Vigilante of Shadows (Chapter Eleven)

Arianwen awoke to the strange sound of rumbling and an engine humming. For a second, her mind couldn't work out what was happening around her. Where am I? This isn't my bedroom... After realising that she wasn't in her bedroom, her thought began to come back to her, jumbled and chaotic. She remembered being snatched by the tall Scotsman they had been keeping in one the station cells...and how he-broke through a brick wall? 1

No, she decided, that must be her thoughts getting mixed up. There was no way a human man could break through a brick wall!2

He had run away with her, running faster than she could comprehend. Of course, being dizzy and sick had made that more dizzying than it really was. She then remembered how he had taken her to his house, sitting her in a chair, and holding something over her mouth, something that made her drowsy...3

And the next thing she remembered was waking up in here. She realised she must be in some kind of vehicle. The vehicle smelled stale, like petrol had been sitting in here for a while, made warm and sickening. Arianwen gently pulled at her hands, expecting them to be tightly tied together. To her surprise, she found she wasn't, and she was completely free to move around. Blinking, she looked around herself, trying to see around the vehicle. 4

She appeared to be in a car, laid out on the back seat. It was dark outside, not a single light illuminating the interior of the car, the only slight light being the glowing backlights around the dashboard clock and buttons. Someone was driving the car, also in inky black darkness. Whoever it was, they didn't seem to have noticed her moving.5

She turned slightly in her seat, trying not to make any noise on the cheap polyester seats. Slowly, she pushed herself up using the floor of the car, still keeping her head out of view of the rear-view mirror. Arianwen could just see out of the bottom of the windows, gauging the speed of the car. It didn't seem to be going that fast, if it suddenly had to stop, it probably wouldn't be in too bad of an accident.6

Moving fast, Arianwen jumped up from the seat, moving her arm upwards. She went to fling it around the driver, in an attempt to strangle him, hopefully making him pass out long enough for her to escape. But just as she was about to close her arm, the driver shot an arm out to grab hers, pinning it tightly.7

As Arianwen cried out in surprise, a deep, Celtic voice rang out from the driver's seat. 8

"I would'nae do that, lass. Ye' can lose a hand like that, ye' ken."9

Aodhan. She might have guessed.10

Keeping calm, she asked him, "What the hell do you think you are doing?"11

He turned for a second, flashing a grin at her. "I appear tae be kidnapping a police officer, as it happens."12

Trying not to let him see how upset she was, she looked straight at his reflection in the rear-view mirror, and spoke. "And just how do think you will get away with that? Do you not realise they can track me?" She wasn't lying either. All of the officers had a tracking device in their mobiles, just in case of something like this.13

"Ach, ye' mean that thing in yer' phone? I did away wi' that, dun'nae worry."14

Arianwen closed her eyes tightly. She had never felt this scared in her life, but she had to keep calm. He hadn't actually tried to harm her so far, and he hadn't tied up, which meant that he trusted her. She could use that to her advantage, she was sure. 15

Taking a deep breath, she squeezed through the gap between the two front seats, stepping over the handbrake, sliding herself into the passenger seat. Aodhan looked at her curiously, but said nothing. She pulled the seatbelt on, clicking it into place. She cast a cursory glance at Aodhan, trying to work out what was going on inside his mind.16

"Where are we going?" she questioned, hoping that he would actually give her a straight answer.17

Aodhan looked at her again for a second, and then turned his attention back to the dark road ahead. He paused a few seconds before answering. "We're...going somewhere safe. My old home."18

"And where exactly might that be?"19

"Bonnie old Scotland."20

Arianwen stared at him in disbelief, before sinking dejectedly back into her seat. Scotland? This is ludicrous... Clearing her throat, she stated, "They will find you, you know. I don't know why you think they won't be able to find you."21

Aodhan chuckled, low and growly. "O' course no'."22

There was something about the way he said it that made her shiver, something icy and hard. Arianwen turned away from him, staring out of the window, trying to decipher where she was right now. There were no signs outside the window, not that she would have been able to read any in the pitch blackness anyway. It looked as though they were flitting past fields and hills, which meant they were definitely outside of York by now. They also were further than any of the surrounding villages.23

Arianwen suddenly realised that Aodhan was driving without his headlights on, invisible in the midnight surroundings. She decided to point it out. "It really isn't that safe driving without headlights, you know. Not that I care about you killing yourself, but I would rather not end up a mangled heap."24

"Dun'nae ye' worry yer'self, I can see fine."25

Arianwen stared at him, uneasily. Great, so he isn't going to purposely hurt me, but we are going to be a crumpled heap on the motorway. 26

Arianwen leaned onto the side of her seat, tired, but not wanting to close her eyes. She did wonder how she could be tired, after having been knocked out for so long. As her eyes settled on the side of the dashboard, she suddenly noticed something strange. There had once been a sticker on the side of the dashboard, a large yellow one with a name written on it. She knew the sticker because some of the police cars had them, to show they were as such. Frowning, she leaned further forwards, to get a better look. 27

Aodhan looked back at her, not saying anything, but seemingly watching her closely. Arianwen then looked around herself, trying to notice anything else that might be out of place. It was then the glass window on her side that she noticed. The edges were very sharp looking, as though it hadn't been fitted in very long-which meant it was a new window. She turned to Aodhan again.28

"New window?"29

He glanced across at it, and for a second it looked as though her wasn't going to answer her. Then he replied, "Er...yes, lass. I accidentally put it through tha' other day."30

"Really?" Arianwen raised her eyebrows questioningly, but turned away again. She glanced across the rest of the car, the dashboard, the seats, the shape of the car-wait! She knew whose car this was, and it certainly wasn't Aodhan's.31

Clearing her throat, she enquired, "What exactly are you doing with DC Eric Carter's car?"32

Aodhan abruptly slammed the brakes on, making the car squeal to a stop, sliding on the road. Arianwen was flung forwards slightly, holding out her hands to stop herself. Once the car had stopped, Aodhan took a deep breath, his hands still on the steering wheel.33

"So, ye' ken whose car this is?"34

Arianwen nodded, still looking at him in disgust. "What did you do with him?" she asked, quietly. 35

Aodhan turned to her, his eyes blank. "I did'nae dae anything he did'nae have coming tae him."36

"And what exactly does that mean?"37

Aodhan said nothing, starting the car up again, slowly pulling away from the road, the speed building up again. He stared forwards onto the bitumen again, his hands still clamped on the steering wheel. Eventually he spoke. "It means he was watching mae. He...was tha' one who told aboot mae tae yer' station. I could'nae let him get away wi' that."38

Arianwen thought about this for a second, and then gasped. "You didn't...you KILLED him?"39

Sighing, Aodhan turned back to her for a second, his eyes looking haunted. He shook his head, slowly. "Nae...I did'nae kill him. But he is dead-but I did'nae kill him."40

Closing her eyes, Arianwen leaned back, letting her head fall into her hand. "Oh my god." This was the closest she had ever been to a killer-and a psychotic one at that. He would kill her and not even think he did it. 41

Noticing her anguished look, Aodhan spoke up. "Look, just try no' tae think aboot it, ok?"42

They continued the rest of the journey in silence.43

44

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46

Arianwen curled up, trying to get to sleep. The cheap motel bed was cold and hard. The cover was too small, and it only just fitted the mattress, barely covering her. There was a cold breeze blowing through one of the windows, as it didn't quite shut at the bottom. There were trees outside that rustled together, as though whispering and muttering together, unsettling Arianwen. She shivered, pulling the cover up as far as she could. 47

They had rented a twin room for the night, at some motel in the middle of nowhere. It was actually fairly early in the morning, but Aodhan said that he wanted to drive mostly at night, as there would be less chance of being seen. Although Arianwen had to admit, he seemed very blasé about the chances of getting caught; she wasn't really sure why not. She guessed it was the psychotic tendencies-a psychologist would have a field-day with him.48

She had been trying to sleep, because she didn't see any point in not sleeping. It was unlikely she would be able to defend herself against him, anyway. But she hadn't been able to. Aodhan was sat on the other twin bed, apparently not sleeping. Arianwen wasn't sure what kind of man was able to drive in the dark, not sleep, and break clean through a brick wall, but she wasn't going to try and antagonise him by not sleeping when he asked her to.49

Looking upwards, Arianwen cast a glance at him. He was still sat up, seemingly staring at the wall opposite. Looking across, Arianwen squinted, trying to see what he was staring at. As she looked, she thought she saw one of the shadows on the wall move. Shaking her head, she blinked, staring at the wall. Aodhan noticed the movement, and his voice came out of the darkness towards her.50

"What are ye' looking at, lass?"51

Arianwen jumped, staring back at him. "Nothing. I just wondered what you were looking at, that's all."52

"I'm just looking for shadows lass, dun'nae worry."53

"Oh, okay." Psychotic freak.54

"I'm nae freak, lass."55

Arianwen's heart stopped for a second, thinking she might have heard him wrong. She leaned up on her elbow, and asked, in a wavering voice, "Wh...what did you say?"56

Aodhan chuckled, and spun around on the bed, to face her. Arianwen couldn't see his face, but she could make out his silhouette. He leaned forwards slightly, and whispered, in a deep voice, "I said; I'm nae freak, lass."57

Arianwen stared at him, unconsciously pulling the sheet around herself further. "How...did you know what I'd thought?"58

"Would ye' believe mae if I said I could read yer' mind?"59

Arianwen thought for a second. The guy had smashed through a wall, driven perfectly in pitch-black darkness, and killed at least two people. She wouldn't put anything past him, and even if he couldn't, she wasn't going to argue with him.60

"Oh. I guess." was her simple answer. She laid back down again, shivering in the cold. Hopefully, she would be able to get through this night alive.