Unfinished Business

CHAPTER 25: THE OTHER CHEEK

I swung at the Eye For An Eye's torso, hoping to make contact-- and I did, whack after whack after wretched whack. It wasn't focusing on me, at all. It had already killed me. Twice. It had better things to worry about, like Blanche, now. I thought it would have been Ethan, but apparently it was Blanche who had the stink of insecurity on her. 

Or maybe it was that the girl still inside the monster wanted her revenge. I don't know. Don't ask me. I couldn't tell you anything about its intentions, especially when I was so blinded by my own. 

Every blow was like a sob. Each splash of blood was like oil popping out of a pan. It was chunky. It was warm. I didn't expect it to be warm.

With one of its four arms, it lashed out, completely out of nowhere, and grabbed me by the wrist. Bony fingers bit into my flesh. They twisted until I physically couldn't keep my axe without breaking something or some part of me. I was forced to drop it. There was no other choice. 

While I stepped back to pick the weapon back up or move to using the gun or doing something useful, things got worse. The Eye For An Eye slammed its hands, all four of them, into Blanche's head. Something cracked. I think it was bone; almost immediately, Blanche went down. Her head was shaped oddly now, almost flat on one side. The wound that caused her death was exposed and as bloody as ever. She was still alive, though (or undead), and there was a particular anger in her eyes and on her rage-curled lips. 

And then there wasn't. The anger was gone. Her eyes were glazed over. There was no light behind them at all. I thought I knew what was happening: like it had stopped me in my tracks so many times before, it seemed to be able to control Blanche's body. It must have been trapping her, then. I assumed wrong. This time was worse than before, since it wasn't like she was just frozen to the spot.

No, she wasn't.

Blanche got up.

With her firsts balled and her machete sticking out of her thigh like a skewer in a kebab, Blanche stood. Her movements were jerky. Her movements were unnatural. Blanche turned deliberately toward Willa, tearing the blade from her undead flesh as she did, shoulders hunched like a slasher killer.

The problem was, Willa was in the middle of hastily removing the more restrictive parts of her hockey-based armor. She didn't see what was coming for her. How was she supposed to? 

And I could have protected her. I could have kept Blanche's hands from wrapping around her neck. I could have stopped her in her tracks. I could have taken the beating. 

But, then, I couldn't have. The Eye For An Eye was coming after me, and I was preoccupied by trying not to die. In the back of my mind, I found it odd that the Eye For An Eye wasn't going after Ethan at all. That thought was quickly banished from my already-clouded mind by a hand sticking itself into my middle. It grabbed hold of the exposed bone there and, in a way that lifted the bottom of my shirt, the Eye For An Eye lifted me into the air. Once, twice, three times it shook me-- then slammed me on the ground like a child trying to break a dollar store babydoll.

It didn't hurt my body as much as I thought it would. Some of my bones broke in a way that made it harder to stand, but it meant as much to me as getting scratched by my own fingers. I landed flat on my back, with errant pieces of hay bale breaking my fall. It was like the anger overshadowing my mind was protecting me. Or maybe it was the whole undead thing working its magic.

And why shouldn't it have? It was the least my body could do for me, after betraying me so many times. It was the least the Eye For An Eye could have done, given how many times it sent me to the great big DMV in the sky.

I was distracted by what was happening to me, but I could see out of the corner of my eye that all of Willa's attempts to get away from Blanche were futile. Blanche was unrelenting. Her fingers creaked under the effort, but she didn't seem to care, even as Willa tried desperately to claw her off. Since Willa was still alive, I knew that she could still be killed. And that was bad.