Black Academy

Chapter 20 - Part 5

Elsa wasn't expecting the force of Caroline's blow. It knocked her to the far side of the passageway, and as she crashed against the wall the knife fell from her fingers and spun across the floor. Caroline lunged for it, her fingers closing on the writhing handle while the other claw-hand kept a grip on Flynn's throat. Elsa tried to scramble to her feet but her head was spinning crazily again. A few feet way, Rapunzel was still trying to suck breath into her lungs. The blade of the knife shone as Caroline raised it. "Now watch Flynn die," she smiled.

But something moved faster than the blade, slamming hard in Caroline, knocking her sprawling. Dropping both Flynn and the knife, wailing with rage and fear, Caroline kicked and fought uselessly against her new attacker. She looked, thought Elsa, like a leopard trying to fight off a tiger. When the writhing, struggling bodies tumbled against the passage wall, Elsa saw the tiger clearly. Jack. His teeth were viciously bared, and his eyeballs, like Caroline's, were red from corner to corner. His powerful hands found her throat and Caroline squirmed, rasping for breath, lashing her claws across his face and drawing blood. 

But far more of it leaked from the knife-gash in her own cheek; Jack's hands were soaked in it. Finally wrenching his blood-slick fingers loose, Caroline screamed hoarsely and gave him a savage kick in the chest. He stumbled back, and she scrambled on to all fours, spitting. "Get out of my sight, dark-sister," growled Jack. "Before I kill you." "Never," hissed Caroline, one bloody hand clutching her cheek. "Never. It's her I'll kill. Oh, you won't kill me." She stared at him greedily for a moment. Then she leaped to her feet, and ran.

For what seemed an age, the four of them stood in silence. Flynn was the first to move, lifting Rapunzel to her feet. Elsa was not at all sure her roommate needed to press so close against Flynn, or hang quite so limply in his arms, but what the hell. Elsa managed a smile, but it died as Flynn leaned down and fumbled once again for the knife. It trembled in his fingers as he pointed the tip of it at Jack. His mouth was twisted with rage. "Caroline said you . . . said you delivered her. To be killed." 

Jack didn't blink. His eyes were normal again, if dull, and the skin of his face was pale and taut. "She was lying. How could I hurt Jess? I loved her." "You didn't help Caroline?" "No. I had arranged to meet Jess. But I was late, somebody delayed me. It was deliberate, I realised that afterwards, but I was too stupid to see it at the time. I swear, Par - Flynn. I didn't kill her, and I didn't take her to be killed." For the first time, Flynn looked uncertain. "So why was she?" he asked, and in the terrible silence added quietly, "Killed."