A Man among Wolves

Chapter 27

Selva tried to crawl away helplessly.

Gurumoorthy picked up the bag he had thrown and swung it at Selva.

He missed.

Another swing, more forceful this time. Something clattered to the ground, making faint noises in the rain.

The bag hit Selva on the face again and he got knocked sideward.

He knew he couldn't take more blows. Weakness was creeping on him. His hurting body and loss of blood was numbing his consciousness. The end has to come soon. If only he had the power to beg someone for death, he would have begged for it to come sooner. He had expected it to come sooner, with less suffering. That was why he chose to meet his fate. But this was tiresome...agonizing...

Selva grabbed at something solid. He tried to use it to get up. His hand slipped from the rainwater but he straightened himself somehow. It was the front of the auto rickshaw. He leaned against it...

The world seemed to move slowly for a second.

Gurumoorthy walked towards him. His hands were clenched.

He pulled his fist back to strike Selva. He was aiming for his gut. Perhaps, even below the gut.

It took enormous effort from Selva to convince himself to move out of the way. He wanted to escape some of the strikes. Every missed punch meant lesser pain. Perhaps it would also anger that monster enough to make him want to kill him faster...to end all of this...

Selva dove sideways, towards the same side he just got knocked with the bag from.

He fell splat on the grass and the mud again.

A loud crack of glass was heard, along with a nasty snarl from his attacker.

Selva turned his head an inch and saw that Gurumoorthy's fist had collided right into the headlight of the auto-rickshaw. He bent down, clutched his fist with the other hand and snarled again, louder into the rain.

Run, Selva told himself! As he tried to get back to his feet, his hand touched something lying on the ground.

Something wooden.

A powerful lightning showed him the glimpse of a hammer.

Gurumoorthy was nursing his fist (which had glass splinters lodged in it), when he turned around to get hit by the hammer right on the cheek!

The blow was powerful enough to knock his tooth out.

He tried to use his good hand to defend himself but the second hit was to his chin. Before he could make sense out of what was happening, he was struck repeatedly on his face and head. Selva was swinging the hammer like a mad man, screaming out with effort in a way he never imagined he was capable of!

Despite the pain, Gurumoorthy took a step back to regain himself.

And he slipped on the mud.

The hammer smashed him right in his functioning eye.

A nauseating crunch was heard along with an ear-splitting, animalistic groan.

Selva was swinging again, barely able to hear Gurumoorthy over the sound of the demonic thunder overhead. But he missed this time and fell on the ground, due to his immense momentum and the weight of the hammer in his hand. Something pressed against his chest...

Gurumoorthy was blinded.

He didn't know where he was.

One hand was clutching his eyes and the other was stretched outward, desperately trying to regain a sense of his surroundings. He was bleating like a goat.

That was when he felt the knife.

Selva stabbed him right in his abdomen.

With struggling, unsteady hands, he pulled out the knife...

Ripping more of Gurumoorthy's insides in the process...

He stabbed him again, steadying his hands.

This time, in the heart!

Gurumoorthy dropped to the ground.