A Most Graceful Life Ch. 11

Stephen let a car pass, and went further down the street, before he hurriedly ran across the main road separating their house from Hanif's. He stopped short behind a tree just one house down from the warden's little cottage. He continued moving, making steady progress until he made it just behind the warden's front porch, hiding behind another decorative push right outside the house. Stephen peered up between the branches, looking for any activity on the porch. It was silent, for now. But how would be the best way to get in?

Surely, he would expect trouble from the front door, he thought to himself.But what about the back door?

He took his time to cross around the side of the house, making sure to duck well far enough away from the two windows on the side. Even for being middle of the afternoon, it was almost too quiet of a day. There was barely any breeze and no birds chirping anywhere. He almost wondered if he would be able to hear anything from the inside before going in, but after a brief moment with his head pressed up against the brick, nothing passed through. Stephen continued to the back door, using the bat positioned in front of him to protect against any threats.

Crouching onto the back porch, he took a deep breath. His heart was pounding, a mixture of fear, anger, and adrenaline that was keeping him pressing forward. Despite the hard blow to the head, and the cracked ribs, he found the necessary will to keep moving. It didn't hurt that every time he closed his eyes, he saw Grace's shimmering blue ones looking back at him. He had to save her.

Right next to the back door, there was a small window. Slowly, he crept up beside it, letting only his eye show as he peered through the crack that existed between the sill and the blinds. Looking all about, he saw nothing. There was no hint of either Hanif or Grace in that room by the door. Figuring now was his best chance, he gripped the door knob and slowly began to turn it the latch. It was open!

The door opened to the outside, and thankfully, was without a creak to announce his presence. Not really knowing why, Stephen took his bat, and pressed it across the frame, checking for anything that might be in front of him as he crossed the threshold. It wasn't until his bat neared the floor that it poked back on something pliable. Furrowing his brow, Stephen knelt down and was amazed to see a thin strip of chicken wire at ankle height across the door frame. The house had been booby-trapped!

Checking one more time to make sure he wasn't missing any more wire, Stephen stepped over the wire as carefully as he could, entering the backroom. Knowing that the wire had been there to either disable any intruders, or announce their presence, he picked every step carefully as he made his way into the back of the house.

The room he had entered had not been decorated or furnished, exposing only bare cream-colored walls. It gave the old house an eerie feeling. It was not a feeling of entering someone's home. Rather, it felt like entering someone's base of operations. Reminding himself once more to be careful, Stephen pressed on, and entered the next room more slowly, which was the kitchen of the house.

Like the room before it, there was little within the kitchen to give away that it was someone's home. There were no dishes in the sink, no cups on the counters. It was unique in how it looked, like nobody had cooked in here, or lived there even.

As he neared the main dining table, there was a spare scrap of paper on one end, but it was hard to make out exactly what it was since the language wasn't in English. Just two lines that, to Stephen's eyes, looked like nothing but scribbles. He put the paper back down on the table, and continued on, about to enter the main dining room.

As soon as he crossed the threshold between the kitchen and the dining room, his peripheral vision caught a flash of black out of the corner of his eye. All he saw were the murderous eyes of Hanif and the face of rage as Hanif's body slammed into him out of surprise and chucked him across the room, coming to a slamming crash against the wall behind him. Stephen crumbled down, grimacing in pain as the attack took it's full brunt against his injured ribs.

"Stupid boy," snarled Hanif, watching him on the floor. "Did you think I wouldn't be prepared for your rescue attempt? Did you not think you were being watched from the moment you stepped on my property?"

Hanif pointed to the corner of the room, and Stephen's eyes followed. A camera, mounted in the corner, stared back at him. "I have this house wired up like a downtown bank. Nothing escapes my eyes here! Although," his grimace turned into a malicious grin, "I am surprised you made it past the trip wire."

Stephen managed to get back up on his own two feet, using the bat to help stabilize his legs, and push himself up. Hanif was watching him with calculated risk, trying to judge the young man's actions before they even happened.

"I'm here to offer you a trade," coughed Stephen, looking back at the warden.

Hanif frowned, "A trade? What possible trade could you offer me?"

"Me for her. Take me instead. Just let her go and I'll go with you willingly. Whatever you need to do."

Hanif began to laugh, as if having heard the ultimate joke. "You really are a stupid one, aren't you, boy? Why would I take you? You're entirely human, like myself. My Order seeks to destroy magic, you fool. Your life is worth nothing to me."

Stephen removed the portal from his pocket, producing it in his free hand. "What about the portal then? It has magic of it's own? A trade for this? Then you can still say you destroyed magic while letting her go." It was a weak bargain, but it was all he had to offer.

"The portal will have to be destroyed as well," said Hanif, looking at the ordinary puzzle box in his hands. "But you do not get to choose who walks away from this house. This is my domain, and my mission, and I will let no one interfere with my task!" Hanif produced his knife, which had been buckled against his waist. He held it aloft to Stephen in a threatening manner.

"Which is it going to be, boy? Your life or your death?"

Stephen gulped. His knife looked particularly nasty. His mind briefly drifted to the scene from yesterday, when he had threatened to stab the man from the car accident. Yet, despite his intense fear of the powerful warden, Stephen was ready to offer his life for Grace's. In the end, that simple choice won out over every other possible rationalization. He loved Grace too much to back out now.

He shook his head from side to side, a silent announcement of his intention to fight.

"So be it," growled Hanif, before lunging at him with his deathly looking knife. Stephen couldn't react quick enough to block to knife, yet somehow the nasty blade was deflected from his torso at the last possible moment, with the tip digging into the wooden bat. Finding an extraordinary force, Stephen managed to yank the bat away quickly, and then swung it across, which managed to accomplish two things. First, he hit the warden squarely in the wrists, which then caused him to drop the knife on the floor.

His temporary block didn't keep him safe for long. It was just near impossible to keep the fast moving Hanif far enough away. With great strength, Hanif gripped him by his shirt, and with a forceful swish, cast him about to the other side of the room. Stephen landed in a crumpled heap near the middle of the floor.

"You should have left her to die!" Hanif roared, who quickly crossed the distance, and laid a brutal kick against his sides once more. The world exploded in pain for Stephen, who rolled away with a slight howl to the opposite side of the room to get away.

"You can't save her! You can't even save yourself!"

Hanif was there once more, his fists pummeling against targets on his face, chin, and torso. Stephen absorbed the blows with yelps of pain and despair, trying his best to get away from the warden and back to his bat, the only protection he had. It was just too hard to out-run or out-move the powerful man.

Another toss across the room landed him within arm's reach of the bat. Stephen's weak fingers reached out, making contact with the grainy wood finish, before the bat was kicked away by Hanif, who raised the helpless man back up parallel with his body, and roared in his face.

"Now, you will perish like her!"

Almost feeling the blow before it happened, he steeled his face to absorb the punishment. Yet the weight of Stephen's body caused a momentarily stumble in Hanif's footing, pulling him forward and putting him within arm's reach of Stephen's limbs. Stephen now had a single shot to inflict a great amount of pain, and he took it. Balling his fist back, he launched it directly into the warden's crotch.

Hanif let out a cry of pain as his grip loosened on Stephen. He hit his knees in pain, allowing Stephen to scamper out of his reach. In desperation, he grabbed both discarded weapons still laying on the floor. Carrying Hanif's knife in one hand and the baseball bat in the other, he awaited the warden's next move.

He didn't have to wait long. Hanif seemed to recover from the cheap shot incredible speed. The rage in his face seemed to have doubled and Stephen found himself backing into the corner of the room just to keep the distance between them.

"I'll have you flayed for this," spat Hanif, as he quickly closed the distance. Stephen did the only thing he could think of in the moment, and swung the bat hard. He felt Hanif's hands make contact with the bat as it swung down through it's arc, pulling it low and to his side with notable strength. Blocked with the bat, there was only one possible move left.

Hanif's face went ashen, and a look of real fear appeared as the blade slid between his own ribs, with several inches protruding into his very core. As if not believing the outcome, he looked down, seeing the cold, hard steel penetrating his own body, with the handle of the knife firmly affixed within Stephen's grip. Hanif relaxed his grip on the baseball bat, and stumbled backwards as his tunic revealed the splotches of deep, red blood appearing just beneath. His feet lost their bearing, and he collapsed to his knees first, and then fell over on his side.

Stephen was in as much of a shock as the warden, watching the powerful man go down from his own actions. It was not a fight he thought he was going to win, yet he was the only man still standing. Hanif managed to sputter several times, although nothing he said was coherent. Figuring that he was disarmed (for now), Stephen gripped his bat tighter, and pushed on through the living room to the last room on the main floor.

Much like the rest of the house, this room was practically empty as well, save for one folding chair in the middle of the floor, and a crumpled heap laying on the floor. It was Grace.

Dropping the bat on the floor, Stephen rushed to her, cradling her body on the floor against his own. She was warm, and breathing, yet her eyes were closed.

"Grace, I'm here. Grace, can you hear me?" Stephen asked, panicked at her seemingly unconscious state. Her hands were bound in the Restraint still, but otherwise there were no other indications of harm. He just prayed he wasn't too late.

He watched as her chest rose, fell, and rose again steadily. Praying for a miracle, his wishes were soon answered as bright, blue eyes soon gazed into his own.

"Stephen?" She whispered.

"I'm here," he returned, a small smile forming on his lips.

Grace eyed the door. "It's not safe for you here. The warden could be back at anytime."

He held up his hand to stop her, "He's not going to bother us now. Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"I've been better," she smiled, weakly. Stephen looked her over carefully. She didn't seem to have any marks, cuts, or bruises, yet he didn't think she would show wounds like a human would either. Her energy level was massively spent, and those silvery cuffs were still around her wrists, glowing in a soft green luminescence. He helped her sit up against the wall, watching while those little cuffs fell into her lap.

"How can I get these off you, Grace?" He asked, looking at the Restraint binding her helpless.

She looked down, then back at him, and shrugged. "I have no idea. I can't get them off at all. I think they have a magic of their own."

Letting his hands drift down to the cuffs, they were surprisingly cool to the touch. Stephen gripped one side in each hand and pulled.

Nothing. He tried again, applying all the strength he could muster, and still the cuffs didn't budge. Perhaps he needed more force.

A croaking laughter erupted behind them both, forcing Stephen to turn around with alarm. The crumpled heap that was Hanif had managed to drag himself over towards the room, and propped himself up against the door frame. He teeth were stained with his own blood, casting a delirious grin as he watched the two struggle with the Restraint.

"You'll find those... quite hard to remove, boy," he seethed, while clutching at the wound in his chest. "Nothing that you possess can open those cuffs. It requires a magical force that you'll never have. You might as well just accept the fact that she will be destroyed!"

Stephen looked down at the cuffs again, mulling over the words the dying warden had just spoken. A magical force would work? Something supernatural could remove the cuffs? What about a device with its own magic contained within? Of course!

Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out Grace's portal and held it flat in his hand. Grace flinched away from it at first, understandably, and looked into his eyes as if to deduce his purpose for bringing it. Realization dawned slowly, and her confused look turned into a confident smile. Stephen knew what he had to do.

"Let's try some magic then," he commented, and pressed the portal against the Restraint itself.

Immediately, the Restraint began to dim. The strong brightness of the green light began to fade away, causing the cuffs to seem smaller, and more ordinary. They watched for several moments as the swirling green illumination faded into the cuffs. At the end, all that remained was the silver metal itself. Once all the green had faded completely, the shackles that wrapped her wrists unlocked and fell to the floor.

Hanif wore a look of horror as Grace stood, fully empowered once more. She stood on both feet, and quickly wrapped her arms around Stephen, and hugged him fiercely. "I love you so much," she whispered, her lips tickling his ear.

Stephen pulled back to look into those bright, blue eyes that had so stolen his heart, "I love you, too Grace," he returned, pressing in a deep, tender kiss.

Across the room, Hanif sneered at them. "So very touching," he mocked. "Surely, you don't think you've won, do you?" He clutched his ribs once more, his hands fully covered in blood. "I may not have much longer for this world, but I have two more wardens coming to this very spot to finish the job. Every time you make a wish, you announce your presence to my entire order. How much longer do you have before they catch you? A few days? A week, tops? You haven't won, genie. You've just prolonged your suffering. The Order will never stop, never cease, until you are completely destroyed!"

Grace looked down at him, absorbing his words like blows to her heart. Her eyes softened, and she looked back at Stephen. "He's right. We are still in grave danger."

Stephen turned to cast his eyes at the dying warden. His mind started working quickly, thinking of possible solutions. First, they needed to get Hanif out of the picture, permanently.

"Grace? Since this asshole is a threat to anonymity, and not to mention our lives, can I wish to wipe his memory of us? And his memory of the entire Order as well?"

She looked over at him and smiled, "Usually that's a bit too drastic for a wish upon another human being." She cast her eyes down at Hanif, her gaze turning to steel. "Yet, the rules loosen substantially for wardens. We can do that, Stephen."

"Good, I want you to do that, and then transport him far away from here. Don't let him die. I don't want his blood on our hands. But I wish for his memories of us, and his old life, to be completely gone," said Stephen.

"Done," smiled Grace, as Hanif began to mutter.

"No, no, no no, NOOOO!" He wailed, as he slowly drifted apart, turning into the air around him. Moments later, there was nothing laying on the ground, and nothing to suggest that he had ever been there.

"Better," grinned Stephen, triumphantly. "Let's get out of here." He offered his hand to Grace and began to hobble towards the front door.

"Stephen," Grace said, her smile turning quickly to frown. "You're hurt!"

He grasped at his ribs again, as the pain began to return while his adrenaline lowered. "Think I cracked a couple ribs," he smiled. "Can you?"

"Of course," she replied, placing her hands over his chest. Within a moment, the pain completely fled, and he was able to take a deep breath without an ounce of pain.

"Thank you," he said, relieved. "That feels much better."

"Anything for you," Grace gave a somber smile, squeezing his hand.

Together, they exited out the front of the house, avoiding the other trip wire booby trap that Hanif had laid at the main entrance. Making their way across the street, the couple entered the main family home, finding it empty, and quickly made their way to his bedroom. Once the door was closed, Stephen collapsed onto the only piece of furniture left in the room: his bed.

"I can't believe it, Grace," said Stephen, staring up at the ceiling. "We actually beat him! We outsmarted the warden."

If he had expected her to join him on the bed, he was quickly disappointed. Stephen craned his head up, to find Grace still standing near the door, with her eyes cast down towards the floor.

"Grace?"

She moved her head up slightly, meeting his eyes. A weak smile passed from her lips, "Thank you for saving me. I love you for it, I really do. But we were lucky this time. What's going to happen the next time when there's two wardens after me?" She trembled at the title, and her arms wrapped themselves around her body in comfort.

Stephen quickly hopped off the bed, and closed the distance between them. He wrapped her in tight. "We beat them once. Who's to say we can't beat them again?"

She pulled away slightly, "But they know where we are, Stephen. They will have known where Hanif was based, and it won't take them long to figure out we are just across the street."

"We won't be. In just a few days, we'll be in our new apartment," he pointed out.

Grace shook her head, "And then they would come for your mother, and your brothers, in an effort to get to us."

The pit dropped out of his stomach, as he imagined his family being cornered by someone like Hanif. He shook his own head violently. "We'll bring them with us then. We'll stay on the move, always one step in front of them. As long as we're mobile, they won't be able to keep up with us. I can even stop using your wishes, to further protect us from them. Although, we'd have to disclose your existence to my family," he replied, sullenly.

Grace looked up at him, the first tears beginning to form. "You know we can't do that. Your family would be on the run for the rest of their lives because of me. What kind of life would that be? How could I ever look your mother in the eye again, and not flinch at the thought of being the best fit for her son? It would be so hollow, and they'd be in constant danger with every slip up we'd make. We can't do that."

Stephen found himself beginning to panic. "What else could we possibly do, Grace? You make it sound like we have no options."

All she offered was a sad smile. "I don't think I have any options left, Stephen. The warden was right. This is just a temporary reprieve. Even now, I'm sure they've felt those last two wishes and are making their way here at all possible speed. We've bought ourselves a couple of days at most."