A Beast with a Smile {Book 1}

Chapter 15 (Scarlett): Every Gift Comes with a Price

I searched frantically for a pulse, but I felt no beats. I held my finger under her nose to see if she was breathing, but that was a negative too. Tears rolled down my cheeks, dropping onto her face.

She was so young and Tyler slammed her down with the intent to kill. He wanted to hurt this little girl just because... well, I don't know why he wanted to kill her.

I could hear Tyler scuffling around in his hole in the wall, trying to disengage his torso from pipes and drywall. The terminator arm was still jammed into the pillar near the vent and it also squirmed to get out.

Elly's face was covered in blood and it continued to drip from the top of her skull. I rolled her over to see what damage had been done to the back of her adolescent head. Through the blood and hair I could see a large, round metal end embedded in the skin.

I attempted to pull it out and blood spurted out like a water fountain. Tears began to overflow my eyes, making me blind and full of sorrow. The tears rolled off onto the wound and her long blonde hair. Wiping the tears away wasn't helping and only created more fuzzy vision.

When I looked up, I realized that Tyler's robotic arm had broken free and was moving towards Tyler. It screeched across the floor using the fingers to pull the arm closer to it's evil host. The sound was equivalent to finger nails scratching across a chalk board.

I turned around and grabbed the arm, then bent it in half with my bare hands. It made a loud pop and started to spray liquids all over the place. I threw one half at Tyler and the other outside to a distance where it would never be found. Tyler screamed in anger, cursing at me with the whole dictionary.

I ignored him as I struggled to get the nail out of Elly's skull. I gently laid her head down on the rug next to the demolished coffee table and ran to the janitor's closet.

In the small dark room I was able to find a pair of pliers and returned to Elly's corpse. I searched for the object that I had seen before, but it seemed to have disappeared entirely.

I looked around her head more, looking for the entry wound by following the trail of blood, but even then I couldn't find the nail. I threw the pliers at Tyler and began to cry even harder.

I peered outside and saw the lights of the town begin to flicker. The power was about to reboot and I knew that that meant the soldiers will are about to reboot too.

I looked at Tyler who had also noticed the lights preparing to return.

"Uh-oh. Looks like someone is going to forget all about what happened here," he sneered.

I could see lights on the far side of town turning on one by one. I also saw a truck convoy heading this way.

"They'll be here in seconds, Scarlett. Give up. You lost. You and a giant vermin are not nearly strong enough for what's coming."

He began to laugh to himself and the lights all shot on in the hospital and the trucks outside. The soldiers began to make loud audible grunts as they got to their feet while holding their heads.

I could hear some of them groaning about the headache, but most didn't seem to notice Tyler and me or the giant bunny.

Tyler began to laugh harder and his body seemed to grow unlimited strength as he ripped the remaining limbs out of the wall. He started walking over to me when I we heard a horn from behind the dazed men on the front porch.

Tiny began to hop up and down in excitement as a rusty, old mini van sped up the stairs towards me and the lifeless body of Elly. The car skidded in front of me, blocking me from the sociopath. The sliding doors flung open and a boy in a bronze version of Elly's armor stood there.