Luna's Reckoning

11

JOHNNY

"Stop!" Helen screamed as Lilith once again threw Trinity across the room. "Leave her alone!"

Ever since Trinity had been literally thrown through the back door of Mr. Johnson's house, Anna Marie and Lilith had been brutalizing her by throwing her against anything they could find and kicking and punching her. Helen and I tried to help but Anna Marie had cast some sort of spell on us that prevented us from moving. We were forced to stand there and watch Trinity being beaten, and since she was solid and alive like us, she could feel everything.

Anna Marie lunged at us. "Shut up!" she shouted and backhanded Helen across the face, causing rage to boil inside of me and I struggled against the restraints.

"Don't hit my girlfriend, bitch!" I screamed and struggled even harder against the invisible restraints.

Anna Marie punched me hard in the jaw, causing my head to snap to the side as I felt a tooth fly out of my mouth. She grabbed me by the throat and squeezed, drawing the air out of my lungs as I gasped.

"Unless the two of you want to be beaten to death, then I suggest you keep your mouth shut," she warned, her emerald green eyes starting to glow eerily with anger.

"Why are you doing this?" Helen demanded.

Without releasing me, Anna Marie backhanded her across the face again.

"I said be silent," Anna Marie hissed. "Or else you'll be next."

She gripped my throat for several seconds longer before finally releasing me. I gasped in precious air, feeding oxygen into my lungs. That was a huge concept that was going to take getting used to. I still had to get used to the fact that I had working, functioning lungs again and I needed to breathe.

We both watched in dismay as Trinity's punishment continued for several moments longer before they thankfully stopped.

Trinity laid there on the ground, bruised and bloody, gasping for air as she clutched her midsection.

"That will teach you to never disobey us again," Lilith growled. "If you ever do that again, you will be gone for existence forever. Do you understand, girl?"

Trinity nodded weakly, tears of pain streaming from her eyes.

A few seconds later, there was a loud knock on the door. Lilith's gaze darkened and she turned to Anna Marie.

"Get the door," she ordered.

Anna Marie nodded and walked towards the front door while Lilith stayed where she was, watching the three of us with ink black eyes.

I heard Anna Marie open the door and a second later the sound of radio static and a garbled, staticky voice emanating from it.

My heart leapt at the all too familiar sound. Helen and I shared a glance.

The police.

"Ma'am, we've had complaints from neighbors that an altercation has been going on," a stern, female voice said.

"Oh, there's been no altercation," Anna Marie said in a fake, syrupy sweet voice that made me roll my eyes. "That was just the TV. We had loud speakers to our TV and we were watching a violent movie. I'm sorry if we disturbed everyone."

"Is Robert Johnson here? The neighbors that filed a complaint said he was the owner of the house."

"He's not here at the moment."