Page 56 of Deliver us from Evil

I know he’s waiting in there for me.

Shit!

I could go over the top. But if he’s watching then he’ll know what I’m trying to do. So should I stay, or should I—

Something slams into the back of my head.

I land on hands and knees, fire scraping over my palms as I skid over the cement floor.

Before I can scramble up, a foot hits me square in the stomach.

God! Again? Fuck!

I kick out, manage to catch Gabriel’s shin. Not that it fucking helps—I could have been kicking a tree stump.

He takes a step back, and then surges forward again. Grabs the back of my neck. Hauls me to my feet.

I catch the crook of his arm when he goes to punch me, and that he wasn’t expecting. But he recovers so fast, I don’t even have time for some kind of counter strike.

He rips his arm free and shoves me like we’re a pair of bullies marking turf in the schoolyard.

I slam into the side of the storm drain’s massive mouth, banging my head.

There go the last of my fond childhood memories.

And that’s when Gabriel whips out his gun. Which is round about the same time I put my hands up.

Oh God, the blood. I squeeze my eyes closed and try my best to remain fixed to the earth.

“Okay! I yield!”

And he laughs. The fucker actually laughs. There’s a click from the gun, which I assume is him taking off the safety.

I’m supposed to know about these things, but I was so high when Zach took us for practice shooting. I can’t remember a damn thing.

Instead of yielding, like I asked him so damn nicely, Gabriel grabs my shirt and rams me into the concrete wall again. Then he drags me around the corner. It’s an overcast day, so there’s no sharp line in the limbo between shadow and light. Just a dark haze.

All the better to rape you in, my dear.

Jesus, fuck, no.

I tilt forward to try and push him out of the way. The icy nozzle of a gun burrows into my forehead, urging my head back and back and back until it presses against the uneven wall behind me.

Christ.

I lift my hands, close my eyes. “Just make it quick, okay? And if it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer it if you rape me after I’m dead.”

There’s another click, and that confuses the fuck out of me, because I know some guns have a hammer, but this one doesn’t.

I open one eye, then the other.

Gabriel’s lowering the gun.

But the moment I open my mouth to thank him, it’s up again.

“Stay where you are,” he says.

He wasn’t going to kill me? Fuck me? Why? I mean, I’m grateful obviously, but confused. But there’s no way in hell I’m going to antagonize him into shooting me. What good would that do anyone?

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