“There’s a whole world inside me that you’ll never touch!”
Emil walks in a slow circle, casing me. I want to remain unaffected by it, but my knees weaken and my hands tremble. I’m nauseated by fear as my bravado erodes. Emil swipes his cane though the air, it makes a terrifying whistle. I flinch. I know what it will feel like when it finally falls on me. Brutal. “Ahh, so you do still fear me.” He stops in front of me so I can see his smug smile. “Now I want you to beg me.”
I don’t have to ask him what for, I know he means my life. My whole body begins to shake. “Plea—”
Emil’s fist connects with my upper lip, pushing it into my teeth. My soft flesh explodes. Blood drips between my front teeth. The metallic taste stains my tongue. My head lurches to the side. I crash onto the ground, bouncing off the uneven brick. Emil stands over me. “Get up. I didn’t hit you hard.” But he did and he knows he did. He uses his cane, landing blows on my back and legs. “Get. Up.”
I blink. Tears seep from my eyes. More blows strike me, tearing my soul away with my flesh. I can’t stop the pain. My breath rattles in my chest. My ribs ache. It feels as though they’re pressing into my lungs. I manage to push myself up to my knees. The rough brick cuts them. A part of me wonders why I’m bothering to move. The distressing answer is I want to live, but I doubt this time that I will. He’s always been in control of his vicious nature, but his control is slipping. He’s giving in to the darkness inside him and it’ll only stop when I’m in pieces.
His cane hits my arms that I lift to protect my head and face. The bones in my hand shatter. I realize vaguely that I’m screaming until he punches me in the stomach. A whoosh of air goes out of my mouth. I land flat on my back, looking up at him hovering above me. All sound is muffled. Emil is saying something. He leans near me and shakes my shoulders. His face looms in front of mine. I squint at him. My eyelids are swelling. Blood oozes into them from open cuts on my brow. Sound crashes back in.
“You’re pregnant?” Emil demands with a desperate look in his eyes. He touches the ground beside me, lifting his palm; it’s covered with my blood. “Tell me!” He shakes me again. “Are you pregnant with my child?”
A gush of blood pours from me, wetting my thighs as my abdomen contracts violently. I moan. “My child,” I croak. “Never yours.”
Emil swears in anger. “Why didn’t you tell me? This is entirely your fault! I wouldn’t have struck you there if I had known.” He touches my forehead with his bloody palm, pushing back my hair from it. “You cannot leave me, Simone.” The room grows darker. I lose focus on his face. He shakes me again until my teeth rattle. “Why didn’t you tell me you were carrying my baby?” He’s afraid. I’m slipping away from him.
“Never your baby. Just mine.” I look over his shoulder. Sparkling embers of golden light, like glowing dust, falls through the crack of the open door. Amid the light, a charcoal-colored feather blows toward me. It gently falls against my swollen cheek. My cloudy eyes become clear. Dark, widespread wings show on either side of Emil as he kneels over me. A large hand encircles Emil’s neck, cutting off his breath. Emil jerks away from me, lofting into the air, held up by an angel. I blink. The angel strangles my enemy with one hand as his flapping gray wings beat the air.
Emil’s face turns blue. His hands claw and slap the angel’s fist, trying to pry it from his throat. Strawberry-blond hair waves disheveled and messy on his forehead. A mask of agony contorts his face as his legs kick the air. The dark-haired angel has a look of vengeance. He bares his teeth, closing his fist harder, crushing Emil’s spine. Emil’s arms drop and his legs no longer flail. The angel says something to Emil, it sounds like music. His wings continue to move as his other hand reaches up and twists Emil’s head at an unnatural angle, breaking Emil’s neck. Then the beautiful creature rips Emil’s head clean off his shoulders, spraying blood on the floor and walls. He lets go of Emil’s body. It crashes to the floor in a tangled heap. My abuser’s blood mixes with mine in a pool on the ground.
Still hovering in the air, the angel turns in my direction. I look into his green eyes, the color of a field in summer. “You feel no pain,” the angel says to me in English. His deep voice echoes in my mind. All pain evaporates from me, floating away as if it had never been, but I can’t move. I’m broken.