Chapter 85 #3
“You’re a fucking witch?” she screeched. Rage rocked across her twisted face.
Don’t hesitate.
I yanked a hand to the right and tossed her body again, as hard as I could against the far wall, as far away as possible.
She hit with a bone-shattering crash. I held her there with a wind as strong as any hurricane.
Books flew off the shelves behind her, flapping and fluttering and dive-bombing across the room.
Shredded pages twisted violently. It was a tornado of havoc and was destroying some of Bob’s prized collection, but I couldn’t think of that now.
Sarah was pinned against the wall. Her head turned to the side, her hair streaked across her porcelain face.
Her arms strapped by her sides. Like a prisoner strapped to an execution table.
She twisted her head back.
What I saw shot the breath from my lips and made my dreams of Shadow Man look like primary school nightmares.
Gone was any trace of the beautiful girl with the gorgeous laugh and wide captivating smile.
In its place was a creature. No, a monster, maybe the devil itself.
Fire burned in her eyes, lips peeled back into a smile too wide for her face—hideously disproportionate— and teeth razor-sharp and glistening in the dim light.
The sight of her rage terrified me. The whole room took on freezer qualities. I felt like I wanted to be sick. Every instinct told me to run.
If you’re ever faced by a vampire, stand your ground, fight, but do not run.
Her nose flared. A horrid knowing of the deaths that awaited us quaked my mind and threatened to collapse the threads of muscle and bone which held me upright.
I struggled to maintain the strength to hold her.
No, not ‘her’, I realized there was nothing human about what was before me. I had to hold ‘it.’
My body was bathed in sweat. My legs felt like they wanted to collapse. My arms ached. I could feel the muscles draining themselves, like a tap had been left on. The pain in my head was unbearable, everything hurt. All I wanted to do was collapse to my knees, close my eyes and will it all away.
I couldn’t keep holding her. I couldn’t keep fighting.
Maybe I should just give up, let go, get it over and done with. I was only delaying what I knew was coming anyway. Maybe if I stopped fighting she’d show some mercy and kill us both quickly.
No one would miss me. My father would go on as he always went on.
My sister would cry, and tell people how devastated she was.
The same sister who never bothered to call me for my birthday.
The same sister who never asked how I was, not once, for as long as I could remember.
Tom would be upset, but he’d console himself in Kelly’s arms. Ethan would be pained, maybe.
But it wouldn’t be long and he’d forget about me.
I’d be just a distant, vague memory. And Karson, the only person I wanted to love me, never would.
The sun would rise tomorrow, the night sky would still rise and fall, no different than it did today, or yesterday.
I was so sick of the emptiness, sick of the darkness. I was so sick of fighting to fit in. I’d never belong, never be loved for who I was. History had taught me so, every time I allowed myself to think differently, I’d be broken all over again.
Somewhere in the distance I could hear my name being called, like it was spoken by the winds, and then it was gone. I was so tired. I wanted to sleep. I wanted to let go. Yes, just let go. I began to drop my hands.
“Soon,” I whispered to myself. Soon my pain would be over. And I felt relief.
“Ammmyyyy.” That sound again. Only it wasn’t the winds, it was Georgie.
The sound of her desperation snapped me back. I straightened myself up, blinking, dazed for a long moment. My brain pounded in my head like it was trying to birth itself out the top of my skull. My nose was bleeding, blood was rushing over my lips, down my chin and dribbling to the floor.
Sarah noticed I was weakening. An awful glee glinted in her eyes. She was perched like a spider ready to launch.
The clock tick, tick, ticked. Like a countdown to a sordid demise.
“Amy,” Georgie sobbed, “Amy, I can’t—” her voice choked in her throat. “I can’t.”
She was telling me she couldn’t hold on. Her calves would be cramping, the muscles convulsing into themselves, pulling the fibres taut, like threads on a spinning wheel until the fibres pop-pop-popped. I didn’t look but somehow, I knew she’d be shifting foot to foot, fighting the pain.
“Hang on, Georgie,” I cried out.
Silence. She didn’t answer. Jesus, was she hanging?
“Georgie?”
The silence was awful. I didn’t want to look but I had to.
I twisted my head slightly and flicked my eyes across for less than a half a second, enough time to register she was still standing.
Tears ran down her face like rain. Her mouth was opening and closing but there was no sound coming out of her mouth.
It was all Sarah needed. One moment without my attention.
I caught her coming peripherally, like a bullet train engulfed by fire toward us.
I threw every bit of energy I had left at my disposal, stark terror, rage, and pure desperation.
The power leaped out of my hands. My head felt like it was going to explode, I cried out.
Her body jerked suddenly sideways as if she were a puppet and someone had yanked the string.
She hit the wall and it exploded, wood fragments burst through the air.
A triangle chunk of bookcase jutted out through her right shoulder.
The impact had ripped it from the socket and it hung from her side at a deformed angle.
The pointy end of what looked like a short, white stick poked through the skin below her neck.
It took a moment to realize it was her collar bone.
That had to hurt. Enough to incapacitate her.
It wasn’t.
Amongst a hail of wind drawn from the power that surged inside, I watched, in surreal, morbid fascination, as she jerked her body back.
The collar bone disappeared back inside and, with another manic movement, her shoulder clicked back into place.
The point of the wooden shelf remained, pinning her against the wall.
She reached her left hand up, fingers hooking around the splinted wood, and yanked it out.
Her shoulder split like an axe slammed into firewood.
Blood spilled out, coating her white blouse.
She grimaced no more than if she were pulling out a splinter.
Her skin closed over behind the wound and the blood ceased to flow.
She tossed the offending lump of wood, smeared in her blood to the side.
The sound of the earth moving quaked my mind.
At first I thought I was imagining it. It couldn’t be real, some trick of a crumbling mind unable to cope with reality, maybe the effects of whatever drugs Sarah had plied me with.
But the wall quivered and shook. The sound of grinding metal filled the air and the books that sat on the bookshelf wobbled like hefty thighs.
The vibration sent them spiralling with a slap, slap, slap, to the floor.
The wall was opening sideways to the left.
The millisecond I took my attention from Sarah she freed herself again and slipped into the dark space behind.
The wall shunted with a hefty groan to a halt, a large gap remained.
I stood staring into the darkness, shaking uncontrollably. My vision was blurred. My heart beat madly. My ears were pricked for noise. My hands were ready, primed, waiting to see her shape appear.
Gurgling, spluttering sounds of choking came from behind me.
Oh God, Georgie was hanging. I went to glance back, simultaneously Sarah came running out with blinding speed.
I urged the remaining threads of my power at her, but it was too late.
Her hand snaked out, razored claws dug into my stomach, and yanked down.
It felt like hot pokers dragged through my skin.
I felt a gush of warm wetness seep over my hips.
A startled cry left my lips. Her body flew backwards as mine toppled back to the floor.
I lay flat on my back, staring at the ceiling. Bewildered, exhausted, and terrified.
Move, you idiot, move.
I shot up, rising just in time to see her coming again.
The energy exploded from my hands and shimmered visibly like heat waves over hot tarmac in front of me.
She launched again and again at an invisible wall but she couldn’t push through.
I held her there, my strength beginning to drain.
Every muscle quivering and heavy. My lungs burned like a glowing ember had been tossed inside.
The threads of the fabric of my strength began to snap, one by one, until I was ready to collapse.
Her rage glittered in her eyes and burned my mind. I thought about Georgie, about Ethan and Karson. At what Sarah would take from all of us, at what she planned to do to him.
And now everything depended on me, the girl who’d had no control over her life for all those years. My fate perpetually in the hands of monsters. Death hovered metres away. Relief from all the suffering . . .
I got to choose. I could give up and we’d both die, or I could fight to survive.
Mom had left me. Tom had left me. Karson had left me. What was the point in fighting? I couldn’t do it anymore, I couldn’t.
I will fuck him, run the same hands that killed the woman he loves over his body.
He would never see it coming.