Riley: To the End
There are a half dozen holes in Jack's body. The thought doesn't even make sense to me. Blood is gushing out of him. I have to stop this. I have to fix him.
“Stay awake, Jack! Damn it! Jack, stay awake!”
I slap him but his head just lolls to the side. I slap him again. Nothing. I dig a finger into one of the wounds in his shoulder. No reaction. I’m not even sure if he’s still alive. He’s still alive. You have to still be alive.
Daemon is slowly moving towards us. I grab Jack’s gun, fumble with it until the slide locks back into place, and lean around the wall. “Stop right fucking there or I’ll fucking kill you!” I scream at Daemon.
He grins a red grin. “You’re all out of bullets.” I pull the trigger, hoping somehow I’m not, and the gun clicks. Empty. There’s no other weapon between me and him. He’s going for the gun on the closest dead man. He’s going to kill Jack.
I grab my gun and hurl it at his head, but it glances off. He’s nearly reached the gun. I grasp Jack’s pistol and force my aching body to run. I throw myself into Daemon just before he reaches the loaded gun and swing my pistol at his head. But he catches my wrist, twists it, and head-butts me, hard. He’s wounded and woozy. Jack got him at least twice. But he’s still so fast and so freakishly, unnaturally strong. He’s stronger than I’d expect, even for his enormous size. He head-butts me again. That red grin is all I can see.
Terror and despair flood through me as my vision turns black at the edges. But one lucid thought holds in my mind: I can’t let Jack die. I drive my knee between his legs. He shifts and blocks it with his thigh. I drive my stiletto into his toe and he roars in pain. I still have a free hand. I dig my fingers into a bullet hole in his arm. He howls again and smashes me into the ground. My head cracks against the floor and the breath goes out of me so hard that I heave. My whole body screams in pain. I smash the gun into the joint of his knee and he wobbles, but then he kicks me and he’s on top of me.
The whole fight happens in two seconds—the space of a single breath.
He’s on me, wrapping his hands around my throat and cracking my head against the floor. A practical part of me knows that it’s over. You’re dead. You didn’t stand a chance against him. Why did you even fight? You should’ve begged, you stupid idiot, says a voice in my head that sounds a lot like my mother.
I want to lose consciousness. This is too excruciatingly painful. But each time I almost dip out, I fight my way back and shove him off, fight him back. It’s hopeless, one part of me says. But another says, I don’t care if it is.
Daemon grins his crimson grin again. “Stupid little cunt.”
I grin back at him and spit blood up at his face. He rips the gun out of my hand and raises it, and I know for sure that I’m about to die. I can imagine it crunching into the bones of my face, destroying all the soft matter behind them. A huge surge of adrenaline and terror bursts through me at my life ending, but I keep grinning at him, staring into his eyes.
Daemon’s arm descends.
And Jack’s arm slips around it. The gun freezes in mid-air. Jack wrenches Daemon back so hard that some part of Daemon’s arm snaps. Jack falls to a knee but gets up and they crash into each other. Daemon’s on top of him, fighting desperately now, but Jack has his legs wrapped around him and he keeps pinning Daemon’s good arm.
“Riley…go…” He’s struggling to form the words. Daemon yanks his arm free and smashes it into Jack’s face.
Fuck no.
I should be terrified, but all I feel is rage. I see why men enjoy this, I think, absurdly. It feels so pure.
I tear the leash off my neck and wrap the chain around my hands. My head aches and I feel dizzy and sick. One step at a time. They seem so far away. One step at a time. And I’m there. Daemon’s on top of Jack, hitting him again and again. I loop the chain around his neck—once, twice, three times—before he realizes what's happening, and I pull as hard as I can. I press my knees against his back and throw every fiber of my strength against the chain.
He gasps, then chokes, then bellows. I pull harder. Jack snatches his arm and holds him.
Somehow, Daemon stands. He charges to the wall with Jack and me both locked onto him. He smashes Jack against it first, then turns and smashes me, but we both hold on. Jack kicks out one of Daemon’s legs and he goes down. I keep straining against the chain. Daemon tries to gasp in air but only manages a sick gurgling sound, then nothing.
I hear a cracking sound. I realize it’s coming from his neck. His legs thrash along the floor. I’ve never seen a man so desperate.
And then slowly, slowly, he goes limp until his body is only twitching on the ground. And then nothing. I hold onto him for a long time after that.
Finally, Jack says, “You can…let go now…he’s dead…”
And all I can think is, Holy shit, we won.