Page 3 of Danny's Dance
She cackled as she roughly shoved her hand in my hair. “That’s right. I’m waiting for your men. I want them to find you and I want you to watch how they die. That’s what you like, right? Watching your loved ones die in front of youreyes?”
Bile rose from my stomach as I realised I had been played. I had fallen right in her trap. “I don’t...” I tried, but she cut meoff.
“Oh, don’t deny it! That’s why you watched me die, right? You enjoyed it! Didn’t it make you feel powerful,Danny?”
I shook my head, my scalp hurting from where she was holding my hair. “It didn’t... I-I didn’t want you todie...”
Again, she cut me off. “Silence! You can’t fool me. I know you l wanted me dead. How else did I wind up lying in a ditch with the life leaving my body? Oh and don’t tell me it was an accident! Danny dear doesn’t make mistakes, does she? No, she is daddy’s little girl,” Chesca sneered, her voice sharp as every word cut in my skin. Memories of her death resurfacing from a place I thought I had lockeddown.
“How did it make you feel? To watch me die? Was it exciting? Exhilarating? Finally getting rid of me? I know you pitied me. Your silly, stupid friend, with no home and nowhere togo.”
I shook my head again, cursing the tears running down my cheek. “I loved you like a sister, Chesca. I didn’t mean for you to die!” I protested, making her yank my head back evenharder.
“Loved me? Hah! You hated me!” she yelled, making me flinch from the sudden noise. Angrily, she tugged on my hair again. A horde of tiny needles stabbed my skull as she kept hurtingme.
“I didn’t hate you...” I try, but my words are lost in thewind.
“I should just kill you right here, right now,” Chesca hissed in my ear, the blade moving away from my hair onto the skin in my neck. “I wonder how your beautiful mate Regan will react if he finds your lifeless body bleeding. Or your beloved JP. Do you think it’ll make his stutter evenworse?”
My hands balled in fist as she lisped the names of my lovers, her voice changing to an oddly soft and seductivetone.
“Regan sure is strong and sexy... I wonder how it would feel to have him underme.”
Don’t engage, Danny. Don’t engage.I repeated to myself, trying to keep my cool. I knew what she was doing, she was trying to rile me up. I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t lose control of myself and do somethingstupid.
Chesca twirled another strand of hair around her finger. “Or JP. He’s always so shy and adorable, but Ibethe’s a beast in bed. It’s always the quiet ones, isn’t it,Danny?”
Anger flamed up in my stomach as she spoke about my men. They weren’t hers to talkabout.
“It would be such a shame if they arrive right when I slit your throat. Maybe they’ll be so overcome with grief, they’ll need someone to comfort them. But don’t worry, I will be waiting for them with open arms. And openlegs.”
“You fucking bitch!” I growled, finally losing my temper and throwing all caution to the wind. If she was trying to piss me off, she succeeded. I clamped my hand around her wrist, yanking the blade away from my throat and jabbed my other elbow in her gut. Using the tricks JP taught me, I stole the knife from her as I rolled away from her. Even though my limbs had grown stiff from the cold ground, I quickly jumped up on myfeet.
If she insisted on fighting it out, I’d gladly comply. There were a lot of things I’d take. Playing games and even cutting of chunks of hair I could tolerate. But her threateningmymen, talking about making them hers, that was one step toofar.
“What’s happening, Danny dear? Don’t want to share your boy toys with me?” Chesca sneered, rage boiling up in me from. Regan and JP were mine and mine alone. With a force I didn’t expect from myself, I swung the short blade at Chesca and somehow managed to slice her cheek. She brought her hand up to the wound and laughed out loud as she watched the blood trickledown.
“Is that all you got?” she mocked, licking the blood from her fingers. Fuck me, she was utterlyderanged.
Angrily, I lunged at her again. Recalling all the lessons I had, I twirled around my enemy and managed to slash a deep cut in her upper arm. Instead of reacting like a regular person to pain, she just laughed harder and harder. “Pathetic! Do you think this will hurt me, Danny dear? You’re sad. Such a disappointment. You’ll never be able to live up to your father’s expectations. He’s probably glad you ran! After all, you’re just not good enough,Danielle,” Chesca hissed, the use of my full name sending me in a rage. She knew how much I hated my full name, how I hated my father, how I hated never being good enough forhim.
Overcome with rage and frustrations I had been carrying around for so long, I jumped at her carelessly. I grabbed her by the wrist and spun around her, pressing my blade against her throat. My hand was trembling, but not from fear this time. I was angry, angry like I hadn’t been in a longtime.
I could do it. If she said my full name one more time, I could slash her throat and kill her, ending this ridiculous and petty war. All I needed, was just one extra burst of anger. Just one and I could end this. Forgood.
“Are you going to kill me, Danny dear? You don’t have the guts” Chesca dared me, seemingly unconcerned with the situation she was in. I tightened my grip on the blade as I tried to gather the courage I needed. Come on, Danny. You could end the war right here, right now. Comeon.
Doit.
Chapter Two - Woods of Erald
The first trailof blood trickled out of the cut on Chesca’s neck as I pressed the blade firmer into herskin.
Chesca squealed in pleasure as she pressed herself harder into the knife. “Yes, hurt me! Come on, kill me. Kill me again! Let me die like last time, Danny! Chase me into my grave oncemore!”
Her words triggered a new set of memories, freezing me in my step. The scent of iron and fresh blood flooded my senses, fire burned the back of my neck, and cries of agony filled my ears. The scene that haunted my sleep unfolded in front of my eyes as I relived Chesca’s death all over again. The helplessness, the panic, the desperation slapping me in the face oncemore.
I felt my knees tremble as my body was ready to give out. I didn’t want to kill Chesca. I couldn’t. I tried to release the blade, but Chesca had palmed her hand overmine.
