Chapter 10 – In the forest

“Wh- who are they? Wh- what do they want?” Theodore stammered while regretting that he had no ways to helping Hall in this situation.

“Henchmen of Young Miss fathers friends would be my guess. As for what they want is anyone's guess. Most probably they want to find Young Miss and they cant do that. Young Miss would never be found by people like them if she didn't want to be found, and that leaves her closest aids, me and Melita. They probably don't even know about you, at least until today they didn't. So can you help us with magic?” Hall grunted.

“N-no, I mean, I cant, I have yet to...” Theodore panicked

“OK, then here is what we will do...” Hall interrupted while looking for a byroad that would lead them into the forest “We will try to loose them for a moment in the forest, exit the car, you will hide and I will take them out.”

“T-take them out? D-do you have a gun?” Theodore still remembered that he was held at the gunpoint by not so long ago.

“No, firearms are Melita`s thing. And its far too hard to smuggle more than one gun into the country without taking too many unnecessary risks, besides, I really dislike them and would rather never use them if there is another choice. My body is more reliable anyway.”

Theodore wanted to argue, that even smuggling one was too much of an unnecessary risk and barehanded against armed was hardly reliable, but it did not seem like Hall would care so instead he asked a question for which he dreaded to hear answer for.

“Will you kill them?” Theodore not even for a moment believed that Hall would be the one loosing in this situation.

Hall glanced at the Theodore before answering.

“I will.” he affirmed Theodore's suspicions.

“Do you have to?” a whisper escaped Theodore's mouth.

Hall once more looked at Theodore, he did not have anything against the kid, but Young miss had made it clear, that future looked bleak and death would not be a rarity. So Hall, instead of soothing young teen, steeled his heart.

“Yes, for your sake, even if you may not see it that way now.”

As Hall said that he suddenly jerked the steering wheel of the sedan to the left and drove off the road onto a small path. The said path lead into a thick forest that was stretching on both sides of it.

Car behind them overshot the byroad do to the sudden maneuver, skidding a little bit before regaining control and followed them after a moment. However this moment was enough for Hall and Theodore to gain some distance.

This pathway was uneven and Theodore felt like he was trapped in a rattle. He watched Hall masterfully handle the car and gaining speed and soon he saw a thicker cluster of bushes and trees ahead.

Hall glanced at the rear view mirror, before deciding that this was the right place and with another twist of the steering wheel he slid the car parallel to a particularly big bush and stopped the engine.

While exiting the car Hall admitted to himself that this plan he had thrown together on a moments notice was a shit plan, but he felt confident that he could pull it off. In the worst case he could tank some shots with bulletproof vest he wore under his shirt. Hall doubted that these hired guns had anything of high caliber.

Those old farts that his ex-employer called friends would not waste money to hire someone with actual skills and equipment when a street thug could aim and shoot almost as well for much cheaper. Easier to get rid of afterwards too. No one liked witnesses.

Theodore followed right after, and invoked “Shadow Mind” and tried to blend in the tree shadows while staying out of the line of sight from the car that would follow them in a moment.

Said car promptly showed up right after he had done so. The car stopped in front of theirs, blocking its path and from it exited four men.

Theodore, against his best judgment spied from his hiding place to see who was the ones chasing after them and after getting a glimpse he remembered that those people would gladly make a new orifice in his head and shrunk back in his cover immediately.

Theodore had imagined that they too would wear suits, just like Hall did, but he was apparently mistaken. They all had a mismatch of casual clothing, jeans, shirts and jackets. One of them even had a noticeable belly. The only thing they had common was that they all held guns in their hands.

As Theodore held his breath and tried to shrink in his cower while the four bandits carefully studied bushes around them.

Theodore had not seen where Hall had went, but he definitely was in “Shadow Minds” range. Theodore focused his mind and found that Hall had slipped behind the car with which bandits had arrived. How Hall managed to be so stealthy with his frame was beyond Theodore.

He did not want to risk looking but as Theodore heard a grunt and sudden exclamations from pursuers followed by a gunshot the morbid curiosity overcame him and he glanced from behind the tree he was hiding at.

What Theodore saw was one of the bandits lying on the ground his head bent in a unnatural angle. At the moment Hall had grabbed second bandit and used his body as a shield while closing in to the third one.

Theodore watched on, strangely fascinated and he could not take his eyes away. He felt like he was watching a catastrophe unfolding and in a twisted way Theodore was right.

After a moment Theodore noticed that the bandit Hall was holding bled from a hole in his chest. The shot he had heard had hit the bandit in his chest and judging from the lack of struggling that shot had taken his life.

While Theodore was gawking Hall was focused on a different problem. His first strike been executed perfectly, the goon had not even seen him coming and with a quick twist of goons neck he had taken his life.

The noise, though, had alerted the rest of the party and one of them had better reflexes than Hall had expected and managed to take a shot while Hall closed in on his second target. Fortunately, or as expected, shooter didn't stop himself in time.

As Hall had planed he had a volunteer near at hand who was eager to block the shots taken at him, or so Hall thought to himself while using the said volunteer as a shield.

Now closing in on the two bandits that were left Hall coldly sneered to himself.These amateurs didn't even try to distance themselves and try to surround him. The one that had shot his friend panicked and while he took two more shots one of them was blocked by Halls shield while the other veered of completely.

The chubby bandit meanwhile gaped at the corpse that laid behind the car until rage overtook him and he turned his gun to join his still alive friend in trying to take Hall's life.

Unfortunately for him Hall had already closed the distance between them. He had done it remarkably quickly, considering he had to go around the car, and now the chubby bandit found that his last friend was blocking his shot.

Hall threw his shield at the closest bandit who in panic tried to swat the incoming body sideways, but failed miserably. Hall meanwhile grabbed the hand that was holding gun and twisted it until a loud crack was heard.

The loud scream that escaped from bandits mouth upon receiving the fracture reverberated trough forest and left the chubby last bandit standing stupefied. All of his rage left him and what was left was only fear and horror of what was about to come.

What was supposed to be an easy job of disposing of butler and his charge turned out to be a nightmare that took his friends one by one. And now he watched as the hulking black man loomed above his last friend, who was nursing his broken hand.

As the supposed butler reached for his last friends head taking it between his palms. His friend was now looking at him and the chubby bandit. He could see his last friends lips started to move and heard him mutter his last words - “Run Tommy...”

But Tommy could not. The gun in his hand all but forgotten rolled out of it falling on in the grass. His mind paralyzed he watched the butler twist his friends head. He fell on his knees watching the light leaving friends eyes.

Hall did not feel anything. These men had come to execute them and while he was aware that they probably did have friends and family he felt no remorse. He even thought of it as him helping the world get rid of trash. But, he might as well try to see if Tommy knew something.

“Tommy, was it? If you tell me why and who sent you I will make your death painless.” Hall inquired. He was now standing in front of the Tommy looking down on him.

“I-I-I don't, please, I have family, please, please, please!” Tommy was loosing his mind, looking upon the men in front of him he could not see any sympathy in his eyes. They were cold and merciless.

“Now, now, Tommy, surely you don't want to find out just how much it hurts to have your fingers broken one by one. It would be much easier for both of us if you just answered my question. Who and why?”

“I-it was our boss, Ivan, h-he told us that t-there was an easy job. Just a couple of targets. W-we did not know that...” Tommy stuttered, his lips dry, he licked them while tears rolled down his cheeks. “H-he didn't say who paid for it or w-why. Please, I have a wife and son...”

“I will give you a chance then, answer me, have you ever taken another humans life?”

Tommy froze for a moment, before his eyes darted to sides while he answered

“N-no, I...”

Hall listened for a moment before swiftly twisting his last victims head. Tommy lied and now he was silently falling on his backwards, after that - silence returned to the forest.

Behind Hall a small whisper came out of Theodore

“Why?”

As Hall turned to look at Theodore he thought of what to say. There were no great excuses for what he had done. But Theodore was still young and had not seen the darker side of world. Reasons that worked on older, more experienced, more cynical persons may not work here at all. Finally he sighed before answering. He would tell the truth.

“To let you experience what it is like to see people die before you. It was for you to start get used to death. You probably wont like to hear it, but... People will not only die, but even you will have to take lives. You have to get ready for future.” Hall fell silent once more before telling his own, personal reason.

“Also... These men, they were killers. They were poor excuse of a human and world will be better without them.” Hall bitterly spat out. He hated these kind of men, who took it for granted that they had rights to take life, but never considered that theirs could be taken as well.

“That is...” Theodore was shell shocked. He did not know what to say and think. He just stood there not moving before Hall called out.

“Come now, we have to get away from here before someone comes to investigate. These amateurs did not even bring silencers.” Hall shook his head at their incompetence.

As they entered the car and left Theodore still could not believe of how easy it was to take another life. Soon they exited the forest and Theodore could now help but to wonder what he had gotten himself into and what would future hold for him.