WATTYS 2021 WINNER - PARANORMAL
Olivia Porter is well acquainted with death- or so she thought.
With the passing of her only friend, she's given more than she bargained for when the estranged and mysterious Lee Noble enters her life.
Lee brings wit...
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OLIVIA
"What the Hell are you saying, Lee?" I gasp.
The longer we stand immobile, the more the energy my anger had granted begins to fade and the fear comes creeping back in. Arm torn from its socket, face beaten to bloody pulp, Lee's dejected misery when I'd rescued him from Zagan had already quashed my faith in our chances. But now there's something in his expression that scares me more. Acceptance.
"It has to be you, Liv," Lee says, quiet enough so as not to alert Zagan, who still fossicks around in the rubble by the door. "If he hits me one more time I'm dead, but you're fast enough to keep from his reach. I'll piss him off, but it has to be you he tries to kill."
"What happened to me getting out of here alive?"
"You wanted us both alive, this is it." Lee falls silent as Zagan rises, triumphantly, holding something aloft in his grip. It's the long pole of wood Lee had used to pull closed the door behind us.
Before I can begin to question his motives, it bursts into flames in Zagan's hand, smouldering to ruined bits in seconds and raining down around him like fiery hail. The orange glow of the falling embers casts the god's face in a Hellish, insidious light. "No getting out of here now, you two. Not unless you like the feel of iron."
Lee steps forward, spits blood onto the concrete floor and shouts across the stretch of no-man's-land between us, "Scared I'll get out and fuck your mum again, huh?!"
He hesitates and mutters in a quieter voice before trying again. "Not my best. Uh... Zagan! Aren't you curious?! Why your brother chose a couple of humans over his family? Besides the piping I gave him last night?"
"God I missed it when you couldn't talk," Zagan groans, but his silhouette is unmoving. Even his aura, bright as a roaring wildfire, pauses its flaring to cling stiffly to his body.
"It's because you're so fucking stupid," Lee continues, still taking his long, slow strides towards the godling. "You're pathetic. You just got your ass beat by a fucking orphan. You think you're some superior being meant to inherit the Earth? To rule? You. Are. Pathetic."
"Big talk coming from the man with-"
"I've slept inside your circles, yeah? I know all about your friends. You're just a wallet to them bro. Have you even looked online? You're a fucking laughingstock. You couldn't even trust your damn whore girlfriend not to fuck your brother while you were gone. The only time you actually killed one of these 'weakling' humans you think you're so much better than- and you pussied out of that, too. You couldn't even save an old man who hit his head." Lee sways on his feet as the words leave his mouth but the passion of his hatred keeps him upright.
"Shut up-" Zagan growls. Cool failing him, yet another spell returns to his hands. Thin streams of blood from his slashed face spiral around his curled fingertips like sharpened corkscrews. His chest heaves as he takes a step towards us.
