Her eyes narrowed and hardened. “Karson cares for no one but himself. Except, it seems, you.” She jabbed her finger into my chest, so hard the bones vibrated. “He killed someone I love, now I will kill someone he loves, and he will know how itfeels. He will live the rest of his life blaming himself for your death. I will be there, of course, to help him grieve. I will fuck him, hold him in my arms, run the same hands that killed the woman he loves over his body. It’s almost the perfect revenge, don’t you think?” She cocked her head to the side and grinned, sickeningly.
Georgie cried out. I tore my gaze to her. Her legs buckled beneath her. She panicked, her legs flapped at the edge of the chair, pushing it away. She was hanging by the rope. Her mouth stretched open, a look of sheer terror on her face.
I tried to run to her, but Sarah had me before I’d even taken my second step. I was hurled backwards through the air, my arms flapping uselessly. A hot panic rolled down my spine. My body jolted as I slammed into the bookcase. Pain exploded like fire down my back. I didn’t want to, but I couldn’t help it, I cried out. I dropped like to lead to the ground. The air evacuated my lungs. I sucked in, clawing for breath, but I couldn’t inhale. I crawled to my knees, closed my eyes. Sucked and heaved. Heaved and sucked. Tears trickled down my face, and when the breath finally came, I sucked so hard the pressure against my ribs bloomed in pain.
Georgie was screaming somewhere over the horizon. The sound of her despair peeled my eyes open. The taste of warm blood filled my mouth. I gulped it down repeatedly, terrified the smell would draw Sarah to me. With shaking fingers, I groped the bookcase edge. Hot embers scorched my chest, back, lungs. The pain was horrible. I gritted my teeth and dragged myself back to my feet.
Georgie gurgled and gasped, her fingers clutching desperately at the rope. Her face was crimson red, dripping in sweat, and her legs swung madly, like a duck paddling under water.
The sight of her struck deep.
Sarah watched her for a moment as if enjoying seeing her suffer. She pushed the chair back under her feet. “Not yet, you need to suffer a bit more first, whore.”
Georgie regained the tips of her toes and drew in wheezing breaths. Tears spilled down her face and her body shook with endless, trembling sobs. She was desperate, beyond terrified, crumbling, and I couldn’t help her.
“Sarah, revenge will not bring Nathan back, and if this ever gets out how do you think your parents will feel—knowing what you did? You have to think of them, you are all they have left and they love you so much.”
Rage crossed her face like a black cloak. “I’m all they have left because of Karson. I can’t bring Nathan back, but I can give him the revenge he deserves.”
“What about Bob and Marg, what do you think they’d want you to do?” I kept my voice calm and sympathetic. “Do you really think they’d want this for Nathan, or for you?”
“Shut up,” she shrieked. “You just shut up.”
I knew I’d touched a nerve, perhaps something to work with. I didn’t have time to give it more thought. The webbing began to vein through her eyes. Black spider’s webs, twisting manically until they became nothing but hideous cavities of decaying darkness.
This is it. This is where it ends for both of us.
“Sarah, please, don’t do this. You don’t have to do this, there are other ways,” I begged.
Graveyard eyes turned slowly to Georgie. If I could get between her and Georgie, then maybe I could hold her off. How long for I didn’t know, but I had to distract her. I felt my blood buzzing through my veins. Power growing inside. I twisted my fingers to the clock and implored it to move.
Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock.
Sarah jerked back to look at the clock. A millisecond of inattention was all I needed. I sucked in a hot breath and rushed towards Georgie, lifting my hands at the same time. Telekinetically, I hurled Sarah backwards against the wall behind. She hit with a tremendous crack.
“You’re a fuckingwitch?” she screeched. Rage rocked across her twisted face.
Don’t hesitate.
I yanked a hand to the right and tossed her body again, as hard as I could against the far wall, as far away as possible. She hit with a bone-shattering crash. I held her there with a wind as strong as any hurricane. Books flew off the shelves behind her, flapping and fluttering and dive-bombing across the room. Shredded pages twisted violently. It was a tornado of havoc and was destroying some of Bob’s prized collection, but I couldn’t think of that now. Sarah was pinned against the wall. Her head turned to the side, her hair streaked across her porcelain face. Her arms strapped by her sides. Like a prisoner strapped to an execution table.
She twisted her head back.
What I saw shot the breath from my lips and made my dreams of Shadow Man look like primary school nightmares. Gone was any trace of the beautiful girl with the gorgeous laugh and wide captivating smile. In its place was a creature. No, a monster, maybe the devil itself. Fire burned in her eyes, lips peeled back into a smile too wide for her face—hideously disproportionate— and teeth razor-sharp and glistening in the dim light.
The sight of her rage terrified me. The whole room took on freezer qualities. I felt like I wanted to be sick. Every instinct told me to run.
If you’re ever faced by a vampire, stand your ground, fight, but do not run.
Her nose flared. A horrid knowing of the deaths that awaited us quaked my mind and threatened to collapse the threads of muscle and bone which held me upright. I struggled to maintain the strength to hold her. No, not ‘her’, I realized there was nothing human about what was before me. I had to hold ‘it.’
My body was bathed in sweat. My legs felt like they wanted to collapse. My arms ached. I could feel the muscles draining themselves, like a tap had been left on. The pain in my head was unbearable, everything hurt. All I wanted to do was collapse to my knees, close my eyes and will it all away.
I couldn’t keep holding her. I couldn’t keep fighting.
Maybe I should just give up, let go, get it over and done with. I was only delaying what I knew was coming anyway. Maybe if I stopped fighting she’d show some mercy and kill us both quickly.
No one would miss me. My father would go on as he always went on. My sister would cry, and tell people how devastated she was. The same sister who never bothered to call me for my birthday. The same sister who never asked how I was, not once, for as long as I could remember. Tom would be upset, but he’d console himself in Kelly’s arms. Ethan would be pained, maybe. But it wouldn’t be long and he’d forget about me. I’d be just a distant, vague memory. And Karson, the only person I wanted to love me, never would. The sun would rise tomorrow, the night sky would still rise and fall, no different than it did today, or yesterday.
