A fourth shot and a fifth, all into the front wheels, which he completely destroyed to make sure I could not drive away.
I wanted to get out of the car, but what good would that do? He would kill me on the spot.
I watched him as he approached without haste. His gait was that of a predator that had cornered its prey after playing with it for days, but the fun was over.
Joshua had died, he had lost his puppet.
He wore a black leather jacket and was massive, tall and monstrous. I wished I could see his face so I could know who was about to be my executioner.
I snapped out of the trance when he reached the car, and I tried to crawl into the other seat, but he reached his hand through the open window and grabbed me by the arm.
I started to struggle and scream, all to no avail. Everything that had happened tonight, everything I’d used, everything I’d seen, was at peak performance at the last moment of my life, and I surrendered to exhaustion as I kicked and screamed as loud as my mouth would allow.
He opened the door and pulled me out of the car, then turned me around and held me from behind with one arm around my neck and the other holding my arms behind my back.
“What happened,wild angel? Did your wings break?”
Had I gone mad? Probably, because all I could hear was Harris’s voice. He grabbed me by the throat with his large palm and pushed my head back until I could hear his breath in my ear.
“You should have listened to my warnings.”
I blinked, fighting for clarity because my mind felt like it was glued shut with thumbtacks. I gritted my teeth in his grip, then a bright light blinded me, and the familiar sound of powerful engines pierced the night. There were many of them, and I could see them closing in like a pack of beasts.
The ground beneath my feet shook, and the devil growled near my ear as the bright light mixed with the darkness, but the latter won, as it always did.
I could feel it in my bones. Hell was getting closer and closer.
Before I lost consciousness completely, he pushed me forward. I stumbled and couldn’t catch myself before I fell and hit my head on the concrete. I winced in pain as the sounds around me began to fade and my heartbeat became louder. The lights went out and my blood pressure skyrocketed. I suddenly felt cold all over, which felt so wrong since I was in the center of the inferno.
I couldn’t tell how long I lay there until someone picked me up. The same voice called my name and a cold hand touched my face.
I managed to open my eyes and this time I saw his face, the face I loved so much and the face that drove me mad.
The face that went by many names, but I only knew the one he wanted to introduce me to, as he had probably lied every step of the way.
A desperate, horror-crazed Harris. He was on his knees as he pulled me into his arms. Cars drove past us like in avideo game, like lightning in a devastating storm, while others clustered around us, forming an impenetrable shield.
“Don’t let him get away,” he shouted as his body trembled against mine, “it’s going to be okay, baby. You’re going to be okay,” he whispered in a desperate voice.
He was shaking even more than I was.
I didn’t believe his lie a second time.
But I blacked out before I could let him know that things would never be okay again.
