How To Kill a Songbird

Chapter 27: Who Plays the Last Note?

We didn't have time to sit here and guess why we looked like that. He is coming back. I grabbed a music stand and unscrewed the part where you set your music down and the base where it rests on the floor. I ran to Harlow's toolbox. I tossed her some screwdrivers he uses to repair instruments.

"Mate, what are you doing?" Soph asked me when she caught them.

"We have to fight our way out of here," I sighed. Harlow reappeared and this time he was in his monstrous form. His skin was peeled back to show the muscles underneath. His smile ripped the muscles in his cheeks. His grin was wide and toothy like a creepy cartoon from the 20s. His body was draped in smoke like a cloak. His mouth was dripping blood, black goo, and yellow bile. He couldn't help but smile now. His eyes were black and glassy like a doll.

"I will kill you both! There is no escaping fate! I am James-," Harlow started.

"The Jackass?" I asked. That made him mad. He threw a trumpet at my head. I knocked it out of the way. Soph and I looked at each other for a brief second. We came up with a plan mutually.

He was after me at first as he had the stupid knife in his hand. He was taking wild swings at me. I blocked them and retaliated with strikes of my own. I wasn't trained in using a Bo, but I can figure it out. I blocked one stab here, then counter-attacked there with a whack to his stomach and chest. Soph came up behind him and stabbed him with the screwdrivers. He screamed and tried to throw her off him, but I got his attention back with more attacks. The method we used to fight him was simple. One of us attacks him and the other distracts him. We switched off roles in such a way that it disoriented him.

I finally sent one into his head and dazed him enough to make him fall to the ground.  I looked at Soph, "I'll keep him busy; you need to make a trap in that closet."

"Mate, I am not leaving you," she yelled to me, scared that I was going to die if she left me alone for one second.

"He is in a recharge period," I sighed.

"What is that?" Soph asked me.

"It means he is down and out but not for long. We are on a timer," I replied. I don't know how I guessed that. Maybe because this was way too easy? It didn't matter, we were running out of time.

"Soph, get out of here," I commanded. "If you don't do what I say, we're both going to die."

She looked at him, then looked at me. She sighed and nodded, "You better be alive so I can spring it."

"I am planning on it!" I yelled as she took off running for that closet. She left just in the nick of time because Harlow sat up from where he lay. He came towards me.

"You little bitch," he snapped as he lunged for me. I hit the ground and shoved him off with both of my legs and momentum. I grabbed a crash cymbal and threw it at him like I was throwing Captain America's shield.