. That I totally didn't mind. And you can't prove otherwise. She still looked at me over one shoulder, even as she drew her body away. I thought I saw the ever so slight reddening of her cheeks.

"I'm going to sleep for a while," I said, "Wake me up in an hour." "Why?" she asked. "I want to sleep, that's why," I said. "Why an hour? And why should I keep watch?" she asked.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," I said.

"Fine. I won't," she said.

I let out a weary chuckle and lay down on the stone. The walls were made of jagged peaks of stone, so I made it a point not to bring my face anywhere near there.

My eyes closed of their own accord and I drifted into unconsciousness soon enough. When I woke up, I was on my side, with Nova barely a few centimetres from me.

I jumped back and backed away. Nova didn't move, though I could make out her chest rising and falling. She was asleep too. The sun was still bright and there was no clock, so I couldn't make out the passage of time.

Nova's blonde and red hair had fallen over her face, and I'm not sure what possessed me to brush her hair back behind her ear. I stayed in that position for a minute before backing away.

She was an enemy, but I saw a lot of myself in her. The same drive to get the job done, the same persistence, the same dedication to the set goal. It was becoming harder and harder to see her as an enemy the longer we stayed in the cage together.

I reached behind me and pried off a jagged end of the stone wall. It broke off with barely a sound. It was a sharp piece, though it was crumbly as hell. The attack would need to be swift.

There was the sound of a door closing on the above floor. It had been the same door the last time we had been given water. I scrambled forward and shook Nova awake.

She woke with a soft sound and looked up at me. "What?" she asked. "Somebody is coming. Get ready." I said. Her eyes snapped into focus and I handed the rock to her.

Footsteps sounded. I drew lines with my finger over my face and bare chest, guiding her as to where to cut to make it seem believable, while also not killing me. She cleaned off the tip as best she could and got to work.

I barely kept from screaming as she slashed my body, drawing rivulets of blood. I leaned against the prison bars and she stood over me as the footsteps neared.

She started breathing heavily, and the footsteps faltered for a bit, before continuing towards us. I slowed my breathing as the footsteps stopped behind me. "What the hell?" came the startled cry from presumably the guard who came to check on us.

There was the cocking of a gun. "Get down on the ground. Face the wall." the guard ordered. Nova did as she was told. A set of keys jangled and the door to the prison swung open.

He looked over at me, then decided that I wasn't worth saving. I saw him slap cuffs on Nova, and that was when I struck. My movements were sluggish but silent.

I snuck up behind the guard and wrapped one forearm across his throat, and the other palm went over his mouth. The guard tried to fight back, but it was ultimately futile. He went limp soon after.

The guard fell to the floor and I turned back to Nova. She was looking at me with wide eyes. I found the keys to the handcuffs and freed her. I then tore off strips of cloth from the guard's uniform to use as pressure pads to keep me from bleeding out.

I felt somewhat alright a minute later, and I went with Nova out of the dungeon. We came across more cages, and an idea struck me. I turned and walked back to our cage.

"What are you doing?" she hissed. "Getting help," I said. Ten cages were lined up along both walls. Most of them were filled, with two in most of the filled cages. It came up to seventeen prisoners. Seventeen potential allies.

I took the keyring off the unconscious guard and went around to each of the cages, freeing the prisoners while also securing their alliance in exchange for freedom. Not one of them passed on my offer.

Most of them were killers, and the rest of them were unfortunate souls who got caught up in my target's politics. Nova had the gun from the security guard, so she led the way. I stuck behind her.

The most experienced killers came right behind me, while the less experienced ones brought up the rear. The ones who couldn't fight stayed in the centre. They knew the layout somewhat, so they acted as guides.

We walked to the top of the stairs and unlocked the door. I slipped forward and inspected the area, looking for threats. It was a weirdly shaped hallway, with one cleaner at the end of it.

Nova raised the gun but I put my hand on the gun and pushed it down. "He's no threat. He'll move," I said and marched forward, my miniature army at my back.

I turned out to be right, and he backed against the wall and said nothing. I patted his shoulder and moved on. "Backline, take half and go left. Vanguard, follow me," I said and turned right at the fork in the hallway.

My command was obeyed, and half of the group moved to the left. We continued, and we came across a security room. Through the barred window I could make out a giant screen, presumably the cameras. I could see them panicking and shouting into their radios.

"Shoot it down," I told Nova. "I don't follow orders," she muttered but shot at the handle. I kicked the door down and we flooded in, essentially capturing the room. Watchmen raised guns but were quickly disarmed by the more experienced mercenaries.

We had more guns. Yay. I looked at the giant screen. I could see the movements of large groups of guards. One of the non-killers pushed to the front and picked up a notepad and a pen.

He started sketching furiously. I looked over his shoulder and found that he was making a map. He handed it to me a few seconds later. "We are here," he said, pointing to a little square. "We have to get here," he added, pointing at the exit.

"Good man," I said, "Let's move. We have the way out," A series of nods went around. We rushed out and made our way through most of the castle. We were at the front gate when we started getting shot at.

We rushed to cover behind the many trees in the front yard. Escape was so close. Nova was in a small ditch next to me. I gestured at her to throw the gun up to me. She hesitated for a moment, but she did.

There were sixteen guards in all, and I had ten bullets in the gun. Seven were dropped immediately by the other mercs. Most of the non-killers who couldn't get to cover fast enough were gunned down.

Nine guards, ten bullets. I peeked from the tree I was taking cover behind and started picking them off one by one. They couldn't afford to focus all their attention on one person, so they were quickly mowed down.

Unfortunately for us, however, the gate was rigged. The more experienced mercs went through first and were blown up by a bunch of AP mines scattered around the place.

There was a lot of pushback too, meaning that even the ones who hadn't gone through, like Nova and I, were blown back. I slammed into one of the trees, and Nova slammed into the ground next to me.

My ears were ringing, and I couldn't quite see straight, but I could make out more armed guards pouring out of the door of the castle. At least twenty of them. I stayed down and watched them.

They came by the front gate. Miraculously, a couple of them had survived the blast out front, because there was the sound of a dozen shots going off. Sixteen of them came back through the gate, where they were met by more bullets, taking them down to nine.

I had only three bullets left in the gun, and no allies left, except for Nova. She was huddled against me behind the tree. She was shuddering and clung to herself.

There were large holes in her shirt, that revealed more than it covered. "Check over there," I heard a voice call out, and footsteps neared. Nova stopped shaking for the most part. I didn't move. I was too tired to, so I just half-closed my eyes.

The guard came, and once verifying that we looked very dead, he turned. That's when I put a bullet in the back of his skull and crept forward. There were shouts as the rest of the guards came by.

I tossed Nova the dead guard's weapon and we peeked from cover. Ten shots later, everything was silent. Nine had taken down the guards, and one had taken me in the gut.

The flash of pain was intense, but it grew numb quickly enough. "No!" I heard Nova cry and she came by my side. "It was a good run, eh?" I asked, my voice weak.

"You're not going to die on me," she said, applying pressure on my gut with her hands.

"Why? You hated my guts, didn't you?"

"I did. Now shut up, let me save you,"

"This is not the kind of thing one survives, Nova. Let me go,"

"No," she said and brought her head above mine.

My heart ached, seeing her like that. Tears in her eyes and a few drops of blood marring her perfect skin. I weakly raised one hand and placed it on her cheek. "You were quite endearing after the first two days," I said softly.

"I'm sorry. I was jealous. You were this perfect guy, whom I landed in prison. I admit it, I was the one who messed up. Now, don't die on me." she said.

I smiled. "I can feel myself fading already. There's not much you can do,"

"No. Stay with me,"

She then raised her bloody hands and placed them on my shoulders. She hesitated for a second before she leaned down and kissed me gently. A flash of warmth spread through me, and I felt my heart quicken its pace, much to the dismay of my gunshot wound.

If I was going out, why not go out in style. I kissed her back, placing my hands on either side of her neck. Her mouth explored mine in gentle surges. I brought the kiss to a quiet close a few seconds later.

"I'm sorry, Nova," I said. She broke at that point and tears fell. She hugged me tight as I felt my consciousness waning. She let me go and looked me in the eye.

I smiled at her. "I'm at peace. Worry not," I said. She looked like she wanted to scream and shout but she simply nodded. I nodded back at her weakly and closed my eyes for the last time.