46. The Protector
Chapter forty-six
The Protector
Sammy
M y heart is in my throat as I burst through the door, and get a glimpse of Dinah standing defiantly facing Noah Rothesay. The demon from my nightmare is right there, not more than a few feet from the woman I love with all my heart. Terror races up my spine, and claws sharply at my insides, as I get a glimpse of a small, frightened child held in his tight clutches. Her little face stares at Dinah with panic, as she tries to get away from Noah, who has a gun pressed violently against her head. I can hear Abraham and Ezekiel engaging with Noah, but it all sounds like heavy buzzing, while my mind is attempting to bring up images of my past torture at the hands of this madman. “You deserve this, Samuel. You are nothing. She abandoned you because you are worthless. You can take a little more pain to repay your sins.” Noah’s evil voice slithers through my mind, dark, unhinged, and taunting me to lose my sanity. I have to stay strong. I can’t let him push me back to that very edge, where I no longer care whether I live or die. Dinah is my anchor; she’s my heart and soul, my everything. I can’t give up and let him win.
I force myself to take a few silent steps to the side, seeing an opportunity, while he’s distracted, to slip behind the large HVAC system. I don’t really have a plan. I just know I have to do something to try to save that girl, and my love. My fingernails dig into the flesh of my palm, as I endeavor to ground myself in the here and now, and not allow my mind to slip into the past where I will be trapped. Dinah spies what I am doing from the corner of her eye, and I see her almost imperceptible nod. The next thing I know, Abe is picking up rocks and throwing them at Noah, who is filled with a murderous rage. I slip behind the large mechanical unit and brace my hands on my knees, attempting to catch my faltering breath. Dizziness and darkness begin to dim around my vision, causing me to stumble, and my knees to feel like they are made out of jelly. I slam my fisted hand into the side of my head, hoping the pain will force some of the panic away. Breathe, fucker, breathe. It works, and instantly pushes back the ominous shadows that are trying to roll me, so I do it again. The wind whips around the roof line, helping me to clear the rest of the fog, and force much-needed oxygen back inside of my lungs. One foot in front of the other, we can do this, just keep going.
I can faintly hear the crying of the little girl on the wind, as I get past the large machine, another innocent trapped in Noah Rothesay’s menacing clutches, just waiting to be devoured and destroyed. I can’t let him hurt her, or Dinah, I have to do something, somehow get him away from both of them. Push him over the edge of the building. All you have to do is grab him hard enough from behind, and he’ll tumble right off. Thoughts and images race rapidly through my mind of the logistics of doing precisely that, and in every possibility, I fall to my death with him. So be it; at least Dinah, Ezekiel, and Abraham, will finally be free from this monster. My death will be a small price to pay. A defeated sigh escapes my lips, just as I see Noah pointing the gun now at Ezekiel instead of the little girl, and just as quickly, the child turns on him and bites him, and Dinah rushes forward, lunging for her.
NOW! Piercing alarms go off in my head, imploring me to rush ahead and grab Noah from behind. I wrap my arm around his neck, and yank him backward into me. He stumbles and takes me down, until we are both rolling on the small stones that make up the roof’s deck, with our limbs entangled. Noah’s brutal fist connects with the side of my head, and I momentarily see stars. I try to fight back, and grab his hand still holding the gun, but he resists my attempt. He’s spewing profanities and harsh pants, as he manages to land a few more blows to my face and head, and I feel my body rapidly depleting of energy, as I attempt to grapple for the gun and it goes off, the shot going wide and hitting the brick wall above my head. The fucker manages to twist us, so I end up below him, and he’s straddling my chest. His weight adds to the pressure in my chest, reawakening the pain from my previous injuries, and making it almost impossible to breathe. I strike out with my closed fist, getting him in the nose and jaw, and I feel some satisfaction as blood gushes from his nose, but it’s not enough; he’s still too strong.
Noah manages to turn the barrel of the gun, and I feel it protruding harshly into my chest. Fuck, I am going to die, I know it. My mouth opens, with the words I desperately want to utter to my Nightstar trapped in my throat. I need her to know that I have always loved her, and that she was the best thing that ever happened to me, regardless of the short time we had together. I stare into the emerald green eyes of the monster, who haunts both my waking and sleeping hours, and know that this is the end for me, and that I won’t get another chance to live. Peace flows through me at the knowledge that he will die mere seconds after I do. There is no way Dinah, Ezekiel, or Abraham, will allow him to keep breathing. Reassurance fills me, knowing those two will protect and cherish my Nightstar. As much as I never wanted to share her, I am glad that she won’t be left alone on this miserable earth.
“You scum, you’ll finally get your wish, Samuel. I am going to end you.” I close my eyes, prepared to finally be free of all the suffering this world has forced me to endure, and I picture Dinah back in the field of our home, happy and carefree. Before Noah can press the trigger, I feel the air switch around us, and something small knocks him forcefully off of me. I distantly hear screaming, and as I open my eyes and force myself up to my knees, I witness Dinah struggling with Noah near the edge. She’s clawing, punching, and biting at him, using anything she has at her disposal, to keep him down and entangled with her. She’s a furious lioness, fighting to protect her mate from another predator. NO! Fuck no, not my Nightstar!
One moment, they are both on the edge of the roof and the next, Noah is sliding off the side, propelled by one of Dinah’s punches. At the last second, before he falls, he manages to grab onto her hair, and a terrifying scream rents the air before she falls over with him, and is gone from my sight. “DINAH!” “ATASI!” Ezekiel and Abraham shout, as they rush to the side of the roof. My legs refuse to hold me up when I attempt to stand, and my heart shatters into millions of pieces inside of my chest. Why did she do that? Why did she so recklessly try to save me?
“Nightstar!” I reach the edge, and have to grip the rough brick side to force myself to remain upright. I can’t bear to look, and see my Nightstar at the base of this building. I know that I will jump to my death to join her. There is no me without her. There is no reason to keep breathing if she is gone.
“Fuck, she’s barely hanging on! What the fuck do we do?!” Abraham shouts, his voice heavily laced with panic. I force myself to look, and at first, I can’t even reconcile my mind to what I am seeing. Then the picture begins to become more apparent, and there’s my Nightstar hanging off what remains of a metal sign on the side of the building by her fingertips, and Noah Rothesay, the evil bastard, is holding on to her ankle for dear life, weighing her down. “SHOOT HIM!” I yell at Abraham and Ezekiel, knowing I have no gun. He’s going to bring her down with him. She can’t hold on for much longer.
“What if I miss? I’ll kill her!” Ezekiel yells, and I see him extending his arm, a gun clutched in his fingers. “She will die either way if you don’t, her grip is faltering!” I argue, and feel hysteria wrapping like thick metal chains around me, and squeezing tightly. “HOLD ON, ATASI, I’M COMING!” Abe hollers, and he starts to drag his leg over the side of the building. How the fuck is he going to get to her like that? She’s got to be at least twelve feet below us. A whimpered scream soars through the air, as one of Dinah’s fingers loses its hold. “SHOOT, EZEKIEL!” I beg, as I stare into Dinah’s terrified eyes. The blast is so loud next to me that it instantly causes a ringing in my ears. Even with the pain, I refuse to look away from Dinah as she sways back and forth, tears sliding down her beautiful face. “Fuck, shoot him again, Zeke!” Abraham screams with desperation. I glance at Noah, and he finally releases his hold with a scream, his face frozen in terror, as blood pours out of the side of his neck, and he drops to the ground below us with a heavy crash. “Hold on, Nightstar, please!”
I feel everything burning up inside of me, as she sways back and forth, trying to force her petite body to get a better grip on the sign. Her fingers are slippery from blood, coating the sign where she must have sliced them open. “Hurry, Abe!” Ezekiel urges, as we both watch Abe try to scale from one window sill to another, trying to get to Dinah without plunging to his own death, but his cast hinders his movements. He slams his arm over and over against the brick, shattering the offending cast, and it falls in pieces below to the ground. “Zeke! Get to the window just above her and break that fucker!” Ezekiel doesn’t hesitate to rush towards the door leading back into the building. I feel a small presence next to me, and tear my eyes away from Dinah to see the little girl, sobbing, with her arms wrapped around herself. “She... she saved me.” The enraged part inside of me wants to be angry that Dinah risked her life for this child and for me. Neither of us is worthy of her sacrifice, but I know that’s just my anguish speaking, at the very real possibility that I may lose her.
Abe groans as his body smacks into the brick side of the building, as he tries to stretch to reach the next sill, and I’m not sure he’s going to make it. My eyes return to Dinah, who has tears racing down her face. “I love you, Sammy. I will always come for you.”
No, fuck! “Don’t you dare give up, Dinah! You fucking belong to me! Do you hear me? You’re my Nightstar, and I can’t, and won’t, live without you,” I implore her. The sound of shattering glass gets my attention, and I witness Ezekiel hanging from the broken window below us, and right above where Abe is trying to get to. Abe swings his large six-foot-two frame towards the window, and Ezekiel grabs onto his legs, holding him in a desperate grip. I still can’t work out how they are going to get to her, because he’s still too high. Then it clicks in my head, and with dread and fear, I race down the stairs to where Ezekiel is half hanging out the window. I grab onto his waist from behind, allowing him to be able to brace Abraham, who then allows his body to drop, counting on Ezekiel’s hold on his wrists. “ATASI, REACH OUT AND GRAB MY LEGS BABY, PLEASE!”
I strain holding Ezekiel, who, in turn, is Abraham’s lifeline, as all three of us refuse to give up on our girl. A loud grunt fills the air, and I’m afraid to try to look out the broken window for fear of throwing our precarious balance off. “Thank fuck,” Ezekiel mutters, and I’m desperately hoping with everything inside of me, it’s because Dinah has managed to get a grasp on Abe. “Sammy, pull us back, hurry!” I use the strength I didn’t even know I had left, to take a step backward and then another, dragging Ezekiel forcefully from the window, and in turn, more of Abraham begins to appear. When Abe’s waist materializes in the opening, a scream sounds, and my heart drops to my feet. “Grab her, she’s slipping!” Abe yells, and Ezekiel plants his feet like a giant, stubborn oak tree, refusing to be moved. I release my hold on him, and rush to grasp Dinah through the opening, her terrified eyes meeting mine, as I wrap my fingers around her wrists, and brace the lower part of my body against the window frame. “Let go, baby, I have you now, Nightstar. I will never let you go,” I grit through my teeth, as she releases her hold on Abe’s ankles, and her weight yanks me forward.
Abe quickly disappears through the window, and in the next instance, I feel thick, powerful arms wrap around my waist, bracing me and keeping me firm and safe, as I hold Dinah. A tattooed arm darts out the shattered window, and the hand attached grabs Dinah below where I’m holding her. The two of us, Ezekiel and I, use our combined force to heft Dinah up from the side of the building, and back through the window. The minute she’s safe, Abraham releases his hold on me, and I go stumbling backward, taking him and Ezekiel down with me, my grip refusing to release Dinah, and she ends up sprawled on top of me and sobbing. I remove my hold on her wrists and wrap her tightly in my arms, feeling my heart still galloping in my chest at almost losing her. “You’re safe now, Nightstar. It’s over, baby.”