The Anyway Clause

Mr. Misunderstood

"Numbing the pain for a while will make it worse when you finally feel it."
-J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

TJ

As soon as I spat the words out I regretted it. They came out harsh and wrong and it wasn't at all what I meant. It was one of those moments where you say the exact wrong thing with the only goal being to hurt the other person because they hurt you.

And so, you say it but you want to apologize immediately when you see the impact of your stupidity. But it was too late. Her face had been screwed up in a grimace but it just fell blank.

I swear I saw the moment she snapped. I tried to shake her out of it. In hindsight, I realized that shaking her was the next big mistake I made. She landed a blow to my face so fast and so hard I didn't see it coming.

It was one of those hits that if she were kicking somebody else's ass I would have been proud to brag about how tough my little sister was but, seeing as it was aimed at me, I was completely unhappy about it. It landed so hard my eyes crossed and I lost grip on reality for a second.

It felt like she had put her full effort into that hit and she was just getting started. She began just wailing on me, ripping her arm out of my grasp in the process. I was trying to block her blows but if I blocked a face shot she landed a fist in my stomach or vice versa.

We used to play fight sometimes as kids but the way she was hitting me with actual combinations I could easily tell she wasn't an amateur. I should have expected that since she did just send four attackers to the hospital by herself.

She was faster than I could comprehend. I finally grabbed her enough to shove her away and she landed hard against the wall. I didn't want to fight her but it was like she was possessed and was not going to stop or see reason.

Her head had smashed into a picture and blood was beginning to drain down her forehead but she just kept coming for me unfazed by the blood beginning to drain down her forehead.

After fielding another hard volley of blows I threw her against another wall and this time she hit the floor which gave me a little time to try and scramble away and put some distance between us but she was up in an instant. I swear she felt nothing.

I felt her body collide with mine from behind and I landed hard on my stomach. Having the air knocked out of me in that moment added insult to injury but I had no time to think or even recover because she was on top of my back hitting me in my ribs and even a few shots to the side of my face.

I rolled over to get better leverage to get her off me but she adjusted to my movements. As soon as I was on my back her hand was on my throat choking me using her body weight to press down while she was punching me in the face.

I used my legs for leverage, all my strength and catapulted her off me. She crashed hard into the wall against a few shelves and I heard her crumple to the floor in a heap. I coughed, spitting up blood and attempted to sit up expecting her to come launching at me again. I felt wetness on my face and I didn't know if it was blood or tears or both.

When I finally rolled over I noticed Jane was face down and wasn't moving. I crawled over to her in a rush. There was blood smeared on her face when I rolled her over but she was breathing. My own blood dripped on her as I leaned in to check her pulse.

It was slow and steady but when I put my hand at the back of her head to lay her flat I felt a stickiness that made me cringe. My fingers were smeared in her blood. I tried to shake her awake and call her name but nothing was working.