Present: Warehouse in the London
F abiola isn’t waking up. It is as if her heart has stopped beating. Nothing.
Lewis loses his grip on the fight and gets wounded when he turns to check on Fabiola. Jack gets aggressive and runs into the Reds, killing a few like he had done so many times before. But then he realizes they’ve trapped him in the middle and are about to kill him. Constance is still fighting but is now giving me that blaming look. I should have saved everyone. Tom is hiding somewhere; we can’t find him. The Chauffeur disappeared some time ago.
As for me, I am drowsy from cutting myself. Soon, I’ll fall dead next to Fabiola.
In this rollercoaster of all the wrong emotions, something happens. It’s not like I am getting better as Fabiola said earlier, but the sword lightens in my hand. The Vorpal sword seems to send shivers down my spine. Good shivers.
A bolt of energy surges through my soul. With a pint of anger, I’m all good.
I raise my sword and run as fast as I can to save Jack. It’s not long before I find myself running on air, above the Reds’ heads. I don’t resist the transition. The power. Evil meets good meets efficiency. I slice the first head with the lightest and smoothest sword I’ve ever seen.
Jack’s eyes widen. He starts shooting as well, but can’t stop glancing at me now and then.
The elevation isn’t permanent. It’s like I need to feed it. If I stay up in the air too long, I tend to fall again. I realize it’s fed every time I kill a Red.
Chop. Chop. Chop.
Easy like a thin knife into butter.
“It’s about time!” Constance cheers.
I use the Reds’ shoulders as standing poles between my jumps, in case the elevation doesn’t last long. This damn power needs feeding, which means killing.
The Reds scatter all around me, trying to confuse me so they won’t be an easy target. They’ve forgotten about the others. They’re all on me now.
“Don’t kill her,” one of them shouts. “Mr. Jay wants her alive—”
His last words. I chop off his head.
From the corner of my eye, I see Constance use the Reds leftover cloaks to make a bed for Fabiola. Who knows where those Reds disappear to when you kill them?
Funny, I notice now my wounds are suddenly healing.
The Reds scattering maneuvers don’t help me, and they keep coming through the door. I need to find a way to gather them closer to each other.
“I can tease them, if you want,” Constance yells from afar, jokingly.
What did she just say? Distracted, I turn and look in her direction.
“Yes,” she nods while mending Fabiola. “I heard your thoughts.”
“How is that possible—” I start to ask.
Red slices a wound at my thigh.
The pain is so abrupt that I lose my grip on my sword. It skids before me on the floor as I tumble sideways.
“No!” I shout.
Jack gets to his feet and does the right thing. Instead of helping me up, he shoots the Reds trying to get their hands on the sword. Lewis returns and starts fighting the Reds who are trying to kill me while I am on the floor.
The pain is too much, but then I hear a voice in my head. “Reach out for the sword. It will come to you.”
I turn my head and gaze at Constance. “Reach out,” she says it out loud now. “I don’t know how I know, but I do.”
My hand stretches as much as I can. I glimpse Tom picking up a cellular from the floor. One of the Reds lost their phone? That’s absurd.
Suddenly, lightning surges through my body again, and my brain feels as if it’s frying. The Vorpal sword flips in the air, high, somersaulting back to me.
“Wow!” Constance exclaims.
One of the Reds near me has a more precise thought, “Shit,” he says as I grip the sword and I slice him open.
This time, I am much stronger. Lewis, Jack, and Constance appear much stronger now too.
“We can do it,” Constance says. “Fabiola is well, by the way. She only hit her head into something. No bullet.”
“Like the old days, all over again,” Lewis says to her.
Jack stands perplexed, not remembering anything about the past. Lewis’s rabbit peeks out of his pocket and tells him, “Just don’t say anything like ‘awesome’ or ‘fantabulous.’ Don’t spoil the moment, Jack.”
And then we bring hell on the Reds. The Inklings are back.