Page 40 of Redd

She needed someone too, she needed someone on her side.

I have to help her. . .

Heavy feet pounded down the hallway, drawing my attention up. The gun against my back burned my skin as I secured my finger on the trigger and waited. My eyes were wide open, muscles tensed and ready to draw at the first sign of life.

A small shadow washed the wall as the woman came bursting out the end, baring her teeth. She looked feral, her eyes glazed over, face red and flushed.

Thank God she's alright.

Throwing up my hands, I yelled, “Whoa, stop! It's just me!”

She didn't hear me. I could see it on her face that she wasn't listening. Nothing registered inside her head. Her eyes zeroed in on me, jaw squared and grinding as she growled a sound that came deep from within her throat.

“What are you doing? Hold on, stop!.” I took a long step back, trying to create some distance so she could see it was me and not whoever had destroyed my home. “It's me, it's just me!”

“I fucking hate you! You can't keep me here, I'm not yours!” she screeched through clenched teeth, turning her eyes into tight slits.

I couldn't understand where this was coming from. All I could think was that she had finally cracked, her brain had split open, and whatever abuse she had suffered had caused this extreme reaction. Whatever creature had built up inside was finally free, and she was releasing it on me.

“Whoa!” I yelled, holding out my hands. “That's not what this is, I'm not holding you captive.”

Grunting, her heels slammed down hard with every step, eyes dark and cloudy. “Bull-shit. You're a fucking liar, just likehim,you all fucking lie!”

Shaking my head, I bounced my hands in the air. “I don't have a fucking clue what you're talking about. Who's him?”

Her shoulders rolled with poise, elongating her neck. “I'm not doing this again, I'm not staying trapped anymore.” Taking in a slow breath, an audible growl purred off her tongue. “I'm going to kill you, just like you killed him.”

Her thin arm came up hard over her head as the serrated edge of a blade caught my eye. Wielding a steak knife, she flailed her arm through the air, face twisted and anguished, tears streaming down like a flood over her cheeks.

Throwing herself forward, she lunged at me. It didn't seem like she had any particular point on my body that she was aiming for. The knife swept by my chest, the tip pierced the air and danced with my shirt.

Grunts and wild animal sounds spilled from her mouth as her pupils turned into pinpricks, caught in a frenzy of emotions. Her cheeks were wet, thin veins webbed her skin like small rivers on a map as her muscles throbbed. She was shaking violently, trembling from head to toe.

The fragile skeleton danced across my living room, undernourished and paper-thin, moving like a hungry cheetah, death and destruction in her eyes.

Jumping back, I reacted, grabbing her wrist that carried the blade, and sinking my thumb into the pressure point at the base of her palm. The knife dropped to the floor with a soft thump as she let out a battle cry I didn't think her small lungs could ever make.

“AH!” she screamed, throwing her shoulders forward and grabbing her hand. Shaking out the twinge of pain from her wrist, her mouth snarled. “You killed him! You killed my father!”

The words cut through the air, smashing against my chest like a million razor blades. “What the hell are you talking about?” I asked, holding up my arms to protect my face from her nails as she clawed the air around me.

Glass cracked under her bare feet as she stomped over the broken picture frames on the floor. She didn't flinch or register the shards cutting into her heels, she kept moving forward with purpose-fueled anger.

Shaking her head, she held her fingers curled like the talons of a hawk. “I saw your eyes when you killed Dom last night, I saw the gleam of pleasure as you stole his life. You knew about who I was didn't you?!” Her nails clawed the air, swinging at my face. “You want him to die, don't you?! You like the way it feels to kill, I can see it. You're a sick fucking bastard, and I won't let you get away with this. ”

How can she say that? I helped her, I freed her!

Anger began to bubble in my chest, the accusation feeding past rage and hatred that I kept safely locked away—until now.

I've only killed to save. . . Never to hurt.

“Don't you dare judge me! You have no fucking clue, you could never understand!” My voice boomed over her cries, drowning her out and hammering her into the floor.

Taking a quick step towards her, my lip twitched with cruel, unforgiving malice. The feelings that came over me, the level of rage that consumed me right then, I had felt it only once before.

And I hated it.

But there was nothing I could do to stop it, nothing I could do to shut it off. Something had snapped inside my head, flipping the switch that taunted my demons. My fists clenched tight, nails digging into my palms with bred evil.

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