"Pull it."
The soldier pauses for a second, assessing the situation, before yanking the gun upwards. My grip falls off the gun.
"What the heck is wrong with you?"
"I killed someone; the charge for that is execution, isn't it?"
The soldier freezes in disbelief. He then tilts his gun so it faces up towards his chin.
"In that case, I'd better shoot my brains out too"
What is he doing? Why is he about to do that!
"What? Why are you-"
"I've killed many people in my life as well; dozens of criminals died from my orders. Surely, I also deser-"
I grab the gun again and pull it towards me within a second.
"EVERYTHING IS GONE; MY MOM, DAD, AND MY LITTLE BROTHER ARE ALL DEAD! I DON'T HAVE ANYTHING LEFT SO JUST F*CKING DO YOUR JOB!"
It feels like the entire world just paused for a couple of seconds. The soldier twitches a couple of times before slowly lowering the gun. I look towards my hands; I'm no longer holding the gun. I think I let go of it while I was screaming.
"Who said Anra is dead?" The soldier calmly says after lowering his weapon.
Wait, Anra is still alive?
"But you looked as if you couldn't find a pulse or any signs of life."
"Nope, I found a pulse; it was something else I was worried about." The soldier puts his hand on my shoulder. "You know how Keyminean magic works, right?"
"Yes, I mean, a little bit at least. I know about Keyminite and that it can be used to make deadly weapons. And I know that those two bounty hunters were using Keyminean magic."
"Well, do you know what the hostage curse is?" The soldier asks.
I thought about it for a second. I don't think I've ever heard of the hostage curse.
"No."
The soldier looks towards Anra, "The hostage curse is when someone falls into a deep coma after losing connection to the curser. It's usually used on hostages, hence the name."
Interesting, "Why is it used?" I ask him.
"When the kidnappers lose the hostage, the hostage will be in a coma, making it easier to kidnap them again. Especially if the hostage isn't guarded well."
I look at Anra, "So that's what happened to Anra then, he's under the curse. Is there-"
"Is there any way to cure him? Yes, but not here, the cure can only be found up north in Keyminea."
"So, what you're saying is, it'll be difficult to reverse the curse."
This is all my fault, isn't it? I should've paid attention to him, made sure he didn't wander off. But now, he's cursed, and it's all because of me.
Before the soldier could answer, two of the other soldiers ran towards us.
"She got away!"
The soldier I was talking to cuts eye contact with me and looks at the two soldiers, "You lost a girl who got shot three times. Can you please explain how?"
"She was too fast and kept shooting at us."
"Can't you guys also shoot? We spend the majority of our budget on weapons!" The other two soldiers begin to speak, but he waves his hand and says, "You know what, just return to the stagecoach."
The two soldiers salute and begin running out of the cave. The soldier with the button nose looks back at me, "You're coming with us."
"Where are we going?" I ask him.
"Where do you think?"
Where do I think? Could it be my home? Or I guess what remains of my uncle's home.
"The police station, you didn't think you were off the hook, right? Just because I didn't kill you doesn't mean you can just go home." The soldier pulls my hand, making me walk with him. "This also doesn't mean that you didn't do something good; you helped us rescue a hostage from two dangerous criminals. Speaking of him," The soldier lets go of my hand and walks backwards, and my eyes follow his movement until he reaches his destination, my brother. He bends down and picks up Anra. "Should've reminded me not leave him here."
Fair enough, even if I'm not killed on the spot, I still need to go to court. Murder is a punishable crime, and I will still need to go to court because of that.
"Where is he going?" I ask the soldier when he picks up Anra.
"The hospital, they can help him." He replies.
"Wait, didn't you say nothing can be done to help him in this country?"
"The medics can at least try."
I hope he survives, even though I know hope is not enough to save a person. All hope does is make you feel more pain, but I don't care; he will live, I know it.
The soldier freezes, "I need to ask you something."
"What is it?" I ask curiously.
"You said that you don't have anything left. Is that true?"
I mean, I still have some family, but I wouldn't exactly count them. I heard them myself. They want me gone, they want Anra gone too.
"I have family here, but they don't matter to me right now. They wanted to kick my brother and me out; we were too much of a burden for them."
"Well, that's going to make things a lot easier."
What is he talking about? What will be much easier? We are going to the police station, right?
"Hurry up, we don't have time!"
My head jolts up, the soldier who was once behind me is now a couple of gillos ahead. When did he get ahead of me?
"Sorry!" I say as I run towards him. I can see light; we're almost out of the cave. I just realized, though, Anra and I will have to be apart from each other if I go to jail. Assuming he's lifted from the curse, who will take care of him then, my uncle's family? He's just a child who's too young to understand what has happened to our family. Two of them are under the ground, one locked up due to a life he had taken.
It seems for the first time in my life, my eyes are met with light. There is a brown stagecoach parked outside the cave. It has a couple of holes in it, and it looks really old. It doesn't look like something the military would use.
"This is our ride?" I ask the soldier in confusion.
The soldier sighs, "It's an undercover military stagecoach. It's supposed to look unprofessional and lower class."
That makes sense, after all, they didn't want to alert the Keymineans. The Soldier opens the door to the stagecoach and gets in. He then gestures for me to come in. I nod and step into the vehicle before closing the door to it.
"Mister, how long will it take to reach the hospital?" I ask the soldier. It's just the three of us, Anra, the soldier, and I.
The soldier looks up, "Oh, uh, ten minutes. Also, you can call me Lr. Arav.[1]"
"Ok, so then we're going to the hospital first, right?" I ask Lr. Arav.
Lr. Arav peeks through a hole in the stagecoach, "Yes, we will then head to the local police station after we get your brother checked out."
___________________________
I look outside through a small hole, but I don't think we're even going in the right direction to the hospital. In fact, I think we're approaching the outskirts of the desert.
"Uh, Lr. Arav, where are we going?"
"The hospital, I've told you this already."
"But this isn't the route to the hospital. So, where are we going?" I confront him.
"Uh, we're going to the military hospital; the doctors there are better than the local ones."
"In that case, we're going to a different police station too, right? After all, the police station is right next to the hospital."
Lr. Arav sighs, "Ok kid, I'll be honest with you, we're not going to the hospital, nor the police station." Lr. Arav puts both of his hands together, "We're gonna go straight into mage territory."
[1] Lr stands for Loro, which is a military rank.