It takes several minutes but as Eve and I stand off here, her bandits retreat in the direction in which they had come from and begin setting up. Both of us stand in silence while they situate themselves far enough away that I feel safe to loosen my trigger finger.
“Are we going to do this or what?” she snaps.
Tossing the gun to the side I step backward a few steps on the soft sand and brace myself, preparing for Eve’s attack.
Without warning she hurtles toward me, her bare feet clawing at the ground like a wild animal. She approaches and when she thrusts her arm out to punch me in the stomach, I suck in and arc forward causing her to miss. Her balance is thrown off and to make it worse, I grab her arm and pull lightly in the direction she was already going. She trips over her own feet and falls to her knees in the sand. A low growl can be heard coming from her and she quickly turns, thrusting upward with her legs while throwing punches. Uppercut, right hook, left hook, right leg kick. I dodge the first three and grab her leg, pulling upward and knocking her on her back.
“Stop being soft and take some hits. This is a duel!” she yells at me while standing back up and brushing her shirt down.
“And this is me dueling.” I step back to put a few feet between us.
She runs at me and tries once more, but because of her lengthy arms and legs I find it simple to read her movements. Throwing one fist after another, her aim is good and if she had a little more speed on them she might just hit me, but my agility keeps me dodging her blows. Her face turns red with anger and she swings her left leg around, finally connecting with my ribs and I exhale sharply. A smug look crosses her face as I bend over to catch my breath but she is relentless.
Taking advantage of my temporary immobility, she tries to kick me again and I weakly block it with my hands before it connects, but she hits on the sore spot of my arm wound. Instinctively, I leap up and ram my shoulder into her breastbone and she hits the sand again, crouched this time with her hand pressed against the ground as a support.
She looks up at me and the twinkle I see in her eyes tells me she knows that my arm is a weakness. From her position on the ground she leaps into a roll and when her feet come back around to the sand she pushes up, launching herself into the air and coming down on me hard with both fists. Her speed forces me to block with my arms and when she connects pain shoots through my whole arm. She hits it over and over, but I halt her by grabbing her right arm as it is coming at me and pull her forward to my face. I sweep my leg behind her, place my elbow on her collar bone shove her to the ground again.
“If all you can do is push me down you’re going to lose,” she taunts.
“It’s all I will do. You’re a woman.”
“Are you saying that because I’m a woman I’m inferior to you?”
“I’m saying I think you are fragile enough for me to break,” I taunt to get under her skin.
Determined to take me down, she breaks into a short sprint and jumps wildly into the air like an animal, her hands and feet extended to claw at me. I plant my feet and as she connects, she wraps her hands around my neck and her feet on my knees. Grabbing her by the waist, I swing her around and let go. The force sends her flying against a dune but she is relentless, getting back up and charging me again.
Her fists fly at me both at once and even though I block the attack with my arms, pain screams through my wound again and she takes advantage, punching me in the ribs with quick successive punches. Before I can regain composure, Eve has wrapped her arm around my neck and begins to choke me from behind. Grabbing her arm with my two hands I try and pull her arm away while the blood in my vessels slows and I can feel my face turning red.
I swing my right leg back behind hers and shove with my left side. We both fall and my shoulder blades hit her torso hard. She exhales and her arm loosens. In a brief second, I rip her arm away and jump off of her, but I’m tackled and turned onto my back.
“Why must you struggle?” Eve says while slamming two fists together into my sternum, then pins my arms to the ground with her knees while sitting on me. “You’re going to be my personal slave!”
Words are wasted at this point. In one fell swoop, I swing my legs up and kick her in the back of the head. I don’t want to hurt her, but I need to step it up if I want to stay a free man. She’s stunned and her knees come up a bit, but before I can get free she pins me again. I struggle. Her fist comes up and she gets ready to hit me in the face and as she plunges it down I yell out.
“Wait!” I yell.
She halts, “What could you possibly want in the middle of our duel?”
“Before you hit me in the face I think we should kiss. It’s obvious you win and if you hit me, it might be awhile before you get another chance,” I suggest slyly.
“You’re offering to kiss me?” She looks at me puzzled, she pulls her fist back again. “I can just take one as I please.”
“But, I am offering willingly. That’s what you really want is it not?” It’s a dirty tactic to stall for time, but it’s all I can think of right now.
She does not hesitate and thrusts herself down on me. Our lips press together and she turns it quickly into a passionate open mouth kiss. Her guard drops as her muscles relax and I seize the opportunity.
Even pinned, with my strength I manage to roll us over and she lands on her back. I pull away, our kiss broken and we tumble around with me finally getting the upper hand by jumping on her back. With my knee in her spine, I pin her in place and she realizes I am not just playing rough, but that I’ve deceived her. Flailing to reach me, she cannot get a grip and I grab her arms one by one and pin them behind her back too, shoving her face into the sand.
“GET OFF OF ME!” she screams violently while struggling.
“Not until you forfeit.” my voice comes out calm but I twist her arms harder.
“Never! You said I won!” She groans through the pain.
“Yeah well, I lied,” I snap at her.
She squirms, but with me pinning her arms with my hands and my knee in her back she quickly finds that she’s been outdone. I wait for her fighting spirit to break and I can almost feel it as she huffs into the sand angrily, knowing she’s helpless. Finally, she quits.
“Holding you here takes no effort and I could easily lock my arm around your neck to knock you out. Are we finished here?” I ask her.
“I give. You win,” she grunts angrily.
“Kohan!” I yell out.
“Don’t bring him over here. Please,” she pleads.
“I have to have a witness that you are giving up,” I tell her. “Otherwise how would I trust that you will leave?”
“You will just have to trust me,” she tells me. But it’s too late, Kohan is upon us.
“What?” he asks sternly.
“Eve is defeated. You will all leave now,” I reply.
“Let me up!” The fire in her voice returns and it rings of destroyed pride.
Doing now as she has requested, I relinquish my hold on her arms. When I see no movement from her, other than to relax her hands to the ground I lift my knee up and return to a standing position. She lies there for a moment so I offer my hand to help her up, only for her to swat it away childishly. Her strong arms push her up from being facedown in the sand, taking a moment to kneel before standing. All the way up she looks at me with disgust, but says nothing.
Kohan takes her by the arm and they promptly do an about-face, beginning to walk toward the stuck wagon. Watching as they make their way toward the tent in the not too far distance where people mill about and await their orders, I find myself with no trust for either of them.
Finally, maybe I can rest until we shift through time.
Turning around I head toward the edge of the hill down to the house and I see Ami and Agatha standing in the door of the kitchen. Waving, I smile at them and their faces are relieved.
“We will not leave empty handed!” A rally cry pierces the air, coming right from the mouth of a person
so deluded by their own grandiose self-empowerment that I should have expected it. “Plunder the house and kill them!”
Eve has gone back on her word and when I turn around her battalion is already making its way toward me. Watching them it feels like time moves in slow motion and a sense of helplessness falls over me as Ami and Agatha’s lives are now in danger. My feet are glued in position and I feel the need to fight them rising but I am frozen. My body begins to shake and I am forced to place my knee into the ground to keep myself from falling over. Fighting against losing consciousness, I cannot believe this is happening.
A seizure?! Now?! I have to fight! I have to be able to defend Ami and Agatha! Eve is nearing. I have to pull it together!
I fight my body as that pressure builds up inside me again and it feels like my body is going to burst. Struggling to focus on Eve, I find my vision going blurry but my arms shake violently. In some manner beyond my understanding I find myself pushing that built up pressure through my shaking arms and into my hands. My head, my torso and my legs calm but I cannot control my arms. As they near, I push up with my legs and find it difficult to stand because of my arms destabilizing my balance. Letting my body do as it wants, I help it push that pressure to rid the shaking of my arms and hands. Clenching my fists so tight, I feel them draw blood.
Past the slow motion lens that I’m seeing the world through right now, I find that Eve and her army have nearly reached me and my body instinctively reacts. Turning my head and shut my eyes I throw my hands out in front of me and open them, palms out.
“NO!” I yell at the top of my lungs.
The pressure begins to leave like a wave of energy being sent from the bottom of my toes, up through my body and out through my arms and hands. Like a lightning strike, a crack rips through the air and it sounds like the world itself has just broken directly in front of me. Screaming can be heard from the multitude and slowly I open my eyes to find that the army has been knocked back several feet and beyond them I can see an almost visible ripple slice lengthwise through the air and destroy their wagon.
What was THAT?!
Eve moves amongst the pile and I can hear her groan. They’re all beginning to get back up, regaining their composure albeit disoriented and confused. Taking a defensive stance I keep my hands out and try to do it again. My hands are tingling, but they are not shaking like before. Eve staggers forward her face showing anger and determination.
How do I do it again?!
“Stay there Eve!” I yell out.
She grunts in response and waves her hand from back to front to signal a second attack. Regaining as much composure as they can, they stumble forward but as momentum builds they steady. I find myself bracing for an attack again and there is no sign of the pressure from before. I’m not seizing this time. Pointing my hands at the ground I see them hesitate but Eve refuses to give up.
“STAY THERE!” I bellow.
I feel it again and a rush flows through me as if my body is expelling every ounce of energy in me, but with my eyes open this time I watch it happen. A fraction of a second before I hear the noise I see that wave exit my hands, only made visible as it slices even the light particles in the air. The crack follows and as it impacts the sand, causing it to fly up toward the group. Eve staggers and screams out while her men either fall due to getting hit with a huge amount of sand in the face or they turn and run to try and avoid it. The earth shifts and everyone’s footing is loosed from the ground.
Familiar with the small quake, I look behind me to find that blue swirl kicking up around the house, cutting through the air, and looking back at Eve, I grin mischievously. The quake gets a little heavier and I turn to jump down the hill. Side stepping as fast as I can I make my way down the dune and head for the vortex. The blue mixing with the sand causes a strange marbling effect within the air and were I not in a hurry to make it in before it violently pulls me, I might have been able to admire it more. Reaching the bank of sand just before the trench I run to leap over it and hear Ami cry out over the noise it’s kicking up.
I’m tackled from behind and turning over I kick violently to get them off of me. Eve grips me heavily and glares at me but I shove and push away. Leaving her in the sand, I run and jump over the trench, landing inside the vortex and when I look back I can see the new destination all around us and I find it to be a lush green forest.
Could it be that we are going back to my time?
“RAIN!” Eve yells, barreling through the vortex and tackling me to the ground.
4 CONFRONTATION
Before any of us know what has happened, the earth ceases quaking and the blue vortex dies down around us. As I struggle with Eve I do what I can to put my legs between us while she claws at me, attempting to take chunks out of my face. She lands a solid blow in my temple and my vision goes black briefly, causing my head to spin with vertigo again. I am stuck in a daze, unable to defend myself, as she hits me, and I hear Ami and Evalyn intercede. My vision returns slowly and I they are dragging Eve away before she can hit me further.
“Get off of him!” Evalyn yells.
“Rain! Are you okay?!” Ami cries out.
“Is it too late?” I ask looking out to the forest where there is no sand or bandits in sight.
“Where are my men?! Where have you taken me?!” Eve’s shrill voice rings out her head darting from left to right.
“It’s too late!” Evalyn yells out.
“What have you done?” Eve cries out, struggling against Ami and Evalyn.
“They’re gone. Or I should say they’re still there and you’re gone,” I mumble and sigh heavily.
Rubbing my head I blink several times to get my vision to right itself. Getting up, I watch Ami and Evalyn restrain Eve as best as they can and they finally cannot hold her any longer. She lunges at me but I am too tired and disappointed to care about not hitting her and I grind my fist into her ribcage, just below her breasts. She coughs and sputters while stumbling backward.
“What have you done, you vile creature?!” Eve coughs and cries out hysterically.
“This is not what we needed; another mouth to feed,” Evalyn protests.
“I did not do it,” I tell Eve calmly.
“You lie, fiend! First you hit us with an invisible shockwave from your hands and now we’re in some foreign place! What are you?!” Eve yells out, the spite in her voice piercing my ears like a knife.
“Invisible wave?” Ami asks.
“I’m not quite sure myself. That was the first time I had done that.” I shrug.
“You think this is funny?! How do I get back?” she yells at me.
“You don’t,” Ami tells her snidely, moving around the side next to me. “You’re stuck here with us and us with you.”
Eve’s anger shifts focus to Ami and she tries to hit a weaker target, but I am on her before she can successfully connect, jumping in to take the full force of the side swing. It connects with my shoulder and I shrug it off. She tries again but I grab her by the wrist.
“You have a short memory don’t you?” I glare angrily at her. “I will not allow you to harm these women.”
“Rain, I blame you for this. We didn’t need another freeloader,” Evalyn sneers.
While ill-timed due to the volatile nature of the situation at hand, Evalyn is right and we now have another person stuck here with the house. Where I was at least welcome by Ami and Agatha, Eve has been dragged along unwillingly by both parties.
“Take me back now!” Eve yells.
“We can’t. Where we go isn’t controlled by us,” I tell her, using soft tones to try and disarm her violent mind.
“Then tell me how I can get back!” She struggles to get away.
“There is no way back! You are stuck with us forever!” It just spills out of my mouth. “If you’d have just left well enough alone, none of this would have happened!”
Whoops.
“What do you mean?” She asks.
“It’s a long story. Eve i
s it?” Agatha is now in control of her body and signs of sympathy appear in her face. “Perhaps we should sit down, have a glass of water and we can bring you up to speed.”
If only she really knew Eve.
Eve looks at us all cautiously, determining whether to trust us, no doubt. She rips her arm free of my grasp, tugs on the bottom of her cutoff top and crosses her arms hastily. With no choice, she nods for us to lead the way and Agatha starts toward the door. Ami follows, Eve behind her, but when I try to head inside my body stops responding. I feel it coming and I’m helpless to do anything.
Another seizure?! Now?!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I startle awake to find myself inside and lying on the couch, the table at my side, with a bowl of water and a washcloth across my forehead.
Seeing the woods beyond the living room window, the familiar scene haunts me and I quickly check my chest to make sure that my wound is still closed. The closed scar allows me to breathe a sigh of relief. Despite the fact that I was mortally wounded so few months ago, my body has nearly recovered, with minimal aches now and again. I tug on my shirt to pull it down while I readjust my body to a more comfortable position as I lie there and regain my senses.
A yellow shirt? Is this a fresh shirt? It has to be. It’s not the one I was wearing.
Nobody is in the room and I cannot see anyone beyond the drawn drapes. The door is cracked open though, and a warm smell of fresh vegetation drifts in causing me to feel a little nostalgic. Sitting up my mind begs me to go look out the window at the dense forest, desperately needing to know if we have returned to my time. Drake enters my mind and I feel a sense of dread creep up on me as I recall his evil form.
Why do I have the feeling that he would murder Ami and Agatha just to spite me? Is that who he really is?
I slowly push myself off the couch and head over to the window, finding Ami and Agatha pulling the cover off of the well. Watching them, I can see that they are in conversation, but I cannot tell what it’s about. When the cover is dropped, Ami starts moving her arms sharply and I can tell that she is trying to get a strong point across which would not be her demeanor if it were Evalyn. Moving to the door, I find myself a little light-headed, which is unsurprising considering everything that has happened. I lean against the wall for support. The door creaks as I pull it open a little more to listen in and I can hear at least Ami’s side of the conversation.
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