Enigma Black (36 page)

“Jump!”

I followed Blake’s command. Simultaneously, we struck The Man in Black just as he was about to propel himself into the air to dodge our assault. The force of our blows hurtled him through the air into a shelving unit filled with pallets, snapping it in half. An avalanche of wood and steel greeted him seconds after he impacted on the concrete.

“Stand back,” Blake ordered. “He’s going to be really pissed now.”

“Do you think we’ve injured him?”

Blake chuckled. “Hardly, though I’m sure he’s rattled a bit.”

Seconds later, I felt something strike me, throwing me off my feet as it slammed me violently onto the floor. Intense pain erupted along the right side of my body. Looking up, I saw The Man in Black hurling bits of jagged steel like javelins. “It appears as though we’ve given him ammunition,” I said to Blake, jumping back to my feet, narrowly avoiding a piece of sharpened steel as it flew just inches from my head.

“If you can’t beat them, join them. Grab a piece of debris and let’s take care of business.”

I grabbed a broken piece of pallet while Blake opted to fight fire with fire with steel. Through his mask, I could detect a hint of a sneer on The Man in Black’s face as though the violence provided some sort of sick excitement for him.

“Time for another run. He’ll be expecting us this time, so be prepared.” Blake took off with me trailing just inches behind him. As he predicted, The Man in Black was ready for us, swinging a broken board. A sickening thud arose as it made contact with Blake, sending him rolling. With his attention diverted, I made my move, swinging the splintered pallet and knocking him off his feet. Satisfied with myself, I turned to Blake, expecting him to capitalize on my minor success but, instead of launching an assault, he remained balled up on the concrete where he’d come to a rolling stop. With The Man in Black still down, I dashed over to him. He was clutching his side in obvious pain.

“Blake…Blake…” I crouched down next to him. “Are you all right?”

“I’ll be fine.”

His hand fell down from his side, revealing a tear in his suit. Blood was dripping from a small gash to his abdomen.

“How is that possible? I thought these things were indestructible.”

He winced. “They are...with regular maintenance and replacement for wear and tear. Nice shot, by the way.”

“Thanks.”

He stood up, doing his best to shake off the sudden loss of his invincibility, making me question just how protected we truly were. Looking past me, his eyes widened.

“Celaine! Jump!”        

I looked up just in time to see him charging toward me, a look of pure demonic evil burning in his eyes. In swift response, my feet left the ground. However, it was a second too late, and I found myself being tackled by him, his massive form nearly crushing me into the ground. With a swift kick, I knocked him from me, but not before he landed a crippling blow to my chest, taking my breath away. Clearly reenergized, he took full advantage of my sudden handicap, and I felt my body levitate as he picked me up by my leg. Before I had the chance to fight back, he’d flung me through the air with my back striking the wall of the warehouse, sending me to the floor writhing in pain.

I lay on the ground where I landed, my head telling me to get up and fight, my body not allowing me to move anymore. Near my head, I heard the
clunk
,
clunk
of his feet approaching me. Dizzy, I looked up to see his ugly, masked face staring down at me in triumph. It was then that he did the unexpected: he spoke.

“This new one is more pathetic than the last partner you had. Surely, you didn’t think she would make a formidable opponent for me,” he smirked. “I’m going to take great joy in disposing of her.”

Hearing his voice, an almost mechanical one in nature, made only more of an oddity with his helmet in the way, sent me into a state of shock. It shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did. To actually hear his voice, hear intelligible words come from him, gave him a more humanly air about him. Never before had I attributed The Man in Black in the category of “human”. This revelation paralyzed my mind along with my battered body.

“Over my dead body,” Blake responded through his teeth.

“Is that an invitation?”

“Take it as you will.”

“With pleasure.” He glanced back down at me. “I’ll be back to deal with you, sweetheart.” He put his hand up to the mouthpiece of his helmet, blowing me a kiss.

That voice resonated in my mind, echoing throughout the crevices of my cranium. Had it been the last one my family heard before the blast? Did he blow them the same kiss goodbye as he’d just blown to me? Did he laugh as he witnessed the parking ramp crumble before him? Did he enjoy the fear in his victims’ eyes as the life left their bodies? Each thought entering my head fueled my anger more, finally bringing my blood to a rapid boil. A surge of adrenaline coursed through my vapid veins, quickly invigorating them and putting my body and brain back on the same page. Picking myself up off the ground, I ignored the horrendous pain emanating in my chest.

Blake threw a punch at The Man in Black, knocking him back a couple of steps where he retaliated with a swift kick to Blake’s sternum. Unmoved, Blake performed a flying kick that, despite his best efforts, The Man in Black could not dodge. Blake’s boot blasted the side of his helmet, throwing him into a pile of broken desks and garbage. Although I was glad that Blake had knocked the evil bastard down a few pegs, I was miffed that I hadn’t been the one to do it. A strange feeling was beginning to overtake me. Pure rage, like none I’d felt before, consumed me. Their faces appeared in my head, the scenario with him standing outside their window knowing the fate that beheld them, and them powerless to stop him.

“Are you all right?” I nodded my answer to Blake’s question. Physically, yes, I was quite amazingly all right; emotionally on the other hand…

“Now, when he gets up, wait for my mark. No matter how much he may trash talk you, I know you caught him off guard a few times. You’re a threat to him. He would have toyed with you more had you not been, instead of instantly wanting to kill you.”

I heard the words that Blake spoke, but I didn’t take them in. My mind was made up, his words were inconsequential to me now. It would be insubordination to the extreme, but I had to do it. The images from my dreams had haunted me for too long, and I wasn’t going to give him the chance to get away again.

He emerged, brushing garbage off his suit, metal bar in hand. Blake’s posture stiffened, his eyes scanning his opponent for any signs of weakness.

“On my mark,” Blake’s voice fell on deaf ears.

Spread before me now appeared the scene inside the parking ramp with just seconds left before the blast. It was me and The Man in Black with my parent’s vehicle in the background, their voices barely audible behind the vehicle’s metallic structure. Allowing my anger to consume me, I charged at The Man in Black of my nightmares.

“What the hell are you doing?” Blake shouted in my ear piece. I ignored him. He was mine, and I was going to claim him before he could claim them again. Lunging for my strike I, again, felt a massive force around my neck but, instead of choking me, this time it twisted my neck in a direction that necks could not normally twist. He was going for the kill. By breaking my neck, he would most likely succeed. I had failed them. I would die without having kept my promise, with allowing him to take something else from my family.

“I’m sorry,” I sputtered to the image of their car in the parking ramp.

Suddenly, his grasp was broken, causing me to fall to the ground with my neck throbbing in pain. When I sat up, rubbing my neck, I saw Blake tousling with him, jabbing him from left to right, missing some blows but landing most while dodging the metal bar he brandished. The Man in Black stumbled, falling to the floor in the debris heap. It was the most vulnerable the monster had been. He was going to do it. Blake was going to defeat him. This nightmare would be over once and for all.

“Put your hands where I can see them,” Blake ordered.

The Man in Black smirked, “As you wish.”

It’s funny how only one second’s time can alter the future for an eternity, how one moment can change one’s perception indelibly. One second it appeared as though Blake had prevailed, that good had been able to overcome evil with the downfall of The Man in Black. But, in the next second, it became apparent that a different fate had been written in the stars altogether. Removing his hands from behind his back, The Man in Black revealed the broken metal bar still firmly clutched in his right hand and, although the action only took an instant to complete, time seemed to move in slow motion from my vantage point. A scream escaped my mouth as I witnessed the metal bar’s jagged edge thrust like a harpoon from the hand of The Man in Black into the exposed flesh of Blake’s abdomen. Blake exhaled a sickening gasp, collapsing to his knees, clutching his wound.

My horror turned rapidly into fury as I picked myself up to face the devil himself. Pleased with himself, he moved towards me with a swagger that screamed superiority. “Now that he’s out of the way, I can finish what I started with you.”

The sound of his voice only served to fan the flames of the inferno that was manifesting inside me. “Your arrogance will be your downfall,” I replied, facing him.

He laughed. “Your tenacity is amusing. I may just regret snapping your neck.”

I took a defensive stance, analyzing his every move. Physically, there was no question he dominated me. But what he had in sheer bulk, he lacked in speed. Although he could move much faster than the average person, he was no match for my lighter, adrenaline-enhanced body. When it came to making the first move, I would leave the ball in his court, surveying every move he made in an attempt to find a weakness. We walked in a large circle, staring at each other, daring the other to make a move.

After practically wearing a trail on the concrete floor, he finally lost his patience and broke down. I studied each step he took as he ran at me; the way he held his arms with each stride, the slight arch of his back, the exaggerated armor he wore. When he was within ten feet of plowing me over, I flipped up into the air, landing on my feet several feet behind him.

Enraged, he charged at me again like a bull to a matador. I visualized his eyes reddening, his nostrils flaring. And when he came within a couple of feet of impaling me, I sprang into a back flip, kicking my leg out, successfully making contact with the side of his head.
That’s for you, Jake
, I thought to myself. The blow to the head knocked him off kilter. Clearly, he hadn’t expected that out of me.

“Am I formidable enough for you now?”

He emitted a deep, guttural noise that could only be described as a growl. At that moment, I wondered whether he was part beast, after all. Steadfastly, he took off, pounding the pavement with more purpose than before. I held my ground and tried to guess what tricks he had up his sleeve, but when it appeared as though he planned on doing nothing more than running me down, I bent my knees to prepare to leap over him. When I was no more than two feet in the air, he leapt up, launching his fist at me, hitting me perfectly in the only unprotected part of my body: my neck. I fell to the floor, struggling to take in air. He stood over me, pinning me down, his foot firmly planted on my chest.

“You will never be worthy enough for me.”

He pressed down even harder on my chest until I could hear my ribs cracking underneath his weight. Figuring I was too incapacitated to be of any danger to him, he removed his foot from my body, allowing my lungs to fill back up with air. As I expected, the reprieve didn’t last long as, once again, I felt myself being lifted off the floor as he grabbed me by the legs and proceeded to spin me furiously, my body gaining the ultimate momentum.

Never in my life had I thought I was truly going to die. Not even during the assault on The Lakes did I honestly think my life would end. Now, as I flew through the air across the warehouse, I knew that today would be the day. After all I had been through, the assault my body would take upon impact would be too devastating to live through. I had a lot of faith in the suit that encased me, but it couldn’t perform miracles. Closing my eyes, bracing for impact, my body flew into a shelving unit filled with empty pallets. The force of the impact shattered the unit and knocked me to the floor. I looked up from the concrete to see a shower of steel and wood raining down on me. Within a moment, I was covered, buried but surprisingly alive in the remnants of the shelving unit.

The familiar sound of The Man in Black’s feet pounding against the floor drew closer. Undoubtedly, he would try to succeed at what the impact had miraculously been unable to do. Around me, I could hear bits and pieces of wood and steel being lifted off where I landed and thrown to the side. It was only a matter of moments before I was uncovered. All I could do was wait.

At last, he picked up a sheet of steel, revealing my head. I struggled to quickly free my legs, but was met with nothing but resistance. My arms were relatively free, allowing me to run my hands up and down my body in a vain attempt at finding something to deliver me from certain demise.

“It’s time to join your partner.” He drew his arm back, revealing my fate to me: I would be crushed to death by the force of a monstrous blow to the head. Closing my eyes, I braced myself for impact, praying that death would come swiftly. In nervous anticipation, I ran my fingers down the side of my body, where I felt something strike my right hand. Of course! The revelation struck me. I have a gun.

As his armored hand rocketed toward me, my fingers gripped the holster, unclasping my hope for salvation and, with lightning accuracy, I gripped its handle, my fingers firmly grasping the trigger. When his fist came within inches from crushing my head, I pulled my hand from the debris and fired.

I expected a lot of things to happen as the bullet left the barrel of the gun. For instance, I expected it to throw him off his game, giving me an opportunity to attempt an escape. I expected it to throw him back down the pile of wood and steel, giving me at least a few more seconds of life. I expected it to piss him off even more, making my death quicker and, perhaps, relatively less painful. However, I
didn’t
expect the bullet to enter through a slight defect in his armored suit, and I most definitely did not expect the bullet to pierce his flesh.