Chapter 3 – Battle Royale
Sunday – September 24, 2023
Ash
The next hour felt like an eternity. I kept hoping that Dr. Lyons would appear any minute. But as the clock ticked down to the hour mark, I worried he wouldn’t get here in time.
Mr. Frost’s watch dinged. He clicked it off and shut his computer. “I have to go,” he said.
“But we aren’t done yet.” I gestured to the half-finished sticky note wall.
“I trust you two to finish. If you’d like, you can send me a picture when you’re done and I’ll let you know if anyone should be reassigned.” He stood up.
Damn it! Where the hell is Dr. Lyons?!
“What if we came with you?” I asked.
“What?” asked Mr. Frost.
“We could come with you. To meet with the castle guy. I bet you’re a master at closing new clients. I’d love to come learn from the best.”
“But you’re needed here. That was the point of this whole exercise.”
Right.
He slung his satchel over his shoulder and exited the conference room. Chastity and I both chased behind him. I was desperately trying to think of some way to keep him here, but my brain was still stuck on blowjobs.
“I’m gonna blow him,” I whispered to Chastity. Before I could change my mind, I ran up behind him. I was just about to grab his tight little ass when the elevator dinged open.
I held my breath. It was either going to be Tanner, here to murder us, or Dr. Lyons, here to save us. Either way, grabbing ass wasn’t going to help.
The doors slowly slid open.
What the hell?
Tanner and Dr. Lyons were standing side-by-side on the elevator. Dr. Lyons had changed out of his Officer Ironside outfit and was in jeans and a T-shirt. Tanner, on the other hand, was still in his Society persona with his multicolored tuxedo and manbun.
“That’s him!” yelled Dr. Lyons. He sprinted off the elevator and barreled into Mr. Frost. The two men crashed to the floor. Unlike Cole, though, Mr. Frost put up a much better fight. He twisted his body to avoid Lyons’ chokehold and then spun to his feet…
…and immediately got punched right in the face by Tanner with a wicked right hook.
“What the fuck?!” screamed Mr. Frost as he got his hands up to block. “Who are you crazy people?”
“We’re your worst nightmare,” growled Lyons as he came at him again.
Frost dodged to the side and jumped over the reception desk to get a little space between him and his assailants. Then he ripped off his suit jacket and cracked his knuckles.
What the hell is happening right now ?
Lyons gave Tanner some weird SWAT hand signal and the two of them sprang into action, executing a perfectly coordinated attack to take Frost to the ground.
Lyons straddled him and started punching him. Tanner got into position to stomp the shit out of him.
“Stop!” I yelled.
All three men stopped dead. Dr. Lyons’ fist was inches above Frost’s face. Frost already had a bloody lip, but the blow Dr. Lyons was about to deliver looked like it was gonna crack his skull in half.
“What are you doing?!” I yelled at Dr. Lyons.
“Saving you from the murderer,” he said. He cocked his fist again to deliver the finishing blow.
“Mr. Frost isn’t the murderer! It’s Tanner!”
“What?” asked Dr. Lyons.
“What?” agreed Tanner, feigning innocence like a freaking pro.
Fucking sociopath.
“He’s a serial killer!” I yelled, pointing wildly at Tanner. “He killed my sister, and now he’s coming for me.”
“I didn’t kill…” started Tanner as Dr. Lyons spun and punched him square in the nuts.
Tanner collapsed in a heap, his hand cupped to his hopefully-destroyed junk.
“Sorry about earlier,” said Lyons to Frost. He hopped off of him and offered him a hand. Frost took it and the two men approached Tanner.
They were a little too casual with their approach, though .
Because Tanner was apparently a Kungfu master. He simultaneously got to his feet and took both men down with a spinning kick.
“Ash, why the heck do you think I killed your sister?” Tanner asked.
“I’m not giving you my proof so you can just turn around and destroy it!”
“What proof? I swear I didn’t kill her.”
“You just made her your sex slave?” I asked. “You’re sick.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“I know you were smashing her!”
Tanner looked so confused. “I didn’t even know Rosalie.”
“Bullshit.”
He took a step towards me, but my two knights in shining armor attacked him.
I could hardly keep up with the action as Tanner fought off the two men. I had no idea what kind of martial arts he was doing, but it didn’t even look like he was breaking a sweat. He was always two steps ahead of every move they threw at him.
Shit! I had to do something. It was a good thing I’d grabbed Chastity’s pepper spray earlier.
I pulled it out, aimed, and fired.
I just barely dodged as the thick black liquid shot right at my face.
“Ah!” I screamed and tossed the bottle, as if it had been the pepper spray’s fault that I didn’t know which way the nozzle went. Thank God I’d dodged, because even the little bit that made it into my eyes burned like hell .
The fight raged on. Lyons and Frost pressed on the attack, slowly pushing Tanner from the main lobby into the sea of cubicles. Frost struck at him, but Tanner grabbed his arm and launched him into a cubicle. The flimsy walls broke into a million pieces and papers went flying.
“We have to help!” I yelled to Chastity.
She grabbed a stapler off a nearby desk and flipped the bottom down to turn it into a staple gun.
She stood a few feet away from the fight and launched a steady stream of little staples towards Tanner. They all bounced harmlessly off of him.
Her attack was completely ineffective, but I liked the idea.
I searched for a weapon of my own - preferably one that I couldn’t blind myself with. I picked up a pen and threw it dart-style right at his eye. And missed. So did the next few. Probably because I could barely freaking see. One finally hit him in the chest, but it didn’t impale him quite like I’d envisioned. The only damage appeared to be a little ink on his shirt.
Damn it!
I needed something bigger. My eyes landed on a three-hole punch on a nearby desk. No - I wasn’t going to try to punch holes in him. I was gonna chuck it at his stupid murdery head.
I rubbed my burning eyes and watched the battle, waiting for just the right moment.
Come on…come on. Lyons and Frost circled around him, occasionally throwing a kick or a punch. Most of the time they missed. And if they connected, there was about a 50% chance that Tanner would catch their limb and send them flying into another cubicle. At least 10 had already been smashed to pieces.
Lyons and Frost both attacked at once. Tanner spun to block, momentarily turning his back to me. That was my chance! I let the hole punch fly.
Thunk.
The hole punch bounced off the back of Tanner’s head and fell to the ground. At first I thought it hadn’t worked. But then Tanner wobbled. And then he fell flat on his face.
Everyone looked at me.
“I think you just killed him,” said Chastity.