Chapter Five
‘Livin’
Dead Girl’
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His hazel
green eyes looked sharp and more than ready to notice even the smallest
movement. He leaned closer to the water of the sink, threw some on his face and
looked back into the mirror. The memory of her lips against his was running
through his head. Ben leaned closer to wash his face again.
Failure. He should
leave.
He rubbed his
face harder. Angela was scorching him inside. She was the reason why he was washing
his face at
Ben started
using his wrists as well trying to rub even harder. He ring began cutting his
face making it bleed, but he wouldn't stop. He needed to get it out. Then the
ring cut deep and he stopped.
Slowly he
lifted his head up and faced himself. Blood ran down his face, but he didn't bother
to wipe it away. Blood made him understand his feelings. There were three cuts
on his forehead.
Angela. Her
blue eyes were haunting him.
Ben washed the
blood away and pressed a towel against his wounds. He walked back to the
bedroom and began pulling his jacket on. Then he walked over to the window and
he was about to go out when the breeze of the wind embraced him.
Back then…
during the escape he’d lost the pendant of the Lady. Syl had told him to run,
but he couldn’t so he’d returned to retrieve it risking his life over the
golden amulet and he’d never seen her again. She’d left without him because she
couldn’t turn his head around and now every day was loneliness thinking how he
could’ve ran with her and everything would’ve turned out better.
Ben stopped to
breathe. He had gone back for the pendant and abandoned Syl for it. Even right
now it was hanging around his neck and Ben felt the burning pain his choice had
caused. Syl had been close, closer than anyone and still Ben had left her.
What kind of a
person did it make him? He was a cold emotionless killer.
Then why was
Angela's behaviour back at the parking lot still cutting him deeper than the
wounds on his forehead? Ben wanted to hold her. He tried to push his feelings
aside, but it didn't work this time. The girl with her lost look and a tear
descending down her cheek had a hold of him even now.
If she’d
kissed him back in the trunk would she be laying over his arms right now? Would
they laugh together and fight against the tide together? No, she was already
beaten down by that tide and hurt deep inside. Maybe he could help her, save
her somehow? Maybe she’d be the one to share his pain and kill it for him?
The decision
was quick as he bolted out of the bathroom and began pulling his clothes on.
Then he climbed out the window jumping to the street. He came down smoothly
over his feet and there were no injuries to be seen. Ben looked up before he
made himself disappear in the shadows as he headed for her hotel.
There were
things that needed to be said. Things to be given answers to and he had the
feeling he’d never say them if he didn‘t hurry now.
He was almost
invisible a part of the scenery as he moved on. The only thing on his mind
right now was her: Her way of saying all the things no one else would've ever
said. Why had she pulled away when he had kissed her? Where did this hate he
sensed in her come from? Why was it burning so brightly in her?
Suddenly he
stopped. Ben wasn't far off from her hotel, but he was hearing noise.
Concentrating on his sense of hearing the noise began to make sense to him.
There was a fight near by. Ben began running towards the noise with an inhuman
speed. Voices gasping in pain were heard and somehow it scared him.
-
They had
appeared out of thin air. She had been too slow this time, stayed too long in
the city. Maybe it would never be safe for her.
Two men came
from behind and tried to grab her hands, but she was too fast and before they
could bend her hands behind her back, she'd already reached her knife and
gotten a good grip on it. With speed that came with intensive training she
stabbed the man on her left to the chest and broke the other's nose with her
elbow. Rage took over when she turned to kick him in the stomach and run
against the two other men who had just arrived. She was too small to use her
bodyweight as a weapon, but she had the element of surprise on her side and she
was able to knock the first one down before he could realize she’d dashed at
him.
The second one
was faster than she had expected and that's why he beat her to it by grabbing
her from her armpit and smashing her against the wall. She suffered a hit to
the head and managed to drop the knife from her senseless fingers as nausea
passed through and made her eyesight twisted for a few precious seconds. Time
wasn't on her side when she was already lifted up from the front of her coat as
she tried to get up. Again she was hit against the wall and before she could
realize what was happening she suffered a kick to her stomach as her attacker
knee met with her abdomen.
Trying to
maintain control over her body she fumbled up using the wall to her advantage
refusing to lose this fight over her life. Pain was of no importance to her. It
could be shut out as easily as one refused the truth.
She was almost
up when she moved her hand punching her opponent faster than what he'd
expected. Yet her muscle strength wasn't enough and the punch did only little
harm. It was like poking a finger against a skyscraper. She could even hardly
take a look at the man before he gave his reply to her hit and punched her down.
He came to close to breaking her jaw with that punch, but it was her just her luck
to survive without serious injury.
The hit did
daze her though and she was having trouble in trying to keeping herself
conscious when he began talking: "Nice punch you've got there. Put down
three men before falling. But now it is the time to go home. He'll be expecting
you quite anxiously. You've been gone far too long."
His words
brought out the terror again. She saw the face she'd never forget right there
in front of her. There was nothing like it. Her veins began pumping acid.
Faster than ever she took the knife in her hand and attacked, but got blocked
as her was prepared for something like this on her part. She couldn't stab him
before he grabbed her wrist and stopped her hand. With his thick fingers around
her wrist he twisted her hand making her drop the knife and slammed her against
the wall.
"There's
no need to make this fight any longer." he said as if she was trying his
patience with her resistance. Then he looked at her shoulder for a moment,
before he took it in his hand and with an iron grip he pulled it towards him,
dislocating it. She screamed in pain as the tears blinded her eyes. Her strength
disappeared again and she fell down to her knees engulfed in pain and misery.
She had
failed.
She stared
down panting and trying to comprehend the pain, but it was too much and her
mind could only imagine the horror that waited for her once again as old scars
ached. Her body was screaming yet refusing to work the way she willed. A mask
of suffering took over face now while her ears caught a strange noise of bones
breaking. Her brain just couldn’t recognize it.
Steps of the
one approaching filled her and her other hand reached for the knife by her. She
couldn’t give up now. She needed to fight. She jumped up fuelling herself only
with extreme rage as she moved her hand through the air trying to hit
something. Then her hand was grabbed again, but this time the grip was gentle
and wet somehow.
"I am not
your enemy. You're ok now." A familiar voice commented from above. She
raised her head under confusion seeing the face she'd never expected to see
again and shock spread across her.
"Ben?"
her teary voice asked not believing itself.
"Angela?"
was his reply when he recognized that beaten face. He couldn't move. She stared
at him trough the cloud of tears. He was there right above her.
Ben looked
down at the kneeled Angela, whose body carried to marks of heavy beating.
Time had stopped.
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