Dark Days (Written Pictures #2) (22 page)

CHAPTER LI – All The Way

For the first time in recent memory, Red was neither chained nor bound and the fresh air invigorated her as it did every day when she was in the training ring. She had been there a lot in recent days, though today it hummed with the noise of an expectant crowd.

The two proper meals had left her stronger than she had been in weeks and she needed to be stronger as today would be no workout. Today was the day when she would finally face the full fury of the demons that haunted her every waking moment - the strange, smiling man had whispered that to her as she had hunched over a steaming plate of decent, nourishing food.

Standing in the doorway, she peered into the brightness and was thankful of the coverage of cloud, aware that she would have the toughest of challenges ahead. The small, boyish woman had warned her too, whispering of what was ahead as she helped her to pull on the white catsuit that set off her peroxide blonde hair nicely. It was the Queen of Ravens she had said and it was a flock of ravens that haunted her, making life an arduous torture of survival as they wheeled constantly over her head, cawing, pecking, accusing.

Red saw the black figure standing tall and confident in the centre of the arena. The Queen of Ravens awaited. Flailing away the latest winged-attack on her sanity and self, she strode out into the light. This was her chance to slay the source of her misery and be free of it.

The two women faced each other across the centre of the arena floor. Black and white, polar opposites, a monochrome pivot to the crowd’s kaleidoscope of colour. One saw hope and salvation. The other saw her tormentor in chief.

When the noise from the crowd began to abate, both turned to look at the man who waited for the silence he expected all to deliver.

== ~ ==

Alexei took in the spectacle of the full arena, the crowd having come to his Games from far and wide. Scanning it, he picked out the guest of honour, the man who would sign a pipeline deal after the election that would give him power and wealth beyond dreams.

“Your Royal Highness,” Alexei began with a bow to the Prince. “Esteemed ladies and gentleman.” He swept an arm toward the two contrasting women in the ring. “Today I have the pleasure of presenting to you the second of my games.”

Alexei paused to accept the cheers, milking the crowd of their salacious anticipation of what lay ahead. He could barely hold back a smile as he waited to continue. “They will fight until one reaches climax.”

Beside him, Natalia shot to her feet. “And that climax will be death.”

Her interjection was swift and her words given a cruel, public finality with the sheathed knife she brandished high in the air, before tossing it into the ring between black and white.

He was speechless, unable to object as the crowd, including the Prince, roared in tumultuous joy at this unexpected and barbaric twist. Before his eyes, his sister had stolen the crowd, his crowd, turning them from spectators of sexual sport into a bloodthirsty mob with just six little words.

As she sat, she glanced at him, a glance telling him that while she knew he had been weakened, she hadn’t.

== ~ ==

In shock at the declaration that, for one of them at least, life would now be short, the two women simply stood. It was Red who moved first, fired by the thought that this would be the end of her demons once and for all.

Diving low, she grasped the leather sheath in her left hand as she landed. Raven, senses already racing, was a split second behind, close enough to grab the hand that grabbed the knife, landing heavily on the woman dressed in white as she did.

There was no time to think, to plan. Certainly no time to understand what was going on as dust kicked up and the two women grappled in the dirt for control of the blade. Legs kicked and arms strained as the two combatants battled for the upper hand. A frenzied blur of black and white, grunts and gasps filled the arena as each woman strained every muscle, every sinew, to force herself on top.

== ~ ==

Disbelief. There was no other word to describe what Alexei felt and he stood there, nonplussed by the suddenly mortal stakes. This was a contest staged for his glorification but had taken on a morbid twist. He couldn’t work out which concerned him more; the thought that she could be taken from him without even having had the opportunity to fuck her, or the way Natalia had ridden roughshod over his authority and taken control of his event.

He had thought killing Yuri would calm things but they were spiralling further out of his control. First Tomas, then Yuri and now Natalia, his little sister of all people, had set herself against him and in public no less. Alexei seethed in anger he couldn’t show and had to force a smile to a man in the row below who had turned round to nod and beam his appreciation while in the ring, the entertainment continued.

== ~ ==

The two women fought on the floor of the arena, rolling this way and that, squeals and cries coming from both their efforts to kill and not be killed, and contrasting almost comically, the rubbing of latex on latex.

Red had always been athletic and strong and grappling her for the knife, Raven couldn’t believe the power that lingered in the woman. She had lost muscle, that was obvious, but that lack was more than offset by the wildness in her eyes and the fury with which she fought.

Raven was being overpowered, her grip already starting to tremble. It wouldn’t be long before her shuddering muscles gave out and the knife was plunged toward her. She couldn’t let that happen but she wasn’t strong enough and her shoulder hurt like fuck. There was only one thing to do and exploding from the floor, she let go of Red’s knife hand and sprung back and away from her, panting hard, conceding the initial battle in the hope to still win the war.

In a flash, Red was on her feet, nostrils flaring as she drew in air and threw aside the knife’s brown leather sheath to reveal the sharpened blade. For a moment, the two women sized up their opponent and the potential threat she offered.

The stand-off didn’t last long. To a feral scream the woman with the knife lunged forward, only to thrust at air as Raven dived to her side.

“It’s me! Raven!” The dark-haired woman wearing black screamed as she scrambled to her feet. The answer was another desperate lunge which she did well to avoid. “Red! Please!” pleaded Raven, reluctant to fight the woman who until Alexei and his sister had spoken, had been her hope.

Another wild lunge had Raven diving backwards and to one side. As she landed, the air driven from her was less of a concern than the agony from her already damaged shoulder. The wail she unleashed pierced the clamour of the crowd and to a smile of malicious intent, the taller woman plunged forward again only to be stopped in her tracks by a hard kick to her arm.

It was a surprise and enough of one for Red to release her grip on the knife as the stiletto heel slashed across her skin. Raven didn’t follow up though, she couldn’t. Even seeing the knife on the floor, it was beyond her to react, struggling as she still was to understand quite what was happening. The Raven in her lusted for the fight but the recently revived rest of her wanted to reason with the woman, to make hope see sense.

“Red!” yelled Raven. “
Kellie
!” she beseeched, using the former redhead’s real name for the first time in an age, a desperate attempt to reach deeper into her to pluck out anything that was left of the woman she once knew. But the woman swooped down unchallenged to scoop up the knife again.

== ~ ==

Natalia watched with increasing amusement. The woman she had pumped full of stimulants, hallucinogens and narcotics was driven wild by vengeance and obviously far too much for the smaller Raven to deal with. It would only be a matter of time before she won, before she killed. Alexei would be free of the poison of the American and together, they could focus again on fulfilling their destiny.

== ~ ==

The name didn’t even register. Red stood there, assessing the woman in the black catsuit in front of her as the crowd seemed to chant “Murderer,” a word only she could hear. Tarnished now by their scuffle on the floor, she was still the black Queen of her demons and there was no choice but for her to die.

With a feral shriek, Red swept forward again, a wild slash with the sharp knife, keeping her confused foe back at a respectful distance while the two circled, breathing heavily, each waiting for the next move of the other.

Appreciative whistles blended with shouts of encouragement from the massed crowd who seemed to press closer and closer in their eagerness to gain a better view. Flexing her shoulder, Raven stepped to the left, turning slightly to solidify her stance in readiness for the next attack. There was no reaching her, no reaching the hope she thought had laid there. She had to fully become Raven again, there was simply no choice and in that moment she saw her chance and attacked.

== ~ ==

The potency of the hallucinogens were undimmed by the decent meal and even in the midst of a fight to the death, Red flicked out an occasional arm to fend off the shadows that surged around her, crowing a clamour of noise, diving and cackling accusations around her head. Feeling the tightness from the stiletto slash to her favoured arm, she thrust up the other hand, stabbing at the imagined birds with the knife.

A second later, the air was driven from her lungs as the woman in black hammered into her with a force that drove both to the floor. Kicking and clawing, the two women fought desperately, both clutching the handle of the knife, biting, kicking, butting and kneeing the other in a deadly barrel roll on the ground.

The crowd howled its appreciation. The black and white melee wheeled and wailed. Round and round they rolled, locked together, spiralling like the flotsam of Raven’s hope caught in a whirlpool of despair. A dust cloud rose again, partially obscuring their struggles as the two latex-clad women fought for their lives in the pit of the arena for the entertainment of whooping crowd.

== ~ ==

Alexei ducked his head side to side, craning his neck to try to follow the action. Grunts were coming thick and fast now. A scream capped a crescendo of effort and Alexei flinched - was it from his woman? The whirling mass of limbs continued though, the knife occasionally catching rays from the sun breaking through the clouds and glinting. It breeched the dust, held up by two contrasting arms that strained as one and a stiletto heel punctured into clear air before driven hard back down.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Natalia just sitting there, watching what she had made happen. While the rest of the crowd bobbed from side to side trying to secure a better view as they were absorbed into the action, she just sat there, an oasis of calm in a boiling frenzy of excitement.

== ~ ==

The calm of Natalia was polar opposite to the struggle in the dust. Two woman remained locked in the bitterest of fights for survival. One, fuelled by chemicals, fought to release herself from the hell she was forced to exist in. The other was forced to fight for her life with the stark choice of sacrificing herself or killing her hope. And so they fought like the feral hellcats they both had to be. They fought with anything they could, in any way they could. They fought to survive, just to live.

== ~ ==

Another scream seized Alexei with its intensity but then, just as quickly as it started, it stopped. The moment froze along with his breath and the crowd mirrored the silence that now befell the ring.

Both still now, slowly the dust began to dissipate and settle, revealing the two women. Neither moved but now the monochrome pair were coloured with splashes of red. The red was spreading, caking the two as it pulsed out and then, as the bodies peeled apart and the woman in white rocked back onto her knees, Alexei saw the knife buried deep in her chest.

== ~ ==

The birds had finally flown from her and in the calm of that moment, Red saw the sun for what seemed like the first time. It was all so peaceful now and she was thankful she had been shown a way to free herself from her personal hell.

Stretching, she reached for the sun, mouthing her thanks. In return it shone brighter, bathing her in its brilliance. She was warm now. Comfortable. Finally content. The sun shone for her and only for her, growing ever larger until it finally consumed her in its radiant tranquillity.