Peeking inside a window to an extravagant building Eru slowed his breathing down. A deep breath in through his nose and a slow exhale out of his mouth. Charmalina and Eru had been sneaking throughout the compound trying to find the council. This building looked like the one, it had heavy security inside and out. The council members were in the room through the window sitting around a large table. The window was large and full of stained glass making a multicolored symbol of some kind. It went from the ground all the way up to the 30 foot ceiling. It would be weak and maybe their best way inside. It would certainly get the attention of the council. Eru motioned Charmalina towards him.

Charmalina agreed with Eru, they would go through the window. Eru would break it and quickly go through the glass making a hole for Charmalina. She would follow Eru in and cover him if necessary. He would need time to get rid of the glass.

Eru took another deep breath and got ready to smash through the window. There really wasn’t anything around that they could use to break it. Time was running out and surprise was of the essence. Inside he hoped there would be no need for lots of violence. Eru was tired but he could go for awhile longer. This is why he trained so hard in the case of the unexpected he needed the strength to think clearly.

Watching Eru lift his elbow into position, Charmalina leaned Eru she would be covered by him until inside the room. He swung his elbow into the glass creating a small hole. Pulling his elbow out he pushed his way through the whole in the window. He lead with his shoulder like he was tackling someone and went through the glass. Charmalina followed next to him and rolled through where the window had been.

The large whole caused the whole stained glass to crack and fall down. The room changed colors as the glass fell and was replaced with bright white sunlight. The council looked on in shock. Charmalina gathered herself up and took note of the new situation as she covered Eru.

Eru was pulling a few large shards of glass of his clothes and skin. There were no guards in the room. They must be all outside the entrance to the meeting room Charmalina thought to herself. There was someone hiding in the far corner of the room from them. He was in the shadows it took her eyes awhile to adjust to the changing light inside. She blinked and he came into focus, it was Basq.

The council member that had visited them in their makeshift cell was there. He was still huffing and puffing from running away from them. He face was purple and he ws sweating profusely. Seeing them again didn’t help him out.

One of the more senior council members spoke up to try and appear strong, “What’s this? Basq go get them or get the guards”, Charmalina could see right through him, he trembled as he spoke.

Basq moved towards the door, and the out of shape council member gave a sickly smile to them. It quickly turned to a scared expression as Basq broke the lock of door forcing it to stay shut. “I don’t think so, I don’t take orders from anyone but myself”, Basq sneered to the senior council member.

The senior member tried to control the situation. The walls of the room were thick and the guards couldn’t hear what was going on. He tried to control Basq, “C’mon Basq we will make it well worth your time to take these two traitors out. There is already a bounty on their heads. It would be considerably more than that.”

“I’m no one’s pawn. I will stay here and watch the entertainment”, Basq replied with no trace of emotion.

Charmalina saw the council all sink in their seats. They were afraid but there wasn’t much time, outside guards would notice the broken window eventually. Eru was now standing beside her and ready. His clothes were stained in blood but it looked like everything had clotted up and he was in no immediate danger. He looked menacing no one in their right mind would mess with him now.

Eru spoke up, “Is there any council member here that feels they have done no wrong?” Eru was in pain but he stood tall not showing any weakness. His voice was calm and did not waver. Everyone on the council raised there hands. A laugh escaped Eru but it did not make the council any more comfortable. In fact it scared them more. He could tell they thought he was going crazy. Eru imagined he must look pretty bad on the outside for them to be this scared. “Why would you have us killed then? We are just doing what you asked us to do and more importantly what is right”. He emphasized the word “right”.

One council member gathered some strength, “We just want to do what is right, we need the power to fix what is wrong. What are you going to do kill us all?” The council member let out a little piggy laugh, “You won’t do that you have to do what is right!”. He laughed again.

Eru didn’t say a word. He looked at Charmalina and nodded towards her. Slowly walking he got behind the council member who had spoken up. Quickly before the council member had realized what was going on, Eru had picked him and was slowly choking him. Charmalina at the same time had grabbed the still puffing council member and began to choke them.

All of the council member’s eyes grew in fear as they watched Charmalina and Eru choke two of their own. They would die if blood couldn’t get to the brain. The senior council member tried all that he seemed to know, money. “Quit this, we will give you enough money to go somewhere else and disappear to start a new life.”

Eru shook his head ‘no’. The council member Eru was holding tried to struggle but flailing just made it worse. His feet couldn’t even touch the ground. Charmalina’s council member had passed out and she released the choke on him.

The council member that Eru was holding tried to let out another piggy laugh. A weird distorted sound came out instead. He next tried to speak. He would pass out soon. He managed to get some words out, enough for Eru to understand, “See you aren’t going to kill us.”

Eru wanted to kill him but didn’t think that would help the situation. He had to break him, the rest would follow, “I may not kill you now but I can make the rest of your life so bad that you would wish for death.” Some of the cuts had reopened on Eru. It just made him look more crazy. He hoped the appearance would work, inside Eru was strangely calm. He dropped the council member.

The council member didn’t have enough strength to stand and fell to the floor. He reached his hands towards his neck and tried to breathe normally. The rest of the council just sat and watched. Basq stood by the door enjoying the scene.

A groan of pain was heard across the room. Eru had picked up the council member by the wrist. Locking the wrist in an unnatural position he slowly applied more pressure. The council member screamed more. Eru smiled inside this is what he was hoping for. He didn’t want to break anything if he could avoid it. Blood slowly dripped off his chin. He had a cut on his forehead that was slowly leaking. Eru’s blood landed on the council member’s face and frightened him more.

The screaming quit for a second. Eru could hear his blood spattering on the council member’s face. He held the pressure on the council member’s wrist. The council member spoke up, “What do you want?” The words were nothing more than a whisper but the room was silent and everyone heard the council member.

Eru looked up at Charmalina, their eyes meeting. They knew they had won. He released the pressure on the wrist, “I want all of you to resign immediately and never to hear from you again.” Eru wondered if he would have to apply more pain and was ready to do so.

“Fine fine, I’ll resign”, The council member still visibly in pain spoke as well as he could. Eru looked around he saw quiet defeat. The rest of the council would resign. Charmalina released her council member who had since regained consciousness. He did not know what had happened but appeared willing to follow everyone else.

With that Eru, Charmalina and Basq left. If the council didn’t resign Eru would hunt them down and they would pay for their mistakes. Basq went one way and Charmalina and Eru snuck away in a different direction.

——–

Charmalina and Eru had made it to a hotel where they managed to clean up Eru without anyone noticing him. There was some breaking news, the entire council had resigned due to failing to contain the terrorists according to the news reports. Eru laughed was he the real terrorist?

Eru was exhausted sleep would come soon. His head was full of questions How long would the new council be good for? Why did Basq do what he did? What was next for him and Charmalina? With that he fell asleep.

The End.