Page 59 of Steel Rain

Rage is a great anesthetic. The more I thought of Keith’s face, the more I felt it in my hands. How dare he? Hadn’t he stolen enough from me? And now he wanted more!

One punch. One single solitary punch was what I needed. Never had a single move been more important than right at that moment. The move started at my feet. A slight pivot on my toes, then my hips and knees joined the party, turning me counterclockwise. My shoulders joined the momentum, to my elbow, to my fist that was at the end of the great pendulum, flying through the air as I let out a scream from deep inside me. Not a kiai, not some exhalation to make me at one with my body.

It was a cry of complete agony for everything this man had stolen from the little girl I used to be.

When my knuckles crashed against his face, I savored every millisecond. The feel of my fist on his brow bone. The way his head turned as he closed his eyes. The grimace of pain. The slow exhalation of an anguished cry as his shoulders pivoted to follow the trajectory of his face. The way his body crashed into the wall as he did a full turn was enough to make my soul sing.

It wasn’t until that moment that I knew somewhere deep inside my gut that I was going to kill this man. I was going to watch his eyes grow dull, and unfocused. I’d see his skin grow pale as blood gushed from his being. I’d watch as he took his very last breath.

I will rejoice when that inevitability came. Because Keith Bournes would die for his sins, and I would be the one to do it.

“You bitch!” He yelled, wiping the blood and snot from his nose. “You used to be a smart girl. Shame you’ve become so fucking stupid.”

O’Rourke grabbed my arm, holding me back as Keith landed a strike to my rib.

Keith grabbed my hair, twisting it into his fist at the temple.

“First thing, you grow this bullshit hair out. You’re no GI Jane, anymore, Princess. You’re fucking property now.” Keith tugged my head, and punched my nose. I felt the blood and smelt the tang of metal as blood dripped from my nostrils and to my lips.

Hewas the reason I had cut it. He had pinned me down by my long hair, twisting it around his fist like a rope. That was how he held me down. How he ripped my dress, and took my virginity.

I had escaped after I took scissors to it, sheering my long, beautiful locks off my head until I was down to the scalp. A layer of my long, yellow hair was strewn like a pathetic rug on the bathroom floor as I ran from my childhood home, into the darkness, to a bus stop …

He landed another strike to my sternum, knocking the air from my lungs and sending a pain shooting from my chest to my head. I struck an elbow, hitting O’Rourke in the chest, but Grimes grabbed my shoulder, slowing my momentum.

They were trying to get my arms behind me, and I couldn’t let them because I knew what would happen there. Keith would use my face as a punching bag, and that wasn’t going to happen.

I had landed one solid hit. Now, survival had to take over. I had to escape.

The door was out of the question. There were two of them in the way, and if Keith, in all his Irish prom king popularity was smart, he’d have more people stationed outside. Maybe that’s why O’Malley was gone for the night. So that they could have open season on Sinead Flanagan.

But they didn’t know what kind of animal I was. I wasn’t prey. I was predator.

Keith punched me in the face, my head rocked back, hinging at my neck. I would have crashed to my knees if it wasn’t for his buddies holding me still. I kicked one in the shin, and he barely flinched, anticipating my hit. I tried to drop down to get out of their grasp, but I couldn’t give them my back, and I didn’t want to be on the bottom of their dog pile. God knows what they’d do to a woman who was stuck below them. Fucking assholes.

I tucked my head down to my bicep where O’Rourke had his hand holding tight and with one ferocious move, I bit down like a fucking vampire with every intent of tearing off muscle, tendon and flesh. He screamed like a little girl, pulling away.

I spat out a piece of his hand with a maniacal laugh. A true joy at having inflicted pain.

I smiled at Grimes, hoping a bit of his buddy’s skin was still in my teeth.

He recoiled with a “what the fuck!” before I lunged for his fucking ear like Mike Tyson. I took off a tip of the shell and spat it out. He grabbed onto it, as if he could salvage what was left, and needed to keep it attached to his head.

Still, that left a nose-bleeding Keith standing between me and the door.

He snarled, his lip curling up to show his perfect, square teeth. I wasn’t going to fuck with him. Not yet at least.

I jumped for the window, lifting it up and launching myself out at the snow. In my bare feet and shorts, I ran into the wet, white snow that fell from the night sky, glowing in the moonlight.

“You’ll freeze out there, Shiny!” Keith screamed through the window with his own insane laugh. “Come back and I’ll go easy on you, Princess!”

I stumbled, my feet going numb in short order. Blood dripped from my mouth, marking the snow like bits of strawberry jam on cream. I went blindly, walking and stumbling, crawling at times as the cold permeated into my skin, then down to my bones.

I started off shivering. I shook so bad that it hurt. Like my entire body tensed.

Then I stopped shivering entirely. My body gave up on keeping me warm. Through the woods like a dying Red Riding Hood, I crawled, my eyes narrowing on a door. If I could just make it to the door, then everything would be okay. If I could just crawl to the door … If I could just …

But I couldn’t.

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