So You Used to Be Human - Book 3 (Original Version)

Chapter 42: Life, the Universe and Everything

It's impossible to describe the insanity of a three-way fight where all three people involved are actively trying to kill each other. It would occasionally and very momentarily turn into a two-versus one fight and but that would immediately fall apart as one of the temporary allies chose to attack the other instead of pressing the fight. It was pure chaos and insanity so of course Beatrice was having the time of her life.

This was the sight that greeted me as I barrelled into the bar/ballroom area of the motel that served as a nightclub on weekend nights and was no doubt a source of irritation to the occupants, but was profitable enough for the owners not to actually give a shit. I initially had no idea where the hell I was running to and hadn't given it much thought except that it was daylight outside and I really was wearing the wroing outfit, but I simply hadn't cared at the time. It was the sounds of shit breaking, coupled with yells and grunts that caught my attention. That was familiar sound to me and I went directly towards the battle, fearing the worst.

Apparently what I had been expecting wasn't exactly the worst.

What I got was definitely in a whole new category by itself.

There were a couple of pretty big windows once I reached the lobby level, but those were mostly facing east, so I only had indirect sunlight to deal with, which was a relief, since I didn't feel like running the gauntlet of windows and coming out the other end slightly toasted. If I was going to try to jump Mr Bryce, which was looking more and more like suicide the closer I got to the ballroom, then I was going to need to be as strong as possible. Even if the caffeine from the 5-Hour Energy had hit him with full force, I was extremely skeptical of it slowing Mr Bryce down, especially since it hadn't done that already. The best case scenario would have been me running around the corner and finding the prone unconscious body of Mr Bryce waiting for a few unfortunate kicks in the ribs and in the head, which of course couldn't be helped. Since that was looking like less and less of a possibility with every step I took, I was preparing for the worst case scenario.

At some point, the fire alarm had gone off and the few occupants of the rooms had exited, all wild-eyed and worried, some of them dragging their suitcases with them, not knowing what to expect. I suspected that some of them had been terrified into hiding under their beds in case whatever terrorists outside with the bombs and guns had come knocking, but who could really blame them? If I had told them that it was nothing like that, just a deadly battle between vampires, they would have looked at me like I was stupid and crazy. Everybody knew that vampires were not real, and if they were, they wouldn't be fighting with guns and grenades. There would be lots of fists and teeth and sharp objects involved.

They should have taken a step into the ballroom.

Beatrice stumbled into me as I entered, almost knocking me over from the force at which she had been almost thrown across the room. She was all wild-eyed and bloodied, her day-walking outfit torn to shreds. There was a huge fist-sized bruise across the left side of her face and her nose had been broken, mashed into her face, but she was literally having the time of her life.

"Hi Bobby!"

"Hi?" I offered, and looked past her to where Jaime and Mr Bryce were trading blows like all Hell was coming down around them. Jaime's hoodie and balaclava had been ripped away and the leather jacket hung in tatters around her, full of different kinds of holes. Blood streamed down the left-side of her face, her hair sticky and matted and she was a mass of scratches, bruises and cuts. And somehow she fought on with Mr Bryce, a broken and slender piece of wood that might have once had carvings on it held tightly in one fist, which she used to jab and stab at the staggering Mr Bryce whenever she got the chance. She wasn't trading blows directly, since that would have been absolute disaster since  one of his fists was easily the size of her head and he could have easily crushed her, especially at full strength. But this wasn't Mr Bryce at full-strength. This was Mr Bryce after he had suffered a huge embolism, that had left his left side partially paralyzed, so that he staggered and swung his blows more clumsily and with only about sixty-percent power, but it was still a very dangerous Mr Bryce nonetheless.