Finding Darkness

Chapter 55 Anguish

Malachi woke to the sound of pure anguish. A scream pulled from the depth of his heart. Moving his head felt like moving his body, but the sight that greeted his eyes brought him to his feet in less than a second.

What he knew could only be a body laid on the floor, up against the wall. A crumpled figure covered in shredded, blood-soaked tatters.

"Oh, no." He knew what had happened before he reached her.

Nurse Tammy laid with her back against the wall. One touch told him she was alive. A deep tissue scan showed that she was losing blood from over a dozen deep cuts.

"Tamar, oh my Tamar." He shook his head, then with some effort, stood just as Doctor Peters entered.

"What? Who did this?" His eyes implored Malachi to make some sense of what he was seeing.

"Tamar did." He answered as he walked towards the door.

An unexpected arm on his chest barred his path.

"Look, I've given you great latitude here. I haven't questioned what went on between the two of you down on the planet. But if she was this," Peters pointed to his nurse, who was now being tended to. "Dangerous. Then why in the hell did you bring on to this ship?" The hostility buried just below the surface by years of control did not pass Malachi's notice.

"Doctor, I need to find her. Every second I wait here, she's getting further into this ship. The only one with any shot at finding her is me."

"Let the Captain send some of our men to find her. You need to answer my question." Peters doubled the pressure with his hand on his chest.

"Doctor, if anyone finds her but me, and you'll be bringing them back into very small pieces." With no apparent effort, Malachi walked past the doctor's arm and to the door.

"Doctor, I know you have to report this to security. But please, just give me five minutes. After that, do what you have to do. I don't want any of you to get into any trouble." He turned to leave and stopped. With his back to the door, he called over his shoulder.

"She was made to be nothing but a weapon. Whatever she did here, you have to believe me. She was more terrified than you are."

"How do you know that? That girl's a walking time bomb. Who's she going to kill nex..." The doctor's mouth clamped shut as Malachi moved so fast he might have teleported.

"Choose your next words ever, ever carefully. She, against her will, was made into something no one should have to endure. If she kills anyone onboard this ship, it will NOT be her FAULT!" his scream took Doctor Peters off his feet. Before he could clear the stars from his vision, Malachi was gone.

Gotta run somewhere, anywhere, away from him. He'll kill me. Tamar's thoughts screamed inside her head. Her panic mounting by the second.

When she come to in their room, Tammy had been in her hands and she'd froze. Her blood had been everywhere, on the floor, in her fur, even in her mouth. The realization of what she had done had hit her like fist, the next was an emotion she was most accustomed to, guilt. Malachi would never forgive her for this, not this, never this. So without trying to find out whether Tammy was alive, she bolted.

It was what she was good at, running. While she was running, nothing else matters. The entire world dissolved into a seamless blur where nothing else mattered but the beating of her heart and the contracting of her muscles. She didn't care where she was going. The only thing that mattered was putting as much space between her and Malachi. Not that she seriously thought he would stopped looking for her. Part of her took comfort in that knowing, that part wanted to stop and run back into his arms, those warm comforting arms.