Tourniquet

by Chuck Buda

  Aiden held Zoe at bay with one hand before him. The other attempted to stem the flow of blood from the center of his face. Zoe gleamed as a river of crimson filled Aiden’s lips, outlining all his teeth as if he had just eaten the juiciest, cherry-flavored ice pop.

  Zoe charged.

  She swept the glass fragment around, slashing Aiden’s outstretched hand.

  He immediately retracted his wounded flesh. The hand at his nose flew to his most recent gash. Zoe refused to give Aiden any opportunities. She had learned her lesson earlier in the evening. Aiden had proven himself very resilient and resourceful. The time to end his defiance was now.

  Zoe began charging at Aiden when she tripped over the lid of the cooler. As she flew through the air, Zoe maintained a sweeping motion with the shard of glass. Again, Aiden threw up a hand to block her attack, only to pull back a bloodied hand. Now, both of Aiden’s hands bled.

  Zoe landed hard. Her bare skin screeched to an abrupt stop along the linoleum. She winced as the floor raked her skin. Zoe pushed herself up to her elbows. Just as she rolled to the right, Aiden had dived upon her. His fist was cocked, ready for a powerful jab.

  Zoe brought her knee up quickly. She found Aiden’s baby-makers, sending him to his knees. Aiden groaned, both hands automatically coddling his bruised children. Zoe continued to lift herself up but another attack wave came. This time Samantha had rejoined the fray. She let loose a blood-curdling roar of rage. Zoe realized Samantha was almost unrecognizable from all the blood. An image of the movie Carrie flashed across Zoe’s mind.

  She slid backwards but not before Samantha had towered over her. Samantha landed on Zoe’s chest, knocking all the air from her lungs. She grabbed two huge fistfuls of Zoe’s hair and began to slam her skull on the floor. Zoe saw flashes of small, white lightning each time her head connected with the hardened ground. Dazed, Zoe felt her teeth clack together. She hoped she had accidentally bitten her tongue because the taste of pennies flooded her mouth.

  Samantha had gone berserk. She tugged so hard at Zoe’s hair that a clump loosened, allowing Samantha to lose grip. Zoe used the hair loss as an opportunity to volley. She used her fingernails to dig into Samantha’s breasts. She made sure to tighten her claws around Samantha’s nipples. It worked. Samantha released her hold on Zoe’s head, motioning to protect her breasts from the strong digging and twisting. Zoe slapped an open-handed smack across Samantha’s bloody visage. Samantha had been caught off guard, tumbling off Zoe’s belly.

  Zoe had to make a quick decision. Did she continue her assault or flee to regroup yet again? As much as she wished to escape and come in with another surprise attack, Zoe knew her energy levels would soon run dry. She needed to make her stand now. There would be less opportunity to dodge and parry.

  Zoe had to bring the full measure of her power upon her enemies without any hesitation.

  Zoe licked her lips.

  Chapter 45

  Aiden’s balls curled in a knot. The cataclysmic blow Zoe had dealt them slowly unwound in a steady throb. He wished he could spend more time crying over his nuts but he had to engage Zoe once again.

  Aiden took a deep breath as he watched Samantha go to town on Zoe. Samantha lost her balance after a thunderous slap wiped her bloody face. As Zoe worked to make a run, Aiden forced his tired legs to move. He paused for a moment. Zoe licked her lips with a blood-soaked tongue. Aiden swallowed hard and steeled himself for another round. He went at Zoe with raised fists. The subconscious part of Aiden’s brain warned him that if simple punches could take care of Zoe, then this fight would have ended hours ago. Aiden would have to make do with his hands. There were no weapons nearby and he was out of time to come up with a Plan B.

  Zoe side-stepped the first punch but Aiden landed a hard body blow. Zoe huffed her air as she folded in two. Aiden hurried a knee into the side of Zoe’s skull as she faltered. His kneecap caused a gash along her brow, opening her scalp. Zoe regained her balance and roared at Aiden. His breathing froze at the horrific noise emitted from the small frame. It sounded like the bellow of a massive creature of the woods. Before Aiden knew it, Zoe was tearing at his face with a small metal gadget. The point hooked the corner of his left nostril, tearing the connection from his face.

  Aiden heard a girl’s scream fill his ears until he realized it was his own voice responding to Zoe’s attack. He brought his arms up to defend against Zoe. She continued to slash at him with the weapon she had. Some of the swipes left reddened scratches along his skin. Others tore new grooves in his flesh. Aiden lowered his head and threw all his weight in Zoe’s direction. He knew getting inside her reach would lessen the chances she could slash at him. But it would open him up to stabs. Aiden clutched Zoe’s head in his palms, trying to head butt her face. As Aiden swung his head forward, Zoe dropped to her knees. In the near miss, Aiden’s lower jaw connected with the top of Zoe’s head. He felt several teeth instantly loosen.

  Samantha closed in to help Aiden. With the two of them working in tandem, Zoe found herself quickly overwhelmed. Samantha clutched at Zoe’s hair, yanking her head back and forth in a violent motion. Zoe screamed, continuing to swing her weapon in sweeping circles. Aiden grabbed Zoe’s knife hand in both of his. He ripped at her fingers, eventually tearing away the weapon. He glanced to find a juice can opener. The thought of such an odd tool stupefied him but he wasted no time thinking about it. Aiden shoved Zoe with all his might. Zoe stumbled backwards, taking Samantha with her as her fingers were knotted in Zoe’s hair. Zoe’s back slammed into a shopping cart which had been parked in the center of the aisle. The cart was filled with large bags of charcoal briquettes. The heavy weight of the bags allowed for little give. Zoe’s back took the full brunt of the force. Zoe squealed in pain as the edge of the cart dug into her spine. Samantha lost control of her grip and staggered into a spinning rack of blow-up beach toys and cheap sunglasses.

  Aiden rammed his shoulder into Zoe’s stomach just as her back rebounded from colliding with the shopping cart. He heard Zoe gasp for air. Aiden straightened and threw a jab into Zoe’s face. His knuckles caught Zoe’s high cheekbone, just below her left eye. A loud slapping sound echoed off the freezer doors. Zoe’s cheek swelled up immediately as if she had been hit with an inside pitch in the batter’s box. Zoe collapsed to the floor. Aiden saw her eyes roll around in the sockets. He hoped she would lose consciousness so he could catch a breath.

  And then he would kill her.

  Instead, Zoe thumped to the floor. She shot an evil glare at Aiden and scrambled away before he could react. Aiden couldn’t help but think how monstrous Zoe looked. She scurried away like a human spider. Aiden pointed and shouted. He directed Samantha to head down the front of the store so they could close Zoe in. He followed Zoe’s path toward the back of the store, along the deli counters. As he rounded the end of the freeze aisle, Aiden noticed Zoe heading for the far end of the store. If she decided to cut up an aisle, Samantha would cut Zoe off.

  Zoe passed aisle after aisle. She reached the end of the supermarket.

  The produce aisle at the far side of the store.

  Aiden kicked his legs into a higher gear to catch up with Zoe before she had a chance to hide or come up with a crazy attack. As Aiden neared the produce section, he heard what sounded like rats scurrying along the tile floors. He chose to act cautiously. Aiden peeked around the corner, holding on the shelf of peanuts. A quick glance produced no results. He took another breath and stole another quick glance.

  An apple whizzed past his face.

  Aiden sucked in a breath so quickly, he felt like he had swallowed his tongue. He choked before hollering to Samantha to be careful. Aided didn’t worry about Zoe hearing his instructions. She was trapped. Zoe had nowhere else to go. She was stuck in the section with her only options for escape covered by her two pursuers.

  Aiden ducked and ran across the tile to a salad bar station. As he hurried, another fruit bomb smacked off the side of his head. A second piece of produce missed h
im and rolled to the back wall in a wet splunk. Aiden rubbed the side of his head. It hurt, but not enough to knock him out of the chase. He began to laugh at how stupid Zoe was for throwing apples at him. He quickly ignored his urge to laugh when he heard the thunderous crash on the other side of the salad station.

  Chapter 46

  As she charged across the slippery, white floors, Zoe decided to throw in the towel. Only on running away. She would never submit to Aiden and Samantha. She would never submit to Spencer. Zoe would run down all her options until she remained victorious or until the gods summoned her to the dark void.

  She climbed up a produce table, spilling most of the shiny apples. At the top of the station, Zoe planted her feet, one on each side of the display to create a strong base. Zoe snatched up a handful of apples, cocking her arm back to hurl one at whomever rounded the corner. Aiden had peeked his head out, only for an instant. Zoe threw the apple with all her strength.

  It missed the mark.

  Zoe threw several more as Aiden scrambled across the produce section, ducking behind another stand. One of the apples caught him square in the side of the head. Zoe giggle when the apple hit its mark. But she soon figured out that throwing fruit was not going to damage Aiden.

  She needed a better plan.

  A plan that could increase her odds of success. Tilt the game in her favor.

  A plan which could even up the odds or put Zoe in a place of power.

  Power.

  Zoe tossed the armful of apples aside. She closed her eyes and focused her attention on the darkness in her heart. Zoe began the rituals Spencer had taught her. She silently chanted to the lords of chaos, her lips moving silently as she called each of the demons by name. Before losing herself in the prayers, Zoe remembered she required blood in order to summon the spirits. The demons required a sacrifice. In death, life was born. In darkness, light was created. Blood is the first step in the sacrificial offerings. But it would only be the beginning. Death would complete the circle. She reached down to the plastic roll of bags. Zoe grabbed a twist tie. Her fingers worked rapidly to peel back enough paper to expose the metal beneath. She continued her chant, the words growing from silence to a harsh whisper.

  Zoe punctured the vein across her left wrist. The metal sunk deep inside her flesh, blood dripping slowly and then speeding up as she pushed the metal deeper. Zoe held her wound above her head, allowing the crimson fluids to flow down her arm. Splatters sprinkled her upturned face. Zoe licked the excess from the inside of her forearm. She pressured the wound with her right hand to force more blood to the surface. Her veins yielded to her wishes.

  The station Zoe stood upon began to shake and hop. Her balance never faltered. The legs of the table screeched an inch to one side, and then another inch. She felt her hair begin to swirl about her face. A spiraling gust of air circled her body. Zoe heard smaller objects in the produce section move. At first, she heard fruit and vegetables plopping to the floor. Then Zoe heard louder noises. Tables overturned. Shelves crashed to the floor. The florescent lights on the ceiling blinked on and off. A couple of the lights shattered, exploding like gunshots.

  Zoe knew the demons were coming to her. She remembered the sensation of vulnerability mixed with invincibility. Zoe absorbed the powers that flowed from the roots of the ground through her legs. She opened her eyes and witnessed the beauty of her chaos. Her creation.

  Aiden hung onto a solid table that was connected to the floor. The table had recently held heavy produce like crates of oranges and sacks of potatoes. The items quaked against the force, barely able to remain in place. Everything else in the aisle flew toward the back of the store. Some of the loose pieces slapped Aiden in the face as he held on for his life. He screamed for Samantha to stay back, afraid she would be caught in the maelstrom, her body flying into the back wall along with all the detritus.

  Zoe wished to risk a glance over her shoulder. She wanted to know where Samantha was. But the power was so intense, it held her head in place as if she were fighting the g-forces of a military fighter jet. Zoe leveled her concentration at Aiden. She urged the demons to flay his skin from his frame. Zoe wanted to see the layers peel back like onion skin, revealing the soft marrow beneath. In Aiden’s death, Zoe would reach a crescendo which would set her on course to destroy not only Samantha, but Spencer and everyone else who stepped in her path.

  Her words hit a shrieking pitch. The sound became ethereal and deafening. The windows on the front of the store imploded. Glass jars exploded. One by one, the light fixtures blew out, sending sparks and miniscule particles of shrapnel in thousands of directions. The flecks of glass penetrated Zoe’s flesh too. Tiny cuts opened along her arms and back. The pain heightened her arousal, increasing Zoe’s strength exponentially.

  Zoe swung her arm forward, pointing directly at Aiden. She curled her fingers, fighting against the terrific hurricane-level winds. Aiden’s body swung around, his feet flying behind him, in Zoe’s direction. All the energy was flowing outward from Zoe to Aiden. Yet, his body now tugged against the currents. Aiden shouted for Samantha to stay put. Remain low. Zoe cackled aloud at the useless directions Aiden fed his partner. Nothing would save them from her will.

  Aiden’s fingers, colored red with tension, began to fade into a white, bloodless color. His grip slipped away a finger at a time. Aiden looked behind himself several times, judging where he would end up once the vacuum of air sucked him backwards into Zoe’s clutches. The lines of strain etched in his skin. The panic and horror in his eyes.

  All of it satisfied Zoe.

  She screamed at Aiden in an octave that would never register in a human frequency. The guttural bellow shook the foundations of the supermarket. Outer walls cracked. Cement and plaster tumbled. The roof bent inward and down as the vacuum sucked the life from all that existed within reach.

  Zoe howled and laughed. Her fingers trailed wispy tendrils to Aiden’s feet. The tendrils wrapped around his ankles, clutching at his skin which sagged under the invisible hands. The time had arrived to conquer Aiden and move on to the final battle with Spencer.

  Zoe rolled her fingers into a tight fist.

  And Aiden came to her.

  Chapter 47

  Aiden slid feet first across the floor. Slowly, at first. Then faster and faster. His hands gave in. The pain of gripping onto the table for so long finally wore him down. Aiden glanced over his shoulder as he slid toward Zoe. He feared the end had arrived. Aiden left bloody finger trails as he tried to dig his nails into the linoleum floor.

  As his body defied all laws of physics, sliding against the torrential winds which blew in his direction, Aiden squeezed his eyelids shut. He felt like a small child entering his first haunted house attraction. He hoped, by keeping his eyes closed tight, he wouldn’t see the horrors that awaited him. His left foot hit the leg of the fruit station first. Immediately after feeling the wood against his foot, Aiden’s body curled back into the table. His leg bent at an obtuse angle, sending shooting pain up his body as his bones threatened to snap under the pressure.

  Aiden screamed.

  Zoe laughed from a perch high above him. The sensation of the maelstrom led Aiden to believe he was at the bottom of a long tunnel, like a child trapped in the bottom of a deep well. Zoe’s laughter echoed and reverberated from one side of his head to the other. Nausea surfaced as all sense of equilibrium flushed out of Aiden’s skull.

  Snap!

  Aiden thought the loud crack was the sound of his left leg shattering beneath the forces of the storm. He waited to feel the overwhelming anguish of his broken bones. But nothing signaled his brain that his leg no longer represented something on which to stand. Aiden’s crotch caught the leg of the table, the splintered wood gouging the inside of his thighs. Relief poured over his being. It was short-lived.

  Zoe snatched Aiden into the air by the crown of his head. Her palm felt electric, sending shock waves through his brain, forcing his face to contort in ticks. She brought him up to fac
e her, using one all-powerful fist to lift him. Aiden’s eyes widened at the sight of Zoe.

  She had turned into a demon.

  Aiden stared into the gaping maw of a creature he knew was Zoe, but no longer resembled the attractive young woman he had gone to school with. Her long dark hair stood on end with crackles of static. Zoe’s skin looked cherry red as if she stood in the reflection of car tail lights on a darkened road. Aiden couldn’t figure out if her skin had actually changed colors or if the blood she had drawn had stained her entire body.

  Zoe roared into Aiden’s face. His own hair blew back. Aiden cowered in the clutches of the monster who now controlled him. He began begging God for help, afraid he had not done all he could in his short lifetime to gain entrance to heaven. Staring into the gates of hell behind Zoe’s eyes, Aiden feared he would join her in the fiery depths of the underworld. In agony and suffering for eternity.

  She dug her fingernails into Aiden’s scalp. He felt the rush of fresh blood trickle through his hair. Aiden felt Zoe’s hot breath on his skin. The smell of rotten eggs and death brought his gorge up.

  He began flailing at the small, but powerful arm, that held him aloft. Aiden scratched and clawed at Zoe’s skin to release him from her hold. An endless chasm opened beneath Aiden’s body. One glance downward ended his attempts to drop from Zoe’s clutches. He was afraid of falling to Hell if he forced her to drop him. Instead, Aiden attempted to climb onto the fruit station. His foot reached the wooden edge, slipped off and then toed along the edge for safe purchase.

  Zoe’s eyes rotated in their sockets. Her irises rolled from red to black and back to red again. Aiden peed himself as he watched Zoe evolve. Aiden hoped Samantha would come to his rescue. He tried to use his thoughts to reach out to Samantha as if he had the ability to do what he desired. Aiden opened his eyes, searching for the rescue of his last friend in the world. Samantha was nowhere in sight. Aiden’s spirit deflated at the thought that Samantha may already be dead. Or maybe she had been smart enough to run away when she had the chance. Aiden couldn’t blame her. No fight, no revenge was worth the horror he was experiencing now. He wouldn’t wish this upon his biggest enemy. Even now, Aiden thought, I wouldn’t wish this on Zoe if the roles were reversed.