“Leave!” I said in a deadpan voice that inside was full to the brim of hurt.
“Keira you have to listen to me!” He said coming closer but I stepped back into the carved stone at my back.
“No, I really don’t. You kidnapped me, took me from my home for your own gain and then to top things off you made me feel things and it was all a lie! If you didn’t get your sunny rocks off every time we locked lips then I would be in someone else’s prison right now getting prepared for some bloody ritual! So do me a favour, as I think I’m due one…get lost and leave me the hell alone, ‘cause I don’t need Draven’s bullshit, just like I don’t need yours!” I shouted at him with tears streaming down my face, contradicting my rage.
I was just so sick to the death of being everyone’s power tool, that I felt myself splitting in two.
“Keira please…”
“Just go.” I whispered turning away from him, feeling the weight of me that everyone else was holding. I felt like I was locked up in chains and only the Gods could set me free from the burden. I didn’t want to be this Chosen One, I wanted to be me and not have the weight of the world hanging on my every decision…decisions I didn’t know to make.
I knew the second Lucius left me I could feel it inside, like being lost in the woods without a map. See, being here, I still wasn’t home but I wasn’t without sight of my house. That is what it was like, having that security in sight and knowing you were close. But this…this was being blind in front of that house and Draven and Lucius had taken that sight.
I hugged the velvet to my body and shivered underneath it. I felt a chill creep over my body which was nothing to do with the winter night. Even looking at the icy lake below wasn’t the cause but it still felt like my heart had landed in its icy depths but then I realised it wasn’t just my heart that was soon to be down there, it was also the rest of me and the voice behind me knew it…Oh God no!
Layla.
Chapter 32
New Ways to Die by Old Monsters
I would have thought by now that facing my own death would have gotten easier. That somehow by putting a voice to it would have given me something to focus on in a time where panic should be taking over. But panic never served anyone in a time that needed a level head in order to survive and this time I didn’t think survival was going to be on the cards for me…Layla was going to make pretty damn sure of that. I mean, let’s face it, just how many times can someone fail at trying to kill me?
“Layla!” I whispered as I turned to face my fate, whatever this time it might bring.
“Bitch!” She smiled at me like she was tasting her revenge and man did it look sweet to this supernatural psycho.
“You know, I really thought getting you alone was going to be harder than that, so thanks for doing all the hard work for me.” She spoke like we were old friends and having her thank me for helping her to kill me had me clenching my fists in anger.
“Who said I was going to make this easy for you?” I snapped back, feeling my fingertips start to tingle from the blood flow I was holding back. At this she laughed as she stalked towards me, all the while scraping her long nails along the stone balustrade. It looked like blades being sharpened on flint with little sparks coming from the contact.
“Oh, but I really hope you don’t, as where would the fun in that be but unfortunately I am rather pressed for time and you do have a habit of surviving the most unbelievable of odds.” She lifted a nail for inspection, one that now looked sharper and ready to be put to use. I tried not to gulp.
“I would say I am sorry but I like living and hate you, so you see where that would be a lie.” I said moving a little step back and wondering where I would go to when I ran out of balcony. Why the hell did I have to send Lucius away and how much praying would be needed in order for him to come back.
Layla noticed me look longingly at the door and shook her head laughing.
“Oh I don’t think he will be coming back just yet Keira, after all, a man has his pride, one you stepped on quite nicely I might say.” Of course she was right. I had sent him away and with that, my only chance at getting through another round with my personal stalker, one with a never ending murderous vendetta.
“You know, you really need a new hobby.” I said trying to buy for time, although I didn’t know if my smart mouth was going to be the best one for the job, it could possibly just get me killed quicker.
“Oh don’t you worry, after I have disposed of you I will be taking up past things I know to be very pleasurable indeed.” It didn’t take much mental brain power to know of who she talked about…Draven. At this I laughed.
“And you think he will just take you back, knowing you were the one who killed me. Christ, you’re more insane than I thought!” I said and for the first time she lost a bit of her cool. Her high cheekbones went higher and her eyebrows came down causing her eyes to slit in her deep scowl. Red veins seemed to dart out around her angry eyes which caused her to look even more ill on an already twisted face.
“I will have him again!” She said and I didn’t know who she was trying to convince because it wasn’t me. I may have reasons to doubt Draven’s commitment in the bedroom but I knew I always had loyalty in other things, those that included not shacking up with those that had been responsible for my death.
“Fine then, off you go and have him! I mean what are you waiting for...? A text message asking you out on a date? I am now out of the picture and you have free range to go back to being one of the King’s sluts for all I care!” I was shouting at her but was also moving back, a little shuffle at a time, which didn’t really scream out my confidence.
“I don’t think you quite understand here, I can never go back with you still breathing in the world, taking over his mind like the festering bacteria that you are!” As far as compliments went, this one wasn’t my best I thought sarcastically still trying to edge away from her.
If I could only keep her talking until Lucius wondered where I was and what I was still doing out here. But this wasn’t going to happen, as realistically I had only been out here for a measly couple of minutes without him and I didn’t know how long he would give me alone. I needed to think. If I could just think of a distraction, maybe if I got her angry enough she would slip up and I could make a run for it.
“Yeah, and to think you got the boot because this festering human was preferred over you!” I said seeing her rage hitch up a notch. She shook her head and her blonde hair fell free from its up do and I tried not to gasp when I saw the tips that were dripping in blood. It looked as though she had killed someone and then bent down dangling her loose hair in the evidence.
“Oh no, I see what you are doing but I will not be rushed. I have waited too long to kill you and this time, make no mistake, I will get the job done and take my pleasure from it.” She snarled and completely missed the point of me trying to piss her off. Did she really believe I was willing to give up on trying to survive this, well it was going to be her underestimation of the strength in human survival that would be her down side…I hoped.
“That might be so but I will be the one laughing my ass off in the grave ‘cause there is only one place you are going to end up and I sure hope you’re liked in Hell…actually, scrap that, no I don’t, in fact I hope they hate you more than I do!” She smiled then and placed her hand behind her back. When she brought it back around and I saw what she now had firmly in her grasp I couldn’t fake my bravado any longer, I tried to get away.
The large blade she held was the length of my arm and when she swiped out to the side it stopped my escape. It was that or become chop suey Keira, Cantonese style! The blade flashed blue in the moonlight when she flicked her wrist making me jump back again.
“Going somewhere?” She smirked and I could feel the beads of sweat roll down my skin at facing Layla with a blade in her hand yet again.
“I am so going to enjoy cutting into you. This blade is very special to me and not only does it cut through f
lesh like slicing rotting fruit but it was given to me by someone I live for, someone you tried to take from me, so it is ironic that it will bring forth your death, is it not?” I looked at the blade in question and felt disgusted at the idea Draven had given her this knife. I wanted to spit the bile that was making its way up from my stomach onto it, just to show her what I thought about her idea of irony!
“Oh, so it was me that made you a bloody waitress at his table then was it? Wow you’re right…weren’t you just the special one? Get real Layla, if you meant anything to him he wouldn’t have put you to work at his table instead of being sat at it!” At this she giggled and held her hands to her mouth like a child, well it would have looked childlike if she didn’t have a massive blade still in one hand that stuck out at the side of her head, pointed at the moon.
“Is that what you think? Little stupid human that you are! Completely clueless. I was made a waitress in Draven’s pathetic little club as a spy. I was sent away because of you and his tragic obsession with you, one he thought I was in the way of. So now you see little bitch, why I find it is you that is the one in the way, but oh no, not for much longer.” She looked longingly at her knife like they were old friends and she ran her finger down its deadly edge until blood coated it. With her finger nice and bloody she then placed it in her mouth like she was sucking chocolate cake mix from a spoon.
But wait, what had she said? I looked down while trying to process what I had just learnt…Could it be I was wrong all this time?
“You’re in love with Lucius!” I spoke out loud the thoughts that had just clicked into place. I looked up when I heard her start to clap slowly, mocking the statement I just made.
“Well done, at last the bitch grows a brain!” I ignored her comment as the rest of the puzzle fit into place. All this time I had thought it had been Draven she had wanted. Every time she had spoken about ‘him’ I had presumed she meant Draven but it had been Lucius. I was the reason he sent her away and now I was the reason she was banished!
“So now you see why the prophecy means nothing to me and soon it will mean nothing to him!”
“You’re wrong! You think my death will mean him taking you back but once he finds out what you did then he will just kill you!” Now was the time to try for reason but with her grip tightening on the blade’s handle it was already a dying chance.
“Wrong again! See the prophecy also speaks of a human beyond the boundaries of death, not many know this but Lucius, as he learnt in his obsession with you. But once I prove him wrong and end your life, I will finally put an end to this prophecy shit once and for all. He will realise you were not the Chosen One as he thought, that you are just another parasite, and a bug in my way is a bug needed to be crushed!” She advanced forward and I had nowhere to go but over the edge. I moved quickly out of her swinging range and knocked sideways into the gargoyle, nearly falling over the side.
“It’s time to face facts Keira, if the Gods had really chosen you then where are they now? Where is your hero King! But more importantly to me, where is your heart!” She slashed out with her knife again and this time I wasn’t quick enough getting out of her way. She sliced through under my left breast and on the side of my ribcage.
“Arrh” I hissed at the searing pain it caused and placed my right hand across the cut.
“Mmm, nice but not near enough.” She licked the blade and tasted my blood that dripped down its length. I took this moment to try and get past her but once again she stopped me with her weapon inflicting more pain. This time she got me on the top of my thigh making me limp back and suck air through my teeth as I gritted through the agony. She was going to take me piece by bloody piece and there was nothing I could do about it. This is what she wanted, what she had been deprived of last time. Oh yes she wanted my death but not at the price of not seeing me suffer with it first.
She then went for the heart like she promised and made a slicing downwards motion which on instinct I held out my arms to protect myself. I felt the blade sink into my flesh and rip down the length of my hand and forearm, cutting not only the ribbon that covered my scars but the skin underneath them.
“ARRGGGHHH!” I screamed louder this time and for the first time Layla looked worried as she shot a look at the door. It seemed like her time was running out along with mine.
“Looks like I won’t get to play as much as I wanted, so be a good girl now and hurry up with dying.” Layla said coming back round to look at me only what she found was not the crumpled heap of bloody mess on the floor. I had used her moment of panic to climb up onto the balustrade and even with the great drop behind me I turned my fear of heights into one that feared death more. So I had inched my way around the great stone gargoyle and climbed into its lap making it harder for Layla to get to me.
It was hard to keep grip of the thing with blood dripping down one palm and I kept slipping making her laugh at my attempts at hiding. With my heeled feet trying desperately to keep grip on its smooth dragon legs I gave up clinging to its neck when Layla tried to cut all my fingers off.
“You can’t hide from me!” She screamed at me, forgetting her plan to keep us alone, her rage had taken over any logical thought giving way to the pure undeterred hatred. My hands slid again only before I could fall back into the icy depths I made a lifesaving grab for its open mouth, using its hand sized fangs as my anchor. I was now stood with my bottom sticking out with my body’s weight holding myself to the stone beast at my feet and hands. I gritted through the pain of the torture I was putting my sliced palm through but luckily it wasn’t as deep as all my other injuries. If only someone was to come now, I would have a chance, I could be saved…I could…
Just then I heard Layla let out a strangled cry and before I could think my prayers had been answered, the head of the gargoyle exploded above me, as I saw a female fist come through the stone grey powder that was its face. I just had enough time to grab its top leg that jutted out in an arch over the curved perch in which now sat its headless body.
I waited not hearing anything, filling my mind once again full of an endless stream of hopes. I didn’t want to die, I wasn’t ready to leave this world and with that I knew I was not ready to leave Draven. I had to hold on but my body was growing heavier with the seconds of silence that passed. Had someone come? Was she being dealt with before they looked for me?
I was just about to call out when I heard a terrifying sound, causing all hope to leave me and go crashing to the ice before my body followed. It was the sound of stone against stone and when I felt the gargoyle move I knew why. Layla was pushing the carved stone structure off its plinth hoping that I would fall with it. I saw it inch by inch as it crept closer to being too weighty to stay at its home and what would happen when gravity took over…me and it were taking a trip down to the same place, that’s what!
I made one last rash decision and once again found myself hoping beyond all odds. Just before it could tip over I pushed off its legs and launched myself to the side, landing half on the stone wall that surrounded the balcony. I heard the gargoyle falling and it shook the side making me lose grip. I fell down and was now dangling by one hand with all my body weight pulling at every finger. I scrabbled for footing in the rock and managed the slightest hold on one that only my toes were dug into.
I couldn’t see over the edge and the stone rail I held onto could have been made from spikes it felt that painful. But there was no relief, I couldn’t pull myself up and I didn’t yet want to let go. I heard the crash into the ice below me and it was like a death drum banging in my ear. Everything in me was pounding, thumping to explode and jump this sinking ship. If I just hung on I would live, if I just let go the pain would stop, if…if…but then my ifs ran out as the face of my destroyer came into view, only this time it was also a face of the not so forgotten past. A past that happened only days ago, a past set deep underground and like now, a past that tried to end me by drowning.
I screamed as the face of pure evil came over t
he side and took in my struggling form.
“Goodbye Keira… TIME TO DIE NOW!” She roared in her demonic voice as she repeated history and stabbed her pinned mouth into my hand like she did that time in the underground water locks. Because this was the face that I saw that night in the door’s window, the same black and hollow soulless eyes, the tight skin across the jagged bones and the inescapable row after row of teeth and lethal steel pins.
I felt pain before my fingers released their life holding grip and as I fell backwards to my death the last face I saw was the monster that tried to kill me that night, the murderer Layla, that this night finally…
Succeeded.
Chapter 33
Icy Grave or Sunny Death
As I fell backwards my world seemed to change. I don’t know about when people say about your life flashing before your eyes in the face of death as it didn’t happen for me. But one saying certainly proved right as my body fell to its destruction it did so in slow motion.
Slow, agonising motion.
I wasn’t ready, my body wasn’t ready and I could only hope that Draven wasn’t ready for me to die but this time, I saw no way out and it mattered little as to what I thought about my coming end. And to make matters worse, the gruesome and disgusting face of Layla in her demon form was the last face I would ever see. A demonic hatred that twisted in sick pleasure, as I travelled further to my watery grave, was my last view of the world and even though her face got smaller and smaller I could still make out the last ounce of revenge being fulfilled in her face splitting grin.
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