The Heart's Content

Chapter 116

"No!" Rosie cried out in protest.

Angered, Rosie wriggled and struggled, using her power to make a chunk of ice magically appear and hit Valentino across the face with it. Still no damage but it made him mad. So mad that he lunged for her and they went tumbling down the snow, tackling and grabbing at each other with intent to kill. He grabbed another glass shard and using it like a dagger he stabbed Rosie in the shoulder, trying to reach her heart while she reached up, wringing his neck until it would snap. They were dead locked in a murder attempt. Something had to tip the balance.

At that moment, Niffty's car was driving on a street only a few spaces away from the scene and when Beth spotted Rosie on the ground, fighting for her life, the urge to act took over.

"Niffty stop the car!" She cried out.

Niffty slammed on the breaks and turned in the skin.

"Why? What is it?" She asked when the car came to a complete stop.

But Beth didn't reply. Instead she got out of the car and ran into snowy scene, desperate not to let Rosie be killed.

"Beth what are you doing?! Come back!" Niffy called going after her.

Beth was too fast though and winter wind practically blinded her and tossed her body about like a rag doll. Beth ran as fast she could and at the same time she tried to think of what she could do to help. The solution came when she slipped on the ice and fell down to find Husk's discarded gun and some of his misfire bullets. Remembering what she had learned about Valentino's weakness from Rosie, she got an idea. She grabbed one of those bullets and dug through the snow for a stick with a sharp end. At the tip of the bullet, she carved a smiley face into it and then remembering what Husk told her about firearms and shooting, she loaded the bullet into the gun.

Getting up to her feet, she pointed the gun at Valentino, aiming for any part of him. Her hands were shaking, every inch of her was shaking. She was scared. More afraid than she had ever been in all her eleven years of life. She wasn't sure if she could do it. But she had to. To save the closest thing she had to a mother, she had to shoot. She had to shoot and she couldn't miss. She just couldn't.

BANG!

She pulled the trigger, the force of the gun threw her back, and the smiling bullet zoomed straight for Valentino's backside. This time the bullet wasn't reflected and it did hurt him. He released Rosie and stood up screeching like some unholy bat, whirling around to see the source of his pain. The fury in his yellow eyes were spiked, completely enraged that a mere child had been able to wound him.

"You damn brat! I'll fix you!"

A limping Husk finally made it on to the scene just as Rosie was recovering from her own attack. When they saw Valentino summon an endless cloud of broken glass, aiming it at the little girl, they were mortified.

"No! Don't you dare Val!" Husk shouted.

"Valentino you can't! She's just a baby!" Rosie screamed.

Overcome with parental instinct, they ignored their injuries and pain, forcing themselves to run to Beth. The cloud of glass fell upon her but Rosie and Husk got to her first. They both wrapped their arms tightly around her, making sure each and every part of her was covered. The bits of broken glass were plunged deep into the man and woman but not one touched the girl.

"No! Stop!" Beth pleaded. "Let go of me! Run away! Move!"

"We won't!" Husk refused

"But you'll die!"

"We don't care!"

"But-"

"Keep your head down Beth!" Rosie ordered. "Head down! Don't look up no matter what! Do you hear me?!"

Husk and Rosie just continued to shield her from the shower of sharp glass until it ceased. It was a nightmare for Beth. Just sitting there and letting them get killed, letting them die to protect her. Was this what it was like for Alastor when their mother died?

When it was over, the adults collapsed. Beth couldn't move, she just laid there in their arms, still and pale with terror. Leading Valentino to believe that all three of them were dead. A cruel smile spread across his face as he leapt up and laughed maniacally.

"Finally!" He cackled, completely insane. "I won! I won! I beat her! I beat you Rosie! Everyone always said that I was nothing! But you're the one who's nothing! You! You! You!"

He left after that, again not noticing the crack in his face and how it had started to spread.

The winds calmed down a bit and Nifffy was able to get to Beth. Imagine terror in her face to see Rosie and Husk laying motionless in the snow, bleeding heavily, and Beth crying over them. Crying like she was a itty-bitty little girl again. Like when she was a toddler and could still remember her mother, crying for her after she had died.

"Mary Mother of God." Niffty whispered in sheer horror.

Once she recovered from her shock, she knelt down and took Beth into her arms, holding her and letting her cry while silently shedding her own tears in mourning for the apparent death of her friend.