BLOODLUST
“Humanity is the word we use when we kill in the name of society.
Humanity is the word we use to make them believe we can feel.
Humanity is the word we use to cover up our dreadful crimes.
Humanity is the word we use to pretend we are not monsters.
Humanity, humanity, humanity! There, now we are invincible!”
Melody Manful
“Felix,” I whispered, knowing he was already dead.
“Your move, Abigail,” Andrei said. “I have two men remaining.” One was pointing his gun at me while the other aimed at Ben. “And you have two people as well.” He brought his gun to my mother’s forehead. “Should I shoot her first?” he asked.
I turned to his two men. The lights from the gate flashed against a knife in the hands of the man who was pointing his gun at me.
“All right!” I shouted, throwing my gun to him. “All right, just let them go.” The moment the gun was out of my hand, the man with the knife walked over. He put his knife inside one of this belt holes and pinned my hands behind my back.
“Abigail, what are you doing?” Gideon asked.
“Let go of her!” my mother shouted, but I knew she was in no position to make demands.
“Open the gate, Abigail,” Andrei said, and I intentionally moved closer to the man holding me as I searched for the knife on his belt.
“How do you suggest I do that with my hands behind me, Andrei?” I asked with a mocking smile.
My hand finally found the knife. I slowly pulled.
He smiled. “You’re clever, too.”
“Thank you,” I replied at the same moment the guy holding me screamed. He let go of me, and a second later he was lying on the ground. I knew Gideon had done this small favor, so I didn’t wait before turning around and immediately hurling the knife straight toward Ben. It hit him in the thigh.
Both my mother and Ben shouted in surprise. Ben bent over the moment the knife pierced his flesh. At the same time, Andrei fired his gun at him, but the bullet shot through the air where Ben had stood and landed on the ground.
Andrei spoke and then shoved my mother toward a man who pinned her hands behind her back.
I looked back to the man who was holding me before. I was pretty sure he was dead, and I was beginning to wonder what it was that Gideon had done to him. I was about to turn away from his body when someone hit me from behind. I dropped.
“How do you like that?” I screamed as Andrei rammed his knee into my stomach. “You little…” The rest of his words continued in Russian.
“Stop!” my mother shouted, screaming at top of her voice.
Andrei pulled me up by my hair. “I need you alive because I want your father to suffer for what he did, but now I think killing you would be much more fun.” Andrei landed a punch to my stomach again. His knee followed, and then he threw me to the ground. Tears ran down my cheeks.
I saw Felix’s unmoving body on the ground, and more tears rushed down.
I could see Gideon beside me, but he looked unable to move. He seemed like he was trying to force himself forward, but he still stood frozen where he stood. Was a normal hero too much to ask for?
I writhed on the ground; my eyes were watery and my heart thumped violently inside me. Each breath came out in sharp, shallow rasps. Every inch of my body burned. Trying to suppress the pain, I forced myself to stand, but I stumbled and landed on my face.
“Get up!” Andrei shouted, and once again he pulled me up by my hair.
“You—” Andrei paused. We heard a gunshot. The man holding my mother lay on the ground. Andrei was distracted, so I rammed my fist into his jaw. Then I kicked him.
“Take this,” Gideon said, and a gun appeared in my hand. Since everyone was busy freaking out, no one saw it, so I was the only one who was completely shocked.
I rushed over to Ben.
“This is gonna hurt,” I said, and I swiftly pulled the knife from his thigh and hurled it toward Andrei; it landed in his shoulder, and he cursed.
“Honey, be careful!” my mother cried.
“Don’t move, Mom!” I shouted at her when she made an attempt to move closer to Ben.
I pointed the gun at Andrei. “Don’t!” I shouted as he started to remove the knife from his shoulder. “Leave it!” I fired my gun. It missed him only by an inch; he did as he was told.
I walked over to Andrei. He smiled when I got closer.
“Abigail, it’s over. He’s not going to hurt you anymore,” Gideon spoke from right beside me, even though I still couldn’t see him. I knew that the worst was over, but I wasn’t done with Andrei.
“I actually like you,” Andrei said with a smile.
I struck him in the chin using the bottom of the gun. “Too bad I’m going to kill you.” I rested my finger on the trigger.
Logan and my parents shouted, “No!”
“Abigail, don’t!” my father said as he ran over to us. I didn’t lower my gun. “Abigail, don’t.” My father pulled me away as Logan pointed his own gun at Andrei’s head.
“Brian!” my mother cried, and my father went over to her. “Felix…” she sobbed, pointing at the body on the ground. “He’s gone, and…” My father let go of her and walked over to Felix.
He checked for a pulse, and when he couldn’t find anything, he cursed.
“Agent V,” Andrei called to my father. “It’s a nice girl you’ve got here. She single-handedly took out all the men I brought,” he said and then turned and smiled at me.
At the sight of his wickedly happy face, I struck him again with the bottom of my gun.
“Abigail, we need him for questioning,” Logan said. “We couldn’t get in through the front gate because you initiated lockdown, so we had to go around the house. We’d have been here faster, but it seems you didn’t need our help.”
“Didn’t need your help?” I asked angrily. “Felix is dead!”
“One person,” Andrei scoffed. “You took down all my men and—”
I knocked Andrei again—hard—on his face. His nose started bleeding.
“Abigail.” My father pulled me away from him.
“You took him and his men down?” Logan asked, looking surprisingly at me. “Interpol and the CIA have been trying to nail Andrei for years, and you got him in one night?”
“I guess now they can send me a freaking thank you card,” I said bitterly and turned away from him. I had no doubt Gideon deserved a card as well.
Andrei started laughing, “She is adorable and I—”
The bullet I fired at Andrei landed in the same arm where I stabbed him. He screamed.
“Abigail!” my mother shouted in shock.
When I turned to face her, she was staring at me as if she didn’t know me. I didn’t know who I was either because a while ago, I was freaking out that I killed someone, and now I actually yearned to kill Andrei.
“You’re quite dangerous, aren’t you?” Gideon asked again. Hearing his disembodied voice should have bothered me more than it did.
“He doesn’t need his arm for interrogation, does he?” I asked my father.
Everyone was now staring at me as if they didn’t recognize me. I figured they were just used to lovely, obedient, good-girl Abigail. Bloodlust Abigail scared them.
“Honey, you are safe, you are all right, and we are here,” my father said slowly and calmly.
“Safe?” I shouted at my father. “After a bullet in the arm, having people beat the crap out of me, jumping off a moving motorcycle to avoid getting run over, and enduring this psychopath here, I’m safe?” Reality finally set in, and my body registered the excruciating pain I was in.
The adrenaline was slowly wearing off. I killed people. I had killed!
Suddenly I couldn’t breathe as I became aware of what I had done. Every bit of my body felt as if it were breaking into pieces. The stickiness of the blood on my skin made my head spin when I remembered where it came from.
“Abigail, I…”
I pulled away from my father, shaking my head. “Congratulations, Father. I guess now you can come home,” I said in a whisper.
“I never wanted any of this,” he said morosely.
“You wanted a killer! You’ve got one, and now you’re looking at me as if I’m a stranger. Take a long look, Father. This is me now.” And then without another word, I turned and walked away.