Stuart didn't bother to shield her from the wind. Instead, he allowed the tiny grains of sand and dust to sink into the back of her skull where they stayed embedded while she screamed wildly. These vampires travel a hundred times faster than Caleb, jumping over obstacles, tearing through the city streets so fast nobody would've noticed him. He jumped over something tall, a building maybe. Then entered a dark place where he threw her onto a concrete floor, smiling at the sound of her arm cracking.

“Fuck!” her breath was pounding in time with her heart, a pagan beat that overtook everything in the nearly complete darkness that surrounded her. She had no idea where she was, or what she was doing there, but she could see Stuart standing just a few feet away.

“Stuart no!” Caleb was behind her screaming.

Stuart was on her in an instant with his hand wrapped around her neck. “You're going to watch!”

“He can't move,” Stuart said to her quietly, almost playfully. “He's tied up.”

“How is that even possible?”

“A compound I developed that puts vampires out and weakens their bodies. It's one of a kind, actually.” He sounded rather proud of himself while he tightened his grip on Sara's throat. He was crushing her lymph node glands, and slowly tearing the skin off. She could feel the sharp pang of it tearing on the back of her neck. “You like that?”

“M-m...”

Her voice was strained.

“What was that?” He cocked his head to the side.

“M-Malleus.” She met his eyes.

“That's not going to happen.” He shook his head and reached down to grab her finger. Left hand. “In fact, I don't like the idea of you even trying.” He took her index finger, smiled and caught her eye as he moved Well,his finger slowly up the side.

“What are you doing?” She asked, petrified.

Her answer was a sharp pain, more powerful that anything she'd ever felt in her entire life and a sickening, squishing feel as her index finger tore away at the base. Dark spots clouded her vision. She didn't notice that she was shrieking until she felt her throat go dry and her voice broke. She kept going and going, watching the blood spray out while Stuart aimed her hand so the fountain would spray into his mouth while he gave her a cocky grin.

“I'll kill you! I'll kill you!” Despite the pain and loud whispering sound that was still trying to explode out of Sara's mouth, she could still hear the sound of metal scratching against metal while Caleb struggled to get free.

“Well, that was fun, wasn't it?” Stuart wiped his mouth and used a handkerchief he kept in his velvet jacket to stop the bleeding. “What else should we rip off? Your scalp?” He rubbed her head. “Your nose?” He flicked the top. “Or maybe we could try one of your ears.” He ducked into a whisper, shooting toxic breath that poured down her neck, setting off a series of explosions inside her mind. Each one was accompanied by the sound of crackling flash and white marble turning to dust.

“You're going to die now.” Stuart swiped a black strand of hair away from her eyes. “You hear that Caleb. It's time.”

“Even if she dies, Stuart, it won't stop me from killing you.” Caleb was accepting her death as an inevitability. Her grandmother was in the house crying over her lost family. There was no hope. Everyone already assumed that she was dead, but she wasn't, and she still had power. He would hear her using the scythe and would probably feel the room get cold.

She wasn't going to be able to kill him. She couldn't fight him. There was nothing else that could possibly work.

“How you want to die? Do you expect me to drain your blood? Snap your neck or maybe I could puncture your stomach. That's a fun one. It's one of the most painful ways to go because the stomach acid eats right through you, and it takes forever. So what do you think?”

Sara wasn't being given any choice in the matter, not one thing she said would stop him.

“Sara I love you!”

That was the hardest part. She had a reason to care about her life. After her mother had died, Sarah gave up entirely. She wanted to die, and she felt that way for a long time. Now that she wanted to live, blood was pouring out of the hole where her finger had been. The seething pain was taking over her mind, and all she could think of was how badly she wanted to be with him. She wasn't supposed to die. That's not what her mother would've wanted.

Sara closed her eyes, breathed in deep and feel into the blue pool hidden deep within her gut. It was power but was it enough. He needed the scythe. It was the only power she had now, and the pain from her finger was starting to cause it to boil. Soon it rose up to the surface and her focus traveled with it, up her spine.

It was so cold it would burn anything that touched it. A smile crept up its lips. She still had that fire.

“I guess we'll do the stomach.”

Sara laughed quietly, watching the fire lap at her feet. It spread so fast that Stuart barely noticed. He was too busy gauging the placement of her stomach. He pulled back his hand with one finger ready to pierce through her skin.

He stepped back, his jaw wide open as that fire engulfed her body. Then, with a single thought her wrath erupted in a ball of flames that stuck to his skin. “Ah!”

The skin on his face disintegrated and turned to ash, revealing the stark white muscle below. It never got farther than that, though. Instead, the skin kept trying to heal itself while the fire ate at it, placing Stuart in a state of perpetual torture that wouldn't stop. Instead, the fire at his whole body, tearing through his chest and eating it while it tried to repair himself, eating his stomach while Sara laughed.

“Stop! Please! Stop!”

“You killed my mother.” She said coldly. Then she turned around. “Caleb? How do I find you?”

“Just keep walking back.” Sara struggled to get away, hindered by the pain where her finger used to be and the deafening sound of Stuart's screams.

“I'm coming.” The light cast a blue glow on the floor around her and eventually stood out enough for her to make out the shape of a golden chain. She followed it as best she could until she reached Caleb who had a chain around his foot.

“Thank God.” He struggled to get up from where he'd collapsed on the floor. He was pale and sweating. “Get rid of the fire.”

She used it to eat through his chains then let it flow into the ground.

“Let's go home, Caleb.”

“Come on.” He picked her up and stopped at his brother's glowing form. “I'm sorry, Stuart, but you did this to yourself.” Stuart was too busy screaming to even notice that Caleb said anything. Caleb ducked down and picked up her finger laying on the concrete.

“Can it be reattached?”

“Yes.” He started running back to the house.