I don’t listen. I make my way down the stairs, pointing my gun in the direction of the voice. As I reach the bottom of the stairs, I’m face to face with a bloody scene.
Soren is tied to a chair. Naked. Bare with every single part of him out in the open. Slashes, red and dripping, cover his body from head to toe. There’s not a single part of him that is unmarred.
“Come any closer and he’s fucking dead,” the man shouts at me.
He’s the only one there.
Just one man.
One man with broad shoulders to rival even the strongest men I’ve seen.
Fear crawls up my spine, but then I glance at Soren again.
I see red, and nothing else.
Anger floods me.
I shoot without thinking. The man grunts and groans as he’s hit in the left shoulder, dead on. He doesn’t drop. Instead, he growls and takes the knife in his hand and slams it down into the same shoulder. Except that shoulder belongs to Soren.
Soren cries out in pain, his body twitching and contorting.
“Motherfucker!” I shout. I shoot him again, once, twice, three times.
Until finally he’s on his knees laughing.
Laughing at me.
“What are you laughing at, bitch?!” I scream at him. I pull the trigger again, but nothing happens.Click.Click.Click.
Nothing.
I didn’t check my ammo before I came here. Before I left the house. Why would I? I had been so focused on finding Soren that I hadn’t thought to make sure I was properly protected. I’d went out into the frigid winter without a coat, and I hadn’t made sure that my gun was fully loaded.
Fuck.
The hulking giant slowly pushes up off the floor in front of me. Blood is dripping from all of his bullet wounds. Just seeing them makes my own leg ache. It hasn’t been more than a few days since I was shot in the leg myself.
How he’s managing to stay standing with several gunshot wounds to the shoulders and legs is beyond me.
I should have made one of those shots a headshot, but it was too late now. I’d been too focused on making him feel as much pain as possible.
“You think you can fight me without your puny weapon?” the man asks me. He rolls his shoulders back and grunts, causing blood to spurt out of the holes momentarily.
I bare my teeth at him. “Bring it on.”
I toss my gun to the side and use any surprise on his part to my advantage. I tackle him head on. He’s significantly taller than me, and bigger than me, but I’m stronger than I look. Especially when I’m angry.
The guy starts to hit at me trying to get me to let go of him, but I wrap my arms around his neck and use the force of pulling on his body to walk my feet up his large body until I can push him backwards and roll his head under my arms. It’s a move I’ve never done before, but it comes so instinctively to me. I swing my body to the side of his and shove my knee into his ribs.
He goes tumbling to the ground, and I go down with him.
My head hits the cement floor of the basement and cracks against it. I groan as everything goes fuzzy for a moment. It’s just long enough that he’s able to roll over and get on top of me.
Every inch of me is filled with rage as I look to the side and see Soren sitting there bloody and practically disfigured. How much more blood can he lose?
“You stupid fucking oaf,” I growl out as the man on top of me tries to get his hands around my neck. I push at him with my knees and hands, struggling with how strong he is.
I feel blood drip from the back of my head, and I know I probably need stitches, but I don’t care.
