Page 96 of Bones
“Who’s the other one?” I yelled back.
“Dunno!”
Before I could ask more, Brimstone charged and caught the other man around the neck. His meaty hands twisted and before I could even blink, a loud crack sounded as he snapped the man’s neck. The crowd roared, but I barely heard it. I stared horrified at the limp body that Brimstone casually dropped back into the mud. What the fuck was this?
I went to ask Ritz, but she'd vanished, swallowed by the frenzied crowd. I turned back, my eyes darting around. Across the pit from me, several men pulled a small person from a collection of cages. She screamed and fought, but the men dragging her didn't hesitate before they pitched her into the pit with Brimstone. She landed on her hands and knees in the mud, but she leapt up fast and tried to scramble up the side of the pit. A swift kick from someone standing on the edge sent her sliding back down on all fours. She turned in my direction, her eyes wide and frantic, and horror washed over me.
She couldn’t be older than sixteen years. Her hair had been crudely shaved from her head and her lip split open. She sobbed as she begged for help, but the crowd around me fuckinglaughed.
“Help me! Please!” I screamed, but the only response was the laughter from the guards outside the tent.
“She’s a kid,” I said out loud.
“If they’re old enough to fuck, they’re old enough to take their medicine,” someone next to me jeered.
Fury roared through me, hot and blinding.Fuck that.I’d failed Apple, and I couldn’t just stand here and watch another little girl get hurt by a fucking man.
Don’t—Wolf tried to growl.
I jumped down into the pit and landed near the girl, the thick bloody mud sucking at my boots. The girl’s head swiveled toward me, terror in her face. Brimstone crossed his arms where he stood near the opposite edge of the pit, eyebrows raised. The crowd quieted slightly, watching with interest.
“What the fuck is this?” I shouted at the giant. “She’s just a kid!”
Brimstone sneered at me.
“Get the fuck out of there, Bones. She’s been sentenced.”
I looked up at the edge of the pit to see the asshole guard, Lem. He glared down at me, and I noticed the cages stacked behind him were empty. The girl must have been the last one.
I glared back at him, fury and alcohol raging through my blood. “She’s a kid!”
The girl clung to my shirt with icy, shaking fingers. “Please,” she begged. “Please help me.”
“Bones!” Lem bellowed. “Get out!”
In answer, I pushed the girl behind me, bent, and drew the small knife in my boot. I flicked it open, my eyes on Brimstone.
“The fuck is wrong with you? You gotta death wish?” Lem yelled. “You better get out ’fore Brimstone kills you!”
I kept my eyes on the giant, but maybe I did have a death wish because I yelled back, “Yeah, and what’ll Madame do toyouif he kills me?”
Brimstone let out an angry roar and charged. The girl took off behind me with a terrified scream. I managed to dodge the giant's first blow and caught a glimpse of Lem's eyes bulging in fear. The giant charged again, and I sidestepped as Wolf taught me, somehow managing to land a long gash in his arm with my little knife. The girl attempted to claw her way up the side of the pit again, but the crowd pitched her back, wild with bloodlust.
Brimstone feinted and in my drunken haze, I fell for it. The next thing I knew, I hit the ground hard, my ears ringing. Before I could even register the pain, Brimstone hauled me up by my jacket. He roared in my face and fueled by adrenaline and fear, I swung my knife and plunged it into his shoulder up to the hilt. He didn't even seem to notice, and my stomach flipped in panic. He threw me back down into the mud where I landed hard on my back and kicked a booted foot into my ribs. I tried to curl up into a defensive position, but he punched me in the head and bright white light blinded me. He rained down blows and kicks as the crowd roared. A bone cracked in my arm and the pain ripped a scream out of me, but my cry cut off when his hands closed around my neck and squeezed.
The girl leapt onto his back, screaming like a wildcat and clawing at his eyes. Brimstone let go of me long enough to pull her off his back and throw her like a doll across the pit. I didn’t see her land because he hauled me up by the neck and held me there. I clawed at his hands with the arm that wasn’t dangling uselessly at my side, but he didn’t even flinch as I drew blood. All I could see were his beady little eyes watching me choke with satisfaction. Black spots dotted my vision and panic surged up my spine. This was it. I was going to die in this filthy pit, failing to save someoneagain.
A gunshot echoed, and Brimstone released me as blood sprayed across my face. I hit the ground hard and lay on my back, gulping in air like a fish with my vision fading in and out. People were shouting, a dull roar in the background. I turned my head slightly to see Brimstone lying crumpled in the mud just a foot away. He stared at me with dead, empty eyes as blood leaked from the hole in his head. Lem appeared above me, swearing, his face white with terror. His eyes darted back and forth, and then he turned and ran.
I couldn’t see anyone else, and I didn’t move. I wasn’t sure if I could. The ice-cold mud did nothing to numb the pain screaming throughout my entire body. I summoned just enough strength to lift my head to glance down at my arm. A bloody bone poked through the skin of my left arm.
I must’ve passed out because the next thing I knew, I opened my eyes to a freezing mix of slushy rain falling on my face. I shivered uncontrollably in the dark, and my hair fanned out around me as the pit turned into a frigid muddy puddle. I let my eyes fall shut again.
“Bones!”
I pried my eyes back open, staring at the battered and bloody face leaning over me.
“Bones, please don’t die,” the girl cried. “Whaddo I do? Bones!”
