The bloody night was about to get worse.
*
She could feelhim trying to lift her skirts.
Struggling to pull out of the daze from hitting her head on the stairs, Mira could feel someone trying to push her skirts up. It took her a moment to come around, but she remembered that her last conscious moments were of her running from Raymond. She remembered the panic and the fear. All that man meant to her was panic and fear. She could smell the damp earth of the vault and it spurred her terror when she realized where she was. Even in the darkness, she could make out the outline of Raymond’s face—the man was on top of her. He must have gained the upper hand somehow.
The feet, and hands, began to fly.
Mira burst into full consciousness with a roar, screaming and shouting so loudly that it reverberated off the stone walls.Raymond was saying something—she couldn’t quite make it out, but it was something that suggested she calm herself or ease herself or the situation would not be pleasant for her. Mira didn’t care if it was pleasant or not.
She was in survival mode.
Her knees were aiming for his belly and groin as he tried to hold them down. The fact that she was moving around so much made it difficult for him to try to lift her skirts. He was trying to keep her from hurting him again, so he tried to use his body weight to pin her down as he attempted to kiss her. Mira’s hands came up and she poked him in the right eye as hard as she could.
Raymond howled.
He also fell off her and she was able to worm out from underneath him. Everything was about surviving this moment, and she fought like an animal. Raymond grabbed at her again as one hand covered his right eye, and she slapped his hands, scratching at him. He gave up trying to grab her arm and went for her skirts, taking hold and yanking. The movement sent Mira off balance, toppling into one of the wheat barrels.
The stone that held the wooden top on the barrel rolled off and onto the next barrel. The wooden top was completely jarred away, and Mira grabbed it, using it to beat Raymond. He only had one hand as it was because the other one was trying to protect his damaged eye, so he could do little more than hold an arm up to keep her from injuring him further. She was panicking and he was quickly growing enraged.
With a growl, he reached under her skirts and grabbed her by the ankle, yanking as hard as he could. Mira was pulled down to her knees, but she didn’t fall completely. Raymond yanked again and she held on to the barrel for dear life, terrified of what would happen if he pulled her to the floor again.
And then she saw it.
The rock that had rolled off the barrel lid.
Raymond now had two hands. He couldn’t see very well out of his right eye, but that didn’t matter. He was going to get Mira on the ground and she was going to stay there. With both hands, he grabbed her by the lower legs and pulled as hard as she could. With a yelp, Mira ended up on the ground, but she hadn’t fallen before she grabbed the rock. It was a heavy thing, but not too heavy for her to use. As Raymond rolled her onto her back and tried to smother her mouth with his, Mira lifted the rock with both hands and crowned the top of his head with as much strength as she could muster.
And then she did it again.
Raymond fell off her, onto the dirt of the vault, as Mira scrambled to her knees and hit him in the head again and again. She hit him in the face, in the throat, and the blood began to flow out of his mouth and nose. The rock was becoming bloody as she banged on him again and again and again, pounding him until he stopped squirming. Until he stopped trying to lift his hands to stop her. She smashed his face until it didn’t look like Raymond anymore, until the bones broke and shattered and it all became one giant, bloodied mass of flesh.
But still, she pounded.
He was going to rise up. She knew he was going to rise up and wasn’t sure she could stop him a second time, so she had to make sure he never got up again. Blood began to splatter, onto her face and arms and chest, but she still continued to beat Raymond. Those years of fear were flowing out of her, giving her the strength to end the terror once and for all. She simply wanted it to stop. She was so wrapped up in her life-or-death struggle that she didn’t see Douglas or Davyss or Jonathan flying down the vault steps, rushing into the darkness only to find her beating Raymond to a bloody pulp with a rock. Sobbing and screaming, she lifted the rock until she could lift no more. Until she heard Douglas’ soft voice behind her.
“Mira, sweetheart,” he said gently. “Mira, please stop. He cannot hurt you anymore, I promise.”
She wasn’t even startled to hear his voice. Crouched over Raymond, she didn’t even realize she was covered in blood until she happened to look at the rock in her hand to see that it was solid red.
But she had stopped.
Douglas knelt down beside her, shocked at what he was seeing, and carefully took the rock from her hand.
“Let me have it, sweetheart,” he said softly. “That’s a good lass. Mira… what happened? Can you tell me what happened?”
Whathadhappened? Mira had to think about it. She’d been in such a blind rage of terror that she had to remember what, exactly, had happened. It didn’t seem real, any of it.
Why was she even here?
What was happening?
“I… I do not know,” she said, dazed. “Astoria said there was rot in the grain and I must see to it immediately. I came down here and… and he grabbed me.Raymondgrabbed me. He told me not to scream because he wanted to talk to me, but he would not let me go. He had his hand over my mouth and I… I could not breathe.”
She was pale, her eyes wide on Douglas, who was looking at her in genuine horror. As he held her attention, Jonathan moved around to her to see if Raymond was still alive. Douglas distinctly saw Jonathan shake his head to indicate that the man was, indeed, quite dead. As dead as he looked.
And Mira had killed him.
