Rachel
Her hopes soared as Hector materialized out of the darkness for the first time, appearing in the tiny circle of dim light that surrounded her. He smiled tightly and spoke calming words to her. Rachel heard herself responding, but if she’d been asked, she wouldn’t have been able to remember what she’d said. Hector examined the chains around her neck and made to remove them when he was interrupted by a noise.
A very loud, very angry-sounding noise.
He muttered something under his breath, yanked hard on the chain, and then disappeared into the shadows that started less than a foot from where she lay and rapidly grew into pitch black. A moment later the entire building shook and dust came down from the ceiling in a thick layer that blanketed her.
That wasn’t the worst of Rachel’s concerns though. In his haste to try and free her, Hector seemed to have inadvertently broken the restraint that prevented the weight from descending freely. It was starting to pull her up with increasing force. Rachel looked around, trying to figure out what to do as she hauled back on the chain with all her weight, trying to stop it, to no avail. She was slowly lifted from her knees into a crouched position.
There was no time to lose. She needed to free herself, and soon, else she would find herself on her tiptoes shortly with nowhere else to go. Looking around, she tried to see what it was that Hector had done. She’d heard something snap, but it obviously wasn’t the chain. Was it?
She was lifted to an awkward standing position, and as she did, something clattered gently in the dark. Rachel frowned as she reached out with one foot, trying to figure out what it was. Her shoe encountered something and she pulled it closer, unwilling to remove one hand from the chain as she kept pulling on it, slowing its progress as best she could.
The weight won another battle however and she was now in a nearly upright position. The movement caused the object, whatever it was, to slide across the floor some more, finally pulling it into the little bit of light that was all she had to see. Rachel twisted her neck awkwardly to look down on it, and her eyes opened with surprise.
It was the other end of the chain. She could free herself now if she was careful. Bracing her body as best she could, she snatched the free end and began to unwind it around her neck. With only one arm to hold on, the weight dropped quickly, tugging the chain up faster and faster. It was a race against time as she dipped her head around while moving her free arm in a circle, trying to undo the last link.
Air began to become harder to come by as she was forced into a full standing position, and then onto her tiptoes. The chain was still unwinding. Rachel began to panic, her limbs starting to thrash slightly, but she kept fighting it, maintaining control as best she could while her vision began to fade. It couldn’t be many more now. She tried to remember how many times the mystery shifter had wrapped it around her neck but she couldn’t remember. She began to gasp, trying to suck in air as it tightened some more.
Then all at once the chain slipped free from around her neck, whipping upward as the heavy weight came crashing to the floor with a loud bang. Rachel crashed ungainly to the ground beside it, one hand on her neck, the other gently rubbing her stomach as she tried to calm both herself and the child inside of her.
“It’s okay,” she crooned to herself after a moment. “Everything is okay now. You’re all right. I’m all right.”
The two monsters roared again in the dark. Metal crunched and the floor shook as they did battle. Rachel looked behind her in the direction of the door, and began to slowly inch toward it. The last thing she wanted to do was be stuck in the dark with furious battling shifters. The entire building felt like it was going to come down around her. Metal screeched as something large ripped and gave way.
There was one last roar, and then just as suddenly silence filled the building. She looked around nervously, wondering what had happened. Had someone won? Was it Hector? Or was he lying dead somewhere that she couldn’t see him? Rachel hated that she couldn’t see in the dark, wishing that there was light for her to go by. She couldn’t help if she couldn’t see what was going on.
Help? Listen to you. You’re seven months pregnant and you want to help in a fight between shifters? What kind of crazy are you!
Rachel snarled silently at her inner doubts. She was the crazy in love kind. Hector was out there fighting to keep her safe, and she wasn’t just going to sit around and do nothing about it. But a quick pat of her person came up with exactly nothing to help her create light, besides her cell phone. The flashlight on that simply wasn’t strong enough to light the entire warehouse. She needed more.
It would, however, help her look around for other things to ignite. She pulled the phone out and was just about to turn it on when voices sounded in the darkness. They were low, directed at one another, but it was clear to her that there were still two of them. Hector was still out there fighting, and she needed to come to his aid.
Her miniature flashlight spun around in a circle, but there was nothing nearby to help. Light reflected off a bit of glass from the door, and Rachel darted toward it. Pulling open the door allowed some of the slight ambient light from outside to spill in. But it also revealed to her a row of switches on the wall.
“Here goes nothing,” she muttered and flipped them all at once.
Sparks erupted from the ceiling at regular intervals, several bulbs shattered, and glass fell to the floor in a short-lived avalanche. That was followed by a loud buzzing noise filling much of the warehouse.
“Well that was anticlimactic,” she said, disappointed.
Then her eyes narrowed. Nothing had happened at first, but now that she was looking longer, Rachel was positive that in spots here and there she began to see circles of lights. Most of the bulbs were obviously dead, but some still had life to them, and as they warmed up they began to cover the warehouse in light. Not much, but enough that in thirty seconds or so she could see well enough to pick her away around objects. Another ten seconds and she could even make out the two figures still going at it in the center of the cavernous building.
She strode forward, undoing and picking up the chain as she went. That was about as far as her plan extended. After that, she was simply going to wait for an opportunity to present itself. Probably. Or she was going to do something stupid.
“Probably something stupid,” she growled as Hector took a glancing blow to the body, rolling with it and kicking out with a leg to drive his foe—who was masked—backward until he could regain his balance.
“Hey, ugly!” she shouted as she got close to the duo, and whipped the chain at the masked shifter as best she could.
It wasn’t much, but then again, the chain wasn’t light. The links whipped forward and the end slapped the side of his mask hard enough to snap the shifter’s head backward. It wasn’t serious damage. It was barely even mild to a shifter. But it was a distraction. He whirled to face her, throwing up a hand to grab the chain and yanking it from her hands.
All the while Hector was free to operate unimpeded. She could barely follow the blows they came so fast as he moved in to striking range. His right fist landed once, twice, three times, and then Hector did something that made even Rachel grimace in pain. He wound up and kicked his enemy right in the nuts.
That was followed up with a vicious uppercut to the jaw that doubled over the masked attacker. Hector snorted once, then spun in place and delivered a steel-toed boot right to the man’s jaw. The shifter collapsed, falling backward until his head landed a foot from her.
Rachel reached down and without hesitation yanked the mask free.