Page 67 of Judas
Chapter twenty-five
Babalon
Shooting Lucien in the past doesn’t compare to watching someone with a fucking rifle take him down. He actually falls back—like something out of a movie. It’s so unreal that I finally force a scream, solely to get the vibrating energy out of me. Hands fly up to my mouth to muffle the sound, unsure if this man is about to kill me, too. I’m the one who’s attached to the cable keeping Sadie suspended in the air. He could come for me next, thinking I’m using myself as weight when in actuality, she’s the one that’s suffocating me.
With a quick shake, I panic and jump up from the ground. Kicking the torch on my way to put space between him and I. Ra didn’t tell me anyone else was coming, so I don’t know who this guy is and he just killed the one person who I may have eventually talked into letting me go. Getting a few feet away, I’m yanked back as the line catches and grabs me like a vice around my neck. My ass and back meet the hard ground, knocking what little bit of wind I had left in my lungs out. Grappling with theblack wire, I pull and fight it—struggling to get any sort of air. Nearly out of time.
Pl… please don’t let me die. I’m… she’s right there. Let me save her first.
The wilderness is quiet outside of Lucien’s pained grunts and huffing. Crawling in the dirt where he belongs. I risk a glance just as he sits on his calves, shins digging into the earth when he grabs the wire and drags me back to him.
No— No!
The man, whomever he is, is giving his attention to Sadie. Not that I mind, but if he doesn’t get her the hell out of here before Lucien is back on his feet, he’ll kill her. To keep his attention on me, I kick and pull back. Don’t care if it’s damaging my throat, the tissues under the strong wire in agony from its tension. Abusing my thin skin until red welts form and nearly begin to bleed from the material. I’ll buy this man all the time he needs to take her to safety.
The fight slows Lucien down but he eventually gets me within arms’ reach and fists my jacket, wrenching him to me the rest of the way. Throwing his body over mine, he puts his right hand on my neck and pushes with all his damn body weight. The restrictive cord he wrapped around me gives under his immense pressure. It’s not enough to release me but the way he’s crushing my windpipe loosens its hold. Lucien leans in, his blood dripping all over my shirt and jacket, a little staining his mouth, as he speaks low and angrily to me.
“I’m murdering one of you tonight, if it’s the last thing I do.” He struggles for a breath. “Your savior left you behind, so that must mean you’re the one who’s going to die with me, Nadia. Ready for that? Ready to spend all of fucking eternity with your baby brother, as he beats and tortures you in the afterlife?”
Lucien doesn’t give me a chance to respond before he’s back on my throat. I kick and flail under him; the rustling of the leavesand tree debris are all I can manage to hear. Not even his ragged breaths are loud enough to overpower the muffled blood rushing through my eardrums. Feeling like they are about to pop from the load. My lips open and close similar to a gasping fish—even they’re throbbing—hoping for a single breath that will keep me awake and alive just a bit longer.
I know I said her life over mine, but it means nothing if I don’t know she successfully escaped. What if she doesn’t? What if all of this is for nothing and Lucien wins in the end anyway? Sadie deserves more! She deserves the whole fucking world, doesn’t matter if people never comprehend how important she is to someone else. She deserves to live, to be someone great and become the light this family has lacked. Every breath of air, hug, hold and kiss she will ever have will be given out of pure love. Things are starting to go dim now, even as I look up and let my eyes lull around for Sadie. Then… the man with the gun.
The trees have started to glow now. Abandoning their shadowy figures for an intensifying orange light nearly surrounding us. An ominous heat warms me as my body begins to cool from the depleting adrenaline, the Canadian fall, and impending loss of life. A slight crackling sound off to my side and the faint scent of burning brush tries to reach into my nose and set my senses on edge.
“Fuck!” Lucien shouts.
I barely see him looking around when he tightens his hold.
“Hurry up and die, stubborn woman.” He sounds… frantic.
Feels like I’m floating. There’s no weight in my body as I hang on to the fringe of consciousness. The scalding heat raging around us finally illuminates Lucien’s features and I see both the lonely man and the damaged little boy. A small piece of me wants to hold him; let him know that the life he lived isn’t one I ever would have chosen for him. Nor would our mother. We bothwere only just babies when our lives splintered into the mayhem we live now.
A soft smile pulls at the corners of my mouth when I reach up for him and run my fingers over his lips—remembering everything. The little boy the woman in our living room was holding. I bet he thinks I didn’t see him. I did when I came in but I was so upset about coming home that I only wanted my stuffed animals. Then I would see him playing in the backyard sometimes, all alone in his space but he still made it look welcoming. When I came home from Sunday school and saw the drawings on my princess pages, it hurt my heart so much. He was happy and I envied him for it. We were so fucking little to be as damaged as we were and instead of placing blame on our parents, here we are, ready to kill or be killed.
I hate him, I really do, but the baby inside of him that never understood the pain we went through?
I love him.
On the edge of oblivion, his weight is gone suddenly and my world tilts. Everything is so heavy, all I want to do is lay here. I can barely hear the crackling of burning wood, nor anything Lucien is saying while he shouts his hatred above me. Ignoring the heat bellowing around me, the pain in my neck, the loneliness in my heart. Nothing matters.
“Get her back on her feet and put her with Sadie. There’s a job to finish and I’m not leaving until he’s in a hole.”
Bits and pieces of foreign voices, try as they might, don’t quite make it through. Lip reading? That’s not happening either, despite how brightly lit the forest has become with the inferno surrounding us. The stress on my neck and fading consciousness is not allowing me to fully comprehend all of the madness going on around me.
Suddenly, oxygen whooshes into my lungs when someone lifts me and hastily unwinds the cord tied around my throat. Roughfingers rub the skin over my trachea, as if he’s checking for something, or maybe soothing the irritating pain. His finger pads are so abrasive against my skin, it hurts just as fucking much but—wait, what? Who released me, who is he talking to?
“Got it.” Short and to the point.
That’s the man who had his gun aimed at Lucien. I don’t recognize his voice from anywhere else, it’s not that memorable either. The other one? Nothing. I’m—fuck, I’m still alive, unless this is some funny joke that life puts you through at the end. There’s no seven minutes of reliving the best moments of our life, there’s no flashing before my eyes. Just unfamiliar voices, fire, and pain.
“Nadia, I need you to listen to me. We don’t have a whole lot of time to get you and Sadie out of here, so please, please get up. I can’t protect two of you and make sure your brother stays the fuck down at the same time.”
He’s gentle, the rifle-man. I feel silly for being so afraid of him at first, but I did just watch him hold Lucien at gunpoint without a second glance. I don’t understand how Lucien got shot though, he never pulled the trigger. Prying my eyes open, I’m blinded by the fire storm raging around us. The brilliance of it, paired with a breath of smoke and scorched earth, startles me. Forcing my eyes to open wider and faster while I blink through the film that’s preventing details from coming into focus.
“There you are. Here, take a few sips, then we have to go.”
He unscrews a bottle, some of the contents spilling on me when he gets it open but neither one of us care. Tilting it, he pours some into my mouth and I choke on it—making myself swallow anyway. There are screams echoing around me, they’re chilling in pitch, encouraging my curiosity to look away from the man crouched before me giving me water. The crosses are engulfed in flames, the trees they’re under are starting to take on the heat and flare like wood does before it finally catches. Theleaves and downed branches have also caught and are spreading further out, nearly to the detached building and the rickety stairs I watched Lucien shove Sadie down earlier.
