Countd0wn

Chapter 25: Arrival

Sparrow woke up and saw pure darkness. She was disoriented at first, and thought that she was still dreaming, and began to wiggle around, looking for some way out of this seemingly inescapable trap, when her head hit the roof of the trunk.

As she rubbed the now large bruise on her head, she managed to finally get her bearings. All of her bones ached, and she felt like she had been packed into a very small suitcase. She remembered getting into this stupid position simply because her new friend, aka the voice, had told her to. "You know Sparrow, when this is all over, you need to get yourself checked." She said aloud in the small interior.

She didn't know how long it had been since she had hidden in the trunk, but judging by the vibrations and faint sound of the motor, the car was still on the move. How long does it take for these guys to get anywhere? Sparrow thought to herself, and counted herself lucky that she wasn't in the same trunk with one of the monsters.

Then, a quiet voice whispered in her ear, as if it was right next to her, but she couldn't see anything. "What makes you think you aren't?" The voice chuckled, then disappeared as Sparrow jolted upwards, swinging her hands around to try to hit whoever or whatever it was.

As she braced herself for her head hitting the ceiling again, she then realized she was standing up fully, but with darkness still all around her. "Been waiting for you to wake up. Now we can have some fun." Sparrow's eyes widened, and she turned around to see Gerrard standing there, his usual cocky grin plastered across his face.

He gave her a little wave, winking at her. "Hello, Audrey. What a pleasant situation I've found you in. All alone, trapped inside of a locked box, with no other way out...it must be my birthday." He smiled and licked his lips slightly, making Sparrow clench her fists in disgust.

She tried to contain her rage, so she didn't open her mind to his influence, and looked straight into his eyes. "I'm not in the mood for your games today, Gerrard. So why don't you take your cheap suit and screw off back to where you came from?"

Gerrard seemed to regard this request with actual sincerity, and scratched his chin in faux thought. Then, he began to roll his shoulders and neck around, then stretched his arms out. "Alright then, tell you what. No mind games today. We'll just do what you humans always seem to do. Try to kill each other in a semi-civilized way. If you kill me, you get Marissa back. Pinky promise. Got it?"

At first, Sparrow was confused. Gerrard had never used the term "humans" to describe her or anyone else before, and he had certainly never made any deals like this with her before. She didn't know if this was some kind of trick, but she couldn't take that chance. She needed to get Marissa back. So, Sparrow nodded, and put her fists up.

Gerrard smiled and chuckled a bit, as if he thought the gesture was cute, then bowed his head, and pointed to his face. "Alright then, you accepted. As a reward, I'll give you the first shot for free. No tricks. I won't defend myself. Just hit me. Hard as you can."

Normally, Sparrow would have hesitated at this, but she had waited for too long to not pass up the opportunity to punch this little snotball in the face. She poured on all the speed that she could, and ran towards him as fast as possible. Soon, his face reared up towards her, and she wound her fist back, and struck him directly in his nose.

It was like she had run into a brick wall. Her hand instantly went numb, and she stopped dead in her tracks. Since there were no other sounds in the darkness, she could distinctly hear every single bone in her fist crack. Then, the pain poured in, and she screamed out loud, holding her mangled fingers in her other hand.