Alternative Tactics

Ch. 6: The Scary Neon-Painted Woman

And then I lashed out, sweeping my leg as close to their feet as I could. The woman tripped and fell backwards, caught off guard but the man was quicker, darting out of the way... and right into Cyric's fist. Cyric had planned perfectly, swinging his fist into the way of the man as he moved. No one in the crowd noticed us as I followed Cyric's instructions and ran through the opening he had given me. The man recovered quickly from the hit but not quickly enough to catch me. The woman lay at the bottom of the stairs, having fallen down what I assume to be ten steps. I swore and checked for a pulse. Thankfully, she was alive, just knocked out. 

In the whirlwind of blinking strobe lights, loud music and close bodies, no one had noticed us because none of us had called out, and even if we had, the music was loud. I looked at Cyric, now facing the man. I should be running, I was taking too long. Even as I braced myself to take off into the crowd, Cyric saw I was still there, hovering above the unconscious body of the woman I'd knocked over. His eyes met mine, filling with slight shock and sympathy, he thought the woman was dead and felt bad for me. Because he thought I'd assumed I'd killed her. He didn't know she was still breathing. The man glanced over his shoulder, saw the body and me, and then threw himself into the fight with a renewed vigor, as if to avenge his fallen friend. 

Only she wasn't dead. 

Neither of them realized that she was very much alive. 

It didn't matter, Cyric was still looking at me when the man's limbs came at him in a blur of attack. Cyric tripped backwards on the steps, landing on the step above him, his back pressed into the metal step. I sucked in a breath. I knew I needed to run. But the recklessly idiotic part of myself won out and I found myself running back to Cyric and the man to do something moronic. 

Thanks to the lovely training at H.O., I knew exactly where on the spine I needed to hit in order to paralyze someone. Unfortunately, not only did I find myself unable to paralyze Cyric's attacker, I hit him in the back, at which point he whirled angrily towards me and I found myself face-to-face with a guy who could probably quite easily snap my neck. 

If only I'd been thinking enough to find the massive hole in my plan. 

I froze, giving the man more than enough time to have his fist make contact with the side of my face. My body was thrown to the side and into the metal railing on the stairs, making contact with the scars and bruises still left from the car crash with enough force to make me gasp. My mouth filled with the unsettlingly familiar metallic taste of my own blood. The man stood there, breathing hard and staring at me, simply seething with anger. I spit the blood out of my mouth and drew myself up to my full height, which was still shorter than him. The pain echoed through my body but I stood resolute.

The truth was, I didn't think I could take another hit like that. 

But because of Cyric, I didn't have to. There was a crash and a sprinkling of glass and the man's body went limp, revealing Cyric, standing behind him and holding the neck of a bottle of wine. Cyric bent down and touched his fingers to the back of the man's head. He then dropped what was left of the bottle and stepped over the man's body to get to me. "You okay?" He asked, but I didn't hear him, I could just barely read his lips. Even then, he might've been saying "Ooh olay" but that seemed less likely. I must've been shaking. I was barely keeping my body up. He wrapped his arm around my waist again, the gesture was actually comforting this time. I winced as pain shot up my side. He glanced at me with soft eyes that made my heart pound in my chest but I kept my face impassive. Quickly, we left the unconscious bodies behind as we fled. Someone must've seen what had happened, it was only a matter of time before we were stopped. 

After leaving the building, we rounded a few corners before hearing the faint sound of police sirens. Cyric grinned at me. "We got out just in time," He commented, I nodded, my ears were still ringing from the obnoxious music inside. "C'mon," He added, and took my hand before continuing forth to find the car. I was shocked at the simple movement, though I shouldn't have been. It only took a second for me to brush it off and we were walking again.