ECHO [Rewritten - NaNoWriMo '16]

Chapter 18: You'll Know

16 March 2016

Phoenix, Arizona

Echo

Echo had grabbed an empty soda can behind her and thrown it. The force of it had been just enough to shift the barrel of the gun so that bullet simply slid through her hair. Echo ducked and rolled, slamming into Zeph so that he would release Wren and Howl as R sent another shot off. She hissed through her teeth, "Get out! Go!"

She launched forward and away, clinging to the wall. She reached into the waistband of her pants, drawing a knife. Taking a deep breath, Echo shifted away from the wall to face R. But the other woman was gone. As was the bear. Paiute vanished into the shadows, keeping an eye out. R was somewhere near, somewhere just off to the side. Echo held her knife aloft and ready. Unconsciously, Echo began to count the beats of her heart.

One...

Two, three....

There was a flash of silver that vanished as Echo turned towards it.

Four...

There was a hiss and she collided into Echo's side. The knife went flying, and Echo grunted as she hit the ground. She twisted to grab onto R, taking her down too. They rolled on the floor. Echo cried out as R twisted her wrist until she was forced to let go. Echo brought her knee up sharply into her stomach. R gasped.

She kicked again and managed to wriggle from her grasp. She got a few feet away before shifting into a crouch to face R. Despite the fact that she was expecting this, she still lost her breath as a million emotions began to snarl inside her chest. R looked different. Her once beautiful face was now drawn, the angles too sharp. Stress, lack of nutrition, and depression had withered her away into a shell of her former beauty. R snarled before launching forward. Echo mirrored her and the two collided painfully, overcome by years of anger, frustration, and pain. Their punches and kicks were neither graceful nor life threatening, but they brought the satisfaction of pain.

R twisted and grabbed the back of Echo's loose hair, yanking the latter's head backwards. Echo went with it, arching her back. She used the momentum to throw her hands up, hitting R in the throat. She choked and released Echo. Stumbling slightly, before regaining her balance, Echo twisted and kicked R in the face. She fell onto the ground and Echo launched, grabbing her by the hair and lifting her head up before slamming it into the ground. R three her head back, connecting with Echo's own face. She fell backwards and R twisted away from her. She regained her senses before tackling Echo again.

The pair rolled around again on the ground. They rolled off the sidewalk and into the parking lot, connecting with a car. Echo brought her elbow down on R's eye socket, and the latter brought her knee up for a sharp jab between Echo's legs. She wriggled away from R once more, stumbling and falling to one knee when she tried to stand. R blindly leapt at Echo, punching her multiple times. Echo coughed, her eye catching a metal rod. She ducked R's kick and dived. R saw a second too late was Echo was going for. Echo landed on her stomach, her fingers closing around the cool metal. Ignoring the explosive pain in her side, Echo twisted and swung, the rod meeting R's head. There was a sickening crunch, and R went down. Echo kicked R in the side before catching sight of the discarded gun that R had had. Gritting her teeth, she got to her feet, and went to grab it.

Echo stood over R and aimed the gun at her head. R blinked several times, looking up at Echo. Her eyes got brighter as she looked past the gun and into Echo's eyes. She could feel her own eyes begin to burn, and she blinked away unshed tears. When her vision refocused, she noticed that R was wearing a silver necklace with a sun charm on it. The necklace under her own shirt seemed to burn, the small dove flapping its wings with a fury. She swallowed and looked into R's eyes, remembering a conversation her and R had had once late into the night.

"Can you kill me?" R had asked.

Echo ran a hand through the other woman's hair, "No, why would you ask such a ghastly thing?"

"Liane, please." R grabbed her hands tightly. "I don't want to be doing this the rest of my life. And I don't want to be executed by some random person that Viper sends my way."

"You know how I feel about you, and you're asking me to kill you? You're the one person that I don't want to kill," Echo protested.

"Please," R's eyes filled with tears. "When I am ready, please kill me."

Echo closed her eyes against the rush of agony that ripped her heart in half. "How will I know when you want to – when you're ready?"

"You'll know."

Echo looked down at the woman who had been her first friend, her lover, the person who had broken her heart, and the last person she would ever give a piece of her hear too. Echo inhaled deeply, her hand quivering slightly. "Auf Wiedersehen."

She forced herself to keep her eyes open as she pulled the trigger. In the next second there was a hole in R's forehead, and a pool of blood spreading underneath nearly white hair. Echo kneeled down and rested a hand on R's cheek. Staring into those dull, beautiful eyes. Echo closed her own and bowed her head, letting the loss wash over her. It held her immobile for several heartbeats before Echo pushed away the emotions and closed R's eyes, yanking the necklace from the woman's neck.

Echo clasped it around her own neck, letting the sun charm rest on her collarbone next to the dove. It was then she noticed that there was something in R's pant's pocket. She slipped her fingers inside to find a folded piece of paper. She pulled it out, studied it, and began to smile. She tossed the gun to the side, walking over to where Zeph was now motionless. Paiute was sitting next to him, his head bowed as well. Echo paused; even the bear was thinner than it should have been. His coat dull. I clicked my tongue at Paiute who simply stood, and leaped onto my shoulders.

Wren and Howl were standing nervously by the street, near the front doors of the airport. Echo held up the piece of paper and said, "Come on. We have somewhere to be."