The Halves Of Maria

Chapter Four: Fight or Flight

The man's body smashes into Yohan, hard, sending the three of us falling backwards to the concrete ground. Yohan releases my hand, but it's too late to stop my fall, and we land, painfully, on the damp stone.

   "What in th-" Yohan gasps, attempting to push the man away from him. The man jumps back, skidding across the ground and reaching a hand into an interior pocket of his jacket. At the same time his associates are closing in on us from both sides.

   I'm still gasping for breath, trying desperately to shake away the violent pain in my left wrist. Yohan struggles to his feet, his dark eyes darting between the approaching figures.

   "Maria, run."

   But I'm already reaching for the mace on my keychain, determined that I'm going to stay with him, no matter the cost.

The apparent leader of the men draws a long switch blade from his pocket, moving closer to us with an ominous expression that reminds me way too much a shark circling its prey.

"I'll ask you a last time," Yohan says, his voice surprisingly steady, "what do you want?"

"Sorry, So Bong, but I think I've already made it clear I'm not planning to give ya some kind of monologue on the subject," the man says with a sneer, taking another step forward.

   "Maria, please," Yohan whispers, his body tensing, "this is probably you're last chance."

   "I'm not leaving you, Yohan," as slowly as I can I reach around and edge my phone from my back pocket, scared that it'll provoke our attacks if they see what I'm trying to do.

"Not the police, Maria," Yohan's voice is so soft I barely catch his words, and it takes another moment altogether for them to truly sink in.

But— but if not the police, who?

"Hey, Siri," I begin, trying desperately to keep my voice down so they won't hear me signaling for help.

   Not low enough, apparently. One of the men springs forward with a cry, twisting my wrist in one horrible, swift motion. Pain explodes throughout it in an instant, and my phone falls to shatter on the concrete beneath me.

   Yohan moves to try to help me, but is cut off by a blow to the stomach from another of the attackers. Desperately, I spray a cloud of mace at the man holding my wrist, my eyes burning as some of it drifts back at me. The man cries out in pain, dropping my wrist and stumbling back a step.

   Before I can make an attempt to use it on another of the men the leader wrenches it from my grasp, throwing it towards a wall of the building beside us.

   He lands me a punch to the stomach that sends me reeling backwards, gasping for breath as I wonder frantically wether he could have broken one of my ribs as I press both hands uselessly against the virulent pain.

   Out of a corner of my eye I can see Yohan struggling against his assailants, a fight that grows apparently more hopeless by the second.

   Another blow knocks me to my knees, and the pain I feel at being scraped against the rough surface of the lot is nothing compared to the flaming agony in my stomach.

   Dimly, through watering eyes, I see the flash of the man's knife reflecting the faint yellow
light, and although everything in me is screaming to run my battered body refuses to cooperate.

   I can't bring myself to look at Yohan, afraid that if I do the last thing I'll ever see will be my dearest friend's lifeless body.

   Its the worst form of helplessness, waiting here for death as a stranger kicks the life out of me, but I'm in too much pain to move, and the realization that there's truly nothing left to me to do almost hurts more than my agonized body.

Anger courses through me, anger not only at my attackers, but at myself. It's infuriating, enraging, unbearable to be so vulnerable, so useless, so weak.

It's so absolutely pointless, dying here like this, and the anger and sorrow and pain of it overwhelm me.

I clench my teeth, tasting blood.

The world slows, growing hard-edged and horribly defined as the man thrusts the blade of his knife towards my throat.

My eyes are overflowing with silent agony but I refuse to shut them. I keep eye contact with my murderer, forcing myself not to flinch.

But at the last second, when death is an inch away, I do close them, ultimately unable to face it.

A confusion of sound floods my ears, and a few seconds in the fact that I'm not currently being stabbed in the neck hits me.

It takes a few seconds more before I dare to open my eyes.

At first glance, half the men are gone. At another, I can clearly see that at least three of them are prostrate on the ground, gut wrenching moaning the only clue to the fact that they're still alive.

The other two seem to be in the verge of choosing to leave their companions in favor of their own escape, as they grapple with an unknown person I can't clearly make out in the chaos.

   My vision clouds as a trickle of blood seeps into one of my eyes, and by the time I've managed to blink it away both of the remaining attackers are gone.

   The new figure turns to me, and a shiver of horror passes through me.

   In the darkness, it seems like it's a monster looming over me, disproportionate, with a featureless, misshapen head.

   My beleaguered brain struggles to make sense of what's before me.

   Then the figure lifts away the front of its head... no, the mesh front of a mask. It comes into the light and the ground falls away beneath me as I recognize the faces within.

   Disbelieving, I whisper his name as the world fades away into impenetrable darkness.

A/N: sorry for the delayed updates! I'm hoping to get closer to a daily update schedule but everything's a little hectic right now lol. If you've gotten this far into the narrative... I LOVE YOU AND THANKS FOR READING! 💖💖💖 Please remember to leave a dazzling lil star and any comments you may want to share! *switches to deep announcer voice* AnD cOmE bAcK nExT tImE tO sEe WhO lIeS bEhInD dAt MaSk! 🌚🤫