Forbidden Alliances // Alfie Solomons Peaky Blinders

(115) Torment pt. 2

*edited 04/02/23*

The next thing Freya knew, her blade was being whipped at the face of her attacker. She didn't know where her mind was but she was thankful her intuition got the best of her. She didn't expect herself to react so quickly. She didn't even consider how fast her arm could move until the blade within her palm was slicing through roughly stubbled skin. 

The sharp edge of her blade slid across the cheek of one of her attackers but when she jumped back with surprise, her brother's gun had gone off and something inside Freya shattered like glass. 

She winced and felt as if the trigger of the gun was the trigger of all her repressed fears over the past few months.  

The second that gun went off, so did her fight or flight. 

She was afraid. 

She was right back to the night she killed Kaledin. She would never forget it. She thought she might be able to forgive herself for it, but she couldn't. She would never forgive herself for bathing in his blood or taking his life so emotionlessly. She would never forgive herself for killing him coldly, not even thinking about who might be waiting for him to get back home. She sympathized with the man who tried to kill her. 

It could have been her in that situation, or Arthur, or Tommy, or John, or Ada, Polly, Finn, Michael, Lizzie, Esme, Alfie...

That was the life they lived. Nobody wanted to be that way but it was survival, and the instant that gun went off, echoing off the tiled walls, ringing in Freya's ears like a buzzing, insistent reminder of what she did the night Tommy married Grace, she lost it.

She felt her wrist get slammed into the wall. The circular bone protruding from her skin stung and a searing pain shot down the length of her hand and into each of her fingertips like a buzz of electricity. She bit her lip to restrain the verbal reaction to the pain and instinctually, her free hand went to her elbow and she dropped the knife into her left hand. 

Her arm quickly snapped toward the man restraining her. She instantly slammed the tip of her blade into the side of the second man's torso but the trembling of her hands cause her to lose her grip on the hilt. When the man reeled back with a grunt, the knife went with him and Freya was left defenseless. 

She gasped for air, not sure how to hold any in her lungs. There was an urge to cough but she couldn't. She ignored the scratch in her chest and tried to recenter herself, but soon enough, the man she cut was back on her. She rammed his body into hers, causing her to fall to the floor. He came toppling down on top of her and pinned her to the floor. 

She had very little room to move and all she could focus on was the taste of blood. She was sure it was her own. She didn't do nearly enough damage to either of her attackers to taste theirs. 

She could hear her brother's grunts and delayed breathing and someone was hurting him. She could tell. The sound alone was enough to conjure a surge of energy in her shaking body. Freya had used all her strength to slam her leg out from underneath the man on top of her and gripped his wrist as she flung her body out from beneath him, causing him to topple over and land achingly on his side. 

Freya tried to wriggle free but someone had come up to her and restrained her left hand when she tried to stand. She tugged at it and jumped away from him, hoping some kind of momentum was enough to break her free but it was nose use. She quickly kicked at the man beneath her but nothing got her away from them. She was fighting for what felt like her life but it wasn't enough. 

The man on the ground screamed angrily at Freya before grabbing at her flailing leg and sending it into the tiled wall. Freya grunted and tensed all her muscles when the immediate pain shot up her leg.