Matter of Life and Death (New Version) ~ Chapter 04

Chapter 4:

~ Lillian ~

How in the world did I get myself in this mess? Lillian thought to herself. He looked like such an easy hit! Me and my big confidence. Why did I have to go asking him all those stupid things? I could have been over with it while he was still asleep.

“So? Just say who sent you,” Brian demanded, his grip closing around Lillian’s throat.

Lillian struggled to push him off, but she couldn’t. “You’re… choking… me…” she managed to get out eventually. She just wasn’t getting enough air.

“Am I?” he asked with faked curiosity, not moving an inch. “Well, look at what happens when I squeeze your throat. I didn’t know!”

Lillian turned to glare at him. I can’t believe for a second that I thought he was an innocent, troubled schoolkid! No wonder they wanted him dead. He probably… Lillian forgot what she was thinking about. What was it really? She needed air…

“What? Are you feeling uncomfortable? Why not tell me this one little thing I want? I can let you go after.”

Or not, Lillian thought dizzily. Why would he? She could swear his eyes were gleaming with a little something of crazy. Or it was just their color. Such a bright silver. What sort of eyes were those…?

“Getting sleepy, are you? I can let you live for a very cheap price. Haven’t you learned to bargain?” The words were starting to get tangled in Lillian’s oxygen-deprived brain. She heard half, she thought a snarky comment about the other half, but she wasn’t in a position to utter any coherent answer. Soon enough, her world turned completely black.

 ~ Brian ~

Wait, she actually passed out? Ugh. Maybe I should have let her breathe a little more. She deserved it though. What was I supposed to do? She wouldn’t say anything.

Annoyed, Brian let go of her throat, still staring at her suspiciously, as if she’d jump on him as soon as he would look away.

Such a frustrating situation.

All of a sudden, he heard footsteps on the hall, approaching their carriage. Marta and Sylva. After a couple of panicked seconds, he took Lillian’s knife away from her, got off the bed as quickly as his leg would allow and stood tensely in front of the bunk.

“You’re up,” Marta noticed right away. She sounded like she was still angry, but Brian could tell she was trying hard to remember that. She wasn’t the kind of person who would hold a grudge for too long. Otherwise she would have probably changed town, or even country not long after Brian had learned to talk.

“I had to,” Brian said, his mind still hazy. He wasn’t quite sure how to elegantly explain the situation. He didn’t have the time to think about it. Marta’s eyes fell on the knife.

“What’s wrong?” Before long, she also realized that the Leila girl was in the wrong bed. She shot him a furious look, her mind instantly going to something else.

“It’s not like that! I swear!” No need telling her that it did start like that, right? Brian thought innocently to himself. “Someone sent her here. She meant to get us.”

Marta observed the unconscious girl a little longer, carefully accessing the situation. “What did you do to her?”

“Just made her pass out,” Brian said with a pout.

“How?”

“She may have stopped breathing for a few seconds longer than she should…” Brian admitted hesitantly. Wait, why did she have to know every single detail?

Marta let out an exasperated sigh, but just when she was about to start the lecture, Sylva started climbing the ladder to the bunk where Lara or whatever-her-name-was, and Brian quickly pulled her back.

Sylva kicked around some, saying, “I want to see her, I want to see!” but Brian refused to let her any closer to that girl. She had come to kill them and take Sylva away after all. Brian wasn’t planning to make it any easier for her.

“Sit down,” Brian said sternly to his sister, and she quietly obeyed and started to play with a doll he had never seen before.

“How did you figure it out?” Marta asked, still sneaking suspicious looks at the girl.

Brian felt his cheeks blushing. “That’s not important now, is it?!” he exclaimed. There was no way he was sharing this sort of details with his chatty aunt. “Hey, I need help though. We need to keep her still somehow, or she’ll try attacking us. We still have six hours left and it’s more than enough time for her to do what she came here for. I expect she’ll wake up soon too.”

“And why are you looking at me? Do you expect me to give her some shot and keep her sedated until the end of the ride?”

“Hmm, no, that wouldn’t work…” Brian murmured skeptically. “I can’t ask her any questions if she sleeps away the whole trip.”

Marta smacked Brian at the side of the head. “I was obviously joking! What kind of person do you take me for?”

“Well, you do have shots somewhere in your stuff, don’t you?”

“Those are for dogs! I can’t give them to humans! Are you insane?”

“Some dog-walker you are…” Brian mumbled under his breath.

“What did you say again?!” Marta demanded, but Brian just shook his head.

“Wait, I’m trying to think… I just need to keep her immobilized, so that she doesn’t go attacking us. What if… do you have a leash?”

“A dog leash?” Marta asked, surprised. “Maybe, wh–” Her eyes widened in realization. “You can’t be serious.”

“It’s the closest thing we probably have to a rope. I’m open to any other suggestions.”

“You have her knife, right? Isn’t that enough? What can she do without it?”

“Oh, quite a lot of things, I assure you.”

Marta didn’t seem as scared as Brian would have wanted her to be. It was obvious she didn’t get it. “I am going to get some air,” Brian announced. “Sylva, come with me. Oh, and Marta, if she wakes up, call me. I’ll be right outside, okay?” With a nod from his aunt, Brian took his younger sister and walked out.

The hallway of the train was chilly. Some brainless person had decided to open all the windows wide. What was he supposed to do with the bounty hunter? He couldn’t let her go, she’d certainly set them an ambush someplace else. But Marta wouldn’t give help him either. Good-for-nothing dog-walker. And what about the news? Had the police already found their former house trashed? His mother’s body? Were they looking for Sylva and him?

“Bwian? Hey, Bwian!!” Sylva demanded, pulling on her brother’s shirt. “Look, look! Some giwl gave me a Wapunzel doll!” His sister gave him a toothy grin and stretched on her toes to get the doll as close as she could to Brian’s face.

Brian gave her a half smile. “Rapunzel, huh?” He took the doll to take a closer look and knelt to be at the same level as Sylva. “She’s your favorite princess, right?”

“Right!”

“Are you sure the other girl won’t miss the doll?”

“Yeah! Her momma said I could have it too!” She grabbed the doll from his hands and hugged it tightly. Brian felt a little calmer looking at the little girl. She was so happy in her own little bubble, where she didn’t know about their mom, and had found a friend in the train even though they were running away and were in mortal danger. He wished he could share a little space of that magical bubble where all him problems turned into thin air.

He ruffled her hair roughly and she pushed his hand away, taking a few steps back in giggles. “You’ll wuin my haiw, dummy!”

“So what, you little monster?” he asked, grinning. Maybe he could use some of that bubble. Just for five minutes or so, right?

 ~ Marta ~

Marta sat down on the bed. So they’re already after us? I really hoped Brian was more paranoid than anything else. She looks like a normal girl to me… she thought, crooking her head to get a better look at the girl’s face. Definitely not like an assassin. How could Brian tell? What the heck could possibly have happened in here while we were gone?

Suddenly she stirred. Marta completely forgot Brian’s words when the girl looked at her. Still, she looked so normal, so… nice. Was she really a paid killer? What was she supposed to say? The girl seemed perplexed. She looked around the room confused, and eventually turned to Marta.

“Uh… hi,” Marta said eventually, unable to stand the uncomfortable silence. She couldn’t help but notice the girl’s neck was an angry red. Brian had definitely been rough.

“Hi,” Lillian said back. “You’re Brian’s aunt, right?” she asked in quite a casual tone.

Marta stared at her feet for a second. “Eh… yes. I’m Marta.”

That was all the time Lillian needed apparently. Before Marta realized what happened, the girl was behind her, holding her in a way she couldn’t take a single step. “Nice to meet you, Marta. I think the two of us will be good friends.”

 ~ Brian ~

Huh, it’s been quiet for a while. I’d better go back inside. I can probably take all the air I need after we get off this damned train.

“Come on, Sylv, let’s go back.” The little girl quickly followed him to their cabin’s door. “Is she still asl–” Brian had mere seconds to react. That airhead, Marta, hadn’t told him, but Leila was up and already doing what she could. A triumphant grin was spread across her face, as she held Marta in a headlock.

“You’ve been careless,” she said, quite happily.

Brian took a deep breath, knowing this was going to hurt, and leapt forward, knocking both Marta and her attacker on the floor of the cabin. Lillian lost her grip and placed her hands on her head, which she hit against the wall. Brian tried to ignore the pain in his leg and tried to immobilize Lillian again, the best way he could. Marta stood up and went to stand by the door, hiding Silvia behind her.

“Still think that this leash is uneccessary?” Brian growled.

Marta shook her head, being at a loss of words. She quietly searched through her bag and threw the first one she found at her nephew, before putting again as much distance as possible between herself and them.