Decemberland

Chapter 32: Father

As soon as he stepped into her, she flipped it out, ready to swing it. Her hand made the motion, but it caught onto something. His hand.

“I’m not stupid, you fecking mite,” he snarled, and yanked her by her arm, twisted it, and forced her to drop it. Unable to move due to the shock of being outmaneuvered, all she could do was watch him cock back his fist and ready it to crash into her face. But he didn’t.

Instead, his fist hung in the air and his entire body froze. His eyes locked onto her chest. She looked down and saw her—no—Clarity’s necklace hanging out of her shirt from the force of being yanked around.

“What are you doing with my wife’s necklace?” he asked, eyes longingly fixated on it.

Nico fumbled to find the right words to say, but her brain panicked. “I-It’s not what it looks like-”

“I’d know my wife’s necklace anywhere—what are you doing with it?”

“I-I swear, I-I can explain-!”

Her sentence stopped short with a fist in her gut. The blow lifted her into the air slightly, then sent her crashing down onto her knees.

“I’ve been looking for that everywhere!” he shouted, “Ever since I learned my daughter lost it in the attack! I wanted to find it for her! I wanted to surprise her! But it was stolen… you stole it! You’re supposed to be her friend and you stole it from her!”

She couldn’t respond, he knocked the wind out of her. Another swing to her face this time and she fell backwards onto the ground.

Mr. Riverwolf was on top of her now. He got down on his knees above her and pulled her up by her shirt. “And you villainize me for doing what I think is right? Give me that!” He pinned her down to the ground by her neck with one hand and grabbed the necklace with the other, ripping it off of her neck.

“You think I’ll just let you steal from my family while I’m in jail? I’ll kill you before I let that happen! I’ll kill you!”

Both of his hands wrapped around her throat and he squeezed. She tried to struggle, but his strength shockingly overwhelmed her. Her vision began to get fuzzy as she watched his screwed up face fade away in front of her.

At that very moment, a thunderous rumble shook the ground beneath her, and a large shadow flew over her, crashing into Mr. Riverwolf with ferocious power.

Nico sat up, coughing and rubbing her neck only to see Phillip lifting Mr. Riverwolf up in the air by the neck with one hand and rushing him into the wall of the boy’s dorm, effectively slamming him into the wall with a resounding thud, making him cry out in pain.

He pushed his face an inch close to Mr. Riverwolf’s, pure rage pulsating through the veins on his forehead. The last time Nico saw him this furious, she had ran for her life from him in the forest. It quickly reminded her of how she never wanted to be on the receiving end of that monstrous fury every again.

“Damn, we got here at a good time, huh?” said Blake, who just arrived on the scene.

“You could have got here sooner,” Nico retorted.

Phillip pulled his fist as far back as it would go. “Pick a god and pray,” he growled, and threw it forward, crashing it into Mr. Riverwolf’s arms which he just barely threw up in front of him in time to block. The blow hit so hard that there was a snap, and Nico could tell that one of his arms had broken.

“Phillip!” cried Nico, “Phillip, stop! That’s Clarity’s father!”

Phillip stopped midway through the second, possibly fatal blow and looked over his shoulder at Nico. “This guy?”