Ranger [ON HOLD]

Chapter Eight - The Ghoul

The scuffle had lasted not even a minute, knocking over the I.V stand and sending the bed over five feet from my current position thanks to the wheels on the legs.

The actions had been no trouble for the superhuman ... thing... growling lowly in my ear now. The low, predatory sound sent chills up and down my spine almost with ease.

She didn't look any different from the older woman that had visited me before, but I knew it wasn't the same woman. Just in the way she held herself. Like a slightly uncoordinated predator, walking as if each leg had an odd limp or a prosthetic that was too large.

Yet she had moved more fluidly and quickly for my eyes to follow. Her voice was rough and dry, scratchy as if she had been screaming for hours on end.

"What is your purpose? Why did he send you?" She hissed, the fingers of her opposite hand pressed into my belly, making me squirm in her hold even more than before. It felt too close to being a knife for my comfort.

My hands grasped at her wrist, but she held me to the wall as easily as if I was a Raggedy Ann Doll. Thankfully I wasn't dangling, but I was finding it very hard to remain on my toes like I was. And though her grip was almost suffocating, I still had enough sense to notice the fluxuations in pressure. For every time tiny dots began to invade my vision, her grip slackened just barely.

She wanted me conscious.

"I said,-" Her words were cut off as the door gave a small click, making the both of us freeze. And then slowly it creaked open, and her eyes flashed over to the empty doorway. And then they narrowed sharply, fingers tightening on my throat hard enough to stifle any gasp of pain that I could let out.

She didn't want me to scream.

And then out of nowhere a small silver blur whizzed by, striking her clear in the forehead with a heavy thunk.

I was dropped to the ground, my legs giving out the moment my feet hit the ground, and thus sending me to my knees to watch with unfocused eyes as she stumbled back with a surprised cry.

In her forehead, a dagger buried in to the hilt. Blood leaked between her eyes from the wound and trailed down the side of her cheek to drip off of her jaw. The silver pommel glinted from the florescent lighting and her flesh slowly began to sizzle. It almost seemed as though it were melting, rather than bleeding.

She stumbled back once into the window, slumping down for a few moments, then her head snapped to the side to glare at the intruders. And I didn't have to look to guess who it was. The door shut behind them, and I distinctly heard the crack of knuckles. Her hand reached up to take the hilt, and visibly I could see the smoke appear as it burnt her.

A pure silver blade.

And then a blur of dark color rushed forward, leaping over the bed as if it were a practiced skill and lunging at the former doctor with speed I didn't think possible for a Human. For a small moment I could see a fist collide with her face, and hear a cry of rage mixed with pain.

The window cracked as the two bodies crashed into it, and for a moment I feared they would fall through.

They fell to the floor harmlessly enough, though a smear of blood now trailed down the once perfectly intact glass.

Ranger stood above the still hissing woman. One hand at her throat, the other grasping the knife in her forehead. He stood on the backs of her hands, holding them down to the floor. And though her legs kicked and her body bucked, it was clear she could no longer move.

Easily trapped.

Slowly his hand began to twist the knife clockwise, earning a shrill cry of pain. The sizzling increased, until I could have mistaken it for the sound of cooking meat. And maybe that's what was happening.