The Half and the Whole: Tori by Nicola Collings (fiction novels to read TXT) 📕

A scream on The Wynde...who would hear it?

Yet, when Tori began to run, she sensed the men had been freed of whatever alien force had tied them to the spot. She didn’t know what they did after that. She didn’t care. She just wanted the warmth and the safety of Drug’s flat. She wanted to curl up and forget...

Tori sat in the bath, sobbing. What had just happened to her? She wanted to know, but it was like her mind repelled any memory she might have had. All she felt was the same feeling of fear that still shook her body with each sob.

She was past sobbing when she got out and walked herself to bed, as if she was distant and each step was cold and numb.

She lay in bed, not thinking, not moving...nothing...

And when she woke, there was Victoria.

The gun store was empty, as it usually was on a Wednesday. Turned out most people prefer to be elsewhere at midday. The gun merchant sat behind the counter in the stuffy little room, loading and reloading a Glock out of boredom.  His fried breakfast with extra breakfast had left him too full for lunch, yet he was already picturing a steak with all the trimmings when he returned to his flat tonight.

He didn’t look up when the tiny bell rang as the door opened, and heavy boots clomped across the wooden planks which separated the top floor form the cellar.

“What can I do for you?” he asked, as he always did.

There was no answer for a while, so he looked up to see a bush of long, bronze hair and a face that seemed to be made of stone. The same stone that held up the very foundations of The Wynde.

“Erm...Miss?”

She didn’t look up, but instead gazed into a cabinet full of ammo.

“Stand up.” She said, her voice flat and void, yet had a hidden element of power that the shop owner just could not resist. He stood, his round figure struggling against his withering bones. The girl only smiled as she continued to gaze into space.

“This shop belongs to me. I want you to do as I say.” She said again. “Give me a gun. A pistol.”

The merchant found himself going into the back. He picked a pistol from a drawer where he stored them, and took it back out front and laid it on the counter.

The girl picked it up, testing it. He could tell she’d not used a gun before, but when she pointed the barrel at his forehead, he became immediately fearful. He’d had guns pointed at his head before- many time, in fact- but none of those people were girls who knew nothing about guns.

“Stop!” she suddenly gasped. “Stop being scared!” And the merchant stopped.

She smiled again. “Don’t eat. You need to lose weight.” She whispered, lowering the gun and turning it over in her hands. “Is it loaded?”

“No.”

“Load it for me.” She laid it on the counter and the merchant immediately went over to the glass cabinet, taking a bunch of keys from his pocket. Taking the ammo, he loaded the gun within seconds.

“Thank you. I’m leaving now.” And with that, she strode from the shop, leaving the merchant stunned.

He wasn’t sure quite what to make of what had just occurred, but he wasn’t scared...he should have been, but she’d told him not to be.

It was only when he went back to his tiny flat in the evening that he realised he couldn’t eat. Physically, whenever he tried to raise the fork to his mouth, something inside him wouldn’t let him...

Don’t eat, you need to lose weight...

But he couldn’t be scared of the girl...

The state of emotional deficiency could have driven him insane.

Part 4: The half and the Whole.

Victoria looked at the gun. She knew where it needed to be pointed. The only question was, how would she find them?

Of course, she knew the answer. Even the most polished, cleaned and ordered places had their underworlds. In the sanitary maze that was Boundary, somewhere lurked the three rapists. Tori wanted to hide in the darkness and sleep forever. Victoria wanted to go find them...and cause them pain...

Tori was weak.

Taking the gun, and putting on the dress that Drug has given her, and stepped out into the night air. She could feel the heat of the night resonating through the alley ways, and the anticipation.

She thought back to the previous day. By now it was blatantly obvious that she could do things that others couldn’t. For now, Victoria wouldn’t let that slow her down. A logical person would stop, think and maybe not use it for fear of being called a freak.

But she was from The Wynde. What was she, if not a born freak?

Yet making her way to the bottom of the hill, where dirty cobbles gave way to concrete and well-kept pavements, she could not stop the screaming in her head. They’d taken away her life, her parents, her brother...and now her dignity!

But she didn’t want to kill anyone!

Or do you?

Victoria’s inner conflict didn’t stop her from striding past the glass buildings; the rich shop fronts, the modern architecture. The difference between the rich and the poor. The arrogant and those who are humble. The half and the whole...

Victoria watched as people who were still devouring the night shot her glances like bullets- full of hostility. What was it, she wondered?

The colour black, her heritage...?

Whatever started this, it had to end sometime.

She carried on, looking for the cracks, the crevices where the truly evil dwelled. Eventually, reaching a part of Boundary that she found familiar, Victoria came across a line of terraced buildings with iron barred gates and elaborate designs. It reminded her of The Wynde, except much paler in colour and much cleaner. She passed through an alley way between the buildings, into another section where the houses became extremely close together. Prowling the streets, she passed groups of men gathered outside pubs and other establishments- some brightly lit with neon lights. Women wearing the bare minimum preyed upon the drunken man with money in his pocket, selling their wares and more than once, Victoria would see one of these whores disappear into a car or into the shadows, off for a night of...fun.

She followed the red lights, looking for a familiar face. For a while, it was as if she was looking for a needle in a hay stack, which was, of course, the case and she almost gave up when a glimpse of flesh and a gasp of pain made her stop. It was almost inaudible, but she still heard it. People regarded her with suspicion, but most were too drunk or too busy to even notice the young girl dressed in black.

Victoria followed the gasp of pain, only to find a man, concealed in thin shadows, pinning a woman to a wall. Her thin pale leg was wrapped around her back and the sounds of frustrated pain came from the slip of a woman.

Victoria could tell...just from the body language, this animal was her man.

The woman spied her, but did not say anything- the man pushing his weight upon her almost quenching her of breath.

“Stop.” Victoria spat. The man stopped. She could see the fear of the familiarity cause his skin to crawl. The woman slipped from his grasp and slithered away.

“Turn.” The man turned. Sure enough, it was one of the rapists. She recognised him immediately. “Do you ever learn? Perhaps not.” His breathing had sped up, his blood was cold. “You took something from me. Boundary took something from me. And I am going to take it back...corpse by corpse. Walk.”

The rapist turned in Victoria’s intended direction and she followed him as they made their way down a lonely road. It was narrow, but not as narrow as the ones on The Wynde. The road marked the gap between two pubs and was lined with large, black bins. Perfect.

The rapist stopped upon her request and he stood, whimpering. Did he know he was about to die. He certainly did when Victoria cocked the gun, the tiny click sending an earthquake of fear through him.

“Turn.” She said, holding the gun to the back of his head. His eyes grew wide at the sight of a barrel between his eyes. Victoria breathed out.

With her breath came the gun shot. Brains spattered the walls and the concrete. Satisfied, Victoria moved onwards. It wasn’t long before the authorities and the citizens of this pleasure district found the body.

It wasn’t long before the other two rapists would see their dead friend and know she was coming for them.

Victoria stood, concealed in the shadows, watching the scene unfold. Of course, she wasn’t a witness to such a horrific event; she was around the corner, minding her own business when she heard the shot. Such...a horrific scene awaited her...her fragile state of mind and innocence shall forever be marred...

She played the part well.

It wasn’t long before she located the second rapist. The same night in fact. His face gave him away. Especially when he found out who the dead body was- he just had to come see if it was true. The police tent was evidence enough. He stood, knowing that he was now being hunted. He looked around, perhaps searching for the girl.

Of course, he did not see her concealed in the shadows.

Victoria followed him. She couldn’t help but think back to when she’d been in his position- being followed by the rapists. She let a high pitched laughter escape her lips and hear the man gasp in horror.

She followed him through the pleasure district, remaining invisible among the people, and to the rapist’s eyes. Eventually, he made the mistake of taking a shortcut through an alley that led to a small courtyard at the back of a club. One lamp sent shadows flying in all directions, and white light intensifying the shadows.

Victoria stood behind him. If it had been day, she’d have been seen immediately, yet in the darkness, it was like she wasn’t there. She giggled. The rapist turned. They were face to face. He stared right at her, yet not seeing her!

She moved closer. She could feel his breath on her face. The thin veil between light and darkness was the only thing separating them.

She cocked the gun.

He gasped, his yell stifled by the gunshot.

The second gun shot that night.

The second corpse.

The third rapist, however, evaded Victoria’s eyes that night. After much searching, she assumed he must have been in the bed of some whore. She went back the second night, but once again, the hay stack successfully hid the needle.

She wasn’t about to give up.

She sat in Drug’s flat, contemplating where about on Boundary he could have been, when a familiar voice made it’s way through the thick forest of thoughts.

“Tori? Where have you been? Where the hell did you get that?” Drug stood in the door way, looking down at the table Tori sat at, where the gun lay.

“A merchant gave it to me. Everyone on The Wynde has one. I’ve seen what people from Boundary do.”

“Still, that doesn’t mean everyone should have one.” He frowned. “Where do you go at night?”

Tori paused. “I wander. I like the night. It suits me.”

Drug sighed. “It suits us all. Anyway, I have to get going. Deadlight is playing another gig...”

Tori listened to the sound of his voice, not taking in anything he was saying. “Who is that?” she asked him, pointing at the picture of Drug with the woman with blond dreads.

“That? That was Rebekah. She and I used to date. Then she was raped and shot by people from Boundary.”

Tori looked at the picture sadly. The corpses of three rapists smiled and laughed. It made Tori sad, yet made Victoria angry.

That night she went, once again to Boundary; to the pleasure district. This night was different. There was a sense of speed in